The Linguistic Culture-3 (british society) (1157930), страница 2
Текст из файла (страница 2)
While working as a shepherd, he had a greatspiritual experience and decided that he was to serve God in some special way.According to the legend St. Patrick's work in Ireland transformed the country. Hedrove all the snakes out of Ireland and they all went into the sea and drowned.
Thesnake was a pagan symbol, and perhaps this is a metaphor for the fact that he drovepaganism out of Ireland.In Ireland, March 17th is a public holiday in celebration of his life anddeath. It is also a day when most people attend church. The feast day of St. Patrick,the patron saint of Ireland, is celebrated all over the world wherever Irish exilesgather.St David's Day - March 1st St.
David (520-588), or Dewi as he is called in Welsh,is the patron saint of Wales. He founded twelve monasteries across the countryand went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Once there he was consecrated a bishop. Hislife and work made a lasting impression on Wales.Bank Holidays - public holidays when banks, post offices, shops and someattractions are closed. Bank holidays remain constant each year, i.e. they alwaysoccur on Monday (the late Spring Bank Holiday is the last Monday in May).Midsummer Day - 24th June - ceremonies in honour of the Sun have been heldfrom the earliest times.
This day is preceded by Midsummer Night whensupernaturalbeingsaresaidtowanderabout.Edinburgh FestivalIt began in 1947, with the aim of providing 'a platform for the flowering of thehuman spirit'. Right from the start people were inspired to put on shows of theirown, and these soon grew into the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Since then half adozen or so festivals have grown up around it in August and early September, andcollectively these are often know as 'the Edinburgh Festival'.The Highland games are events held throughout the year in Scotland as a way ofcelebrating Scottish and Celtic culture and heritage, especially that of the ScottishHighlands.During the time of English occupation, the men of Scotland were forbidden totrain in an attempt to prevent another Scottish uprising.
Scots continued to trainfor war during so-called the Highland games. Certain aspects of the games are sowell known as to have become emblematic of Scotland, such as the bagpipes, thekilt, and the heavy events, especially the caber toss. While cantered oncompetitions in piping and drumming, dancing, and Scottish heavy athletics, thegames also include entertainment and exhibits related to other aspects of Scottishand Gaelic culture.ReligionThere are two established or state churches in Britain: the Churchof England, or Anglican Church and the Church of Scotland orKirk. There are two things for which Henry is most remembered: his sixmarriages and his break with Rome, leading to the English ReformationIn 1533 the English king, Henry YIII broke away fromRome and declared himself head of the Church in England.Besides his six marriages, Henry VIII is known for his role in theseparation of the Church of England from the pope and theRoman Catholic Church.
His struggles with Rome led to theseparation of the Church of England from papal authority, theDissolution of the Monasteries, and his own establishment as theSupreme Head of the Church of England. Yet he remained abeliever in core Catholic theological teachings, even after hisexcommunication from the Roman Catholic Church. Henryoversaw the legal union of England and Wales with the Laws inWales Acts 1535 and 1542. He is also well known for a longpersonal rivalry with both Francis I of France and the Habsburgmonarch Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire (KingCharles I of Spain)..Henry VIIIEver since 1534 the monarch has been SupremeGovernor of the Church of England.
During thenext two centuries the Church of England becamemore Protestant in belief as well as organization.No one could take the throne who was not amember of the Church of England.Henry YIII’s second daughter Elizabeth I (15331603) after the fight with her half-sister Maryfinally established English Protestant Church ofwhich she became the Supreme Governor.Until the mid-19th century, those who did not belong to the Church ofEngland were barred from some public offices.The established church still plays a powerful role in national life, thoughtoday there is complete freedom of religious practice.At the moment in England only 12% of the adult population goes to theChurch of England.
But more recently different religious groups wereestablished: Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Muslims. Census data revealjust 59% now call themselves Christian as a quarter say they have noreligion and 5% are Muslim. Muslim community is becoming the mostimportant of these.
There are 1.5 million Muslims and over 1000 mosquesand prayer centers. Apart from London, there are Muslim communities inLiverpool, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Most are of Pakistani orBangladeshi origin, but there are also an increasing number of Britishconverts.Answer the following questions1. What is a typical British house?2. Is the expression “My house is my castle” still important for Englishmen?3. What do you know about British eating habits?4. Why do so many English people prefer to live in the province?5. What are “commuters”?6.
Why are pubs so important for Englishmen?7. Who are “dossers”?8. When and how is Guy Fawkes Night celebrated?9. Which Scottish and Irish holidays do you know?10.What events take place during Scottish Highland Games?11.What are the main religions in the UK?12.What is the situation with religions in the UK now?Translate into Russian:Persistent drift, imbalances, density, to undertake, to reveal, to date back to,country mansions, to retain, persecution, treason, a plot, conspiracy, to betray,to flee, bonfire, to ban, a holy day, immoral, to lift the ban, pagan, in honour of,caber toss, dissolution, core, to bar from, a convert.British CultureTheatreFrom its formation in 1707, the United Kingdom has had a vibrant traditionof theatre, much of it inherited from England and Scotland. Theatre was introducedfrom Europe to England by the Romans and auditoriums were constructed acrossthe country for this purpose. By the medieval period theatre had developed withthe mummers' plays, a form of early street theatre associated with the Morrisdance, concentrating on themes such as Saint George and the Dragon and RobinHood.
These were folk tales re-telling old stories, and the actors travelled fromtown to town performing these for their audiences in return for money andhospitality. The medieval mystery plays and morality plays, which dealt withChristian themes, were performed at religious festivals. The reign of Elizabeth I inthe late 16th and early 17th century saw a flowering of the drama and all the arts.Perhaps the most famous playwright in the world, William Shakespeare, wrotearound 40 plays that are still performed in theatres across the world to this day.They include tragedies, such as Hamlet (1603), Othello (1604), and King Lear(1605); comedies, such as A Midsummer Night's Dream (1594—96) and TwelfthNight (1602); and history plays, such as Henry IV, part 1—2.
The Elizabethan ageis sometimes nicknamed "the age of Shakespeare" for the amount of influence heheld over the era. Other important Elizabethan and 17th-century playwrightsinclude Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe, and John Webster.During the Interregnum 1642—1660, English theatres were kept closed by thePuritans for religious and ideological reasons. When the London theatres openedagain with the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, they flourished under thepersonal interest and support of Charles II. Wide and socially mixed audienceswere attracted by topical writing and by the introduction of the first professionalactresses (in Shakespeare's time, all female roles had been played by boys). Newgenres of the Restoration were heroic drama, pathetic drama, and Restorationcomedy.
The Restoration plays that have best retained the interest of producers andaudiences today are the comedies, such as William Wycherley's The Country Wife(1676), The Rover (1677) by the first professional woman playwright, AphraBehn, John Vanbrugh's The Relapse (1696), and William Congreve's The Way ofthe World (1700). Restoration comedy is famous or notorious for its sexualexplicitness, a quality encouraged by Charles II (1660–1685) personally and by therakish aristocratic ethos of his court.In the 18th century, the highbrow and provocative Restoration comedy lostfavour, to be replaced by sentimental comedy, domestic tragedy such as GeorgeLillo's The London Merchant (1731), and by an overwhelming interest in Italianopera.
Popular entertainment became more important in this period than everbefore, with fair-booth burlesque and mixed forms that are the ancestors of theEnglish music hall. These forms flourished at the expense of legitimate Englishdrama, which went into a long period of decline. By the early 19th century it wasno longer represented by stage plays at all, but by the closet drama, plays written tobe privately read in a "closet" (a small domestic room).A change came in the late 19th century with the plays on the London stage by the IrishmenGeorge Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde and the Norwegian Henrik Ibsen, all of whom influenceddomestic English drama and vitalised it again.Today the West End of London has a large number of theatres, particularly centred aroundShaftesbury Avenue.
A prolific composer of the 20th century Andrew Lloyd Webber hasdominated the West End for a number of years and his musicals have travelled to Broadway inNew York and around the world, as well as being turned into films.The Royal Shakespeare Company operates out of Shakespeare's birthplace Stratford-uponAvon in England, producing mainly but not exclusively Shakespeare's plays.Important modern playwrights include Alan Ayckbourn, John Osborne, Harold Pinter, TomStoppard, and Arnold Wesker..
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