Daniel Defoe, устная тема по английскому языку с переводом. Топики.

The son of a London butcher, and educated at a Dissenters' academy, he was typical of the new kind of man reaching prominence in England in the 18th century — self-reliant, industrious, possessing a strong notion of responsibility. He had by 1683 set himself up as a merchant dealing in many different commodities. In spite of his considerable savings Defoe went bankrupt in 1692. Defoe's first important publication was An Essay upon Projects (1698), but it was not until the poem The True-born Englishman (1701), that he received any real fame. An ill-timed satire, The Shortest Way with Dissenters (1702), an ironic defense of High Church against nonconformists, resulted in Defoe's being imprisoned. He was rescued by Robert Harley and later served the statesman as a political agent. He turned to writing novels when he was over fifty.

Defoe has been called the father of modern journalism; during his lifetime he was associated with 26 periodicals. From 1704 to 1713 he published and wrote a Review, a miscellaneous journal concerned with the affairs of Europe. He was nearly sixty when he turned to writing novels. In 1719 he published his famous Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. Based in part on the experiences of Alexander Selkirk, Robinson Crusoe describes the daily life of a man marooned on a desert island. Although there are exciting episodes in the novel, its main interest lies in the way in which Crusoe overcomes the extraordinary difficulties of life on the island. Robinson Crusoe is considered by some critics to be the first true novel in English. Defoe's great novels were not published under his name but as authentic memoirs. Two excellent examples of his semihistorical recreations are the picturesque adventure Moll Flanders (1722), the story of a London prostitute and thief, and an account of the 1665 great plague in London entitled A Journal of the Plague Year (1722). His other major works include Captain Singleton (1720), Colonel Jack (1722), Roxana (1724), and A Tour through the Whole Island of Great Britain (1724-1727).
Defoe's writing is always straightforward and vivid, with an astonishing concern for circumstantial detail.

Перевод текста: Daniel Defoe

Использованная литература:
1. 100 тем английского устного (Каверина В., Бойко В., Жидких Н.) 2002
2. Английский язык для школьников и поступающих в ВУЗы. Устный экзамен. Топики. Тексты для чтения. Экзаменационные вопросы. (Цветкова И. В., Клепальченко И.А., Мыльцева Н.А.)
3. English, 120 Topics. Английский язык, 120 разговорных тем. (Сергеев С.П.)