B.
In Italy, children do not ask Santa Claus for presents. In their country an ugly, yet kind old witch named Befana performs Santa’s duties. The witch flies around the world on her broomstick and enters the houses down the chimney. She delivers toys, clothing and candy to well-behaved children and puts coal – or dark candy – in bad kids’ socks.
C.
An ancient legend tells us about children from a poor family. Unfortunately, their parents could not afford any Christmas decorations and the kids were upset. However, on Christmas morning when the children woke up, they saw that spiders had spun webs of shiny silk around the tree’s branches. The sun turned each thread into silver and gold. Even nowadays in Europe people decorate their trees with spider webs to welcome good luck.
D.
Different celebrations take place over Christmas in Scotland. One of the most important traditions is called First-Footing. Once midnight strikes, all eyes await the arrival of the year’s first visitor. The person who crosses the home’s threshold first is said to bring good fortune for the year ahead. Top of the lucky list: a male, dark-haired visitor. Women or blonde men are believed to be unlucky.
E.
According to tradition, on Christmas Eve some Russian people don’t eat anything until the first star has appeared in the sky. In Russia, Christmas is celebrated on the 7th of January, not on the 25th of December like in most other countries. The different date of the holiday is because the Orthodox Church uses the old ‘Julian’ calendar for religious celebration days.
F.
Like in most countries the locals of Venezuela, especially in their capital city, Caracas, go to church on Christmas Eve to celebrate the birth of Jesus. However, in Caracas, people of all ages don’t just walk to church, they usually roller skate to church. The streets of Caracas are closed to vehicles up to 8am on Christmas Day to make way for their citizens who use roller skates to travel to and from church.
Запишите в таблицу выбранные цифры под соответствующими буквами.
Текст
A
B
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E
F
Вопрос
Прочитайте текст. Определите, какие из приведённых утверждений 13–19 соответствуют содержанию текста (1 – True), какие не соответствуют (2 – False) и о чём в тексте не сказано, то есть на основании текста нельзя дать ни положительного, ни отрицательного ответа (3 – Not stated). Запишите в поле ответа цифру 1, 2 или 3, соответствующую выбранному Вами варианту ответа.
Tea
Everybody knows that Britain is a tea-drinking nation. Tea is more than just a drink to the British – it is a way of life. Many people drink it first with breakfast, then mid-morning, with lunch, at tea-time (around 5 o’clock), with dinner and finally just before bed. As a nation, they go through 185 million cups per day! No less than 77% of British people are regular tea drinkers; they drink more than twice as much tea as coffee.
A legend says that tea was discovered in China in the third millennium BC. When a Chinese Emperor was having breakfast in his garden, a tea leaf fell into his cup with hot water. The water became coloured and the Emperor was delighted with the taste of the new drink. To Britain, tea came much later. It happened in the 17th century, when the British ships landed on the shore of China and came back with a load of tea.
Tea drinking became fashionable in England after Charles II married the Portuguese princess Catherine of Braganza. She adored tea and introduced it to the royal court. Just as people today will copy celebrities, people in the 17th and 18th centuries copied the royal family. Tea drinking spread like wildfire, starting first among the nobles and then spreading to wealthy businessmen who liked to sit down for a nice ‘cuppa’ in coffee houses. Tea was an expensive product. It was only for the rich and often kept under lock and key.
In the 17th century the British really had two daily meals –
breakfast and dinner. Dinner was the heaviest meal of the day, and was usually served in the afternoon. The custom of eating a regular ‘afternoon tea’ began during the 1700’s, as people began serving dinner later and later in the evening. For the aristocracy, or at least for the Duchess Anna Maria of Bedford, 6 hours between meals was simply too long. She began to ask for a cup of tea and light snacks to be served around 5 pm, and then began to invite guests to join her. The custom of ‘afternoon tea’ was born, and it spread among the upper classes and then among the workers, for whom this late afternoon meal became the main of the day.
The first tea shop for ladies was opened by Thomas Twining in 1717 and slowly tea shops began to appear throughout England making the drinking of tea available to everyone. The British appreciated the new drink for its taste.
It was also believed that tea cured lots of diseases. However, the most important thing was that drinking tea prevented lots of diseases – to make the drink people used boiled water and drank less raw water.
For centuries now, tea has been the national drink of Great Britain. Tea has so thoroughly integrated itself into British culture that during World War II the government was seriously afraid that the country’s morale could suffer from the lack of tea and made a special decision to ration it.
Tea has worked its way into language too. Nowadays people have tea breaks at work, even if they drink coffee or cola. Many people call the main evening meal tea, even if they drink beer with it. When there is a lot of trouble about something very unimportant, it is called a storm in a tea cup. When someone is upset or depressed, people say they need tea and sympathy. In fact, tea is the best treatment for all sorts of problems and troubles.
13
In general British people prefer coffee to tea.
1) True 2) False 3) Not stated
Ответ:
14
In the 17th century a Chinese Emperor sent tea to the British royal family as a present.
1) True 2) False 3) Not stated
Ответ:
15
Tea became popular in Great Britain due to the royal marriage.
1) True 2) False 3) Not stated
Ответ:
16
The ‘afternoon tea’ tradition was started by a woman.
1) True 2) False 3) Not stated
Ответ:
17
In the first tea shops the British could also buy some medicines.
1) True 2) False 3) Not stated
Ответ:
18
During World War II the British government prohibited drinking tea.
1) True 2) False 3) Not stated
Ответ:
19
There are many phrases with ‘tea’ in the English language.
1) True 2) False 3) Not stated
