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Характеристика шлифовальных кругов и ее маркировка

Служебные части речи. Предлог. Союз. Частицы

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The Early 20th century English Literature 4 страница




In the 1950s Huxley became famous for his interest in drugs. He was looking for a drug, that would allow an escape from the self and that if taken with caution would be physically and so­cially harmless. He put his beliefs in such a drug into several books.

Two were nonfiction: Doors of Perception (1954) and Heaven and Hell (1956). But Huxley warned of the dangers of such ex­periments in an appendix he wrote to The Devils ofLoudun (1952).

Another work centering on drugs was Island (1962), a novel that required 20 years of thought and five years of writing.

Huxley produced 47 books in his long career as a writer. Some critics thought that he was a better essayist than novelist because he cared more about his ideas than about plot or characters. But we cannot hide one important fact: the books he wrote are most read and best remembered today are all novels — Crome Yelow, Antic Hay, and Point Counter Point from the 1920s, Brave New World and After Many a Summer Dies a Swan from the 1930s. In 1959 the


Vocabulary

alertness |Vl3:tnis] n живость appendix [s'pendiks] n приложение Buddhist ['budist] n буддист caricature [^kasnks'tjus] v описывать

сатирически caution ['кэ:/эп] n осторожность centre ['senta] v сосредоточивать elite [ei'lLt] n элита essayist ['eseiist] n эссеист, автор эссе heritage ['heritidj] n традиция immortality [ imo:'ta;liti] n бессмертие nonfiction ['mmfikfan] n научная лите­ратура perspective [ps'spektiv] n перспектива pharmacology [,Га:тэ'ко1эф] п фар­макология


preliminary [ргГпттэп] а предвари­тельный

prestigious [pres'tidps] а престижный

psychology [sai'kDtac&i] n психология

range [remdj] n круг

recipient [n'sipiant] n получатель

Sanskrit ['sasnsknt] n санскрит

similar ['simils] а похожий

source [so:s] n источник; документ

superiority [sju:,prari'Dnti] n превос­ходство

undoubtedly [An'dautidli] adv несом­ненно

upbringing ['Ab,bnrjirj] n воспитание

vision ['угзэп] п зрение

vitality [vi'tseliti] n энергия


 




Questions and Tasks

1. What family was Aldous Leonard Huxley born?

2. What were his relatives?

3. What traits of character did he possess being a small child?

4. Where was Aldous educated?

5. When did he enter the literary world?

6. What was his first book?

7. What works brought him success?

8. Characterize Huxley's principal works.

9. What did he become famous for in the 1950s?

 

10. How many books did he produce for his long career as a writer?

11. Why did some critics think that he was a better essayist?

12. What Huxley's novels are most read and best remembered?

13. Prove that the range of ideas that Huxley studied was wide.

Agatha Christie (1890-1976)

Agatha Christie [ 'аедэЭэ 'knsti] is known all over the world as detective novelist and playwright whose books have been translated into 103 foreign languages.

She is one of the best-selling authors in the world, whose books were sold more than 100 000 000 copies.

Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie

Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie was born on September 15, 1890 in Torquay [to:'ki:], Devonshire. She was educated at home by her mother and took singing lessons in Paris. She began writing de­tective fiction while working as a nurse during World War I. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was published in 1920. That was the first appearance of Hercule Poirot [es'kjui pwcu'rau], who became one of the most popular pri­vate detectives. This little Belgian amazes everyone by his powerful intellect and his brilliant solutions to the most complicated crimes.


He reappeared in about 25 novels and many short stories before returning to Styles, where in Curtain (1075) he died. The elderly Miss Jane Marple, Christie's other principal detective figure, first appeared in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926), which is considered Chris­tie's masterpiece. It was followed by some 75 novels that usually made best-seller lists. Her plays include The Mousetrap (1952), which set a world record for the longest continuous run at one theatre (8,862 per­formances — more than 21 years — at the Ambassadors Theatre, London); and Witness for the Prosecution (1953) which, like many of her works, was adapted into a very successful film (1958).

Agatha Christie's first marriage, to Col.1 Archibald Christie, ended in divorce in 1928. After her marriage in 1930 to the archae­ologist Sir Max Mallowan, she spent several months each year on expeditions in Iraq [fra:k] and Syria ['sim].

Agatha Christie's success with millions of readers lies in her entertaining plots, excellent character drawing, a great sense of humour. The reader cannot guess who the criminal is up to the end of the novel. Fortunately, evil is always punished in her novels.

Agatha Christie also wrote romantic, non-detective novels such as Absent in the Spring (1944) under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott.

Vocabulary

adapt [a'dsept] v переделывать divorce [di'vo:s] n развод

archaeologist La:kf oboist] n археолог pseudonym ['sjuidamm] n псевдоним

complicated ['krjmplikeitid] о сложный solution [sa'lju:fen] n разрешение

Questions and Tasks

1. Relate the main facts of Agatha Christie's life.

2. What is her first novel?

3. Where was the first appearance of Hercule Poirot?

4. What was last Poirot book?

5. Who was Christie's other principal detective figure?

6. What novel did Miss Jane Marple appear in?

7. What play set a world record for the longest continuous run?

8. Why are Christie's books so popular with the readers?

'Col. сокр. от Colonel ['кз:п1] — полковник


John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1973)

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien [d3on' ronld' ru:el' rolki:n] was born in the town of Bloemf ontain, South Africa on January 3rd, 1892, to English parents. In 1895 Ronald, his mother, and brother Hilary returned to England. Ronald's memories of Africa were slight but vivid, and influenced his lat­er writing to some extent.

His father died in 1896. In the autumn of 1899 Ronald took the

entrance exam for King Edward John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

School, but failed to obtain a place.

He retook the exam a year later, and was accepted. In 1904 his
mother died, and Ronald and his brother were left to the care of
Father Francis Morgan a priest. In 1908 Ronald began his first term
at Oxford. •>

In 1915 Ronald graduated from Oxford with a First in English Language and Literature. In 1916 John Ronald Reuel Tolkien married Edith Bratt, and in 1917 his first son John was born. Tolkien worked as an assistant on the Oxford English Dictionary for two years. Ayear after that, his second son Michael was born. In 1921, Tolkien began teaching at the University of Leeds. Three years later, he became Professor of English Language at Leeds.

Also that year, his third son Christopher was born.

In 1925, Tolkien moved to Oxford, where he served as Pro­fessor of Anglo-Saxon. In 1929 his fourth child, Priscilla, was born.

Over the past few years, Tolkien had already started to write a great cycle of the myths and legends of Middle-earth, which was to become The Silmarillion. Around 1933, Tolkien first began telling his children of a funny litle creature named Bilbo. Tolkien


got the idea for The Hobbit from these stories, and in 1936, he com­pleted the book. Ayear later The Hobbz'r was published, and proved to be very successull.

In 1945, Tolkien became Professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford; a position he held until his retirement in 1959. He completed the sequel to The Hobbit in 1948.

The first two parts were published in 1954, under the titles The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. A year later the third part, The Return of the King was published.

In 1954— 1955 Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings, which are set in pre-historic era in an invented version of the world which he called by the Middle English name of Middle-earth.

In 1965 The Lord of the Rings was published.

The Lord of the Rings rapidly came to public notice. It had mixed reviews. Tolkien received different honorary degree and С. В. Е. (Commander of (the Order of) the British Empire)1 from the Queen.

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien died on September 2, 1973 at the age of eighty-one.

The flow of publications was only temporarily slowed by Tolkien's death.

Tolkien got into the habit of writing the children annual illus­trated letters as if from Santa Claus, and a selection of these was published in 1976 as The Father Christmas Letters.

The long-awaited Silmarillion edited by his son Christopher Tolkien, appeared in 1977.

Vocabulary

annual Гаггцш1] о ежегодный retirement [n'taramant] n отставка

cycle fsaikl] n цикл sequel ['siikwsl] n продолжение (книги)

extent [iks'tent] n степень slight [slait] а незначительный

to some extent до некоторой степени temporarily ['tempsrenli) adv временно

obtain [sb'tein] v получать vivid ['vivid] а яркий

1 Commander of (the Order of) the British Empire — кавалер ордена британской империи 2-й степени


 





Questions and Tasks

1. Relate the main facts of Tolkien's childhood and youth.

2. Where was he educated?

3. When was he married?

4. How many children did he have?

5. Where did Tolkien serve in Oxford?

6. How did his book The Hobbif originate?

7. What was his second notable work?

8. Where does the action of the novel The Long of the Rings take place?

9. When did Tolkien die?

10. What Tolkien's books were published after his death?


Post-War and Modern English Literature

The remarkable political and social changes in Great Britain within the years following World War II had a great influence on intellectual life and on literature in particular.

During the 1950s a new kind of drama began to reach the thea­tres in Europe. There were two new trends in drama in the 1950s — absurd drama and social drama.

Absurd drama began in France in the 1940s and reached Britain with Waiting for Godot by Samuel Becket in 1955. The term "ab­surd" means unreasonable, illogical. It shows a general sense of this new literature. This kind of drama explains how meaningless life is.

The playwrights Eugene Ionesco, Arthur Adamov, Samuel Be­ckett and others are known today as contributors to the theatre of the absurd. They describe the absurd elements of the human con­dition. "Cut off from religious roots, man is lost: all his actions have become senseless, absurd, useless".

To underline the spiritual and physical immobility of man pauses and silences are repeated in Absurd Drama. The most memorable literary form which told the stories of the Second World War was the novel.


The novel with a philosophical tendency was born and the traditional satirical novel flourished to the full.

The essence of all these literary phenomena was the earnest search of the writers for their place in life, for a better future.

Vocabulary

absurd [ab's3:d] a нелепый, абсурдный immobility [.irrrou biliti] n неподвижность

contributor [kan'tnbjuits] n участник phenomena [fi'mmim] n pi от pheno-
earnest ['3:nist] а серьезный menon

essence ['esns] n сущность phenomenon [fi'rrommsn] n явление

Questions and Tasks

1. Did the political and social changes in Great Britain within the years following World War II have a great influence on literature?

2. What new trends were in drama in the 1950s?

3. When did absurd drama begin?

4. What does the term "absurd" mean?

5. What does this kind of drama explain?

6. What playwrights are known as contributors to the theatre of the absurd?

7. What was the most memorable literary form of this period?

8. Characterize the novel of this period.

George Orwell (1903-1950)

George Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair fenk 'а:0э 'Ыеэ] in India in 1903. His family lived in British India where his father worked for the colonial Civil Service. In 1907, the Blair family re­turned to England where Orwell was educated, first at a private Preparatory School, and then at the famous boys' school, Eton.

After leaving school in 1921, Orwell returned to India and be­came a policeman. His first commission, in 1922, was in Burmah1.

He remained in the Police Force until 1928, when he resigned.

1 Burmah ['Ьз:тэ] — Бирма 252


 

Orwell then began a most unusual literary career. In 1928, while living in Paris and work­ing in a restaurant washing dishes, he started writing articles for the French newspaper Le Monde.

In 1929 he returned to London, where he lived the life of a poor person, collecting in­formation for his book Down and Out in Paris and London (1933). It was for this book that he first adopted the pseudonym George Or­well. He then published a further three novels. The first, Burmese Days (1934), described his experiences in the Police Force in Burmah and demonstrates his developing anti-Imperialist politics. This was followed by A Clergyman's Daughter (1935) and Keep the Aspidis­tra Flying (1936) (aspidistra = common English house-plant).

In 1936 he was commissioned to research into and write about the situation and conditions of the unemployed in England.

The Road to Wigan Pier (1937) was the result of his research, and it was with this book that he established himself as an investi­gative writer. His political point of view, broadly left-wing, anti-Capitalist and indepedent, was by now guite clear.

With the Spanish Civil War, Orwell left England to fight in Spain for the Republican, anti-Fascist forces. He remained there until he was wounded and forced to return to England.

Homage to Catalonia (1938) is about his experiences in the Spanish Civil War. Orwell's health was suffering from tuberculo­sis. His next novel Coming up for Air was written during a period of convalenscence spent in North Africa. When he returned to Eng­land, his reputation as a political free-thinker and social critic was high. He continued to write and publish an enormous variety of works, essays, criticisms, literary criticisms and political reflections. He also worked as a book reviewer for the magazine New England Weekly.

During the Second World War he worked for the В. В. С and enlisted in the Home Guard, a volunteer armed body of men, usually too old or too ill to join the regular army. But his tubercu­losis prevented him, however, from fulfilling this activity.


In 1944 he worked as the literary edi­tor of the important left-wing newspaper Tribune, He wrote his best-known work Animal Farm in 1944. In 1948 his novel Nineteen Eighty-four was published. It describes a future world (in 1984) when the political system has total control over people. The slogan Big Brother is Watching You gives an idea of the power of this system.

The novel Animal Farm has re­mained a consistently popular novel with both adults and younger readers. The novel functions as an allegory. The story of Animal Farm describes the happenings on a farm, when the animals, angry about the way the human, Farmer Jones, runs the farm and treats the animals, stage a successful revolution. They rid themselves of Jones and his tame crow (which represents the Church) and establish an equal system of government, a republic organized along socialist lines.

The revolution is organized by the pigs, the most intelligent animals on the farm, but all the animals take part. But gradually, the day of the glorious revolution is forgotten, as the farm has some economic problems due to its isolation from other farms and markets. To the animals, it seems that they are now working harder and eating less than ever before.

The pigs begin to show signs of corruption and inequality. They become more and more like their masters had been. In Animal Farm, after the rebellion, the animals say that all animals are equal. Later the animals create another saying.

It is: "All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others".

Animal Farm is a satire against the political systems which Orwell had seen develop in the 1930s and 1940s.

In this tragic fairy story he shows that a revolution, once it has aban­doned honesty, truth and clarity, results in oppression, cruelty and exploitation. Once the individual has been denied the right to knowl­edge and the right to understand, power can and will be abused.


The new class of abuser will resemble in every shape and form, the old abuser, which is just how the novel ends, with the poor animals looking through the window of the farmhouse, where the corrupt pigs and the neighbouring human farmers are drink­ing and gambling together.

"And they were alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but al­ready it was impossible to say which was which."

Orwell's style is simple, clear and almost journalistic. He fol­lows a great tradition of social critics who turned to the genre of literature to express their ideas and reach a large audience.

There are many similarities between Orwell and George Ber­nard Shaw; for example, in the way that they combined litera­ture and politics and produced works of great political insight.

Injustice, oppression and the effects of Capitalism in general are themes that Orwell presents in his works, together with an analysis of failing Communist regimes.

Orwell died in the age of 46 in 1950.

Vocabulary

gradually ['graedjusli] adv постепенно independent [,independent] а незави­симый insight [m'sait] л проницательность investigative [in 'vestigeitiv] а пытли­вый, любознательный isolation [,aise'leijgn] n изоляция oppression [э'рге/эп] п угнетение pseudonym ['sjudamm] n псевдоним rebellion [n'beljan] n бунт regime [геГзпп] n режим resemble [n'zembl] v походить resign [n'zain] vотказаться от должности reviewer [n'vjura] n обозреватель similarity [,simi'laenti] n сходство total ['tsutl] а полный volunteer [^vnbn'tis] а добровольный

abandon [a'baenctan] v отказываться abuse [a'bjuiz] v злоупотреблять allegory ['aeligsn] n аллегория Burmese [b3:'mi:z] о бирманский civil f'srvil] а государственный; граж­данский clarity ['klaerrti] n чистота commission [кэ'гги/эп] п назначение;

v поручать consistently [ksn'sistantli] adv постоянно convalescence [,kr>nva'lesns] n выздо­ровление criticism ['kntisizm] n критика; крити­ческая статья enlist [in 'list] v (добровольно) посту­пать на военную службу gamble ['gaembl] v играть в азартные игры


 




Questions and Tasks

1. Say a few words about the early period of Orwell's life.

2. How did he begin his literary career?

3. What was his first book?

4. What pseudonym did he adopt for this book?

5. What novels did he write then?

6. What book established him as an investigative writer?

7. What was his political point of view?

8. What did Orwell do during the Spanish Civil War?

9. What book was about his experiences in the Spanish Civil War?

 

10. Where did he work during the Second World War?

11. What is Orwell's best-known work?

12. Give a brief summary of the contents of Animal Farm.

13. What is the main idea of this satire?

14. What can you say about Orwell's style?

15. What themes did Orwell present in his works?

16. Find examples of many similarities between Orwell and George Bernard Shaw.

Samuel Beckett (1906-1989;

Samuel Beckett

Samuel Barclay Beckett [ 'saemjual 'ba:kh 'bekit] was born in Foxrock, near Dublin, in 1906. He belonged to a middle class family. He distin­guished himself at school and then went to Trinity College, Dublin where he studied Modern Languages. After graduating in 1928, he moved to Paris and worked as a teacher of English at the University of Paris (1928-1929). In 1930, he returned to Dublin where he taught French at Trinity College, but in 1931, he left this University ca­reer and, after travelling in Germany


and Italy, settled in Paris where he lived until his death, concen­trating on writing.

In Paris, he became friends with many leading intellectual figures of the day. including James Joyce, and dedicated him­self to studying and writing.

During the war, Beckett joined the French Resistence and fought against the Fascist occupation of France. He was arrested in 1942, as a result of his activities, and went into hiding, spend­ing the rest of the war period working on the land in Provence1. After the war, he visited Ireland for a short period, before re­turning to France as an interpreter with the red Cross. He set­tled in Paris in 1946.

(

Beckett's literary production includes prose, novels and short stories, poetry, drama and critical essays. In 1921 he published Dante... Bruno... Vico... Joyce, a collection of critical essays, and the monograph, Proust [pru:st] in 1931. More Pricks than Kicks (1934) was his first experiment with the short story genre, fol­lowed in 1938 by his first novel Murphy. In 1944 he wrote the experimental novel Watt that was published in 1953. This was

followed by a trilogy of novels Molloy( 1955), Malone Dies (1956) and The Unnameable (1958). In all, Beckett wrote more than nine novels and seven volumes of shorter fiction.

The play Wayting for Godot was published first in French in 1952 and was translated into English in 1954. It was immediately received with critical appraisal and met with mu«:h popular in­terest. Some other plays are Krapp's Last Tape (1959), Happy Days (1961) Not /(1973) and Breath (1970).

Beckett had found a big English-speaking public that had
never read his novels. Controversy and scandal surrounded the
dramatic works of Beckett, but he also benefited from the ap­
preciation in literary critics and directors. He was awarded the
Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969. >

Samuel Beckett died in Paris in 1989.

'Provence ['pro:'vu:ns] — ист. провинция Прованс (Франция)


/


Waiting for Godot

The absurd play Waiting for Godot was produced for the first time at the Theatre de Babylone, Paris on January 5, 1953.

It was translated into more than twenty languages, including English (1954). The first English performance was at the Arts The­atre Club, London in August 1955, where it was so successful that it was transferred to the West End, the home of commercial Eng­lish theatre.

The play is divided into two acts. In Act I, the two central charac­ters, Estragon and Vladimir, who call each other Didi and Gogo, are on a country road, near the tree, in an attitude of waiting. They ex­plain that they are waiting for Godot, but seem unsure as to why or when this figure will arrive.

They spend their time talking, quarrelling and inventing games, oppressed by the fact that nothing happens.

Two more characters arrive, Pozzo and Lucky, a strange couple who appear to be a master and his slave.

After this couple leave, a boy arrives with a message from Go­dot, saying that he will not come that day, but that he will arrive tomorrow.

Act two begins in the»same place, with the same two charac­ters waiting again for Godot. Their uncertainty increases, and the second act is full of desperation and panic.

When Lucky and Pozzo return, they are horribly transformed.

Pozzo is blind and Lucky has lost his powers of speech.

At the end of the day, the boy arrives again, to inform Vladimir and Estragon that Godot will not come that day, but that he will arrive tomorrow.

The play ends, as it began, with the two tramps waiting on the edge of the road, unable to sleep or move or even hang them­selves, which they try to do unsuccessfully.

The four main characters are organized symbolically in a care­ful pattern of opposites.

Vladimir and Estragon are complementary parts of a single whole, Estragon is the poet and the dreamer, Vladimir is practical and never dreams. Estragon is cynical about Godot while Vladimir


persists in the wait. Estragon is weak, he complains that every night someone comes and beat him, while Vladimir is more courageous. Their costumes and the stage directions suggest that they are clowns. They appear to be fond of each other and need each other in order to survive. Pozzo and Lucky have a complementary rela­tionship too. Pozzo, who represents the power of the master and the body, loses his sight in the second act and becomes much weaker. Lucky, with his ironic name, is slavish and represents the power of the mind.

For the two tramps, the arrival of Godot will end the wait. While the wait seems to suggest hope, the arrival of Godot suggests sal­vation, a rescue from the uncertainties of time. The boy, a messen­ger of salvation, never denies the arrival of Godot, but is unable to confirm it either. Hope keeps the tramps on the road, and hope prevents them from hanging themselves.

The characters in Waiting for Godot try and fail to comuni-cate with each other through language, and in this play, in which costumes, scenery and action hardly exist, language is the most important to the development of meaning. Apart from dialogue, silence is important to the development of meaning. The pauses that Beckett uses show the incapacity of words to express mean­ing.

Vocabulary

cynical ['smikl] а циничный desperation [^despa'reifsn] n отчаяние oppress [s'pres] v удручать pattern ['pastan] n образец resistance [n'zistsns] n сопротивление slavish ['slsevij] а рабски покорный symbolically [sim'bDhkali] adv симво­лически tramp [traemp] n бродяга transfer [traens'f3:] v перемещать transform [trsens'fom] v изменять, uncertainty [An's3:tntil n неуверенность

appraisal [s'preizsl] п оценка appreciation [э^ргцГГегГэп] n высокая

оценка attitude ['aetitju:d] n положение; поза benefit ['bensfit] v приносить пользу clown [klara] n клоун complementary [,kt>mpli'mentan] a

дополнительный confirm [k3n'f3:m] v подтвердить controversy ['kratrev3:si] n дискуссия,

полемика couple ['клр1] п пара


 




Questions and Tasks

1. Where was Samuel Beckett born?

2. Where was he educated?

3. Where did he work after graduating Trinity College?

4. What did Beckett do during the war?

5. Where did he live after the war?

6. What does Beckett's literary production include?

7. Characterize the first period of his literary activity.






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