АНГЛИЙСКИЙ ЯЗЫК “The Dinner Party” by Mona Gardner The country is India. A colonial official and his wife are giving a large dinner party. The guests are army officers, and government attache´s with their wives, and a visiting American naturalist. The dining room is spacious. It has a bare marble floor, open rafters, and wide glass doors opening onto a veranda.* A spirited discussion springs up between a young girl and a colonel. She insists that women have outgrown the jumping-on-a-chair-at-the-sight-of-a-mouse era, but the colonel says that they haven’t. “A woman’s unfailing reaction in any crisis,” the colonel says, “is to scream. The American does not join in the argument but watches the other guests. As he looks, he sees a strange expression come over the face of the hostess. She is staring straight ahead, her muscles contracting slightly. With a slight gesture, she summons the native boy standing behind her chair and whispers to him. The boy’s eyes widen, and he quickly leaves the room. Of the guests, none except the American notices this or sees the boy place a bowl of milk on the veranda just outside the open doors. The American comes to with a start. In India, milk in a bowl means only one thing—bait for a snake. He realizes there must be a cobra in the room. He looks up at the rafters —the likeliest place —but they are bare. Three corners of the room are empty, and in the fourth the servants are waiting to serve the next course. There is only one place left —under the table. His first impulse is to jump back and warn the others, but he knows the commotion would frighten the cobra into striking. He speaks quickly, the tone of his voice so arresting that it sobers everyone. “I want to know just what control everyone at this table has. I will count to three hundred — that’s five minutes —and not one of you is to move a muscle. Those who move will forfeit fifty rupees. Ready!” The twenty people sit like stone images while he counts. He is saying “two hundred and eighty” when he sees the cobra. It emerges and crawls to the bowl of milk. Screams ring out as he jumps to slam the veranda doors safely shut. “You were right, Colonel!” the host exclaims. “A man has just shown us an example of perfect control.” “Just a minute,” the American says, turning to his hostess. “Mrs. Wynnes, how did you know the cobra was in the room?” A faint smile lights up the woman’s face as she replies. “Because it was crawling across my foot.” *During the time this story takes place, India was a British colony. The colonial official works for the British government in India. The government attachés work for another country’s embassy in India. Finally, a naturalist is someone who studies animals and plants
Television (1920s) The invention that swept the world and changed leisure habits for countless millions was pioneered by Scottish-born electrical engineer John Logie Baird. It had been realised for some time that light could be converted into electrical impulses, making it possible to transmit such impulses over a distance and then reconvert them into light.
Motor Car (Late 19th Century) With television, the car is probably the most widely used and most useful of all leisure-inspired inventions. German engineer Karl Benz produced the first petroldriven car in 1885 and the British motor industry started in 1896. Henry Ford was the first to use assembly line production for his Model Т car in 1908. Like them or hate them, cars have given people great freedom of travel.
Electricity The name came from the Greek word for amber and was coined by Elizabeth I's physician William Gilbert who was among those who noticed that amber had the power to attract light objects after being rubbed. In the 19th century such great names as Michael Faraday, Humphry Davy, Alessandro Volta and Andre Marie Ampere all did vital work on electricity.
Photography (Early 19th Century) Leonardo da Vinci had described the camera obscura photographic principle as early as 1515. But it was not until 1835 that Frenchman Louis Daguerre produced camera photography. The system was gradually refined over the years, to the joy of happy snappers and the despair of those who had to wade through friends' endless holiday pictures.
Telephone (1876) Edinburgh-born scientist Alexander Graham Bell patented his invention of the telephone in 1876. The following year, the great American inventor Thomas Edison produced the first working telephone. With telephones soon becoming rapidly available, the days of letter-writing became numbered.
Computer (20th Century) The computer has been another life-transforming invention. British mathematician Charles Babbage designed a form of computer in the mid-1830s, but it was not until more than a century later that theory was put into practice. Now, a whole generation has grown up with calculators, windows, icons, computer games and word processors, and the Internet and e-mail have transformed communication and information.
Aeroplane
The plane was the invention that helped shrink the world and brought distant lands within easy reach of ordinary people. The invention of the petrol engine made flight feasible and the American Wright brothers made the first flight in 1903.
The chapter starts with description of the Dursley family, who are proud to be "perfectly normal". We learn that Mrs Dursley has a sister, Mrs Potter, but their families haven't met for several years. Both families have sons.
Then the story begins on a "dull, grey Tuesday". Mr Dursley notices a lot of strange things hapenning - owls flying in town, people in cloaks, a strange cat sitting on the wall of his garden, unusual news on TV. The Dursleys go to bed wondering what it all could mean. At night, a tall, thin and very old man appears near their house. It's Albus Dumbledore. The cat turns out to be Professor McGonagall, and the two are professors from Hogwarts, a school of witchcraft and wizardry. Then comes Hagrid, a giant, who brings little Harry Potter. Harry's parents were killed by Lord Voldermort, a dark wizard, but Harry survived and Voldermort's power "somehow broke" .
So little Harry is left asleep on the doorstep of the Dursley's house with a letter written by Dumbledore. The professors and Hagrid go to join the celebrations.
The invention that swept the world and changed leisure habits for countless millions was pioneered by Scottish-born electrical engineer John Logie Baird. It had been realised for some time that light could be converted into electrical impulses, making it possible to transmit such impulses over a distance and then reconvert them into light.
Motor Car (Late 19th Century)
With television, the car is probably the most widely used and most useful of all leisure-inspired inventions. German engineer Karl Benz produced the first petroldriven car in 1885 and the British motor industry started in 1896. Henry Ford was the first to use assembly line production for his Model Т car in 1908. Like them or hate them, cars have given people great freedom of travel.
Electricity
The name came from the Greek word for amber and was coined by Elizabeth I's physician William Gilbert who was among those who noticed that amber had the power to attract light objects after being rubbed. In the 19th century such great names as Michael Faraday, Humphry Davy, Alessandro Volta and Andre Marie Ampere all did vital work on electricity.
Photography (Early 19th Century)
Leonardo da Vinci had described the camera obscura photographic principle as early as 1515. But it was not until 1835 that Frenchman Louis Daguerre produced camera photography. The system was gradually refined over the years, to the joy of happy snappers and the despair of those who had to wade through friends' endless holiday pictures.
Telephone (1876)
Edinburgh-born scientist Alexander Graham Bell patented his invention of the telephone in 1876. The following year, the great American inventor Thomas Edison produced the first working telephone. With telephones soon becoming rapidly available, the days of letter-writing became numbered.
Computer (20th Century)
The computer has been another life-transforming invention. British mathematician Charles Babbage designed a form of computer in the mid-1830s, but it was not until more than a century later that theory was put into practice. Now, a whole generation has grown up with calculators, windows, icons, computer games and word processors, and the Internet and e-mail have transformed communication and information.
Aeroplane
The plane was the invention that helped shrink the world and brought distant lands within easy reach of ordinary people. The invention of the petrol engine made flight feasible and the American Wright brothers made the first flight in 1903.
Chapter One
The Boy Who Lived
The chapter starts with description of the Dursley family, who are proud to be "perfectly normal". We learn that Mrs Dursley has a sister, Mrs Potter, but their families haven't met for several years. Both families have sons.
Then the story begins on a "dull, grey Tuesday". Mr Dursley notices a lot of strange things hapenning - owls flying in town, people in cloaks, a strange cat sitting on the wall of his garden, unusual news on TV. The Dursleys go to bed wondering what it all could mean. At night, a tall, thin and very old man appears near their house. It's Albus Dumbledore. The cat turns out to be Professor McGonagall, and the two are professors from Hogwarts, a school of witchcraft and wizardry. Then comes Hagrid, a giant, who brings little Harry Potter. Harry's parents were killed by Lord Voldermort, a dark wizard, but Harry survived and Voldermort's power "somehow broke" .
So little Harry is left asleep on the doorstep of the Dursley's house with a letter written by Dumbledore. The professors and Hagrid go to join the celebrations.