REACH FOR THE STARS

What is success? It could be many things and often means different things to different people. For example, money, fame, academic achievement, overcoming a physical disability or discovering the secrets of the universe. A person who has achieved any of these could be considered successful, so if one person has accomplished all of them, what word would you use to describe him? Well, there are two actually - Stephen Hawking.

Stephen Hawking is a theoretical physicist. This means that he works on the basic laws that rule the universe. He has made some remarkable discoveries and has published his findings in books and magazines. Stephen has received numerous awards and medals and is a member of many Royal Societies. He is highly educated and has twelve honourary degrees. He even holds the post of Lucasian Professor of Mathematics which previously belonged to Isaac Newton. All this by someone who has motor neuron disease, is confined to a wheelchair and can't speak without the aid of a computer!

When talking about his illness, Stephen describes it as little more than an inconvenience. Recently, when asked if he would still have been involved in Physics if he hadn't been disabled, he simply said that the only difference would be that he would have worked more with numbers and equations.

When we consider how one man has excelled in all areas of life despite being- severely disabled, we learn that we can overcome almost any difficulty to achieve our goals.

Success is within our reach, we just have to go for it!

2. Говорение.

Билет №16

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THE DEVOTED FRIEND

Once upon a time there was a young man whose, name was Hans. He had a very kind heart. He lived alone in a little house. He had a lovely garden where he worked every day. His garden was the best in the village and there were a lot of beautiful flowers in it. Little Hans had a devoted friend, big Hugh the Miller. Indeed the rich Miller was so devoted to little Hans, that he always picked some flowers or took some fruit when he was passing Hans's garden. "Real friends must have everything in common," the Miller used to say, and little Hans smiled and felt very proud that he had a friend with such noble ideas.

Sometimes the neighbours were surprised that the rich Miller never gave little Hans anything, but Hans never thought about these things. He worked and worked in his garden. In spring, summer and autumn he was very happy. But in winter he had no flowers or fruit to sell at the market, and he was often very hungry and cold. He was also very lonely, because the Miller never came to visit him in winter.

"There is no good in my going to see little Hans in winter," the Miller used to say to his Wife, "because when people are in trouble, you must leave them alone. That is my idea about friendship, and I am sure I am right. So I shall wait till spring comes, and then I shall go to see him, and he will give me a large basket of flowers, and that will make him happy."

The Miller's Wife sat in her comfortable arm-chair near the fire. "It is very pleasant," she said, "to hear how you talk about friendship."

"But can't we invite little Hans to our house?" said the Miller's son. "If poor Hans is in trouble, I will give him half my supper and show him my white rabbits."

"What a silly boy you are!" cried the Miller. "If Hans comes here and sees our warm fire and our good supper, he may get envious, and envy is a terrible thing. Besides, maybe he will ask me to give him some flour, and I cannot do that! Flour is one thing and friendship is another."

"How well you talk," said the Miller's Wife.

2. Говорение.

Билет №17

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MY MALADIES

There were four of us — George, and William Harris, and myself, and Montmorency. We were sitting in my room and talking about how bad we were — bad from a medical point of view, I mean, of course.

We were all feeling unwell, and we were quite nervous about it. Harris said he felt such extraordinary fits of giddiness come over him at times, that he hardly knew what he was doing; and then George said that he had fits of giddiness too, and hardly knew what he was doing. As for me, it was my liver that was out of order, I knew it was my liver that was out of order, because I had just been reading a patent liver-pill advertisement, in which were detailed the various symptoms by which a man could tell when his liver was out of order. I had them all.

I remember going to the British Museum library one day to read up the treatment for some slight ailment — hay fever, I think it was. I took the book and read all about it; and then, in an unthinking moment, I idly turned the leaves and began to study diseases, generally. I forgot which was the first, but before I had glanced half down the list of "premonitory symptoms",

I was sure that I had got it.

I sat for a while frozen with horror; and then in despair, I again turned over the pages.

I саmе to typhoid fever — read the symptoms — discovered that I had typhoid fever; turned up St. Vitus's Dance — found, as I expected, that I had that too — began to get interested in my case, so started alphabetically and learned that I was sickening for it, and that the acute stage would start in about a fortnight. Bright's disease,1 was glad to find, I had only in a modified form and, as for that, I might live for years. Cholera I had, with severe complications; and diphtheria I seemed to have been born with. I looked through the twenty-six letters, and the only malady I had not got was housemaid's knee.

After "Three Men in a Boat" by Jerome K. Jerome

2. Говорение.

Билет №18

1. Прочитайте, переведите, перескажите и задайте 5 вопросов разных типов к данному тексту.

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