Text Three

«Halloween is a Holiday for Children»

Vocabulary: autumn a holiday celebrate holy All-Saints Day orange a pumpkin a jack-o’-lantern a lantern a mask frightening a costume a monster a trick a treat an adult candy UNICEF

Halloween is an autumn holiday that Americans celebrate every year. It means «holy evening» and it comes every October 31, the evening before All-Saints Day. However, it’s not really a church holiday; it’s a holiday for children.

Every autumn, when the vegetables are ready to eat, children pick large orange pumpkins. Then they cut faces in the pumpkins and put lights inside. It looks like there is a person looking out of the pumpkin! These lights are called jack-o’-lanterns, which means «Jack of the lantern»

The children also put on strange masks and frightening costumes every Halloween. Some children paint their faces to look like monsters. Then they carry boxes or bags from house to house. Every time they come to a new house, they say, «Trick or treat! Money or eat!» The adults put a treat – money or candy – in their bags.

Some children think of other people on Halloween. They carry boxes for UNICEF (The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund). They ask for money to help poor children all around the world. Of course, every time they help UNICEF, they usually receive a treat for themselves, too.

Text Four

«Touchy Topics»

Vocabulary: polite private a salary married a couple

In North America when people meet each other for the first time, they talk about things like family, work, school, or sports. They ask questions like «Do you have any brothers or sisters?», «Where do you work?», «What school do you go to?», and «Do you like sports?». They also ask questions like «Where do you come from?» and «Where do you live?» They are polite questions. They are not personal or private.

But some things are personal or private, and questions about them are not polite. People don’t ask questions about a person’s salary. They don’t ask how much someone paid for something. It is OK to ask children how old they are, but it is not polite to ask older people their age. It is also not polite to ask people questions about politics or religion unless you know them very well. People don’t ask unmarried people «Why are you single?’, and they don’t ask a married couple with no children «Why don’t you have any children?».