B) Check the pronunciation of the following words in the dictionary.

- Ounce

- Pound

- Stone

- Pint

- Quart

- Gallon

- Inch

- Foot

- Yard

- Millimeter

- Mile

- Meter

- Kilogram

- Centimetre

? 6. Complete the table to make word families (if possible). Use a dictionary to help you.

About Some Holidays in Great Britain in Brief

& 1. Read the following texts, translate them into Ukrainian. Make sure you study the language of the text to be competent in further exercises and discussions.

CHRISTMAS

Christmas is Britain's most popular holiday and is characterized by traditions which date back hundreds of years. It is celebrated on December 25. The first ever Christmas card was posted in England in the 1840s and the practice soon became an established part of the build-up to Christmas. Over a billion Christmas cards are now sent every year in the United Kingdom, many of them sold in aid of charities. Christmas decorations in general have even earlier origins. Holly, ivy and mistletoe are associated with rituals going back beyond the Dark Ages. The custom of kissing beneath a sprig of mistletoe is derived from an ancient pagan tradition. The Christmas tree was popularized by Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who introduced one to the Royal Household in 1840. Since 1947, the country of Norway has presented Britain annually with a large Christmas tree which stands in Trafalgar Square in commemoration of Anglo-Norwegian cooperation during the Second World War.

Popular among children at Christmas time are pantomimes: song and dance dramatisations of well-known fairy tales which encourage audience participation.

Carols are often sung on Christmas Eve by groups of singers to their neighbours, and children hang a stocking on the fireplace or at the foot of their bed for Santa Claus (also named Father Christmas) to fill. Presents for the family are placed beneath the Christmas tree.

Christmas Day sees the opening of presents and many families attend Christmas services at church. Christmas dinner consists traditionally of a roast turkey, goose or chicken with stuffing and roast potatoes. This is followed by mince pies and Christmas pudding flaming with brandy, which might contain coins or lucky charms for children. Later in the day, a Christmas cake may be served - a rich baked fruit cake with marzipan, icing and sugar frosting.

The pulling of Christmas crackers often accompanies food on Christmas Day. Invented by a London baker in 1846, a cracker is a brightly coloured paper tube, twisted at both ends, which contains a party hat, riddle and toy or other trinket. When it is pulled by two people it gives out a crack as its contents are dispersed.

Another traditional feature of Christmas afternoon is the Queen's Christmas Message to the nation, broadcast on radio and television.

The day after Christmas is known in Britain as Boxing Day, which takes its name from a former custom of giving a Christmas Box - a gift of money or food inside a box - to the deliverymen and tradespeople who called regularly during the year. This tradition survives in the custom of tipping the milkman, postman, dustmen and other callers of good service at Christmas time.

EASTER

Easter, the Sunday of the Resurrection, or Resurrection Day, is the most important religious feast of the Christian liturgical year, observed at some point between late March and late April each year (early April to early May in Eastern Christianity), following the cycle of the moon. It celebrates the resurrection of Jesus, which Christians believe occurred on the third day of his death by crucifixion some time in the period AD 27 to 33. Easter also refers to the season of the church year, called Eastertide or the Easter Season. Traditionally the Easter Season lasted for the forty days from Easter Day until Ascension Day but now officially lasts for the fifty days until Pentecost. The first week of the Easter Season is known as Easter Week or the Octave of Easter.

In the UK the Easter holiday has been partially secularized, so that some families participate only in the attendant revelry, central to which is decorating Easter eggs on Saturday evening and hunting for them Sunday morning, by which time they have been mysteriously hidden all over the house and garden. According to the children's stories, the eggs were hidden overnight and other treats delivered by the Easter Bunny in an Easter basket which children find waiting for them when they wake up. The Easter Bunny's motives for doing this are seldom clarified. Many families in America will attend Sunday Mass or services in the morning and then participate in a feast or party in the afternoon. In the UK, the tradition has boiled down to simply exchanging chocolate eggs on the Sunday, and possibly having an Easter meal, although in the north west of England, the tradition of rolling decorated eggs down steep hills is still adhered to. It is also traditional to have hot cross buns.

MAYDAY

May Day celebrations date back centuries, even before the birth of Christ. It originated in the British Isles as the second most important holiday to the nation.

The British Isles celebrated May Day on May 1, as a festival of Beltane. It was originally set up as a half way point in the British Year. The other half day of the year was celebrated on November 1, and was known as Samhain Day. The original custom celebrated on May Day was a setting of a new fire. This new fire was supposed to lead life to the burgeoning spring sun. It was celebrated as a time of fertility and of new growth. People drove their cattle through this fire, thinking it would refinethem, and men also walked through the fire with their wives in hopes to increase fertility. A common distinction among this fire is that the fire was to bring good luck in this half of the year.

Later on, the Roman Empire took over the British Isles. The Romans also celebrated May Day, but for a different reason. They had a feast that was devoted to Flora, the goddess of flowers. The festival was held from April 28 through May 2. They celebrated with games and theatrical performances. As the years went by, the Roman traditions of the Flora Festival meshed with the British traditions of the Beltane Festival, and new traditions were created and mixed in with the old.

As the Puritans gained control in the region, the festivals began to wane. The Puritans discouraged the people from celebrating these festivals, so the traditions were lost. Once the Puritans lost their power to England the leaders tried to bring the festivals back, but their excitement was not as grand as it had been before.

A maypole is one of the traditions that were started in the middle Ages. A pole was found in the center of every city on May Day. The townspeople would run around the pole with ribbons. The Puritans put this practice aside, but many cities still celebrated, just changed the name of the pole and festivity. A May basket is also one other tradition originating in the British Isles. People would exchange May baskets and hang them on the doorknobs of family and friends to celebrate this holiday.

BONFIRE NIGHT

Guy Fawkes Night, also called Bonfire Night, is an annual celebration (but not a public holiday) on the evening of the 5th of November primarily in the United Kingdom, but also in former British colonies. It celebrates the failure of the Gunpowder Plot in which a group of Catholic conspirators, including Guy Fawkes, attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament in Westminster on the evening of 5 November 1605, when the Protestant James I of England, his eldest sons and the majority of the English Parliament was within its walls. The conspirators were executed.

The celebrations, which in the United Kingdom take place in towns and villages across the country, involve fireworks displays and the building of bonfires, on which "guys", or dummies, representing Guy Fawkes, the most infamous of the conspirators, are traditionally burnt. Before the fifth, children traditionally used the "guys" to beg for money with the chant "Penny for the guy", although this is now rarely seen.

In the United Kingdom, there are several other regional traditions that accompany Guy Fawkes/Bonfire Night: the eating of bonfire toffee, parkin, toffee apples, the traditional 'apple lollipop', which consists of an apple coated in toffee on top of a stick; and baked potatoes, which are wrapped in foil and cooked in the bonfire or its embers.

HALLOWEEN

Most of British big holidays have more-or-less self-explanatory purposes-to celebrate aspects of the Christian tradition, to honor the coming of the new year or the change of seasons, to remember the legacyof family members or noted historical figures.

But Halloween doesn't seem to fit in any of those above categories.

According to some points of view, the origins of Halloween are a lot like the origins of Christmas and Easter as we practice them today-Ancient Roman, Catholic, and European Pagan lore, all blended together.

The name Halloween is Scottish in origin and is short for "All Hallow's Eve," the night before "All Hallow's Day," or All Saint's Day. That day was set by Pope Boniface IV to honor the Catholic saints, and also to replace a Roman pagan festival of the dead (which had been held in late February, the end of the old Roman year). Later, Pope Gregory III changed All Saint's Day to November 1.

By the time Christianity came to the British Isles, local folk had already been celebrating their own festival of the dead on Samhain (November 1, the Celtic new year). Many traditional beliefs and customs associated with Samhain, most notable that night was the time of the wandering dead, the practice of leaving offerings of food and drink to masked and costumed revellers, and the lighting of bonfires, continued to be practiced on 31 October.

In other words, the Christian church incorporated local Irish, Scottish, and Welsh pagan traditions into one of its own holy days. Just as the old fertility symbols of the rabbit and the evergreen tree became parts of Easter and Christmas, so have the symbols of the end of the fall harvest season and the coming of darkness become parts of a modern western-world celebration.

The most celebrated Halloween decoration is the jack-o’-lantern, traditionally a hollowed-out pumpkin carved to resemble a grotesque face and illuminated by a candle placed inside. The jack-o’-lantern derives its name from a character in British folktales. According to these tales, the soul of a deceased person named Jack O’Lantern was barred from both heaven and hell and was condemned to wander the earth with his lantern. Orange and black, colors associated with pumpkins and darkness respectively, figure prominently in most Halloween decorations.

Trick-or-treatingis another Halloween tradition, in which costumed children go from house to house soliciting candy or other treats from their neighbors. According to this custom, children greet each homeowner with the cry “Trick or Treat,” suggesting that some sort of prank will be played unless treats are provided.

REMEMBRANCE DAY

Remembrance Day is a day to commemorate the sacrifice of veterans and civilians in World War I, World War II, and other wars. It is observed on 11 November to recall the end of World War I on that date in 1918. The observance is specifically dedicated to members of the armed forces who were killed during war, and was created by King George V of the United Kingdom on 7 November 1919.

Common British traditions include two minutes of silence at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month because that was the time (in Britain) when the armistice became effective.

Ceremonies are held at local communities' War Memorials, usually organised by local branches of the Royal British Legion – an association for ex-servicemen. Typically, poppy wreaths are laid by local organisations including the Royal British Legion, ex-servicemen organisations, cadet forces, the Scouts, Guides, Boys' Brigade, St John Ambulance and the Salvation Army.

The main commemoration is held in Whitehall in central London, where the Queen, Prime Minister, and other senior political and military figures join with veterans to lay wreaths at the Cenotaph.

Date: 2016-01-14; view: 1086