52. Write an essay (about 300 words). You may choose the topic you like:

1. There are more and more pressures on young people to drink alcohol and they are worried that if they don't, people will think there is something wrong with them.

2. There is a blurring between illegal drugs such as cannabis and legal ones such as alcohol or tobacco in youth culture.

3. Youth crime is a huge problem.

AMERICAN AND

ENGLISH HOLIDAYS

1. Halloween

1. Read the text and answer the questions:

1. Who had the festival that was probably the start of our Halloween?

2. When did the Celts hold the festival?

3. Who was Samhain?

4. What did Celts do to scare all the ghosts?

5. What do people do nowadays on Halloween?

6. What are the colours of Halloween?

Thе Roots of Halloween

In the fall the nights get longer. The weather turns colder. Leaves fall from trees, and plants die. For these reasons, fall has long been thought of as a time of death.

Long ago, many people believed that on certain fall nights dead spirits came back to earth. This idea was held by the Celts, a European people who lived in England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and France. Over 2,000 years ago, the Celts held a festival that was probably the start of our Halloween.

The Celts' festival was held on October 31. It was called Samhain, after the Celts' lord of the dead. Samhain was thought to send ghosts to earth on the night of October 31. When angry, Samhain could send many evil ghosts. The Cells built fires on hilltops to scare off the ghosts. They also scared the ghosts away by wearing costumes made of animal heads and skins.

Traces of the Samhain festival remain in our Halloween customs. Ghosts still roam about on October 31. Only today they are children under sheets. People still wear costumes on Halloween. Only now they are cloth and plastic instead of animal heads and skins.

Fortune-telling is still done, but just for fun. Even Halloween's colors — orange and black — may have come from the Samhain festival, it was a time when orange flames lit up the black night.

2. Read the text and say what jack-o’-lantern is. Jack-o'-lanterns

Each year, millions of people carve Halloween pumpkins. The carved pumpkins arc nicknamed "jack-o'-lanterns." The custom of carving Halloween jack-o'-lanterns began long ago in Ireland and Scotland. But when the custom began, people in those lands did not have pumpkins. (They are thought to have grown first in North America.) The people in Ireland and Scotland carves jack-o'-lanterns out of turnips.

An Irish story told how jack-o'-lanterns got their name. Long ago, the story began, a man named Jack met the devil on a road. Jack had been very selfish. He knew the devil would take his soul — unless he could fool him. As they passed an apple tree, Jack had an idea. He asked for an apple before going to hell.

The devil climbed the tree to get the apple. As he did so, Jack carved a cross on the tree with his knife. The devil was scared to come down past the cross, which is a symbol of Christianity's good power. Jack helped the devil down — but only after he promised to leave Jack's soul alone.

Jack soon died. He could not enter heaven because he had been so bad. Needing a place to go, Jack tried to enter hell. But the devil kept his promise and would not let him in. The devil said that Jack must return to earth. When Jack cried that he could not find his way in the dark, the devil threw him a hot coal. Jack carved a turnip and placed the glowing coal inside it.

Ever since, Jack has wandered the earth with his turnip lantern.

Turnips with lighted candles inside them became known as “jack-o'-lanterns” after Jack.