At the age of seve
n many children go to junior schools. Some pupils attend comprehensive schools or grammar schools, to which they are sent after exams at the age of eleven.
About 7 per cent of schoolchildren attend independent schools. Independent schools range from smal
l kindergartens to large day and hoarding schools. I Preparatory schools prepare children for going to senior school. Some independent schools are religious.
The National Curriculum consists of major subject, which are compulsory for 5 to 16-year-olds.
In England the major subjects of the Curriculum are English, mathematics and science, and the basic subjects are technology (design, technology and information technology), history, geography, music, art, physical education and, for secondary school pupil
s, a foreign language.

About 67 per cent of pupils continue to study after the age of 16. Education after 16 is divided into further and higher education. After the state exams pupils can slay at school or study in a further education college. Most post-
school education is provided at universities, polytechnics, colleges of further or higher education, adult education centres or specialized colleges.
There are about 90 universities in Britain, of which one, Buckingham, is private, and one, the Open Uni
versity (OU) is open to students of any age. Most of them are employed people who study in their free time. They get education through radio and television, in classes at local centres and at summer schools.

The biggest universities are Cambridge, Oxfor
d and London University. British universities are rather small; the approximate number of students is about 7-8 thousand people, London and Oxford universities are international: people front all over the world come to study there. A number of well known
scientists and writers, such as Newton, Darvin, Byron studied in Cambridge.

British Sports ( Спорт в Великобритании)

Sport plays a very important role for the British. Many of them spend their leisure time playing outdoor and indoor games, cycling, mounta
in climbing, boxing, etc. The national sports of Great Britain are: football, golf, lawn tennis, table tennis, racing and darts.
There are two kinds of football in Britain. They are soccer and rugby. Soccer is the traditional football, which is played
in many other countries in the world. Rugby appeared in 1895 at Rugby School. It differs from soccer. For example, rugby players may carry the oval ball during the match. It is played in teams of 15 men.

Golf, which is one of the most popular kinds of s
port in Britain, originated in Scotland. Golf is mostly played by well-off people, which is different from cricket. This game is played in schools, universities and colleges. Nobody knows exactly how old this game is, but some form of cricket was played i
n England in the 13 century.
Wimbledon Championship in lawn tennis is world famous. It takes place in the town of Wimbledon in summer. People come to the stadium to watch the game and many of them watch it on television.

The British are fond of racing
and its different kinds. Horse racing, dog racing, boat racing and motor racing are among the most popular kinds of sport in Britain. The most famous boat race takes place in England and it is between Oxford and Cambridge Universities.

There are also
very exotic kinds of sport for the rich, such as fox-hunting or just hunting. But many people are against them now because these kinds of sport mean killing animals. This sport was very popular with English Kings.

All people in Great Britain are fond of sports and go in for sport regularly.

American Holidays and Traditions
(Праздники и традиции Америки)

I would like to tell you about holidays and traditions in the United States of America. The so-called legal holidays include Christmas, New Year's Da
y, Martin Luther King Day, President's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving and others.
Christmas is a religious holiday celebrated on the 25-th of December. On this day Americans celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and sing Christmas caro
ls. Another important tradition is sending Christmas cards. People start sending cards to their relatives and friends early in December, Going home for Christmas, is another good tradition. Christmas is considered to be a family celebration and every pers
o
n must come back home on this day. This means that at Christmas, American houses are full of aunts, uncles, cousins and other relatives who might not see each other for a year. Americans put up a Christmas tree and decorate it with toys and sweets. There
a
re religious ceremonies at churches on Christmas Day and families usually attend them. The Christmas table is very big. You can see turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, pies and other food. In the morning children hurry to the Christmas tree to look for presents.
They hang big colourful socks for Santa Claus to put presents inside. Everybody starts unwrapping presents and thanking each other.
New Year's Day is celebrated on the 1-st of January but Americans begin celebrating it on the 31-st of December, There i
s a big celebration in Times Square in New York City on this day. New Year's Day is not as widely celebrated as Christmas. On January 1 Americans visit friends, relatives and neighbours. There are parties and а
lot of food. People watch television together and write New YearТ s resolutions.
Martin Luther King Day it celebrated on the third Monday in January. Martin Luther King was a black man who won full civil rights for black Americans. On this day schools
, offices and federal agencies are closed.

Memorial Day is on the last Monday of May. On this day Americans honour the memories of their dead relatives. This day is also the beginning of summer. Americans go to relax at the beach or go to the mountains.


Independence Day is one of the most important holidays in America. It is celebrated on the 4-th of July. On this day in 1776 the Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia. There arc picnics, parades and fireworks all over the country on In
dependence Day. Americans do not work: they have day-long picnics with their favourite food like hot-dogs, hamburgers, potato salad and others.
Halloween is a holiday celebrated mostly by children and the young. On the 31-st of October they dress as vam
pires, witches and ghosts and go from house to house saying trick or treat. People should give them a treat otherwise, the children will play a trick, on them.
Thanksgiving is one of the popular American holidays, too. It is celebrated on the fourth Thu
rsday in November. This holiday dates back to the time when the first settlers, the Pilgrims, came to America. Their first winter was very hard, they had little food. In spring, the Indians taught them to plant and grow new crops, hunt and fish. The follo
w
ing autumn the colonists made a great feast for the Indians. At Thanksgiving American families gather and spend this day together. The traditional Thanksgiving food is roast turkey, pumpkin pies, cranberry jelly, ham, sweet potatoes, and other delicious f
ood.
The United States is a young country, but it has a lot of great old and new holidays that are fun to celebrate.

Education in the USA ( Образование
в США
)

Education in the USA begins at the age of six. This is when a child goes to school for the
first time and stays at school till the 12-th grade. But before that children can go to kindergartens and nursery schools to get some good preparation for elementary school. The main purpose of the elementary school is the general development of children'
s abilities in reading, writing, spelling, maths, history, geography, art, etc.
The school year usually begins in early September or even at the end of August and lasts till June. American students usually have three holidays during the year of studies:
winter break, spring break and summer break. After the 6-th form students enter junior high school and stay there till the 9-th form. After that they go to high school. Pupils usually choose subjects in the fields of science, foreign languages, art and vo
c
ational training. But courses may be different in different schools. Most young people finish schools with a high school diploma. The grading system is usually from A (excellent) to F (failed). Students also have final exams, or finals, at the end of a ye
ar and they can also have mid-term exams on different subjects.
There are some kinds of schools in the USA. There are state-supported schools, or public schools, that are free of charge and private schools which are often religious.
Such schools are often expensive.

After students finish high school, they can choose what to do next. They can apply for a university, a four-year college, technical training institutions or a community college. Students go to college for four years and after graduating th
ey get a bachelor's degree. A first-year student is called a freshman, a second-year student is called a sophomore, a third-year student is a junior and a fourth-year student is a senior. After they are accepted to a college, students can think of choosin
g their majors, or the subjects which will be connected with their future profession. Some colleges allow students to take several majors.
Students' life in college is very interesting. There are f usually a lot of different clubs and societies, theatres
, museums, a swimming-pool, a gym, a large library and everything that can make students feel at home far from their families.
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