Arakin 4 kurs new 001 176. indd

particularly with celebrations?
3. Read the short passages and answer the questions about them giving your 
impressions to the point:
1. Some people find it difficult to tell the difference between a 
custom and a habit. Customs are social and habits are personal. Smok-
ing is a bad habit and certainly an expensive one. Customs are common 
to a large number of people who belong to a society or a nation. For 
men giving up their seats to old people, to women carrying babies, to 
people who are ill should be a national custom.
Can you describe any national customs giving your impressions 
of them?
2. I have always been attracted by the people of unusual habits, I 
mean quiet, orderly people who enrich their humdrum existences by 
adopting odd quirks and passions, unlikely routine or harmless mania 
for useless objects.
Life, I am sure, would be very much poorer without such people 
in it. Sometimes, I feel, I am lacking in personality since I have none 
of these strange habits.
And what do you think of people who have such unusual habits as 
collecting dolls, railway carriages or something like that? Could you 

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describe any such hobbies and share your impressions of the people 
indulging in them?
3. Tradition is a chain which links the present with the past, part of 
our task is to interpret the life and the activity of tradition as a forma-
tive and perfecting factor in the development of men in society.
What do you think of the role the tradition plays in our life and 
what does the successful performance of that role depend on?
4. Story-telling and story-collecting used to be an old tradition in 
the times well before the scientific and technological revolution. 
Scotland has stories of so many different sorts that the richness of 
their variety is almost beyond believing. The tales and legends have 
been handed down by word of mouth often for generations. Many 
were passed on by wandering story-tellers, others were composed for 
special occasions such as weddings and christenings.
No matter what brings folk together, you may be sure that there 
will be a grand feast spread, and the singing of old songs and ballads, 
the dancing of reels and most probably speeches to follow. But in the 
old days, the high point of the entertainment was the story.
Can you give your impressions of a traditional wedding you re-
cently attended (Russian, Georgian, Moldavian, etc.)? Could you 
describe the old and new customs and rituals you saw there?