We crawled out into utter devastation

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Teaching the gentlemen's gentlemen

(лексико-грамматические трансформации)

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to train to be a butler? If so, you could stop wondering and find out for yourself by doing Ivor Spencer's special course for trainee butlers. The course is not unworthy of young men's attention. It costs just over 3,000 pounds, but that includes 86 lessons on a wide range of skills: how to bow, iron the morning newspaper, present and pour wine, pack a suitcase and quietly remove a drunken party guest. Students announce imaginary visitors, and walk with wine glasses on their heads while carrying a magnum of champagne on a tray. I didn't believe how effective it is until I saw it with my own eyes.

You can't attend Ivor Spencer's course unless you are in your early twenties. Previous occupations are irrelevant; past courses have included a former British colonel and an American tax official. Employers in the past were royalty, but today most are businessmen, and butlers generally prefer to work in the United States because American employers are the most friendly and generous.

'What we look for is perfection,' the impeccably-dressed Spencer says. This explains the quick quiz questions.

'James, what is a butler's attitude towards his employer?'

'Friendly, but never familiar, sir.'

'Very good. Martin, tell me about a butler's personal hygiene.'

'Bath or shower twice a day, brush teeth at least four times a day, and never eat onions, curry or garlic, even on days off.'

'That is correct.'

Thus, you won't be able to produce a favorable impression unless you follow these rules.

Traditionally, a butler's duties were to polish silver, serve food and drinks and generally supervise the other staff employed in the house. Some of those things are still true, but nowadays a butler is really much more a 'manager'. He may have to run three or four houses, handle the accounts of the staff – and that may include the crew of the yacht and the helicopter – and handle all the travel arrangements for his employer. I hope, I have convinced you that you won't be a good manager without a special Ivor Spencer's course for trainee butlers.

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We crawled out into utter devastation

(грамматические трансформации)

Mary Williams and her family lost their home and most of their possession in the 1971 Los Angeles earthquake.

It was midnight on 8 February, 1971, and the children were in bed. It was a beautiful evening but unusually quiet. Normally there were hundreds of animals moving about – snakes, lizards, squirrels – but they’d all gone. I’m absolutely convinced they knew something was going to happen.

I came in but I couldn’t relax. And when I went to bed I felt very, very uneasy. Five hours later, at 5.57am, I woke up and two things hit me simultaneously. First was the noise, which was absolutely deafening. And then there was this violent shaking. I tried to grab hold of the bed but it just flew to the other side of the room. I felt for the wall; it was somehow fluid like a river.

My first thoughts were for my daughter. It was pitch black in her bedroom and I couldn’t see her, but eventually I grabbed hold of her hand and we made our way to the stairs. “Where do we go?” I thought. I knew under the stairs was the safest place. It’s human instinct to run outside, but outside the earth can swallow you up, and everything flies around – glass, tiles, and so on.

It suddenly occurred to me that I didn’t know where my husband was. Then I saw him coming down the stairs. The quake had only lasted one minute and twenty-eight seconds, but it seemed like a lifetime. Like all Californian families, we had our earthquake survival kit – first aid kit, bottled water, canned food that could keep us going for 48 hours or so. We stayed under the stairs and waited for dawn.

When we crawled out the scene was one of utter devastation. The windows had blown out, pieces of the pavement were standing up vertically like gravestones, and glass was everywhere. Luckily none of us was seriously hurt although I had cut my hand quite badly.

The rescue operations moved quite quickly, and we were all congratulated on the way we had reacted, but after about a fortnight when things began to calm down, I went into shock and a while I could hardly talk.

My daughter and I stayed with friends in New York and then we returned to England; but I still haven’t adjusted. When you’re used to picking oranges for breakfast, or going to San Francisco for a weekend, it’s hard to get used to having a small house and garden in the middle of rural England. But at least these events make you respect the tremendous forces of nature. You can build marvelous cities like Los Angeles, but itonly takes 6.6 on the Richter scale to reduce it all to a few bits of concrete.

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Ice Breaks

Holiday makers who are bored with baking beaches and overheated hotel rooms head for a giant igloo.

Swedish businessman Nils Bergqvist is delighted with the response to his new accommodation concept, the world's first igloo hotel. Built in Jukkasjarvi, a small town in Lapland, it has been attracting lots of visitors, but soon the fun will be over.

In two weeks' time Bergqvist's ice creation will be nothing more than a pool of water. 'We don't see melting as a big problem,' he says. 'We just look forward to making a bigger, and more beautiful one to replace it.'

Bergqvist built his first igloo in 1991 for a local art exhibition. It was so successful that he designed the current one, which measures roughly 200 square metres. Six workmen spent more than eight weeks piling 1,000 tons of snow onto a wooden base; when the snow froze, the base was removed. 'The only wooden thing we have left in the igloo is the front door,' he says. Everything else is 100 per cent snow, including a chapel with seats covered in reindeer fur.

Bed and breakfast in one of the ice cubicles is ₤25-₤30 per night. After their stay, all visitors receive a survival certificate recording their accomplishment. With no doors, nowhere to hang clothes and temperature around 0ºC, it may seem more like an endurance test than a relaxing hotel break. 'It's a great novelty for them,' Bergqvist explains, 'as well as being a good start in survival training.' He says that guests feel warm despite the cold because snow is such a good insulator. Maximum heat in maintained by ice walls that are about two metres thick.

The popularity of the resort is beyond doubt: it is now attracting tourists from all over the world. At least 800 people have stayed at the igloo this season even though there are only 10 rooms. 'You can get a lot of people in,' explains Bergqvist. 'The beds are three metres wide by two metres long, and can fit at least four at one time.'

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'6-strong girl gang beat up my sister on the Tube'

A gang of teenage girls launched an unprovoked assault on a woman Tube passenger in the third violent attack by women on women on trains in two weeks.

In the latest incident, Martine Charalambou, 22, was kicked in the face by a girl and then threatened with more violence by the six strong gang as she and her sister Nicola travelled north from Finsbury Park on the Victoria line. Nicola pulled the alarm to alert the driver but claims the train stopped in the tunnel for 10 minutes, allowing the abuse to continue.

When the train finally reached the next station, Seven Sisters, Nicola says the gang was allowed to walk away unchallenged and escape on a south-bound train before staff offered to call the police.

The assault follows two recent attacks on women on trains. In the first, Tanya Fanow, an office worker from Maida Vale, was hit in the face with an attache case by a smartly dressed woman at East Croydon station. In the second incident, trainee lawyer Krista Mayes, 27, was punched repeatedly around the head, also by a smartly dressed woman, as she made her way off a crowded train at Liverpool Street station.

Both Nicola and Martine now want to know why, after Nicola had triggered the alarm, the train halted in the tunnel. They also want to know why staff at Seven Sisters station did not offer to call the police until the gang of girls was able to fleе.

Martine, an artist who lives in Ilford, said: "It was terrifying, and the worst thing was that when we pulled the alarm they did not bother to call the police. We were told they do not bother because there are so many pranks and false alarms.

"This was a cowardly act and completely unprovoked. The girl just went mad because we did not respond to them and before I knew it, her foot was in my face and she was going mad." Nicola, from Walthamstow, said the attack happened after the gang asked them if they were lesbians. She told her sister to say nothing, and Martine was then attacked.

The gang continued to threaten the sisters after the train had stopped in the tunnel. Nicola said: "They were issuing threats like 'I swear on my baby's life, if you get the f****** police involved I will be waiting for you at the station and I will f****** kill you'."

A British Transport Police spokesman said they were investigating the incident, which was being treated as a common assault.

Both sisters still use the Tube but will now think twice about using the alarm in an emergency.

A spokeswoman for Lon­don Underground said it had no record of the train being delayed but was investigating the incident.

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Date: 2016-01-14; view: 1249