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The New Year is

a time for resolutions.

Most of us make up lists of

do a thousand and one jobs about the house.

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

“do’s” and “don’ts”.

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

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

This year I attempted to keep

we never have time to carry them out.

The daily exercises lasted only eleven minutes and I intended

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

I decided to do physical exercises

but on the second I applied myself to the task.

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,

every morning and to read more of an evening.

The next morning the whole family trooped in

the idea.

Soon everybody got used to

to watch the performance.

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

quite exhausted.

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)

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

The Mississippi together with the Missouri

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

The central lowland between the two main mountain ranges

makes up the basin of the Mississippi River.

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

and in the South it borders on Mexico.

"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,

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

Hawaii, which became the 50th state in 1959,

including highlands and lowlands regions.

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,

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 Rocky Mountains extend from Mexico to

Canada.

The mountains are crossed by streams which flow through deep canyons

and the Rocky Mountains in the west.

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.

The United States' economy

is highly developed.

The largest rivers among them are

the Colorado and the Columbia.

Crossed by mountain ranges from north to south,

a continental climate.

On the whole, the USA has

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

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

and its professional basketball team, the Knickerbockers.

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

located in New York.

The headquarters of the United Nations is

which was built in the 1960s.

After 110th Street it passes through

a street of shops and department stores.

Between the 20th and 60th Streets it is

almost a city within a city.

Harlem covering the north central section of Manhattan is

Harlem and slum tenements to the Harlem River.

Puerto Ricans form the second largest group within Harlem,

in a dreadful need of repair.

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

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

Most of the houses in Harlem are

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

The second best known museum

is the Museum of Modern Art.

Its magnificent collection of European and American painting contains

the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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

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

The holidays are:

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

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

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

There are eight public holidays a year in Great Britain,

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

Bank holidays are not statutory public holidays,

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.

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

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.

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

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

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,

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

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

after a full moon or after March 21st.

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

The Spring Bank Holiday falls

on the first Monday in May.

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.

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

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

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

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 true that nothing whatever is known about St. Valentine

that would suggest such a patronage.

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.

Present-giving on this day

varied in different times and places.

Until very recently,

children used to go about singing,

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

was not confined to sweethearts.

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

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

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

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

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

were laid upon the doorsteps of houses.