понедельник, 30 января 2012 г.

Robert Burns

 

Robert Burns was born at Alloway, near Ayr, on January 25, 1759. His father William was a gardener to the Provost of Ayr. Robert was educated briefly at John Murdoch's school in Alloway and later in Ayr.

Family financial worries forced Burns to work as a farm labourer, and it was while thus occupied that he met his first love, Nelly Kirkpatrick. She inspired him to try his hand at poetry, a song entitled "O, once I lov'd a bonnie lass", set to the tune of a traditional reel.

Alexander Graham Bell

 

Born: March 3, 1847
Edinburgh, Scotland
Died: August 2, 1922
Baddeck, Nova Scotia, Canada

Scottish-born American inventor

Alexander Graham Bell, Scottish-born American inventor and teacher of the deaf, is best known for perfecting the telephone to transmit, or send, vocal messages using electricity. The telephone began a new age in communications technology.

The young man

Alexander Graham Bell was born on March 3, 1847, in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father, Alexander Melville Bell, was an expert on the mechanics of the voice and on elocution (the art of public speaking). His grandfather, Alexander Bell, was an elocution professor. Bell's mother, Eliza, was hard of hearing but became an accomplished pianist (as well as a painter), and Bell took an interest in music. Eliza taught Alexander, who was the middle of three brothers, until he was ten years old. When he was a youth he took a challenge from a mill operator and created a machine that removed the husks from grain. He would later call it his first invention.

воскресенье, 29 января 2012 г.

William Shakespeare

 

For all his fame and celebration, William Shakespeare remains a mysterious figure with regards to personal history. Шекспир фото/Shakespeare/ Photo There are just two primary sources for information on the Bard: his works, and various legal and church documents that have survived from Elizabethan times. Naturally, there are many gaps in this body of information, which tells us little about Shakespeare the man.

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, allegedly on April 23, 1564. Church records from Holy Trinity Church indicate that he was baptized there on April 26, 1564. Young William was born of John Shakespeare, a glover and leather merchant, and Mary Arden, a landed local heiress. William, according to the church register, was the third of eight children in the Shakespeare household—three of whom died in childhood. John Shakespeare had a remarkable run of success as a merchant, alderman, and high bailiff of Stratford, during William's early childhood. His fortunes declined, however, in the late 1570s.

A. A. Milne

A. A. Milne was born in Kilburn, London, to parents Vince Milne, who was Scottish, and Sarah Marie Milne (née Heginbotham) and grew up at Henley House School, 6/7 Mortimer Road (now Crescent), Kilburn, a small public school run by his father. One of his teachers was H. G. Wells who taught there in 1889–90. Milne attended Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied on a mathematics scholarship. While there, he edited and wrote for Granta, a student magazine. He collaborated with his brother Kenneth and their articles appeared over the initials AKM. Milne's work came to the attention of the leading British humour magazine Punch, where Milne was to become a contributor and later an assistant editor.

четверг, 22 декабря 2011 г.

American English Idioms part 2


[babe in the woods] {n. phr.} A person who is inexperienced or innocent in certain things. * /He is a good driver, but as a mechanic he is just a babe in the woods./ Compare: OVER ONE'S HEAD, BEYOND ONE'S DEPTH.
[baby kisser] {n.}, {slang} A person campaigning for votes in his quest for elected political office; such persons often kiss little children in public. * /Nixon was a baby kisser when he ran for Vice President with Eisenhower./
[back away] {v.} To act to avoid or lessen one's involvement in something; draw or turn back; retreat. * The townspeople backed away from the building plan when they found out how much it would cost.
[back down] or [back off] {v.}, {informal} To give up a claim; not follow up a threat. * /Will said he could beat Tony, but when Tony put up his fists Will backed down./ * /Larry claimed Moe had taken his book, but backed down when the teacher talked with him./ Syn.: BEAT A RETREAT.

среда, 7 декабря 2011 г.

Глоссарий современных педагогических технологий

Системы массовой подготовки людей построены на педагогических технологиях. При помощи педагогических технологий одни люди осуществляют преобразования в других людях: выращивают способности, формируют сознание, передают умения и навыки, ставят позицию, организуют пространство деятельности и обозначают жизненные ориентации, цели и устремления.

ВЕСЁЛАЯ ВИКТОРИНА ПРО АНГЛИЙСКИЕ БУКВЫ И СЛОВА