Read the description of a typical day in the life of Queen Elizabeth II and find
- three things that the Queen does every day;
- three things that the Queen did on that particular day;
- three things that you expect the Queen to do;
- three things which you don’t expect the Queen to do.
A day in the Queen’s life
7 A.M. Wakes up, has a cup of tea. Reads “The Sporting Life” cover to cover.
7.30 A.M. Has a bath and get dressed. The Queen selects her clothes but a personal maid lays them out in her dressing room.
8 A.M. Listens to BBC news and has breakfast with Prince Philip in the private Royal Dining Room. This usually consists of eggs or kippers, tea and toast. Both look through all the newspapers as they eat. The Queen first opens “The Times”, then the “Daily Telegraph”, followed by the “Daily Mirror”
8.45 A.M. Makes her daily phone call to Princess Margaret.
8.55 A.M. Sees the Buckingham Palace housekeeper about the Palace matters.
9.10 A.M. Reads her personal mail. The letters for the Queen’s eyes only are marked with a special code.
9.30 A.M. The first important business consultation with her Private Secretary, Sir Philip Moore. The Queen has to make many decisions involving the State and administrative matters.
10.15 A.M. Works on her government documents.
11.00 A.M. An official ceremony in the Grand Ballroom of Buckingham Palace. The Queen remains standing and smiling for 90 minutes.
12.45 P.M. A quick lunch, often eaten alone in her private apartment – usually salad, fruit and mineral water.
1.30 P.M. Changes clothes for next engagement.
2.00 P.M. Leaves the Palace to open a new hospital in Hertfordshire. Her route is always cleared by the police.
3.00 P.M. Unveils the plague, makes a speech. Shakes dozens of hands at the hospital. A cup of tea, eats nothing.
4.45 P.M. Back to the Palace and works in her office. Simply putting her signature to official papers can take 30 minutes.
5.30 P.M. Receives foreign VIPs.
6.00 P.M. The final meeting of the day with her Private Secretary.
6.30 P.M. A quick change of clothes before leaving for a reception at St. James’s Palace.
7.00 P.M. Arrives at St. James’s Palace, shakes hands and talks to no fewer than 70 people.
8.15 P.M. Back to the Place and changes into less formal clothes.
88.30 P.M. An informal dinner with Philip and a group of famous businessmen.
10.00 P.M. Watches television news.
10.15 P.M. Looks through the next day’s engagements and finishes any official papers she has not yet time to read.
10.30 P.M. Telephones some members of the Royal Family – just to see if all is well.
10.45 P.M. Goes to bed. If Philip is out on an engagement alone, she always waits up for him before going to bed.
3.3.3 Will it be of interest to you to compare the Queen’s lifestyle with the lifestyle of ordinary people? Here is an article about the average Briton. There is a lot of statistics in it which could give you an idea of ‘an average lifestyle’. Look through the article and compare the standard of living in Britain with that in your country
What is the average Briton like?
The average Briton is a woman (51 %).
The average Briton lives in a house, not a flat (80 %). She (or he) has a bathroom (95 %), a refrigerator or a freezer (99 %), a car (69 %) and a telephone (90 %), a TV-set (98 %), a central heating system (83 %), a video-recorder (73 %), a washing machine (92 %), a computer (20 %).
The average Briton is between 16 and 64 years old. The average British man will die at 73 years old, while the average woman will live until she’s 78.
The average Briton is married (60 %) and more Britons than ever before are getting married. Men get married at the age of 28 while British women marry at 26. About 20 % of marriages end in divorce, though about half will marry again.
The average age for divorce, if you are thinking of marrying a Briton, is 36 for women and 38 for men.
The average Briton works 35-40 hours a week and has a 4-week holiday a year. At present 40 % of holidays are spent staying with relatives or friends and a quarter are spent camping. British residents take about 23 million holidays abroad every year. The most popular foreign countries are Spain, France, the USA and Greece.
What does the average Briton do in his/her free time? Well, he/she watches television. Every Briton over the age of 5 watches television an average of 27 hours a week. Other popular pastimes are listening to the radio or to CDs, gardening and of course the pub.
3.3.3.1 Test your memory
Do you remember the statistics data given in the article? Match the data given in the columns A and B and then look through the article again and check your answers. Count the number of correct answers you’ve got and read the interpretation of your results given after the test. Good luck!
| A | B | A | B |
| Men Women Married A refrigerator or freezer A car A telephone A TV-set | 69 % 98 % 73 % 51 % 83% 80 % 60 % | Divorced A house A bathroom A video-recorder A central heating system A washing machine A computer | 99 % 20 % 20 % 95 % 92 % 90 % 49 % |
Good or very good memory?
Less than 7 correct answers Don’t panic, it could be worse.
7-8 correct answers Cheer up! You have ever chance to improve your memory.
9 correct answers Your memory is very good! But still continue
training it.
10-11 correct answers Great! Congratulations! You’ve done it!
12-13 correct answers Fantastic! Terrific!
14 correct answers Excellent! Next to impossible!
3.3.4 You are going to read a newspaper article about a day in the life of a footballer. Choose the most suitable heading from the list A-I for each part (1-7) of the article. There is one extra heading which you do not need to use. There is an example at the beginning (0)
A Domestic matters
B Time off
C All players are different
D Putting in the practice
E Working together
F Keeping my standard up
G What makes a good player
H Not my choice
I Getting started
A day in the life of Jim Barber, Scottish Footballer
Jim Barber is a centre forward for Glasgow Rangers football club. He talks to Paul Sullivan about a typical day in his life.
| I |
I don’t usually get up till 8.30. On a match day I’ll get up even later. I’ll sit in bed, watch breakfast TV for a while, and then I’ll go down, get the mail, have a coffee and read the papers. I’ll have a wash and then I’ll get ready to go to the club. Rangers is probably the only club where the players have to come in every morning wearing a shirt and tie; it’s a traditional thing and I quite like it really.
Every day except Sunday, I’ll be at the club by 10. It’s a short drive but I’ll still usually be a few minutes late. I’ve a bad reputation for being late. And I’ve been fined many times. Each day of training is in preparation for the next match. We’ll do some weight training and some running to build up some stamina. Players work on particular aspects of the game but tactics are usually left till match day.
After training I’ll usually have a sauna and then we’ll have lunch: salads and pasta, stuff like that. In the afternoon I just try to relax. I started playing golf with the rest of the lads and I love horse racing too. My other great hobby is music which helps me to escape the pressure of work.
The best thing in football is scoring goals – and I am a top goal-scorer. It feels absolutely fantastic but I never feel above the rest of the team; if I did I wouldn’t last two minutes in the dressing room. Any success I have is a team success. My idol in the past was always Kenny Dalglish. My idols now are the other Rangers players.
The matches themselves are always different from each other. You go through a lot of emotions during a game but really it’s a question of concentration. You’ve got just 90 minutes to give everything you’ve got and take every chance you can. There’s luck and there’s being in the right place at the right time but you can’t make use of those without concentration and responsibility.
Sport writers often talk about age but it’s not something that bothers me. I’m 30 and feel fantastic. I missed a few games last year due to injury and my place was taken by a young player at Rangers. We are friends but he is a great threat to my position. My job is to score goals and if I don’t I’ll be replaced.
I try not to let football to rule my home life but my wife would probably disagree; last year we only got three weeks holiday. It’s difficult for Allison, my wife, but I think she’s learnt to accept it. She likes football and comes to the matches. I do like to go out and see friends but I always have dinner with my wife.
We’ll usually go to bed about midnight. Sometimes I do worry when I think of the day it all ends and I stop scoring. That scares me and I can’t see myself for any other team, either, but the reality is that the players don’t make the decisions. If someone makes your club a good enough offer for you, they’ll accept it. But I try not to let things like that bother me.