Английский язык, ОГЭ, 40 тестов

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 Year’s 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 fairy tale tree for thousands of children and their parents.

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Вопрос

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Scouts

On January 24, 1908, the Boy Scout movement started in England with the publication of Robert Baden-Powell’s handbook Scouting for Boys. The name Baden-Powell, a brave officer, was already well-known to many English boys, and thousands of them eagerly bought the handbook. By the end of April, numerous Boy Scout troops had appeared across Britain.

In 1900, General Baden-Powell became a national hero in Britain for his 217-day defence of Mafeking in the Second Boer War in South Africa. Soon after, his military field manual, Aids to Scouting, written for British soldiers in 1899, became popular with a younger audience. Boys loved the lessons on tracking and observation and organized outdoor games using the book. Hearing this, Baden-Powell decided to write a non-military field manual for teenagers that would also emphasize the importance of morality and good deeds.

First, however, he decided to try out some of his ideas on an actual group of boys. On July 25, 1907, he took a diverse group of 21 boys to Brown sea Island in Dorset, where they set up camp for two weeks. With the aid of other instructors, he taught the boys about camping, observation, deduction, woodcraft, boating, lifesaving, and good manners. Many of these lessons were learned through original games that were very popular with the boys. The first Boy Scout meeting was a great success. Soon the handbook Scouting for Boys appeared.

With the success of Scouting for Boys, Baden-Powell set up a central Boy Scouts’ office, which registered new Scouts and designed a uniform. By the end of 1908, there were 60,000 Boy Scouts, and troops began to appear in British Commonwealth countries across the globe. The Scout movement supported the boys in their physical, mental and spiritual development. The boys learned to work together to achieve goals, they also gave a promise to live by certain rules, and to help others when they could.

In September 1909, the first national Boy Scout meeting was held at the Crystal Palace in London. Ten thousand Scouts showed up, including a group of uniformed girls who called themselves the Girl Scouts. A year later, Baden-Powell organized the Girl Guides as a separate organization.

The American version of the Boy Scouts has its origins in an event that occurred in London in 1909. Chicago publisher William Boyce lost his way in the fog. So he stopped under a street light to read his map when he was approached by a young British boy. The boy asked the man if he could help and William Boyce explained that he had got lost. After guiding Boyce to his destination, the boy refused a tip, explaining that as a Boy Scout he would not accept payment for doing a good deed. This anonymous gesture inspired Boyce to organize several regional U.S. youth organizations. The Scouts movement soon spread throughout the country. In 1912, Juliette Gordon Low founded the Girl Scouts of America in Savannah, Georgia.

In 1920 the first international Boy Scout Jamboree was held in London, and Robert Baden-Powell got the title Chief Scout of the World. The founder of the Scout organization died in 1941.

Nowadays, the Scouts Movement exists in 216 different countries all over the world, there are more than 28 million boy scouts and over 10 million girl scouts.

13. Robert Baden-Powell was a secondary school teacher.