Questions to the text:

1. What did St. Patrick write during his later years?

2. Why did he write "Confession"?

3. What does the best-known tale tell about?

4. What are the only reptiles in Ireland?

5. Where is St. Patrick's name found nowadays?

6. What are common family names in Ireland?

1. bog - болото; (болото);

2. to charm - заклинать; (заклинати);

3. to slam - захлопнуть; (захлопнули);

4. to scare - пугать; (лякати);

5. a lizard - ящерица; (ящірка);

Text 11 “royal traditions”

The Trooping¹ of the Colour².

The Queen is the only person in Britain with two birthdays. Her real birthday is on April 21-st, but she has an "official" birthday, too. That's on the second Saturday in June. And on the Queens official birthday, there is a traditional ceremony called the Trooping of the Colour. It's a big parade with brass bands³ and hundreds of soldiers at Horse Guards Parade in London. A "regiment"⁴ of the Queen's soldiers, the Guards, march in front of her. At the front of the parade is the regiment's flag or "colour".

The Guards are trooping the colour. Thousands of Londoners and Visitors watch in Horse Guard's Parade. And millions of people at home watch it on television.

The Changing of the Guard.

This happens every day at Buckingham Palace, the Queen's home in London. Soldiers stand in front of the palace. Each morning these soldiers (the "guard") change. One group leaves and another arrivers. In summer and winter tourists stand outside the palace at 11.30 every morning and watch the Changing of the Guard.

Maundy Money⁵.

Maundy Thursday is the day before Good Friday, at Easter. On that day the Queen gives Maundy money to a group of old people. This tradition is over 1.000 years old. At one time the king or queen washed the feet of poor, old people on Maundy Thursday. That stopped in 1754.

Swan Upping.

Here's a very different royal tradition. On the River Thames there are hundreds of swans. A lot of these beautiful white birds belong, traditionally, to the king or queen. In July the young swans on the Thames are about two months old. Then the Queen' swan keeper goes, in a boat, from London Bridge to Henley. He looks at all the young swans and marks the royal ones. The name of this strange but interesting, custom is Swan Upping.

The Queen's Telegram.

This custom is not very old, but it's for very old people. On his or her one hundredth birthday, a British person gets a telegram from the Queen.

The State opening of Parliament.

Parliament, not the Royal Family, controls modern Britain. But traditionally the Queen opens Parliament every autumn. She travels from Buckingham Palace to the Houses of Parliament in a gold carriage-the Irish State Coach. At the Houses of Parliament the Queen sits on a "throne" in the House of Lords. Then she reads the "Queen's Speech". At the State Opening of Parliament the Queen wears a crown. She wears other jewels from the Crown Jewels, too.

The Queen's Christmas Speech.

Now here's a modern royal custom. On Christmas Day at 3.00 in the afternoon, the Queen makes a speech on radio and TV. It's ten minutes long. In it she talks to the people of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth is a large group of countries. In the past they were all in the British Empire. Australia, India, Canada and New Zealand are among the 49 members.

The B.B.C (the British Broadcasting Corporation) sends the Queen's speech to every Commonwealth country. In her speech the Queen talks about the past year.

The Queen doesn't make speech on Christmas Day. She Films it few weeks before.

1. to troop - приходить строем; (проходити);

2. Trooping of the Colour - вынос знамени; (винос прапора);

3. brass band - духовой оркестр; (духовий оркестр);

4. a regiment - полк; (полк);

5. Maundy Thursday - великий четверг (на страстной неделе); (великий четверг на страстному тижні);

Text 12: "AUSTRALIA"

The outback¹.

70 percent of Australia is hot dry land called the outback. People in the outback often live far from other people. Kids can't go to school because there are no school nearby. They have to listen to lessons on the radio. Visiting the outback can be dangerous. It's easy to get lost because there aren't many people, cars or buildings. It is Usually very hot so you must take lots of water with you, too.

The Aborigines.

Aborigines are the original people of Australia. Some tribes are over 60.000 years old. The outback is their traditional home, but today many Aborigines live in towns and cities. They play the didgeridoo², a long wooden pipe that makes a strange sound. Boomerangs are also Aboriginal. Aborigines hunt with them.

Ayers Rock.

Ayers Rock is in the outback. It is 3.6 kilometres long and 348 metres high. Tourists like to visit Ayers Rock but they mustn't climb it because it is very important to Aborigine culture. The Aboriginal name for the rock is Uluru. There are caves in the rock and Aboriginal people draw pictures in the caves.

Koala Bears.

Koala bears are marsupials³. This means that they carry their babies in a pouch⁴. They are very-well known Australian animals but they are in danger. People are cutting down the eucalyptus trees that koala bears need for food. Cars also kill Thousands of koala bears.

Surfing.

There are lots of peaces to go surfing in Australia, because it has many beaches. The most popular place for surfing is Bondi Beach in Sydney. There are usually big waves here but sometimes the waves are dangerous. Surfers must look at the flags on the beach to see if the water is safe. A red flag means that surfing is very dangerous.

Australia is thirty times bigger than Great Britain. Only seventeen million people live there. 90% of them live on the coast, therefore the centre is almost empty.

The first British settlement in Australia was a prison settlement. The British killed plants and animals that were important to the Aborigines. They also killed many of the Aborigines and took their land. The Aborigines became very poor and had many problems. They weren't able to adjust to white man's life. Today things are getting better. The population is rising and the government has given some land back to the Aborigines.

Australia has some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. The beach is a way of life for many Americans. Sydney has one of Australia's most famous beaches. Bondi Beach is famous for surfing and is a popular place for many tourists and inhabitants to go on Christmas Day. Australians are a nation of sportsmen and women. Every year they look for children who might be good at a particular sport. Then they spend millions of dollars training them. They test most schoolchildren and tell them what sports to practise in future.

Questions to the text:

1. How is 70% of Australia land called?

2. Who are aborigines?

3. Where is Ayers Rock?

4. What are koala bears?

5. Why are there lots of places to go surfing?

6. What was the first British settlement in Australia?

1. outback - малонаселённая местность; (малонаселена місцевість);

2. didgeridoo - музыкальный инструмент; (музичний інструмент);

3. marsupials - сумчатые; (сумчасті);

4. a pouch - сумка; (сумка);

Text 13: "SYDNEY - THE MOST BEAUTIFUL CITY ON EARTH"

Sydney is the most beautiful city on earth. Sydney lies on beautiful hills beside one of the best harbours in the world near 60 km of wonderful beaches. It has a perfect Mediterranean climate fresh air and exciting people from all over the world. In fact, a quarter of Sydney's population weren't even born in Australia.

Sydney is Australia's oldest city. Captain Cook stopped near here at Botany Bay in 1770. The first Europeans who came to Australia put up their tents at Sydney Cove¹. Soon the first houses were built, and in only 200 years the city grew from nothing into a home for 3.5 million people.

Despite the history, Sydney is the most modern place in Australia. Its buildings are the highest, its fashions are the newest and its colours are the brightest. A lot of Australia's exciting cultural life is found in Sydney. Artists, writers, opera singers and film makers all live here. So some people call the city "the Paris of the Pacific". But that sea, sand, sun and surf. Sydneysiders, as well as many visitors to Australia, come to Bondi Beach to relax and take a rest. Some of them really relax. Other are too busy-they're jogging, swimming, or riding the great waves on their surfboards.

Paddington is an area of beautiful houses one hundred years old near the center of Sydney. For a long time, Paddington was unfashionable, and the houses looked old and dirty. Now it is fashionable again, and the houses have been painted and repaired. It's a good place to live in. There's only one problem. The houses are very expensive.

The Australians in films like to think of themselves as strong, hard people who can cross deserts, hunt crocodiles and kill snakes with their hands. But most Australians never go near the "outback", as they call the land far away from town. Most of them live in cities. They go to work every day in offices and factories, and return every night to their homes in the suburbs, just like the people of New York, London, Tokyo or Rome.

Australian cities have the same problems as other cities of the world. There are poor people, homeless people, people with drinking problems, and people with no hope. The problems are big ones, but at least the cities are small. Sydney, the largest city, has only 3.5 million people.

Some people think that you won't find the "real" Australia in the big towns. You must go to the smaller, country places. In the smaller towns, there's plenty of land. Houses and gardens are big, and the streets are wide. The friendliest people live in the smallest towns, Melbourne has beautiful parks and gardens, and some fine old buildings, but it is not like Sydney. Sydney is full of exciting new ideas, Melbourne is perhaps a little old-fashioned

Questions to the text;

1. Where does Sydney lie?

2. Where did the first Europeans put up their tents?

3. What is Paddington?

4. How do Australians like to think of themselves in films?

5. What problems have Australian cities?

6. How do smaller country places in Australia look like?

Cove – бухточка

Text 14: "CANADA"

Canada is over 3.8 million square miles in area. It is the second-largest country in the world, covering nearly half the North American continent.

Canada has over 15 per cent of the world's known freshwater volume. Fresh water forms over 7.6 per cent of the total area of the country.

Four of the live Great Lakes lie partly in Canada. The largest river in Canada is the Mackenzie (2.635 miles), Which flows into the Arctic Ocean.

Canada's climate is greatly influenced by its mountain ranges, plains and water surfaces . The mountain ranges of the Cordilleran region prevent humid pacific air from reaching the interior, and also prevent the westward flow of cold Arctic air from reaching the West Coast.

Canada was first inhabited by Asian tribes believed by archaeologists to have migrated across the Bering Strait many Thousands of years ago. The descendants of these people are today's Eskimos and Indians.

The name "Canada" is believed to have originated with its first inhabitants, Since the Huron-Iroquois Indians used the word kanata to describe a settlement. The term is thought to have been picked up by European discoveries, who changed it to its present spelling.

The story of modern Canada began about 500years ago, when a Genoese navigator, John Cabot, claimed a large portion of the Atlantic seaboard in England's name, though no settlement occurred at that time.

The true founder and settler of French Canada, however, was the French explorer Samuel de Champlain, who impressed by the rich furs, established, between 1604 and 1634, tiny settlements of French pioneers along the Bay of Fundy and along the shores of the St. Lawrence at Quebec.

Following the years of early settlement, both French and English pioneers lived off the land and engaged in the fiercely competitive fur trade. The furs they trapped or bartered for with the Indians were sent to France and England, where government-chartered companies reaped large profits.

Though an independent nation, Canada, like Australia, has close links with Britain. Formally the head of state is the King or Queen of England.

Canada has a Parliament. The parliament is made up of the House of Commons and the Senate. The leader of the party that wins the largest number of seats in the House of Commons is asked to form the government.

Despite its small population, Canada is a great industrial nation. It is a Main supplier to the USA of oil, gas, paper, petroleum and coal products, wood products, textiles, machinery, non-metallic minerals and furniture

Agriculture is of major importance to the economy as a whole and is basic to any areas. It produces wheat, oats, sugar, beet, tobacco, potatoes.

The country has also the largest ports in the world, they are Quebec, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

Canada has an Academy of Sciences. It conducts research in science and technology

Questions to the text:

1. What is Canada's climate influenced by?

2. Who was Canada First inhabited by?

3. What does the word Canada mean?

4. When did the story of modern Canada begin?

5. Who was the true founder of French Canada?

6. What is the Parliament made up of?

TEXT 15

Part 1