Give character sketches of the book you have read and discussed in class
The Young King
Main characters:
The young King:
- He was brought up by the forester and his wife but he learns when he is 16 that he is in reality the son of the princess and a painter. When the old King was dying he ordered: « The crown must not pass away from my family. Bring my daughter’s child from the forest. He will be king after me ».
- He loves beautiful things « When the boy was brought to the palace, he showed a strange love for beautiful things » and it reminds me of Oscar Wilde who was taken for a very neat person, wearing beautiful and unusual clothes.
- The end of the story shows us that he is not indifferent to poverty and misfortune of others and so we can say that he comes across as a sensitive person « Take these things away. I will not wear them. This cloth was made by the white hands of pain. There is blood in the jewels and death in the heart of the pearl ».
Characters of his dreams: cloth-makers, slaves bringing pearls on the boat, men working in the river to find jewels. They symbolize every oppressed and poor persons of the society. This working class is necessary to assure comfort of the highest classes but nevertheless they have nothing and are treated like slaves: «He hit they until the blood came. “Work faster!” he ordered .
Government officers: they represent those in power. They are insensitive “ We cannot worry about the people who work for us”
The Priest: He is the intermediate person between God and the King: he explains him that “The weight of this world’s suffering is too heavy for one man”. By this sentence he suggests him to let God manages the world and that seems to happen effectively when he becomes dressed as a King suddenly and by “the light of god”.
The Birthday of the Infanta :
The Infanta:
She’s 12.
She looks like her mother who died soon after her birth. She feds up with the disinterest of his father in herself: « “Why has he gone away,”shesaid,”when I want him to stay with me on my birthday? »
She seems to be a spoiled child used to receive as much gifts as she wants: «”My funny little dwarf is not listening to me,” she cried. You must dance,”he said. “The Infanta of Spain wants to see you dance”»
She comes across as an irascible and insensitive person. By the way, she doesn’t look to be moved at all in front of the dwarf’s dead body: “The Infanta was angry. “In future,”shecried,”I will only play with people who have no hearts”. And she ran out into the garden.”
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The King: he’s widowed but is still in love with his queen, died twelve years ago. He is so sad that he doesn’t seem to take care of his daughter a lot and so we can suppose that the Infanta has been bred by her uncle.
The dwarf: he’s very ugly but isn’t conscientious of this. He is naïve because when he falls in love with the Infanta he imagines himself already living with her in the palace: “The Infanta has given me a white rose and she loves me.” He dies when he realizes how ugly he is. We can say that he looks like….
Firstly, I want to say that thesestories were very interesting for me because it allowed me to discover Oscar Wilde who was a totally unknown author for me before.
That I like in these too stories and especially in “the young king”, is that we understand that society isn’t a simple separation between the poor and the rich. To my mind the passage in which a poor man explains to the young King that “the life of the poor comes from the fine things that rich people use” brings us to deal with social’s topics. But even if it could be interesting to tackle themes like slavery or abuse of power I thing that the youngest can’t be really able to understand it without adult’s explanations.
Then I was rather surprising by the end of these stories. By the way, concerning the first tale I was quiet surprised by the end because I didn’t know if it was a good or a sad end. As a matter of fact we can’t be sure that the society will be fairer after the divine’s crowning of the Young King. Even if I like the poetry of this last transformation I was less delighted by the reference to god “Someone has crowned you who is greater than me”.
The Birthday of the Infanta proposes too an unusual end (compare to others tales intended for children) and I was personally rather shocked by the insensibility of this young girl. We can notice here that contrary to the Infanta the Young King is sensitive but this difference is maybe because they didn’t grow up in the same social environment.
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We may finally formulate a moral for these two tales which could be: “things which have a great monetary value aren’t necessarily the nicest”.
12. Talk about the actual realization of the project of an English student theatre touring Eastern Europe and Russia: the problems and the rewards. (Section V, «Drama in Cambridge»).
We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline and effort.
Although Cambridge University has no course in drama, it is probably the most active center of student theatre in Britain, and has consistently turned out a large number of well-known alumni.
Cambridge Theatre Overseas is only one of a large number of theatre groups within the University. It functions exactly like many other groups: it is run entirely by students, who can combine their commitments to the society and its projects with their academic syllabus.
Cambridge Theatre Overseas is dedicated to touring overseas, formed in 1995. The concept of touring to Eastern Europe and Russia originated two years ago and since then the students had been working on turning their plan into reality. Initially the project seemed impossible. But British Embassies and British Council offices in each city gave them a hand and facilitated finding venues and raising money. It is a testament to the hundred plus people involved in the project that, against all odds, the tour was happening with tremendous success. As a result the group visited Poland, Belarus, the Baltic States and Ukraine, performing in a vast variety of venues, ranging from 900-seats theaters to a ruined Cathedral.
To line it up the members of Cambridge Theatre Overseas underline that the process was difficult but rewarding. They were prey to many fears over the reception of Shakespeare’s plays of non-English native speaker audience. But against all odds, they looked further within the text and within themselves, tried to grasp the essence of the play and brought it out in a way that does not require a British sensibility to comprehend, but which appeals to all.
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13. Talk about the history and the present day of a big American city (Listening Comprehension. Text: “San Francisco”).
On this look out, we enjoy one of the most of the spectaculars views of San Francisco. As you can see, the city rests on a series of hills, bearing in altitude from sea level to 938 feet.
The 1st permanent settlement was made at this side in 1776. When the Spanish military post was established on the end of the peninsula. During the same year San Franciscan fathers founded the mission San Francisco deAsis on the hill above the post. A trail was cleared from the military post to the mission and about half way between the two, a station was established for travelers called Yerba Buena, which means “the place where good herbs grow”. For thirteenyears the village had fewer than 100 inhabitants. But, in 1848 with the discovery of gold, the population grew to 10.000. The same year the name was changed from Yerba Buena to San Francisco.
By 1862 telegraph communications linked San Francisco with Eastern cities. And by 1869 the 1sttranscontinental railroad connected the Pacific coast with the Atlantic seaboard(побережье). Today San Francisco has a population of almost 3 ml. It is a financial center of the West and serves as a (tramenous) transit pointfor transpacific steamship lines and air traffic. The port of San Franciscowhich is almost 18 miles long with 42 piers(пирс) handles between 5.6 mltones of cargo annually.
And now, if you will look to your right you should just be able to see the East section of the Golden Gate bridge. The bridge, which is more than 1 mile long sends the harbor from San Francisco to Marine Coutney and the Redwood highway. It was completed in 1937 and cost of 32 ml dollars and it is still one of the largest suspension bridges(подвесноймост) in the world.
How long is the Golden Gate Bridge?
According to the tour guide what happened in the 1848?
What was the settlement called before it was renamed in SF?
What is the population of SF today?
How much did it cost to complete the construction of the Golden Gate bridge?
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14. Pubs are known as a typically English institution. Supply evidence for this statement. (Listening Comprehension. Text: “Down the Pub”)
15. Describe a journey that went wrong for some reason (Listening Comprehension. Text: “Journey to Namur”).
I had to go to Namur in Belgium on business. I was supposed to be there on Saturday at 4:30. So instead of taking the plane on Friday evening and wasting a lot of Friday afternoon getting there, I thought I leave very early on Saturday morning and arrive in Brussels at 10:30, which would give me plenty of time to get to Namur at 4:30.
So very early in morning on Saturday the taxi arrived on time and I took the taxi to the local station. I was in plenty of time for the train. Infact I was early for the rain. And when I got to the station, a slow train to Reading where I catch the couch was waiting on the platform. I thought about taking the slow train although I left before the fast train it arrived in Redding after the fast train. So I thought I would go ahead and wait for the fast train, which I did… for a very long time. Past the time it was supposed to arrive. About 10 minutes after the train was supposed to be in the station and announcement came over there were floods in wooden basset that delayed the train, and we waited and we waited the train finally got there. But because the train was late I had missed my coach I Redding, and I had to wait for another 20 minutes or so before the next coach. Which still had get me to the airport just barely I time.
Unfortunately there were roadworks on motorway between Reading and Heathrow and the coach was delayed quite a bit. I hadn’t really worried up to now, but I started getting worried now that I gonna miss my plane. When I stepped out of the coach at Heathrow it was 19 minutes to take off time. So I stepped out of the coach, fortunately I had just hand baggage. I grabbed my bags and ran to the departure area I put my bags through and the X-ray machine, and then found a short passport line and had my passport checked and ran to the departure gate. When I was almost at the departure gate I realized that I left me hand bag back at the X-ray machine. So I turned around and ran toward the X-ray machine, being screamed at on the way back by the security guard because you are now supposed to go back the same way as come in. I did get my hand bag. I ran back through the passport control, fortunately the man at passport control recognized me and got to the gate only to find out that the plain was late. So we waited and we waited and the plane finally took off. And we were almost an hour late getting to Brussels. But I figured out that this would still probably be OK. We did have to wait a while to land in Brussels because we weren’t scheduled to arrive so we had to circle the airport for a few minutes. But we did land in Brussels.
And I hurried out and found the longest line for the passport control I have ever seen in my life. They just snaked over the arrival area. It turned out that that week-end the Pope was in Brussels or in Belgium. The passport officers were very careful to try to keep terrorists out of Brussels. So the passport control took ages and ages. I was really getting worried by this time. When I got out of the passport control in to the main airport, our local representative was waiting for me and told we were OK, we could make the train. So we jumped into a taxi and rushed off to the train station.
Our local representative was wonderful. She had realized things would be like they were and we wouldn’t have time for lunch. She had lunch bought for me. She had everything all arranged. We got to the train station and the train fortunately it was on time. It was a real sight of relief down at the train. And I applied myself to the yogurt and apple that she had brought along with the snack. So we were o our way to Namur and I thought everything was OK. Half way to Namur, and announcement came over in the speaker system on the train that there was a bombs scare. And the train stopped and we all had to get off the train and wait at the station indefinitely. So we got off the train and waited about 30 minutes, before they found another train to get us to Namur.
We finally got to Namur about 10 or 15 minutes before I was supposed to begin speaking to those people. I must say it was a really heroin experience.
16. Talk about a short trip to Edinburgh and what you can see there (Listening Comprehension. Text: “A Visit to Scotland”).
Traveling is necessary for all of us as it is a kind of relaxation and a good opportunity to relax your body, broadens our mind as well. Many people like visiting beautiful places and look forward to going on a holiday just to escape from their daily routine, even if their trip will be very short.
There are many fascinating cities all over the world. And Edinburgh is one of them. A coach tour of this city will take your breath away. On this tour you can see the castles, Edinburgh castle which is very beautiful and impressive indeed. And then from there you can go past the cathedral, St. Giles Cathedral and on down to Holyrood Palace. These places are really worth exploring. You can plunge into the atmosphere of history and mystery. After that you have an opportunity to visit the so-called “New Town”, that was built in the 18th century, and River Forth that’s about 10 miles from Edinburgh. One is a “Road bridge” and the other is a “Rail bridge” for trains.
The hub of the city is also worth visiting. Here you can catch a glimpse of marvelous buildings or just meander along narrow cobbled-stone street, searching for history or finding a treasury of new beauties.
There are also a wide diversity of shops in Edinburgh, where you can buy lot’s of woolens, sweaters, tartans, if you want to buy some Scottish.
So to sum it all up, I would like to say that it you have a burning desire to meet face to face with history and to get inspiration from traveling, Edinburgh is just for you. Thiscitymerits a visit.
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