Active vocabulary

a bank holiday	национальный праздник
a religious holiday	религиозный праздник
to make merry	веселиться
to be celebrated	отмечаться
to go to churches	идти в церковь
to open one’s Christmas present	открыть рождественский подарок
a Christmas dinner	рождественский обед
roast turkey	жареная индейка
Christmas pudding	рождественский пудинг
to watch the Queen’s Christmas broadcast	смотреть рождественское выступление королевы по телевидению
a family reunion day	день встречи семьи
to give Christmas boxes	дарить рождественские подарки
a gift of money	деньги в подарок
paperboys and girls	разносчики газет
to be marked with custom	отмечаться с соблюдением традиций
a New Year party	новогодняя вечеринка
to be held on New Year’s Eve	проводиться в канун Нового года
to see the old year out	провожать старый год
to see the New Year in	встречать новый год
to mark the death of Christ	отмечать смерть Христа
a hot-cross bun	булочка с крестом наверху
to be famous all over the world	быть известным во всем мире
to be full of customs and traditions	быть полным обычаев и традиций
a saint	святой
to send valentine cards to smb	посылать валентинки кому-либо
a Valentine’s Day message	послание Дня святого Валентина
April Fool’s Day	День смеха
the Middle Ages	средние века
a servant	слуга
a master	хозяин
a trick	проделка, шутка

Answer the questions.

1. What is a bank holiday?

2. How are bank holidays celebrated?

3. How is the most popular of all bank holidays marked?

4. What traditions are observed on December, 26?

5. What customs is New Year’s Day marked with?

6. What is Good Friday?

7. What proves that the United Kingdom is a country of traditions?

8. How is St. Valentine’s Day marked?

9. What is April Fool’s Day?

Exercise 1. Choose the necessary words from the box and put them in the sentences below:

full of customs, old tradition, go to churches, cards and presents, year out, jokes, simply days, eat hot-cross, never write, gifts

1. For most people they are … on which people eat, drink and make merry.

2. On this day many people …, open their Christmas presents, eat a Christmas dinner of roast turkey and Christmas pudding.

3. Today many people still give a Christmas … to paperboys and girls.

4. People see the old … and the New Year in.

5. On this day people … buns - buns marked on top with a cross.

6. The United Kingdom is … and traditions.

7. On that day, people send valentine … to their husbands, wives, boyfriends and girlfriends.

8. But traditionally you must … your name on it.

9. This is a very … from the Middle Ages.

10. It’s a day for … and tricks.

Exercise 2. Are the following sentences true or false? Give your arguments.

1. Most of bank holidays are religions holidays.

2. Christmas Day is celebrated on December, 31.

3. Good Friday is the Friday before Easter when the church marks the death of Christ.

4. Christmas is as popular as New Year.

5. St. Valentine's is the saint of people in love.

6. You can’t send a card to a person you don’t know.

7. Hot-cross buns — buns marked on top with a cross.

8. April Fool's Day is a day for jokes and tricks.

Exercise 3. Translate these sentences and put some special questions to them.

1. Christmas Day is the most popular holiday.

2. On Christmas Eve children hang their stockings at the end of the beds.

3. Christmas is the traditional family reunion day.

4. On New Year British people see the old year out and New Year in.

5. New Year is not so popular as Christmas.

Exercise 4. Use these expressions for making dialogues with your partner in English:

to look forward to	to make merry
to be held	the spirit of Christmas
to hang stocking over the fire-place	to open gifts
	to have Christmas dinner
to be closed	to decorate houses with

Exercise 5. Translate the sentences from Russian into English.

1. Во время официальных, или банковских, праздников закрыты все банки, почтовые отделения, большая часть магазинов.

2. Сейчас официальные праздники – не религиозные праздники, а просто дни, когда люди веселятся.

3. Рождество, 25 декабря – это день, когда собирается вся семья.

4. Люди обычно смотрят рождественское выступление королевы, посещают церковь, обмениваются (exchange) рождественскими подарками.

5. 26 декабря люди дарят рождественские подарки или деньги детям разносчикам газет.

6. С Новым годом не связаны особые (particular)традиции.

7. Соединенное Королевство полно обычаев и традиций, известных во всем мире.

8. День святого Валентина, святого влюбленных, отмечается 14 февраля.

9. 1 апреля - день смеха, день шуток и проделок.

10. Boxing day - 26 декабря. В этот день все учреждения, магазины и даже многие рестораны закрыты. Большинство британцев проводят этот день в кругу семьи, наслаждаясь общением с родными.

Exercise 6. Mach the words and phrases:

официальный праздник	paperboys
королева	the most popular
смерть Христа	family reunion
семейная встреча	an official holiday
просто дни	buns
разносчик газет	the Queen
обычай	the old year
булочки	simply days
самый популярный	the death of Christ
старый год	custom

Exercise 7. Give the English equivalents for:

старая традиция от Средневековья	полно обычаев и традиций
Новогодние вечеринки и танцы	пятница перед Пасхой
дают рождественские подарки	выходные дни в Великобритании
люди едят, пьют и веселятся	особый день для детей

Exercise 8. Discuss the following problems in the group.

1. Hogmanay and First Footing in Scotland. Are they still observed?

2. Common features in British and Russian holiday’s celebration. Can they be found?

Exercise 9. Speak on the topic “British Holidays”.

Exercise 10. Learn the following words and word combinations and use them in your dialogues.

Christ’s resurrection	воскрешение Христа
Easter bunny	пасхальный кролик Банни
Happy Holidays	счастливые праздники
Christmas Eve	сочельник
Spring Festival	весенний фестиваль
Chinese New Year	китайский Новый год
Lion Dance	танец Льва
Thanksgiving	День Благодарения
Christmas shopping fever	Рождественская лихорадка
Veterans' Day	День Ветеранов
Columbus Day	День Колумба
The Presidents' day	День Президентов
sweets	конфеты
coloured eggs	крашеные яйца

Exercise 11. Read, translate and dramatize the dialogues.

Dialogue 1

A: Hi, Mike.

B: Hi, Jane.

A: Do you know what day is it today?

B: Of course, today is Easter.

A: You’re right, it is the day of Christ’s resurrection.

B: Look, there’s the Easter bunny. He has a lot of sweets and colored eggs in his basket.

Dialogue 2

Q: Mathew, what are the biggest holidays in the USA?

M: I think, there are, probably, two holidays, that are often considered the two most special family holidays. Thanksgiving is one of our biggest holidays. It occurs on the last Thursday of the month of November.

Q: I can't but ask about Christmas shopping fever.

M: The day after Thanksgiving -Friday - is also a day off for most people, and they begin Christmas shopping on that Friday. And it's become a ritual.

Q: How long does Thanksgiving weekend last?

M: So, Thanksgiving weekend - it's Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, - all those days people are off. That becomes a big holiday period.

Q: Mathew, what is the second biggest holiday?

M: The second largest holiday, I think, maybe, even bigger, is Christmas. Christmas is considered one of the biggest holidays.

Q: Can you tell us about other holidays? For example, do people have the days off on other holidays?

M: Well, not everybody gets those days off, for example, Veterans' Day, Columbus Day. The only ones, who get those days off, are usually people, who work for the government and postal office workers. Columbus Day is never a day off. Veterans' Day is not a day off. The Presidents' day, which is what we have a holiday now, we used to have a holiday for George Washington's Birthday and Abraham Lincoln's birthday.

Dialogue 3

Jerry: Look, Flora! I got a Christmas card from my sister.

Flora: It's very beautiful. Why are the words "Happy Holidays" written on the card? Christmas is only one holiday. Shouldn't it be "Happy Holiday", without the "s"?

Jerry: We don't just celebrate Christmas during this season. We also celebrate the coming of the New Year.

Flora: Oh, I never thought about that before. There's more than one holiday at the end of the year.

Jerry: Now that I'm in China, I want to celebrate the holidays Chinese-style. What do you and your family do for Christmas?

Flora: Actually, we don't do much at Christmas. It's not really a big family holiday. Young people in China would rather spend Christmas Eve with their boyfriends or girlfriends.

Jerry: So is it something like a date night?

Flora: Yes, I guess you could say that. Christmas Eve is special, but we don't usually have any special plans for Christmas Day.

Jerry: Don't people give gifts to each other like they do in the U.S.?

Flora: Many parents do give gifts to their kids. But more importantly, boyfriends give wonderful, special, romantic gifts to their girlfriends!

Jerry: I see. How about the New Year in China? Is it a bigger holiday than Christmas?

Flora: Not really. We don't celebrate it because the Spring Festival is much more important to us here in China.

Jerry: The Spring Festival is known around the world as "Chinese New Year". It's the beginning of the year according to the traditional lunar calendar, isn't it?

Flora: That's right. The Spring Festival is the biggest family holiday in China, so we don't celebrate the western New Year. How about in New York? Do people celebrate New Year's Eve more or New Year's Day?

Jerry: There are two kinds of people who celebrate quite differently. Single people, or couples without children, often go out late on New Year's Eve. They drink and party after the clock strikes midnight. There are big parties all over, but the biggest is in Times Square in Manhattan.

Flora: I guess they won't have much energy left over to do anything on New Year's Day, then.

Jerry: Right. But there are families who don't do anything special on New Year's Eve. Instead, they celebrate with their families on New Year's Day.

Flora: What do they do on New Year's Day?

Jerry: They have a big meal to celebrate and often watch parades in the big cities. The parades are quite spectacular.

Flora: It sounds a little bit like our traditional Lion Dance.

Jerry: Yes, it's a lot like the Lion Dance, except there is no lion!

Exercise 12. Make up your own dialogues with these proverbs and expressions.

• So many countries, so many customs

• Customs is a second nature

to sing carols	to be proud of tradition
to have different traditions in celebrating holidays	to watch the Queen’s Christmas broadcast on TV
to take the fortune	to decorate houses with …
to swim in the ice hole	Boxing day