Английский язык с Э. Р. Берроузом. Принцесса Марса

These three great divisions of the higher Martians had been forced into a mighty alliance as the drying up of the Martian seas had compelled them to seek the comparatively few and always diminishing fertile areas, and to defend themselves, under new conditions of life, against the wild hordes of green men.

Ages of close relationship and intermarrying had resulted in the race of red men, of which Dejah Thoris was a fair and beautiful daughter. During the ages of hardships and incessant warring between their own various races, as well as with the green men, and before they had fitted themselves to the changed conditions, much of the high civilization and many of the arts of the fair-haired Martians had become lost; but the red race of today has reached a point where it feels that it has made up in new discoveries and in a more practical civilization for all that lies irretrievably buried with the ancient Barsoomians, beneath the countless intervening ages.

These ancient Martians had been a highly cultivated and literary race (эти древние марсиане были высокоразвитой и образованной расой; to cultivate — культивировать, развивать; cultivated — культурный, развитой; literary — образованный), but during the vicissitudes of those trying centuries (но за время превратностей этих трудных столетий; vicissitude — превратность, злоключения; trying — утомительный, трудный) of readjustment to new conditions (приспосабливания к новым условиям), not only did their advancement and production cease entirely (полностью прекратились не только их прогресс и производство; advancement — продвижение; успех, прогресс; to cease — прекращать), but practically all their archives, records, and literature were lost (но были утрачены практически все их архивы, записи и литература).

Dejah Thoris related many interesting facts and legends (Дежа Торис рассказала много интересных фактов и легенд) concerning this lost race of noble and kindly people (касающихся этой пропавшей расы благородных и добрых людей). She said that the city in which we were camping (она сказала, что город, в котором мы расположились) was supposed to have been a center of commerce and culture known as Korad (был, предположительно, центром торговли и культуры, известным как Корад). It had been built upon a beautiful, natural harbor (он был выстроен у прекрасной, естественной гавани), landlocked by magnificent hills (защищенной великолепными холмами; landlocked — окруженный сушей, закрытый). The little valley on the west front of the city, she explained (небольшая долина перед городом с западной стороны, объяснила она), was all that remained of the harbor (это было все, что осталось от гавани), while the pass through the hills to the old sea bottom (тогда как проход через холмы ко дну древнего моря) had been the channel through which the shipping passed up to the city's gates (был каналом, по которому суда подходили к городским воротам).

vicissitude [vI'sIsItju: d], readjustment ["ri: q'dZAstmqnt], magnificent [mxg'nIfIs(q)nt]

These ancient Martians had been a highly cultivated and literary race, but during the vicissitudes of those trying centuries of readjustment to new conditions, not only did their advancement and production cease entirely, but practically all their archives, records, and literature were lost.