Срсп 6. Customs, traditions and holidays in the usa.

Практические цели: формирование умений и навыков чтения и говорения письменного выражения мыслей, а также работы над тематическим материалом.

Christmas

Christmas Day, 25th December • Most Families Decorate Christmas Tree • The Tradition of Giving Gifts • Children Leave a Long Sock or Stocking for Presents, Fruit and Nuts -Boxing Day, 26th December

If you try to catch a train on 24th of December you may have difficulty in finding a seat. This is the day when many people are traveling home to be with their families on Christmas Day, 25th December. For most British families, this is the most important festival of the year, it combines the Christian celebration, of the birth of Christ with the traditional festivities of winter.

On the Sunday before Christmas many churches hold a carol' service where special hymns are sung. Sometimes carol-singers can be heard on the streets as they collect money for charity. People are reminded of Charles Dickens' story 'Christmas Carol'. Most families decorate their houses with brightly-colored paper or holly, and they usually have a Christmas tree in the corner of the front room, glittering with, colored lights and decorations.

There are a lot of traditions connected with Christmas but perhaps the most important one is the giving of presents. Family members wrap up their gifts and leave them bottom of the Christmas tree to be found on Christmas morning. Children leave a long sock or stocking at. the end of their beds on Christmas Eve. 24th December, hoping that Father Christmas' will come do the chimney during the night and bring them small presents, fruit, and nuts. They are usually not disappointed! At some time on Christmas Day the family will sit down to a big turkey dinner followed by Christmas pudding. They will probably pull a cracker with another member of the family. It will make a loud crack and a colored hat, small toy and joke will fall out!

In the afternoon they may watch the Queen on television as she delivers her traditional Christmas message to the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. If they have room for even more food they may enjoy a piece of Christmas cake or eat a hot mince pie. 26th December is also public holiday, Boxing Day, and this is the time to visit friends and relatives or watch football.

Ex.1. Answer the questions.

1. How do American people celebrate their holidays?

2. Explain and bring out the essence of their holidays.

3. How does a holiday in America differ from the one in Kazakhstan?

4. Do American people like to celebrate their holidays?

5. What is the role of people in celebrating holidays?

Ex.2. Make up a dialogue.

One Kazakhstani student is at the Christmas party. He is asking his American friend a lot of questions about Christmas.

Ex.3. Inquire about your friend’s favorite holiday.

1. What holiday does he like to celebrate most of all?

2. Does he like to celebrate it at home (outside, with his friends)?

3. Does he have any traditional dish?

4. How does he usually organize it?

5. Does he decorate the place where he is going to celebrate his holiday party?

6. Does he like to get presents any time?

7. What time does he usually celebrate his holiday at?

8. Does it matter if it morning, dinner or evening?

Ex.4. Write a composition on the following topics.

1. I don’t like to celebrate my birthday party.

2. I’m very hospitable in our family.

3. Holidays and traditions of my country.

4. The difference between American and Kazakhstan celebration of New Year.

Ex.5. Read the short passages and answer the questions about them giving your impressions to the point.

1. Some people find it difficult to tell the difference between a custom and a habit. Customs are social and habits are personal. Smoking is a bad habit and certainly an expensive one. Customs are common to a large number of people who belong to a society or a nation. For men giving up their seats to old people, to women carrying babies, to people who are ill should be a national custom.

Can you describe any national customs giving your impressions of them?

2. I have always been attracted by the people of unusual habits, I mean quit, orderly people who enrich their humdrum existences by adopting odd quirks and passions, unlikely routine or harmless mania for useless objects.

Life, I am sure, would be very much poorer without such people in it. Sometimes, I feel, I am lacking in personality since I have none of these strange habits.

And what do you think of people who have such unusual habits as collecting dolls, railway carriages or something like that? Could you describe any such hobbies and share your impressions of the people indulging in them?

3. Tradition is a chain which links the present with the past, part of our task is to interpret the life and the activity of tradition as a formative and perfecting factor in the development of men in society.

What do you think of the role the tradition plays in our life and what does the successful performance of that role depend on?

4. Story-telling and story-collecting used to be an old tradition in the times well before the scientific and technological revolution. Scotland has stories of so many different sorts that the richness of their variety is almost beyond believing. The tales and legends have been handed down by word of mouth often for generations. Many were passed on by wandering storytellers, others were composed for special occasions such as weddings and christenings.

No matter what brings folk together, you may be sure that there will be a grand feast spread, and the singing of old songs and ballads, the dancing of reels and most probably speeches to follow. But in the old days, the high point of the entertainment was the story.

Can you give your impressions of a traditional wedding you recently attended (Russian, Kazakhstani, Moldavian etc.)? Could you describe the old and new customs and rituals you saw there?

Ex.6. Problems for the discussion.

1. The advantages and problems of multinational states for the development of national traditions.

2. The continuity of folk traditions in modern world.

Learning recommendations:

Class activity: In this unit of the course book students are supposed to get introduced with the new material: read the text, translate into their native language, summarize in English, complete post-reading tasks and grammar exercises, discuss new speech topics, compose monologues and dialogues in the class.

Home task: Students are assigned to find out additional short information about specific topic of the unit, complete grammar exercises, prepare reports given by the teacher.

Literature:

1. Учебно-методический комплекс для студентов 1 курса неязыковых специальностей, М.Ж. Тусупбекова, А.М. Мухтарханова, 2008, Астана, _____стр.

UNIT 7

PROBLEMS OF YOUTH

Text: American youth.

Grammar: Conjunctions.

Практические цели: овладение дополнительной информацией о молодежи. Ознакомление с функциями союзов в предложении.

American Youth.

What is it like to be a young person in the United States?

At 18 years of age, young people in the United States can take on most of the rights and the responsibilities of adulthood. Psychologists say that most young people experience conflict during this period of their lives.

To some observers, teens today may seem spoiled (undisciplined and egocentric) compared to those of earlier types. The reality, however, is different. Changing family conditions, mobility of families and unemployment are just a few reasons why some young people try to escape reality by turning to alcohol or drugs. However, most young people in the United States do not have problems with drinking, drug abuse, teen pregnancies or juvenile delinquency. Drug use has decreased among young people within the last 10 years, though alcohol abuse has increased.

Many young Americans are joining organizations to help teenagers stop drinking and driving. 1000 of teenagers have joined Students Against Driving Drunk (SADD). They sign contracts in which they and their parents pledge not to drive after drinking. Young people with drug problems can also call special telephone numbers to ask for help.

Aside from drug abuse, another problem of America’s youth is pregnancy among young women. The numbers of sexually active teens also increased. Many community programs help cut down on the numbers of teenage pregnancies. Some programs rely on strong counseling against premarital sex and others provide contraceptive counseling.

About one million young people run away from home each year. Most return after a few days or a few weeks, but a few turn to crime and become juvenile delinquents. In 1989, approximately one-third on those arrested for serious crimes were under 18 years of age. Among the causes are poor family relationships, bad neighborhood conditions, peer pressure and sometimes, drug addiction.

Laws vary from state to state regarding juvenile delinquents. Once arrested, a juvenile must appear in a juvenile court. Juvenile courts often give lighter punishments to young people than to adults who commit the same crime.