Snobbery is not so common in England today as it was at the teginning of the century. It still exists, however, and advertisers know how to use it in order to sell their goods

A snob, the dictionaries tell us, is a person who pays too much respect to social position or wealth. The popu­ lar newspapers know that many of their readers are snobs. That is why they give them unimportant and useless information about persons of high social position,

photographs of «Lady X and her friends* at a ball or

• Lord Y and his friends* at the races.

It is a snobbery that makes some men feel annoyed when on the envelopes of letters addressed to them they find Mr. before their names instes of Esq. after their names. Snobbery explains why many people give their suburban house a name, such as The Oaks, The Pines, The Cedars, even though there are no oak trees, pine trees or cedar trees in their gardens. People of high social position have country houses with names, because a house with a name seems abetter* than a house with a number. Numbers make the postman's work much easier, but that is not important.

The advertisers are very clever in their use of snobbery-Motor-car manufacturers, for example advertise the colours of their cars as «Embassy Black*, though this is ordinary black, or «Balmoral Stone*. Balmoral Stone is the grey colour of ordinary stone, but Balmoral is also the name of the residence in Scotland of the British Royal family.

Английский язык

The Thanksgiving Day

One day the people of the village suddenly saw a tall Indian who was walking along the street. They were frightened very much, but this Indian came up to them, smiled and said, «Hallo, Yankee!*

Few days later this Indian came to the village again together with some other Indians. They came as friends and helped the white men very much. But white men forgot about this help very quickly, a few years later when many people from Europe came to America, they began to take the land away from the Indians and to kill them.

At last spring came. The people of New Plymouth began to plant corn, and the Indians showed them how to plant maize. In autumn the crops were very good and the people of New Plymouth wanted to make a holiday dinner. They asked the Indians to this dinner, and the Indians brought some wild turkeys as a present. The turkey was an American bird. Very few people in Europe had ever heard about it but when they ate it at this dinner they liked it very much. The people of New Plymouth called their holiday «Thanksgiving Day*.

Since that time Thanksgiving Day has been a great holiday in the United States of America, and since that day Americans have always had turkeys for the Thanks­ giving Day.

Приложение 2

MAYFLOWER

It was in 1620, in the time of King James the First. English people did not like their king and they called him «The foolish King of England*. Many of them even left England and went to live in other countries.

In November, 1620 a a small chip, the Mayflower, left England. There were about one hundred people aboard the ship. For seven long weeks the Mayflower was in the waves and storms of the Atlantic Ocean, and at last the people saw land. It was America.

It was already autumn. It was raining and a cold wind was blowing. Sixteen men left the Mayflower and went ashere. In the evening they came back to the ship and brought some maize with them. When the people on board the Mayflower tried it they likedit very much.

Next day was Sunday and everybody on the Mayflow­ er had a rest. On Monday some men went ashore again and this time they took some women with them. The women had to wash the clothes. Simce that tiae Monday has been a wash-day in America.

During the next five weeks the mea from the Mayflower left the ship every day. Sometimes they did not come back for many days; they were looking for a good place to live. There was a good harbour for ships there, some field aad forests near it and even a small river. The people began to build a village there.

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