Prince of Wales

The story of the title goes back to the conquest of Wales by Edward I who had conquered Wales in 1284. Great leaders of the nation had been killed, but the Welsh, though they had been beaten, were rebellious. The chiefs of the conquered nation came to Edward and said that they wanted to be ruled not by an English king but by the Prince of Wales, born in Wales of royal blood and not speaking English or French. They wanted a prince whose life had been good and who hadn’t wronged any man. After a little thought Edward told them to ask all the chiefs and their followers to come to his castle in a week’s time and he promised to give them what they had asked for – a Prince of Wales who satisfied all their conditions.

The next week the square outside the castle was crowded with excited people. From the balcony of the castle Edward I addressed the crowd: “People of Wales! You wanted a Prince of Wales! Here is your Prince – born in Wales a week ago. He is a native-born prince of royal blood. He cannot speak English or French. He has wronged no man. Promise to obey him!”

Since then the title the “Prince of Wales” is conferred to the eldest son of the Royal Family of Great Britain.

Unit 2 london

Introductory text

London Overview

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life: for there is in London all that life can afford-, wrote Samuel Johnson in 1777. He would recognize many of the great sights on both sides of the Thames, which winds its way downstream from theWindsorandHampton Court, pastWestminster Abbey,St Paul’sCathedral, theTower, and on down toGreenwichand the sea.

When H. G. Wells wrote in 1911 that “London is the most interesting beautiful and wonderful city in the world to me”, horse drawn carriages and Edwardian splendour were on their way out.

The 20^thcentury was about to enforce dramatic changes on the London skyline – skyscrapers in the City, theTelecom Tower, an arts center on the South Bank and arising now,Docklands, the business center for the 21^stcentury.

Yet London, the world’s capital, has kept its heart. Johnson would still be able to drink coffee in Covent Garden, or meander through the City’s narrow streets to churches and livery companies with echoes of Medieval days. H.G. Wells might, today, listen to debates in theHouses of Parliament, attend a concert in theAlbert Hallor listen to a military band in a royal park. Today London is a sprawling, cosmopolitan metropolis, about 1600 square km, an exciting world which many visitors from abroad see first from the sky, surprised that the ribbon-like Thames is so curvaceous and a score of bridges so decorative. Down there, seven million people are at home, not in anonymous suburbs but in theCities of LondonandWestminsterand in districts which have remnants of their countrified past, inMaryleboneandKensington,HampsteadandHighgatewith their own high streets and historic monuments remembering famous men and women who built a London which each generation discovers anew. Documented history goes back to the time whenWestminsterwas still a marsh. The Romans had inhabited the land which became theCity, building a bridge across the Thames by AD 60 and creating a celebrated center of commerce filled with traders.Westminster, established as a royal palace shortly before the invasion of William the Conqueror in 1066, gradually grew in importance as it became the seat of government, beside the Thames and next door toWestminster Abbeya couple of minutes from the City.Big Ben, the voice of London, has been telling the time to the second since 1859. Construction of the 96 m clock tower began in the year Queen Victoria came to the throne, 1837, as part of the reconstruction of theHouses of Parliamentfollowing the devastating fire of 1834. Clock designer, Sir Edmund Grimthorpe, the architect and clockmaker all died before the 13 ½ ton bell was mounted behind the four clock faces, which each measure 7 m in diameter.

The Great Bellcracked, was recast and cracked again, giving us the famous, flawed, resonating boom. Why Big Ben? There are two answers – either can be chosen. It could have been named after Sir Benjamin Hall, chief commissioner of works at that time, and a Welshman of great girth. Or, perhaps, it was named by workmen who brought the bell fromWhitechapel Foundryon a cart pulled by 16 white horses. Their hero of the day was Benjamin Caunt, a 17 stone prize fighter.

I. Read the text using a dictionary and translate it into Russian. The following comments may be useful to you:

livery company - «ливрейная компания» (одна из 83 гильдий лондонского Сити. Такие гильдии возникли в средние века; их члены имеют особую форму одежды для торжественных церемоний)

countrified – имеющий деревенский вид

high streets – ровные прямые улицы

William the Conqueror – Вильгельм Завоеватель, герцог Нормандский, под предводительством которого в 1066 году норманны завоевали Англию; стал английским королем Вильгельмом I

flawed resonating boom – вызванный трещиной резонирующий гул

commissioner – специальный уполномоченный; член комиссии

girth – размер в обхвате

Whitechappel Foundry – литейный цех в Уайтчепеле (одном из беднейших районов Ист-Энда)

stone – стоун (мера веса, равная 6,35 кг)

prize fighter – профессиональный боксер

II. What impression does this text make on you? What is the main idea of it?

III. What do you know about Samuel Johnson and H. G. Wells?

IV. Explain why London is called “ a sprawling cosmopolitan metropolis”. What do the words “cosmopolitan” and “metropolis” mean?

V. Why, in your opinion, the names of Julius Caesar, William the Conqueror and Queen Victoria are mentioned first among “famous men and women who built a London which each generation discovers anew”?

VI. State the field of knowledge to which the text belongs.