Любимые герои. Книга для чтения на английском языке

Jane Eyre

“You are right, madam.”

“I will send her, then, as soon as possible, Mr. Brocklehurst, because I am tired of her.”

“Of course, of course, madam; and now I wish you good morning. I shall go home in a week or two; but I shall send Miss Temple a letter that she will have a new girl. Good-bye.”

“Good-bye, Mr. Brocklehurst.”

Mr. Brocklehurst went away, and Mrs. Reed told me to go away.

II

It was five o’clock in the morning on the nineteenth of January, when Bessie brought a candle into my room and found me almost dressed. I had already got up and washed my face. I was to leave1 Mrs. Reed’s house that day by a coach which passed the gates at six o’clock. I had breakfast, and at six o’clock Bessie and I were standing at the gates of the house. The coach came up. The guard put me into the inside.

“Take good care of her!” cried Bessie.

“All right!” exclaimed a voice, and we started. I don’t remember the journey. I only know that it was very long. We travelled all day and evening. At last I fell asleep, but soon I woke up. The coach had stopped. The door was open, and a

woman was standing at it.

1 I was to leave — Я должна была покинуть

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“Is there a little girl called Jane Eyre here?” she asked. I answered, “Yes.” She took me out, and the coach went away.

I saw a house with many windows. There was light in some of them. We went into the house, then I was led into a room and left there.

Soon the door opened and two women entered.

Thefirstwasatalllady,withdarkhair,darkeyes, and a large forehead. She looked at me attentively for a minute or two, then said:

“We must put her to bed soon, she looks tired: are you tired?” she asked and put her hand on my shoulder.

“A little, ma’am.”

“And hungry, too. Give her supper before she goes to bed, Miss Miller1. Is this the first time you have left your parents to come to school, my little girl?”

I explained to her that I had no parents. She asked me how old I was and what was my name, and if I could read and write. She said that she hoped I should be a good child and told me to go with Miss Miller.

Miss Miller brought me into a wide, large room, with four great tables. Two candles burnt on each table. Many girls were sitting on benches round these tables. They were of every age: from nine or ten to twenty. They were learning their task for tomorrow. Miss Miller cried out:

“Monitors, collect the lesson books!”

1 Miller ['mIlA] — Миллер

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Jane Eyre

Four tall girls stood up and gathered all the books. Then Miss Miller gave another command:

“Monitors, bring the supper!”

The tall girls went and brought trays. On each tray there were pieces of thin oat-cake and a mug of water. When my turn came, I drank some water, but I did not touch the food: I was so tired that I did not feel hungry.

After supper Miss Miller read prayers, and the classes went upstairs, to the bedroom. The bedroom was very long like the schoolroom. The girls quickly undressed and lay down, two girls in each bed. This night I slept in Miss Miller’s bed.

QUESTIONS AND TASKS

1.Why did Bessie tell Jane to hurry and go to the breakfastroom?

2.Find sentences in the text to show that Mr. Brocklehurst and Mrs. Reed were very unpleasant people.

3.Describe Jane’s journey to Lowood school.

4.Was the lady who received Jane at Lowood a kind woman? How do you know that?

5.Describe Jane’s first evening at Lowood school.

Part III

I

When I opened my eyes in the morning, a loud bell was ringing; the girls were dressing. It was still dark outside. I got up. It was very cold. In the middle of the room there were basins with water,

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in which the girls washed. I had to wait because there was one basin to six girls. At last I washed and dressed. Again the bell rang; all the girls went downstairs and entered the cold and dark schoolroom. Miss Miller read prayers, then she ordered: “Form classes!1 “

There were four tables in the schoolroom with a chair before each. The girls stood in semi-circles in front of these tables. Each girl had a book in her hands. A great Bible lay on each table.

The bell rang again. Three ladies entered the room. Each walked to a table and sat down on the chair before it. Miss Miller sat down at the fourth table, round which were the smallest children. I was told to join this class.

Business now began. For an hour we read texts from the Bible. Then the bell rang for the fourth time; and the classes marched into another room to breakfast. How glad I was! I had eaten very little the day before, and was very hungry.

The dining-room was very large, with a low ceiling. On two long tables there were plates of something hot which smelled very bad. “The porridge isburntagain!”thetallgirlsofthefirstclasswhis- pered. I ate a spoonful or two of my portion, but could not eat any more. I looked at the other girls. Most of them also could not eat. Breakfast was over, and nobody had breakfasted. Then everybody went into the schoolroom again.

1 Form classes! — Постройтесь по классам!

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Jane Eyre

A clock in the schoolroom struck nine. Miss Miller went to the middle of the room and cried:

“Silence! To your seats!” In five minutes the eighty girls were seated on benches down the sides of the room. The other teachers returned and took their seats.

Suddenly everybody stood up. I was surprised. The next moment they were seated again and looking in one direction. I looked in that direction too and saw the tall lady with dark eyes who had received me the day before. I learned later that this was Miss Temple, the superintendent of Lowood.

Miss Miller said: “Monitor of the first class, bring the globes!” The globes were brought and put on one of the tables. Miss Temple took her seat at that table, called the first class and began giving1 them a lesson in geography. The other classes were called by the teachers. Lessons in history, grammar, writing and arithmetic were given one after another. Each lesson lasted an hour.

At last the clock struck twelve. Now the order was given “To the garden!” We put on our hats and coats and went out into the open air.

II

The garden was surrounded by a high wall. On one side there was a verandah. The day was cold,

1 began giving — начала давать

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Charlotte Brontё

wet and dark. The stronger girls ran about and played active games. The others, pale and thin, gathered in the verandah.

I was standing in the verandah and trying to forget that I was cold and hungry. I looked round the garden, and then at the house. It was a large building. One half of it looked grey and old, the other half was quite new. Over the door of the new part I saw these words:

“Lowood Institution1. This part was rebuilt by

N. Brocklehurst.”

Then I saw a girl who was sitting on a stone bench; she was reading a book. I went up to her, When she was turning a page. I said to her:

“Is your book interesting?”

She looked at me a second or two, then answered:

“I like it.”

“What is it about?” I continued.

“You may look at it,” replied the girl and gave me the book.

I took the book and looked at it. It did not seem very interesting, and I returned it to her. She was going to continue her reading when I said:

“Can you tell me what these words over the door mean? What is Lowood Institution?”

“This house where you have come to live.” “And why do they call it institution? Is it dif-

ferent from other schools?”

1 Lowood Institution ['lAuwud,InstI'tju:Sn] — Лоувудское учебное заведение

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Jane Eyre

“It is a charity-school1: you and I, and all the other girls are charity-children2. I suppose you are an orphan. Are not your father or your mother dead?”

“They are both dead.”

“Well, all the girls here have lost their father, or mother, or both parents, and this school is called an institution for educating3 orphans.”

“Are you an orphan?” “My mother is dead.” “Are you happy here?”

“You ask too many questions. I have given you enough answers; now I want to read.”

But at that moment the bell rang for dinner, and all went into the house. The smell in the din- ing-room was almost as bad as at breakfast-time. We were given something in which there were potatoes and strange pieces of meat. I ate what I could. I wondered whether every day’s food would be like this.4

After dinner we went to the schoolroom and had lessonsagain,tillfiveo’clock.Soonafterfiveo’clock we had another meal. It consisted of a small mug of coffee and a little piece of brown bread. I ate my

1charity-school ['tSBrItIsku:l]—приют(школа-интернат для сирот и бедных детей, содержится на пожертвова- ния частных лиц)

2charity-children — приютские дети

3an institution for educating — учебное заведение для обучения

4I wondered whether every day’s food would be like this. — Я подумала, всегда ли еда будет такая же.

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Robert Louis Stevenson

Of all the books written1 by the famous English adven- ture-story writer Robert Louis Stevenson2 (1850–1894), his own favorite work was Treasure Island3. It is interesting how the book came to be. This is what Stevenson himself wrote about it.

“I lived then with my father and mother in Scotland among the mountains. There was a schoolboy there who was fond of drawing and soon turned one of the rooms in his house into a picture-gallery. Sometimes I joined him and made coloured drawings too. Once I made a coloured map of an island, which I liked very much. I called my picture “Treasure Island”. As I was looking at my map, I had an idea. I wanted to write a story. I decided that it must be a story for boys and that it must contain a ship, treasure, an old sea-chest and pirates.”

When the book was finished, the writer became famous at once. Now, more than hundred years after it was written, the book is still read, and not only by boys, all over the world.

TREASURE ISLAND

Part I

I

Squire Trelawney4, Doctor Livesey5 and the other gentlemen have asked me to write down

1written — написанных

2Robert Louis Stevenson ['rDbAt'lu:Is'sti:vnsn] — Роберт Льюис Стивенсон

3Treasure Island ['treZA'aIlAnd] — «Остров сокровищ»

4Squire Trelawney ['skwaIA trI'lD:nI] — Сквайр Трелони

(сквайр — английский дворянский титул)

5Livesey ['lIvsI] — Ливси

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Robert Louis Stevenson

everything about Treasure Island from the beginning to the end. So I take up my pen and go back to the time when my father kept an inn which was called the “Admiral Benbow”1.

One day an old sailor came to the inn-door. He was tall, strong and heavy and had a dirty blue coat on. He asked for a glass of rum and told my father that he would stay at the inn. “I’ll stay here,” he said. “I’m a plain man; rum and bacon and eggs is what I want. You may call me captain.”

He brought in his chest and threw three or four gold coins on the floor.

Our guest stayed at the inn a few months. He was a silent man. We did not know anything about him. He did not write or receive any letters. We never saw his great sea-chest open. All day he walked about beside the sea near the inn. In the evening he sat near the fire and drank rum. If somebody spoke to him, he did not answer, but lookedupsuddenlyandfiercely.Therewerenights when he drank too much rum; then he began to sing an old, wild sea song:

Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest — Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!

Drink and the devil had done for the rest2 — Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!

1

боу»

2 Drink and the devil had done for the rest — Вино и дьявол позаботились об остальных

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