Text B.Miraculous Gift of Languages

Ármin Vámbéry (1832 –1913) was a great Hungarian scientist, diplomat and traveler. He was born on the territory of modern-day Slovakia, and he could speak Hungarian, Slovakian and German since early childhood. Then he learned other European languages, including Danish and Swedish, Latin and French, English and Russian, Serbian and Greek. Vámbéry traveled to Constantinople and learned Turkish so well that people around him were sure he was a Turk.

Vámbéry came from a poor family. He went to the village school in his native town until the age of twelve and showed a remarkable talent for languages. He had to leave school because of (через) financial difficulties. In 1846, he went to Pressburg (today Bratislava). Later he studied at Vienna and Budapest.

The young linguist was especially attracted by the literature and culture of the Ottoman Empire including Turkey. In Constantinople, Vámbéry became a private tutor of European languages at the palace of the Sultan, and served as secretary to Fuat Pasha. About this time (приблизно в цей час) he was elected a corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences for his translations of Ottoman historians and many linguistic works.

He also learned some (близько) twenty (!) other Ottoman languages and dialects. In 1861, disguised (переодягнений) as a Muslim dervish (дервіші – збірна назва для мусульманських аскетичних сект), and under the name of Reshit Efendi, he set out from Constantinople. His route lay from Trebizond on the Black Sea to Tehran in Persia, where he joined a group of pilgrims (паломників) returning from Mecca, spending several months with them traveling across Central Iran. He then went to Shiraz, through Isfahan, and in June, 1863, he reached Khiva (Central Asia).

Throughout this time, Vámbéry’s life was always in danger, but nobody guessed that he was not a Turk and not a Muslim. In Khiva, Vámbéry met with the local khan. Together with his group of travelers, he then crossed Bukhara and arrived at Samarkand. Then he joined a caravan to Tehran, and from there, in March 1864, he came back to Constantinople.

This was the first journey of its kind undertaken (здійснена) by a Western European. Vámbéry returned to Europe in 1864. That following year, he paid a visit to London, where he was greeted like a hero. Returning to Hungary, Vámbéry was appointed professor of Oriental languages at the University of Budapest in 1865, retiring in 1905.

In 2005 the National Archives in Great Britain made some files accessible to the public, and it became known that Vámbéry had been employed by the British Foreign Office (Міністерство закордонних справ) as a secret agent whose task it was to get information about the political situation in Turkey and Central Asia.

Unit 9

Text A. -First Lesson in a New Class-----

--- There are now two Spanish students in Anne Evan’s class – Arturo from the north of Spain and Rosa from Madrid. Anne is happy to have twelve students because they can all do pairwork! Rosa is happy because the level is more difficult. On the board, there is a list of irregular verbs in the Past Simple:

Anne gives her students very clear instructions:

"I’d like Rosa to sit next to Yukiko so that we’ve got six pairs. You all have a copy of the list of words on the board. I’m going to tell you a short story. Listen carefully and tick (відзначайте) the words you hear."

Rosa does not have a copy of the word list, but Yukiko is very kind. The two students share one photocopy (ксерокопія). They do not disturb their teacher.

Anne starts her story:

"Yesterday, on my way home from school, I lost all my money. Suddenly, I felt very hungry, but at the same moment I saw an interesting sign. It said: FREE FOOD, THIS WAY! The sign led to a nice restaurant, but it was closed. I rang the door bell. Nobody came so I went inside. On the first table, there were three plates of sushi. I ate two of them. Then I heard the noise of a taxi. A large man got out. He had two glasses of sake in his hands. I became afraid and hid under the table.

I lay there for nearly an hour while the large man stood by the door. Then I woke up. The man by the door was my husband. He told me that it was morning and that I was in my own bedroom. In his hands, he had two cups of strong, black coffee."

Anne is a good teacher and her lessons have a lot of variety. The students have to tell the same story again to their pairwork partners, but first they have to ask questions in the Past Simple. Anne is listening carefully to her new student. She tells Rosa that there are two types of questions with the words WHO, WHAT, HOW MUCH and HOW MANY. Then she writes some examples on the board for all the class to see:

Who lost all her money? Anne did.

Who got out of the taxi? A large man did.

How many glasses of sake did he have? Two.

What did Anne lose? All her money.

How much sushi did Anne eat? A lot.