THOMAS ALVA EDISON

Thomas Alva Edison was born in 1847. He was sick a lot when he was young. Edison’s mother taught him lessons at home and he only studied the things he wanted to know. At the age of ten, he read his first science book. After he read the book, he built a laboratory in his house. Soon, Edison started to invent things. He was interested in the telegraph and electricity. At the age of twenty-three, he made a special telegraphic machine and sold it for a lot of money. With this money, he was now free to invent all the time.

Edison started his own laboratory at Menio Park, New Jersey. He hired mechanics and chemists to help him. He worked day and night. Once, he worked on forty-five inven­tions at the same time. Edison did not sleep very much, but he took naps. He often fell asleep with his clothes on.

Did you know Edison invented wax paper, fire alarms, the battery, and motion pictures? But his favourite inven­tion was the phonograph, or record player. He invented the phonograph in 1876. His other famous invention was the light bulb. Edison died in 1931, at the age of eighty-four. He had over 1,300 inventions to his name! Many people say that Edison was a genius – one of the smart­est people in the world.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY

Ernest Hemingway is one of the greatest 20th-century American writers. His incredible career, and 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. In high school Hemingway played football and wrote for the school news­paper.

In 1917, when the United States entered the First World War, Hemingway left home and schooling to become a young 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 First World War.

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 Second World War 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 before him under similar circumstances.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

Theodore Roosevelt was the twenty-sixth president of the United States. He was president from 1901 to 1909. He was a very intelligent man. He was also very energetic. He was a boxer, a soldier, a rancher, and an explorer.

This energetic man was not strong when he was a boy. He had some problems with his breathing. He had asthma. His father wanted him to be strong. Roosevelt learned to box and did many other sports. Soon Roosevelt became strong and energetic.

After he became president, Roosevelt kept his body strong. He even boxed in the White House. One day, another boxer hit him in the eye. After that accident, Roosevelt became blind in one eye.

Theodore Roosevelt’s nickname was “Teddy”. Every­body called him Teddy. When he was president, he often went hunting. One day he went hunting with some friends and saw a little bear. He did not shoot the bear. He said the bear was too small and must go free. The next day the story of the little bear was in the newspapers. The newspapers named the little bear “Teddy” after the presi­dent. Soon people called toy bears for children “teddy bears”.

When he left the White House, Teddy Roosevelt went to hunt in Africa. He then went to South America to explore places that nobody knew about. Everybody loved his energy.

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Дата публикации: 2004-11-05 (13851 прочтено)