IN THE WORLD OF BOOKS

LIFE WITHOUT BOOKS IS AS A TREE WITHOUT LEAVES

Check yourself A horror story A fairy tale A detective story

VOCABULARY LIST The book is written by… The title of the book is … The book describes … The main character of the book is … Other characters are … The action takes plaсе in … In the beginning of the story … The author describes … The book ends with … The book is worth reading … The language of the book is simple, colorful, primitive, expressive…

Curious Facts About Books Many, many years ago a town crier ran through the streets and shouted out all the news. But now we live in the Atomic Age. Too many things happen too quickly for us to learn them in the old fashioned way. That is why we have to read more and more in order to find out what is happening in the world. Have you ever thought about the kind of books people used long ago. It is only in the last 500 years that books have been printed on paper. Before that time the only way of making books was to write them out by hand. No one knows when writing first began, but we have found drawings on the walls of caves which are at least years old.

The invention of paper played a very important part in the development of books. In the 11 th century the art of papermaking reached Europe but no trace of printing was found in Europe until It is known that Johann Gutenberg secretly tried out ways of printing in Strasbourg, Germany, in The knowledge of the methods of printing spread so quickly over the Continent of Europe that by the year 1487 nearly every country had started printing books. The first person to print books in the English language was William Caxton, in Russia – Ivan Fedorov. The first book printed in the Russian language appeared in Moscow on the first of March, Up to that time there were only handwritten books in Russia. J. Gutenberg W. Caxton

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Robert Burns is the famous poet of Great Britain and the national poet of Scotland. He was born in 1759 on the 25th of January. He was born in Ayrshire, Scotland. He was the eldest of 7 children, growing up in a life of poverty and hard farm work. And this is the cottage, where Robert Burns was born. The family was very poor. His fathers greatest wish was to give his children the best education he could afford. He was a clever man and had a shelf with books in his poor house.

In February 1784 Roberts father died and Robert became the head of the family. The farm was a failure, the crops wouldnt grow. In 1784 at a dancing party, Robert Burns met the beauty of the village - Jean Armour, the daughter of a rich master-mason. It was love at first sight. They wanted to marry but Jeans father disapproved. Burns was a poor farmer and not good enough for his daughter. Robert decided to emigrate to Jamaica. The words of the following poem reflect his thoughts and feelings. In order to make some money for the voyage he decided to print some of his poems. When his poems were published, Burns became famous overnight and editions appeared all over the world. In 1788 Burns and Jean Armour married and went to live at Ellisland Farm.

By 1796 Burns had become dangerously ill and on the 21 of July he died, aged 37 years old. Scotland had lost one of its best loved poets and a national hero. Burns dreamt of immortality and wanted to be the best poet of Scotland. His dream came true and today his work is loved by millions all over the world.

William Shakespeare is the greatest and most famous of English writers and probably the greatest playwright who has ever lived. William Shakespeare was born on the 23d of April, 1564 in Stratford- on-Avon. It is a house where he was born. His father John Shakespeare, was a glover. He was a respected figure in Stratford. At the age of six William was sent to school. His father fell into debts and William had to leave school at the age of 13. At the age of 18 he married Anne Hathaway. When he was 21, he went to London. He made friends with many actors. Soon he began to write plays. Sometimes he worked as an actor.

But the actors didnt have their own theatre, that is why they built a theatre and called it Globe. There was a sign on its main door: All the world is a stage. Shakespeares Globe was rather different from modern theatres. The plays were performed in the open air. There was no scenery, very few props and the only lighting was the daylight that came from the open roof above. Women in those days werent allowed to act in public and all the parts (even Juliet) were played by men. Much of the audience stood to watch the performance. In 1613 the Globe burnt down. In 1949 an American actor Sam Wanamaker decided to rebuilt the Globe. It took many years to raise money, get permission and find out exactly what the place looked out like in the old days. On June , Her Majesty the Queen opened the International Shakespeare Globe Center. Unfortunately, Sam Wanamaker died in 1993 and wasnt in the audience to see his dream finally come true. This new theatre is as close to the original as it is possible to be.

Macbeth Hamlet Othello

In 1612 Shakespeare left London. He died on April , and he was buried in Stratford. A monument was erected to the memory of the great playwright in the Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey. And this is the Shakespeare Memorial in Stratford-upon-Avon.