1. Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) — Рейнольде, Джошуа — вы­дающийся английский портретист

2. Free of charge —• бесплатно

The Museum of British Transport

This museum in south London tells the story of public transport in Britain.

The first bus-service in London was started in 1829. The bus was drawn by three horses and looked very much like a large carriage. The first double-decker bus was built in 1851, but the upper deck did not have a roof until 1930, The passengers were given raincoats to put on if it started to rain.

The first trains, like the first buses, were drawn by horses, but they were not passenger-trains. They were used in mines and factories to carry materials from place to place.

The first passenger railway in England—and in the world—was the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. In 1829, this company offered a prize of £ 500 for the best steam train. The prize was won by George Stephenson, with his famous train, the "Rocket". It could trav 1 at 29 miles per hour, which was very fast at that time.

Do you know the world record speed for a steam train? The record-breaking train, "Mallard", which is now in this museum, was built in 1938, it travelled at 126 miles per hour!

ON SNOBBERY

Snobbery is not so common in England today as it was at the beginning of the century. It still exists, however, and advertisers know how to use it in order to sell their goods.

A snob, the dictionaries tell us, is a person who pays too much respect to social position or wealth. The popular newspapers know that many of their readers are snobs. That is why they give them unimportant and useless in­formation about persons of high socia! position, photo­graphs of "Lady X and her friends" at a ball or "Lord Y and his friends" at the races.

It is a snobbery that makes some men feel annoyed ¹ when, on the envelopes of letters addressed to them, they find Mr. before their names instead of Esq.² after their names. Snobbery explains why many people give their suburban house a name, such as The Oaks, The Pines, The Cedars, even though there are no oak trees, pine trees or cedar trees in their gardens. People of high -social posi­tion have country houses with names, so a house with a name seems "better" than a house with a number. Numbers make the postman's work much easier, but that is not im­portant.

The advertisers are very clever in their use of snobbery. Motor-car manufacturers, for example, advertise the col­ours of their cars as "Embassy Black", though this is ordi­nary black, or "Balmoral Stone". Balmoral stone is the grey colour of ordinary stone, but Balmoral is also the name of the residence in Scotland of the British Royal family.

Notes

1. Makes some men feel annoyed — sd. Вызывает у некоторых лю­дей раздражение

2. Esq. Сокр. От esquire — эсквайр (дворянское звание, присваи­вается также мэрам и старшему чиновничеству)

THE NATIONAL PASSION

Queueing is the national passion of an otherwise dis­passionate race.¹ The English are rather shy about it, deny that they adore it.

On the Continent, if people are waiting at a bus stop, they loiter around in a seemingly vague fashion. When the bus arrives they make a dash for it; most of them leave by the bus and a lucky minority is taken away by an ele­gant black ambulance car. An Englishman, even if he is alone, forms an orderly queue of one.

The biggest and most attractive advertisements in front of cinemas tell people: Queue here for 4/6; ² Queue here for 9/3; Queue here for 16/8 (inclusive of tax). Those Cinemas which do not put these queueing signs do not do good business at all.

At week-ends an Englishman queues up at the bus stop, travels out to Richmond, queues up for a boat, then queues up for tea, then queues up for ice-cream, then joins a few more odd queues just for the sake of the fun of it, then queues up at the bus stop and enjoys it.

Notes