William Shakespeare is the greatest of all playwrights and poets of all times. Not much is known of his life. He was probably the son of a businessman and

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What do you think about social revolutions? What revolutions do you know? What were their results?

1) Sally had been studying at a design college for a year and, like most students, she did not have much money. It was going to be her mother's birthday soon, and she wanted to buy her a present that would be nice and useful but not too expensive.

Sally's college was in London, but she had been living in the country for many years, so every day she had an hour's journey by train in the morning, and the same in the evening.

At lunch time one day, a week before her mother's birthday, she decided to have a quick sandwich and a cup of coffee instead of her usual meal in the college hall, and then go shopping near her college to buy her mother a nice present. When she had been looking for half an hour, she came across a shop that was selling umbrellas cheap, and decided that an umbrella would be a nice present, since her mother had lost hers the month before.

'Now which colour shall I choose?' she thought. 'Well, I think a black one would be the most useful. You can carry that when you are wearing clothes of any colour, can't you?' So having made up her mind, she bought a lovely black umbrella and took it back to the college with her until her classes had finished.

On her way back home in the train that evening she felt hungry so she went to the buffet car for another sandwich and a cup of coffee. She had left the black umbrella above her seat in the compartment, but when she got back, it had gone! When she had left the compartment, there had been no other passengers in it, but now there were three.

Sally burst into tears when she saw that the umbrella was no longer there. The other passengers felt very sorry for her and asked what the matter was. When she explained that the black umbrella she had bought for her mother had disappeared, and that she had to get out at the next station, the three other passengers asked her for her mother's address, in order to be able to send the umbrella on to her in case someone had taken it by mistake and not on purpose, and brought it back after Sally had got out of the train.

The next week Sally heard from her mother. Her letter said, 'Thank you very much for your lovely presents, but why did you send me three black umbrellas?'


2)William Shakespeare is the greatest of all playwrights and poets of all tines. Not much is known of his life. He was probably the son of a businessman and was born in 1564 in Stradford-upon-Avon. He probably attended the local grammar school and got a classical education. In 1582 he married Anne Hathaway and had three children. Little is known of his life before 1592, when he appeared as a playwright in London. Soon he became an actor playing supporting roles like the ghost in "Hamlet". In 1599 Shakespeare became a part owner of the Globe Theatre in London.

Shakespeare's work as a playwright is subdivided into three periods. Written in the first period, Shakespeare's plays are mostly history plays like "Henry VI", and comedies with strong elements of farce ("The Comedy of Errors"). His masterpiece of this period is "Romeo and Juliet".

In the second period Shakespeare wrote a number of comedies where he moved away from farce towards romance ("As You Like It"). In the third period, after 1600, appeared his major tragedies - "Hamlet", "Othello". They presented a clear opposition of order to chaos, good to evil.

Shakespeare was a great poet and would be well known for his poetry alone. His major achievement as a poet is his sonnets, first published in 1609. A sonnet is a poem consisting of 14 lines, with a moral at the end. The sonnets are addressed to some "W. H." and to the mysterious "Dark Lady of Sonnets". The sonnets deal with the great themes of love, friendship, death, change and immortality. Shakespeare looks at his own poetry as a means of immortality. Shakespeare's sonnets are excellent. They are full of harmony and music; they praise love, friendship and beauty though there is no sentimentality in them.

Shakespeare's poetry is at the summit of human achievements. Many centuries have passed since his death in 1616, but Shakespeare is still considered to be the greatest of all playwrights and poets.