MERRY CHRISTMAS!

                                                          

                                                                 MERRY CHRISTMAS!

                                        A good time is coming, I wish it were here,          

                                        The very best time in the whole of the year;

I’m counting each day on my fingers and thumbs –

The weeks that must past before Santa Claus comes.

American Christmas

Christmas, the most joyous of American holidays, is celebrated on December 25 to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ. Almost all workers have Christmas Day off, and students have a two to three week vacation for Christmas and New Year.

Early Puritans didn’t celebrate it. Celebrating Christmas became popular in the 19th century, after many German and Irish immigrants had come to America.

Street lights and store windows are decorated in the traditional Christmas colors of red and green Snowmen, Santa Clauses and Nativity scenes appear in many shop windows. Many people decorate their homes with colored lights and evergreens.

People send Christmas cards to their families, relatives, friends and business customers. They may put the received cards on the wall, the mantle or hang them on a string, as Christmas cards are very colorful and beautiful. During the Christmas season, Christmas carols are heard all over: on radio, on TV, in church and at school. Following an English tradition, many people walk from house to house singing traditional carols, such as “Joy to the World”, “Silent Night”, and “Oh Come, All Ye Faithful”.

Many people do Christmas shopping in December. It is said that stores make one quarter of all their sales during the Christmas season. Most shopping centers have huge crowds before Christmas. There is often a nice Christmas Tree, and usually a man dressed in a Santa Claus suit. Little children tell him what they want for Christmas.  Many people celebrate Christmas at home and in church. Usually children hang stockings near the fireplace, hoping that Santa will fill them with candy and toys. On Christmas Eve or Christmas morning, family members gather around the Christmas Tree and open the Christmas gifts that are piled under the Tree. Early Christmas afternoon they sit down for a traditional Christmas dinner. They enjoy turkey or ham, sweet potatoes, vegetables, cranberry sauce, nuts, fruitcake, plum pudding, and mince pie.

Famous people about Christmas

I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.                                                                                                                                                  Charles Dickens

What is Christmas? It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future. It is a fervent wish that every cup may overflow with blessings rich and eternal, and that every path may lead to peace.                                                                     Agnes M.Pharo

The joy of brightening other lives, bearing each others’ burdens, easing other’s loads and supplanting empty hearts and lives with generous gifts becomes for us the magic of Christmas.                                                                                       

                                                                                                  W.C. Jones

I heard the bells on Christmas Day

Their old, familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet the words repeat

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

                                                                    Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love.                                                                                                  Hamilton Wright Mabie

Love came down at Christmas,

Love all lovely, Love Divine;

Love was born at Christmas;

Star and angels gave the sign.

                                                                 Christina Rossetti

It's interesting to know

Christmas tree lights

In 1917, when Albert Sadacca was 15, there was a terrible fire in New York City, it had been caused by a Christmas tree catching fire, for in those days Christmas trees were still lit by placing candles on the branches. Now it just so happened that Albert's family, who had come from Spain, had a novelty business selling wicker (плетенные) cages with imitation birds in them that lit up. Albert suggested to his parents that they begin making eletric lights for Christmas trees. They had lots of bulbs on hand, and it would be much safer then using candles. The Sadaccas thought Albert had a good idea, but only one hundred strings of electric Christmas tree lights were sold in the first year. After Albert thought of painting the bulbs red, green, and other colors instead of using plain glass, business picked up sharply. Albert became the head of a multi-million dollar company.

Quotation of the Week

An education isn't how much you have committed to memory. Or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't.
                                                                                                                 Anatole France
Translate and use these sayings:
1. If you want to kill time, why not try working it to death.
2. Experience is what prevents you from making the same mistake again right away.

We continue studying English idioms with the word "line":
To line - to put lining in clothes.
E.g. This coat is lined with silk.
To drop a line to - to write to ...
E.g. I must drop a line to my uncle to thank him for having us.
To draw the line - to insist upon a certain limit somewhere.
E.g. I'll allow him to come here. I've said so before, and I mean it. One must draw the line somewhere.
To underline - to stress.
E.g. - His tones underlined his meaning so that no one could mistake what he meant.
To get a line on - to get a clue to ...
E.g. You must investigate this development. You may quite easily get a line on the man you want.
Hold the line - wait with the receiver to your ear (telephone).
E.g. The line is bad. The voice is not clear because of (telephone) interference or noise.

Quotation of the Week
The more we come to know, the more we realize how little we know. The more we understand, the more clear it is that everything we have learned is nothing compared to what we have yet to learn. Behind each locked door we have managed to open are still more doors and more locks, and so on ad infinitum. So science is not an arrival, but a journey. It is not a fixed body of knowledge or growing shelf of facts and theories, but an infinite series of questions. The most brilliant of scientists have been those who have sought not the right answers to give, but the right questions to ask.
Whom does this quotation belong to?
What mathematical symbol will you use instead of the Latin ad infinitum?

Learn and use these provebs and sayings:
An idle brain is the devil's workshop - Праздность - мать всех пороков
It is never too late to learn - Учиться никогда не поздно

Study some English idioms with the word "line":
To toe the line - to do as you are told
E.g.: The master soon made his class toe the line.
The line - the railway
E.g. There's fog on the line this morning, and we shall be late for the office.
The line - the Equator
E.g. Sailors initiate novices crossing the line with humorous ceremonial.
To come into line - to agree
E.g. It is hoped that the small remaining minority will soon be convinced and come into line with overwhelming majority.
To line up - to stand in a queue.
E.g. At 10 sharp on the night before, people began to line up for the first nihgt of "Cairo" at His Majesty's Theatre.