3. Describe the way parents feel and behave when their son/daughter is preparing for a journey and while he/she away.

It goes without saying that parents always get worried when their children go abroad to visit new places and get to know other ways of living. Without any doubt travelling is necessary for all of us as it broadens our minds and horizons, it’s a kind of relaxation and a wonderful opportunity to get away from routine. When children go on a journey they relax their body, refresh their spirits and renew the energy. But they may not even guess that their parents can’t sleep for a while thinking of them. Just imagine, a father or a mother helps the child to get ready for the first travel abroad. At the luggage store they want to buy him a suitcase, but he says that suitcase are more for old people. The American boy went to London and called his father and reported that London was like no place in America. The boy was really fascinated by visiting new places in Europe; he hiked through a crowd of Scottish sheep and climbed the mountain in a rainstorm. In France he tried to speak French but French he learned from the cassette didn’t hold water in Paris. His father asked himself what it was all like. He has never been himself outside the US and when he was young he made a list of experience he intended to have before he reached 21, but he had never done them. So when his son called, sat and listened. He had never listened to a telephone so intently and with so much pleasure as he did then. It was wonderful and moving for him to hear news from his son that was so new to him. And when his 15-year-old son returned home from abroad with a dozen rolls of exposed film and a hundred dollars in uncashed traveler’s checks he sat amazed. Father says that the night when your child returns with dust on his shoes from a country you’ve never seen is a night you would gladly prolong into a week.

4. Talk about stereotyped ideas that people may have about the way of life in other countries! (Traveller`s Tale)

Nobody wants to be average. So generalizations about nations are not usually welcomed, though sometimes they are quite accurate. The dangers may go even deeper, when someone tries to generalize from his own limited experience.

The Americans, for instance, are the nation, about which numerous stereotyped ideas exist. They are created as a rule by the people who have never been to the US. But nevertheless, they are apt to assure others categorically the country isn`t worth visiting. They invent false which in fact turn out to be nothing more than inaccurate information, gathered from 2^nd hand sources.

For instance, you may hear that the whole pace of life among Americans is dreadful. It`s a perpetual everyday strain. The social pressures are tremendous. This may seem appalling to people committed to the idea of actually living in town which is unheard of in America. It`s supposed that Americans don’t even know about slipping away at weekends to some peaceful place in the country, because countryside is entirely occupied by all those immense suburban housing developments. The idea of a typical American housewife is even more amusing. It`s believed that wife has nothing to do but commit adultery & go mad from boredom & frustration.

Another prejudice about Americans is that their mania about personal cleanliness. American food is described as flavourless, prepackaged stuff with no decent fruit or vegetables. Finally, even American children are said to be unbearable.

However, when coming to the USA, you get surprised to see quite the opposite, & it wouldn`t be some local atypicality because in reality the paсe of American life isn`t a dreadful rat-race at all., although it has certain peculiarities one should be ready to adopt oneself to. As for social pressures I think they do exist everywhere. I`m sure Americans give a good example of hard work & optimistic life-style. This `can-do-spirit` proves that with the necessary willingness & inventiveness one can overcome all the difficulties. So, Americans tend to be trend-setters in lifestyles.