Arthur m. Jensen endorsed by the following professors of English

AN IMPORTANT PIECE OF WATER

1588

	In the county of Cornwall in South-West Eng-
Cornwall [ko:nwəl] Philip [filip] Point of view	land, the first Spanish ships had been sighted. A fire was immediately lit to let the nation know that the enemy was coming. Within a very short time, fires were burning all the way along the south coast of England. People had been expecting this for some time. It was known that King Philip the Second of Spain had prepared a great number of ships for the invasion of England. King Philip was very angry with England. Firstly, the English were Protestants; they were not Catholics; they were not members of the 'true' church. Secondly, and perhaps more important from Philip's point of view, The English
^= opinionhad now for many years attacked the rich Spanish ships sailing between the new world and the old. Much money that should have ended in Philip's own pocket, found its

When Philip's preparations were completed, 130 great ships-of-war left Spain. In addition to the large number of sailors necessary, they had on board 20,000 of the best soldiers that Philip had been able to get together for the invasion of England. The plan was to sail the Spanish ships-of-war

up the English Channel to the Netherlands, and to take on board the army of the Duke of Parma which was waiting there. As soon as the English saw the fires burning along the coast, every man hurried to do what he knew to be his duty. Many were to remain on land in case it should be possible for the Spaniards to make a landing. Many others made their way to their ships; they were small ships, very small ships compared with those of the Spaniards.

Duke of Parma [dju:k əu pa:mə] Make one’s way = go

way into the pockets of these Englishmen instead.
From every harbour on the south coast of England, the small English ships went out to meet the great Spanish ships-of-war. Every English sailor on board had a great belief in himself and his ship. For many of the men
had fought against the Spaniards before, and there was no doubt in their minds that they would win this battle as they had won in the past.
As the Spanish ships-of-war sailed up the Channel, the English ships came sailing out of their harbours to meet them. Then they started sailing round and round the heavy Spanish ships, firing their guns at them the whole time. The advantage was with the small English ships, for it was much easier for them than for the enemy to move about.
The battle lasted all the way up the Channel, and the Spanish ships-of-war suffered very much from one enemy attack after another. Now, the weather, which had not been good to start with, was growing worse and worse, and before long Grow = there was a terrible storm. Then fireships were become sent against the Spaniards, setting many of their ships on fire.
The Spaniards were driven northwards along the east coast of England by the high wind, and at last, after having sailed right round the North of Scotland, made their way
back to Spain. Out of the 130 great ships-of- war that had left Spain for the invasion of England, only 53 returned.
Thus ended the Spanish attempt at the invasion of England.
1703-1815.

The French Parliament, or the National Assembly as it chose to call itself, declared war against

England in 1793. During the first few years the war was very slow. Other nations joined England in her fight against the French Republic. At first it seemed that it would be impossible for France to stand against the power of England, Prussia, Austria, Holland, and Spain. But the new French Republic was strong, and its armies were led by clever generals. Its enemies met with defeat after defeat, and one by one, Prussia, Austria, Holland, and Spain were conquered by France, until only England remained.

Prussia [prʌʃə] Austria [ˈɒstriə]

While France seemed to be able to conquer every nation on land, there was a different story to be told when French and Eng-
lish ships-of-war met. At sea the French weredefeated again and again.
Then news was received in England that the French had made a proclamation: "ENGLAND
AND THE FRENCH REPUBLIC CANNOT
BOTH CONTINUE TO EXIST." And at the same
Napoleon time it was learned that General Napoleon Bona-
Bonaparte
[nəˈpoʊljən parte had been sent to look after an army that was bəouwnəpɑːt] going to invade England. This was followed by the news that Napoleon's eyes were turned to Egypt in stead of England, for he hoped that he would be Egypt able to attack the English in India from there. At
[i:dgɪpt] first he overran Egypt, but the French ships-of-war
were defeated by Nelson in 1798, and before long
his army in Egypt was defeated, too.
When Napoleon became Emperor in 1804, he decided to invade England. In the Fiench Channel ports everybody was very busy. They were working day and night to build flat-bottomed boats which were to carry the French army across the Channel. On the north side of the Channel they realized that the danger was greater than ever

before. After the war broke out, and especially after Break out =
the French proclamation, great numbers of Englishmen spent every day in military exercises. It was more than seven hundred years since Englishmen had had to fight for their own country in England itself. This Frenchman Bonaparte would find that an invasion of England was different from conquering countries on the Continent of Europe. Bonaparte was sure that if he could get his troops to England, he could conquer it in the same way as he had conquered Prussia, Holland, Austria, and Spain, but before he could even start to fight the English, he must cross that narrow piece of water between England and France. How was it possible for him to cross the water, with English ships-of-war in control of the Channel? "If I could only get control of the Channel for a few hours, could do it," he told his generals. Those few hours never came, and after waiting for many months with his army ready to set out at any moment, he began to withdraw his troops. In the years that followed, even until the	start
	Set out = begin to move

	year 1815, when Napoleon was finally defeated at Waterloo, there was often the possibility of a
Waterloo [ˌwɔ:tɚˈlu] Poland [pəʊlənd] Belgium [bɛlʤəm] As to = about Maginot	French invasion, but the Channel continued to prevent Napoleon from conquering England. He was not the first to dream of conquering the Channel and he was not to be the last. May 1940. Once again there were dark clouds over Europe. This time there was no danger from France or Spain, but from a Germany that was dreaming of conquering the whole world. Poland had been attacked the previous year, and within a month the Germans were masters of that country. Norway and Denmark had been overrun a few weeks before. Holland and Belgium had been attacked a few days before, but nobody was in doubt as to the result. The Germans had been preparing for this for seven years. British troops were in Belgium, but they were too few in number, and Britain had not prepared for war. Then came that sad day for all Frenchmen
^[^mæ^ʤɪ^n^ɑ^u^]when the Maginot Line was passed and the

Germans commenced their march on Paris. The English hoped that they would be able to remain on the Continent of Europe until fresh troops arrived to help them, and that it would be possible to stop the Germans. In the past it had often been said that the British hoped for the best, but did not do very much to help themselves.

The voice of Mr. Winston Churchill, however, Winston speaking to the men of Britain on the wireless of Churchill the danger of invasion, prepared them for the worst [wɪnstən and called for the establishment of a great home- ˈʧɜrʧɪl] front army. The men were asked to go to the nearest police station, and within five minutes of the end of his appeal, queues were waiting outside nearly every police station throughout the length and breadth of Britain. At one police station alone, within half an hour, more than three thousand men Wireless
were waiting to become members of and bear the [ˈwaɪəlɪs] uniform of the new home-front army.
It was a good thing that Britain was prepared for the worst, for the time was to come very shortly when the British Army was
pushed out of the Continent and France was overrun by the Germans.
With Holland, Belgium, and France in their hands, the Germans could now begin to think about ^{Move = step} their next move, which was, of course, the invasion of England. France and Spain had tried without But = only success, but the Germans would show the world how to do it. There was but one thing to be done first:
Before the German boats could sail from the ports of northern France, it would be necessary to gain control of the air. In days past it had been necessary to gain control of the Channel itself, but in the days of modern warfare, if control could be obtained of the air, it would be impossible for British warships to prevent an invasion.
In August 1940 the Germans commenced the attempt. For about two months they tried their best every day. It was the greatest air battle that the world had ever seen. Hundreds upon hundreds of Germany's best aircraft were sent out to take part in it. They were far greater in number than the British aircraft which fought against them.
In September and October Germany made her greatest efforts to make an invasion possible. Every machine that could be sent, was sent to England. Every day the air over southern England was filled with the sound of battle. When the battle was over Machine = aircraft
and the number of German machines that had been shot down was counted up, it was found that so
many German aircraft had been destroyed that the Over =
danger for England was over. finished
This great battle is now known as "The Battle of Britain”. The Germans failed entirely to gain that control of the air that was so necessary to them, so they never tried an invasion.
History thus shows that this piece of water be- Play a great tween England and France, which is only 22 miles part = be across at the narrowest point, has played a great very part in the history of Europe, and indeed in the his- important tory of the whole world

THE MAN OF MYSTERY By BARRY PAIN

“One of the reasons,” said Mrs. Harvey, the

Barry Pain [bæri peɪn] Harvey [hɑːvi] Jobson [ʤɑbsən]

cook, to Mr. Jobson, the butler, as they sat together Machine = after supper, “one of the reasons why I should aircraft never marry you, Mr. Jobson, is –“ "One of the reasons,” said Mr. Jobson thoughtfully, "might be that you have never been asked, not that I know of." "Well," said Mrs. Harvey, "we'll put it this way, then. One of the reasons why I should never marry the kind of man you are is that I could never

feel I had his confidence."

Put = say, ex-
press “I see,” said Mr. Jobson.
“You're what I should call a man of mystery. Evening after evening I sit here talking to you. You know nearly as much of my private affairs as I know myself. And what do you ever tell me about yourself?”
“Not a lot,” said Mr. Jobson.
“Well, I came upon a piece of news to-daythat concerns me and you, too. And I have decided to say nothing about it.”
“Ah,” said Mr. Jobson, picking up the paper.
“I don't see why I should tell you anything about it. In my opinion, life should be a matter of give and take. If I had your confidence you would have mine.”
Mr. Jobson looked up from his newspaper, but said nothing.
“Well, I'll tell you this time, but it'll be the very last until you make some change in your ways. I was talking to the old lady this morning when she was giving the orders for the day, and she remembered that I'd been in her service just fifteen years to-day. And she told me that both of us were mentioned in her will if we were in her service at the time of her death."
“Ah,” said the man of mystery.
“You make me impatient. Do put that newspaper down! When I tell you an im- portant thing like that, have you got nothing to say about it?”
“You see,” said Mr. Jobson, “it's not really news to me. The old lady told me the same thing three weeks ago.”
“And you never mentioned it! Really, I don't call it right. It doesn't seem honest to me. What do you suppose the sum would be?” “Can't say,” said Mr. Jobson.
“I know this,” said Mrs. Harvey.
“If you were to offer me a hundred pounds for my place to-day, I wouldn't take it. I've known cases where as much as five hundred pounds has been left to a cook. Of course, we hope that the old lady will live for many years yet, but she must be well over seventy, and the years of a man are three score and ten, as the Bible states. I wish I knew exactly what her age is. I've given her a chance to refer to it more than once, but she never seemed to care to say anything about it.”

Jardine [ʤɑ:di:n]

“Well,” said Mr. Jobson, “if that's all you want to know, can tell you that, Mrs. Jardine is seventyeight.”

“And I wouldn't have thought her a day over seventy-five. How did you find out? Did she tell you?”
“She didn't, so to speak, tell me. Speaking of the wine that came to her from her brother when he Exeter died, she mentioned that he was ten years younger [eksɪtə] than she was. He lived in Exeter, and I have got a cousin there. My cousin saw the gravestone.”
“You are just like Sherlock Holmes! I expect you could find out how much we shall get, if you wanted to.”
“I might - and I might not. Her solicitors live in the town; and solicitors have clerks; and sometimes clerks are thirsty.”
“Well, if it was only a question of giving a man a few drinks, I wouldn't mind paying half of the expenses. Ever since the old lady told me this morning, I have been feeling so nervous.”
“What are you so nervous about?”
“Why, that I might do something to lose my place. The money depends upon my being with her at the time of her death. A kinder lady one would
never wish to see. But if she
thinks there is anything wrong, she doesn't take long in acting. I remember, more than ten years ago, before you came here, she'd left some money on her dressing-table, and the housemaid took some of it. Fifteen minutes was all the time that