Text 2 (4)

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Jack london

Jack London was born in 1876 in San Francisco. His real name was John Griffit. His father was a farmer. The family was extremely poor and the boy had to earn his living after school. He sold newspapers, worked at a factory. Later he became a sailor; during some time he wandered with the unemployed.

For a year he attended the Oakland High school and spent a semester at the University of California, but as he had no money he had to stop his studies and went to work again.

This time it was a laundry. In 1897 he went to the Klondike as a gold miner. His first short story was published in 1898.

Some of the difficulties he met during the first years of his literary work are described in his novel "Martin Eden".

During the sixteen years of his literary career Jack London published about fifty books: short stories, novels and essays. In his best stories London described the severe life and struggle of people against nature. He died at the age of forty in 1916.

Text 2 (5) Read the text without a dictionary and retell it in English or in Ukrainian: Тhe Travels of Marco Polo

Marco Polo was born in Venice in 1254. He was the most famous European who visited Asia during the Middle Ages. He wrote a book about his travels. He described all the things he saw and heard. Many people read the book, but few believed what Marco Polo said. He spoke of strange people and places that nobody knew about at that time.

His father, Nicolo Polo, and his uncle were rich traders, and travelled a lot. They visited Cathay (the Old name for China) and became friends with Kublai Khan, the great Mongol Emperor.

Marco was fifteen when he joined them for their next voyage. It took them more than three years to travel to the capital of the Mongol Empire. The great Kublai Khan gave them a fine welcome and they stayed in his large palace. Soon the young Marco became a great trustful friend of the Emperor. Marco quickly learned the language and customs of the Chinese because he travelled around and talked to many people.

When they finally returned to Venice their family and friends were surprised to see them again. They had been away for almost 25 years and everybody thought that they must have died a long time ago.

Not long after Marco came home pirates captured him during a battle at sea. While he was a prisoner he met a writer called Rustichello who wrote down the long story that Marco told him about his travels.

When people read that book they thought Marco had made it up. Nowadays, of course, we know that everything he wrote was true.

Marco Polo did not make any more journeys after the publication of his book but he has a place in history — he was the first European ever to travel to the East.

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ETON

Eton is one of the oldest and best-known public schools for boys, at the town of Eton on the river Thames. Its students are largely from aristocratic and upper-class families. The school was founded in 1440. Boys usually stay at Eton for five years (between the ages of 13 and 18). Eton provides fine teaching facilities in science, language, computing and design. There are two major libraries: College Library and School Library, but also numerous subject libraries.

Sport plays a very important part in the life of Eton. The principal games are rugby, football, cricket and rowing. Athletics, swimming, golf, squash, tennis, fencing, judo and Karate are all very popular.

The boys are offered a very wide range of opportunities for spare time activities: art, sculpture, woodwork, metalwork and silver work. Besides almost any musical instrument can be learnt. There are also fifty societies run by the boys themselves.

Many distinguished people of Britain studied at Eton. Among them twenty of Britain's Prime Ministers. There were future writers among the students of Eton from Thomas Gray, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Henry Fielding to Aldous Huxley and George Orwell.