The 20th century began slowly, to the ticking of grandfather clocks and the stately rhythms of progress. Thanks to science, industry and moral philosophy, mankind's steps had at last been guided up the right path. The century of steam was about to give way to the century of oil and electricity. Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, only 41 years old in 1900, proposed a scientific basis for the notion that progress was gradual but inevitable, determined by natural law.
And everybody thought that the development would continue in the small steps that had marked the progress of the 19th century. Inventions like the railroad or the telegraph or the typewriter had enabled people to get on with their ordinary lives a little more conveniently. No one could have guessed then that, in the century just beginning, new ideas would burst upon the world with a force and frequency that would turn this stately march of progress into a long distance, free-for-all sprint. Thrust into this race, the children of the 20th century would witness more change in their daily existence and environment than anyone else who had ever walked the planet.
This high-velocity attack of new ideas and technologies seemed to ratify older dreams of a perfectible life on earth, of an existence in which the shocks of nature had been tamed. But the unleashing of unparalleled progress was also accompanied by something quite different: a massive regression toward savagery. If technology endowed humans with Promethean aspirations and powers, it also gave them the means to exterminate one another. Assassinations in Sarajevo in 1914 lit a spark that set off an unprecedented explosion of destruction and death. The Great War did more than devastate a generation of Europeans. It set the tone - the political, moral and intellectual temper - for much that followed.
Before long the Great War received a new name - World War I. The roaring 1920s and the Depression years of the 1930s proved to be merely a prelude to World War II. Largely hidden during that war was an awful truth that called into question progress and the notion of human nature itself.
But civilization was not crushed by the two great wars, and the ruins provided the stimulus to build a way of life again. To a degree previously unheard of and perhaps unimaginable, the citizens of the 20th century felt free to reinvent themselves. In that task They were assisted by two profound developments–psychoanalysis and the Bomb.
Vocabulary
stately - величественный, величавый
thrust - толчок
high-velocity - большая скорость
savagery - варварство
aspiration - стремление
exterminate - уничтожать
assassination - убийство политического или общественного деятеля spark - искра
explosion - взрыв
destruction - разрушение, уничтожение
devastate - опустошить
roaring - бурный
Depression - кризис 1929-32 гг.
Outstanding people
Edward VI took the English throne in 1461. When he unexpectedly died in 1483, his brother Richard was one of the most powerful men in the kingdom. Edward IV left two little sons, Edward, Prince of Wales, age twelve, and Richard, Duke of York, age nine. Their uncle Richard made a conspiracy to seize the Princes. He brought them to London and locked away in the Tower, and started to move toward usurpation. He alleged that the marriage of his dead brother, Edward IV, was invalid because Edward had previously promised to marry another woman. As a result, the little princes were declared bastards, and young Edward V had no right to the throne of England. To assure his own security, Richard is believed to have ordered to murder the little princes in the Tower. He became King Richard III.
Richard had the most obvious reasons for wanting the young princes dead. He lived through a civil war that taught him that powerful men were always ready to rally around a standard revolt. If such a flag could be raised for a prince of the royal blood to restore him to a rightful throne, noblemen with great lands, great debts, and empty wallets might readily take arms, looking for the main chance in the change of kings. Richard never felt secure on his throne; his swift, lawless, and lethal moves against those who threatened him showed that he was capable of murder if by murder he could rid himself of the mortal danger. And as long as the little princes remained alive the danger was always present. In the summer of 1483, the little princes disappeared forever; that much is certain.
Richard III was killed in the battle on 22 August 1485. Henry Tudor, earl of Richmond, now King Henry VII by right of conquest and some other hereditary claims, felt he needed to justify his own actions at the battle of Bosworth. He issued a royal proclamation, dated the day before the battle, declaring himself the rightful king of England and condemning Richard as the rebellious subject.
In 1674 two small skeletons were found in a wooden box buried ten feet under a small staircase that workmen were removing from the White Tower. They were thought to be the bones of the little princes. King Charles II had his own reasons for being offended at the murder of kings, so he placed these bones in the chapel of Henry VII in Westminster Abbey.
Vocabulary
usurpation - узурпация, незаконный захват
allege - утверждать, заявлять (голословно)
invalid - не имеющий законной силы
bastard - внебрачный ребенок
security - безопасность
rally – сплотиться
standard - знамя, флаг
murder - убийство
disappear - исчезнуть
it-rightful - законный
condemn - осуждать
Youth and unemployment
In the year 1000, Western Europe was just emerging from the long depression commonly known as the Dark Ages. Shortly before the beginning of the millennium, the Holy Roman Emperor Otto III moved his capital and court back to the Eternal City. But what little grandeur Rome still possessed paled by comparison with the splendors of 'the new Rome, Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine empire. Byzantium was one of three centers of wealth and power in the known world of the 11th century, India and China were the others. There were sophisticated cultures elsewhere, notably the Mayans of Mexico, but they were virtually out of touch with other civilizations — thus lacking an essential condition for being considered part of world history.
Little of Europe's coming dynamism was apparent in the year JOOO, although there were signs that the Continent was getting richer. Wider use of plows had made farming more efficient. The planting of new crops, notably beans and peas, added variety to Europe's diet Windmills and watermills provided fresh sources of power. Villages that were to become towns and eventually cities grew up around trading markets. Yet the modern nation-state, with its centralized bureaucracies and armies under unified command came into being in the 15th century. For most of the Middle Ages, Roman Catholicism was Europe's unifying force. Benedictine abbeys had preserved what fragments of ancient learning the Continent possessed. Cistercian monks had cleared the land and pioneered in agricultural experimentation. Ambitious popes competed with equally ambitious kings to determine whether the spiritual realm would hold power over the tea or vice versa. Symbolic of the church's power were great Gothic cathedrals of Europe: construction of Reims began 13th century, and Charters—the most glorious of all such edifices—was consecrated in 1260.
By the 20th century the ingenuity, coupled with an aggressive wanderlust, brought Europeans and their culture to the ends earth. By the year 1914, eighty four per cent of the world' surface, apart from the polar regions, was under the influence European civilization. The hegemony of European civilization was based on the successful application of new knowledge to a problems and conquering nature, and much of that success based on circumstance and ingenuity.
Vocabulary
emerge - выходить millennium – тысячелетие
asceticism - аскетизм sophisticated - сложный
bureaucracies - чиновники apparent - явный
watermill - водяная мельница ambitious - честолюбивый
ingenuity - изобретательность wanderlust - страсть к путешествиям
surface - поверхность conquer - завоевать
assertion - утверждение accomplishment - достижение
grandeur - великолепие, пышность, грозность
Mass media
The problem between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland started a long time ago. It is more political than religious. For centuries the English had tried to gain control of Ireland. Until the 16-th century, England controlled only a small area of Ireland around Dublin. English rulers, including King Henry VIII (1491-1547), Queen Elizabeth I (153-1603) and Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) gradually conquered the whole of Ireland. The last area to resist the province in Ulster, in the north of Ireland, but in the Irish were defeated.
In 1910 the British Government offered Ireland a mild form of Home Rule – full self-government in regard to purely Irish affairs. Opposition was basked by the generals of the British Army’s troops in Ireland. The Irish patriots formed their own military organizations of the Irish Volunteers, drilling troops for the fight. The Labour Party in Ireland established the Irish Army. The Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army jointly started preparation for an insurrection. The set date was Monday of Easter Week, 1916. Although the uprising was a failure, it laid the foundation for another stage of the fight for freedom. In 1921, an independent Irish state was set up, that is the Republic of Ireland. In the north of Ireland six countries were dominated and controlled by Protestants, who refused to join the new Irish state. These six countries stayed part of the UK and are now called Northern Ireland.
Northern Ireland is a very beautiful place. It is a land of mountains, rivers and lakes. It has a rugged coastline and one is never more than half an hour away from the coast by car. The people of Ireland have always been known for the stories and myths. They say that giants used to live on the Antrim coast, north of Belfast. One giant, Finn McCool, the commander of the king of Ireland’s army, fell in love with the woman giant in Scotland. He wanted her to come to Ulster so he started to build a bridge, the Giant’s Causeway, so that she could walk across the sea.
Vocabulary
Area-пространство
Defeat - наносить поражение
Home Rule – Гом Руль
Back - поддержать
Troops - войска
Volunteers - «Добровольцы»
Drill - строевая подготовка
Insurrection – восстание
Uprising – восстание
Failure – неудача, провал
Independent - независимый
County – округ, графство
Giant – великан
Leisure time
Until 1800 the United States of America had five «capitals» or meeting places of the Congress - Princeton, Annapolis, Trenton, New York and Philadelphia. For various reasons, none of these cities offered an ideal seat of government for the new nation. Southern states protested that they were all too far north. After the Constitution was adopted, the establishment of a new city was considered. President Washington pinpointed the exact location, and Congress passed a bill for a federal city and capital on July 17, 1790. The city of Washington was called just «The Federal City». It didn't gain its name until after the first president's death. When Congress and the rest of the small government's agencies arrived from Philadelphia in, the new capital looked very unpromising indeed. Only a fragment of the Capitol was completed, and a part of the White House. Other government departments were scattered about, and a few houses had been built. Up until the time of the Civil War, Washington grew quite slowly. It really was just another sleepy southern town, enlivened only when the Congress was in session, and not much even then. After the Civil War it became the real capital of the United States.
The best known building in Washington is the White House, home of American Presidents since 1800. The site was selected by president Washington, the architect was James Hoban. The first residents of the White House were President and Mrs. John Adams. The cornerstone of the Executive Mansion, as it was originally known, dates from October 13, 1792, 300 years after the landing of Columbus. The president's home is the earliest of all government buildings in the District of Columbia. The British troops which arrived in Washington in 1814 were indirectly responsible for the name «White House»: the building was fired by them. Later the fire marks on the walls were concealed by painting the whole building white. The term «White House» became official at the end of the 19th century. The President works here in the «Oval Office», but the White House is also a family home. President Truman had a piano next to his desk and President Kennedy's children used to play under his office windows.
Washington is a cultural centre. It is proud of its art galleries, a zoo, natural history collections, and the Museum of History and Technology.
Vocabulary
Nation - государство
Pinpoint - указать
Exact location – точное расположение
Pass a bill – одобрить законопроект
Cornerstone – краеугольный камень
Government buildings – правительственные здания
To be indirectly responsible for – быть косвенно ответственным за
Civil War – гражданская война
Enliven – оживлять
Be in session - заседать
Delay - задержать
Completion - завершение
Accessible – доступный (открытый)
Magnificent view – великолепный взгляд