Read about It. Рахимбергенова М.Х. - 36 стр.

Russians stood and prayed night and day. «All the servants, the Cos-                 2. Answer the following questions.
sacks, the soldiers and all the rest were wonderfully sympathetic,»                  1. What prompted the author to write this book?
Nicholas wrote to his mother. «At the beginning of Alexei’s illness,                 2. What emotions are aroused by the description of Alexis’ dis-
they begged the priest, Vassiliev, to hold a Te Deum in the open. They       ease?
begged him to repeat it every day until he recovered.»                             3. What words did the author use to show mother’s fidget?
       More than once, it seemed the end had come. At lunch one day,               4. The author mentioned that hemophilia was spread among royal
the Tsar was handed a note scribbled by the Empress from her place           families. Why was the situation with Alexandra particular?
beside Alexis’s bed. Alexis was suffering so terribly that she knew he             5. Why does hemophilia mean loneliness for a woman?
was about to die. It was on this night, at the end of hope, that Alexandra         6. What became the Empress’ salvation?
called on Rasputin. She asked Anna Vyrubova [The Empress Alexan-                   7. What did Alexandra feel when Rasputin appeared?
dra’s closest friend and confident] to telegraph him in Pokrovskoe, his            8. How did the author, the foreigner, describe the Russian Ortho-
home in Siberia, begging him to pray for the life of her son. Rasputin       dox church and the Russians?
immediately cabled back: «God has seen your tears and heard your                   9. Why did the Tsarevich become the subject of rumors?
prayers. Do not grieve. The Litlle One will not die. Do not allow the              10. How did people react to the Heir’s illness?
doctors to bother him too much.» A day later, the hemorrhage stopped.              11. Did Alexis change after it?
The boy was spent, utterly wasted, but alive.                                      12. Can we say the same happen to Alexandra? Why?
       The part played by Rasputin’s telegram in Alexis’s recovery re-
mains one of the most mysterious of the whole Rasputin legend.                      Chapter 2
       A month later, Alexis had recovered sufficiently to be moved                 There was much about Gregory
back to Tsarskoe Selo. Almost a year was to pass before Alexis could         Rasputin that was repulsive. When he first
walk again. He became a more serious child, more reflective and more         appeared in 1905 in several of St. Peters-
considerate of other people. For an eight-year-old boy, it was a matter to   burg’s most elegant drawing rooms, the
                                                                             heralded Siberian «miracle worker» was
ponder that his father was autocrat over millions of men and the master
                                                                             in his early thirties, broad-shouldered,
of the largest empire on earth, and yet had no power to spare him the
                                                                             muscular, of average height. He dressed
pain he had felt in his leg. For Alexandra, it was a supreme religious
                                                                             roughly in loose peasant blouse and baggy
experience. She had been, for what seemed an eternity, in Hell. The
                                                                             trousers tucked into the top of heavy,
power that vanquished Hell and saved her son had been a sign from
                                                                             cruedly made leather boots. He was filthy.
Heaven. Beneath that sign stood Gregory Rasputin.                            He rose and slept and rose again without
                                                                             ever bothering to wash himself or change
       1. Look through the text and find the synonyms to the following       his clothes. His hands were grimy, his
words.                                                                       nails black, his beard tangled and encrusted with debris. His hair was
 1. grief         7. spiteful       13. curing      19. exhausted            long and greasy. Not surprisingly, he gave off a powerful, acrid odor.
 2. destiny       8. posterity      14. achieve     20. tzar                        Rasputin’s eyes were his most remarkable feature. Friends and
 3. miserably     9. successor      15. wonder      21. reflect              enemies alike described their strange power. It was difficult to resist the
 4. misery        10. solitude      16. forgiveness 22. immortality          power of Rasputin’s steady gaze. Rasputin’s eyes were the foundation
 5. helpless      11. shelter       17. mediate     23. overcome             of his power, but when they failed him, he was quick to use his whee-
 6. imprecation 12. inward          18. gossip                               dling tongue.

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