Joseph Rudyard Kipling

 

Joseph Rudyard Kipling is considered to be one of the greatest English writers. He was born in 1865, in Bombay, India. At the time of his birth, his parents were recent arrivals in India. They had come to India with plans to start a new life. The family lived quite well. His father, an artist, was the head of the Department of Architectural Sculpture at the School of Art. For young Kipling, India was a wonderful and happy place.

However, at the age of 6, Kipling's life changed greatly. He was sent to England to receive a formal British education. These were hard years for Kipling. The boy suffered from strict school discipline, his classmates’ insults and bullying. His only comfort was books: he enjoyed reading. By the age of 11, Kipling was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Fortunately, Kipling’s mother placed him in a new school. There, Kipling found friends and discovered his talent for writing, eventually becoming the editor of the school newspaper.

In 1882, Kipling was told by his parents that they didn't have enough money to send him to college, and he returned to India. It was a powerful moment in the young writer's life. He found a job with a local newspaper. Kipling's experience as a reporter formed the backbone for lots of his stories. Later, his collection of 40 short stories called Plain Tales from the Hills gained wide popularity in England.

Seven years later, Kipling returned to England in the hope of becoming a famous writer. In London, he met Wolcott Balestier, an American publisher who became one of Kipling's great friends and supporters. Later, Kipling happily married Wolcott’s sister, Carrie.

As a writer, Kipling flourished. His portfolio contained gems like The Jungle Book, The Naulahka: A Story of the West and East and The Second Jungle Book. Kipling loved children and understood them very well. His tales fascinated boys and girls all over the world.

Kipling travelled a lot but in 1902 he returned to Great Britain with his wife and children. The Kiplings bought a large estate in Sussex and many of his most famous books were written there. One of them was Just So Stories. The book's name had, in fact, come from his daughter, who asked her father to repeat each tale several times, or "just so," as she often said.

In 1907 he was the first English writer to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. It was international recognition of his talent.In 1914, the First World War began and Kipling was a passionate supporter of the fight against Germany. He even encouraged his son John to join the army though John had a serious problem with his eyesight. Kipling and his son were very close. Unfortunately, in October of 1915, John was killed in France. Kipling, feeling guilty about persuading his son to become a soldier, was terribly depressed.

Due to these sad circumstances, for the last twenty years of his life Kipling did not write any more of his wonderful children's tales.

Shakira

 

Shakira Ripoll was born on February 2, 1977, in Colombia. She was the only daughter of a well-respected jeweller and his wife. In naming the newborn daughter, her mother chose from several names, containing the letter "K". She thought about Karime and Katiuska but finally chose Shakira. It’s an Arabic name which comes from the word "Shukram" meaning "Grace". So Shakira’s full name is translated as "a woman of Grace".

When Shakira was a child, her mother discovered that the girl had a gift for learning. Shakira knew the alphabet by the age of eighteen months and at three she knew how to read. By the time she was four, she was ready for school. School was not just a place where little Shakira learnt her arithmetic and geography. There she began to understand such great things as kindness, love, trust, and other human ideals. She realized what real friendship was and how much her family meant to her. Later it helped her to decide what to do with the big money she earned.

Shakira loved attention and wished to find a way to get it. She sang a lot for her schoolmates and teachers. However, the music teacher told her that she sounded "like a goat". Shakira wasn’t too upset about it and soon found a more original way to become the centre of attention. It was dancing. It helped her to express herself and become famous in school. What is interesting is that no one had ever taught her to dance.

In school Shakira was disciplined, but absent-minded. She was usually writing lyrics for her songs on the back of her notebooks. However, Shakira was a good student because she was a quick learner and could understand her teachers’ explanations faster than others.

As soon as the bell rang after class, Shakira was the first one to run and get in line for the cafeteria. She usually bought a pepsi, a hamburger and something sweet, like a muffin or a piece of cake. She seldom took a packed lunch from home. Though Shakira was a lover of fast food, she had no weight problems, as she loved dancing.

When she was eight, Shakira's father lost all his money because his business went bankrupt. For a while Shakira had to stay with her relatives in Los Angeles. When the girl returned, she was shocked to see almost everything that her family had, had been sold. She later said: "In my childish head, this was the end of the world."

To show her that things could be worse, her father took her to a local park to see the homeless children. What she saw shocked her deeply and she said to herself: "One day I’m going to help these poor kids when I become a famous singer or dancer".

Between the ages of ten and thirteen Shakira was invited to various dance events and became very popular in the area. It was at this time that Shakira met a local theatre producer, who was impressed with her performance and as a result tried to help her career. This woman organized a meeting with the managers of the Sony company. After Shakira sang, they decided to sign a contract for three albums with the talented girl.

Pirates

 

There have always been people who robbed ships in the open sea. We know them as pirates or corsairs. Many of them were sailors who lost their jobs, others were just young men and women looking for adventure. Thousands of pirates were active from 1650–1720. These years are sometimes known as the 'Golden Age' of piracy. Probably the most famous pirates of this period are Blackbeard, Henry Morgan, William 'Captain' Kidd, and the Barbarossa brothers.

The "Jolly Roger" is the well-known pirate flag. There are a number of theories about its origin. It is thought that the first pirates used a red flag, which was common in sea attacks. A red flag told other ships that there would be no pity and no prisoners would be taken. This red flag was called Joli Rouge (pretty red) in French. Most probably, English people pronounced it in their own way "Jolly Roger". Another theory says that "old Roger" was another name for the devil.

Another popular image from the pirate world is a parrot, sitting on the captain's shoulder. Well, there's no historical proof of that. No doubt, pirates often travelled to faraway exotic lands and brought unusual animals as souvenirs with them. Parrots were particularly popular because they were colourful, could be taught to speak, and were easier to care for than, say, monkeys. However, you can't imagine a pirate fighting with a bird on the shoulder. This image possibly began with the book 'Treasure Island'. In the book, the ever famous Long John Silver carried a parrot as a pet.

Before joining a ship each pirate signed an agreement called "Articles". This explained the rights and laws on board the ship, how much a person was paid, what to do in case of emergency, etc. For example, playing cards for money was not allowed. For breaking the rules a pirate would be shot or left on a desert island with a bottle of water and a gun.

A pirate ship was organized democratically. After a successful attack they divided the treasures equally, only the captain and the cook got more. They sometimes decided together which ship to attack or where to sail next. Most pirates were paid four times more than they had when they were sailors. But on land they were criminals and lots of money was offered to those who caught them.

However, for some time the English government supported pirates. There were lots of pirates in the sixteenth century when England was at war with Spain and the Dutch Republic. Queen Elizabeth I ordered them to rob Spanish ships and bring gold, silver and jewels to the country. Sir Francis Drake was one of the most famous pirates. He brought lots of treasures to England and also was the first Englishman to sail all the way around the world. Because of this, he was made a knight by Queen Elizabeth I.

Robert Falcon Scott

 

Robert Falcon Scott, known as Captain Scott or Scott of the Antarctic, was a British polar explorer. He joined the Royal Navy in 1882. Although he had no previous experience of polar research, in 1900 he became the leader of the British Antarctic Expedition. This expedition, known as the Discovery Expedition lasted from 1901 to 1904. Among other important things it determined the nature and size of the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica.

The aim of Scott’s second expedition in 1910-12 was to reach the South Pole. Departing from Cardiff, Wales, on the ship Terra Nova, the expedition reached the Antarctic coast in 1911. There Scott learned that the Norwegian explorer, Roald Amundsen, had already left for the Pole. So Scott’s chance to reach the South Pole before R. Amundsen was poor.

Equipped with motor tractors, ponies and dogs, Scott and 11 members of his team set off for the Pole on 24 October 1911. Unfortunately, the motor tractors rapidly broke down and their ponies were unsuitable for Antarctic conditions. Very soon, six members of the team were sent back. The five explorers continued their dangerous journey across the snowy desert. On 16 January, they saw a black marker flag left by the Norwegian expedition, and two days later the party reached the South Pole itself, where the Norwegians had built a snow marker. Amundsen had reached the South Pole more than a month earlier, on 14 December 1911. Scott was greatly disappointed after the exhausting 81-day journey and recorded in his diary, "This is an awful place and terrible enough for us to have reached it without the reward of priority."

However, the 800 mile return journey was even more terrible. Two members fell ill and died, and the remaining explorers were frozen inside their tent in a terrible nine-day snowstorm. The last entry in Scott's diary was made on 29 March.

Eight months later a search party, led by Dr Atkinson, discovered the tent and the bodies of the explorers, along with the diaries and last letters of Scott. Scott had written a message explaining the reasons for the failure. The search party buried the brave explorers and built a snow memorial on their grave. Later, another memorial was put up at Observation Hill, at Hut Point (Antarctica) with the words ‘ to strive, to seek, to find and not to yield. ’

The news about the death of the Polar team reached Britain in February 1913. Within days, Scott became a national icon. A memorial service was held in St Paul’s Cathedral. A campaign was launched to raise a memorial fund to continue the scientific work Scott had carried out. The Scott Polar Research Institute was founded. In the several years following the disaster, more than 30 monuments and memorials were set up in Britain alone.

Helen Keller

 

Life is not always easy. Sometimes it presents us serious problems that make us sad and even depressed. When it comes to this, you may remember the example of Helen Keller, born in a small American town in 1880.

The illness struck Helen Keller when she was a baby and left her deaf and blind before she learned to speak. As a child Helen was wild and disobedient. She seemed not to understand what was going on in the world around her. In spite of Helen’s illness her parents decided that she should have some education and started looking for a teacher.

Helen Keller's new life began on a March day in 1887 when she was seven years old. On that day Anne Mansfield Sullivan, a 20-year-old graduate of the Perkins School, came to the town to be her teacher. From that day, the two of them – teacher and pupil – were inseparable.

Miss Sullivan began her first lesson by handing Helen a doll and pressing "d-o-l-l" into the child's hand. In this way she hoped to teach Helen to connect objects with letters. Helen quickly learned to form the letters correctly and in the correct order. In the days that followed, she learned to spell lots of different words.

Helen Keller was a talented pupil and quickly learnt how to read and write. She enjoyed reading books written for blind children. In 1890, when she was just 10, she decided to learn to speak. Somehow she had found out that a little deaf-blind girl in Norway managed to do it.

At first Helen had difficulty with speaking, but with the time and help from Anne she developed a clear voice. Later, she was able to speak in public for large crowds which came to her whenever she gave her lectures. There was usually a storm of applause after her every lecture.

After school Helen went to college and graduated it with honours. She got a Bachelor of Arts degree. Throughout those years and until her own death in 1936, Anne Sullivan was always by Helen's side. She pressed book after book and lecture after lecture into her pupil's hand.

One of Helen’s professors was so deeply impressed by her essays in English that he suggested the girl writing the story of her life. Helen followed the advice and wrote the book while still at college. It was a cheerful account of how a young girl was able to live a happy life in spite of her terrible misfortunes. Later she wrote several books more. In her books and lectures Helen did everything possible to help and encourage those who were blind. For the rest of her life, Helen Keller worked for improving education for the blind and deaf.

Helen Keller lived in many different places – Alabama; Cambridge and Wrentham, Massachusetts; Forest Hills, New York, but perhaps her favorite residence was the house in Easton, which she called "Arcan Ridge." She moved to that white house in 1936, after her beloved teacher's death. And it was “Arcan Ridge” she called home for the rest of her life. She died in 1968.

Peer pressure

 

"Peer pressure"* is very strong, especially among young people. Almost everyone can remember a moment when they did something because their friends were doing it. Teenagers often buy something just because their friends have it, and this thing comes into fashion. If teenagers didn’t imitate their friends’ behavior, there would be fewer social problems: smoking, crime and so on.

On the other hand, “peer pressure” can also produce positive results. Youth crime and vandalism in one of the districts of Bristol, a city in England, fell by 20% last year. Why? Because young people stopped doing stupid and anti-social things. Now they are trying to keep out of trouble. And it's all the result of a new project.

Two Bristol policemen organised a football league for teenagers in one of the poorest parts of the city. The idea is to prevent teenagers from committing crimes. They want to show teenagers how they can spend their free time in a better way.

The policemen introduced a system in which football results are connected to young people's behaviour outside the football grounds. Teams get points for winning their matches, but lose points if any team-member does anything he shouldn't on the football field or off it! For example, teams get ten points for winning a match, but if any player is arrested, the team loses ten points. If a member is caught doing an act of vandalism, such as spraying graffiti, the team loses five points. Three points are lost for less serious crimes.

The results in Bristol are great. None of the teenagers playing in the football league has been arrested by the police. Instead of doing antisocial things and causing problems these teenagers are trying to behave properly!

The idea is already getting popular in other parts of Britain, and similar programmes will be started in other cities. Social workers are also trying to use “peer pressure" to get other positive results. If some more original ways are found, levels of crime among young people will soon be falling quickly.

Some people also think that a similar system should be used for professional footballers. If a professional player gets into a fight on the football ground, his team loses points. In this way footballers will try to behave with more respect to other players.

Another example of positive “peer pressure” is that there are fewer teenagers who smoke or take drugs. This is the result of the growing popularity of mobile phones. A mobile has become a new symbol of growing up. Teenagers no longer need to smoke to show that they are adults. Now they want to get a phone as cool as their classmates have.

* Peer pressure – the strong influence of a group, especially of children, on the members of that group to behave as everyone else does.

The Open Window

 

Mr. Nuttel, a young gentleman, came to live in the country. The doctors said a quiet place like that and complete rest could help cure his nerves. He didn’t know anyone round there and was too shy to make new acquaintances. That’s why his sister gave him letters of introduction to some nice people she knew.

One of the letters was to Mrs. Sappleton. When Mr. Nuttel visited her, Mrs Sappleton was busy and he was asked to wait for several minutes. The servant invited Mr. Nuttel into a room. There Mr. Nuttel met Mrs. Sappleton’s niece, a very self-confident young lady of fifteen. The young gentleman was very shy and he didn’t know how to start the conversation. The young lady broke the silence and asked him what he knew about her aunt. Mr. Nuttel knew nothing except Mrs. Sappleton’s name and address.

Mr. Nuttel looked around. There was something about the room that told him there were other people living in the house. So he was wondering if Mrs. Sappleton was married. Suddenly the girl got sad and told a story of Mrs. Sappleton’s tragedy. Mr. Nuttel was greatly surprised because his sister hadn’t told him anything about it. The tragedy was very unusual for that peaceful place.

The girl pointed at the French window, which opened on to the lawn and said that Mrs. Sappleton always kept it open. Mr. Nuttel stated that it was natural to keep the window open because the weather was quite warm. But the girl sighed and explained that her poor aunt always kept the window open in the evenings because she was waiting for her husband and sons to return. Three years ago they had gone hunting and never came back. The story caught Mr. Nuttel’s imagination deeply. He felt very upset.

He felt a little better only when Mrs. Sappleton finally appeared in the room. She apologized for being late and asked if he minded the open window. She said her husband and sons would soon be home from hunting. They always came in that way. Then, she continued talking cheerfully about hunting ducks. But Mr. Nuttel felt terrible.

He made an attempt to change the topic and told her about the reasons why he had come to the country. But Mrs. Sappleton didn’t seem to notice. She was constantly looking at the open window. Mr. Nuttel felt uncomfortable. He understood that he had chosen the wrong moment to visit her. Suddenly Mrs. Sappleton cried happily pointing at the window, “Here they are at last, just in time for tea!” Three male figures were walking across the lawn towards the window. They carried guns and a dog followed them.

Shocked and afraid, Mr. Nuttel grabbed his stick and hat and rushed out of the house. Mrs. Sappleton was extremely surprised at the extraordinary man who had left the house so quickly without a word. Her niece suggested that it was because of the dog. She said that Mr. Nuttel had been afraid of them since childhood – once, a dog had seriously bitten him. This was enough to make the young man lose his nerve. The young lady was so good at making up stories!

Christmas Fire

 

Dan had sweet memories of his childhood years, especially Christmas. In those days, he had lived in Wales, in a small town. He remembered the white snow in the garden and a cold moon in the sky at night. December was always cold and frosty. Dan spent lots of time outdoors because he liked playing in the snow. While Dan was growing up, each Christmas was much like the last: Christmas tree, Christmas wishes, Christmas presents under the tree, Christmas dinner with relatives. But one of his Christmases he would remember forever.

It was many years ago, and he was 6 or 7 years old. It was the afternoon of Christmas Eve. Dan was playing in Mrs. Prothero’s garden with her son Jim. Dan was afraid of Mrs. Prothero because she always looked strict and harsh. She never invited him to the house. But her son Jim was different. The boys were playing cat hunters: they made lots of snowballs and prepared to attack the cats. Dan and Jim felt cold waiting for the cats to come over the garden wall. But none of them had appeared yet.

Suddenly the boys heard a loud cry from the house. At first they thought it was Mrs. Prothero’s white cat, that was their main enemy. Soon the cry repeated and grew louder. Now the boys understood that it was Mrs. Prothero herself, and she was shouting ’Fire!’

The boys ran down towards the house. The door was wide open with grey smoke coming from inside. Something was burning. Mrs. Prothero desperately called for help and for Mr. Prothero, who was obviously sleeping in another room. He always slept after lunch with a newspaper over his face. Finally, Mr. Prothero appeared in the clouds of smoke in the doorway. “What a fine Christmas!” he said waving his hand like an orchestra conductor. Mrs. Prothero asked him to call the fire brigade but he doubted that they would be available because of the holiday. But he sent the boys to the telephone box. Dan and Jim rushed out of the house. The adventure seemed to be better than cat hunting. Jim suggested also calling the police and the ambulance. But they called only the fire brigade. The fire truck and three tall men in helmets arrived just as the boys returned to Mrs. Prothero’s house. It was the noisiest and most unusual Christmas Eve they had ever had.

The firemen started the pump and the water ran into the house. When it was all over, Mr. and Mrs. Prothero were standing in their wet and smoky room with a grey Christmas tree in the middle. The room looked a complete mess. Mrs. Prothero opened the oven and took out a burnt cake. She was in tears – it had been a horrible Christmas.

Just as the firemen were going to leave, Jim’s aunt, Miss Prothero, came back home. She looked surprised at the crowd of neighbours but did not give way to panic. She opened a colourful paper bag and produced a nice Christmas cake from the nearest shop. Then she smiled and said, “Merry Christmas! Everything will be all right!”

The Santa Claus Wait

 

Christmas Eve is a special time for children. Every year they wait for their presents from Santa Claus. Magic is everywhere in Tim and Robert’s house which is decorated with greeting cards, candles and lights. The sweet smell of Mum’s homemade cookies also brings to mind the coming wonders.

Throughout the month before Christmas Tim and his brother Robert regularly made their beds, set the table and followed their parents’ instructions about the house. As usual, each of them wrote a letter to Santa to ask for a toy. They knew Santa wouldn’t visit naughty children.

The same thing happened each year until the brothers were nine. They suddenly began to doubt that Santa could decorate their tree and millions more trees in a single night. It also seemed hard for Santa to deliver all the gifts before daybreak. Besides, they kept asking Dad how Santa could get inside their house without a chimney!

Dad usually answered that Santa would surely come, but that the children should be good and go to bed early. So on Christmas Eve, after Mum had checked that there was enough food left for Santa, the boys were sent to bed as usual. Robert was soon asleep, but Tim silently lay in bed, hoping to hear Santa coming. It seemed the longest night of Tim’s life.

In the early morning, when the other members of the family were still asleep, Tim bravely went to the living room to check for presents from Santa. When he switched on the light, he cried “Wow! He’s come!” In the room the Christmas tree stood in the middle of a big platform that looked like a small town with a toy railroad. It was unbelievable: a toy wonderland!

Tim spent an hour among the toys and then decided to wake up Robert and his parents to see the presents. While running upstairs he saw that the cookies had disappeared. In excitement he went into his parents’ bedroom but didn’t notice that they seemed a little bit more tired than usual.

“Mum! Dad! Quick! Robert! It’s fantastic!” he shouted. Everybody went down. Robert immediately saw his new car. It was wonderful. Poor Robert was upset because the car wouldn’t run. Dad said he couldn't understand why the car wouldn't start. The batteries in the car had been absolutely new.

He didn’t know Tim had turned on the car and had forgotten about it when he was checking out other gifts earlier. Within that hour the batteries died, in those times they didn't last long. Tim kept silent as he didn’t want to be punished on Christmas Day.

22. "The 1900 House"

 

"The 1900 House" was a reality television programme in Britain. It took people back a hundred years to the time of Queen Victoria, when there were no computers, mobile phones or the Internet. The idea of the show was to give people an experience of living in the past.

A modern family, the Bowler family, spent three months living like people at the beginning of the 20th century. There were the parents (Paul and Joyce) and their four children (three daughters and a son). The cameras recorded them every day. The house didn't have a telephone, a fridge, a TV set or even central heating. The Bowlers wore clothes from 1900 and ate the food that existed inEngland at that time. There wasn't much to choose from. The main dishes on the table were meat and fish, and the day usually started with a cup of tea and porridge.

The father of the family, Paul Bowler, still went to work but in an old-fashioned uniform. He couldn't read newspapers or use a computer. The mother, Joyce, became a housewife and stayed home. She did all the cleaning, washing and cooking. The children still went to school, but they changed their clothes on the way to and from school so their classmates wouldn’t know anything about this unusual project.

The Bowlers noticed that life at the beginning of the century was much slower. It was rather hard for them to get used to the new speed. For example, it took 28 minutes to boil water and make a cup of tea. And can you imagine cleaning the house without a vacuum cleaner or washing clothes without a washing machine? There wasn't any toothpaste or modern shampoo. Without central heating nobody thought about a warm bath or a shower in the morning. Toothbrushes were made of pig and horse hair. Toothpaste was expensive so most people cleaned their teeth using salt or soda. The children thought it was horrible.

11-year-old Hilary said: "The most difficult thing was finding entertainment. We couldn't go to the cinema or to a café. It was a new experience to be with the family for half a day or more. It was new and hard to be nice to each other all the time. But I really think we all became closer."

17-year-old Kathryn remembered that she couldn't wear any make-up. She had to wear a corset every day and had only three sets of clothes: one to wear every day, the second – to wear while cleaning, and the third was for special events, like celebrations.

When the show was over the Bowlers were asked: what did you miss most from the modern world? The father said it was a hot shower. The mother had longed to have a quick cup of tea. The daughters said it was the music, the hot water, shampoo and "normal sounds like the washing machine" which they missed. For the son it was pizza and the computer.

It's interesting that the family was allowed to keep anything they wanted after the project. Joyce took her corset and each of the children took something from the house to remind them of their experience.