Holidays and special occasions

I. Mind the pronunciation of the following words:

II. Read the text

Britain is a country governed by routine. It has fewer public holidays than any other country in Europe and fewer than North America. Even New Year’s Day was not an official public holiday in England and Wales until quite recently (but so many people gave themselves a holiday anyway that it was thought it might as well become official!). There are almost no semi-official holidays either. Most official holidays occur either just before or just after a weekend, so that the practice of making a ‘bridge’ is almost unknown. Moreover, there are no traditional extra local holidays in particular places. Although the origin of the word ‘holiday’ is ‘holy day’, not all public holiday (usually known as ‘bank holidays’) are connected with religious celebrations.

The British also seem to do comparatively badly with regard to annual holidays. These are not as long as they are many other countries. Although the average employee gets four weeks’ paid holiday a year, in no town or city in the country would a visitor ever get the impression that the place had ‘shut down’ for the summer break.