George Washington

In 1775, when the American War of Independence began, George Washington was chosen to lead the American army. Washington knew his job would be difficult. The army was small. The soldiers were untrained and had few guns. The British army was large and strong. Its soldiers were very well trained.

Early battles showed Washington's problems. His army was easily defeated in the Battle of New York. Then Washington thought of a plan. On Christmas night in 1776, he had his soldiers attack the enemy in the city of Trenton, New Jersey. The enemy soldiers never expected an attack on such a night. They were having a Christmas party. Washington won his first victory. Washington's army won the final battle in Yorktown in 1781.

George Washington was a great leader and was respected by all his men. He was not interested in fame or money, but only in helping his country. There are many stories about George Washington. Many are probably not true. The most famous story, though, is about the cherry tree. It is said that young George cut down his father's cherry tree. When his father asked who cut down the tree, George confessed and said, "I cannot tell a lie."

In 1789 leaders from all the states met to choose the first president of the United States. The vote was unanimous. Everyone voted for George Washington. He became the country's first president, and is remembered as the "Father of our Country."

Fame - cлава

Cherry - вишня

Unanimous - единогласный

Jesse Owens

Jesse Owens was born in Alabama in 1913 to a poor, black family. Even when Jesse was a boy, it was clear that he had special athletic ability. He could run extremely fast. In high school he was a long jump champion. Jesse's family didn't have enough money to send him to college. However, because he was an excellent athlete he was able to get a scholarship to Ohio State University. Owens was the star of the Ohio State track team. In one college track event in 1935, he broke three world records in less than an hour! Owens was chosen for the 1936 U.S. Olympic team.

The 1936 Summer Olympics were held in Berlin, Germany. Adolph Hitler had come to power two years before. Hitler believed that the people of Germany and other northern European countries were better than all other people in the world. Hitler wanted to show the world the Germans were the best so he ordered the German team to train hard.

At the Olympics, Jesse Owens won both the 100-meter race and the 200-meter race. His time in the 200-meter race set a new Olympic record. Owens was also on the U.S. 400-meter relay team. The U.S. relay team won. Then came the long jump. A German athlete broke the Olympic record.

Hitler said that he personally would congratulate the winner. But Owens still had one more jump. He jumped several inches further than the German athlete. Hitler left the stadium in anger. Jesse Owens, a black American, had won his fourth gold medal at the Olympics. Jesse Owens was a hero.

Ability - способность

Scholarship - стипендия

Track - легкая атлетика

Relay - эстафета

Inch - дюйм (2,5 cм)

Basketball

James Naismith invented basketball in 1891. Naismith was a Canadian, but lived in the United States. He was a teacher at Springfield Training School in the state of Massachusetts. He taught sports and found there were no interesting games to play indoors in the winter months. So he thought of a game.

Naismith's students played the first game of basketball in the Springfield gym in 1891. There were nine men in each team. They used a soccer ball. They put peach baskets on the gym wall. The goal or purpose of the game was to throw the ball in the basket. That is why he called the game basketball. A man with a ladder went to the basket. He climbed the ladder and took the ball out of the basket. Luckily, only one man got the ball into the basket in the first game.

Basketball is a very fast game. Players must run up and down the basketball court or gym floor the whole game. At the same time they must control the ball.

Today, most players are tall. Many of them are over seven feet tall and weigh more than 200 pounds. But one of basketball's great players was Barney Sedran. He played from 1912 to 1926 and is in the Basketball Hall of Fame. He was only 5 feet 4 inches tall and 118 pounds!

Today, basketball is an international sport. In America, the National Basketball Association (NBA) has some of the best players in the world. Basketball is also an Olympic sport today. In the Olympics, the best teams from many countries play to show they are the best.

Soccer - футбольный

Peach - персик

Purpose - цель

Ladder - лестница

Mark Twain

Mark Twain, who lived from 1835 to 1910, is one of America's most famous authors. He wrote many books, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain's own life was interesting enough to be a book.

Twain was born in the state of Missouri, near the Mississippi River. He came from a poor family. His father died when he was twelve, so he had to leave school. While he was still a boy, he worked as a riverboat pilot. He steered boats up and down the long Mississippi River.

The Civil War, which started in 1861, made traveling on the Mississippi impossible. Twain then went west to Nevada. There he worked on a newspaper. In 1864 he went to California to find gold. Twain did not have much luck as a gold miner. He left California to travel in Eu­rope. Twain wrote a book about his trips around Europe.

But the most important influence on Twain and his books had the Mississippi River. When Twain finally settled down, he lived in a house with a porch that looked like the deck of a riverboat. Huckleberry Finn, Twain's greatest book, is about the adventures of a boy on the Mississippi River. Another of Twain's books is called Life on the Mississippi.

In fact, even the name Mark Twain comes from the Mississippi. Mark Twain's real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. On the river Samuel Clemens often heard the boatmen shout "Mark twain!" This meant the water was twelve feet deep. When Samuel Clemens began to write he chose for himself the name Mark Twain.

Steer - управлять

Porch - веранда

Blue Jeans

Levi Strauss, a young immigrant from Germany, arrived in San Francisco in 1850. California was in the middle of the Gold Rush. Thousands of men were coming to California to dig for gold. And Levi Strauss came to sell canvas to these gold miners. Canvas is a heavy fabric. So Levi Strauss thought the miners could use the canvas for tents.

One day Levi Strauss heard a miner complain that he couldn't find clothes strong enough for the work he was doing. Levi Strauss got an idea. He quickly took some of his canvas and made it into pants. These pants were what the miners needed. In one day Levi Strauss sold all the pants he had made.

Levi Strauss wanted to improve his pants. He wanted to make them even better. He bought a fabric that was softer than canvas but just as strong.

The fabric came from Mimes, a city in France, and was called serge de Nimes. The miners liked this fabric. They called it "denim" (from de Nimes) and bought even more pants from Levi Strauss.

However, denim had no color. Because of this the denim pants did not look very interesting, and they got dirty easily. To solve these problems, Levi Strauss dyed the denim blue.

Levi Strauss continued to improve his jeans.

Today, the company he started is known around the world. And jeans are considered not just practical but very fashionable as well.

Gold Rush- золотая лихорадка

Canvas - брезент, парусина

Pants - штаны

Dyed - окрасил

Blue Jeans

Levi Strauss, a young immigrant from Germany, arrived in San Francisco in 1850. California was in the middle of the Gold Rush. Thousands of men were coming to California to dig for gold. And Levi Strauss came to sell canvas to these gold miners. Canvas is a heavy fabric. So Levi Strauss thought the miners could use the canvas for tents.

One day Levi Strauss heard a miner complain that he couldn't find clothes strong enough for the work he was doing. Levi Strauss got an idea. He quickly took some of his canvas and made it into pants. These pants were what the miners needed. In one day Levi Strauss sold all the pants he had made.

Levi Strauss wanted to improve his pants. He wanted to make them even better. He bought a fabric that was softer than canvas but just as strong.

The fabric came from Mimes, a city in France, and was called serge de Nimes. The miners liked this fabric. They called it "denim" (from de Nimes) and bought even more pants from Levi Strauss.

However, denim had no color. Because of this the denim pants did not look very interesting, and they got dirty easily. To solve these problems, Levi Strauss dyed the denim blue.

Levi Strauss continued to improve his jeans.

Today, the company he started is known around the world. And jeans are considered not just practical but very fashionable as well.

Gold Rush- золотая лихорадка

Canvas - брезент, парусина

Pants - штаны

Dyed - окрасил

Dogs

You know that the dog is a man's best friend. The dog is also man's oldest friend.

More then ten thousand years ago dogs didn't live with people. They were wild. All dogs now, if you watch them, do some things which they did in their wild life.

For instance, dogs circle round before they lie down to sleep, as wild dogs used to do in order to flatten the long grass.

Dogs also bury bones, as a wild dogs used to do when they wanted to hide extra food.

Dogs now live with men and do many useful things for them. Dogs may be "eyes" for blind people. There are many stories about dogs and their help to men. There was a dog, Bruno by name, who saved forty people from mountain snowdrifts. Dogs help geologists to find iron.

If you have a dog, you know how clever dogs are. You can teach your dog to pick up newspapers or books and give them to you, or to carry your basket when you go to the shop, or to help you with your bag when you come home from school. Do you take your dog to the river? Dogs usually like to swim. But some dogs are afraid of water.

If your dog is afraid of water and you want him to swim, make him swim, but do it very carefully. Do not throw him into the water, let him walk first in shallow water and only then take him to deep water.

Where do you leave your dog when you go on holidays? Leave him in good hands; with a neighbor or a family friend. Take your dog to these people several times before you go away. Sit down and talk with them. Show to your dog that they are your friends Tell him to wait for you here. He may understand.

Take care of your dog never let him run wild in the street. If you are good to your dog, he will be your real friend.

For instance - например

To circle round - вращаться

To flatten - выравнивать, делать плоским

To bury bones - закапывать кости

Snowdrifts - cнежный нанос

Shallow - мелкий

Hollywood

To many people, the world Hollywood has two meanings. Hollywood is an area in Los Angeles. Hollywood is also the American movie industry.

Hollywood was just farmland at the beginning of this century. Early American movies were made in other places; for example, in New York and Chicago.

In 1917 a director was making a movie in Chicago. Because of cold weather, he couldn't finish the movie. He took a trip to southern California, and there he found just the weather and scenery he needed to finish his movie. The director realized that southern California was the perfect place for making movies.

The next year his company built a movie studio in Hollywood. Other companies followed. Before long nearly all important American movie studios were in Hollywood, Los Angeles. The next thirty years were Hollywood's greatest years.

Thousand of movies were made, most by a few large and powerful studios. Directors, actors and writers worked for these studios. They made some movies that today are considered great art.

Hollywood, the area in Los Angeles, also reached its high point in those years. Many famous and glamorous movie stars, like Better Davis and Clark Gamble, lived in Hollywood.

Today, Hollywood is not what it was. More movies are made outside of Hollywood. Many studios have moved. The movie stars have also moved to areas like Beverly Hills and Malibu.

But visitors to Hollywood today can go to the famous Chinese Theatre and see the footprints and autographs of movie stars. They can go down the Walk of Fame, on Hollywood Boulevard, and see the golden stars on sidewalk.

Glamorous - обаятельный, очаровательный Walk of Fame - Аллея Славы

Footprints - следы Sidewalk - тротуар

Physical Culture and Sport

You have heard many times that sport hold an important place in our life. Sports help people to keep in good health.

Physical culture and sports in our country are part of cultural and public life. It is very popular with young people. Any boy and girl who shows good results at sports club or athletics competitions for schoolchildren is given every help to become a champion.

From time to time competitions are held in sports and games at your school, but some boys and girls don't want to take an active part in them. They don't believe that sport is very necessary. And they think that sport may stand in the way of other important things.

Well, those boys and girls are wrong. Team games, for example, develop character and quick thinking.

An English proverb says: "In sport and journeys men are known". This means that a good sportsman will always help other members of his team to win in a competition and he knows that his commands will never let him down. You can read about this kind of things in the newspaper all the time.

stand in the way- помешать

let him down - подводить его

Stamp Curiosities.

The first stamp in the world an English stamp. It was made in 1840 to pay the postage on letters going to different parts of the country.

But why do people all over the world collect stamps? The answer is very simple. Stamps are always interesting because they have pictures on them of the countries they came from; pictures of animals and birds living in jungles or on far-away island; and pictures showing the peoples of different countries, dressed in their costumes.

A stamp collection is not only a good textbook of history and geography. It is also a source of information on many other subjects.

Stamp-collecting helps people from all continents to become friends and get to know each other better.

Sometimes there are mistakes on stamps, but you will see them only if you know geography, history, music and many other thing as well. Here are some examples.

The St. Kitts and Nevis stamp, issued in 1903, shows Christopher Columbus looking through a telescope, an instrument which was unknown in this day!

The Newfoundland stamp, issued 1886, shows a seal on an icefloe. It looks like any other seal till you look at its front legs and see that it has feet instead of flippers. For a long time collectors who have knowledge of zoology thought that this was another stamp mistake. However it was discovered that the great Grey Seal of Newfoundland really has forefeet instead of flippers. The artist had been right after all.

On a German stamp, issued in 1956 in commemoration of the composer Schumann, the music printed on the stamp was not written by Schumann. It was written by another German composer Schubert. Stamp-collectors knowing music well saw the mistake at once. The post-offices stopped selling these stamps and today one can be found only in a few collections.

Source - источник seal - тюлень Flipper - плавник

Issued - изданный ice floe - ледяные поля

Commemoration - празднование (годовщины)

T o r n a d o e s

Tornadoes are storms with very strong turning winds and dark clouds. These winds are perhaps the strongest on earth. They reach speeds of 300 miles per hour. The dark clouds are shaped like a funnel - wide at the bottom. The winds are strongest in the center of the funnel.

Tornadoes are especially common in the United States, but only in certain parts. They occur mainly in the central states.

A hot afternoon in the spring is the most likely time for a tornado. Clouds become dark. There is thunder, lighting, and rain. A cloud forms a funnel and begins to twist. The faster the winds, the louder the noise. Tornadoes always move in northeastern direction. They never last longer then eight hours.

A tornado's path is narrow, but within that narrow path a tornado can destroy everything. It can smash buildings and rip up trees. Tornadoes can kill people as well.

The worst tornado swept through the states of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana in 1925, killing 689 people.

Modern weather equipment now makes it possible to warn people of tornadoes. People have a much better chance of protecting themselves. But nothing can stop tornadoes from destroying everything in their path.

Funnel - воронка Twist - крутить

Common - распространенный Rip up - вырывать

Warn - предупреждать

The Fifty States

The fifty states of the United States, or the USA, join to make one nation. The United States did not always have fifty states. At first there were thirteen. As the United States grew, more states joined the union. The last two states to join were Alaska and Hawaii. They both joined in 1959.

The area of the United States covers every type of land. There are forests, deserts, mountains, and flat land. The area of the United States also covers every type of climate.

The size of each state is different too. Alaska is the biggest state. Rhode Island is the smallest state. Alaska is 500 times bigger then Rhode Island.

About 250 million people live in the United States. The people of the United States come from all over the world. People often name cities after where they are come from. For example, in the United States you find Paris, Rome, Delhi, and Frankfurt. The state with the highest population is California. The state with the lowest population is Alaska.

Each state has its own name. The name gives the state its identity and personality. More then half the states have names from American Indian origin.

Each state also has a flag with colors that have a special meaning for the state. The flag is the emblem, or the symbol, of the state. There is also a state flower, tree, and bird.

The American flag is often called "The Stars and Stripes". There are three colours on the flag of the United States - red, white, and blue. As there are fifty states in the United States, there are fifty stars on the American flag: one star for each state.

The American flag has thirteen stripes. The stripes are red and white. The flag has seven red stripes and six white stripes. There is one stripe for each of the first thirteen colonies of the United States.

Rhode Island - Род Айленд

Identity - индивидуальность

Personality - особенность

Origin - происхождение

Stripe - полоса

The Hot Dog

People of different countries have their own favourite food. Here some facts about a thing that has become popular all over the world. Hot dog came to Russia from America. But its home country is German.

In its house of Germany, the hot dog was called the frankfurter. It was named after Frankfurt, a German city.

Frankfurters were first sold in the United States in the 1860s. Americans called frankfurters "dachshund sausages". A dachshund is a dog from Germany with a very long body and short legs. "Dachshund sausages" seemed like a good name for the frankfurter.

Dachshund sausages first became popular in New York, especially at baseball games. At games they were sold by men who kept them warm in hot-water tanks. As the men walked up and down the rows of people, they yelled, "Get your dachshund sausages! Get your hot dachshund sausages!" People got the sausages on buns, special bread.

One day in 1906 a newspaper cartoonist named Tad Dorgan went to a baseball game. When he saw the men with the dachshund sausages, he got an idea for a cartoon.

The next day at the newspaper office he drew a bun with a dachshund sausage inside - hot a dachshund sausage, but a dachshund. Dorgan didn't know how to spell dachshund. Under the cartoon, he wrote "Get your hot dogs!"

The cartoon was a sensation, and so was the new name. If you go to a baseball game today, you can still see sellers walking around with hot-water tanks. As they walk up and down the rows they yell, "Get your hot dogs here! Get your hot dogs!"

Frankfurter - сосиска Yell - выкрикивать

Dachshund - такса Bun - булочка

Seem - казаться Cartoonist - карикатурист

Tank - резервуар для жидкости Spell - писать по буквам

The Discovery of America

In our days everybody knows what the word "America" means. First of all it is the name of the country - the United States of America - or just America. And then it is the name of the two continents - North America and South America. These two continents, North and South America, form the part of the world called America.

Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492. He was born in Italy. His father and both grandfathers were cloth makers. Columbus was a seaman and made many sea voyages.

Most people in Columbus's days thought that the earth was flat and they did not believe that beyond the Atlantic Ocean lay India. In 1492 the King and the Queen of Spain gave him money to do to India. He decided to sail west as he was sure that our planet was round. There were 3 caravels: the Santa Maria, the Nina and the Pinta. After sailing 4000 miles he reached some land. The crew saw something like a white cliff and cried out: "Tierra! ierra!". Columbus thought that it must be India but it was not. It was a new land - a new continent. It was America. Columbus named the land they had reached San Salvador ("Holy Saviour"). People began to speak about the land as: "The new World".

European people began to speak about the New World for many reasons. Some hoped to find gold and silver. Priests and missionaries came to bring the Christian religion to the Indians. Among those who came for freedom was a small group of English people called Pilgrims. They wanted to start a new life and to have no religious problems they had in England. In 1620 on the ship "Mayflower" they landed in the north-east of America. They set up a colony and called that part of the country "New England".

Cliff - отвесная скала, утес

Priests and missionaries - священники, миссионеры

Charles Dickens.

Charles Dickens was born in 1812. He lived in the south of England when he was a little boy. His father worked in an office. He was a very clever man, but did not often play with them. His father had many books and Charles liked to read them. He learned to read very early.

When Charles was 10 years old, his family went to London. There his father got into debt (as he had little money) and then into debtor's prison. So little Charles began to work when he was ten. That was the beginning of Charles' hard life.

He worked at a small factory in London, pasting labels on blacking bottles. He had to work in a dirty room with no windows. He did not like his work, but he had to work at the factory for two years. Then he went to school for three years, but he did not learn much at school. He learned much at home, from his father and from other clever people.

Later he worked as a reporter to the Parliament and became a writer of short stories. In 1837 he published his first novel "The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club". And the young reporter became a famous writer. Then he published novel after novel - "Oliver Twist", "Dombey and Son", "David Copperfield" and many other good books.

His books are very interesting; they tell us about the hard life of the poor people in England of that time. When we read his books, we sometimes laugh, but we often want to cry.

Charles Dickens died in 1870. He is one of the greatest novelists in the English literature. Dickens lived more than a hundred years ago, but people in the whole world like to read his book today, because in his books he showed a real world and people of Victorian England.

Debt - долг

Pasting labels - приклеивание ярлыков

Blacking bottles - баночки Posthumous - посмертные

Lewis Carroll.

Lewis Carroll was the pen-name of Charles L. Dodgson, the man who wrote a famous book for children "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland".

Charles L. Dodgson was born in England in 1832. He got his early education at a public school. Then he became a student at Oxford. Charles studied mathematics and later taught this subject in the same college.

Charles Dodgson had no family, but he loved children very much. He often visited his friend, who had a large family. There were three little girls in the family. One of them, Alice, was four years old.

When Alice Liddell was about ten years old, she asked Charles to write down the stories for her, and he did so. He called the heroine of his book also Alice. This hand-written book had many pictures made by Charles himself. They were not very good pictures but the children liked them.

One day a friend of the Liddells, a writer, came to see the family. He saw the hand-written book made by Charles Dodgson and began to read it with great interest. He read the book to the end and said that it was good and that all the children in England must read it.

In England the book was published very many times during the author's life and you can always find it in the bookshops of today. "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" is still a favourite children's book.

The Discovery of America

In our days everybody knows what the word "America" means. First of all it is the name of the country - the United States of America - or just America. And then it is the name of the two continents - North America and South America. These two continents, North and South America, form the part of the world called America.

Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492. He was born in Italy. His father and both grandfathers were cloth makers. Columbus was a seaman and made many sea voyages.

Most people in Columbus's days thought that the earth was flat and they did not believe that beyond the Atlantic Ocean lay India. In 1492 the King and the Queen of Spain gave him money to do to India. He decided to sail west as he was sure that our planet was round. There were 3 caravels: the Santa Maria, the Nina and the Pinta. After sailing 4000 miles he reached some land. The crew saw something like a white cliff and cried out: "Tierra! ierra!". Columbus thought that it must be India but it was not. It was a new land - a new continent. It was America. Columbus named the land they had reached San Salvador ("Holy Saviour"). People began to speak about the land as: "The new World".

European people began to speak about the New World for many reasons. Some hoped to find gold and silver. Priests and missionaries came to bring the Christian religion to the Indians. Among those who came for freedom was a small group of English people called Pilgrims. They wanted to start a new life and to have no religious problems they had in England. In 1620 on the ship "Mayflower" they landed in the north-east of America. They set up a colony and called that part of the country "New England".

Cliff - отвесная скала, утес

Priests and missionaries - священники, миссионеры

The First Cinema Films.

One of the first cinema film was made by Edison, but the intervals between his photographic exposures were too short-about forty-eight photographs taken (and shown) to the second. The human eye could not see so them so fast and the movements therefore appeared very jerky. This made the eyes tired.

When Edison^'s machine was brought to France to show film, it was seen there by August and Louis Lumiere. These two brothers soon made a camera and projector that worked at about 16 photographs per second. This reduced the jerkiness very much, and in December 1895 the Lumiere brothers gave the world^'s first real cinematograph show. Their film was called The Arrival of a Train at a Station. The film was so good that some of the audience almost expected the rain to rush out at them from the screen.

In 1903 one of Edison^'s cameramen made a new long picture. It was called «The Life of an American Fireman». People liked it and asked for more; and so more film of his kind were made. More cinemas were built.

These first films had no sound. When it was necessary, printed words were throw on the screen to explain what was happening or what people were saying. Usually music was played during the showing of a film. If the film was showing moonlight on the sea, the music was gentle and sweet. If there was a fight or a storm, the music was loud and noisy.

Exposure - кадр

Jerky -двигающийся толчками, отрывистый

Reduce - уменьшать

Ruth out - помчаться Gentle - тихая

The Gold Rush

It was January 1846. A man was digging near the small village of San Francisco, California. Suddenly, he saw something shiny - gold!

By the next year the California gold rush had begun. Thousands of men came to California. They were called "forty-niners", after the year 1849.

The forty-niners came from all around the United States. They even came from other countries, including Mexico, Australia, China, France, and England. They left their families and jobs, and made the difficult trip to California. They all shared a dream. They all wanted to make a fortune in gold.

Towns and camps grew quickly wherever gold was found. These towns were rough places. There was almost always a saloon, where the men drank whiskey and gambled at cards. In mining towns, men stole and sometimes killed for gold.

Did the miners make their fortune? Some did, especially those who came early and were lucky.

In 1852 miners made about twenty dollars a day. Many other people came to California to make money from the miners. Prices were very high. A loaf of bread, which cost five cents in New York, cost almost a dollar in San Francisco.

In 1848 San Francisco had been a village. Six years later it was a city with a population of 50, 000. In 1850 California had enough people to become a state.

To dig - копать, рыть Rough - грубый

Gold Rush - золотая лихорадка gamble - играть в азартные

Share - разделять игры

forty-niners - золотоискатели

MEALS IN BRITAIN.

Traditionally English people have three meals a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner. Breakfast is served in the morning. It used to be a large meal with cereal, eggs and bacon, sausages, tomatoes. But such a large breakfast takes a long time to prepare and is not very healthy. Nowadays, Britain's most popular breakfast consists of cereal, toast with marmalade, juice and yogurt with a cup of tea or coffee. Lunch is a light meal. Most people have no time to go back home for lunch so they eat at school, cafes, pubs or restaurants. The main meal is dinner, which is usually between 6 and 7 p.m. A typical evening meal is a meat dish with vegetables and dessert. The most important meal of the week is the Sunday dinner, which is usually eaten at 1 p.m. The traditional Sunday dish used to be roast beef, but nowadays pork, chicken or lamb are more common. On Sunday evenings people have supper or high tea. The famous British afternoon tea is becoming rare, except at weekends. Everyone knows that tea is the most popular drink in Britain. It's even more popular than coffee, which is favoured throughout Europe and America. The Dutch brought the first tea to Europe in 1610. But it was not until 1658 that the first advertisement for tea appeared in a London newspaper. At that time a pound of the cheapest tea cost about one-third of a skilled worker's weekly wages. Tea was guarded by the lady of the house and kept in special containers, often with a lock and carefully doled out by the teaspoon. By 1750 tea had become the principal drink of all the classes in Britain. Later, tea-drinking developed into a fashionable social ritual. Tea parties were popular at home and soon the ritual of "afternoon tea" was firmly established. Nowadays, throughout the homes, tea shops hotels of Britain, the custom of tea-time continues. Tea in Britain is brewed in a teapot. Then the one spoonful of tea per person and one for pot is added. Most people in Britain prefer a rich, strong cup of tea with milk, and sugar is sometimes added to taste.

Holidays

The beginning of a new year is a time for celebrating and for making a new start. People wish each other 'Happy New Year' and send special greeting cards. On New Year's Eve (December 31st) many people go to bed after midnight to "see the New Year in" at 12 o'clock. In London people gather to celebrate in Trafalgar Square January 1st is a public holiday in Britain and the US. For older people it's a quiet day in front of the television. But young people go out and meet their friends at parties, discos and different clubs.

On St Valentine's Day people send a special greeting card (Valentine) to those who they love. It's a tradition not to give the name of the sender. Some people buy presents for their sweethearts or give them red roses, a symbol of love.

Easter Sunday is the day when Christians celebrate Christ's return to life and victory over death. On this day many people go to church. Children get presents of chocolate Easter eggs. Easter always means spring, new life after winter, flowers, green trees and young animals.

Celebrating Halloween is a very old tradition. Long ago people thought that on 31 October spirits of the dead came back. that's why now some people dress up as witches and ghosts. They make lamps of pumpkins. Sometimes children go out in groups, knock on people's doors and say "Trick or treat".

Guy Fawkes' Night is on 5th November. That day in 1605 some conspirators wanted to blow up the Houses of Parliament and kill King James 1 and his ministers. Guy Fawkes was one of them. But they couldn't do that because the Kind,s men caught Guy Fawkes and killed him. Not many people think about those events now but they enjoy celebrating the day with their friends and families. On 5th November when it gets dark, people go out into the streets and watch beautiful fireworks. In the country they often make big bonfires and gather near them.

People in Britain celebrate Christmas on 25 December. They celebrate it as the day bay when Jesus Christ was born. It is often cold, wet and foggy at Christmas trees. Families decorate their homes and Christmas trees. The day before Christmas is Christmas Eve. It is a very busy time fro families in England. They prepare presents, make Christmas cakes, hang stockings near the fireplace.On Christmas Day everyone opens presents and sits down to table to have a big dinner. Families usually have turkey or goose with vegetables. After dinner the family gathers in the living room to listen to Queen of England on television. At teatime in the late afternoon they drink tea with the Christmas cake.