Palestrina took his name from the town where he was born. We are not sure of the exact date of his birth. Any records of his birth were destroyed when the town burned in 1577. He was probably a choirboy in Palestrina. When he was grown up he got a job as organist and choir director at the Roman basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. He was not earning much money, but he married a lady who came from a very rich family, so he was comfortably off. Pope Julius III heard about how good this young composer was. He asked him to come and meet him. He was given the job of master of the Capella Juliana, the choir that sang at the services in St Peter’s, Rome. This was the top job in Italy and he was only 26. Of course, Palestrina composed a mass in the pope’s honour.
Palestrina composed 93 masses (these are musical settings of the words of the communion service). He also wrote motets and madrigals. Palestrina and Lassus were the two greatest composers of the late Renaissance.
The Prince and the Pauper
The Prince and the Pauper is a book by Mark Twain. It was published in 1882. The story has been adapted to stage, television, and movies.
The story takes place in England, in the year 1547 when the King has a glorious and much rejoiced birth of the son he awaited, Edward the fourth, after many sisters (Mary and Elizabeth)and still births. By chance, Prince Edward, son of King Henry VIII of England and Jane Seymor, and Tom Canty, a pauper (poor boy), find out that they look exactly the same, like identical twins. After they put on each other's clothes for fun, the prince is thrown out of the palace, while people think that Tom is the prince. Now both Edward and Tom have to live in a world where they are treated different and which they do not understand.
Tom lives the life of a prince. On the streets of London, Edward is saved by the nobleman Miles Hendon. Edward travels with Miles around England. There Edward sees and has to live with the poverty and cruel treatment in the life of the poor people.
Then King Henry VIII dies. People prepare to make Tom the next King. At the crowning ceremony, Edward arrives and says that he is the real Prince. In the end, Tom and Edward can clear everything up. Edward becomes King of England. Tom Canty becomes "The King's Ward", a position in which he can live comfortably for the rest of his life. Miles Hendon is made an Earl. King Edward's rule is very good to the common and poor people, because he has lived that way for a while and knows how hard it is. But Edward dies when he is still very young.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a book written by Mark Twain, published in 1876. There is also a sequel, the "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn".
It is the story about the boy Tom Sawyer who lives in America in the first half of the 19th century, and his everyday life has awsome adventures.
Tom Sawyer is 12 years old and lives with his Aunt Polly, his half-brother Sid and his cousin Mary in St.Petersburg, a small town along the Mississippi River.
Because Tom went to school and made his clothes dirty in a fight, he gets punished and he had to whitewash the fence. Because he does not want to do this, he tells some boys what a “pleasure” it is to do the work. His plan works and the boys even pay him for this.
As the story goes on, Tom falls in love with Becky Thatcher, the Judge’s daughter. He convinces her to get “engaged” to him but when she finds out that she is not the first girl he is engaged to, she breaks up with him.
One night, Tom goes with Huckleberry Finn, the town drunk’s son, to the graveyard to try out a “cure” for warts. When they arrive there at midnight, they see Injun Joe murdering Dr. Robinson. The murderer blames his drunken companion Muff Potter for committing the crime and in addition to that, Injun Joe’s accomplice gets arrested the next day. Because Tom and Huck are afraid of him, they swear not to tell anybody about what they have seen.
Some days later, Tom, Huck and their friend Joe Harper run away to an uninhabited island on the Mississippi. They want to become pirates there. The boys are having a great time there and do not care about their families and friends. After some days, their families search their bodies in the river because they think the boys are drowned. Because Tom wants more information, he returns home without being seen and overhears his aunt and some other people from town talk about the boys’ funeral. Afterwards he goes back to the island to tell his friends about his idea to return home at their funeral. Huck and Joe are convinced that this will be a big surprise and agree. As they expect, everybody is surprised and happy that they are back. After their return all classmates admire them.
After this incident, Becky is interested in Tom again and they continue where their relationship first ended.
Then the trial of Cheyenne Frazier started. At this moment, Tom feels guilty for not telling the truth. So he tells that Injun Joe is the real murderer but he does not mention that Huck also saw the crime. After this, Muff Potter comes free and Injun Joe flees through a window. Now, Tom is afraid that Injun Joe could kill him.
Sometime later, Tom and Huck see Injun Joe and his companion when they find a box full of gold coins in the “haunted house”. The boys follow him to see where they hide the treasure but it does not work. When they find out that Injun Joe hangs out in a room in the “Temperance Tavern”, Huck shadows the murderer each night.
One night, Tom and Becky go on a picnic with their classmates to McDougal’s cave. Both told their families that they spend the night at a friend’s house because they want to stay the night together. Later that night, they separate from the others and get lost in the cave. Nobody notices that they are gone, so their families miss them just the next morning.
The same night, Huck follows Injun Joe who hides the box of gold. Huck hears him and his companion talking that they want to kill the widow Douglas. Afterwards, he goes to the Welshman who helps to chase the criminals away.
In the meantime, Tom sees a person in the cave and first thinks of help, but it turns out that it is Injun Joe. He does not tell Becky about that and after a long time Tom finds a small hole where they can escape.
After some days, Tom wants to visit Becky and her father tells him that the hole has been closed. The boy tells the Judge that he saw Injun Joe inside the cave. So the townspeople go to the cave where they find the dead body of Injun Joe.
Tom shows Huck the hole where he got out of the cave and both search and finally really find the treasure inside.
In the end, the Widow Douglas adopts Huck Finn. First Huck does not like it but Tom tells him that he can just join his robber band if he stays. Finally, Huck agrees.
Billy Boyd
Billy Boyd (born 28 August 1968, in Glasgow) is a Scottish actor. He is best known for playing Peregrin Took in the "Lord of the Rings" movie trilogy (2001–2003) and Barrett Bonden in Peter Weir's movie "" (2003).
As well as being an actor, he can sing, and play the guitar, bass, and drums. He wrote and sang a song in Peter Jackson's "".
He worked as a book-binder for 6 years before becoming an actor. One of the books he bound was "The Lord of the Rings".
He lives in a house in Lesmahagow with his girlfriend, Alison McKinnon. On 26 April 2006, he and McKinnon had their first child: Jack William Boyd.
Turing machine
Turing machine is a term from computer science. A Turing machine is a system of rules, states and transitions rather than a "real" machine. It was first described in 1936 by English mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing. There are two purposes for a Turing machine: deciding formal languages and solving mathematical functions. Turing machines are one of the most important formal models in the study of computer science.
A Turing machine consists of the following components (simplified):