Questions to the text:

1. Are the British good listeners?

2. What is understatement?

3. Do people help charity in Britain?

4. What is the true role of godparents?

5. What date is important in any person's life?

6. Why do many people celebrate the 18-th anniversary now?

Text 3: "CLUBS AND PUBS"

The club is a typical image among British institutions. The clubs have an air of infinite mystery.

The most hotel-like club is the Royal Automobile founded in 1897. It has three dining rooms, 12.000 members and a swimming pool once frequented by Bernard Shaw. Two of most active are the Reform and the Travellers, founded hi 1819 with the support of Duke Wellington. For the membership qualification one must have traveled 500 miles from London.

Pub is a peculiarly English institution, and beer is the national drink. The rooms in the pub are called the "public bar" and the "saloon bar". They have two entrances. At the bar people will be standing with a drink and sip from time to time - for Englishmen sip their drinks. The saloon bar is more comfortable. There is a general atmosphere of warmth and cosiness. In the bar of every English pub there is a dartboard. The game of darts is a traditional English game. Here people don't drop in; they tend to "make an evening of it". They stand or sit, glass in hand, talking to friends until closing time. The landlord cries: "Time, gentlemen, please!" usually at half past ten.

English pubs are famous throughout the world. You can go to a pub in England when you are 14, but an adult must go in with you. You can drink only soft drinks like Coca-Cola. You must wait until you are 18 if you want to drink alcohol. Television is a strong competitor but "the pub" will continue to accommodate itself to the times.

The latest development in their long history is the "museum pub". The newest museum pub is The Railway Tavern in Liverpool Street. The Yorker in Piccadilly is not only a pub but also a museum with nostalgic sights in handsome prints and paintings. Evening classes are flourishing immensely. Many people attend classes connected with their hobbies such as painting, folk - dancing, dog training, cake decoration etc.

Dancing is popular, and the dance halls are an important element in the folklore and courtship procedures. They are visited mainly by young unmarried people.

Bingo is a gambling game in which players have numbered cards on which they cover the numbers as they are called on a wheel. The first player to complete his card wins the "jackpot", part of the money staked by players for their cards. Since the Betting Act of 1961 made the Bingo halls possible four of five British adults gamble in some way.

Questions to the text;

1. What is the most hotel-like club in Britain and when was it founded?

2. What is a peculiarly English institution?

3. How are the rooms in the pub called?

4. What is a traditional English game?

5. Are English pub famous throughout the world?

6. What is flourishing immensely?

Text 4: "AFRICAN AMERICANS"

The majority of people of African descent in the United States are descended from enslaved Africans. African peoples, especially those living in the USA are a very complex people biologically, ethnically, and racially. In their genetic make-up are Europeans, Native Americans, and Asians. They became a new people - a new American people.

The slave trade was brutal and horrific. And slavery was oppressive and dehumanizing. Lasting 400 years, the slave trade forced migration of 12 million Africans from their homelands. The first African slaves came to Massachusetts from West Indies in 1638. The English colonist did not plan to establish the institution of slavery. It developed gradually. From the colonial point of view, Africans made better slaves. Also, they were much more used to farming than the Indians were. So eventually, slavery in the colonies became black African slavery. Enslaved Africans worked on sugar, tobacco, cotton, coffee and rice plantations. Wherever slavery existed, slaves ran away, 50.000 enslaved Africans ran away each year in the American South before the Civil War. They disappeared in free black communities in the South, the North and abroad. Others settled in Native American communities and became actively involved in the anti-slavery struggle. Still others ran away and created new communities where they set up their own systems of government and led their own lives.

During the dominant form of education to enslaved Africans was apprenticeships. The first schools were established in Charleston and New York City. Within two decades of the end of the Civil War, a vast network of black colleges had been established by and for the first generation of freemen and women.

Enslaved Africans on board slave ships were Frequently forced to dance. They were given drums to play while others sang and danced. Africans in America built their religious and secular rituals, festivals and social gatherings on the foundation of songs, dances and rhythms they invented.

In the United States, the dominant forms of American music and dance are African-based. Drums were outlawed in many slave communities when the slave "masters" discovered they could be used as secret means of communication. In the place of drums, enslaved Africans substituted hand clapping and tapping the feet.