Język angielski, matura 2020 - poziom dwujęzyczny - pytania i odpowiedzi

Maggie Lockhart spent her life trying to work out what she’d done to deserve it. Things don’t just happen. Sometimes the reasons are a long time coming, but when they finally do, they are clearly printed like her pension slip. Most things Maggie worked out to her own satisfaction, though getting people to see the thinking behind her reasoning was hard because nobody took her seriously. Maggie didn’t have the temperament for teasing and was never good at being teased even as a child, before the nose, the mouth and the cheeks set. But even the most sweet-natured woman would have baulked at what Maggie had to put up with. It wasn’t easy to live with That Face. Nobody could look at her face without thinking of the other one’s. And even she had the odd feeling when she glanced in the mirror that she wasn’t seeing herself, but the Queen. All right, not dressed in those uptight suits in all sorts of colours, with the brooches and the silly hats, but the Queen just the same. Even with a cigarette dangling out of her mouth and no make-up on, Maggie had the bad luck of looking the spitting image of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Never one to put herself first or forward, Maggie would have been perfectly happy going through life taking a back seat. But That Face made her take a front seat. Still, for years she endured, believing that it just had to have some sort of purpose. Otherwise, what was the point of it all?

One year as she’d stepped off a plane in Cyprus, a whole flock of people had gathered around her. Maggie had had to wave her hands “No, no! I’m not who you think I am,” until her husband, Charlie, pushed the way through the crowd. But she knew that Charlie loved it, to see her awkward and embarrassed and to take her arm and rush off as if the pair of them were famous. Yet, there was something about Charlie’s attentiveness that sometimes drove her up the wall. When he came back from London with a mug with the Queen’s face on it and prepared a tea for himself in it, she yanked it off him and put it in the box for the jumble sale.

On the other hand, Charlie was always the one to look after her, particularly now that they were getting on. When they walked out, Charlie was always on the lookout. Once he even suggested he could be her full-time bodyguard. But where would they get the money from, even supposing Maggie wanted a bodyguard?

Now she and the Queen were both in their seventies and having That Face still wasn’t making any sense. It finally dawned on Maggie that she’d put up with it long enough. She was not a mug and it was time she asserted herself. She had been saving for some time and now had a total of three and a half thousand pounds. It had been a toss-up between treating her and Charlie to a cruise or doing what she had resolved to do. But the cruise would have been nightmarish, port after port of people squealing. That horrific picture in her mind was what made her go for the latter.

As far as Charlie knew, she was going to stay with her sister for a couple of weeks. That would give her time to get over her bruises, and let things settle. She’d already been down to London a few months before to see the man she was putting her faith in. She wanted a longer nose, higher cheeks and a different chin, but he’d told her that all that would involve an enormous amount of work and wouldn’t be good for her face at her age. Eventually, they had settled on just changing the nose. But as with any big decision, now sitting in the taxi going up to the West End, Maggie was getting cold feet. Had she not been a bit touchy all her life? Couldn’t somebody who liked a good laugh have enjoyed herself with the Queen’s face? Had Maggie used her face as a scapegoat to cover her own inadequacies? Would things have been different for her without That Face?

Charlie loved her both for being herself and for looking like the Queen. What would he say if she came back with a different nose? She was sure he would hit the roof and feel cheated. And then he would cry. Charlie had only cried twice – when his father died and when Scotland lost in 1974 – and both had filled Maggie with pity and compassion as Charlie had gone for the whole waterworks, bawling his eyes out like a man who hadn’t had a chance to cry since he was a child. That thought pulled her up short. What the heck, Maggie! Have the Queen’s face and put up with it. Maggie looked out of the cab window as it passed Piccadilly Circus only to see people excitedly looking in. She gave them the smallest of waves.

A new portrait of the Queen to appear on coins has been unveiled. The effigy is the fifth definitive coin portrait to have been created during Queen Elizabeth’s reign and the first since 1998. [1] Even during the long reign of Queen Victoria there were no more than five portraits of the monarch on coins, one of which enjoyed such royal favour that it was used for about 50 years. The coins will take some time to filter through into people’s wallets as newly minted money tends to be delivered to cash centres and banks in the first instance.

The portrait was chosen during a competition commissioned by the Royal Mint Advisory Committee. It shows the right profile of the Queen wearing a crown and drop earrings. [2] Several artists were invited to submit designs anonymously and the committee ultimately selected Jody Clark’s. Aged 33 when his design was chosen, Clark is the youngest of the five designers to have created portraits of the Queen that have appeared on UK circulating coins during her reign. “I really liked the four previous coin portraits – each one is strong in its own way. I hope that I’ve done Her Majesty justice and captured her in a fitting representation,” Mr Clark said.

The Royal Mint’s announcement of the unveiling of the new portrait took place on January 27^th to mark the 50^th anniversary of the death of the sculptor Mary Gillick, who was the first artist to capture the Queen’s portrait for the nation’s coins. [3] Issued in 1953, the Gillick portrait depicted the Queen wearing a wreath of laurel, rather than the crown that we are used to seeing today. The portrait, which is still struck on Maundy Money, depicts her youthful right profile, and was considered to reflect the country’s optimism as it greeted a new monarch in the post-Second World War era.

While artists’ interpretations of the Queen’s image have changed over time, one element has remained constant – the right profile relief. [4] When asked about its origin, experts from the Royal Mint Museum questioned the popular belief that it was started by Charles II to symbolically turn his back on Oliver Cromwell. They say this may be too convenient an explanation and it is better to concede that if any reason existed for this, it has long since been forgotten.

The Royal Mint said that existing coins will remain in general circulation until they are naturally recycled due to wear and tear, usually when they are around 20 to 25 years old.

A. The Scottish village of Gretna Green – population 2,700 – hosts around 5,000 weddings per year, that is almost two weddings per resident, and has been a hotspot for tying the knot since the 18th century. Gretna’s fame began in 1754, when Lord Hardwicke’s Marriage Act came into force in England. Under the Act, if the parents of a child under 21 objected to the marriage, they could legally veto the union. The Act tightened the requirements for marrying in England and Wales but did not apply in Scotland, where marriage without parental consent was permitted for girls from the age of 12, and boys from the age of 14. This gave impetus to marriage ceremonies in the village that was located just over the Scottish border.