Bryan, William Jennings

CULTURAL BACKGROUND

I. Read the following

William Howard Taft, 1909.

27th president of the United States (1909–13) and 10th chief justice of the United States (1921–30). As the choice of President Theodore Roosevelt to succeed him and carry on the progressive Republican agenda, Taft as president alienated the progressives — and later Roosevelt — thereby contributing greatly to the split in Republican ranks in 1912, to the formation of the Bull Moose Party (also known as the Progressive Party), and to his humiliating defeat that year in his bid for a second term.

Bryan, William Jennings

Democratic and Populist leader and a magnetic orator who ran unsuccessfully three times for the U.S. presidency (1896, 1900, 1908). His enemies regarded him as an ambitious demagogue, but his supporters viewed him as a champion of liberal causes. He was influential in the eventual adoption of such reforms as popular election of senators, income tax, creation of a Department of Labor, Prohibition, and woman suffrage. Throughout his career, his Midwestern roots clearly identified him with agrarian interests, in opposition to those of the urban East.

German Wilhelm Tell, Swiss legendary hero who symbolized the struggle for political and individual freedom.

The historical existence of Tell is disputed. According to popular legend, he was a peasant from Bürglen in the canton of Uri in the 13th and early 14th centuries who defied Austrian authority, was forced to shoot an apple from his son's head, was arrested for threatening the governor's life, saved the same governor's life en route to prison, escaped, and ultimately killed the governor in an ambush. These events supposedly helped spur the people to rise up against Austrian rule.

The classic form of the legend appears in the Chronicon Helveticum (1734–36), by Gilg Tschudi, which gives November 1307 as the date of Tell's deeds and New Year 1308 as the date of Switzerland's liberation. There is no evidence, however, for the existence of Tell; but the story of the marksman's test is widely distributed in folklore. In the early Romantic era of nationalist revolutions, the Tell legend attained worldwide renown through the stirring play Wilhelm Tell (1804) by the German dramatist Friedrich von Schiller.

Harvard University –- the oldest US university. It is usually considered the best and it is one of the Ivy League universities. (the Ivy League – US universities and colleges organize themselves into groups of institutions (conferences) that are near each other and do certain activities, such as sports, together. The most highly respected of these groups is the Ivy League in the north-eastern US. The most famous members are Harvard and Yale universities). Harvard university was established as a college in 1663 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Two years later it was named after John Harvard, a Puritan born in England, who had given it money and books. Harvard is especially famous for its faculties (=departments) of law and business. Its library is the oldest in the US and one of the largest.

Cambridge 1. a city in England; 2. a city in the US, state of Massachusetts, across the Charles river from Boston. It is famous for its universities, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

II. Revise the topic "Education in Great Britain and the United States". Discuss:

What universities can high school graduates enter? What is the procedure?

How do students pay for education in the USA? How are ''schools" run?

Use of the following words and phrases: The Board of Trustees, prep school, freshman, sophomore; employment opportunities: job description (house sitting/care of homebound relatives); to be on aid; a Young American merit scholarship.

Vocabulary

Vantage, to draft, to convene, to transpire, to conclude, to commit, to derive, to blur, to tarnish, perk, voracious, tenacious, integrity.

I. Make sure you know the meaning of the following words and expressions: A stunt (a stuntman); a headmaster (a principal, a director); dean of Admissions; students' faculty (students' body); a standard of education (culture, living);a standard of excellence; to expel (ant. to admit); a standout.

II. Answer the questions:

What can be viewed as a standard of excellence (in education, in culture)?

What can add to the standard?

What can transpire at the institution?

Who can be expelled and for what?

What punishment can students have?

What can be convened?

Who is a standout in the field you major?

PREVIEWING

Proper names: Mr. Trask, Mrs. Hunsacker, George Willis, Charles (Chas) Simms, Harry Havemeyer, Lt. Col. (lieutenant colonel) Frank Slade, Mrs. Rossi. Oregon. Vermont.

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