Directions:
Read the following texts very carefully. Remember thy are the material for your oral test.
Keep in mind the questions given and the information worked in class.
MOTHER TERESA
Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha
Bojaxhiu in Skopje*, Macedonia, on August 26**, 1910. Her family was of Albanian descent. At the age of twelve, she
felt strongly the call of God. She knew she had to be a missionary to spread
the love of Christ. At the age of eighteen she left her parental home in Skopje
and joined the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish community of nuns with missions in
India. After a few months' training in Dublin she was sent to India, where on
May 24, 1931, she took her initial vows as a nun. From 1931 to 1948 Mother
Teresa taught at St. Mary's High School in Calcutta, but the suffering and
poverty she glimpsed outside the convent walls made such a deep impression on
her that in 1948 she received permission from her superiors to leave the
convent school and devote herself to working among the poorest of the poor in
the slums of Calcutta. Although she had no funds, she depended on Divine
Providence, and started an open-air school for slum children. Soon she was
joined by voluntary helpers, and financial support was also forthcoming. This
made it possible for her to extend the scope of her work.
On October 7, 1950, Mother Teresa received permission from the Holy See
to start her own order, "The Missionaries of Charity", whose primary
task was to love and care for those persons nobody was prepared to look after.
In 1965 the Society became an International Religious Family by a decree of
Pope Paul VI.
Today the order comprises Active and Contemplative branches of Sisters
and Brothers in many countries. In 1963 both the Contemplative branch of the
Sisters and the Active branch of the Brothers was founded. In 1979 the
Contemplative branch of the Brothers was added, and in 1984 the Priest branch
was established.
The Society of Missionaries has spread all over the world, including the
former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries. They provide effective help
to the poorest of the poor in a number of countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin
America, and they undertake relief work in the wake of natural catastrophes
such as floods, epidemics, and famine, and for refugees. The order also has
houses in North America, Europe and Australia, where they take care of the
shut-ins, alcoholics, homeless, and AIDS sufferers.
After several years of deteriorating health, in which she suffered from
heart, lung and kidney problems, Mother Teresa died on September 5, 1997, at
the age of 87. She was beatified in October 2003.
Mother Teresa's work has been recognised and acclaimed throughout the
world and she has received a number of awards and distinctions, including the
Pope John XXIII Peace Prize (1971) and the Nehru Prize for her promotion of
international peace and understanding (1972). She also received the Balzan
Prize (1979) and the Templeton and Magsaysay awards.
GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ
Born in Aracataca, Colombia, writer Gabriel García Márquez grew up
listening to family tales, eventually becoming a journalist. His fiction
work introduced readers to magical realism, which combines more conventional
storytelling with vivid fantasy. His novels Cien años de
soledad (One Hundred Years of Solitude) and El amor en
los tiempos del cólera (Love in the Time of Cholera) have drawn
worldwide audiences, and he won a Nobel Prize in 1982. García Márquez died on
April 17, 2014.
Writer and journalist
Gabriel García Márquez was reportedly born on March 6, 1927 in Aracataca,
Colombia to Luisa Santiaga Márquez and Gabriel Elijio García. (Birth
certificates were not issued in his village at the time of his birth and some
sources state his birth year to be 1928.) The eldest of twelve children, the
young García Marquez lived with his maternal grandparents listening
to numerous family stories, including his grandfather's military
reminiscences, his grandmother's tales of the fantastic and his parents' dating
adventures. He published his first story while in college and then became a
journalist, writing at a time of murderous upheaval in Colombia known as
La Violencia.
He pursued his craft experiencing a "bohemian life" as he
would recall, voraciously reading a number of international authors and
immigrating to Europe during the mid-1950s after writing an article that stoked
the wrath of military dictator Gustavo Rojas Pinilla. García Márquez eventually
returned to his home region and worked with publications based in Venezuela and
Cuba. The writer wed Mercedes Barcha Pardo in 1958.
Having previously written
shorter fiction and screenplays, García Márquez sequestered himself away in his
Mexico City home for an extended period of time to complete his novel Cien años
de soledad, or One Hundred Years of Solitude, published in
1967. The author drew international acclaim for the work, which ultimately sold
tens of millions of copies worldwide. García Márquez is credited with helping
introduce an array of readers to magical realism, a genre that combines more
conventional storytelling forms with vivid, layered fantasy.
Another one of his novels, El amor en los tiempos del
cólera (1985), or Love in the Time of Cholera, drew a
large global audience as well. The work was partially based on his parents'
courtship and was adapted into a 2007 film starring Javier Bardem. García
Márquez wrote seven novels during his life, with additional titles including El
general en su laberinto (1989), aka The General in His
Labyrinth, and Del amor y otros demonios (1994), or Of
Love and Other Demons.
In his later years, García
Márquez explored his own life in his work. His memoir Vivir para
contarla (2002), published the next year as Living to Tell the
Tale, received warm reviews and accolades from critics and fans. Throughout
his career, García Márquez won numerous awards and honors, including the 1982
Nobel Prize in Literature.
The writer had been diagnosed with cancer in the late 1990s and, as
reported by his brother, eventually began to suffer from dementia. Gabriel
García Marquez died in Mexico City on April 17, 2014 at the age of 87, with the
world immediately honoring his immeasurable literary legacy.
GEORGE
WASHINGTON
George Washington was born on February 22, 1732, in
Westmoreland County, Virginia. His father, a landowner and planter, died when
George was just 11 years old. Fortunately, George had an older brother named
Lawrence who took good care of him. Lawrence helped to raise George and taught
him how to be a gentleman. Lawrence made sure that he was educated in the basic
subjects like reading and math.
When George turned 16 he went to work as a surveyor,
where he took measurements of new lands, mapping them out in detail. A few
years later George became a leader with the Virginia militia and became
involved in the start of the French and Indian War. At one point during the
war, he narrowly escaped death when his horse was shot out from under him.
After the French and Indian War George settled down
and married the widow Martha Dandridge Custis. He took over the estate of Mount
Vernon after his brother Lawrence died and raised Martha's two children from
her former marriage. George and Martha never had kids of their own. George
became a large landowner and was elected to the Virginian legislature. Soon
George and his fellow landowners became upset with unfair treatment by their
British rulers. They began to argue and fight for their rights. When the
British refused they decided to go to war.
George was one of Virginia's delegates at the First and
Second Continental Congress. This was a group of representatives from each
colony who decided to fight the British together. In May of 1775 they appointed
Washington as general of the Continental Army.
The two terms that Washington served as president were
peaceful times. During this time, George established many roles and traditions
of the President of the United States that still stand today. He helped build
and guide the formation of the actual US Government from the words of the
Constitution. He formed the first presidential cabinet which included his
friends Thomas Jefferson (Secretary of State) and Alexander Hamilton (Secretary
of the Treasury).
George stepped down from the presidency after 8 years,
or two terms. He felt it was important that the president not become powerful
or rule too long, like a king. Since then only one president, Franklin D.
Roosevelt, has served more than two terms. Just a few years after leaving the
office of president, Washington caught a bad cold. He was soon very sick with a
throat infection and died on December 14, 1799.
ALEXANDER
FLEMING
Sir Alexander Fleming
was born at Lochfield near Darvel in Ayrshire, Scotland on August 6th, 1881. He
attended Louden Moor School, Darvel School, and Kilmarnock Academy before
moving to London where he attended the Polytechnic. He spent four years in a
shipping office before entering St. Mary's Medical School, London University.
He qualified with distinction in 1906 and began research at St. Mary's under
Sir Almroth Wright, a pioneer in vaccine therapy.
Early in his medical life, Fleming became interested
in the natural bacterial action of the blood and in antiseptics. He was able to
continue his studies throughout his military career and on demobilization he
settled to work on antibacterial substances which would not be toxic to animal
tissues. In 1921, he discovered in «tissues and secretions» an important
bacteriolytic substance which he named Lysozyme.
Sir Alexander wrote numerous papers on bacteriology,
immunology and chemotherapy, including original descriptions of lysozyme and
penicillin. They have been published in medical and scientific journals.
Fleming, a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons
(England), 1909, and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (London),
1944, has gained many awards. They include Hunterian Professor (1919), Arris
and Gale Lecturer (1929) and Honorary Gold Medal (1946) of the Royal College of
Surgeons; Williams Julius Mickle Fellowship, University of London (1942);
Charles Mickle Fellowship, University of Toronto (1944); John Scott Medal, City
Guild of Philadelphia (1944); Cameron Prize, University of Edinburgh (1945);
Moxon Medal, Royal College of Physicians (1945); Cutter Lecturer, Harvard
University (1945); Albert Gold Medal, Royal Society of Arts (1946); Gold Medal,
Royal Society of Medicine (1947); Medal for Merit, U.S.A. (1947); and the Grand
Cross of Alphonse X the Wise, Spain (1948).
He served as President of the Society for General
Microbiology, he was a Member of the Pontifical Academy of Science and Honorary
Member of almost all the medical and scientific societies of the world. He was
Rector of Edinburgh University during 1951-1954, Freeman of many boroughs and
cities and Honorary Chief Doy-gei-tau of the Kiowa tribe. He was also awarded
doctorate, honoris causa, degrees of almost thirty European and American
Universities.
In 1915, Fleming married Sarah Marion McElroy of
Killala, Ireland, who died in 1949. Their son is a general medical practitioner.
Fleming married again in 1953. Dr Fleming died on March 11th in 1955 and is
buried in St. Paul's Cathedral
