TRADITIONS & CUSTOMS OF GREAT BRITIAN.
Every nation and every country has its own
customs and traditions.In Britian traditions play more importaint
part in the life of the people than in some other countries. Englishmen are proud of their
traditions and carefully keep them up. It has been the law for about three
hundred years that all the theatres are closed on Sundays no letters are
delivered only a few Sunday papers are publshed. To this day English families prefer cotage
houses with gardens to flats in a modern house with central
heeting.English people like gardens.Sometimes the garden in front of the house is a
little square covered with cement
painted green (in imitation of grass) and a box of flowers. In English houses the fire-place has
always been the centre of interest in a room.For many months of the year
people like to sit round the fire and
watch the dancing flames.Fire places are decorated with
woodworks,there is
a painting or a mirror over it.Above the fire there is usually a
shelf with a clock and some photographs. Holydays are especially rich in old
traditions and are different in cotland,Wales
and England.Christmas is a great english national holyday and in Scotland it is not kept at all
exeept by clerks in banks,all the shops and factories are working.But 6 days
later on the New Year's Eve the
Scots begin to enjoy
themselves.People invite their friends to their houses and sit the old year out and the new year
in.In England on new Year's Eve a
lot of people go to Trafalgar Square,at midnight,they all cross
their arms join hands and
sing.People have parties too,they drink toarts to the New
Year Children are happy to have presents.
Four times a year the offices and banks in Britain are
closed on Monday. These public
holidays are known as Bank Holidays.The British like to spend
holidays out of the town in the open air.They go to the sea-side
or to amusements
parks. Londoners
often visit the Zoo,outside London they
take their families
to Hamsted Heath ['hímstid'hi@] a large natural park too.There
is usually a big fair with
many different amusements for children merry-go-round,swings puppet shows,bright baloons.
One must also speak about such holidays ass All Fools
Day,Hallowe'en Bonfire
Night,St.Valentines Day and such tradition as Eisteddfod (a festival
of which culture).
SCIENCE IN OUR LIFE
Today we see the world in which social,industrial and
political order has been
greatly influenced by science.The development of science has increased man's know-ledge of nature. Modern experimental science began
about 400 year ago.Man learned to use the energy of fire water.Later man made steaw
serve him.Nowdays man uses thermonuclear energy and that of
autimatter. I'd like
to dwell on electronics as not a day passes without the apearnce of a new eletronic device.The first great
progress in electronics came with the
invention of the vacuum tube or valve in 1904.it made broad casting possible.the development of electronics
during World War II gave us radars
and electronic computers. The first general purpose computer for scientific use was
invented in
1949.Today computers have become common they can do fantastic
things. Computer can condukt
experiments in places which are too dangerous for
people.Some computers are used in carves and mines to replace workers.Besides thay can be designed for
special purposes. Thay can solve
mathimatical
problems,make bank
aubuts,play chess.New supercomputers
solve problems in many branches of industry,science and culture.They are videly used in submarine
navigation and in modern hospital.Now much is being done to create
artifical intellect.Science has brought in to being a new atomic
technologies.Elektric enginearing and radio enginearin have been created in the
some way.
Science and technology have acheeved great progress in
spase research.There have been space
flights,the launching of interplanetary stations in the
direction of Mars, Radar contacts with the planets Mercury and
Venus.Science enters own flats.Many
people have already forgotten what the world was like
before television.several generations of children have grown up
with TV as a baby-sitter,teacher and
companion. A lot of kitchens in
our flats are so well equipped that they look like a control room.We are so used to all these that we can't
(emmigenc) our life
without science.
The United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Northern Ireland is situated
on the British Isles. The British Isles consist of two large islands, Great
Britain and Ireland, and about five thousands small islands. Their
total area is over 244 000 square
kilometres. The United Kingdom is one of the world's smaller
countries. Its population is over 57 million. About 80 percent of the
population is urban. The United Kingdom is made up of four countries: England,
Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Their capitals are London,
Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast respectively. Great Britain
consists of England , Scotland
and Wales and does not include Northern Ireland. But in everyday speech
Great Britain is used in the meaning of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Northern Ireland. The capital of the UK. is London. The
British Isles are separated from the Continent by the North Sea and
the British Channel. The *western coast of Great Britain is washed by
the Atlantic Ocean and the Irish Sea.
The surface of the British
Isles varies very much. The north of Scotland is mountainous and is called the Highlands. The
South, which has beautiful valleys and plains, is called the Lowlands.
The north and west of England are mountainous, but the eastern, central
and south-
eastern parts of England
are a vast plain. Mountains are not very high. Ben
Nevis in Scotland is the highest mountain (1343 m). There are a lot of
rivers iri Great Britain, but they are not very long. The Severn is the longest
rive?, while the Thames is the deepest and the most important oae.
The mountains, the Atlantic Ocean and the warm waters of the Gulf Stream
influence the climate of the British Isles. It is mild the whole year
round. The UK. is a highly developed industrial country. It
produces and exports machinery, electronics, textile. One of the chief
industries of the country is shipbuilding. * The
UK is a constitutional monarchy with a parliament and the Queen
as Head of State.
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln is the most
famous example of the **American dream».
Many Americans think that in their country a man may rise from
the lowest to the highest position in th*irland. That was exactly
what Lincoln did. He
was born in 1809 in a small farm in Kentucky. When Abraham was
quite young, the family moved to the wild forest land of Indiana. He
hardly had any education;
he only learned to read and write and do simple
arithmetic. In 1830 Abraham left his father's farm and went to Springfield,
Illinois. There he became a clerk in a store and worked hard to
improve his education. In 1836 he became a lawyer.
He entered politics, too,
and in 1834 became a candidate to the Parliament
of Illinois. He soon became a force in the political life. In 1847
he went as a Congressman to the National Assembly (National Parliament).
Slavery was then becoming a
burning questions American politics. Many
people in the Northern states wanted to abolish it, the Southern states
opposed the abolition. The
Southerners said that it would mean economic ruin
for them. The reason was that the prosperity of the South was based on
cotton-growing, and only
Negroes worked there. The
Southerners threatened that
if the North didn't cease
its fight against slavery,
the Southern states
would leave the Union. They
wanted to form an independent «confederacy»*. In
1860 Lincoln was elected President of the USA. In 1861 seven
states left the Union and
elected their own President, Jefferson Davis. The
Confederacy was formed.
Lincoln was strongly
against slavery and even more strongly against the
break-up of the Union. In 1862 the American Civil War between the
North and the South began. At
first the war went badly for the North. The Southerners headed by
General Robert Lee and Colonel Jackson won some brilliant victories.
But Lincoln did not lose courage. On April, 9 General Lee
surrendered. The Civil War
was over. Lincoln tried to convince former enemies
that they should live in peace.
On April, 14 the President
and his wife visited a theatre in Washington. During
the performance Lincoln was shot by an actor who supported Confederacy.
Abraham Lincoln died next morning. People
admire Lincoln for political moderation. They admire him
because he tried to
preserve the nation. He is a symbol of American democracy.
London
London is the capital of
the United Kingdom, its economic, political and cultural centre. It is one of the world's most
important ports and one of the largest cities in the world. London with its
suburbs has a
population of about 11
million people. London has been a capital for nearly a thousand years.
Many of its
ancient buildings still
stand. The most famous of them are the Tower of London,
where the crown jewels are kept, Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's
Cathedral. Most visitors also want to see the Houses of Parliament,
Buckingham Palace (the
Queen's home with its Changing of the Guards) and
the many magnificent museums. Once
London was a small Roman town on the north bank of the Thames.
Slowly it grew into one of the world's major cities. Exchange
and the Bank of England are here, too. The East End is the district
where mostly working people live. The old port area is now called «Docklands».
There are now new office
buildings in Docklands, and
Different areas of London
seem like different cities. The West End is
a rich man* world of shops,
offices and theatres. The City of London is
the district where most
offices and banks are concentrated; the Royal
thousands of new flats and
houses. By the day the whole of London is busy. At night, offices
are quiet
and empty, but the West End
stays alive, because this is where Londoners come
to enjoy themselves. There are two opera houses here, several concert
halls and many theatres, as well as cinemas. In nearby Soho the
pubs, restaurants and night
clubs are busy half the night.
Like a*l big cities, London
has streets and concrete buildings, but It
also has many big parks, full of trees, flowers and grass. In the middle ofHyde
Park or Kensmgtoa Gardens you will&inkthat you are in the
country, miles away. Many
people live outside (be centre of London in the subulbs, and they
travel to work in shops and offices by train, bus or undergrouad
Moscow
Moscow is the capital of
Russia, its administrative, economic, political
and educational centre. It is one of Russia's major cities with the
population of about 9 million people. Its total area is about 900 thousand
square kilometres. The city was founded by Prince Yuri Dolgonlky and was
first mentioned in the chronicles in 1147. At that time it was
a small frontier settlement. By the 15th century Moscow bad grown into a
wealthy
city. In
the 16th century, under Ivan the Terrible, Moscow became the capital
of the state of Muscovy. In the 18th century Peter the Great transferred
the capital to St. Petersburg, but Moscow remained the heart
of Russia. That is why it
became the main target of Napoleon's attack in
1812. During the war of 1812 three quarters of the city were destroyed by
fire, but by the middle of the 19th century Moscow was completely
rebuilt. The
present-day Moscow is the seat of the government of the Russian Federation.
President of Russia lives and works here; government offices
are located here, too. Moscow
is a major industrial city. Its leading industries are engineering, chemical
and light industries. Moscow
is known for its many historical buildings, musems and art galleries,
as well as for the famous Bolshoi, Maly and Art theatres. There
are more than 80 museums in
Moscow, among them the unique Pushkin Museum
of Fine Arts and the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Andtey Rublyov -Museum
of Early Russian Art and many others. Moscow
Is a city of science and learning. There are over 80 higher
educational institutions in
the city, including a number of universities
Peter the Great
Peter 1, or Peter the Great
was one of the most outstanding rulers and
reformers in Russian lustory. He was Tsar of Russia and became Emperor
in 1721. First he ruled together with his brother, Ivan, and his
sister, Sofya. In 1696 he
became a sole ruler. He was a healthy, lively and clever child. He loved
miEtary games
and enjoyed carpentry,
blacksmithing and printing. At the age of 17 he
was married. Peter I is famous for drawing Russia further to the Cast.
He also
transferred the capital
from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Peter travelled
much in Western Europe amd tried to carry western customs and
habits to Russia. He
introduced western
technology. He completely changed the Russian government and military
system:
he increased the power of
the monarch and reduced the power of the
boyars and the church. In
foreign policy. Peter I waged a war with Turkey ( 1695-1696) and
the Great Nothern War with
Sweden ( 1700-1721), and a war with Persia (1722-1723).
In these wars, he wanted to get access to the Baltic, Black Sea
and the Caspian Sea. He managed to get the shores of the Baltic Sea
and and the Caspian Sea. Peter
I played a great part in Russian history. After his death, Russia was
much more secure and progressive than it had been before his
reign.
Pushkin
Pushkin is the most
important Russian writer of all time, like Shakespeare
in England or Dante in Italy. Pushkin provided the standards
for Russian arts and literature in the 19th century. Pushkin
was born in Moscow in 1799 into an upper-class family. In
1811 he entered a lyceum at Tsarskoye Solo. The education offered
at the lyceum shaped
Pushkin's life. He graduated from the lyceum in 1817 and began to work in
the
foreign office in St.
Petersburg. In 1820 the foreign office transferred Pushkin to
Ekaterinoslav, and
later to Odessa for writing
anti-tsarist poetry. In 1824, for his letters against
the tsar, he was exiled to Mikhailovskoye. In 1824, Tsar Nicholas I allowed
Pushkin to return to Moscow. Pushkin
felt in love with Natalya Goncharova,-who was lfrthen, and in
1830 they got married. His wife was suspected of an affair with Baron
Georges d'Antes; this became the subject of gossip. Pushkin challenged
d'Antes to a duel. Pushkin was wounded and died two days
later. Pushkin was Russia's greatest poet. In his works he was
first
influenced by 18th century
poets, and then by Lord Byron. Finally he developed
bis own style, which was realistic but classical in form. His
earliest long poem was romantic «Ruslan and Lyudmila» (1818-1820).
À
series of verse tales
followed- «The Prisoner of the
Caucasus», «The Robber
Brothers», «The Fountain ofBakhchisarai», and
«The Gypsies». They were inspired by Syren's poetry. In
1823 Pushkin began writing his masterpiece «Eugene Onegin», a
novel in verse. «Eugen
Onegin» became the linguistic and literary standard.
It is a commentary on the life of the early I 9th century Russia. It
is noted for brilliant verse. He
also wrote other long poems, including «Bronze Horseman» (1833),
the finest collection of lyrics in Russian literature. Pushkin
created also a number of masterpieces in drama and prose. «Little
Tragedies» and «The Stone Guest» are among the best works in the
world history of drama. Pushkin's love to Russia's past resulted in his
historical drama, «Boris Godunov» (1825). «Tales of the Late l.P.Belkin»,
«Dubrovsky», «The Captain's Daughter» are the most
important of his prose
works. Pushkin's use of Russian influenced the of great
Russian writers Turgenev, Goncharov, Tolstoy. Pushkin's
early death shocked the country. Pushkin, called by many «the
sun of Russian literature», belongs among the foremost poets and
writers of the world.
Russia
Russia is one of the
largest countries in the world. The vast territory of
Russia lies in the eastern part of Europe and the northern part of Asia. Russia
is washed by twelve seas and three oceans. The oceans are:
the Arctic, the Atlantic, the
Pacific. The seas are: the White Sea, the Barents
Sea, the Okhotsk Sea, the Black Sea, the Baltic Sea and others. Russia
borders on many countries, such as Mongolia and China in the
south-east, Finland and
Norway in the north-west, and so on. The
land of Russia varies very much from forests to deserts, from high
mountains to deep valleys. The main mountain cbains are the Urals, the
Caucasus and the Altai. There are a lot of great rivers and deep lakes
on its territory. The
longest rivers are the Volga in Europe and the Ob, the Yenisei
and the Lena in Asia. The largest lakes are Ladoga and Baikal. Baikal
is the deepest lake in the world and its water is the purest on earth. The
Russian Federation is rich in natural and mineral resources. It
has deposits of oil, gas, coal, iron, gold and many others. The
current population of Russia is more than 150 million people. The
European part of the country is densely peopled, and most population live
in cities and towns and their outskirts.
The capital of Russian
Federation is Moscow, with the population of
about 10 million people. Russia
is a presidedtial republic. It is one of the leading powers in
the world.
The United States of America
The Unites States of
America are situated in the central part of the North American continent. Its western coast is washed by
the Pacific Ocean and its eastern coast - by the Atlantic Ocean. The
total area of the USA is over nine million square kilometres. The
population of the USA is more than 236 million people; most of the
population lives in towns and cities. The
USA is a very large country, so it has several different climatic
regions. The Goldest
regions are in the north and north-east. The south has
a subtropical climate. The
United States is a land of rivers and lakes..The northern state
of Minnesota is the land of
10 000 lakes. The longest
rivers in the USA are
the Mississippi, the Missouri and the Rio Grande. The highest mountains
are the Rocky Mountains, the Cordillera and the Sierra Nevada.
The United States are
riebiia natural and mineral resources. It produces
copper, oil, iron ore and coal. It is a highly-developed industrial
Bad agricultural coubtry. There
are many big cities in the USA, such as New York, Chicago, Los
Angeles, Philadelphia and others. The national capital is Washington,
D.C. Its population is about 3,4 million. Washington was
built in the late
eighteenth century especially as the centre of governmeat.
It was named after George Washington. The
USA became the world teading country at the beginning of the twen*eth
century.
