1.English in the World(pdf)
2.English-speaking world
Approximately 330 to 360 million people speak English as their first language. More than half of these (231 million) live in the United States, followed by some 60 million in the United Kingdom, the first place where English was spoken.
English is the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin and Spanish.
Estimates that include second language speakers vary greatly, from 470 million to more than 1 billion. David Crystal calculates that non-native speakers as of 2003 outnumbered native speakers by a ratio of 3 to 1. When combining native and non-native speakers, English is the most widely spoken language worldwide.
Besides the major varieties of English, such as British English, Irish English, American English, Canadian English, Australian English, New Zealand English, Indian English and their sub-varieties, countries such as South Africa, the Philippines, Jamaica and Nigeria also have millions of native speakers of dialect continua ranging from English-based creole languages to Standard English.
3.Hadrian's Wall
Hadrian's Wall (Latin: Vallum Aelium), also called the Roman Wall, Picts' Wall, or Vallum Hadriani in Latin, was a defensive fortification in the Roman province of Britannia, begun in 122 AD in the reign of the emperor Hadrian. It ran from the banks of the River Tyne near the North Sea to the Solway Firth on the Irish Sea, and was the northern limit of the Roman Empire, immediately north of which were the lands of the northern Ancient Britons, including the Picts.
It had a stone base and a stone wall. There were milecastles with two turrets in between. There was a fort about every five Roman miles. From north to south, the wall comprised a ditch, wall, military way and vallum, another ditch with adjoining mounds. It is thought the milecastles were staffed with static garrisons, whereas the forts had fighting garrisons of infantry and cavalry. In addition to the wall's defensive military role, its gates may have been customs posts.
A significant portion of the wall still stands and can be followed on foot along the adjoining Hadrian's Wall Path. The largest Roman artefact anywhere, it runs a total of 73 miles in northern England. Regarded as a British cultural icon, Hadrian's Wall is one of Britain's major ancient tourist attractions. It was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.
4.Great Wall of China
The Great Wall of China is a series of fortifications made of stone, brick, tamped earth, wood, and other materials, generally built along an east-to-west line across the historical northern borders of China to protect the Chinese states and empires against the raids and invasions of the various nomadic groups of the Eurasian Steppe. Several walls were being built as early as the 7th century BC; these, later joined together and made bigger and stronger, are now collectively referred to as the Great Wall. Especially famous is the wall built 220–206 BC by Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. Little of that wall remains. Since then, the Great Wall has on and off been rebuilt, maintained, and enhanced; the majority of the existing wall is from the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644).Other purposes of the Great Wall have included border controls, allowing the imposition of duties on goods transported along the Silk Road, regulation or encouragement of trade and the control of immigration and emigration. Furthermore, the defensive characteristics of the Great Wall were enhanced by the construction of watch towers, troop barracks, garrison stations, signaling capabilities through the means of smoke or fire, and the fact that the path of the Great Wall also served as a transportation corridor.
5.The Great Wall (film)
The Great Wall is a 2016 epic historical fiction action-adventure monster film directed by Zhang Yimou and written by Tony Gilroy, Carlo Bernard, Doug Miro, Max Brooks, Edward Zwick, and Marshall Herskovitz. The film stars Matt Damon, Jing Tian, Pedro Pascal, Willem Dafoe, Andy Lau and Eddie Peng.
Principal photography began on March 30, 2015, in Qingdao, China. The film was released in China on December 15, 2016, by Le Vision Pictures and China Film Group Corporation and is scheduled to be released in the United States on February 17, 2017, by Universal Pictures.
6.Kingsman: The Secret Service
Kingsman: The Secret Service is a British-American spy action-comedy film directed by Matthew Vaughn, and based on the comic book The Secret Service, created by Dave Gibbons and Mark Millar. The screenplay was written by Vaughn and Jane Goldman. It follows the recruitment and training of a potential secret agent, Gary "Eggsy" Unwin (Taron Egerton), into a secret spy organisation. Eggsy joins a mission to tackle a global threat from Richmond Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson), a wealthy megalomaniac. The film also stars Colin Firth, Mark Strong, and Michael Caine.
Kingsman: The Secret Service premiered at the annual film marathon Butt-Numb-A-Thon on 13 December 2014, and was theatrically released in the United Kingdom on 29 January 2015. The film received generally positive reviews from critics who highly praised the action sequences, the film's style, as well as its acting performances, villain, soundtrack, and its black humor. The film has grossed over $414 million worldwide, becoming Vaughn's most commercially successful film to date.
Following the film's success, a sequel, titled Kingsman: The Golden Circle, is scheduled for an October 6, 2017,release with Vaughn again directing.
7.American Literature(pdf)
8.Girl with a Pearl Earring
Girl with a Pearl Earring (Dutch: Meisje met de parel) is an oil painting by 17th-century Dutch painterJohannes Vermeer. It is a tronie of a girl with a headscarf and a pearl earring. The painting has been in the collection of the Mauritshuis in The Hague since 1902.
