Category Archive: немного истории

Aaron’s rod — жезл Аарона; символ власти; страсть к обогащению
В культуре израильтян жезл был естественным символом власти, как инструмент использовался пастухом для управления и руководства своим стадом. Жезлы, как Моисея, так и Аарона, старшего брата Моисея и пророка Божьего, были наделены чудотворной силой во время эпидемий чумы в Египте. Во время Седьмого Исхода Бог посылает Моисея и Аарона к фараону, наставляя Аарона, что, когда фараон потребует чуда, он должен бросить свой жезл, и тот станет змеем. Когда он это сделал, колдуны фараона аналогичным образом бросили свои жезлы, которые также превратились в змей, но жезл-змей Аарона поглотил их всех. Уолт Уитмен (1819-1892), американский поэт, эссеист и журналист, говорит о нашем времени: «Змея мага в басне поглотила всех других змей, а зарабатывание денег – это наш магический змей, который остался единственным хозяином поля». Д. Х. Лоуренс (1885-1930), английский писатель, поэт, драматург, эссеист, литературовед и живописец, назвал свой роман «Жезл Аарона» (1922). Жезл Аарона так же является названием для различных цветущих растений.
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American Dream is an expression often used to describe the vital ideals of the US population in both the material and spiritual senses.
The American dream is the ideal of freedom and opportunity, the spiritual power of the nation. If the American system is a skeleton of US policy, the American dream is its soul.
The source of the phrase American Dream is considered to be The Epic of America (1931), historical treatise by James Adams written during the Great Depression. James Adams encouraged his compatriots and reminded them of the purpose of America and its achievements. He states: “The American Dream is “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous5 circumstances of birth or position.” (p.214-215)
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Alabama
Unforgettable
Capital City: Montgomery
Known as the Heart of Dixie, Alabama became the 22nd state in 1819. The name Alabama is derived from an Indian word meaning “thicket clearers.” Alabama has been at the center of many American battles-between white settlers and Native Americans, and between the North and South in the Civil War. The state also is home to the first of three Space Camps in the United States. These camps let kids experience what it would be like to be in outer space. The capital is Montgomery, and state flower is the camellia.
Origin of state’s name: Means “tribal town” in the Creek Indian language.
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The name of America’s greatest river, the Mississippi, is made from two American Indian words: misi (great) and sipi (water). It is 3,778 km long and flows from the US state of Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. Its tributary, the Missouri River, is 3,767 km, and together they form the largest river system in the world.
Hundreds of years ago, Native Americans lived along the ‘Father of the Waters’ and used the river for trade and travel.
The first Europeans to reach the river were Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto and his party in 1541.
Until 1803 the Mississippi River was the western boundary of the United States; the land beyond belonged to France and Spain. The French controlled a large territory known as Louisiana (after King Louis XIV of France). The ruler of France at this time was Napoleon, and Americans were afraid that he might send French soldiers and settlers to Louisiana. President Thomas Jefferson decided to buy the land. Luckily, Napoleon was about to go to war with Britain and needed money. For fifteen million dollars he sold Louisiana to the United States!
The Mississippi River starts at Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota. It is a pristine, sparkling place, and the waters from which it comes are very clear and cold. The river is so narrow here that you can walk across it in 15 steps.
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Eton College is one of the most famous schools in the world. It is a school for boys only. It’s located in the small town of Eton, next to Windsor which is famous for Windsor Castle. Prince William and Prince Harry studied in Eton College.
Eton was founded by King Henry VI in 1440. The king was only 18 at that time. His aim was to give education to poor boys so that they could then go to Cambridge University. The chosen boys should “have a good character, be good at reading, Latin grammar and singing”. If they “behaved badly, married, or became monks”, they had to leave.
The life in Eton was hard. Rats ran free about the college, boys had to get up at 5 o’clock in the morning and all lessons were in Latin.
Today, Eton is the largest, most prestigious and very expensive public school in Britain. To get into the college you have to pass entrance exams first.
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Martin Luther King was a Baptist minister and a student of the Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi. He is the only black American whose birthday is a national holiday. It’s celebrated on the third Monday of January each year.
Before the Civil War (1861-1865), most black people in the USA were slaves, with no rights. In 1868 they got the right to vote. But in the Southern states there was still ‘segregation’ (separate schools, parks, restaurants, toilets for whites and blacks). In 1954 segregation in schools became illegal, but it still existed in other public places.
An African American woman named Rosa Parks was arrested on December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, because she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. Black residents of the city were outraged. Martin Luther King was chosen to lead the protests that became known as the Montgomery bus boycott. King persuaded the black citizens to protest peacefully.
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A long time ago there lived a Cherokee boy named Sequoyah. He was not as tall as his friends, and he was lame. Yet this small boy grew up to be the greatest Cherokee of them all. For it was Sequoyah who solved the mystery of the talking leaves.
Sequoyah was born about 1773. No one knows for sure just which year it was. In those days the Indians did not have a written language. Sequoyah’s mother was the daughter of a great Cherokee chief. His father was a white man named Nathaniel Gist. Nathaniel left the Cherokees soon after Sequoyah was born. He had to go back to his own people. But Sequoyah and his mother stayed with the tribe. That was the custom.
When Sequoyah grew up, he got interested in the white people’s language. The white people used paper for writing. Sequoyah thought that paper looked like large white leaves. The “leaves”: were covered with many black marks. Sequoyah watched the people as they looked at their “leaves”. To Sequoyah it seemed as though the little marks written on the paper were talking to people.
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