2017-12-16
807
Speaker 1
It’s always hard work choosing books for children. I sometimes remember the books I loved long ago when I was a child myself. My favourite book then was “Adventures with Rosalind” by Charlotte Austen, a gripping fantasy about a lonely boy on a long journey through different lands across seven seas. Unfortunately nobody has heard of it as it is long out of print. Anyway I really enjoyed it when I was seven or eight years old.
Speaker 2
I’d like to say how important it is to read aloud to children. I suppose this is the best, easiest and most enjoyable way to make a child love books for life. I don’t just mean reading books to babies or very young children. I mean going on reading aloud long after children can read for themselves. I’m sorry they don’t read aloud in our schools as often as they used to. I still remember how much we, children, loved our reading lesson on Friday afternoon back in those long-ago schooldays.
Speaker 3
I also think there should be more reading aloud at home. Recorded stories are wonderful, especially in cars, but there’s nothing like a grown-up reading or telling a story directly to a child. My all-time favourite picture book to read aloud is “Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak, with its poetic text and wonderfully imaginative illustrations. It never fails to intrigue or please any child under seven. The Mary Poppins books are good to read to seven- or nine-year-olds. Each part is a story in itself, perfect for bedtime reading.
Step 8
Аудиозапись № 33 к упражнению 1
There are very few people who do not know the name of Joanne Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series. She is internationally famous and her books are sold in millions of copies worldwide. J. K. Rowling is one of the world’s most successful writers. So, how did she become one?
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Rowling was born near Bristol, England. As a child, she enjoyed writing stories, which she often read to her sister.
At school, Joanne was good at languages but didn’t like sport or mathematics. She studied French and Classics at the University of Exter, with a year of study in Paris. After graduating from the University Joanne Rowling moved to London to work for the organization called “Amnesty International”. One day while she was on a train trip between Manchester and London, she had the idea for a story of a young boy who goes to a very unusual school, a school of wizardry. As soon as she got home, she began writing. A few months later, Rowling went to Portugal to teach English as a foreign language. There she got married and had a daughter Jessica.
Soon she and her little daughter returned to Great Britain, to Scotland and had a hard time earning her living. She had no job and badly needed money. Then she remembered her book, finished the manuscript and typed it on an old typewriter. She offered her book to twelve publishing homes. No one of them took it.
A year later, Barry Cunningham from the small publishing house “Bloomsbury” agreed to publish the book. He did it after eight-year-old Alice Newton, the daughter of the company chairman, read the beginning of the story about Harry Potter and asked for more. Anyhow, while publishing the book, Cunningham was not sure that the book would be a success and make any money. But the book became a real bestseller.
Step 9
