TEXT 1. Read and translate. Work out a plan of behavior in Britain. Give a summary of the text
When in Britain …
Visitors to Britain are often surprised by the strange behaviour of its inhabitants. The British like forming queues. They queue up when waiting for a bus, theatre tickets, in shops... A well-known writer George Mikes, a Hungarian by birth, joked: «An Englishman, even if he is alone, forms an orderly queue of one».
So one of the worst mistakes is to get on a bus without waiting your turn. The British are very sensitive to such behaviour and they may get really annoyed with queue-jumpers – people who don't wait their turn in the queue.
Drivers in cars can become quite aggressive if they think you are jumping the queue in a traffic jam. Newspapers often publish angry articles about people who pay money to bypass a hospital waiting list in order to get an operation more quickly.
The British, especially the English, are more reserved than the people of many other countries. They don't like to show their emotions. They usually don't easily get into conversation with strangers. They don't like personal questions (for example, how much money they earn or about their family life). They take more time to make friends. They would like to know you better before they ask you home. So don't be upset if your English friends don't invite you home. It doesn't mean they don't like you!
If you are invited to a party, it is considered polite to call and say if you can or cannot come. Most parties are informal these days, so you don't have to worry about what to wear – anything from jeans to suits will do.
If you are told to 'help yourself to something, it doesn't mean that your host is rude – he or she is showing that you are completely accepted and just like «one of the family».
It is considered rude – or bad manners – to smoke in someone's house without asking «Do you mind if I smoke?»
If you enjoyed the evening, call your hostess the next day, or write her a short «thank you» letter. Perhaps it seems funny to you, but British people say «thank you, thank you, thank you» all the time! They say «thank you» even when they give money to a shop assistant.
These days most people in Britain do not wear very formal clothes. Of course, when they are «on duty» they have to obey certain rules. You cannot imagine a bank employee without a suit or a tie. But when he is no longer «at work», he can put on an old sweater and jeans, sometimes with holes in them.
If you go out to enjoy yourself, you can wear almost anything. It is no longer a requirement of theatres that the audience should wear evening dress. So what you wear depends, perhaps, on how much you paid for your ticket. At the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, for example, spectators in the stalls, the circle and the boxes are usually dressed formally, whilst those peering down from the amphitheatre may well be in jeans. People do, however, tend to dress more formally for ballet and opera than for the theatre and concerts.
In recent years smoking has received a lot of bad publicity, and fewer people now smoke. There is no more smoking on the London Underground, in cinemas and theatres and most buses. Many companies have banned smoking from their offices and canteens. And non-smokers can be rude to smokers who break the rule and smoke in public places. There are, however, special smokers carriages on trains and special cinemas for those who haven't given up smoking yet.
Pubs are an important part of British life. People, especially men, go to the pub to relax, meet friends, and sometimes to do business.
At one time, it was unusual for women to go to pubs. These days, however, there are only a few pubs where it is surprising for a woman to walk in.
Children under the age of 14 are still not allowed into some pubs.
Pub food is cheaper than most restaurant food, and you don't have to leave a tip. But you do have to go to the bar to get your food and drink. There are no waiters in pubs.
In some countries it is considered bad manners to eat in the street. In Britain it is quite common to see people having a snack while walking down the road, especially at lunchtime. On the other hand, the British may be surprised to see young children in restaurants in the evening because children are not usually taken out to restaurants late at night and, if they make a noise in public or in a restaurant, it is considered very rude. In Victorian times it used to be said that «Children should be seen and not heard», since children did not participate at all in public life. In recent years children are playing a more active role and they are now accepted in many pubs and restaurants.
Good and bad manners make up the social rules of a country and are not always easy to learn because they are often not written down in books! The British have an expression for following these «unwritten rules»: «When in Rome, do as the Romans do».
TEXT 2. Read and translate the facts. Single out the most amazing of them.
Amazing Facts about Great Britain
Crowded Country
Britain is one of the most densely populated countries in the world: it is more than twice as densely populated as France, nine times as densely populated as the USA and 100 times as densely populated as Australia.
Kings and Queens
Great Britain's monarchy is over 1,000 years old. The only time when there was no King or Queen in Britain was when the country was a republic between 1649 and 1660. (In 1649 King Charles I was executed and Britain became a Republic for eleven years. The monarchy was restored in 1660).