1I was dying to find out more about it

When I got my first sight of the gardens

3. took my breath away

4. bursting into leaf, fresh and green

5. would take me back

6. this was worse than ever an island

• я помирав від бажання дізнатися про нього ще більше;

• коли я вперше побачив цей парк;

• у мене перехопило дихання;

• розпускалися бруньки та з’являлися молоді зелені листочки;

• поверне мене;

• тут було ще жахливіше;

• безпечне місце, «острів»,

посередині вулиці, площі.

Benjamin Franklin

1 о

Benjamin Franklin, American statesman , printer, scientist , inventor, and writer, was born about three hundred years ago in Boston, Massachusetts. At the time of his birth, 1706, Massachusetts was still a colony and the United States had not yet become an independent nation. At that time candles were used for lights in houses and Franklin's father was a candlemaker. Benjamin was the tenth of seventeen children. When he. was only ten years old he had to leave school⁴to help his father.

Benjamin was not happy working in his father's candle shop, and so when he was thirteen his father sent him to Ben's elder brother where he became a printer. In these years he learned to write so well that he often wrote something for his brother's newspaper.

Franklin liked the work in the printing shop, but he did not get along very well with his brother⁵. At the age of seventeen⁶he set out to make his own way

n

In the world . He went to New York, but not finding any work there, went to Philadelphia. He arrived there dirty and hungry.

Franklin began working in a printing shop in Philadelphia, but by 1729 he became the owner of a popular newspaper.

Franklin was greatly interested in electricity and is famous for flying a kite during a thunderstorm: thus he proved the connection of lightning with electricity. This was one of the many investigations, which won Franklin

. . o .

recognition as a scientist.

In Philadelphia Franklin founded⁹the first public library in America. Franklin served his country¹⁰as a statesman and as a diplomat. Benjamin Franklin died in 1790 when he was eighty-four years old.

Notes

Statesman - державний діяч;

²scientist -вчений;

was bom ⁴to leave school

⁵to get along well with somebody⁶at the age of 17

⁷to make one's own way in the world

o

investigations which won recognition ⁹to found

¹⁰to serve one's country

• народився;

• закінчив школу;

• бути в гарних стосунках, ладити з ким-небудь;

• у віці 17 років;

• зробити кар’єру, завоювати повагу у суспільстві, отримати визнання;

• дослідження, які принесли визнання, славу;

• заснувати;

• служити своїй країні.

D. I. Mendeleyev

D. I. Mendeleyev, the great Russian scientist, was born in Tobolsk in 1834. After finishing school at the age of 16 he went to St. Petersburg and entered the Pedagogical Institute. He graduated from the Institute in 1855. In 1866 Mendeleyev was appointed professor at the University where he gave a course of lectures on chemistry. His lectures were always listened to with great interest and attention. Even in a class of two hundred students everyone was able to follow his discussions from the beginning to the end.