A (Very) Brief History of the English Language

Reading in My Life

Through out the centuries books had an enormous influence on the minds and hearts of people. Books bind together ages, personalities. Thanks to books we can talk to people who lived in different countries and ages. Through reading books we hear their voices, thoughts and feelings. The book is the surest way to bring nations together. It helps people achieve understanding, trust, cooperation and friendship. Books awaken young readers' imagination. They develop literary taste, arouse interest and curiosity, the reader's laugher as well as his tears. They teach the readers to be truthful, friendly, honest decisive, conscientious, frank, firm, fair and serious.

Libraries play an important part in the cultural development of people. People like reading, they have a desire to learn, they seek for knowledge. Books sate this desire. There are a lot of books in our country, in our flats. But it is difficult to buy all the books which we want to read. That is why we get books in public libraries. Books shouldn't be read only for pleasure. Reading books helps us in our education. We can fond all kinds of books in the libraries. Books offer romance, history, adventure, autobiographies, science fiction and humor in the form of shot stories and novels, poetry, prose and plays as well as reference books, encyclopaedias, dictionaries and so on. In some libraries we can find books in many foreign languages. When a reader comes to a library for the first time he fills in his library card and the librarian helps him to choose something to read. The reader is allowed to borrow books for a certain number of days. The catalogues help the reader to find the books. We should not make notes in library books or dog's ears in the pages. The reading rooms in the public libraries are open to all who wish to work there. Except books we can get periodical newspapers and magazines to read there. Readers come to reading rooms to study and prepare materials for their reports or for their scientific work.

Every school in our country has a library. A school library is a collection of textbooks and books for reading. Our pupils and teachers go there to read, to find some magazines or newspapers or to prepare for a report. Sometimes teachers prepare for lessons at our school library.

Robert Burns

Robert Burns is the national poet of Scotland. In his poems Burns sang the beauty and the glory of his native land.

Burns was born in Alloway, near Ayr, on 25 of January 1759. His father, a small farmer, was a hard-working man. When Robert was 6, he was sent to a school at Alloway Miln. Robert and his brother Gilbert were given a good knowledge of English. They progressed rapidly in reading and writing.

For some years Burns worked on the family field, plugging and reaping. The combination of hard physical labour and poor food in his youth that brought about the first symptoms of the heart disease which troubled him for much of his life and from which he died.

Burns wrote his first poem at the age of 14 for a girl who worked with him in the fields. After father's death he immigrated to Jamaica. His most creative years were probably 1785 and 1786. During this period Burns wrote his most brilliant poems. Burns published his poems in August 1786. The success was great.

Soon, in April 1787, a second edition of his poems appeared in Edinburgh; 3000 copies were printed - a very large number for those times!

Now Burns had the opportunity to see more of his native land which he so dearly loved. He visited some historic places, which made a great impression on him.

During the last 5 years of his life Burns wrote some of his best poems and songs. After a short illness he died on 21 July 1796.

Robin Hood

This school-year at our English outside reading lessons we had read many interesting stories about Robin Hood. The most interesting story is a story about Golden Arrow. In the 11th century England was conquered by the Normans who had come from the North of France. They began to take away lands and homes from the Saxons, the native population of the British Islands. The Saxons suffered very much from the Normans and hated their new masters. Many of them had to run away into the forests and to become outlaws. There are many legends and songs about one of these outlaws – Robin Hood. Robin Hood with his 300 men, so the legends say, lived in the Sherwood Forest, not far from the town of Nottingham. He often attacked the rich Normans, but he was a friend of the poor and helped them as much, as he could. The Sheriff of Nottingham wanted to catch Robin Hood. He journeyed to London to ask Prince John for help. Prince John said him that it was his task and he had to deal with it quickly. The Sheriff did not argue and went back to Nottingham, angrier than ever. He was worried by what Prince John had said. As he was not a brave man, his thoughts soon turned to trickery. He decided to have a shooting match and hoped that Robin Hood and his men would appear there to try their luck. He decided to make a beautiful gold arrow as the prize for the best archer. He was right: when the news of the golden arrow travelled to Sherwood, Robin decided to enter the competition. But his friend David said him that it was only a trick of the Sheriff. Then Little John, Robin’s great friend said that he had a plan. He suggested to dress in different colours, because Sheriff expected to see them in green. Thus, dressed in many colours Robin Hood and his men went to Nottingham. The sheriff was actually looking for people in green. He thought Robin Hood was a coward and did not come. The archery started and Robin Hood was better than all the rest, and won the golden arrow. Some days later the Sheriff was seated at his dinner table and boasting that Robin was afraid to show his face in Nottingham. Suddenly through the window flew in an arrow. It hit the big fat goose. It had a message. The Sheriff read the message and understood that once again Robin Hood had outwitted him.

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