There are many holidays in Ukraine. It is so pleasant to realize that each year starts with a holiday. It is the time to leave all the troubles forever and to look at the New Year with hope and expectations. This first holiday of the year is the New Year's Day. The preparation for the holiday starts already in November. Everyone thinks about the best present for their family and friends. Children wait for this holiday impatiently, as they hope to find under a decorated New Year's Tree a big and beautiful present, something they have dreamed about for a long time. Adults also have presents for each other, and wishes of a happy year, full of joy and success. The New Year comes at midnight on the 1st of January. This moment is considered to be a magic one. That's why people raise their glasses with champagne and say to each other «Happy New Year!». Some people celebrate the New Year on the 14th of January according to the old-style Calendar.
One more popular winter holiday is Christmas. As it is one of the oldest holidays in Ukraine, many old Ukrainian customs, which go back to centuries ago, are connected with Christmas. These are fortune telling, signing Christmas carols, cooking traditional Ukrainian Christmas dishes, going to church service. Children go from house to house, and sing Christmas carols. They wish all the best to the people who live in these houses. Of course, the carol-singers receive a reward for their wishes — a little money, sweets or cakes.
When the spring comes, it always brings popular holidays. The first spring holiday is the Women's Day. It is the day of beauty and flowers. Women usually receive presents on this day. Their families thank them for their love and support during the year. There are also the Mother's Day and the Family Day in spring. They are celebrated in May and serve as one more reason for the members of the families to thank each other for understanding and support. But the most important spring holiday is Easter. Believers do not eat meat and animal products several weeks before the holiday. It is the time to stop and think about Jesus Christ's death for our salvation, and about what we have to do to improve ourselves.
In summer there are two state holidays: the Day of Constitution on the 28th of June and Independence Day on the 24th of August. These holidays are connected with a new era in Ukrainian history that has begun. Now Ukraine is an independent date with its own Constitution. And we all hope for the better. The Ukrainian President appears on TV with his words of congratulation for Ukrainian people.
The first day of autumn is also a holiday. We celebrate the Day of Knowledge This day means a lot for those pupils who go to school for the first time with their, parents at their side. A small girl rings the bell, pupils enter their school and schooE year starts. There are many other important holidays in Ukraine, which bring joy and hope for the better.
champagne — шампанське
fortune telling — гадання
Christmas carol — різдвяна колядка
a believer — віруючий
salvation — спасіння
Happy New Year!
— Happy New Year, Inna!
— Happy New Year, Marina!
— You look so happy!
— I have dreamed a lot about a beautiful golden ring. And my husband pre-
sented it to me yesterday! I was so happy!
— Where did you celebrate your holiday? Is it a family holiday for you?
— Well, we celebrated it with our friends first. We organized a party for them. My husband cooks better than me, so he laid the table and I decorated the New
Year's Tree.
— What about your parents?
— We visited them on the 1 st of January and brought them our presents.
— What about your children? Did they celebrate the holiday with you?
— No, they are too small for that. But they also received their presents fromus. And though they are only 1 year old, I hope they understand how much I take
care of them.
— Surely they do. Wish you pleasant winter holidays! See you later!
— The same to you! See you!
Тема 14. HEALTH
Health care is a system for keeping people healthy. A healthy person not only feels good physically but also enjoys life.Sometimes people can get ill, they may feel pain, some part of their body may hurt, or they can get an injury. Then people go to a doctor and ask for help. The doctor tries to find out what illness the patient has. The patient can be treated in different ways. One of them is taking medicines. As a result the patient can be cured.
One of the illnesses that doctors most often treat is a common cold. The symptoms of it are a runny nose and sneezing. If you have flue, you can have a very high temperature and a bad headache. You can also start coughing. If the temperature is not very high but it hurts when you cough, it may be pneumonia. Many people nowadays have allergies. They may have a red rash, watery eyes or start sneejing.
Vocabulary
health care — охорона здоров'я
get ill — захворіти
pain — біль
hurt — боліти
injury — травма
illness — хвороба
be treated medicines — лікуватися
cured — вилікуватись
common cold — проста застуда
runny nose — нежить
sneezing — чхання
flue — грип
coughing —кашель
pneumonia — пневмонія
allergies — алергія
Proverbs “HEALTH”
1) A sound mind in a sound body.
В здоровому тілі - здоровий дух.
2) After dinner sіt a while after supper walk a mile.
Після обіду посидь хвилю, після вечері пройди милю.
3) An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
Яблуко в день тримає тебе геть від лікаря.
4) Desperate diseases must have desperate cures.
Хворобу клин клином вибивають.
5) Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy,wealthy and wise.
Хто рано встає, тому Бог дає.
6) Good health is above wealth.
Добре здоров’я - краще багатства.
7) Laughter is the best medicine.
Сміх - найкращі ліки.
8) Live not to eat but eat to live.
Живи не для того, щоб їсти, але їж для того, щоб жити.
Тема 15. Harmful Habits
Harmful habits are like parasites - they stick to us almost without being noticed. And when we finally notice their presence and their harmful influence, they already make themselves at home in the fine comfortable dwelling of our bodies and souls devouring them inside out.
Harmful habits attract people's attention with their notion which implies the concept of forbidden fruit, the air of prestige and certainly, the taste of self-indulgence, and we're all so fond of the latter, aren't we?
Smoking is definitely one of the harmful habits. Saying that smoking is bad is just too trivial, we've been hearing this opinion for a very long time, but some of us still smoke irrespective of all the views regarding its harmful influence on our health giving in to their own weakness and inability to resist certain tempting temptations.
Another harmful habit is drinking alcohol. Needless to say it is as easy to get rid of as smoking. It brings harm to a person's health - no doubt about it, but this parasite is also very skilful when it's about destroying a person's identity and leaving a person helplessly purposelessly interested in one thing only - alcohol.
Drugs are equally destructive and lethally harmful habit. They deprive people of all the desires and principles, and turn them into empty creatures that are unable to survive without feeding their obsession with these addictive substances.
There are numerous amounts of harmful habits desperately attempting to invade our bodies being too lazy to build their own dwellings. We should remember that our main task here is to resist.
