In fact, big ben is the largest of the six bells of westminster palace in london. but it has long been associated with the name of the clock tower, which in september 2012 was officially called “elizabeth tower”. the decision to rename the tower was made by the british parliament to mark the 60th anniversary of the reign of queen elizabeth ii. the tower was built in 1858. the project architect was augustus pugin. the height of the tower and spire is 96.3 m. the palace of westminster, and therefore the tower, is on the parliament square next to westminster abbey. on the opposite side of the palace there is the thames embankment. the clock tower is the largest four-sided clock mechanism in the world, and in addition, with the most accurate clocks. at the base of each of the four clock dials there is a latin inscription “domine salvam fac reginam nostram victoriam primam” (“god save our queen victoria i”). around the perimeter of the tower, on the left and on the right of the clock, there is another phrase in latin – “laus deo” (“glory to god” or “praise the lord”). there used to be a prison in big ben. the last prisoner of big ben was a fighter for women’s rights emmeline pankhurst. now, next to the parliament there is a monument to her.
I am going to speak about Aleksandr Pushkin , an Russia's greatest poet. He was born in May 26, 1799 Moscow, Russia, in the noble family (his father was the retired major). He grew up in Moscow with his grandmother and spent his childhood with his nurse Arina Rodionovna. He was very interested in reading and read all the books that he could get. Pushkin wrote his first poems at the Imperial Lyceum in Tsarskoye Selo, where he studied for 6 years. When he grew up, he became a member of another society called the Green Lamp. At the same time he made friends with the people from Decembrist communities. He continued write not only poems, but novels and in addittion he started to write fairy tales too. In 1820 the poet went to the Caucasus and, then, to the Crimea with the intention of recovering from his pneumonia. In 1828 Pushkin was married beautiful 16-year-old Natalya Goncharova. In 1837 Pushkin challenged Georges d'Anthes to a duel. Pushkin was injured and died 2 days later after the duel, on the 29th of January In conclusion, I would like to say that Pushkin is the founder of the contemporary Russian literary language.
