30 тем по англійській мові

About my favourite English writer

Charles Dickens was an English novelist and one of the most popular writers in the history of literature. In his enormous body of works, Dickens combined masterly storytelling, humour, pathos, and irony with sharp social criticism and acute observation of people and places, both real and imagined.

Dickens was born February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth and spent most of his childhood in London and Kent, both of which appear frequently in his novels. He started school at the age of nine, but his education was interrupted when his father was imprisoned for debt in 1824. The boy was then forced to support himself by working in a shoe-polish factory. From 1824 to 1826, Dickens again attended school. For the most part, however, he was self-educated. Among his favourite books were those by such great 18th-century novelists as Henry Fielding and Tobias Smollett, and their influence can be discerned in Dickens's own novels. In 1827 Dickens took a job as a legal clerk.

In December 1833 Dickens published the first of a series of original descriptive sketches of daily life in London, using the pseudonym Boz. The success of this first novel The Pickwick Papers made Dickens famous.

Dickens subsequently maintained his fame with a constant stream of novels. A man of enormous energy and wide talents, he also engaged in many other activities. He edited the weekly periodicals Household Words (1850-1859) and All the Year Round (1859-1870), composed the travel books American Notes (1842) and Pictures from Italy (1846), administered charitable organisations, and pressed for many social reforms. In 1843 he published A Christmas Carol, an ever-popular children's story.

Incompatibility and Dickens's relations with a young actress, Ellen Ternan, led to his separation from his wife in 1858, after the marriage had produced ten children. He suffered a fatal stroke on June 9, 1870, and was buried in Westminster Abbey five days later.

He made a valuable contribution to world literature, he wrote “The Pickwick Papers”, “Bleak House”, “Oliver Twist”, “Dombey and Son” and other novels and stories.

*About myself and my family

First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Sergey. My full name is Kashpirovsky Sergey Vasilevish. I’m 17 years old. I was born in the family of an economist and an engineer.

My family is small. There are only three of us. I always delighted to have somebody to share my ideas with, to discuss things and the like, but it happens that sometimes I crave for loneliness to think about my problems, my mistakes and to look though my life.

I should like to begin with the oldest in the family – my farther. He is the head of it. He is a very hard-working person. And there’s a very good feature of his: if he starts doing something he is sure to do it up to the end. His favorite occupation is reading and watching TV. He is true father who devotes much time of his to bringing us up properly. He is always ready to come to our rescue. We highly appreciate this.

My mother is a nice looking woman of about 40. She isn’t tall, rather slim. The thing that catches your eye when you look at her is her charming smile. She is very easy to deal with. No wonder that she has got many friends. She is on good terms with our neighbours. When my mother is at home it seems the house is full of sunshine, jokes and laughter. She doesn’t like to lecture on people. That’s something I like very much about her. Thanks to our mother our family is very friendly, she does her best to make every member of the family feel happy and is always happy herself.

And mow I want to speak some sentences about myself. When I was 7, I went to school. I’m doing well at school. I’m especially good at history but I also cope with the rest of the subjects. And now I am a student of Donetsk Lyceum and in few days I’ll leave lyceum.

Last year I often wondered what I would be in future, what sphere of life I should choose. After a number of heated discussions with my parents and friends I decided to dwell my choice on history. I decided to take my entrance exams to the History department of Donetsk State University because I want to know History perfectly well. I think knowledge of history and foreign languages are necessary for my future job. I’m very sociable and it would be a pleasure for me to mix with many interesting people, to find out many new things, to become acquainted with different cultures of other nations of the world.

*Critique on the ‘Webworld’ article by Yevgen GrozaThe Internet is becoming more and more popular. Its positive and negative aspects have been actively discussed among network users as well as in the mass media. The ‘Webworld’ essay by Kirsten Archer gives a brief and thorough overview of the latest achievements of the modern technology. The essay was written to be presented at a university challenge which was aimed to encourage critical thinking about new technologies. The fact that this article received a distinction should be a good recommendation to anyone interested in the issue. ‘Webworld’ is worth to read by either experienced web-user or a person who has never seen a computer.

At the beginning the author takes a look at the history of the Internet and elementary principles of its functioning. The main idea, which will also reappear later, is that the Internet is decentralised and thus the society only is responsible for anything that happens in the virtual world. A lot of attention is paid to such conveniences of the network as e-mail or newsgroups. The understanding of the nature of World Wide Web is very helpful, especially for an inexperienced reader.

Along with benefits of the net the author also states some negative points. Wide distribution of pornography via the network is known to every user. However, it is impossible to censor the Web. Thus, everybody has to be responsible for the content of Internet pages. Copyright problem is another negative point of the Internet expansion. As the author stresses, any text or image published on the Web can be reproduced many times without statement of intellectual property. Though this problem still does not have a global solution, the author suggests that everybody is responsible for proper use of the network since the Internet cannot be centrally regulated.