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.

 

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