День рождения Марка Твена

Mark Twain, pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was born in Florida, Missouri on 30 November 1835. He was the sixth child in the family of Jane Lampton and John Marshall Clemens. In 1839 the Twain family moved to the city of Hannibal, Missouri, a port on the Mississippi River. There he received a public school education. When his father died in 1847 the family was left in financial straits. Eleven year old Samuel left school and obtained his first of many jobs working with various newspapers and magazines. Subsequently he worked as a printer in many other cities. Later Clemens was a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River. In 1861 the writer served briefly as a volunteer soldier in the Confederate cavalry. Later that year he accompanied his brother and tried his hand at silver mining. In 1862 he became a reporter and in 1863 he began signing his articles with the pseudonym Mark Twain. His famous penname Twain adopted from the call ('Mark twain!' – meaning by the mark of two fathoms) used when sounding river shallows. But this isn't the full story: he had also satirized an older writer, Isaiah Sellers, who called himself Mark Twain. In 1870 Twain married Olivia Langdon with whom he had four children.

История песни

«Happy Birthday to You» is a well-known song in the English speaking world and all over the world. It is sung to millions of birthday celebrants from infants to presidents. It has been performed in space and its tune can be heard into music boxes, musical greeting cards, watches and other tuneful products. The origin of the song dates back to the mid-nineteenth century, when two sisters, Patty and Mildred J. Hill, introduced the song "Good Morning to All" to Patty's kindergarten class in Kentucky. In 1893, they published the tune in their songbook Song Stories for the Kindergarten.
"Good Morning to All"
Good morning to you
Good morning to you,
Good morning, dear children,
Good morning to all.
(Lyrics by Patty Smith Hill.)
The Hill Sisters' students enjoyed their teachers' version of "Good Morning To All" so much that they began spontaneously singing it at birthday parties, changing the lyrics to "Happy Birthday".
According to the 1998 Guinness Book of World Records, this song is the most recognized song in the English language. Two kindergarten teachers wrote a song as a useful teacher’s aid, but today it’s a hit that never goes away.

День рождения школы

Yesterday my school celebrated its 40 anniversary. It was decorated with coloured balloons, flowers and photos of former pupils, teachers. We  invited a lot of quests. They came with presents. The most wonderful one, in my opinion, was the picture of a birch in a winter forest made of a horse hair. We heard so many kind words and felt proud of our school.  There was a concert full of songs, dances and video congratulations from the graduators who now live in Germany, the USA, Moscow and St. Petersburg. We were glad to listen to and see the familiar faces of former headmaster and a chief teacher of English who left our town. We saw a film about the first years of the school, remembered people who had worked here. It’s interesting to note that six of our teachers are former pupils. I am among them. After the concert there was a party. We treated the quests with champagne, danced a lot. 40 years are not many, but not few. Our school has its history, traditions and a lot of successful, clever and  good people will remember it as their childhood, their fist friends, love.



День Благодарения

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving is a preeminent day in the USA, Canada and several other countries. It is celebrated every year on the fourth Thursday in the month of November. Thanksgiving Day Festival commemorates the feast held by the Pilgrim colonists in Plymouth in 1621.They crossed the Atlantic Ocean the year before in Mayflower-a 17th century sailing vessel. About 102 people travelled for nearly two months with extreme difficulty. This was so because they were kept in the cargo space of the sailing vessel. No one was allowed to go on the deck due to terrible storms. The pilgrims comforted themselves by singing Psalms (a sacred song). The life in their new country was not easy. But they learnt to grow corn, beans and pumpkins from the Indians, which helped all of them to survive. Today on Thanksgiving Day people express gratitude to God for his blessings and give thanks to dear ones for their love and support. Feasting with family is an integral and most delightful part of Thanksgiving Day celebrations. http://www.thanksgiving-day.org/

My site about this holiday: http://www.school12-mirny.by.ru/B_Palace/Thanksgiving%20Day/Thanksgiving%20Day.html

Thanksgiving Story, by Colegio Americano de Tabasco

Find this and other thanksgiving exercises in English Exercises .org

Великая балерина

Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya is a Russian ballet dancer, considered to be one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century. She was born in Moscow on November 20 in 1925. Her father worked as an engineer and mine director. In 1938 he was executed, possibly because he had hired a friend who had been a secretary to Leon Trotsky. Her mother Rachel Messerer-Plisetskaya, a silent-film actress, was arrested and sent to a labor camp. Maya was adopted by her aunt, the ballerina Sulamith Messerer, until her mother was released in 1941. Maya studied under the great ballerina of imperial school, Elizaveta Gerdt. She first performed at the Bolshoi Theatre when she was just 11. In 1943, she graduated from the choreographic school and joined the Bolshoi Ballet, where she would perform until 1990. In 1958, she was honoured with the title of the People's Artist of the USSR and married the young composer Rodion Shchedrin. In 1962 she became a prima ballerina. Plisetskaya danced at the same time as the great Galina Ulanova and took from her a lot of skills. Plisetskaya's first work as a choreographer was a ballet based on LevTolstoy's Anna Karenina using music composed by her husband; it was staged in 1972 and filmed in 1974. Maya was known for the height of her jumps, extremely flexible back, the technical strength of dancing and charisma.

Всероссийская эвристическая олимпиада "Эйдос"

I want to congratulate my pupil of the 7B form Masha Tokareva to her good result on the olympiad "Eidos". Masha has become a laureate of it. She is the fifth in Russia with her essays in the age group of 6-8 forms. I am very glad!
Thank you, Masha, for your industrious work!

Прекрасная обучающая игра!!!

Dear pupils, take a Quiz Adventure Journey

Quizzes are a great way to improve your general knowledge as well as develop your knowledge of English question forms. This quiz from the BBC's BiteSize website is an adventure quiz with 8 beautifully designed levels. It tests your understanding of writing skills, Maths, science and other topics. You have to click parts of the image to find the questions of every level on different planets. Go to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/games/questionaut/pop.shtml to play this game!

Новый мэр Лондона

Two days ago in London there was The Lord Mayor's Show. It is an annual event on the 2nd Saturday in November. There has been a Lord Mayor of London ever since 1189. In 1215 King John allowed people of London to elect their own Mayor every year. He required that the new Mayor present himself to the Sovereign and swear loyalty to the Crown. Each year the newly elected Mayor had to make the long journey upriver from the City to Westminster to pledge allegiance. The Lord Mayor has been making that journey every year for 785 years, surviving plague and fire and countless wars and insurrections. Over the years the Mayor's Journey became so splendid that it became known as the Lord Mayor's Show. On the 13^th of November a military flypast over Mansion House marked the beginning of the parade to celebrate the inaugural outing of the 683rd Lord Mayor of the City of London. The procession travelled to St Paul's Cathedral, where the new Lord Mayor was blessed by the Dean of St Paul's before the procession carried on to the Royal Courts of Justice where the Lord Mayor swore an oath of allegiance to the sovereign. The Lord Mayor's Show comprised above 6,000 people, over 140 ornamentally decorated floats and performers in addition to the significant and ornately gilded State Coach which the Lord Mayor himself travelled in. The day culminated in a fireworks between Waterloo and Blackfriars Bridges on the Thames. The name of the mayor is Michael Bear.
For more information: Lord Mayor Show

Всемирный день доброты

Random Acts of Kindness Day is the name of an unofficial holiday increasingly celebrated around the world by localities or organizations, or nationwide, in order to encourage acts of kindness. The original founder of Random Acts of Kindness Day is unknown. The holiday is celebrated annually in the United States on February 17 and in New Zealand on September 1. It is not a holiday, rather a national day where the entire country is challenged to do something kind to a friend or stranger for no reason at all.
Kindness is the act or the state of being kind — marked by goodness and charitable behaviour, mild disposition, pleasantness, tenderness and concern for others. It is known as a virtue, and recognized as a value in many cultures and religions. According to book two of Aristotle's "Rhetoric", it is one of the emotions, which is defined as being "helpfulness towards some one in need, not in return for anything, nor for the advantage of the helper himself, but for that of the person helped". Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche argued that kindness and love are the "most curative herbs and agents in human intercourse". Kindness is considered to be one of the Knightly Virtues.
virtue – добродетель
curative herbs – целебные травы
intercourse – общение
knightly – благородный, рыцарский
from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Watch this wonderful cartoon! I like it a lot. It’s sad, but very, very kind!

and listen to this beautiful song

История смайлика

Смайликами (от smile — улыбка) в Интернете называют значки, составленные из знаков препинания, букв и цифр, обозначающие какие-то эмоции. У смайлика есть автор.

Harvey Ross Ball (10 July 1921 – 12 April 2001) was an American commercial artist. He is recognized as the earliest known designer of the Smiley, which became an enduring and notable international icon. Ball was born and raised in Worcester, Massachusetts. During his time as a student at South High School, he became an apprentice to local sign painter, and later attended Worcester Art Museum School, where he studied fine arts. His design of the Smiley came about in 1963. The State Mutual Life Assurance Company of Worcester, Massachusetts (now known as Hanover Insurance) purchased Guarantee Mutual Company of Ohio. The merger resulted in low employee morale. In an attempt to solve this, Harvey Ball was employed in 1963 as a freelance artist to create a smiley face to be used on buttons, desk cards, and posters. In less than ten minutes the smiley face was complete. The use of the smiley face was a part of the company's friendship campaign whereby State Mutual handed out 100 smiley pins to employees. The aim was to get employees to smile while using the phone and doing other tasks. The buttons were highly popular, with orders in lots of 10,000.

Правила этикета для электронной почты

Сетевой этикет - понятие, возникшее с появлением электронной почты (Email – electronic mail) и электронных досок объявлений (ВВS - Bulletin Board System). Интернет развивается, расширяются его сервисы. На смену первым BBS пришли форумы и телеконференции. В дополнение к электронной почте появились и стали популярными чаты, обеспечивающие возможность беседовать в реальном времени в режиме on-line, людям, удаленным друг от друга на тысячи километров; Интернет-пейджеры (ICQ, NetMeeting и др.), которые позволяют общаться избирательно, видеть друг друга. Интернет стал доступен, и все больше людей знакомятся с ним. Для того, чтобы, общаясь в Интернете с использованием различных его сервисов, не доставлять неприятностей собеседникам и не иметь их самому, полезно следовать некоторым несложным правилам. Правила сетевого этикета просты и похожи на правила поведения в реальной жизни.

Правила этикета для электронной почты Email

1. Всегда заполняйте поле subject ("тема") своего письма. Ориентируясь по темам, проще выделить нужные письма в большом списке поступающей корреспонденции. Отфильтровывайте спам (spam) – навязчивую рекламу.
2. Отвечая на пришедшее письмо, принято цитировать некоторые его отрывки. Цитируемые фразы нужно выделять каким-нибудь символом, обычно это ">", и отделять их от ваших фраз пустой строкой. Большинство программ для работы с электронной почтой при написании ответа сами выделяют текст исходного письма подобными знаками, и пользователю достаточно лишь удалить ненужные фразы.

Сетевой этикет

Netiquette — правила поведения в Интернете. Это понятие появилось в середине 80-х годов XX века в эхоконференциях сети FIDO.

Чаще всего под явным нарушением этикета понимают оскорбления и переход на личности, рекламу и саморекламу, клевету, обман и плагиат.

Люди, привыкшие к правилам одного сетевого сообщества, могут невольно нарушить правила другого. Поэтому практически во всех интернет-сообществах требуется ознакомиться с правилами и выразить своё формальное согласие на их соблюдение. Также есть общие правила, соблюдение которых является хорошим тоном в большинстве дискуссий:
• Перед тем, как становиться активным участником сетевого сообщества, желательно в течение определенного времени посещать его, оставляя минимум собственных комментариев, чтобы привыкнуть к правилам сообщества, а также узнать о некоторых его традициях.
• Прежде чем задать вопрос, не поленитесь воспользоваться поиском — быть может этот вопрос уже задавали, быть может уже на него дан ответ.
• Старайтесь делать свои записи удобочитаемыми.
• Во многих сообществах не поощряется написание сообщений, имеющих единственную цель привлечения внимания к вашей персоне.
Интернет развивается, появляется всё больше пользователей. Люди допускают ошибки из-за незнания сетевого этикета. Для избежания ошибок в Сети следует знать некоторые понятия сетевого этикета.

Флейм

Flame — «пламя» — это процесс, который иногда возникает при общении в интернете, «словесная война». Это неожиданно возникшее бурное обсуждение, в процессе которого участники обычно забывают о первоначальной теме, переходят на личности и не могут остановиться. Обычно флеймы возникают спонтанно, развиваются очень быстро и заканчиваются лишь при вмешательстве модератора или когда все участники окончательно устанут. Это тот самый вид спора, в котором истина не рождается — по окончании флейма все спорщики чувствуют себя неудобно и никакого конструктивного результата флейм не дает.
Если случилось так, что вы стали невольным участником флейма, наиболее разумное поведение в этой ситуации — один раз максимально четко, конструктивно и доброжелательно выразить свою позицию, и больше в дискуссию не вступать. Тогда она, скорее всего, затухнет сама. Если же вы будете пытаться что-то доказать — флейм будет становиться только жарче и ваше положение и имидж будут лишь ухудшаться.

Флуд