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After the ceremony, the couple are showered with the confetti. After that the bride opens the feast. She has to cut the wedding cake, which symbolizes a fruitful marriage.

Fireplaces

In English homes, the fireplace has always been, until recent times, the natural centre of interest in a room. People may like to sit at a window on a summer day, but for many months of the year they prefer to sit round the fire and watch the dancing flames.

In the Middle Ages the fireplaces in the halls of large castles were very wide. Only wood was burnt, even large logs.

Such wide fireplaces may still be seen in old inns.

Elizabethan fireplaces often had carved stone or wood work over the fireplace, reaching to the ceiling.

When coal fires became common, fireplaces became much smaller.

Dancing

Dancing is so popular that the numerous public halls are an important element in the folklore procedures of the upper and middle classes. They manage to survive against the competition of the more modern noisier discotheques. Public dance-halls are strictly places for dancing, with good floors and good bands, but often no tables for people to sit at when they are not actually dancing, only rows of chairs round the walls. They are visited mainly by young unmarried people. Girls tend to go in groups of two or three, friends from the same street or the same office; the young men sometimes go in groups too, but often alone. All the girls tend to get together between dances, and the young men similarly. At the beginning of each dance a man chooses a girl from the mass, and will ask the same girl to dance with him again if he finds her company agreeable, but the girl may refuse. Most of the dancers go home as they come-but not quite at all. If a couple like one another the young man may offer an invitation to go to a cinema on some future day and meet again. Young people find that easy enough to make friends.

Ex.1 Complete the sentences, using modal verbs or their equivalents in correct tense-forms:

1.Even the casual visitor to London … view without efforts many of the brilliant parades and spectacles.

2.The tradition that the bride’s parents … pay for the wedding dates back from two or three centuries ago.

3.The groom … see the bride in her wedding dress until she enters the church.

4.The bride … cut the wedding cake, which symbolizes a fruitfull marriage.

5.Wide fireplaces … still seen in old inns.

6.If a couple like one another the young man … offer an invitation to go to a cinema.

7.People … like to sit at the window on a summer day.

Ex.2 Open the brackets, using the correct form of the verb in Passive Voice:

1.Each house … (surround) by a great variety of flowers and shrubs.

2.After the ceremony the couple (shower) with confetti.

3.The Public dance-halls … (visit) by young unmarried people.

4.In many brilliant parades and spectacles the colour of medieval times …

(preserv) for us.

5.In old fireplaces only wood … (burn) even large logs.

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Ex.3 Insert prepositions where necessary:

1.The Briton has a sense … the continuity … history.

2.… many people in Britain gardening is the foundation … social and competitive relationships.

3.Flower-shows and vegetable-shows, … prizes … the best exhibits, are very popular.

4.May is traditionally unlucky … weddings.

5.It’s a lucky omen if the bride should see a chimney sweep … her way … church.

6.Dancing is so popular that the numerous … public halls are an important elements … the folklore procedures … the upper and middle classes.

Ex.4 Complete the sentences:

1.There is no other nation …

2.Queen Elizabeth the First provided …

3.Most English people love gardens, their own above all, …

4.In England the wedding preparations, ceremony and feast …

5. In English homes, the fireplace has always been …

6.The public dance-halls are strictly places for dancing, …

7.At the beginning of each dance a man chooses a girl from the mass, …

Ex.5 Answer the questions:

1.What nation has a sense of continuity of history?

2.Where can the visitors view brilliant parades and spectacles with the colour of medieval times?

3.What traditions do the British people maintain?

4.Why do most English people prefer to live in houses rather than in flats?

5.What is the peculiarity of English Wedding? What is a lucky omen for the bride?

6.Why has the fireplace always been the natural centre of interest in English homes?

7.What were the fireplaces make of in the middle ages?

8.Is dancing so popular in Britain? Why do the young people like to go to the public dance-halls? How do the dance-halls look like?

Ex.6 Make up a brief rendering of the text.

Education after school

Ex.1 Read the proper names: