"Biographies" (95)
The Russian writer Dostoevski is regarded as one of the world's great novelists. In Russia he was surpassed only by Leo Tolstoi.
Fedor Mikhailovich Dostoevski was born on Nov. 11, 1821, in a Moscow hospital where his father was a physician. At 13 Fedor was sent to a Moscow boarding school, then to a military engineering school in St. Petersburg. Shortly after graduating he resigned his commission in order to devote his time to writing.
Dostoevski had published two novels and several sketches and short stories when he was arrested along with a group of about 20 others with whom he had been studying French socialist theories. After the 1848 revolutions in Western Europe, Russia's Czar Nicholas I decided to round up all of that country's revolutionaries, and in April 1849 Dostoevski's group was imprisoned. Dostoevski and several others were sentenced to be shot, but at the last minute their sentence was changed to four years of hard labor in a prison in Omsk, Siberia. There, Dostoevski said, they were "packed in like herrings in a barrel" with murderers and other criminals. He read and reread the New Testament, the only book he had, and built a mystical creed, identifying Christ with the common people of Russia. He had great sympathy for the criminals.
As a child Dostoevski suffered from mild epilepsy, and it grew worse in prison. After four years in prison, he was sent as a private to a military station in Siberia. There in 1857 he met and married a widow named Marie Isaeva.
In 1860 Dostoevski was back in St. Petersburg. The next year he began to publish a literary journal that was soon suppressed, though he had by now lost interest in socialism. In 1862 he visited Western Europe and hated the industrialism he saw there. Dostoevski had been separated from his wife but visited her in Moscow before her death in 1864. In 1867 he married his young stenographer, Anna Snitkina. He died on Feb. 9, 1881, in St. Petersburg.
Euclid of Alexandria is one of the most important and influential mathematicians in history. Living in ancient Alexandria, he wrote The Elements, a geometry textbook used in some places until the twentieth century. His work in geometry provided the foundation on which all future mathematicians were educated.
For a man of such great significance to the world of mathematics, little is known about his actual life. Euclid is thought to have lived from 325-265 BC, mostly in Alexandria. He was taught at The Academy in Athens, founded by Plato, and probably tutored another great mathematician, Archimedes. Euclid also founded a great mathematics school in Alexandria. Little was ever written about Euclid, and the available information is scarce and of questionable accuracy. Much of the information we do have is from authors like Proclus who lived centuries later, writing about his books, not his life.
If little has ever been made of Euclid's life, then the opposite is true of his book. The Elements was used as the primary geometry resource for over 2000 years, and his lessons could still be used today. Although it contains 13 volumes, much of the work may not be Euclid's. Some of the chapters seem to be written with different styles, and others are geared for different ages, leading one to believe that he inserted other mathematicians' work into his own.
Each volume begins with pages of definitions and postulates, followed by his theorems. Euclid then proves each one of his theorems using the definitions and postulates, mathematically proving even the most obvious. His work was translated into Latin and Arabic, and was first printed in mass quantity in 1482, ten years before Columbus, but 1800 years AFTER it was written! From that point until the early 1900's, The Elements was considered by far the best geometry textbook in the world.
Although he may not have written The Elements entirely on his own, his other works are certainly his alone. Those include Data, Optics, Phaenomena, and On Division of Figures. His work in Data is probably the most famous of his smaller works, and focuses on finding certain measurements and quantities when others are given. Phaenomena is about planetary motions and Optics about perspectives. In Optics, Euclid attempts to prove the common belief of the time that sight was created by rays coming from the eye, rather than light entering the eye.
Euclid was apparently a kind, patient man, and did possess a sarcastic sense of humor. In fact, King Ptolemy once asked Euclid if there was an easier way to study math than learning all the theorems. Euclid then replied, "There is no royal road to geometry," and sent one of the most powerful kings of his time off to study. On another occasion, a student of his questioned the value of learning geometry, much like students today. Euclid responded by giving the small child a coin, saying that "he must make gain out of what he learns."
There are many other works of Euclid which appear to be lost to time, but his primary work in The Elements is what made him famous. His work in geometry led to discovery after discovery in history, and provided the basis for mathematical education for 2000 years. While students no longer read directly from his writing, the textbooks of today are still based on Euclidean proofs and theorems. Perhaps it is fitting, then, that Euclid is called "The Father of Geometry".
Ernest Rutherford is called the Newton of atomic physics. He was recognized by his fellow scientists as a man of colossal energy and tireless enthusiasm. As he himself remarked he lived in the "heroic age of physics". Ernest Rutherford was born in New Zealand. He graduated from New Zealand University and entered Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1919 he was appointed a Professor of experimental physics in the University of Cambridge. E. Rutherford's early researches concerned electromagnetic waves. His experiments led him to develop a magnetic detector, which at that time was the best detector of electromagnetic waves. His detector was later used by Marconi, one of the inventors of the radio, in his well-known investigations. Rutherford's big triumph began when he turned his attention to radioactivity. His brilliant researches established the existence and nature of radioactive transformations. He also investigated the electrical structure of matter and the nuclear nature of atom. He was one of the founders of the atomic theory of physics and creators of the first atomic model. He stated that the atom consisted of a nucleus around which electrons revolved in orbits. Even today his works did not lose their importance.
Ernest Hemingway is one of the greatest 20th-century American writers. The legend which developed around his impressive personality was that of a man of action, a devil-may-care adventurer, a brave war correspondent, an amateur boxer, a big-game hunter and deep-sea fisherman, the victim of three car accidents and two plane crashes, a man of four wives and many loves, but above all a brilliant writer of stories and novels.
Hemingway was born in 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois. His father was a doctor who initiated the boy into the outdoor life of hunting, camping, and fishing. While at school, Hemingway played football and wrote articles for the school newspaper.
In 1917, when the United States entered the World War I, Hemingway left home and schooling to become a reporter for "The Kansas City Star". He wanted to enlist for the war but was rejected because of an eye injury from football. Finally he managed to go to Europe as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross. He joined the Italian army and was seriously wounded.
His war experience and adventurous life provided the background for his many short stories and novels. He achieved success with "A Farewell to Arms", the story of a love affair between an American lieutenant and an English nurse during the World War I.
Hemingway actively supported the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War and wrote another successful novel of war, love and death. It was "For Whom the Bell Tolls".
During the World War II Hemingway was a war correspondent first in China and then in Europe. He fought in France and helped to liberate Paris.In his later years Hemingway lived mostly in Cuba where his passion for deep-sea fishing provided the background for "The Old Man and the Sea". He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954.
Unwilling to live with the inevitable physical aging, Hemingway committed suicide, as his father had done under similar circumstances.
Elizabeth 2 is the Queen of Great Britain. She was born in Windsor on 21 April 1926. Her full name is Elizabeth-Mary-Alexander Windsor. Her pet name is Lilibet. She was educated at home, taught to read and write by her parents. She knew foreign languages. Elizabeth was made her speech on the radio in 1940. She was learned to drive. She was married Prince Philip in 1947. Her first son Prince Charles was born in 1948. She came to throne in 1952. Elizabeth was crowned in Westminster Abbey on 2 June 1953.
Now she plays an important role in the country. She travels a lot. The Queen has got four children: Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew, and Prince Edward. She has five official residences in Britain; Buckingham Palace and Windsor among them.
I'd like to speak about Elizabeth 1 and Queen Victoria. Elizabeth 1 came to throne in 1558. She had many of her father's qualities including common sense and the strength of character. Like him, she understood the people. She loved hunting and dancing. She traveled a lot round the country. She wanted to know her people and to be known by them. Her soldiers and sailors admired her courage [мужество]. The universities were surprised at her leaning, for she could speak Latin, Greek and several modern languages. She enjoyed a joke. During her reign Queen Elizabeth solved her first problem, the Church. The Anglican Church under Elizabeth followed a middle course. Most people in Britain wanted what her father, Henry 8, had given them: a reformed Catholic Church that used the English language and was free from foreign influence. And they got what they wanted. Elizabeth's next problem was to keep her enemies quiet until her country was strong enough to defend itself. The greatest danger came from Spain. In July 1588 the Spanish Armada of 130 Spanish ships arrived in the Channel. The English ships were faster than slow Armada. The English guns could shoot farther. After the battle less than half of the proud Armada came back to its home ports. This defeat of Spain was very important for England, though some people said that the Spanish Armada was defeated more by bad weather than by English guns.
During Elizabeth's reign England sent its explorers to different lands. They tried to find a quick way to India round the north of Russia. As a result they came to Archangelsk, were welcomed in Moscow and opened a new trade with Russia. England wanted to find empty lands where it could plant her own colonies. Queen Elizabeth's reign was also famous for arts and theater development. Elizabeth was a good musician herself. English music was then among the best in Europe. Many great men wrote poetry, drama was also famous. William Shakespeare's plays were written in the years of her reign.
Queen Victoria was a strong queen. Her monument you can see in front of Buckingham Palace. Queen Victoria came to throne in 1837 and reigned until her death in 1901. She ruled for the longest period in the English history, for 64 years! Victoria married a German, Prince Albert, but he died at the age of 42 in 1861. That was a great tragedy for Queen Victoria. She left London and never lived in the city where she had been so happy with her husband and nine children (5 daughters and 4 sons). But there are places in London that reminds us of their love. One of them is the Royal Albert Hall - a very large concert hall where the best musicians of the world perform classical music. In front of the Albert Hall there is a monument to Prince Albert built by Queen Victoria. Another place is theVictoria and Albert museum (V & A) with its rich collections of paintings and other works of art. The family life of Queen Victoria touched people's hearts. But this is not only reason why Queen Victoria became very popular. During her reign Britain became a rich industrial country with a developed trade, an empire with a lot of colonies.
Edgar Allan Poe, outstanding romantic poet, critic, romancer and short story writer, was one of the first professional writers of the United States. He had a rare talent and in France and Russia of his days he was considered to be the only American poet of significance.
Edgar Poe was born in Boston (Massachusetts) in the poor family of second-rate actors. Both his parents died when the boy was two and he was brought up by John Allan, a very rich tradesman from Richmond (Virginia). Poe spent a year at Virginia University, a brief period in the US Army and as a cadet at the West Point Military Academy. A quarrel with Allan led him to a separation from his foster father and Poe had to provide for himself. He started writing and at first published his works in periodicals. Later they came out in separate editions. Poe's literary activities were various: he worked as a journalist, critic, poet, story writer, co-editor and editor of different magazines in Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia and elsewhere.
In 1836 Poe married a very young girl, Virginia Clemm. Their home was very happy, but soon his wife became ill. Edgar grew desperate because she had no money to cure her. Virginia died in January 1847, when she was only 24. At that time he was working on Eureka. His last poems were The Bells and Annabel Lee.
Poes life ended in strange circumstances: it was suspected that he had been given opium and robbed of money. He died in October 7, 1849.
Diana Spencer was born on the first of July 1961 in Sandringham in England. She had two older sisters and a younger brother. In childhood she liked games, swimming, running and dancing. She wanted to become a dancer. Besides she loved children very much and at the age of sixteen she worked in schools for very young children. Diana became princess, when Prince Charles, the Queen's son, asked her to be his wife and they got married. They seemed to be a happy couple at first. They had two sons. They travelled a lot they worked a lot, they visited many countries together. But Diana was not quite happy because they liked different things and Charles didn't understand her. Why was Diana the most famous, the most beautiful, the most photographed woman in the world? Why did she win the hearts of millions and millions of people in many countries? Why did so many people come to London to remember her when she died? Why did the car accident which took her life, become such a total shock to crowds of people? Why did people feel the need to be in London at the funeral? Why did the tears and love at the funeral move the world? The answer is so simple. Matthew Wall, a student at St. Michael's College in Burlington said: "She was such a lovely lady. She did so much for those people less fortunate that herself". She was a kind woman. Hundreds of people talked about Diana's kindnesses. She liked ordinary people, though she was rich and had many rich friends. Wherever she was, she was always ready to lend a hand. She was devoted to the sick and the poor. She visited hospitals for people with AIDS and for lepers and wasn't afraid to touch them, talk to them, listen to them. She worked on children's charities, and had teamed up with Hillary Clinton in an effort to ban landmines. And it's not only money, that she wanted to give people. She wanted to give them a part of her soul, to make them happy because she was unhappy herself. She wanted to give them love, because she needed love herself. Rock stars (Sting, Elton John), pop singer George Michael, film stars and producers (Tom Hanks, Steven Spilberg, Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise) and other famous people were among her friends. But she had more friends among ordinary people. Diana was seen many times in floods of tears, because of the pressures of her loveless 15-year marriage. It is not a secret that Diana was hounded and humiliated to the point of mental breakdown and was able to pull through only because she knew she had the love of the people to buoy her in her darkest hours.She was, indeed, the People's Princess.
David Duchovny was born in New York City on the 7th of August, 1960.
His father is a writer and his mother is a housewife. Before David was bom his parents had been English teachers. When his parents divorced, David was raised by his mother, along with his sister Laurie and his brother Daniel.
David went to a prestigious private school in Manhattan. "He was a very bright kid with a brilliant sense of humour," his father remembers. "At school he was always top of the class." After school he entered Princeton University. Then he studied English Literature at Yale University and worked as a teaching assistant.
David was working at his PhD thesis at Yale when one of his friends suggested that he should try acting classes.
Duchovny's PhD thesis, Magic and Technology in Contemporary Fiction and Poetry was never finished. He moved to Hollywood. His mother was angry when he had given up studying. Even now, when she speaks to him on the phone, she always asks him: "When are you going to finish your thesis?" He laughs and says: "Later, later."
David's first year in Hollywood was very hard. He was unemployed and could hardly make both ends meet. Luckily, he was invited to play in a commercial and later in a feature film. "Acting gave me a sense of team and I liked this very much," David says.
Very soon Duchovny appeared in such feature films as Chaplin, Beethoven and California. His work in the movies attracted the attention of Chris Carter, the famous creator of The X-Files. A TV series weren't in Duchovny's plans but he was impressed by the script for The X-Files. So he became agent Fox Mulder.
David is very surprised not only by the success of The X-Files but by his own personal popularity.
Actors who have worked with him describe him as modest, professional and hard-working. David is fond of sports. He played basketball and baseball at school and university. He keeps in shape with jogging and yoga exercises. He writes poetry, but, as he says, he does not read it in public any more.
Dante Alighieri is beyond doubt the greatest of Italian poets, and, many readers think, one of the greatest poets that Western civilization has produced. W. B. Yeats called him "the chief imagination of Christendom." T. S. Eliot said: "Dante and Shakespeare divide the modern world between them. There is no third."
He was born in Florence, Italy, in 1265. Italy in those days was not a united country, but a collection of mostly small city-states. Feuds and power struggles between noble families were a constant source of wars between states and of turmoil and civil war within them. Dante, heir of a poor but noble family, was one of the seven elected officials in charge of the government of Florence, when an accidental collision in the street during the May Festival in 1300 led to a brawl that escalated into a civil war that ultimately got Dante's party overthrown and its leaders (including Dante) exiled from Florence. He spent the rest of his life in exile, pining for his native city.
In 1293 he published a book called the Vita Nuova ("The New Life"), in which he relates how he fell in love with a young girl (Beatrice), and found his chief happiness in thinking of her, and looking at her from afar. In 1304 or shortly thereafter he published De Vulgari Eloquentia, an argument for writing poems and other works in the language that people speak (in his case, Italian) rather than in Latin. At the same time he wrote Il Convivio ("The Banquet"), in which he discusses grammar, and styles of poetry, and complains that his own poems, and in particular some of the things he said in the Vito Nuova, have been much misunderstood. In 1313 he published De Monarchia ("On Monarchy" or "A Treatise on Government"), in which he argued that the authority of a secular prince is not derived from the authority of the church, and is not given him by the pope, but comes directly from God (although in his exercise of it he ought, like every other Christian, to be guided by the moral instruction of the spiritual authority).
When he began writing his masterpiece, the Commedia, we do not know. (A "comedy," as traditionally defined, is a story that "begins in sorrow and ends in joy". Dante called his work simply "The Comedy." Later Italian writers speaking of the work called it "The Divine Comedy," by which name it is usually known today.) It appears that he had finished the first of its three parts by 1314, and the last only shortly before his death on 14 September 1321. (Because that is the Feast of the Holy Cross, he is remembered on the following day.)
The plot of the Comedy is straightforward. It begins with Dante lost and walking in a Dark Wood, unable to remember how he got there or how long he has been walking. He sees a mountain and tries to get out of the wood by climbing it, but is driven back by three beasts that bar his path. He runs in panic, sees a man approaching, and asks for help. The man replies: I am the poet Virgil. You cannot get out of the wood by climbing the mountain. You must follow me, and I will take you the long way round. Your Lady Beatrice has sent me to guide you, through the depths of Hell and up the slopes of Purgatory, to meet her in the country of the Blessed." Dante then follows Virgil, who conducts him through Hell, a vast funnel-shaped region under the surface of the earth, with a series of terraces that form ever-narrowing circles on which various kinds of evil deeds are punished, down to the center. They reach the tip of the funnel, located at the center of the earth, "the point toward which all things down-weigh", where the directions "up" and "down" are reversed, and find a small tunnel or pathway cut through the rock that leads them finally out on the other side of the earth, directly opposite Jerusalem, at the foot of Mount Purgatory, which is surrounded by cornices on which the seven basic kinds of inclination to sin are purged and corrected. They climb the mount and at its summit they find the earthly Paradise, the Eden from which our first parents were expelled when they turned aside from a relation of loving obedience to God and of loving trust in Him. There Beatrice meets Dante, and conducts him upward through the planetary spheres. Finally, he soars beyond the planets, beyond the stars, and beholds the whole company of Heaven assembled together, and is given a vision of the glory of God Himself. And here the poem ends.
DD was the founder of the realistic novel. He was also a brilliant journalist and in many ways the father of modern English periodicals. He founded and paved the way for many magazines ( "The Revue", "The Spectator").
DD was born in London, his father, a butcher, was wealthy enough to give his son a good education. D was to become a priest, but it was his cherished desire to become wealthy. His wish was never fullfield. D was banckrupt several times. He was always in deep debt. The only branch of business in which he proved succesful was journalism and literature. When D was about 23 he started writting pamphlets on question of the hour. He started writing pamphlets praising King William III, who was supported by the whig party. No matter in whose defence his brilliant pamphlets were written their irony was so subtle, that the enemy didn't understand it at first. But as soon as his enemy realised the real character of the pamphlets D was sentenced to 7 years of inprisonment. It was a cruel punishment, and when they came for him to be set free, people carried him on their shoulders. This was the climax of his political career and the end of it. In 1719, he tried his hand at another kind of literature - fiction, and wrote the novel he is now best known: "Robison Crusoe". After the book was published, D became famous and rich and was able to pay his creditors in full. Other novels which D were also very much talked about during his lifetime, but we do not hear much about them now. For example "Captain Singleton"(1720), "Moll Flanders"(1722).
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Many years ago a young doctor began to write stories about a man who was a detective. Readers liked his stories because they were very interesting and the doctor decided to become a writer. The doctor was Conan Doyle and he wrote about Sherlock Holmes.Conan Doyle wrote his first story about Sherlock Holmes in 1887. In this story the detective meets his friend Dr. Watson. Holmes and Watson lived at 221 В Baker Street in London.
Many discussions take place about where 221 В was. There is no house there now. But a large company has its office near the place. This company answers twenty or so letters which still come every week to Sherlock Holmes, 221 В Baker Street. Most come from the United States and many people ask if Mr. Holmes can help them with some problem.
The company answers saying that "Mr. Sherlock Holmes is no longer working as a detective".
There is a pub in London called Sherlock Holmes. One of the rooms in the pub is Sherlock Holmes* room. It has many things the room in Conan Doyle's stories had - Holmes' hat, some letters written to Sherlock Holmes, chairs and tables like those described in the stories. Besides, there are some pictures of Holmes and Conan Doyle, of actors who played Holmes and Watson in films, on television and radio.
In 1961 lovers of Sherlock Holmes formed the Sherlock Holmes Society. They meet three or four times a year to talk about Sherlock Holmes. The members of the Society know the stories about Sherlock" Holmes very well, and they discuss, these stories at their meetings.
300-400 years ago a big part of the world was remaining unknown. But now there seems little more to explore, the wild north was conquered, the jungle was conquered too. And it seems that all the pages of the great book called "The Earth" has been filled in, but exploration still goes on. In the 15th century people knew only 3 continents: Europe, Asia and Africa. They knew nothing about America. The man who was thought to be the discoverer of America was born in 1451