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1. What should the main New Year tree of the country look like?
2. What is one of the legends of the Christmas tree?
3. What are the advantages of artificial Christmas trees?
4. What rules did people follow in the past when decorating the Christmas tree?
5. Who changed the date of New Yearʼs Day in his country?
6. How did the technological progress change Christmas decorations?
7. How did the tradition of decorating the tree with coloured glass balls start?
A. Why do people decorate Christmas trees at home? There are several stories about the start of the tradition. One of them is about Martin Luther, the founder of the protestant faith. While he was walking through a forest on a Christmas Eve, he looked up and was impressed by the beauty of the stars that were shining through the tree branches. He cut down a small tree and took it home. There, he decorated the tree with candles as a present for his family.
B. The tradition of decorating a Christmas tree comes from Germany. Until the 17th century, people decorated their Christmas tree in a certain order. Firstly, a star was fixed on the top. Then people hung apples on lower branches of the tree. Finally, they placed biscuits, gingerbread and sweets underneath. The Christmas tree in the fairy tale Nutcracker was decorated in exactly this way.
C. The Christmas tree tradition came to Russia with Peter the Great in the 18th century. He enjoyed the celebration tradition in Germany and issued a law according to which all families had to decorate their houses with pine tree branches. It also announced that people should have fun on that day. Peter the Great also decided to move New Year’s celebration from 1st September to 1st January.
D. The most popular Christmas decoration was invented by a German glass-blower. He made a ball and decorated it with angel figures and snowflakes. The man gave it as a gift to his daughter. The girl decided to put the ball on the Christmas tree. It was so beautiful that the glass-blower made many more decorated balls and sold them. Now people all over the world choose to decorate their Christmas trees in this way.
E. In the 18th century, people started decorating Christmas trees with candles. Later, with the discovery of electricity, electric lights were put on Christmas trees. It was Edward Johnson, an assistant of Thomas Edison, who first used electric lights for Christmas tree decoration. People liked his idea. However, it took several years before the electric lights became available to the general public.
F. Nowadays, Christmas trees are found everywhere – in houses, on the streets and squares. Most of them are artificial trees. However, in the centre of Moscow, in the Kremlin, you can always see a natural Christmas tree. The most important tree of the country is carefully chosen in the forest – it should be tall and beautiful. Professional designers decorate it to create an unforgettable fairytale tree for thousands of children and their parents.
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Mark Twain
Mark Twain wrote ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ in 1884. Since then, the book has been published in at least sixty languages, and some people say it is the best book ever created by an American writer. American students have ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ on their school reading list and parents, teachers and literary experts still debate the problems touched in the book.
The writer’s real name was Samuel Clemens. Samuel was born in 1835. He grew up in the state of Missouri on the Mississippi River. After his father died, young Samuel went to work as an assistant to a publisher. Ten years later, he became a pilot on a steamboat that sailed on the Mississippi. He heard the riverboat workers call out the words “mark twain!” That was a measure for the depth of water. Later he used this word combination as a pen-name.
In 1861 Clemens travelled west and became a reporter for newspapers in Nevada and California. He wrote news stories, editorials and sketches under his pen-name Mark Twain. He became one of the best known storytellers in the West. He developed his own narrative style – friendly, funny, and often satirical, which won him a wide audience. The first success came with the story ‘The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County’.
Mark Twain travelled a lot during his lifetime not only round the USA but also to Europe and the Holy Land. He naturally began writing books about his travels. ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’ was published in 1876, and soon after he began writing a sequel, ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’.
It took Mark Twain longer to write ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ than any of his other books. He started writing in 1876, but put the story away after about two years of work. He returned to it in 1883, and the following year it was published.
From the beginning, the book was strongly debated. Some critics praised its realism and honesty, but the others strongly disliked it. They protested against the personality of Huck – a rough, dirty and disobedient boy. They could not agree that such a person should be the main character of a book. What’s more, critics disliked the way Mark Twain used the language of a common, uneducated person to tell the story; no writer had ever done that before.
Today there is no longer any debate about the importance of ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ in American literature. In 1935 Ernest Hemingway wrote: “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called ‘Huckleberry Finn.’ There was nothing before. And there has been nothing as good since.”
No wonder then that the novel ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ was a great inspiration for film producers – more than 20 screen versions of the book have been shot not only in America, but also in Europe, Russia and Japan. There are feature films, musicals, cartoons and even Japanese anime.
13 ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ has been translated into many languages.
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