Текст 5 Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is celebrated in the USA and Canada. In The USA, it is celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November every year. The Canadians celebrate it on the second Monday in October. It is associated with giving thanks to God. In the beginning people expressed gratitude for the harvest they reaped. It used to be a religious holiday but now it has become a secular celebration.

The most important part of the celebration is the dinner which includes the customary turkey served with cranberry sauce, and pumpkin. A lot of business goes on during this holiday. For example, restaurants take advantage of the holiday to sell turkey dinners

Families and friends usually get together for a large meal or dinner during Thanksgiving and have a lot of fun. That's why, the Thanksgiving holiday weekend is considered one of the busiest travel periods of the year. Students are given a four-day or five-day weekend vacation. Thanksgiving is also a paid holiday for most workers.

Выберите правильный вариант:

The origin of the name "Thanksgiving" comes from:

• thanks given to God

• thanks given for the help the early settlers got from each other.

Thanksgiving is a time to

• worship God

• Thank god, eat and have fun.

It is a vacation for

• Everybody

• a lot of people

The main food that is prepared in this celebration is:

• cranberry sauce, and pumpkin

• turkey

Текст 6 christmas

Christmas in Britain is all about nice food, presents and family reunions. Or is it? An alarmingly large number of British people would say that there is a lot more to Christmas than meets the eye (of a foreigner, of course).

Shopping.

Officially Christmas and New Year celebrations run from the 24th of December to the 2nd of January. However, for many Brits the Christmas marathon starts as early as the beginning of October with the first festive adverts on TV. By the end of November shops are so packed that only the gloomy realization that Christmas is looming and there is nothing you can do about it can make you swap the comfort of a soft sofa and nice cup of tea for big crowds of panic-stricken people.

The idea of Christmas shopping is that you spend as much money as you can on anything you cast your eyes on, preferably something neither you nor your family (friends, pets etc.) will ever use. An average British family spends £670 or more around the Christmas period. The money is spent on a Christmas tree, presents, and essential food such as a huge turkey, hundreds of mince pies, Christmas cake, ham and lots of nibbles. Another big source of spending is Christmas cards with an average British person buying 46 greetings per year!

Some people just cannot stop spending. It is very easy to spend more money than you actually have as most people have a number of credit cards. Buying on credit is increasingly becoming part of British culture as people are constantly encouraged by banks and advertising to buy more. It is not unusual for someone to turn Christmas spending into paying debts for the rest of the year. And, of course, there are also January sales. Hung-over and exhausted the whole population of the British Isles rushes to shops to hunt for bargains and next year’s Christmas presents!

Family

Finally, the presents are bought, wrapped and put away in a safe dark corner and it is time to enjoy Christmas with your family. Although it is not a crime to spend the New Year with friends, British Christmas is definitely a family celebration. As, quite often, grown-up children live a long way (or what seems a long way) from their parents, some families only get together once a year, for Christmas. But even if all the family lives close by, it is a must to spend Christmas together. Normally this means three days: Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

It seems like a short time but in reality it is not. Firstly, not all families get on well together. Secondly, even if it is not the case, it is difficult to stay calm and friendly amongst shouting parents trying to decide who knows better how to make Christmas dinner, screaming kids and grandparents perpetually giving invaluable pieces of advice. Besides, being such an old tradition, there are things that just have to be done at Christmas even if the whole family secretly hates it. For example, playing traditional boards games, and eating Christmas cake. And if you do not see anything wrong with playing games, just imaging if you had to do it every year for the rest of your life. Doesn’t sound like a jolly prospect now, does it? As for Christmas cake, heavy and overfilling it is not to everybody’s taste. To make things worse, it takes weeks to make and when it is ready it can last until Easter, so even if you do not like it, you have to try and eat some at Christmas to avoid being haunted by it months after.

Naturally, all this creates some tension. According to statistics, the number of family breakdowns doubles in the post-Christmas period as a result of stress, debt and over-consumption of alcohol. As it is a well-known fact, some magazines publish tips on how to cope with Christmas, such as yoga, meditation or holidays abroad.

Ответьте на вопросы:

1. When do Christmas and New Year celebrations run officially?

2. When does the Christmas marathon start for many Brits?

3. When are shops packed?

4. What is the idea of Christmas shopping?

5. How much does the average British family spend around the Christmas period?

6. What is the money spent on?

7. What is becoming part of British culture?

8. When and why does the whole population rush to shops?