Страноведческий материал к урокам: THE ENLISH PUb

English Pubs

For company and conversation the English go to the pub. The cafes in England sell only coffee, tea and soft drinks. You can go to teashops or coffee-houses for a meal and a quick cuppa but not to sit and watch the world go by.

When you want to relax after a day's work, you go to the local public house. Everybody goes there except children, who are not allowed in. If you go up to the bar, you may find every kind of person: doctors, schoolmasters, workmen. They all go there to talk and to have their usual pint. Nearly everyone drinks beer. Most pubs, in fact, have a piano and on Saturday night the customers may well gather round it and sing. The songs they sing are the same all over England, from the 1914 war, sentimental and sad, like "If you were the only girl in the world" which are easy to learn. The people who want to sing ask someone to play the tunes on the old piano. They group themselves round it and they buy drinks for the pianist. That is the custom: the one who plays has free drinks as long as he plays.

Good humour and good spirit create special atmosphere in pubs. If you go there regularly the landlord will try to get to know you. He will remember what you usually drink and may well become a personal friend. The pub is the place where you meet people. You get to know other regulars, you buy drinks in turn, which is called " to stand a round" and you talk about the weather or how the English cricket and football teams are doing in different matches. The pub is often the only place where men may meet each other after work. It is very surprising, but even in large cities each pub has its own visitors who go there every night to drink one or two pints slowly and to have a game of dominoes or to play darts. And although they see each other almost every night fop years, the regulars who meet there will never go into each other's homes. Pubs have been part of the British way of life for years and years. When the Romans came to England in 55 ВС they noted that the Britons often met in their taverns to drink ale and discuss problems. Nothing much has changed since then. They still go to the pub to meet friends and have a chat. You can also buy food in some pubs: they serve the hot sausages, scotch eggs, pork pies, sandwiches or a ploughman's lunch. That's bread, cheese, pickles and apples. The pub is now a social centre for the local community. All kinds of meetings take place in pubs. Pubs have always advertised by putting a sign in front of a building.