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5. Usually New Year’s Trees (to decorate) with toys and coloured lights.
Ex.3 Answer the questions:
1.Are holidays popular in the UK?
2.Why do kids like holidays?
3. What is |
a) St.Valentine’s Day? |
|
b) Hallowe’en? |
|
c) Christmas? |
|
d) New Year’s Day? |
|
e) “Hogmanay”? |
|
f) Easter? |
Ex.4 Insert the prepositions:
1.Christmas is celebrated … the 25th … December.
2.There’re always a lot of greeting postcards … sale.
3.Many families decorate their houses … brightly-coloured paper.
4.Children leave a long stocking … the end of their bed … Christmas Eve, hoping that Father Christmas will come … night and bring them small presents.
5.… Christmas Day, usually … afternoon people watch the Queen … television as she delivers her traditional Christmas message … the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth.
Ex.5 Complete the sentences:
1.Every nation of the world … .
2.The most popular holidays in the UK are … .
3.On Hallowe’en children, dressed in white sheets knock on doors and ask if you would give them a “treat”, or if you wouldn’t they … .
4.At 12 o’clock the New Year comes and everyone hopes that it will be better than the last one and children believe that … .
5.Though Easter is not an official holiday, many companies however … .
Ex.6 Make up a brief rendering of the text “British Favourite Holidays”. What holidays do you usually celebrate in your country in your family?
tradition – [ |
] |
custom – [ |
] |
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ceremony – [ |
|
] |
ancient – [ |
|
] |
consciousness – [ |
] |
|
castle – [ |
|
] |
procedure – [ |
|
] |
faith – [ |
] |
|
ancestor – [ |
|
] |
spectacle – [ |
|
] |
taboo – [ |
|
] |
superstition – [ |
|
] |
There is no other nation that clings to the past with the tenacity of the British.
The Briton has a sense of the continuity of history. He loves to go through his ancient ceremonies as he has always performed them, with the consciousness that he is keeping faith with his ancestors, that he is maintaining the community they created.
Queen Elizabeth the First provided one of these examples of discarding the old and supplanting it with the new.
Even the casual visitor to London can view without efforts many of the brilliant parades and spectacles in which the colour of medieval times has been preserved for ours.
Most English people love gardens, their own above all, and this is probably one reason why so many people prefer to live in houses rather than flats.
Each house is surrounded by a great variety of flowers and shrubs. Although the task of keeping a garden is so individual for many people
gardening is the foundation of social and competitive relationships. Flowershows and vegetable-shows, with prizes for the best exhibits, are very popular.
In England the wedding preparations, ceremony and feast have all become loaded with ritual practices.
The choice of date is important. May is traditionally unlucky for weddings.
The tradition that the bride’s parents should pay for the wedding dates back from two or three centuries ago. At most formal wedding brides skill get married in white. Even a modern bride will observe the taboos about wearing her dress before the ceremony.
The groom musn’t see her in it until she enters the church. The veil should be put on. It’s a lucky omen if the bride should see a chimney sweep on her way to church.
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After the ceremony, the couple are showered with the confetti. After that the bride opens the feast. She has to cut the wedding cake, which symbolizes a fruitful marriage.
In English homes, the fireplace has always been, until recent times, the natural centre of interest in a room. People may like to sit at a window on a summer day, but for many months of the year they prefer to sit round the fire and watch the dancing flames.
In the Middle Ages the fireplaces in the halls of large castles were very wide. Only wood was burnt, even large logs.
Such wide fireplaces may still be seen in old inns.
Elizabethan fireplaces often had carved stone or wood work over the fireplace, reaching to the ceiling.
When coal fires became common, fireplaces became much smaller.
Dancing is so popular that the numerous public halls are an important element in the folklore procedures of the upper and middle classes. They manage to survive against the competition of the more modern noisier discotheques. Public dance-halls are strictly places for dancing, with good floors and good bands, but often no tables for people to sit at when they are not actually dancing, only rows of chairs round the walls. They are visited mainly by young unmarried people. Girls tend to go in groups of two or three, friends from the same street or the same office; the young men sometimes go in groups too, but often alone. All the girls tend to get together between dances, and the young men similarly. At the beginning of each dance a man chooses a girl from the mass, and will ask the same girl to dance with him again if he finds her company agreeable, but the girl may refuse. Most of the dancers go home as they come-but not quite at all. If a couple like one another the young man may offer an invitation to go to a cinema on some future day and meet again. Young people find that easy enough to make friends.
|
Vocabulary |
custom [ |
] – обычай |
to cling [ |
] – цепляться, прилипать |
tenacity [ |
] – цепкость, упорство |
to perform [ |
] – выполнять, совершать |
ancient [ |
] – древний |
consciousness [ |
] – сознание |
ancestor [ |
] – предок |
to maintain [ |
] – поддерживать, сохранять |
|
|
|
60 |
to create [ |
|
] – творить, создавать |
|
to provide [ |
|
] – обеспечивать |
|
to discard [ |
|
] – отвергать |
|
to supplant [ |
|
] – вытеснять |
|
competitive [ |
|
] – конкурентоспособный |
|
wedding [ |
|
] – свадьба |
|
superstition [ |
|
] – суеверие |
|
feast [ |
|
] – праздник |
|
bride [ |
|
|
] – невеста |
groom [ |
|
] – жених |
|
veil [ |
|
] – вуаль |
|
omen [ |
|
] – знак |
|
couple [ |
|
] – пара |
|
to load [ |
|
] – обременять, грузить |
|
chimney sweep [ |
] – трубочист |
||
fireplace [ |
|
] – камин |
|
inn [ |
] – гостиница |
||
to carve [ |
] – вырезать |
||
castle [ |
|
] – замок |
|
coal [ |
] – уголь |
||
Ex.1 Complete the sentences, using modal verbs or their equivalents in correct tense-forms:
1.Even the casual visitor to London … view without efforts many of the brilliant parades and spectacles.
2.The tradition that the bride’s parents … pay for the wedding dates back from two or three centuries ago.
3.The groom … see the bride in her wedding dress until she enters the church.
4.The bride … cut the wedding cake, which symbolizes a fruitfull marriage.
5.Wide fireplaces … still seen in old inns.
6.If a couple like one another the young man … offer an invitation to go to a cinema.
7.People … like to sit at the window on a summer day.
Ex.2 Open the brackets, using the correct form of the verb in Passive Voice:
1.Each house … (surround) by a great variety of flowers and shrubs.
2.After the ceremony the couple (shower) with confetti.
3.The Public dance-halls … (visit) by young unmarried people.
4.In many brilliant parades and spectacles the colour of medieval times …
(preserv) for us.
5.In old fireplaces only wood … (burn) even large logs.
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1.The Briton has a sense … the continuity … history.
2.… many people in Britain gardening is the foundation … social and competitive relationships.
3.Flower-shows and vegetable-shows, … prizes … the best exhibits, are very popular.
4.May is traditionally unlucky … weddings.
5.It’s a lucky omen if the bride should see a chimney sweep … her way … church.
6.Dancing is so popular that the numerous … public halls are an important elements … the folklore procedures … the upper and middle classes.
1.There is no other nation …
2.Queen Elizabeth the First provided …
3.Most English people love gardens, their own above all, …
4.In England the wedding preparations, ceremony and feast …
5. In English homes, the fireplace has always been …
6.The public dance-halls are strictly places for dancing, …
7.At the beginning of each dance a man chooses a girl from the mass, …
Ex.5 Answer the questions:
1.What nation has a sense of continuity of history?
2.Where can the visitors view brilliant parades and spectacles with the colour of medieval times?
3.What traditions do the British people maintain?
4.Why do most English people prefer to live in houses rather than in flats?
5.What is the peculiarity of English Wedding? What is a lucky omen for the bride?
6.Why has the fireplace always been the natural centre of interest in English homes?
7.What were the fireplaces make of in the middle ages?
8.Is dancing so popular in Britain? Why do the young people like to go to the public dance-halls? How do the dance-halls look like?
Ex.6 Make up a brief rendering of the text.
Education after school
Ex.1 Read the proper names: