3. Read the short passages and answer the questions 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 become 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 quiet, 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 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 story-tellers, 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? Could you describe the old traditions and the customs and rituals you saw there?

4. Below are opinions on folklore, traditions and customs.

1. Read them first, spend a few moments individually thinking of further arguments you will use to back up the opinions.

1. The most widely acknowledged form of Art – Folklore, that is verbal, musical and material (traditional handicrafts), is almost completely devoid of anything that could be called bad taste or poor imitation. What makes me say so? I think it is especially due to the fact that national Art is created by everyone and for everyone within the bounds of centuries old traditions. There is a common theme of Beauty in everything that people did or made. (Academician Likhachev)

2. No, I am not at all against those rituals, which are inseparable from our everyday lives. We should preserve those customs, rites and ceremonies that have become part and parcel of our existence. In addition new ones should be created and developed. But in what we have and in what we will have let’s try and see the moral, political and social meanings. And the things, which contradict those meanings, should probably be rejected. (Yu. Silomonov)

1. Now, discuss the opinions with your partner.

4. Pair work. Make up and act out a dialogue discussing national holidays.

1. Staying with your friends in Georgia, you discuss the customs and traditions of a national holiday with your host/hostess.

2. Be a host/hostess to a guest from Britain or the USA and discuss the beauty of Russian folk tradition in festivals. Point out the revival of traditions.

3. Exchange opinions with your partner on the multinational character of our society and advantages of enrichment for the various traditions in the multinational situations.

NOTE. Use the expressions of correcting people, agreement and disagreement (see Supplement)

4. Give Russian equivalents of the following English proverbs. Explain the meaning of each proverb and illustrate one of the proverbs in a situation of your own.

1. So many countries, so many customs.

2. East or West, home is best.

3. When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

4. Group work. Split into small buzz groups of 3-4 and get ready to represent a certain country’s national customs and traditions at an international conference or festival. Do some library research prior to the discussion. Elect the chair- person to conduct and run the conference. Delegate a speaker from a buzz group to take part in making a talk and a panel discussion.