I Read the article and answer your teacher’s questions.

HOGMANY Encyclopaedia Britannica

Many national and local celebrations took place in Scotland in the past and some survive to this day. They start on January 1^st and finish on the major celebration on the Scottish calendar – Hogmanay, New Year's Eve, on December 31^st. Hogmanay, the celebration of bringing in the New Year is a more important festival in Scotland than Christmas.

The origin of the word ‘Hogmanay’ is lost in the past. Historians believe that the Scots inherited the celebration from the Vikings who, coming from even further north than they themselves, paid even more attention to the passing of the shortest day.

The Scots have a long rich heritage associated with this event. There are traditions such as cleaning the house (known as "redding") on  December  31st (including taking out the ashes from the fire in the days when coal fires were common); visiting friends and relatives immediately after New Year's Eve, in the early hours of the morning of January 1st. First footing after the bells have rung in the New Year is still common - the "first foot" in the house after midnight should be male, dark, and handsome and should carry symbolic coal, shortbread, salt, black bun (a spiced cake) and, of course, whisky.

And Scotland is the only part of the UK that has a statutory holiday on January 2^nd as well as  January 1^st - so they can recover from the excesses of December 31^st!  (1136)

 

II Read the text and say what you think of the manager selling the book. Say where you would like to work in the future, what you are going to do to realize your ambitions.

Mr Sellyer Is Selling Books after S.Leacock

One day I went to a bookshop to look through the new books. While I was looking through the books, I could watch Mr Sellyer, manager of the shop, and see some of his methods.

Every customer who entered the shop went away with the book Golden Dreams. To one lady the manager sold this book as the reading for a holiday, to another as the book to read after a holiday. One man bought it to read on a rainy day and another one as the right book for a fine day.  Every time Mr Sellyer recommended the book to his customers he added that his wife said that Golden Dreams was the best book of the season.

I asked the manager, “Do you like the book yourself?” He answered, “Dear me! I’ve no idea of the book”. “And did your wife really like the book?”, I asked. “I’m not married, sir”, answered the manager smiling.

 

 

 

 

III Speak to your teacher. You begin the conversation.

 

You and your friend are going to prepare a project about one of the English-speaking countries.

Discuss what country you are going to speak about, what is necessary to do in order to make the project interesting; what each of you is going to prepare for the presentation.