Vocabulary to the text:

treaty [tritɪ]	договір, угода
marquee [mɑ'ki]	великий намет, шатро
nullity ['nʌlɪtɪ]	недійсність
white ensign ['ensaɪn]	англійський військово-морський прапор
flagstaff ['flægstɑf]	флагшток
waka ['wɒka]	a traditional Maori canoe
Calvary ['kælvərɪ]	Голгофа
proximity	близькість

1. Questions to the text:

1. Which holidays reflect national pride of New Zealanders?

2. List major public events in New Zealand.

3. List festivals celebrated in Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch, Nelson.

4. Compare holidays of New Zealand to those of Australia and Ukraine.

5. Which festivals, in your opinion, attract the attention of visitors from foreign countries?

6. Which festivals do you find most luring?

2. Write short notes about the key issues raised in the text.

3. Compose and write a plan of the text.

4. Retell the text using new vocabulary.

5. Prepare a presentation (report) about one holiday / festival of New Zealand.

Module 8. Fame and fortune.

Topic 25. How to be a celebrity.

Use the text “How to be a celebrity” in Cutting Edge upper-intermediate textbook (pp. 84-85). Supplement it with any additional information you find. appropriate.

Topic 26. The blessing and curse of a celebrity lifestyle.

A celebrity is a person who works hard all of their life to become well known, and then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized.

--Fred Allen

Almost everyone dreams of becoming a celebrity. Fancy clothes, fame, fortune, diamonds, yachts and good looks. Sounds luring. Hollywood stars flash on the red carpet of the Kodak Theater and the Cannes Film Festival. Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie star together in a new movie! Lindsay Lohan stole a precious necklace! Roman Abramovich bought another sumptuous yacht! Sarah Palin defends Christina Aguilera! Thousands of such headlines pop up on the internet and create, what scientists call, a celebrity worship syndrome - an obsession with a famous person which has all the signs of the clinical disorder.

Let us try to think what is it like to be a celebrity, let’s consider the pros and cons and understand if being a celebrity is a blessing and a bliss or a curse and disaster. Obviously, people who are famous are in their majority rather rich, be it a movie star, a politician, a pop singer or a writer. Financially they are independent and can afford luxury items which an ordinary person can just dream of. In truth, such prosperity is one of the most tempting things in the celebrity lifestyle. May money backlash? Oh, yeah. Think of the many famous people who were approached by thugs of all kinds, who tried to cheat some money from them. Some people sue celebrities for the alleged rapes, abuse, illegitimate children, blackmail them for a one-night stand. Former wives and husbands try to divorce a celebrity with as many benefits, villas and cars left as their lawyer would think possible. Surely, few celebrities get penniless after such vicissitudes of life (though some do, actually), but they do get a lot of pain in the neck.

The next point in our list is the actual fame, popularity and recognizability. Tempting? You bet – thousands of fans, presents, cheers and genuine admiration. But some fans do develop much enthusiasm and may stalk celebrities, get into their houses, steal things, make prank calls or even threaten to kill unless the object of passion agrees to the perverted requirements of a caller. Numerous such cases were reported by the printed media. Therefore, celebrities have to run from the public eye, spend money on sophisticated security systems and hire bodyguards. This of course doesn’t make their lives too happy. And don’t forget about the constant attention from paparazzi, gossip columnists and tabloids.

And, finally, fame is not everlasting, it is fleeting. A lot of starlets found themselves without further employment. Rarely an actor, who was made a star by one blockbuster, succeeds in all other roles and easily switches from one role to another. Many actors, who were made famous by TV shows, present poor performance when starring in a movie and eventually fail and vanish from the celebrity list (X-Files, Melrose Place, Beverly Hills 90210 stars, for instance). Many of them have to battle stresses and nervous breakdowns related to the fact that they are no longer in demand and public attention switched to other, more successful celebrities. Some of them even experience financial troubles and end up penniless.

Of course, there are ups and downs in the life of a celebrity. And, probably, there are more ups than downs. However, we should distance ourselves from viewing celebrity lifestyle as that of Olympic gods. They are the same folks as you and me, just more famous and better-off. But you never know what tomorrow has in store for you. Work hard. “Eat, pray, love” and maybe the new celebrity to smile at us from tabloid leads is going to be just you…