Back at Home
In September most people are back at work after the summer holidays. When two friends meet, you can often hear such questions as ”Where did you go for your holidays? How did you like the sea? Did you have a nice holiday? Have you any holiday photographs?”
The Bernards enjoyed their holidays very much, although, this time, they did not spend them together. Mr. and Mrs. Bernard went to the mountains, while little Eve spent her holiday at a pioneer camp and John went to the Black Sea with the Czechoslovak Union of Youth. The parents, of course, missed their children, but, on the whole, they had a good rest. They spent most of their time near the river, Mr. Bernard catching fish and Mrs. Bernard reading books. In the second half of August John went hop-picking and the whole family met only after his return in September.
From a letter to a New Pen-Friend
... And now a few words about Czechoslovak schools.
All our children attend the Basic Nine Year School from the age of six. Then many of them go on to Secondary School for three or four years. This school prepares them for university or other forms of higher education, but some pupils, especially from the secondary technical schools, do not go on to such education but start work at the age of eighteen or nineteen.
Two donkeys
One day a rich man came to a Greek philosopher and asked him to undertake the education of his son. For this task the philosopher asked 500 pieces of silver. This seemed a lot of money to the rich man. ”You are asking to much for such a service” he said, ”I can buy a donkey for less!” The philosopher smiled and said: ”Well, buy a donkey and you´ll have two.”
Mr.Morris goes to the Brno Fair
Mr. Morris, a London businessman, is leaving for Brno next week. A few days before his departure he is talking to a friend, Mr. Richards.
Mr.Morris: Well, next week I´m going to Czechoslovakia.
Mr. Richards: For a holiday?
Mr.Morris: No, on a business. I´m going to visit the Brno Fair.
Mr. Richards: I see. How long are you going to stay there?
Mr.Morris: Only a week or so. But last year I stayed there much longer. I left London three weeks earlier and spent holiday in the Tatra mountains.
Mr. Richards: So you had a good time.
Mr.Morris: Wonderful. The Tatras are the most beautiful mountains in Czechoslovakia and about twice as high as the highest mountains in Scotland.
Mr. Richards: And how did you like the fair?
Mr.Morris: Very much. The most interesting part of the fair was the exhibition of engineering products.
Mr. Richards: What about the Czechoslovak cars? What are they like?
Mr.Morris: Not bad, especially on the mountain roads. They go up those roads more easily and quickly than most other cars. The have very good engines and that is the most important thing. And they have a lower consumption of petrol than British or American cars.
Mr. Richards: That´s even more important, I think.
Mr.Morris: Yes, this is probably the greatest advantage of Czechoslovak cars.
Joke 1
A man was having breakfast in an English hotel. He took a drink from his cup and than said to the waiter: ” Waiter, is this tea or coffee?” The waiter said, “ Can´t you tell the difference, sir, by the taste? ”No,” the man said, ”I can´t ”. ”Well,” answered the waiter, ”if you can´t tell the difference, what does it matter which it is?”
Joke 2
A man was having soup in an English hotel. The waiter gave it to him and then looked out of the window. As he was looking out of the window, he said to the man, “It looks like rain, sir.” “Yes,” said the man, as he took a spoonful of soup, “and it tastes like rain, too.”.
Across the Channel
Erna Hart is going to swim across the English Channel tomorrow. She is going to set out from the French coast at five o´clock in the morning. Erna is only fourteen years old and she hopes to set a new world record. She is strong swimmer and many people feel that she is sure to succeed. Ernas´s father will set out with her in a small boat. Mr. Hart has trained his daughter for years. Tomorrow he will be watching her anxiously as she swims the long distance to England. Erna intends to take short rests every two hours. She will have something to drink but she will not eat any solid food. Most of Erna´s school friends will be waiting for her on the English coast. Among them will be Erna´s mother, who swam the Channel herself when she was a girl.
Comprehension
Who is going to swim across the English Channel tomorrow?
How old is she? Is She a strong swimmer or not?
Whom has Erna been trained by?
Will he follow her in a small boat or not?
Where will Erna´s mother be waiting?
What did she do as a girl?
Composiotion
The man on the raft saw the boat so he tried to send a signal. He took off his shirt and waved it but the men on the boat neither saw nor heard him.
raft - usztatott fa, tutaj
Exercise
Roy Trenton drove a taxi. A short while ago, however, he became a bus-driver and he don´t regret it. He found his new work far more exiting. When he drove along Carford Street recently, he saw two thieves rush out of a shop and run towards a waiting car. One of them carried a bag of full money. Roy acted quickly and drove the bus straight at the thieves. The one with the money got such a fright the he dropped the bag. As the tried to get away
Regret – sajnál - ľutovať
Rush – hnať sa
Batter
– tĺct, búchať, rozraziťBattered car – megrongált, szétvert
Arrest – zatknúť
Recognize - felismer
New York
Three hundred years ago New York, originally called New Amsterdam, was a little Dutch town on a small part of Manhattan Island and protected from the Indians by a wall. Now New York is the biggest city in the U.S.A. having 14 million inhabitants, and the whole Manhattan is only a small part of New York.
In the place of the original Dutch town there is city of skyscrapers. The wall, of course, does not exist now; there is a Wall Street in its place. It is known as the centre of financial life of U.S.A. The skyscrapers in this part of Manhattan have from 60 to 80 floors. The highest skyscraper is the Empire State Building standing at the corner of 5th Avenue and 34th Street. It has 102 floors and a TV tower. It was built in 1931 and is 1,472 feet or 448 meters high. Many thousand of people (well over 30,000) go there every day. They are taken by lift to the 80th floor in less than a minute and then they are carried up to the top floor from which all the island from Wall Street in the South to Harlem, A Negro quarter in the North, can be seen very well.
History
In 1626 the first colonists bought Manhattan Island from the Indians for $24. One of the few original buildings in New York is the Schoolhouse on the States Island, built in 1695. The old houses were pulled down and the town was built on a modern plan of streets and avenues. The only exception in this plan of Manhattan is Broadway, an old Indian way running across the streets and the avenues almost diagonally from North to South.
Three quarters of the population are foreigners. That means that they, or their parents, were not born in America. More than 200 newspapers are printed in New York in languages other than English.
The highest skyscraper, the Empire State Building, has 6,500 windows and 200 women are needed to clean them. 16,000 people work in the building, 35,000 visitors come to see it every day and are taken up in 74 lifts, as they certainly do not want to go up the 1,860 steps on foot.
Langstone Hughes : PARK BENCH
I live on park bench,
You, Park Avenue.
Hell of distance
Between us two.
I beg a dime for dinner –
You got a butler and maid.
But I´m waking up!
Say, ain´t you afraid?
That I might, just maybe,
In a year or two,
Move on over
To Park Avenue?
Robert Frost : A BANK
A Bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it begins to rain.
Sightseeing Tour
Mr. Bernard nad Mr.Moris want to go sightseeing together.
They are talking about where they will go:
Mr.Morris: We can start our tour either in Westminster or in the City.
Mr.Bernard:
The next morning at a bus stop: A double-decker draws up and the conductor calls out: "Top deck only. Full up inside.
There´s plenty of room upstairs." Mr. Bernard gets on the bus.
Conductor: Fares, please.
Mr.Morris: The Tower please. How much is it?
Conductor: Eightpence.
Mr.Bernard: Can you change a ten-shiling note?
Conductor: Oh, haven´t you anything smaller?
Mr.Bernard: Well I have twopence.
Conductor: That´ll do. Nine and sixpence change.
Mr.Bernard: Will you tell me when to get off, please?
Conductor: All right, I´ll call out... Any more fares, please?
The Tower
The oldest part of the Tower is the White Tower, built by William the Conqueror in the last quarter of the 11th century. The Tower was once a royal place, then a prison, and there was once even a royal zoo there. It is a museum now. But as a historical building it is especially remembered as a prison where many well-known men and women were imprisoned and put to death.
The Houses of Parliament
The Houses of Parliament, built in the Gothic style and standing on the left bank of the river Thames, are not a very old building. They were built in the 19th century (begun in 1840 and finished in 1857). This new building stands in the same place as the Old Palace of Westminster (the old Houses of Parliament), destroyed by the fire 1834. One part of the original building - Westminster Hall is very old - nearly as old as the Tower. It was built in 1097. The English Parliament is a very old institution.
Big Ben
Big Ben is the name given to the clock and the bell of the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament. The clock has four faces; each of the four faces is over 7 meters in diameter and the minute-hand travels more than half a meter every minute. The great bell weighs 13 and a half tons. When it was made in 1858 the question of its name was discussed on Parliament. One member said, "Why not call it Big Ben?" There was much laughter in the House because one of the ministers at that time was Sir Benjamin Hall. This minister was a very tall and stout man and so people called him "Big Ben". (Ben is short for Benjamin.)
Dick´s Hobby
Mr.Hill, a farmer, does not care for the radio very much. Most often he listen to
music or songs, or perhaps a cricket match and that is all. But his son Dick is quite
different; he knows all about new radio sets and loves to repair old ones. Mr. Hill sometimes
says: "Who does the boy take after? At his age I was never interested in such things."
He does not really mind Dick´s hobby, because his son is also handy with many things
on the farm and has good results at school. Mrs. Hill, too, says: "Let the boy have his
hobby. It is better than, for instance, sitting in the cinema all the time.
When Dick was small, he liked to take everything to pieces. Once he tried to "repair"
thier kitchen clock too. He managed to put all the wheels and screws so nicely
back again, but - the clock didn´t work. It was necessary to repair it and Dick´s
activity in this field was stopped. But that happened a long time agou.
Now dick can make all the small repair on the farm quite well. He has own little workshop
with a few shelves, where he has all he needs from the hammer to the smallest nail.
On the table there is always a radio in pieces but now he is more succesful
tha he was with the kitchen clock; when he puts the radio together, it really works, and
that always makes Dick happy.