A. Say if you have friends from each of the five categories.

B. Say whom you consider to be your best friend and why.

Comment on the following quotations.

· Little friends may prove great friends. (Aesop)

· Never trust a friend who deserts you in a pinch. (Aesop)

· Old woods best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read. (F. Bacon)

· You shall judge of a man by his foes as well as by his friends. (J. Conrad)

· When Zeno was asked what a friend is, he replied, “Another I”. (Diogenes)

· A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud… (R. W. Emerson)

· The more we love our friends, the less we flatter them; it is by excusing nothing that pure love shows itself. (J. B. P. Moliere)

· A friendship founded on business is better than a business founded on friendship. (J. D. Rockefeller)

· A friend should bear his friend’s infirmities. (W. Shakespeare)

· Inferiority is what you enjoy in your friends. (Ph. D. S. Chesterfield)

· Associate with men of good quality, if you esteem your own reputation, for it is better to be alone than in a bad company. (G. Washington)

Use the following proverbs in situations of your own. Give suitable Russian equivalents if possible.

1) Among friends all things are common.

2) A friend to all is a friend to none.

3) A friend in need is a friend indeed.

4) A man is known by the company he keeps.

5) Friendship cannot stand always on one side.

6) A broken friendship may be soldered, but will never sound.

Solve the problems.

1) Your best friend and you had a major quarrel. You apologized, but he still won’t talk to you. What can you do?

2) Your friend has a really serious problem, and he made you promise not to tell anyone about it. But you feel that you won’t be able to help him without breaking the promise. How will you do?

3) You have a friend who has just become very famous. In what way will it tell on your relations?

4) You used to have a lot of friends before you got married. Your wife/husband objects to some of your old relationships, which are very dear to you. What would you do?

5) You introduced your boyfriend to your group-mate and he took fancy to her. Would you break you relationship with your group-mate?

Complete the following.

1) As people grow up, sometimes they***

2) Women are better prepare for the end of a love affair than for***

3) They lost contact over the years and now they look like***their friendships.

4) Good friendships are often based on***

5) Real friends do not *** each other’s success.

6) She couldn’t make *** to the new circumstances.

7) Infuriated, he threw the *** overboard.

8) What do you ***in your friend?

9) Sometimes it’s wise to**between friends and it may***a final break.

10) Love affairs demand a certain degree of***

Points to ponder.

1) Making friends can be as exciting at 50 as it is at 20.

2) Making friends is not easy.

3) The only way to have friends is to be one.

4) Friendship is no more than a mutual flight from boredom.

5) Only childhood friends are true friends.

6) You can never have too many friends.

 

UNIT 6. CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS

As you read the text

a) Look for the answers to these questions in the text below.

- What distinctions can be pointed out between folklore and the formal culture of people?

- How and in what situations does folklore manifest itself?

- Can you specify different types of folklore as presented in the text below?

- What determination can be given to a custom as an example of partly verbal folklore?

- When and how can a custom become a festival according to the author of the text?

- What true folk customs are associated with the events that are described in the text as those that require “rites of passage”?

- What are the anniversary wedding customs that you learned about from the text?

The Field of Folklore

Folklore comprises the unrecorded traditions of people. The study of folklore records and analyses these traditions because they reveal the common life of the mind below the level of “high” or formal culture, which is recorded by civilizations as learned heritage of their times.

Whenever, out of habit or inclination, the folk indulge in songs and dances, in ancient games, the merry-making, to mark the passage of the year or the usual festivities whenever in many callings the knowledge, experience, wisdom, skill, the habits and practices of the past are handed down by example or spoken word, by the older to the new generations, without reference to book, print, or school teacher, then we have folklore in its own perennial domain, at work as ever, alive and shifting, always apt to grasp and assimilate new elements on its way.

Folklore comprises creations of people, primitive and civilized. A simple and workable arrangement of folklore may be based on three modes of existence: folklore is either verbal (proverbs, rhymes, myths, legends, folksongs, ballads), partly verbal (superstitions, customs and festivals, folk dances and games) or non-verbal (folk gestures, folk music, folk architecture, handicrafts, folk costumes and foods).

Customs involve both verbal and non-verbal elements that are traditionally applied in specific circumstances. But unlike superstitions, true customs do not involve faith in the magical results of such application. Thus, the “custom” that incorporate traditional belief in the supernatural should properly be classified as superstition.

A custom is a traditional practice, a mode of individual behaviour or a habit of social life – that is transmitted by word of mouth or imitation, then ingrained by social pressure, common usage and parental authority. When customs are associated with holidays they become calendar customs, and, when such events are celebrated annually by a whole community, they become festivals.

Storytelling, ballad-singing, riddle-posing, game and prank playing and the like are all customary acts, for their survival depends on tradition rather than on official control.

Celebrations of birthday anniversaries may begin as early as the first year in some families and they may continue through one’s entire life.

The loss of “baby teeth” is one of the few other non-holiday occasions in a child’s life when customs are followed.

Courtship and engagement begin a new round of customs that lead to a grand final at marriage, the most tradition-regulated personal ceremony in American life.

Wedding customs begin with the “shower” often several of them, to emphasize different kinds of needed gifts.

Customs of the wedding itself are numerous and largely regulated by tradition. They include the dress of participants, the seating of guests, the choice of attendants, kissing the bride, throwing rice, passing the bride’s shoe around for money, playing pranks on the married couple, and decorating a car.

Wedding customs, however rough, are essentially celebration of a happy time. But customs associated with death are generally fraught with suggestions of fear or superstition.

From youth to old age, at work and at party, in school and in widening arches of our orbits, from the country with which we identify, we encounter folk traditions, customs, recipes, memories, sayings and allusions that in sum constitute a yearly folklore brew.

b) Find in the text the facts the author gives to illustrate the following.

1) Most true folk customs begin when a child is born.

2) In a sense, transmitting folklore is itself a custom.

1) Unlike superstitions, true customs do not involve faith in magical results of their applications.

2. Discuss the following problem questions.

1) The variety of holidays and festivals in all social communities is determined by the diversity of their character. One can talk about international, national, political, cultural, religious, ethic, etc. holidays. Please, give examples of these holidays and say which of them is your favourite and why.

2) The origin of May Day as the international day of working class solidarity can be traced back to the end of the 19^th century. After the brutal suppression of demonstrations for the eight hour working day in the US on May 1, 1886, American trade unions and the Socialist International decided in 1889 to hold such demonstrations everywhere. Since then, May Day has been the symbol of the working class unity. Do you happen to know that May Day is not a public holiday in many countries? Can you speak about the attitude to May Day in Russia now?

3) There is no need to deny that the celebrations of the International Women’s Day have acquired new features and developed modern customs in the course of time. Do you approve of these new customs? How will you explain them to your British or American friend emphasizing its difference from Mother’s Day in their countries?

4) National customs and traditions have been historically associated with seasonal changes of the year. The celebration of the magic force of the first day can be seen in the pagan tradition of making the first day of winter, spring, having festivals in honour of natural forces – the Sun, the Moon. Pancake Day (Maslyanitsa) in Russia dates back to the ancient Slavic tradition of saying farewell to winter and welcoming spring by singing, dancing, burning the straw effigy of Maslyanitsa and eating pancakes, which represent little images of the Sun. Do you know about any other folk holidays marking the seasonal changes? What is the role of such holidays in the cultural development of a nation and in securing the continuity of national customs and traditions?

5) Celebrations like Olympic Games, Youth Festivals, Neighbourhood Festivals, Russian Winter festival, etc. have appeared only recently. Some of them have obviously roots in the cultural heritage of the peoples, others emphasize the modern problems and aims. What in your opinion is the cultural, political (emotional, moral, psychological, etc.) impact and messages of such new festivals for the younger generation?

6) Some young people refuse to observe the old rituals and have a wedding party considering it a terrible nuisance and a waste of money. What is your idea of celebrating a wedding? Should the old customs and traditions be observed or should it be held in an absolutely new manner?

7) A school- teacher is sure to take part in organizing celebrations of different kinds. What do you think a schoolteacher’s opinion should be on the role holidays, traditions and rituals play in the education and character-shaping of the younger generation?

8) You may remember or know, that decorating a New Year tree was considered to be a superstition in the 20s in Soviet Russia. How do you account for that attitude and what in fact is the meaning of the New Year tree to children and adults?

9) What part do you think the national cuisine plays in the celebration of different holidays and festivals? Can you describe some Russian (or English, French, German, etc.) special dishes associated particularly with celebrations.