Customs and Traditions. Christmas.

Unite 3

Customs and Traditions. Christmas.

1. Read. Translate into Russian. Retell.

Tar-Barrel Burning

The custom of men welcoming in the New Year by carrying pans of blazing tar on their heads is still kept up at Alien-dale, Northumberland, on New Year's Eve. Each of the "carriers", in fancy costume, balances on his head the end of a barrel (or "kit") filled with inflammable material. The procession is timed to reach the unlit bonfire shortly before midnight, then each man in turn tosses his flaming "headgear" oil to the bonfire, setting it ablaze. On the stroke of twelve, all join hands and dance around the fire, singing Auld Lang Syne. *

 

AULD LAND SYNE

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And never brought to min'?

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And auid lang syne?

Chorus — For auld lang syne, my dear,

For auld lang syne,

We'll tak a cup o'kindness yet

For auld lang syne.

(The first verse and the chorus)

Read. Translate into English. Retell.

«Первая нога»

31 декабря, в тот миг, когда часы начинают отбивать полночь, кто-нибудь бросается к двери и широко распахи­вает ее, „чтобы поскорее выпустить старый год и впустить новый". Так велит старинный обычай, существующий в Шотландии.

После этого, само собой разумеется, раздается звон праздничных бокалов. Затем, взявшись за руки, присутст­вующие затягивают традиционную „Олд лэнг сайн". Но это не все. Из глубины столетий пришли разные поверья, кото­рые, всерьез или в шутку, до сих пор сохраняются в неко­торых местах Шотландии. Согласно одному из них очень важно — чья „первая нога" вступит в дом в наступившем году. Хорошо, если придет брюнет, это добрый знак. Ры­жий или блондин - плохо: они приносят дурное. Упаси бог от появления женщины: это грозит бедой...

Конечно, хитроумные шотландцы давно уже нашли способ оградить себя от излишнего риска: под Новый год они нанимают брюнетов, которые и обходят один дом за другим, всюду стараясь быть „первой ногой". По обычаю „нога" приносит с собой кусок угля и со словами «Пусть долго горит этот очаг» бросает его в огонь.

 

3. Agree or disagree.

Text 1

Opinions Differ

"Yes, it's with us once more, the whole great colourful display, an inflated commercial free-for-all with its arti­ficial frost and plastic robins and reindeer, a profitable industry of trees and tinsel and turkey, puddings and pres­ents and paper hats.

For all that frippery it's still the time of good will."

"Christmas — bah! I loathe Christmas. Not on anti-reli­gious grounds. I just cannot stand the commercial hoohah and the way people stuff and drink themselves silly every De­cember 25."

"For Aunt Alice, a feather-filled cushion; for little Ron-nie, a set of building blocks;4br Uncle Tom, an antler-head­ed, self-operating, corkscrew; for Betty, a Japanese bam­boo insect brooch; for the baby, a Russian rubber squeaking horse; for cousin Josie, a Vietnamese lacy white basket; for Betty's little girl a pair of hand-knitted mitts; and for Chris and Joan, who are getting married in the New Year, Japanese red-lidded soup bowls."

(Morning Star)

In Dickens's time, the Saviour's birthday was celebrated merely by over-eating and drunkenness. Except for the servants, nobody received a present. Today Christmas is a major factor in our capitalist economy. A season of mere good cheer has been converted, by the steady application of propaganda, into a long-drawn buying spree, in the course of which everyone is under compulsion to exchange gifts with everyone else — to the immense enrichment of merchants and manufacturers.

(Adonis and the Alphabet by Aldous Huxley)

 

"Christmas," wrote Bernard Shaw bitterly, "is forced on a reluctant nation by the shopkeepers and the Press."

 

Text 2

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve everything is rush and bustle. Offices and public buildings close at one o'clock, but the shops stay open late. Most big cities, especially London, are decorated with coloured lights across the streets and enormous Christ­mas trees. The main line stations, trains and buses are crowded with people travelling from all parts of the country. to be at home for Christmas.

In the homes there is a great air of expectation. The chil­dren are decorating the tree with tinsel, various baubles and often coloured lights as well. The house is decorated with holly ¹ and a bunch of mistletoe under which the boys kiss the girls. Christmas cards — with the words A Merry Christ­mas to You, or Wishing You a Merry Christmas and a Prosper­ous New Year, or With the Compliments of the Season, etc. — are arranged on mantlepieces, shelves, tables, and sometimes attached to ribbon and hung round the walls.

Meanwhile the housewife is probably busy in the kitchen getting things ready for the next day's dinner. The Christmas bird, nowadays usually a turkey, is being prepared and stuffed, the pudding is inspected and the cake is got out of its tin and iced.

In small towns and villages one may still see carol-singers who come and stand in front of the house and sing or play Christmas carols. They expect a Christmas box from a few pennies or coppers upwards in return for their musical efforts. The money collected is then donated to some deserv­ing cause, for example to help destitute old people.

Text 3

NEW YEAR IN ENGLAND

In England the New Year is not as widely or as enthusiastically observed as Christmas. Some people ignore it completely and go to bed at the same time as usual on New Year's Eve. Many others, however, do celebrate it in one way о another, the type of celebration varying very much according to the local custom, family tradition and personal taste

The most common type of celebration is a New Year party, either a family party or one arranged by a group of young people. This usually begins at about eight o'clock and goes on until the early hours of the morning. There is a lot of drinking, mainly beer, wine, gin and whisky; sometimes the hosts make a big bowl of punch which consists of wine, spirits, fruit juice and water in varying proportions.

There is usually a buffet supper of cold meat, pies, sandwiches, savouries, cakes and biscuits. At midnight the wireless is turned on, so that everyone can hear the chimes of Big Ben, and on the hour a toast is drunk to the New Year Then the party goes on.

Another popular way of celebrating the New Year is to go to a New Year's dance. Most hotels and dance halls hold special dance on New Year's Eve. The hall is decorated, there are several different bands and the atmosphere is very gay.

The most famous celebration is in London round the statue of Eros in Picadilly Circus where crowds gather and sing and welcome the New Year. In Trafalgar Square there is also a big crowd and someone usually falls into the foun­tain.

Those who have no desire or no opportunity to celebrate the New Year themselves can sit and watch other people celebrating on television. It is an indication of the relative unimportance of the New Year in England that the

televi­sion producers seem unable to find any traditional English festivities for their programmes and usually show Scottish ones.

January 1st, New Year's Day, is not a public holiday, unfortunately for those who like to celebrate most of the night. Some people send New Year cards and give presents but this is not a widespread custom. This is the traditional time for making "New Year resolutions", for example, to give up smoking, or to get up earlier. However, these are generally more talked about than put into practice.

Also on New Year's Day the "New Year Honours List" is published in the newspapers; i. e. a list of those who are to be given honours of various types — knighthoods, etc.

 

Text 4

CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS

Christmas Day is observed on the 25th of December. In Britain this day was a festival long before the conversion to Christianity. The English his­torian the Venerable Bede * relates that "the ancient peo­ples of Angli began the year on the 25th of December, and the very night was called in their tongue modranecht, that is ‘mother’s night’. Thus it is not surprising that many social customs connected with the celebration of Christmas go back to pagan times, as, for instance, the giving of presents. Indeed, in 1644 the English puritan forbade the keeping of Christmas by Act of Parliament, on the grounds that it was a heathen festival. At the Restoration Charles II revived the feast.

Though religion in Britain has been steadily losing ground and Christmas has practically no religious significance for the majority of the population of modern Britain, it is still the most widely celebrated festival in all its parts except Scotland. The reason for this is clear. With its numerous, often rather quaint social customs, it is undoubtedly the most colourful holiday of the year, and, moreover one that has always been, even in the days when most people were practising Christians, a time for eating, drinking and making merry.

However, despite the popularity of Christmas, quite a number of English people dislike this festival, and even those who seem to celebrate it wholeheartedly, have certain reservations about it. The main reason for this is that Christ­mas has become the most commercialized festival of the year. The customs and traditions connected with Christmas, for example giving presents and having a real spree once a year, made it an easy prey to the retailers, who, using modern methods of advertising, force the customer to buy what he neither wants nor, often, can reasonably afford.

It is not only children and members of the family that exchange presents nowadays. Advertising has widened this circle to include not only friends and distant relations, but also people you work with. An average English family sends dozens and dozens of Christmas cards, and gives and receives almost as many often practically useless presents. For people who are well off this entails no hardship, but it is no small burden for families with small budgets. Thus saving up for Christmas often starts months before the festival, and Christ­mas clubs have become a national institution among the work­ing class and lower-middle class. These are generally run by shopkeepers and publicans over a period of about eight weeks or longer. Into these the housewives pay each week a certain amount of money for their Christmas bird ¹ and joint, their Christmas groceries and so on, the husband as a rule paying into the club run by the local pub, for the drinks.

As much of this spending is forced upon people and often means that a family has to do without things they really need, it inevitably leads to resentment towards the festival. Need­less to say that it isn't the old customs and traditions that are to blame, but those who make huge profits out of the nation­wide spending spree which they themselves had boosted beyond any reasonable proportion.

 

Test

What novel is it from?

 

Change the following statements to questions:

 

1. Washington was the first city in history to be built for the purpose of government. (Disjunctive)

2. About 85 percent of American students attend public schools. (Special)

3. I usually see my friends at my birthday party. (Alternative)

4. My mother often does the shopping in our family. (General)

5. Another building of the university will be built in Moscow in the near future. (To the subject)

 

III Choose the one word or phrase that best completes the sentence:

 

1. I will return your notes as soon as_______________ copying them.

(A) I will finish

(B) I do finish

(C) I finish

(D) I had finished

2. Although she is very popular, she is not____________her sister.

(A) pretty as

(B) as pretty

(C) more pretty than

(D) prettier than

3. We haven’t had __________ news from Atlanto since last week.

(A) much C) many

(B) no D) some

4. I know her very well. We’ve been friends ___________childhood.

(A) till C) for

(B) since D) until

5. I don’t know what to say. Let me_____________ about it a while.

(A) to think C) think

(B) thinking D) to be thinking

6. In the ocean, ___________ more salt in the deeper water.

(A) is there C) there is

(B) it may be D) it is

7. If Bob ______________with us he will have a good time.

(A) went C) came

(B) comes D) will come

8. She failed the exam. What___________!

(A) pity C) a shame

(B) unlucky D) shame

9. He has to be careful after the accident, __________ he?

(A) has C) does

(B) hasn’t D) doesn’t

10. _____________nothing to worry about. We have prepared everything.

(A) It is C) There is

(B) There are D) Here is

11. How much did you _________ for the flowers?

(A) paid C) spent

(B) pay D) cost

12. They _____________ us an interesting story last week.

(A) told C) retell

(B) spoke D) say

13. This book is _________ I can’t afford it.

(A) good

(B) too bad

(C) too expensive

(D) too cheap

14. Who_______________your grandparents?

(A) takes care

(B) look after

(C) take care

(D) looks after

15. Would you _______________closing the door, please?

(A) object

(B) like

(C) mind

(D) agree

16. Mary and John ____________ to the parties at the Student Union Friday.

(A) used going

(B) used to go

(C) were used to go

(D) are used going

17. I am seventeen, but my grandmother still__________me like a child.

(A) treats

(B) looks at

(C) thinks

(D) treat

18 Save your money but don’t_________ in the bank.

(A) put them

(B) give it

(C) put it

(D) take them

19. He______________ going to the theatre. There is a new play on.

(A) suggest

(B) suggested

(C) offered

(D) wants

20. I haven’t read ____________ book yet. Can I keep it a day or two?

(A) all the

(B) whole

(C) the whole

(D) the all

 

Unite 4

 

 

 

O. Henry

(1862-1910)

 

О. Henry's real name was William Sydney Porter. Before his name changed, he had been a bank office worker, cowboy, reporter, tramp, trying to find means of existence. O. Henry had a broad knowledge of the life of common people. They are the main characters of his stories, and their fates comprise those unusual and unexpected plots which never fail to surprise the reader. O. Henry was the master of surprise endings.

The literary heritage of O. Henry contains two hundred and seventy-three short stories. Most of them are filled with the writer's warm human sympathy for common American people: "The Gift of the Magi", "A Service of Love", "The Cop and the Anthem", "An Unfinished Story", "The Romance of a Busy Broker", "The Last Leaf", "While the Auto Waits", "The Third Ingredient⁵' and many others.

 

Render into English

О'Генри (О. Henry) [псевдоним; настоящее имя — Уильям Сидни Портер (Porter)] (11.9.1862, Гринсборо, Северная Каролина, — 5.6.1910, Нью-Йорк), американский писатель. Окончив школу, служил в аптеке, получил диплом фармацевта. В 1894 редактор-издатель юмористического еженедельника, в котором публикует свои первые литературные опыты. Работал кассиром-бухгалтером в банке, был обвинён в растрате, полгода скрывался от суда в Гондурасе; вернувшись, провёл в заключении более 3 лет (1898—1901). В тюрьме писал рассказы, некоторые из них были опубликованы в нью-йоркских журналах. Автор сборников рассказов «Четыре миллиона» (1906), «Горящий светильник» (1907), «Сердце Запада» (1907) и др., романа «Короли и капуста» (1904) — фактически цикла связанных общим сюжетом новелл. Произведения О’Генри отличаются изобретательной фабулой, неожиданными развязками, насмешливым юмором. Они образуют сказочно-авантюрную эпопею американской жизни, полную достоверных бытовых примет и метких социальных наблюдений. Подлинный герой О’Генри — «маленький американец» с его правом на счастье. Далёкий от сатирических разоблачений, О’Генри в некоторых рассказах с едким сарказмом говорит о пороках капиталистической Америки.

 

 

The gift of the magi

(by O’Henry)

 

***

one dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned with the silent imputa­tion of parsimony that such close dealing implied. Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas.

There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.

While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first stage to the second, take a look at the home. A furnished flat at $8 per week. It was not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad.

In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring. Also appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name "Mr. James Dillingham Young."

The "Dillingham" had been flung to the breeze during a former period of prosperity when its possessor was being paid $30 per week. Now, when the

income was shrunk to $20, the letters of "Dillingham" looked blurred, as though they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and unassum­ing D. But whenever Mr. James Dillingham Young came home and reached his flat above he was called "Jim" and greatly hugged by Mrs. James Dillingham Young, already introduced to you as Della. Which is all very good.

Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag. She stood by the window and looked out dully at a gray cat walking a gray fence in a gray backyard. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result. Twenty dollars a week doesn't go far. Expenses had been greater than she had calculated. They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him. Something fine and rare and sterling—something just a little bit near to being worthy of the honour of being owned by Jim.

There was a pier-glass between the windows of the room. Perhaps you have seen a pier-glass in an $8 flat. A very thin and very agile person may, by observing his reflection in a rapid sequence of longitudinal strips, obtain a fairly accurate con­ception of his looks. Della, being slender, had mastered the art.

Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass. Her eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its color within twenty seconds. Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length.

Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim's gold watch that had been his father's and his grandfather's. The other was Della's hair. Had the Queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty's jewels and gifts. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch every time he passed, just to see him pluck at his board from envy.

So now Della's beautiful hair fell about her, rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters. It reached below her knee and made itself almost a garment for her. And then she did it up again nervously and quickly. Once she faltered for a minute and stood still while a tear or two splashed on the worn red carpet.

***

On went her old brown jacket; on went her old brown hat. With a whirl of skirts and with the brilliant sparkle still in her eyes, she fluttered out the door and down the stairs to the street.

Where she stopped the sign read: "Mme. Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds." One flight up Della ran, and collected herself, panting. Madame, large, too white, chilly, hardly looked the "Sofronie."

"Will you buy my hair?" asked Della.

"I buy hair," said Madame. "Take your hat off and let's have a sight at the looks of it."

Down rippled the brown cascade.

"Twenty dollars," said Madame, lifting the mass with a practised hand.

"Give it to me quick,” said Della.

Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings. Forget the hashed metaphor. She was ransacking the stores for Jim's present.

She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. There was no other like it in any of the stores, and she had turned all of them inside out. It was a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamenta­tion—as all good things should do. It was even worthy of The Watch. As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be Jim's. It was like him. Quietness and value—the description applied to both. Twenty-one dollars they took from her for it, and she hurried home with the 87 cents. With that chain on his watch Jim might be properly anxious about the time in any company. Grand as the watch was, he sometimes looked at it on the sly on account of the old leather strap that he used in place of a chain.

When Della reached home her intoxication gave way a little to prudence and reason. She got out her curling irons and lighted the gas and went to work repairing the ravages made by gener­osity added to love. Which is always a tremendous task, dear friends—a mammoth task.

Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny, close-lying curls that made her look wonderfully like a truant school­boy. She looked at her reflection in the mirror long, carefully, and critically.

"If Jim doesn't kill me," she said to herself, "before he takes a second look at me, he'll say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl. But what could I do—oh! what could I do with a dollar and eighty-seven cents?"

At 7 o'clock the coffee was made and the frying-pan was on the back of the stove hot and ready to cook the chops.

Jim was never late. Della doubled the fob chain m her hand and sat on the corner of the table near the door that he always entered. Then she heard his step on the stair away down on the first flight, and she turned white for just a moment. She had a habit of saying little silent prayers about the simplest everyday things, and now she whispered: "Please God, make him think I am still pretty."

The door opened and Jim stepped in and closed it. He looked thin and very serious. Poor fellow, he was only twenty - two —and to be burdened with a family! He needed a new overcoat and he was without gloves.

Jim stopped inside the door, as immovable as a setter at the scent of quail. His eyes were fixed upon Della, and there was an expression in them that she could not read, and it ter­rified her. It was not anger, nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the sentiments that she had been prepared for. He simply stared at her fixedly with that peculiar expres­sion on his face.

Della wriggled off the table and went for him.

"Jim, darling," she cried, "don't look at me that way. I had my hair cut off and sold it because I couldn’t have lived through Christmas without giving you a present. It'll grow out again—you won't mind, will you? I just had to do it. My hair grows awfully fast. Say “Merry Christmas! " Jim, and let's be happy. You don't know what a nice—what a beautiful, nice gift I've got for you."

"You've cut off your hair?" asked Jim, laboriously, as if he had not arrived at that patent fact yet even after the hardest mental labour.

"Cut it off and sold it," said Della. '"Don't you like me just as well, anyhow? I'm me without, my hair, anyhow?" I’m me without my hair, ain’t I?

Jim looked about the room curiously.

"You say your hair is gone? he said, with an air almost of idiocy.

"You needn't look for it," said Della. "It's sold, I tell you—sold and gone, too. It's Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, for it went for you. Maybe the hairs of my head were num­bered," she went on with a sudden serious sweetness, "but nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall I put the chops on, Jim?"

Out of the trance Jim seemed quickly to wake.He enfolded his Della. For ten seconds let us regard with discreet scrutiny some inconsequential object in the other direction. Eight dol­lars a week or a million a year—what is the difference?A mathe­matician or a wit would give you the wrong answer. The magi brought valuable gifts, but that was not among them. This dark assertion will be illuminated later on.

Jim drew a package from his overcoat pocket and threw it upon the table.

"Don't make any mistake, Dell," he said, "about me. I don't think there's anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me like my girl any less. But if you'll unwrap that package you may see why you had me going a while at first."

White fingers and nimble tore at the string and paper. And then an ecstatic scream of joy; and then, alas! a quick feminine change to hysterical tears and

wails, necessitating the immediate employment of all the comforting powers of the lord of the flat.

For there lay The Combs—the set of combs, side and back, that Della had worshipped for long in a Broadway window. Beautiful combs, pure tortoise shell, with jewelled rims—just the shade to wear in the beautiful vanished hair. They were expensive combs, she knew, and her heart had simply

craved and yearned over them without the least hope of possession. And now, they were hers, but the tresses that should have adorned the coveted adornment were gone.

But she hugged them to her bosom, and at length she was able to look up with dim eyes and a smile and say: "My hair grows so fast, Jim!"

And then Della leaped up like a little singed cat and cried, "Oh, oh!"

Jim had not yet seen his beautiful present. She held it out to him eagerly upon her open palm. The dull precious metal seemed to flash with a reflection of her bright and ardent spirit.

"Isn't it a dandy, Jim? I hunted all over town to find it. You'll have to look at the time a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch. I want to see how it looks on it."

Instead of obeying, Jim tumbled down on the couch and put his hands under the back of his head and smiled.

"Dell," said he, "let's put our Christmas presents away and keep 'em a while. They're too nice to use just at present. I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs. And now suppose you put the chops on."

The magi, as you know, were wise men—wonderfully wise men—who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They in­vented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.

 

Essential Vocabulary

Work with the dictionary.

I. Find the following words and expressions in the text. Look up the meaning of the words and word combinations in the dictionary. Give their Russian equivalents, explain them in English:

to imply

to flop down

to instigate

reflection

to predominate

furnished flat

to look blurred

to hug

pier-glass

possessions

to regard

discreet scrutiny

inconsequential

to hold smth out to…

eagerly

instead of obeying

II. Comment on the following:

 

· Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.

 

· Eight dol­lars a week or a million a year—what is the difference? A mathe­matician or a wit would give you the wrong answer

 

Unite 3

Customs and Traditions. Christmas.

1. Read. Translate into Russian. Retell.

Tar-Barrel Burning

The custom of men welcoming in the New Year by carrying pans of blazing tar on their heads is still kept up at Alien-dale, Northumberland, on New Year's Eve. Each of the "carriers", in fancy costume, balances on his head the end of a barrel (or "kit") filled with inflammable material. The procession is timed to reach the unlit bonfire shortly before midnight, then each man in turn tosses his flaming "headgear" oil to the bonfire, setting it ablaze. On the stroke of twelve, all join hands and dance around the fire, singing Auld Lang Syne. *

 

AULD LAND SYNE

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And never brought to min'?

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,

And auid lang syne?

Chorus — For auld lang syne, my dear,

For auld lang syne,

We'll tak a cup o'kindness yet

For auld lang syne.

(The first verse and the chorus)