Famous People from English-Speaking Countries

The specific part of maturita topic 2 (Personal identification and characteristics), at B2 level. As with Czech personalities, you don’t have to know everyone – pick a few people from different fields and be ready to describe what they were like and why they are important. The words for describing personality from topic 2 are very useful here.

History and politics

• Elizabeth I (1533–1603) – the queen of England during the “Golden Age”. Under her rule England defeated the Spanish Armada (1588) and theatre flourished. She never married and was called the Virgin Queen.
• Queen Victoria (1819–1901) – she reigned for 63 years, when Britain was the strongest power in the world and the British Empire covered a quarter of the globe.
• Winston Churchill (1874–1965) – Prime Minister during the Second World War, famous for his determination and speeches (“We shall never surrender”). He also won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
• Elizabeth II (1926–2022) – the longest-reigning British monarch (70 years), respected for her sense of duty.
• George Washington (1732–1799) – the commander of the American army in the War of Independence and the first President of the USA.
• Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) – the 16th President; he led the country through the Civil War and abolished slavery. He was assassinated in a theatre.
• Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) – a Baptist minister and leader of the civil rights movement who fought against racial segregation by non-violent means. He won the Nobel Peace Prize and was murdered in 1968.

Literature

• William Shakespeare (1564–1616) – the greatest English playwright and poet, born in Stratford-upon-Avon. He wrote tragedies (Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth), comedies (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) and sonnets, and he invented many words and phrases still used today.
• Jane Austen (1775–1817) – the author of Pride and Prejudice; her novels describe love, marriage and money among the English middle class with gentle irony.
• Charles Dickens (1812–1870) – the best-known Victorian novelist. In Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol he showed the poverty of children and the poor in industrial London.
• Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) – an Irish writer famous for his wit, the comedy The Importance of Being Earnest and the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. He was sent to prison for his homosexuality.
• George Orwell (1903–1950) – the author of Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four, warnings against dictatorship; words like “Big Brother” come from him.
• J. K. Rowling – the author of the Harry Potter series, one of the best-selling books in history.
• Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) – an American master of horror stories and the inventor of the detective story (The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Raven).
• Mark Twain (1835–1910) – the author of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, set on the Mississippi.
• Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) – a Nobel Prize winner known for his short, simple sentences (The Old Man and the Sea, A Farewell to Arms).

Science and technology

• Isaac Newton (1643–1727) – formulated the law of gravity and the laws of motion; according to legend he was inspired by a falling apple.
• Charles Darwin (1809–1882) – explained the theory of evolution by natural selection in On the Origin of Species.
• Thomas Edison (1847–1931) – an American inventor with over a thousand patents, including the practical light bulb and the phonograph.
• Alan Turing (1912–1954) – a mathematician who helped to break the German Enigma code in the Second World War and is considered the father of computer science and artificial intelligence. He was persecuted for being gay and was officially pardoned only in 2013.
• Tim Berners-Lee – a British computer scientist who invented the World Wide Web in 1989 and gave it to the world for free.
• Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) – a physicist who studied black holes and wrote A Brief History of Time, although he was almost completely paralysed by a serious illness.
• Bill Gates and Steve Jobs (1955–2011) – the founders of Microsoft and Apple, who made personal computers available to ordinary people.

Music, film and sport

• The Beatles – the most successful band in history, from Liverpool.
• Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977) – a London-born star of silent films, famous as the little tramp with a bowler hat and a cane.
• Freddie Mercury, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan (who won the Nobel Prize for Literature), Adele and Taylor Swift in music.
• Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Serena Williams and David Beckham in sport.

Describing a person

Use the vocabulary of topic 2 to describe what a person was like, not only what they did:

• Appearance: He was tall and slim, with…
• Character: She was determined, hard-working and brave, but also…
• Achievements: He is best known for…
• Influence: Thanks to him / her, today we…
• Your opinion: What I admire most about her is…

Key vocabulary

Useful phrases

• He / She is regarded as one of the greatest…
• He / She will always be remembered for…
• Not only did he…, but he also…
• If it hadn’t been for him / her, we wouldn’t have…
• The person I find most inspiring is…, because…

Questions the examiner may ask

Try to answer each question in two or three sentences, then click on the hint to compare.