Shakira. Helen Keller

# 9 (2BE810)

Shakira

Shakira Ripoll was born on February 2, 1977, in Colombia. She was the only daughter of a well-respected jeweller and his wife. In naming the newborn daughter, her mother chose from several names, containing the letter “K”. She thought about Karime and Katiuska but finally chose Shakira. It’s an Arabic name which comes from the word “Shukram” meaning “Grace”. So Shakira’s full name is translated as “a woman of Grace”.

When Shakira was a child, her mother discovered that the girl had a gift for learning. Shakira knew the alphabet by the age of eighteen months and at three she knew how to read. By the time she was four, she was ready for school. School was not just a place where little Shakira learnt her arithmetic and geography. There she began to understand such great things as kindness, love, trust, and other human ideals. She realized what real friendship was and how much her family meant to her. Later it helped her to decide what to do with the big money she earned.

Shakira loved attention and wished to find a way to get it. She sang a lot for her schoolmates and teachers. However, the music teacher told her that she sounded “like a goat”. Shakira wasn’t too upset about it and soon found a more original way to become the centre of attention. It was dancing. It helped her to express herself and become famous in school. What is interesting is that no one had ever taught her to dance.

In school Shakira was disciplined, but absent-minded. She was usually writing lyrics for her songs on the back of her notebooks. However, Shakira was a good student because she was a quick learner and could understand her teachers’ explanations faster than others.

As soon as the bell rang after class, Shakira was the first one to run and get in line for the cafeteria. She usually bought a pepsi, a hamburger and something sweet, like a muffin or a piece of cake. She seldom took a packed lunch from home. Though Shakira was a lover of fast food, she had no weight problems, as she loved dancing.

When she was eight, Shakira's father lost all his money because his business went bankrupt. For a while Shakira had to stay with her relatives in Los Angeles. When the girl returned, she was shocked to see almost everything that her family had had been sold. She later said: "In my childish head, this was the end of the world."

To show her that things could be worse, her father took her to a local park to see the homeless children. What she saw shocked her deeply and she said to herself: "One day I’m going to help these poor kids when I become a famous singer or dancer".

Between the ages of ten and thirteen Shakira was invited to various dance events and became very popular in the area. It was at this time that Shakira met a local theatre producer, who was impressed with her performance and as a result tried to help her career. This woman organized a meeting with the managers of the Sony company. After Shakira sang, they decided to sign a contract for three albums with the talented girl.

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Shakira’s name was chosen by her father.

	1)	True
	2)	False
	3)	Not stated

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Shakira went to one of the most well-known schools in Columbia.

	1)	True
	2)	False
	3)	Not stated

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At school Shakira was more successful in dancing than in singing.

	1)	True
	2)	False
	3)	Not stated

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Shakira published her first lyrics in a youth magazine.

	1)	True
	2)	False
	3)	Not stated

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At school Shakira was careful to eat only healthy food.

	1)	True
	2)	False
	3)	Not stated

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Shakira was upset when she learnt about the family’s financial problems.

	1)	True
	2)	False
	3)	Not stated

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When Shakira became a famous singer, she set up a charity fund to help homeless children.

	1)	True
	2)	False
	3)	Not stated

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The meeting with Sony managers went successfully.

	1)	True
	2)	False
	3)	Not stated

# 10 (3DF118)

Helen Keller

Life is not always easy. Sometimes it presents us with serious problems that make us sad and even depressed. When it comes to this, you may remember the example of Helen Keller, born in a small American town in 1880.

The illness struck Helen Keller when she was a baby and left her deaf and blind before she learned to speak. As a child Helen was wild and disobedient. She seemed not to understand what was going on in the world around her. In spite of Helen’s illness her parents decided that she should have some education and started looking for a teacher.

Helen Keller's new life began on a March day in 1887 when she was seven years old. On that day Anne Mansfield Sullivan, a 20-year-old graduate of the Perkins School, came to the town to be her teacher. From that day, the two of them – teacher and pupil – were inseparable.

Miss Sullivan began her first lesson by handing Helen a doll and pressing “d-o-l-l” into the child's hand. In this way she hoped to teach Helen to connect objects with letters. Helen quickly learned to form the letters correctly and in the correct order. In the days that followed, she learned to spell lots of different words.

Helen Keller was a talented pupil and quickly learnt how to read and write. She enjoyed reading books written for blind children. In 1890, when she was just 10, she decided to learn to speak. Somehow she had found out that a little deaf-blind girl in Norway managed to do it.

At first Helen had difficulty with speaking, but with the time and help from Anne she developed a clear voice. Later, she was able to speak in public for large crowds which came to her whenever she gave her lectures. There was usually a storm of applause after her every lecture.

After school Helen went to college and graduated it with honours. She got a Bachelor of Arts degree. Throughout those years and until her own death in 1936, Anne Sullivan was always by Helen's side. She pressed book after book and lecture after lecture into her pupil's hand.

One of Helen’s professors was so deeply impressed by her essays in English that he suggested the girl writing the story of her life. Helen followed the advice and wrote the book while still at college. It was a cheerful account of how a young girl was able to live a happy life in spite of her terrible misfortunes. Later she wrote several books more. In her books and lectures Helen did everything possible to help and encourage those who were blind. For the rest of her life, Helen Keller worked for improving education for the blind and deaf.

Helen Keller lived in many different places – Alabama; Cambridge and Wrentham, Massachusetts; Forest Hills, New York, but perhaps her favorite residence was the house in Easton, which she called “Arcan Ridge”. She moved to that white house in 1936, after her beloved teacher's death. And it was “Arcan Ridge” she called home for the rest of her life. She died in 1968.

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Helen Keller was born deaf and blind.

	1)	True
	2)	False
	3)	Not stated

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Helen’s parents found a young teacher for their daughter.

	1)	True
	2)	False
	3)	Not stated

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First Miss Sullivan taught Helen to count.

	1)	True
	2)	False
	3)	Not stated

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Helen’s favourite books were about animals and nature.

	1)	True
	2)	False
	3)	Not stated

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Helen’s lectures were popular.

	1)	True
	2)	False
	3)	Not stated

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Helen Keller finished college successfully.

	1)	True
	2)	False
	3)	Not stated

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Helen’s book about her life was translated in many languages.

	1)	True
	2)	False
	3)	Not stated

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Helen never left her home town.

	1)	True
	2)	False
	3)	Not stated

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