St. Valentine's Day is celebrated in February.

On February 14, Americans send greeting cards called valentines. The holiday is primarily about romantic love, but many people also send valentines to their children and parents. In elementary school, children commonly exchange valentines with friends and teachers. Most valentines are decorated with a red heart. This holiday originated in Europe in the 1400s, but today it is more popular in the United States than anywhere else. Traditional Valentine's Day gifts are flowers or a heart shaped box of chocolate.

 

150. In England, «public school" means private school.

All English children between the ages of 5 and 16 must attend school. About 90 percent of the students go to school supported by public funds. The rest attend private schools. England's public schools are actually private schools. But they are called publics because the earliest of them were established for the children of the middle classes. Most of the public schools are boys' boarding schools. This type of schools is very popular. To pass the difficult entrance examination of the public schools, some young boys attend private preparatory schools.

The first colonists in America started the tradition of Thanksgiving Day.

On the fourth Thursday in November, in houses around the United States, families get together for a feast or a large meal. Almost all families eat turkey and cranberry sauce for this meal and have pumpkin pie for dessert. This feast is part of a very special day, the holiday of Thanksgiving. In 1620 the Pilgrims made a difficult trip across the ocean from England. Their first winter in America was very hard. But the Native Americans taught the Pilgrims to plant com, to hunt and to fish. When the next fall came, the Pilgrims had plenty of food. They were thankful and had a feast to give thanks. This was the first Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving became a national holiday many years later. In 1863 President Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a holiday.

 

152. What is "bed and breakfast'? (A type of accommodation)

A bed and breakfast (or B&B) is a small lodging establishment that offers overnight accommodation and breakfast, but usually does not offer other meals. Typically, bed and breakfasts are private homes with fewer than 10 bedrooms available for commercial use.

 

The telephone number to call for emergency services in Britain is 999.

Telephone number 999 can be used to summon assistance from the three main emergency services, the police, fire brigade and ambulance, or more specialist services such as the Coastguard and mountain and cave rescue. Calls to 999 are free. First introduced in the London area on 30 June 1937, the UK's 999 number is the world's oldest emergency call service. The system is said to have been introduced following a fire on 10 November 1935 in a house on Wimpole Street in which five women were killed. The choice of 999 was because in the dark or in dense smoke, 999 could be dialed by placing a finger against the dial stop and rotating the dial to the full extent three times. This enables all users including the visually impaired to easily dial the emergency number.

 

The telephone number to call for emergency services in the USA is 911.

Many countries' public telephone networks have a single emergency telephone number, sometimes known as the universal emergency telephone number, that allows a caller to contact local emergency services for assistance. The emergency telephone number may differ from country to country. It is typically a three-digit number so that it can be easily remembered and dialed quickly. Some countries have a different emergency number for each of the ditTerent emergency services; these often differ only by the last digit. Inside the USA, 911 was introduced as a common emergency call number.