Read the text and do the exercises that follow it. Study the following vocabulary before reading the text:

Text 8. CHARleS DARWIN

Study the following vocabulary before reading the text:

an ancestor – предок

species – вид, род, разновидность

divine – божественный

aboard – на корабле

H.M.S. (= Her Majesty’s Ship) – Корабль Ее Величества

a fossile – ископаемое

extinct – вымерший

a specimen – образец

Charles Robert Darwin (1809–1882) was a British naturalist who became famous for his theories on evolution. Like several other scientists before him, Darwin believed that, through millions of years, all species of plants and animals had evolved (developed gradually) from a few common ancestors.

Darwin set forth his theories in his book. “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life”. He gathered facts that supported the idea of evolution, and he proposed that evolution occurred through a process called natural selection.

Darwin’s theories shocked most people of his day, who believed that each species had been created by a separate divine act. His book, which is usually called simply “The Origin of Species”, presented facts that disputed this belief. It caused a revolution in biological science and greatly affected religious thought.

Darwin was born in Shewsbury, England. He was the grandson of the noted doctor and naturalist Erasmus Darwin, who had proposed a theory of evolution in the 1790’s. As a boy, Darwin often heard his grandfather’s theories discussed.

Darwin studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh and theology at Cambridge University. He received a bachelor’s degree from Cambridge in 1831. From 1831 to 1836, Darwin served as a naturalist with a British scientific expedition aboard H.M.S. Beagle. The expedition visited places throughout the world, and he studied plants and animals everywhere it went.

In South America, Darwin found fossils of extinct animals that closely resembled modern species. On the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean, he noticed many variations among plants and animals of the same general type as those in South America. Darwin collected the fossils and other specimens of organisms for future study.

Darwin returned to England in 1836 and settled in London. He spent the rest of his life studying specimens, doing experiments, and writing about his findings. His early books included “The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs” and a journal of his research aboard the Beagle.

In 1839, Darwin married his cousin Emma Wedgwood. The family moved to Downe, near Croydon, in 1842, and Darwin lived there until his death. He was buried in Westminster Abbey in London.

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