Text 4. Customs and habits

Visitors to Britain are often surprised by the strange behaviour of the inhabitants. One of the worst mistakes is to get on a bus without waiting your turn in the queue. The other people in the queue will probably complain loudly! Drivers in cars can become quite aggressive if they think you are jumping the queue in a traffic jam. People respond to queue jumping in an emotional way. Newspapers headlines describe anger at people who pay to bypass a hospital waiting list to get an operation more quickly. Queuing is a national habit and it is considered polite or good manners to wait your turn.

In recent years smoking has received a lot of bad publicity, and fewer British people now smoke. Many companies have banned smoking from their offices and canteens. It is becoming less and less acceptable to smoke in a public place. Smoking is now banned on the London Underground, in cinemas and most buses, and there are special smokers` carriages on trains. It is considered rude – or bad manners – to smoke in someone`s house without asking «Do you mind if I smoke?». Public minds are reflected in «Lonely Hearts`» columns, where people advertise for non-smoking partners, and in advertisements for flats or houses to rent.

On the other hand, in some countries it is considered bad manners to eat in the street, whereas in Britain it is common to see people having a snack whilst walking down the road, especially at lunchtime. Britons may be surprised to see young children in restaurants in the evenings 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. These rules may also change as the society develops; for example, women did not go into pubs at the beginning of the twentieth century because it was not considered respectable behaviour for a woman. Now women are fully integrated into public life.

We may think that someone from a different country is being rude when their behaviour would perfectly innocent in their own country. Social rules are an important part of our culture as they are passed down through history. The British have an expression for following these «unwritten rules»: «When in Rome, do as the Romans do». Do we have a similar expression in this country?

 

Грамматическое задание: обратите внимание на выделенные слова. Какой частью речи они являются? Чем отличаются их формы? Воспользуйтесь грамматическим справочником по английскому языку.

 

Vocabulary:

behaviour                                - поведение

inhabitant                                - житель

turn                                         - черед

queue                                      - очередь

to jump the queue                   - не соблюдать очередь

to complain                             - жаловаться

to bypass a waiting list           - пройти вне очереди

to receive bad publicity          - получить отрицательную огласку

public minds                           - (зд.) настроение общества

on the other hand                    - с другой стороны

it is considered bad manners  - считается дурным тоном

whilst walking down the road - идя, прогуливаясь по улице

it used to be said                     - когда-то говорили

to participate                           - принимать участие

to accept                                  - допускать, впускать, принимать

respectable                              - приличный, уважаемый

perfectly innocent                   - совершенно нормально, прилично

Some more facts about the UK:

 

The name Great Britain has been used since 1707 to denote the political union of England, Scotland, and Wales. Great Britain includes the Isle of Man and Channel Islands, as well as the province of Northern Ireland. The United Kingdom is a monarchy but the powers of the king (now queen Elizabeth II) are limited by the British Parliament. In Britain they look at the Queen not only as their head of state, but also as the «symbol of their nation`s unity». The royal title in the UK is: «Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realm and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith».

The British Parliament consists of two chambers, the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Everything in the country officially is done in the name of the Queen but the Prime Minister is responsible for the policy conducted by Parliament. The Prime Minister lives and works in the official residence №. 10 Downing Street, London.

 

Area: 244,046 square km

Population:56 mln people

Capital: London

London, Birmingham and Glasgow are the major cities.