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FEBRUARY 14th. LOVE IS IN THE AIR
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Текст 6
FEBRUARY 14th. LOVE IS IN THE AIR
Here it comes again: the day for exchanging love messages, chocolates, roses, and promises.
On February 14th millions of people will receive Valentine cards – paper or electronic, sentimental or comic, in verse or in prose.
A card is obviously a must, whether you have a boyfriend or girlfriend, brother or sister or just want to convey a message to someone you secretly admire. No matter how popular the electronic mail gets, handwritten letters always have a special appeal.
Did you know?
In spite of the unromantic reputation of the British, over 16 million Valentine cards are sent each year on February 14th. 39% of Valentine cards are sent by women and 61 by men (of course).
Originally, Valentine cards were only sent by men to women. They were all handmade and elaborately decorated.
The oldest exiting Valentine card can be found in the British Museum. It was sent in the year 1415.
Britons exchanged over ten million text messages on Valentine’s Day, 2001.
St. Valentine’s Day is now celebrated in many countries, including Russia and China. But in atheist China your flowers can be confiscated if the police see you in the street with a bouquet.
I’ll be your sweetheart, if you will be mine,
All my life I’ll be you Valentine
Poems express your feelings in a very special and elegant way, and in a few words.
The only problem with sending a card to someone is the age-old dilemma of whether to sign it or not.
But the element of mystery is precisely what makes Valentine’s Day so magical. There is nothing in the word so exiting as the idea of getting a love message and then trying to guess who it’s been sent by. What if someone you have a secret crush on might have a secret crush on you, too?
So our advice is not to sign the card. But if you want the recipient to guess who the author is (deep down you probably do), just drop some clue or hint as to who the message is from.
Ответьте на вопросы:
– How many Valentine cards are sent each year by the British?
– How did they look like originally and who sent them?
– When was the oldest exiting Valentine card sent?
Текст 7
COLUMBUS DAY
He was called Cristoforo Colombo in Italian, Cristobal Colon in Spanish and today Americans call him Christofer Columbus. Worldwide, he’s called the discoverer of America. Some people might wonder why. After all, Columbus didn’t set out in search of new continents, and he never realized that he had found any. Moreover, he wasn’t the first European to set foot in the Western Hemisphere. Long before his time Vikings probably reached the New World. Historians also believed that, in the fourteenth century, Portuguese and English fishing boats crossed the Atlantic Ocean and landed in Newfoundland and Labrador.
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But these contracts didn’t last long and didn’t change anything. Only Columbus’s voyages resulted in permanent links between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Columbus’s historic landing on an island in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492, was a turning point in world history.
Celebrations and Debates.
In the USA, this event is celebrated on Columbus Day, the second Monday in October. The holiday is also celebrated in Italy and in most Spanish-speaking countries. In some places, it’s called Landing Day or Discovery Day. In many Latin American countries, it is called Dia de la Raza (Day of the Race). Columbus Day celebrations often involve parades, patriotic speeches, and dramatizations of the landing.
Still there are many debates about who should honour Columbus and even whether he should be honoured.
The Spaniards and the Italians argue over how to divide the national honour. (Columbus was born in Genoa, which is how part of Italy, but Spanish money was paid for his expeditions. )
The Scandinavians insist that if any man should be honoured for discovering America, it should be Eric the Red. (Eric the Red, from Norway, explored Greenland in 985. His son, Leif Ericson, was one of the first explorers to visit mainland America. )
And the nations in the Caribbean basin resent the idea that they had been discovered at all. As the joke has it, they knew where they were; it was Columbus who was lost.
The consequences of Columbus’s voyages were most tragic for the native people of the America. As Europeans took over the New World, Native Americans lost their lives by the millions. They died from European illnesses or were killed in battles with colonists. Those who survived were forced to live like prisoners in reservations. So today, when Americans honour the bravery and the genius of Columbus, they also remember the plain that resulted from his voyages.
Найдите информацию о:
– about the first Europeans to set foot in the western Hemisphere;
– about celebrating Columbus Day in different countries;
– about debates who should be honoured for discovering America;
– about consequences of Columbus’s voyages for the natives of America.
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