Vocabulary. value - ценность mischievous - озорной simplified - упрощенный unconventional - нешаблонный gain - достигать

value - ценность mischievous - озорной simplified - упрощенный unconventional - нешаблонный gain - достигать, получать slum - трущоба ban - запрещать mildly - слабо hostility - враждебность harness - использовать species - вид

predictable - предсказуемый masterpiece - шедевр distinction - различие ignorant - невсжествсшшй counterfeit - подделка

Answer the Questions

1. Why did Shaw dislike Victorian theatre? How did he view the theatre?

2. How many plays did he write?

3. How did he defend his opinions?

4. What works brought him his first succcss?

5. Did his plays becomc popular immediately? Why?

6. What theory did Shaw call the «life force»?

7. What are his best plays?

8.6. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859—1930), a British writer, cre­ated Sherlock Holmes, the world's bestknown detective. Millions of readers have followed Holmes's adventures and delighted in his ability to solve crimes by an amazing use of reason and observation. Doyle wrote a story in 1893 in which Holmes was killed. But public de­mand forced Doyle to bring Holmes back to life in another story, Critic Christopher Morley said of Holmes, «Perhaps no fiction char­acter ever created has becomc so charmingly real to his readers».

Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He began practicing medicine in 1882, but his practice was not a success. He started writing while waiting for the patients that never came. His early stories earned him little money, but he won great success with his first Holmes novel, «А Study in Scarlet» (1887).

Holmes appeared in 56 short stories and three other novels - «The Sign of Four» (1890), «The Hound of the Baskervilles» (1902), and «The Valley of Fear» (1915). Doyle may have been the highest paid short-story writer of his time. He also wrote historical novels, romances, and plays. He eventually abandoned fiction to study and lecture on spiritualism (communication with spirits). For his ef­forts in support of the British cause during the Boer War (1899— 1902), Doyle received a knighthood in 1902.