Read the text and render its content in Russian (average reading).
Keeping the Family Tree Alive
What keeps venerable old families together? They are, after all, only as strong as the roots that bind them. Most of us know our relatives back to our grandparents. Counting our own children, we might have to contend with four generations. But there are families who can trace their history back centuries. Sylvia Brown, for instance, is the 11th generation of the family whose name adorns Brown University. And Alessia Antinori is the 26th generation of the Italian winemaking family whose company bears her surname. For families like these, their strength often lies in their hereditary wealth, in its varied forms of businesses, partnerships and foundations. But the strategies they use to stay together can be adopted by any family, whether or not money is at stake.
One thing prosperous families have in common is a sense of ownership of their wealth, through either a business or a foundation. “Owning something seems to be the most important factor because you have a responsibility to it,” said John A. Davis, chairman of the Cambridge Family Enterprise Group and a former Harvard Business School professor. “Your responsibility to it influences what you get from it, both financially and in terms of pride.” A family business is often both the repository and generator of a family’s prosperity, which can make decisions about the business more difficult. “I often ask my wealthy families: ‘What would this decision be like if there wasn’t any shared wealth? Would this be different if you were poor?’ said Jeff Savlov, founder of Blum & Savlov, a family wealth consultancy. “A lot of what makes these families successful is family first.” And that is where these families - even those linked by finances - need stories, context and shared memories to continue to prosper. “What keeps these families motivated besides wealth is a sense of mission for the family,” Mr. Davis said. “What is this family trying to do? The second part is, ‘How can I contribute to the mission?’…
https://www.nytimes.com
Вариант 6.
Read the text out loud.
Read and translate the text into Russian (study reading).
The birth of Santa
Some people question the very existence of Santa Claus. Quite frankly, this is foolish. Not only do we know he exists but we also know when he was born. He was born in 1931 when a Swedish commercial artist and illustrator working for Coca Cola - Haddon Sundblom - painted his first jolly Santa. The image was to be used as part of an advertising campaign aimed to boost sales in the winter months when consumption of the famous fizzy drink was at its lowest. At that time there was no firmly established image of Santa Claus. Some depicted him in furs, others in fairly normal contemporary clothes, while a popular poem of the nineteenth century described him as a little merry elf (a kind of magical dwarf) with twinkling eyes and clothes covered in ashes and soot.
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The names Santa Claus or Father Christmas also serve to distance the figure of the rotund man and his reindeer from his earlier identity: that of Saint Nicholas. Few British speakers hear any connection whatsoever between the name Santa Claus and that of Saint Nicholas, and yet these were once simply alternative names for the same historical figure. The man who perhaps has the greatest claim to being the real Santa Claus was a fourth century bishop who lived in what is now Turkey. Originally, after becoming a saint, he had no particular connection with children or Christmas, rather he was seen as a protective figure for many groups including bakers, merchants and sailors. The connection with children derives from a story of him finding three murdered boys and raising them from the dead.
http://fullspate.digitalcounterrevolution.co.uk
Read the text and render its content in Russian (average reading).
Languages
Language is what people use to communicate with each other. They can do this by speaking, writing, waving their hands or moving with their body to show others what they mean. Speaking goes back to the first humans; writing emerged about 5,000 years ago. People learn to speak in a natural way, but they must be taught to write. Spoken language comes from sounds that form words and sentences that have a certain meaning. We use language to express our ideas and feelings. Words can describe things, objects or actions. Some words are used to connect parts of a sentence. Languages have rules, called grammar. Sometimes grammar is easier, at other times people find it hard to learn all the rules of a language.
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Thousands of languages have developed around the world during history. They all use different sounds and different words. Almost all languages are influenced by other languages and borrow words from them. Kindergarten, for example, is a word borrowed from German. Written languages use an alphabet to form words and sentences. The Latin alphabet is the most popular, used by many important languages. Other languages, for example Chinese and Arabic use other writing systems.
There are about 7000 languages spoken in our world today. Only very few are so called world languages, widely spoken by millions of people, the rest are local languages that are only spoken in certain areas. The most common languages are Mandarin Chinese, English and Spanish. Almost all countries have an official language that is used when you go to authorities or which is taught in school. Sometimes a country may have second languages that have developed through the ages. In India, Hindi is the official language, but most Indians can speak English quite well because of its history as a British colony. In Canada, English and French are recognised as official languages. In Switzerland, people speak German, French and Italian.
http://www.english-online.at
Вариант 7.
Read the text out loud.
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