A (Very) Brief History of the English Language
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- Agatha Christie
- Anton Chekhov
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American SchoolsThe American system of school education differs from the system in some countries. There are state-supported public schools, private elementary schools, and private secondary schools. Public schools are free and private schools are fee-paying. Each individual state has its own system of public schools. Elementary education begins at the age of six with the first grade and continues up to the eighth grade. The elementary school is followed by four years of the secondary schools, or high schools as they are called. In some states the last two years of the elementary and the first years of the secondary school are combined into a junior high school. Besides giving general education, some high schools teach subjects useful to those who hope to find jobs in industry and agriculture. Some give preparatory education to those planning to enter colleges and universities. Agatha ChristieAgatha Christie was sure the world's best-selling crime writer. Moreover, she was an immensely prolific writer. 79 shot stories, 4 non-fiction ones and 19 plays were written by that strange woman. They were translated into 136 languages. Over 3 billion books by Agatha Christie were sold worldwide. She is popular for ingenuity of plots, which are classical murder mysteries: marooned places and a well-mannered murderer. Her way to present the stories was quite different from that of her colleagues. In the first place, her stories appealed to the readers inside, so you can't find much blood and violence in her stories. Agatha Christie created two major characters for her stories. Hercule Poirot, a Belgian, used to work in the Police, but by the time of the action he already retired. He can be described as a funny little man taken by many readers as a comic personage. He had a luxurious moustache and he was really proud of it. Miss Marple was the complete opposite of Poirot. She wasn't a professional and had never been one. She was just an old spinster, very modest but perceptive and not a flamboyant personality, who acted as a detective just by virtue of taking thought. Agatha Christie's favourite way of murdering was poisoning. She accurately described the process because she had learned a lot about poisons and other chemicals during World War II, while working in a hospital. The reader has to solve the mystery and decide who the murderer is together with the author. Most of the crimes were committed in some closed surroundings with a limited number of people to suspect. Finally the identity of the murderer is revealed and the reader is hooked and starts looking for another book by Agatha Christie. Agatha Christie lived between 1890 and 1976. She started writing stories at a very early age, at first to entertain herself. However, she managed to become famous. Not many people know that she used to write under a pen-name of Mary Westmacott. Later, already as a world-known writer, she tried to avoid publicity and stayed out of the public eye. Anton ChekhovMy favourite writer is Anton Pavlovich Chekhov. In my opinion, he is the greatest Russian dramatist and short story writer. I'm never tired of reading and rereading his plays and humorous stories. Chekhov was born in 1860 in Taganrog. In 1879 he went to Moscow, where he studied medicine. Though he practised little as a doctor in his lifetime, he was prouder of his medical knowledge than of his writing talent. While in college, Chekhov wrote humorous sketches for comic papers to support his family. He collected the best ones into a volume Motley Stories, in 1886. The book attracted the attention of the publisher of the Novoje Vremja, Russia's largest paper, and Chekhov was asked to contribute stories regularly. Chekhov, as an established writer, was able to develop a style of his own. Though he never gave up writing comic stories, he began working in a more serious vein. In 1887 Ivanov, his first play, established Chekhov as a dramatist. From then on, he concentrated on writing plays, as well as short stories. Chekhov was seriously ill. He had tuberculosis and knew what it meant. By 1892 his health was so bad that he was afraid to spend another winter in Moscow. He bought a small estate near the village of Melikhovo, 50 miles from Moscow. He spent 5 years there, and those were happy years in spite of the illness. He wrote some of his best stories there, including Ward No.6, several well-known one-act comedies and two of his serious dramatic masterpieces, The Seagull and Uncle Vапуа. The Seagull was first staged in the Alexandrinsky Theatre in Petersburg. It was a complete failure because of the dull and clumsy production. It was a cruel blow to Chekhov. However, the play was successfully performed as the first production of the Moscow Art Theatre in 1898. From then on, Chekhov was closely connected with this theatre and with its founder, K.S. Stanislavsky. In 1901 he married an Art Theatre actress, Olga Knipper, who acted in his play The Three Sisters the same year. Chekhov's health went from bad to worse and he had to spend the remaining years in the Crimea and other health spas. The Cherry Orchard, his last play, was produced in 1904. Soon after the first night Chekhov died. He was 44. several generations of writers, both in Russia and abroad, studied and imitated Chekhov to perfect their own literary style. Chekhov had an immense influence on the 20th century drama. Art galleries of LondonSpeaking about art galleries of London we should first of all mention the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery and the Tate Gallery. I would like to tell you about the National Portrait Gallery and about the Tate Gallery. The National Gallery houses one of the richest and most extensive collections of painting in the world. It stands to the north of Trafalgar Square. The gallery was designed by William Wilkins and built in 834-37. The collection covers all schools and periods of painting, but is especially famous for its examples of Rembrant and Rubens. The British schools are only moderately represented as national collections are shared with the Tate Gallery. The National Gallery was founded in 1824 when the government bought the collection of John Angerstein which included 38 paintings. The Tate Gallery houses the national collection of British painting from the 16th century to the present day. It is also the national gallery for modern art, including paintings and sculpture made in Britain, Europe, America and other countries. It was opened in 1897 as the National Gallery of British art. It owes its establishment to Suie Henritate who built the gallery and gave his own collection of 65 paintings.
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