Иностранный язык профильного региона (английский). Учебно-методическое пособие

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APRIL FOOL’S DAY

The 1st of April is a day when one can light-heatedly make fools of any person, young or old, important or otherwise, a friend, a colleague, a family member. Many people like to play jokes or tricks on this day. They send wrong messages to mislead their victims, tell some realistic-looking but untrue things to fool each other.

The joke, however, must be received or believed by midday otherwise it is the joker and not the victim who becomes the fool. Most of the tricks are far from the original, and many have been used so often that they have now become traditional, yet they succeed again and again. One tells someone that his shoe-lace is undone, or his tie is crooked, or that something else is wrong with his dress, when in fact all is in order. Or you may receive a letter with a deceiving message or invitation.

Children are very keen supporters of the tradition. Their victims are other children, parents, school-teachers, tradesmen, friends who fall into their well-laid traps. The jokes include false summons to the door or telephone; a request to deal with a domestic disaster, which really did not occur; setting the empty egg-shell upside down in the cup at breakfast; placing the basin of water for someone to step into it; sewing up sleeves or trouser-legs and so on. The young and innocent may be sent to fetch a pint of pigeon’s milk, a penny worth elbow-grease3 or strap-oil4 . Juniors in factories may be sent to buy a pot of striped paint, a box of straight hooks or something as foolish as that. «Hunt the gawk another mile» is the best-loved joke in Scotland. The victim is sent out with a note containing these words, and when the addressed person reads the note he tells the messenger that the answer must be sought at another house. Off goes the poor one, only to be told the same thing at the second place. So he goes on, hunting the gawk another mile, and then another, until he finally realizes what is happenings,

3grease [griːs] – сало, жир, смазка

4strap [stræp] — ремень, хомут, помочи

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or some kind-hearted person tells him. «Hunting the gawk 5 » means a fruitless errand.

So we see that some jokes are not so innocent. There are some very famous examples of them. On April 1st 1698 a crowd of people came to the Tower of London to see the lions washed in the Thames. They had been invited to do so the day before when they received important-looking invitation cards. The event was described in newspapers. However, the same trick was successfully repeated in 1860. The official-looking post card bore the following inscription: «Tower of London — Admit Bearer and Friend to view the Annual Ceremony of Washing the White Lions, on Sunday, April 1, 1860. Admittance only at the White Gate. It is particularly requested that no gratitudes be given to the Warders or their Assistants».

Another successful joke was played by a trader from Dover half a century ago. On March 31, a large number of persons who owned dogs received a very official-looking document. It was marked «Urgent», and it bore the municipal coat of arms at the head of the page. The document was typewritten and signed by the Mayor of the town. It ran as follows:

«Owing to a sudden outbreak of hydrophobia16, it has become necessary to take special measures of precaution against this terrible malady and to have all the dogs of the town vaccinated».

By ten o’clock on the day appointed, hundreds of dogs, muzzled7 and unmuzzled, and of all breeds and sizes, have assembled and were barking and wagging their tails in the courtyard of the Town Hall.

The astonished officials came to the windows. None of them knew what to make of it. When the owners of the dogs showed their summonses and demanded admission, they were informed that there must be some mistake, as no such notices had been sent out. Gradually it dawned upon the victims that some wit had made April fools of them. Most of them laughed heartily and went home.

Newspapers, television and radio programmes join in the fun, publishing and broadcasting amusing and unlikely tales. On 1 April, 1957,

5gawk [gɔːk] — остолоп, разиня

6hydrophobia ['haɪdrouˈfoubjə] — бешенство

7muzzled [mʌzld] — с намордником

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BBC Television played an elaborate April Fool’s Day hoax8 on the viewers of highly regarded weekly documentary programme, «Panorama». It showed a film about harvesting a spaghetti crop m Southern Switzerland, near the Italian frontier. The film showed agricultural workers picking long strands of spaghetti from bushes. The film commentator pointed to the length of the spaghetti – the result, he said, of many years of patient cultivation by plant breeders. After the programme hundreds of viewers telephoned the BBC. Some of the calls were from viewers who had enjoyed the joke, including one who complained that spaghetti didn’t grow vertically, but horizontally. Some of the calls were from viewers who wanted to know where they could buy spaghetti bushes. But most calls were from those who were no longer sure that spaghetti was made with flour and water.

The persons befooled are called April Fools. When succeeding in their purpose the jokers usually greet the befooled person with shouts: “April Fools!”, “Noodie!” and get the traditional answer:

April Fools past and gone,

You're the food for making me one!

But all jokes end when noon comes. This rule is rigidly observed everywhere, otherwise the mockery is upon the joker's own head. If anyone attempts a trick after midday, the intended victim says:

April Noddy's past and gone, You're the fool and l'm none or

April Fool's gone past

You're the biggest fool at last.

The origin of this lively and persistent custom remains obscure, though there is a variety of theories attempting to explain it. One of them is that April was a month of fickle (“fooling”) weather, and that the Jews started the custom during Jesus' passion by sending him on fools errands to various magistrates before his crucifixion. Another theory is that the custom is related to Noah's error of “sending the dove out of the ark before the water had abated” on a date that corresponded to our April 1. The third theory which seems more reasonable, affirms that the birth of the custom is connected with the change of calendar. Until 1564 March 25 marked the

8 hoax [houks] — розыгрыш, надувательство

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European New Year and the festivities usually lasted eight days until April 1. With the Calendar change of that year the New Year became January 1, but not everyone immediately got the information. Those late who still celebrated it on April 1 were called April fools and those late visits and traditional presents were replaced by pretended gifts and mock ceremonial visits.

And they say the tradition began in France after the change of the calendar into the Gregorian one. And the victims of the jokes are called there “April fish” (poisson d'avril).

Whatever the theory, the fact is that people of the world acquired the official day of laughter, which they enjoy just as they can. Let's be more active participants on the humour process! So go ahead and laugh! It's good for all of us.

REMEMBRANCE DAY (POPPY DAY)

Remembrance Day is observed throughout Britain in commemoration of the million or more British soldiers, sailors and airmen who lost their lives during the two World Wars. On that day, the second Sunday in November, special services are held in the churches and wreaths are laid at war memorials throughout the country and at London's Cenotaph, where a great number of people gather to observe the two-minute silence and to perform the annual Remembrance Day ceremony. The silence begins at the first stroke of Big Ben booming 11 o’clock, and is broken only by the crash of distant artillery and perhaps by the murmur of a passing jet. Members of the Royal Family or their representatives and political leaders come forward to lay wreaths at the foot of the Cenotaph. Then comes the march past the memorial of ex-servicemen and women, followed by an endless line of ordinary citizens who have come here with their personal wreaths and their sad memories.

On that day artificial poppies, a symbol of mourning, are traditionally sold in the streets everywhere, and people wear them in their buttonholes. The money collected in this way is later used to help the men who had been crippled during the war and their dependants.

In the past the day was known as Armistice Day and was marked on the 11 of November, as that was the day when armistice (agreement to stop

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military actions) sought by Germany from Allies, came into force in 1918. Armistice Day was kept since 1919–1938. Two minutes’ silence was observed throughout the British Commonwealth starting at 11 am. The ceremony lapsed during the second World War, but was resumed in 1945. The following year it was decided to observe Remembrance Day for both World Wars. It was to be held annually on Remembrance Sunday (the second Sunday in November). The most magnificent ceremony is held at the Cenotaph in London, a memorial to those who died during the two world wars. On Remembrance Day the ceremony is attended by the Queen and royal family, statesmen and politicians, representatives of the armed forces and Commonwealth.

TROOPING THE COLOUR

Trooping the Colour is one of the most magnificent military ceremonies in Britain and perhaps in the world. It is held annually on the reigning monarch’s «official» birthday, which is the second Saturday in June.

Queen Elizabeth II is Colonel-in-Chief of the Household Division of five regiments of Foot Guards and two regiments of Mounted Guards. The Trooping marks the official birthday of the Queen and each year the colour (flag) of one of the five regiments of Foot Guards is displayed to the music of massed bands.

The ceremony stemmed from the need of soldiers to recognise the colours of their regiment in battle. The Parade is complex and precise and all seven regiments of the Household division take part, but only one colour is trooped each year.

Wearing the uniform of one of these regiments the Queen leaves Buckingham Palace and rides down the Mall to the Horse Guards Parade accompanied by the sovereign’s Mounted Escort from the two Household Cavalry Units – the Life Guards wearing scarlet tunics with white plumes in their helmets and the Blues and Royals in blue tunics with red plumes.

Precisely as the clock on the Horse Guards Building strikes 11, the Queen takes the Royal Salute. After inspecting her troops, the sovereign watches a display of marching to the tune of massed bands before the solemn moment when the Colour is trooped by being carried along the

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motionless ranks of guardsmen lined up to await the Queen. The Colour is then «trooped», or displayed before her.

Afterwards, she returns to the Palace at the head of the Guards deputed to mount the Palace Guard. Royal Family appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to acknowledge the fly-past of the Royal Air Forces at 1 p.m. Only one Colour is «trooped» annually, that of each regiment in strict rotation. Originally it was called «lodging» the Colour: each regiment’s own Colour being laid up, to music known as a «Troop».

The five regiments of Foot Guards1 can be identified by the plumes in their caps or bearskins, and by the spacing of the buttons on their tunics. The Grenadier Guards have white plumes and evenly spaced buttons; the Coldstreams, red plumes and buttons in pairs; the Scots Guards, no plumes and buttons in threes; the Irish Guards, blue plumes and buttons in fours; the Welsh Guards, white-and-green plumes and buttons in fives. The Guards have been carrying out their duty of guarding the sovereign since 1660 (the time of the restoration of Monarchy). <…>

1Foot Guards – гвардейская пехота (охраняет королевскую резиденцию

исостоит из 5 полков)

[18, p. 250-255, 289-292]

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