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We resolve to get up earlier each morning, never be late, work more and

do a thousand and one jobs about the house.

The New Year is

“do’s” and “don’ts”.

Most of us make up lists of

a time for resolutions.

This year I attempted to keep

then we look foolish when we slip back into our bad old ways.

Most of us fail in our efforts at self-improvement because

my resolutions to myself.

We also make a great error when we announce our resolutions to everybody and

we never have time to carry them out.

The all-night party on New Year’s Eve was a good excuse for not carrying out either of these new resolutions on the first day of the year,

but on the second I applied myself to the task.

I decided to do physical exercises

to do them early in the morning before anyone had got up.

The daily exercises lasted only eleven minutes and I intended

every morning and to read more of an evening.

After jumping about on the carpet I sat down at the breakfast table

to watch the performance.

The next morning the whole family trooped in

the idea.

Soon everybody got used to

quite exhausted.

The central lowland between the two main mountain ranges

which are connected by natural channels cut by rapids. The greatest of these rapids is the Niagara Falls.

The Mississippi together with the Missouri

form the longest river in the world (7,300 km).

The northern part of the USA embraces the region of the five Great Lakes (Lake Superior, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario)

makes up the basin of the Mississippi River.

In the North the U.S. is bordered by Canada,

joined in a federal republic, and its citizens are known as "Americans".

"The United States of America" is the name of the country composed of 50 states

and by the Pacific Ocean in the West.

It is washed by the Atlantic Ocean in the East,

and in the South it borders on Mexico.

Alaska is separated from Russia by

only about 50 miles across the Bering Strait.

The main part of the United States consists of several physical divisions,

including highlands and lowlands regions.

Hawaii, which became the 50th state in 1959,

is situated in the Pacific Ocean halfway between the west-coast states and the Far East.

Major highlands are the Appalachian Mountains in the east

and fall into the Pacific Ocean.

The mountains are crossed by streams which flow through deep canyons

and the Rocky Mountains in the west.

The Rocky Mountains extend from Mexico to

Canada.

The United States' economy

is highly developed.

The country is rich in coal, oil, iron and other minerals

which form a solid base for the development of American industry.

As regards agriculture,

both animal husbandry and arable farming are prominent in the economy of the United States.

Crossed by mountain ranges from north to south,

the country is unprotected from cold winds from the north and from warm winds from the south.

On the whole, the USA has

the Colorado and the Columbia.

The largest rivers among them are

a continental climate.

It is the home of the New York professional hockey team, the Rangers,

located in New York.

The headquarters of the United Nations is

which was built in the 1960s.

The new cultural center in the city is the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts,

and its professional basketball team, the Knickerbockers.

After 110th Street it passes through

almost a city within a city.

Between the 20th and 60th Streets it is

a street of shops and department stores.

Harlem covering the north central section of Manhattan is

Harlem and slum tenements to the Harlem River.

Most of the houses in Harlem are

the blacks moved to Harlem and formed a majority of the population.

Puerto Ricans form the second largest group within Harlem,

living mainly in the eastern part of the district (Spanish Harlem).

Early in the 20th century, as a result of racial antagonism in other sections of the city,

in a dreadful need of repair.

The second best known museum

the works of many of the greatest masters of world art.

The best known of the more than 30 museums in the city is

the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Its magnificent collection of European and American painting contains

is the Museum of Modern Art.

Madison Square Garden, with a capacity of 18,900 people,

Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, May Day, Spring Bank Holiday and Late Summer Bank Holiday.

The holidays are:

has been the center of boxing, hockey and basketball events.

There are eight public holidays a year in Great Britain,

that is days on which people need not go in to work.

Bank holidays are not statutory public holidays,

for the greater part of the population they have long lost their religious significance and are simply days on which people relax, eat, drink and make merry.

Besides public holidays, there are other festivals, anniversaries and simply days,

for example Pancake Day and Bonfire Night, on which certain traditions are observed, but unless they fall on a Sunday, they are ordinary working days.

Most of these holidays are of religious origin, though it would be true to say that

but their observance is no longer limited to banks.

All the public holidays, except Christmas Day and Boxing Day observed on December 25th and 26th respectively,

are movable, that is they do not fall on the same date each year.

The term bank holiday applies also to Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Easter Monday, New Year’s Day and May Day and dates back to the 19th century when by the Bank Holiday Act of 1871 and a supplementary act of 1875 these days as well as the Monday in Whit week and the first Monday in August, August Bank Holiday, were constituted bank holidays,

i. e. days on which banks were to be closed.

Good Friday and Easter Monday depend on Easter Sunday which follow on the first Sunday

after a full moon or after March 21st.

May Day falls

on the first Monday in May.

The Spring Bank Holiday falls

after a full moon or after March 21st.

Good Friday and Easter Monday depend on Easter Sunday which follow on the first Sunday

on the last Monday of May, while the Late Summer Bank Holiday comes on the last Monday in August.

There was a common belief that all birds choose their mates on February 14th,

according to a country tradition which was known at least as early as the fourteenth century, so have the birds.

St. Valentine’s Day, February 14th, has been a customary day for

a pleasant, if slightly inaccurate notion which still survives in some districts as a tale told to children.

Countless generations of young people have acknowledged St. Valentine as the friend and patron of lovers, and,

choosing sweethearts and exchanging love-tokens from time immemorial.

In the Roman Martyrology there are two martyrs of that name,

there is no historical reason why either of them should be so regarded.

It is not clear which of the two is really the lovers’ saint and so far as we know,

one a Roman priest who perished in A. D. 269, the other an Umbrian bishop who was executed in A. D. 273.

It is true that nothing whatever is known about St. Valentine

that would suggest such a patronage.

Present-giving on this day

was not confined to sweethearts.

The method of choosing sweethearts on St. Valentine’s Day

varied in different times and places.

Until very recently,

children used to go about singing,

Anonymous gifts of all kinds, ranging from mere trifles to quite expensive objects,

could be refused on the grounds that the asker was “sunburnt”.

Norfolk children were supposed to go out before sunrise, and any demand for largesse after the sun had risen

St. Valentine’s Eve was a great present-giving anniversary for adults as well as children.

In Norwich, and elsewhere in the country, until towards the end of last century,

were laid upon the doorsteps of houses.