Čtení s porozuměním

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) was perhaps the most famous physicist ever. Although he was born in Germany, he moved to Switzerland early on and then spent the last twenty years of his life living in the United States.

He is so well-known that his name is often used as a synonym for a genius. No wonder, at the age of twelve, he could count better than most adults. But not only that. People often also imagine an eccentric: a person who is so deep in their thoughts that they don’t care if they look or behave oddly. After all, Einstein almost always had crazy hair and no socks on.

Einstein’s perhaps most famous idea is the theory of relativity. This discovery is helping us in our everyday life because it is used, for example, in GPS.

Titanic was under the command of Capt. Edward Smith, who also went down with the ship. The ocean liner carried some of the wealthiest people in the world, as well as hundreds of emigrants from Great Britain and Ireland, Scandinavia and elsewhere throughout Europe who were seeking a new life in the United States. The first-class accommodation was designed to be the pinnacle of comfort and luxury, with an on-board gymnasium, swimming pool, libraries, high-class restaurants and opulent cabins. A high-powered radiotelegraph transmitter was available for sending passenger 'marconigrams' and for the ship's operational use. Although Titanic had advanced safety features such as watertight compartments and remotely activated watertight doors, it only carried enough lifeboats for 1,178 people—about half the number on board, and one third of her total capacity—due to outdated maritime safety regulations. The ship carried 16 lifeboat davits which could lower three lifeboats each, for a total of 48 boats. However, Titanic carried only a total of 20 lifeboats, four of which were collapsible and proved hard to launch during the sinking.

The Myers are the best-known family in our city. At the head of the family are Jonathan and Mary. They own a number of restaurants in the city which are very popular because many tourists visit our town. They also have three children. The oldest, Josh, is twenty-five and he is helping them run one of the five restaurants. So far, he’s not been very good at it. The middle child is called Adam. Adam is twenty-one and he is studying at a university. Alice, the youngest child, is only sixteen so she’s too young to help with managing the restaurant, but she is already working part-time at one of the restaurants to earn her pocket money. Although they are rich, the Myers are very humble and polite, so everyone in our city likes them.