Английский язык. Агабек (855602), страница 31
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It can be bestillustrated by British residential buildings. The weatherin England is often cloudy and there are few sunny daysin the winter season, therefore, as a rule, t h e windowsin an English house are of a large size to catch as muchlight and sunshine as possible. In the houses built in thepast century the windows, besides being large, openedupwards, which is very convenient on windy days.Since there is much rain in England, typical Britishhouses have high, steep roofs where rain water and melting snow can easily flow down.Most of the houses have a fireplace which forms themost characteristic feature of an English home and isseldom seen in other European countries.The plan of an English house also differs from t h a t ofthe houses where we live.
English architects plan someapartments vertically instead of planning them horizontally, so that an English family having a separate apartment lives on t w o or sometimes three floors w i t h roomsconnected with a narrow staircase. They find it the mostconvenient style of apartment.There are usually threerooms in each apartment besides a kitchen and a bathroom: a living room, a bedroom and a dining room.262Приложение2FROM THE HISTORY OF LONDONIn the year 55 before our era a Roman legion headedby J u l i u s Cesar crossed the English Channel that dividest h e British Isles from the continent of Europe.
H a v i n glanded in Britain the Romans founded a military stationon t h e northern bank of t h e river Thames, B e i n g skilled1in the art of building they started fortifying their settlements w i t h thick massive walls and laying roads acrossthe country leading to the sea coast. After staying inBritain for two centuries the Romans returned to t h econtinent h a v i n g left behind excellent roads and s t r o n gf o r t i f i c a t i o n s . One of Roman s e t t l e m e n t s w a s calledLondinium A u g u s t a . Four centuries later, according tosome historians, the capita] of Britain was founded ini t s locality, part of the Roman wall-still lying deep underthe ground beneath modern London,No other ancient monuments of Roman t i m e s haveremained in the city.
The earliest historical monumentof English architecture is the so called Tower of Londonwhich has retained i t s name up to t h e present day. B e i n gerected on t h e ruins of a Roman fortress, it consists ofparts belonging to different periods of English history,i t s central and most ancient part being the huge squaretower four storeys high. It was called the White Tower,deriving i t s name from the w h i t e stone it was built of.The W h i t e Tower was surrounded with a double row ofWalls w i t h smaller towers forming the inner and outercourt w i t h t h e scaffold in t h e back of it.263Приложение 2Английский языкTHE TOWERLooking at the Tower you feel i t s close connection tot h e historical past of England with i t s constant and cruelf i g h t i n g for power.
Since the time of its erection theTower of London has served many purposes: first a king'spalace, then a fortress and a political prison. N o w it is amuseum.Several kings of England found protection w i t h i n i t swalls both against foreign enemies and their own peoplefighting for their liberties and privileges. The W h i t eTower was t h e royal residence, all the kings of Englandspending the first days of their reign there according toan ancient custom. From the White Tower kings went totheir coronation and out of it some of them came downto t h e scaffold l y i n g in t h e o u t e r court, f o r c e d tosurrender their power to new pretenders.All t h e towers in t h e walls surrounding t h e W h i t eTower served as places of imprisonment, each of themkeeping some dark and tragic secret. Narrow galleries,s t e e p staircases, secret passages and dark cells formed inthe thickens of the walls e x i s t up to the present day.Among the numerous prisoners were kings of England,France and Scotland, princes and noblemen, protestantsand catholics, scientists and public leaders.
Shakespearementioned many of their tragic fate in his historicalplays.264ENGLISH UNIVERSmESAll English universities except Oxford and Cambridgeare fairly new. London University is the biggest of themodern English universities and has many colleges andschools.A university usually has both faculties and departments. The faculties are arts, law, medicine, science andtheology.
The departments include engineering, economi c s , commerce, agriculture, music and technology.At the head of each faculty there is a professor.A staff of teachers called lecturers help him. Professorsand lecturers give lectures to large numbers of studentsor study with small groups, and here the s t u d e n t s havea chance to discuss.All universities admit men and women, but withinsome u n i v e r s i t i e s there are colleges specially for onesex.
Most of the universities provide h o s t e l s for theirstudents. There are many types of colleges in England.T h e r e are c o l l e g e s w i t h i n u n i v e r s i t i e s . T h e r e aret e a c h e r s ' t r a i n i n g c o l l e g e s . There are a l s o technicalcolleges of various types, colleges of arts and commerce.Colleges give a specialized training.Those who wish to become teachers spend three yearsat a teachers' training college. They study various subjects and learn how to teach, they have practice lessonsat schools.265Приложение 2Английский языкOn SnobberyCHARLES DARWINA hundred years ago people believed that plants andanimals had always been as they are now. They thoughtthat all the different sorts of living things, includingmen and women, were put in t h i s world by somemysterious power a few thousand years ago.It was Charles Darwin, born at Shrewsbury on, the1 2 t h of February, 1 8 0 9 , who showed t h a t this was just alegend.
As a boy Darwin loved to walk in the countryside, collecting insects, flowers and minerals. He likedto watch h i s elder brother making chemical experiments.These hobbies interested him much more than Greekand Latin, which were his main subjects at school.His father, a doctor, sent Charles to Edinburgh University to study medicine. But Charles did not like this.He spent a lot of time with a zoologist friend, witchingbirds and other animals, and collecting insects in thecountry-side.Then h i s father sent him to Cambridge to be trainedas a parson. But Darwin didn't want to be a doctor or aparson.
He wanted to be a biologist.In 1831 he set sail for South America to make maps ofthe coastline there. Darwin went in the ship to see theanimals and plants of other lands. On his voyage roundt h e world he looked carefully at t h o u s a n d s of l i v i n gthings in the sea and on land and came to very importantconclusion. Later he wrote his famous work «The Originof Species*.266Snobbery is not so common in England today as it wasat the teginning of the century. It still exists, however, andadvertisers know how to use it in order to sell their goods.A snob, the dictionaries tell us, is a person who paystoo much respect to social position or wealth. The popular newspapers know that many of their readers are snobs.That is why they give them unimportant and uselessi n f o r m a t i o n about p e r s o n s o f h i g h s o c i a l p o s i t i o n ,photographs of «Lady X and her friends* at a ball or• Lord Y and his friends* at the races.It is a snobbery that makes some men feel annoyedwhen on the envelopes of letters addressed to them theyfind Mr.
before their names i n s t e s of Esq. after theirnames. Snobbery explains w h y many people give theirsuburban house a name, such as The Oaks, The Pines,The Cedars, even though there are no oak trees, pinetrees or cedar trees in their gardens.
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