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Jack London

(1876-1916)

JackLondon the famous American writer, who reflected the hopes,conflicts, frustrations (разочарование),was born in San Francisco on January 12 1876. His family moved toOakland where he wrote in his autobiographical “JohnBarleycorn”. He had quitted school at 14. He started working ashis family was very poor. He was a sailor. The experience of asealing cruise formed the basis of his future sea stories. He was amember of Industrial army later he was arrested forvagrancy(бродяжничество)About the age of 19 he attended Oakland High school for a short timeand then had a year at the University of California. He got a jobbecause he has no money to pay his tuition(обучение).In winter 1897 London joinedthe gold rush to the Klondike. He didn’t find gold butwonderful stories written after returning were based on the life inthe North. He had always been an excellent storyteller. He won thefirst prize, 25$. His first book “The Son of the Wolf”gained a wide audience(завоеватьаудиторию). During his short lifeLondon wrote fifty books his most popular books are: “The Godof His Fathers”, “The Call of the Wild”, “WhiteFang”, “Martin Eden”, “The War of Classes”and others. He died on November 1916. His books are read everywhereI think Jack London on of the favourite writer among teenagers.

LondonPlaces of Interest.

There are a lot of places of in­terestin London. Among them are: Westminster Abbey, Houses of Par­liament,Buckingham Palace, St. Paul's Cathedral, London Bridge, the Tower ofLondon.

Londonstands on the river Thames. Crossing the river by the Tower Bridgeyou can see the Tower of London. Itis one of the oldest buildings of the city. Many centu­ries agoit was a fortress, a royal pa­lace and then a prison. Now it is amuseum of arms.

Onthe bank of the Thames, not far from the Tower of London, you can seeWestminster Palace, or the Houses of Parliament.It is the seat of the British governmentand it is one of the most beautiful buildings in London.In one of its towers there is the famousBig Ben, the larg­est clock of England.It strikes ev­ery quarter of an hour.

BuckinghamPalace is the Queen's official London residence. Tourists always goto see the ceremony of changing the Guard there.

Londonhas many fine squares. Some of them are quiet, others are busy likeTrafalgar Square. Tra­falgarSquare is the central square of the city. To the right of the squarethere is the National Gallery which has a fine collection of Europianpaintings.

St.Paul's Cathedral is the big­gest English church. Another famouschurch is Westminster Abbey where kings, queens, and many fa­mouspeople are burried.

Londonis also famous for its beautiful parks. Hyde Park is the mostdemocratic park in the world, as anyone can say anything he likesthere. Regent'sPark is the home of London Zoo.

I'dlike to see it all myself.

Sports inGreat Britain

Sports playsa large part in British life. The British are proud that many sportsoriginated from their country and then spread throughout the world.The national sports are football, golf, cricket, table tennis, lawntennis, darts, racing. The most popular sport in Britain is football.Golf is Scotland’ chief contribution to British sport. Englishpeople love cricket. Cricket is played in school, colleges,universities, in most towns and villages. Tennis is played by bothmen and women either in exclusive tennis clubs or on public tenniscourts. People all over the world know Wimbledon as the centre oflawn tennis. The Wimbledon championships is held annualy in asouthern suburb of London. Englishmen like racing. There are allkinds of racing in England: horse-racing, motor-car racing,boat-racing, dog-racing, donkey-racing. You see all sports are verypopular among the British.

The UK of Great Britain and NorthernIreland

The United Kingdom of GreatBritain and Northern Ireland (the UK) occupies most of the territoryof the British Isles. It consists of four main parts which are:England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Their capitals areLon­don, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast.

TheUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the officialname of the state which is sometimes referred to as Great Britain orBritain (after its major isle), England (after its major historicpart) or the British Isles.

The UK is an island state: it iscomposed of some5,500 islands,large and small. The two main islands are Great Britain (in which areEngland, Wales and Scotland) to the east and Ireland (in which areNorthern Ireland and the independent Irish Republic) to the west.They are separated by the Irish Sea.

The UK is one of theworld's smaller countries (it is twice smaller than France or Spain),with an area of some 244,100square kilometres. The UK is situated off the west coast of Europebetween the Atlantic Ocean on the northwest and the North Sea on theeast and is separated from the European continent by the EnglishChannel (or La Manche) and the Strait of Dover (or Pas de Calais).

The population of the UnitedKingdom is over57 million people.There are fourteen other countries in the world with more people.

English is not the only languagewhich people use in the UK. English is the official language. Butsome people speak Gaelic in western Scotland, Welsh—inparts of northern and central Wales.

The flag of the UnitedKingdom, known as the Union Jack, is made up of three crosses.

Great Britain is the name of thelargest island of the British Isles and it is made up of England,Scotland and Wales, it does not include Northern Ireland. In everydayspeech Great Britain is used to mean the United Kingdom.Geographically, the island of Great Britain is subdivided into twomain regions— LowlandBritain and Highland Britain. Lowland Britain comprises southern andeastern England. Highland Britain consists of Scotland, most ofWales, the Pennines, and the Lake District. The Pennine Chain extendssouthward from the Cheviot Hills into the Midlands, a plains regionwith low hills and valleys.

Englandis separated from Scotland by the Cheviot Hills, running from east towest.

Thechief rivers of Great Britain are: the Severn, flowing along theborder between England and Wales, tributaries of which include theAvon, famed by Shakespeare; the Thames, which flows eastward to theport of London and some others. The swiftest flowing river in theBritish Isles is the Spey. Part of the border between Scotland andEngland is along the lower reaches of the Tweed, near which is madethe woollen fabric that bears its name.

There are many lakes in GreatBritain. On the northwest side of the Pennine system lies the LakeDistrict, containing the beautiful lakes which give it its name. Thisdistrict is widely known for its association with the history ofEnglish literature and especially with the name of William Wordsworth(1770—1859), thefounder of the Lake School of poets.

The largest cities of GreatBritain are: London, Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester,Sheffield, Bristol, Leeds, Edin­burgh. The most important portsare: London, Liverpool, Southamp­ton, Belfast, Glasgow andCardiff.

TheUnited Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy. This means that it has amonarch (a king or a queen) as its Head of State. The monarch reignswith the support of Parliament. The powers of the monarch are notdefined precisely. Everything today is done in the Queen's name. Itis her government, her armed forces, her law courts and so on. Sheappoints all the Ministers, including the Prime Minis­ter.Everything is done however on the advice of the elected Government,and the monarch takes no part in the decision-making process.

Once the British Empire includeda large number of countries all over the world ruled by Britain. Theprocess of decolonisation began in1947 with theindependence of India, Pakistan and Ceylon.Now, apart from a fewsmall islands, there is no longer an empire. But the British rulingclasses tried not to lose influence over the former colonies of theBritish Empire. An association of former members of the BritishEmpire and Britain was founded in1949. It is calledthe Commonwealth. It includes many countries such as Burma, theSudan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and others. The Queen of GreatBritain is also the Head of the Commonwealth, and so the Queen ofCanada, Australia, New Zealand...

The Queen is very rich as areother members of the royal family. In addition, the government paysfor her expenses as Head of State, for a royal yacht, train andaircraft as well as for the upkeep of several palaces. The Queen'simage appears on stamps, notes and coins.

Parliament consists of twochambers known as the House of Commons and the House of Lords.Parliament and the monarch have different roles in the government ofthe country, and they only meet together on symbolic occasions suchas the coronation of a new monarch or the opening of Parliament. Inreality, the House of Commons is the only one of the three which hastrue power. It is here that new bills are introduced and debated. Ifthe majority of the members are in favour of a bill it goes to theHouse of Lords to be debated and finally to the monarch to be signed.Only then it becomes law. Although a bill must be supported by allthree bodies, the House of Lords only has limited powers, and themonarch has not refused to sign one since the modern political systembegan over200 years ago.

UKHOLIDAYS

Thereare many holidays in Great Britain. The main are Christmas and Bankholidays.

Christmasis celebrated on the 25th of December and symbolizes the birthday ofChrist. This day is marked by setting the fur-tree and decorating itwith different toys and candles. Children wait for Santa Claus whocomes to every house andbrings presents.Going to bed chil­dren leave their stockings and shoes to receivepresents the next morn­ing. There are a lot of parties orga­nizedby people to celebrate this wonderful holiday. Young people like tospend it together in good companies. There are a lot of fun and jokeson that day.

Meetingthe New Year Eve is held in family in England. Some people inScotland go outside and meet New Year on squares singing songs ordancing. The first man coming to you after the New Year Eve may bringyou luck, especially if he comes with a piece of bread and coal.Bread symbolizes wealth and coal — warmth. Children like thisholiday very much. They go from house to house, sing songs andcon­gratulate people. People treat them candies or give themlittle money.

Bankholidays are celebrated four times a year. This day is the day-offfor everybody because all banks and all places of business areclosed. Englishmen spend this holiday in the country.

Thereare also great fairs with a lot of goods for sale, with fun, jokesand choosing the Pearl Queen and King. The Pearl Queen and King arepeople at the Fair who have the most unusual costume with a lot ofpearl buttons on it.

Thereare many other holidays in Great Britain.