countries. They are: Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year’s Day, Good
Friday, Easter Monday, Spring Bank Holiday and Late Summer Bank Holiday.
All holidays and traditions are connected with the history and culture of
the country.
The most popular holiday is Christmas. Every year the people of Norway give
the city of London a present. It’s a big Christmas tree and it stands in
Trafalgar Square. The central streets are beautifully decorated. People
decorate their houses with holly and mistletoe. They send Christmas cards
to greet each other. Children hang their stockings, hoping that Father
Christmas will come with toys and sweets. Before Christmas groups of people
go from house to house – they sing Christmas carols and collect money for
charity. Christmas is a family holiday. The family usually meets for a
traditional dinner of turkey and Christmas pudding, and everyone gives and
receives presents. New Year’s Day is less popular in Britain than
Christmas. But in Scotland, Hogmanay is the biggest festival of the year.
They celebrate New Year. The preparations for the occasion begin several
days before the New Year’s Eve, which is known as Hogmanay. The night of
Hogmanay is a time for merrymaking, the giving of presents and observance
of the old customs. The name “Hogmanay” is supposed to come from the Anglo-
Saxon “Haleg Monath” (Holy Month), or the Gaaelic “oge maiden” (New
Morning). December 26th is Boxing Day. People usually visit their friends,
go for a drive or for a long walk, or just sit around and watch TV
recovering from too much food after Christmas dinner. In the country there
is fox-hunting.
Easter
Easter is the time when certain old traditions are observed. It is
celebrated as the start of spring and as a religious festival. It is the
time for giving and receiving presents, such as Easter eggs, hot cross
buns, fluffy little chicks, baby rabbits, and springtime flowers to signify
nature’s reawakening.
Four times a year the banks are closed on Monday apart from traditional
weekends. Such days are called Bank Holidays.
Besides public holidays, there are certain traditional festivals which have
existed over centuries in the country. They are Pancake Day, Guy Fawkes’
Night, Saint Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Hallowe’en, April’s Fool Day,
etc. These days are not days-off. But they help to keep many traditions,
which Englishmen have always been famous for.
As for me, most of all I like Hallowe’en. It goes back many, many hundreds
of years. At that time the Celts lived in England. The Celts said, “In this
night the ghosts of the dead come back.” Nowadays children in the USA and
Britain dress up as witches or ghosts. Some children also make jack-o’-
lanterns out of pumpkins. They put them in the windows at night. In the
evening, the children go out in groups and knock at people’s doors. The
children call out: “Trick or treat.” Most people then give the children a
“treat”. This is usually a sweet, some chocolate, or maybe a toffee apple.
But some people do not give the children a treat. Then the children play a
trick on them. Sometimes, they ring the doorbell again and then they hide
or run away. Or they come to the house again later and put leaves, grass,
stones or other things into the letterbox. Children and older people often
have Hallowe’en parties where they play games such as “bobbing for apples”,
“apples on a string”, “fortune telling”. I wish we celebrated Hallowe’en in
Russia because this holiday is very funny and interesting.
10. You are going to spend a month with an American or British family. What
do you think will be interesting for your host family to learn about you?
Hello! Let me introduce myself to you. I’m Alexander, Alex for short. I
live in Moscow. I’m a student of the 9th grade. We are a family of four: my
mother, my father, my elder brother and me. We live in a block of flats on
the 11th floor. There are three rooms in our flat and we have all modern
conveniences. I share a room with my elder brother. My brother is a student
of Moscow University. We are close friends. I discuss everything with him
and we don’t have any secrets from each other. We get on very well.
Sometimes I even borrow his clothes and he never gets annoyed. We don’t
feel competitive, because we have different interests. I’m more academic
and he’s more artistic. But we are both fond of sport very much. We both go
to the swimming pool twice a week. It helps us to keep fit, it gives us
good stamina, and it’s good for our hearts and lungs. We hardly ever
quarrel or fight. My brother never sees me as being in the way. I think I’m
quite easy-going. I’m similar in personality to my mother. She is always
very friendly to all, although she can be quite critical of people. I like
to be friendly to the people around me, and I don’t normally like to let my
bad moods and anger inside me, come out and affect other people.
I don’t know if I’m particularly obsessive. I like to do different things
every day. I am fond of collecting different things. One day I collect toy
cars, another day I want to collect badges. But most of all I prefer
collecting stamps because it’s a family hobby. You can learn a tremendous
amount through stamps, especially about history. Stamps are a great way to
bring history alive. All the members of my family collect stamps and the
theme of our collection is history. It is a long-lasting hobby and who
knows – in 20 years or so it may have become an impressive collection that
can be appreciated and enjoyed by my own children too.
I have grandparents, my mother’s parents. They don’t live with us; but I
often visit them. They live a very routine life, but they like it. I can’t
put my finger on it, exactly, but there is some atmosphere in their house
like nothing has changed for twenty years. My parents are doctors and they
work in the hospital. They are very giving, caring persons, and always
consider those around them. They work very hard in their hospital and
really put all their energy in their work. They are very much in love, even
after years of being married and always caring for each other. My parents
have warm, friendly eyes and always express a spirit of goodwill towards
people. I love my parents very much and my ambition is to be a doctor too,
because I want to help people if they have some problems with their health.
I originally became interested in medicine during my 9th grade, when I
realized that my skills and my traits would serve me well in my future
career. Besides I’m good at Chemistry, Biology and History – they are my
favourite subjects. I’m not very good at English, but I understand that it
is one of the most important subjects now, and I try my best to improve it.
We have a pet. It’s a dog. Her name is Sunny. Her mother is a Scotch
Shepherd dog. I am never lonely with my pet. She is a great favourite with
everyone in our family. All people admire her. She wears a good collar with
her name on it. She especially likes morning walks with my father.
My native city is Moscow. Many people associate Moscow with the Kremlin and
Red Square as the heart of the city. It is really the oldest historical and
architectural centre of Moscow and my favourite place in Moscow, because
it’s connected with the history of my country. Nowadays the Moscow Kremlin,
with all the beauty of the palaces and cathedrals, is a wonderful sight.
All these cathedrals have been converted into museums. Ivan the Terrible
Bell Tower, one of the most remarkable structures of the 16th century,
rises in the centre of the Kremlin. It unites all the Kremlin Cathedrals
into a majestic ensemble. One of the well-known Kremlin museums is the
Armoury Chamber. It was built in 1851. The famous golden cap of Monomach,
the first Russian imperial crown of Catherine II made of silver, and many
other precious historical items are exhibited there. So when you come to my
native city, I’ll show you all the interesting and amazing sights of it.
11. People have various reading preferences. What do you like to read? What
is your favourite writer?
I think that we can’t live without books. There are a lot of different
kinds of books in the world, for example, thrillers, historical novels,
science fiction, adventure books and others. Most of them are with us
during all our life. Boys all over the world like reading adventure,
thrillers and horror stories, whereas girls prefer romances, historical
novels and poetry. Encyclopaedias, reference books and dictionaries help
pupils to do well at school.
All the members of my family like reading very much. My father often reads
newspapers and magazines. He thinks that it is the only way to be in the
know of everything. And my mother is keen on reading romances and modern
novels. For her they are more interesting than boring historical novels.
She agrees with Anatole France that “history books which contain no lies
are extremely dull”. But she wouldn’t mind reading about the life of well-
known people.
I enjoy reading very much. Most of all I like reading detective stories,
because they have interesting story lines and unusual endings. I am
particularly captivated by characters who conduct investigations.
I never believed there really were books that you couldn’t put down. I
changed my opinion when I started to read The Woman in White by Wilkie
Collins, an English writer. The book was written in the 19th century. It’s
a very good detective story, with a bit of romance thrown in it. The book
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