Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, England. In those days schools did not teach science as they do today. Twelve-year old Darwin, who wanted to spend his time out of doors collecting plants and watching animals, had to stay inside and learn how to write poetry. He was very bad at it – so bad, in fact, that his father once wrote him angrily – “You care for nothing, but shooting dogs and rat-catching and you will be a disgrace to yourself and all our family”.
Charles's father then decided that he should be a doctor and sent him to a medical school. But it soon became obvious that young Darwin was not at all interested in medicine. So his father tried to make-a clergyman out of him and sent him to the University of Cambridge. Still Darwin couldn't make himself care for anything but hunting and natural history. As soon as he graduated, one of Darwin's professors, a scientist, who understood him better than his father urged him to apply for the job of naturalist aboard of the H.M.S. Beagle. The ship was to make a voyage around the world, surveying trade routes and looking for ways to improve trade for British merchants in the far-off corners of the earth. The captain was willing to give up part of his own cabin to any young man who would go without pay as naturalist. Today no one remembers how much the Beagle helped British merchants. The information the trip yielded about trade was far less important than the knowledge that was to change people's way of thinking. It was during his trip on the Beagle that Darwin first began to, develop his theory of evolution. Everywhere he sailed he collected facts about rocks, plants and animals. The more facts he gathered from different parts of the world, the more he became convinced that things he observed in nature could not be explained by the old idea that each species had been separately created.
The more he wandered and observed, the more he began to realize there was only one possible answer to the puzzle. If all these species of plants and animals had developed from common ancestors, then it was easy to understand their similarities and differences. At some time, Darwin thought, the common ancestors of both the island and mainland species must have travelled from the main land to the inlands. Later, all the species in both places, through slow changes, became different from each other.
After the Beagle returned to England, Darwin began his first notebook on the origin of species. During the next twenty years he filled notebook after notebook with still more facts that he and others discovered about the world of living things. These facts all led to one conclusion, that all living things are descended from common ancestors.
Darwin proved the truth of evolution, the descent with change of one species from another. Where others before him have failed, Darwin succeeded in convincing the world that he was right about evolution. He succeeded for two reasons. He collected an enormous number of facts and put them together so that they told the whole story. And he not only declared that evolution occurred but he also explained how it worked and what caused it. This he called the theory of natural selection.
Nearly a hundred years have passed since Darwin's great book, "The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection", was published. People have found out new facts about evolution, and especially about inheritance. These facts have made more precise our ideas of how natural selection works. This does not mean the theory was wrong. On the contrary, a true theory is alive; like everything else in the world it changes and grows. Only a dead, useless theory stays the same down to the last detail.
Notes to the text:
to fail – â³ä÷óâàòè íåñòà÷ó, íå âïîðàòèñÿ, ñõèáèòè
his heart was failing – éîãî ñåðäöå ñëàáëî
he failed his exams – â³í ïðîâàëèâñÿ íà åêçàìåíàõ
he failed to appear – â³í íå ç’ÿâèâñÿ
he managed to come – éîìó âäàëîñü ïðèéòè
without fail – îáîâ’ÿçêîâî, áåç ñóìí³âó
I succeeded in doing smth – ìåí³ âäàëîñÿ…
care – òóðáîòà
to take care of – äáàòè
I don't ñàãå – ìåí³ áàéäóæå
he cared for nothing but – â³í í³ ïðî ùî íå äóìàâ, îêð³ì
to look – äèâèòèñü, âèãëÿäàòè
to look for – øóêàòè
to look after – äáàòè ïðî êîãîñü, ñïîñòåð³ãàòè çà êèìîñü
to look at – äèâèòèñÿ íà, çâåðòàòè óâàãó
to look like – áóòè ñõîæèì íà íà
3. Translate the following words bearing in mind the meaning of the affixes and memorize them:
to inform (v), informer (n), information (n), informative (adj)
to select (v), selector (n), selection (n), selective (adj)
to collect (v), collector (n), collection (n), collective (adj)
to explain (v), explanation (n), explanatory (adj)
to fail (v), failure (n)
to succeed (v), success (n), successful (adj), succession {n)
evolution (ë), evolutional (adj), evolutionalism (n)
4. Form the antonyms of the following words by using the prefixes — dis, mis, un, im, ex, non, de, il, ir:
possible, regular, living, organic, legal, natural, like, compose, understand, necessary, pleasant, appear, able, dependent, conscious, approval, liberate, belief, calculate, countable, variability, valuable
5. Give the derivatives of the following words:
collect, assimilate, microscope, include, division, product, differ, direct, care, possible, publish, observer, evolution
6. Translate the following sentences into Russian:
a)
1) He had to learn poetry instead of collecting plants.
2) He was to go on a sea trip.
3) In the late summer of 1831 "The Beagle" was to make a cruise around the world.
4) Though "The Beagle" was to push on across the Pacific, the greater part of her voyage was spent along the coast of South America.
5) In a small town in Kent he was to live and work for the rest of his life.
b)
1) The more he saw the more he thought.
2) The more he worked the better he understood the importance of his discovery.
3) The earlier we shall begin the work, the sooner we shall finish it.
4) The more you read English books the easier it becomes for you to understand them.
c)
1) It was Charles Darwin who proposed the theory of evolution.
2) It was under the influence of his friend Henslow that Darwin began to read the works of great naturalists.
3) It was after a profound study of historical facts that he formulated his theory of evolution.
d)
1) He asked his son to think of some other occupation, but he could think of nothing but his going on the sea trip.
2) Nobody objected to it but his father.
3) Who but he could do such a thing?