It is interesting to know that ...

The value of a greeting card is really in its message, which expresses feelings of friendship, love, sympathy, or timely greetings. There is evidence that the ancient Egyptians and Romans sent gifts with seasonal messages of good will. In the United States, however, greeting cards did not come into use until the late 1800's. The first ones were designed and sold at Louis Prang's print shop in Boston, Massachusetts.

Did you know ... ?

* The USA is divided into a number of different area codes.

New York City, for example, is area code 2/2, Kansas is area code 913.

* If you want to make a long distance phone call, you will need a lot of coins. So it is better to go to a bank -first.

* A lot of companies and hotels have "toll-free-numbers" That means you needn't pay when you call them. These numbers begin with 1-800.

Turn the following story into a dialogue.

A TELEPHONE TALK

Harry said that he was going to visit his mother the next day, but Paula replied that she had planned to spend the day shopping. Henry suggested that they should travel together to town and spend morning as each had intended. Paula added that she had heard of a splendid place where whey could have lunch. Henry wasn't sure where the restaurant was and thought it would be too expensive anyway. Paula told him not to worry as she would draw him a map and she had been assured that one could eat there at a very reasonable price. He asked where he might meet Paula and when she did not answer he wondered if she had heard his question. She said she had heard him all right but was just thinking. When there was still no answer Henry said he would have to go but he would meet Paula at the bus station. Paula agreed but pointed out that anyway men were supposed to make decisions.

LOST IN THE POST

(after A. Philips)

Ainsley, a post-office sorter, turned the envelope over and over in his hands. The letter was addressed to his wife and had an Australian stamp.

Ainsley knew that the sender was Dicky Soames, his wife's cousin. It was the second letter Ainsley received after Dicky's departure. The first letter had come six months before, he did not read it and threw it into the fire. No man ever had less reason for jealousy than Ainsley. His wife was frank as the day, a splendid housekeeper, a very good mother to their two children. He knew that Dicky Soames had been fond of Adela and the fact that Dicky Soames had years back gone away to join his and Adela's uncle made no difference to him. He was afraid that some day Dicky would return and take Adela from him.

Ainsley did not take the letter when he was at work as his fellow workers could see him do it. So when the working hours were over he went out of the post-office together with his fellow workers, then he returned to take the letter addressed to his wife. As the door of the post-office was locked, he had to get in through a window. When he was getting out of the window the postmaster saw him. He got angry and dismissed Ainsley. So another man was hired and Ainsley became unemployed. Their life became hard» they had to borrow money from their friends.

Several months had passed. One afternoon when Ainsley came home he saw the familiar face of Dicky Soames. "So he had turned up," Ainsley thought to himself.

Dicky Soames said he was delighted to see Ainsley. "I have missed all of you so much," he added with a friendly smile.

Ainsley looked at his wife. "Uncle Tom has died," she explained, "and Dicky has come into his money." "Congratulation," said Ainsley, "you are lucky .*'

Adela turned to Dicky. "Tell Arthur the rest," she said quietly.. "Well, you see," said Dicky. "Uncle Tom had something over sixty thousand and he wished Adela to have half. But he got angry • with you because Adela never answered the two letters I wrote to her for him. Then he changed his will and left her money to hospitals. I asked him not to do it, but he wouldn't listen to me!" Ainsley turned pale. "So those two letters were worth reading after all," he thought to himself. For some time everybody kept silence. Then Dicky Soames broke the silence, "It's strange about those two letters. I've often wondered why you didn't answer them?" Adela got up, came up to her husband and said, taking him by the hand, "The letters were evidently lost." At that moment Ainsley realized that she knew everything.

Notes:

1. to be frank as the day — быть вне подозрений

2. to be hired — быть нанятым (на работу)

Answer the questions:

1. What was Ainsley's job?

2. Who was Dicky Soames?

3. What was the main reason for Ainsley's hiding Dicky's letters from Adela?

4. How did Ainsley behave when the second letter arrived?

5. What happened as a result of his behaviour?

6. Was Adela's uncle a rich person? Prove it.

CURIOUS STAMP MISTAKES

The first stamp in the world was an English one. It was ma­de in 1840 to pay the postage on letters going to different parts of the country. Since that time people began to use stamps and in the course of time started collecting them. Stamps are always interesting to collect because they bear views of the countries they came from; pictures of animals and birds living in jungles or on far-away islands; pictures showing the peoples of different countries, dressed in their national costumes.

Stamp-collection gives many-sided information about histo­ry, geography and many other subjects.

Sometimes stamps are issued with unexpected mistakes which are seen only if one knows geography, history, music and many other things as well.

The St. Kitts and Nevis stamp, issued in 1903, shows Chris­topher Columbus looking through a telescope, an instrument which was unknown in his days.

The Newfoundland stamp, issued in 1886, shows a seal on an ice-floe. It looks like any other seal till you look at its front legs and find that it has feet instead of flippers. For a long time collectors who had a knowledge of zoology thought that this was another stamp mistake. However it was discovered that the great Grey Seal of Newfoundland really has forefeet instead of flippers. The artist had been right after all.

On a German stamp, issued in 1956 in commemoration or the composer Schumann, the music printed on the stamp was not written by Schumann. It was written by another German composer Schubert. Stamp-collectors knowing music well saw the mistake at once. The post-offices stopped selling the stamp and today one can be found only in a few collections.

At Leisure

Poems

 NIGHT MAIL

This is the night mail crossing the border,

Bringing the cheque and the postal order,

Letters for the rich,letters for the poor,

The shop at the corner, and the girl next door.

Written on paper of every hue,

The pink, the violet, the white and the blue,

The chatty, the catty, the boring, adoring.

The cold and official and the hearts outpouring,

Clever, stupid, short and long,

The typed and the printed and the spelt all wrong.

Wystan Hugh Auden

THE TELEPHONE

"When I was just as far as I could walk

From here to-day,

There was an hour

All still

When leaning with my head against a flower

I heard you talk.

Don't say I didn't, for I heard you say—

You spoke from that flower on the window sill—

Do you remember what it was you said?"

"First tell me what it was you thought you heard."

"Having found the flower and driven a bee away,

I leaned my head,

And holding by the stalk,

I listened and I thought I caught the word—

What was it? Did you call me by my name?

Or did you say—

Someone said 'Come'—I heard it as I bowed."

"I may have thought as much, but not aloud.

" 'Well, so I came."

Robert Frost

Jokes

A SHILLING PAYMENT

Early postal fees had to be paid when the letter was delivered. There is a story of how a postman in the Lake District delivered a letter to a local woman and demanded a shilling payment.

The woman took the letter, held it up to sunlight, then handed it back and said that she could not afford lo pay for it. The poet Coleridge happened to be passing the cottage at that moment and overheard the conversation. He gave the postman the shilling and handed the letter to the woman. She thanked him, but after the postman had gone she explained that the act of kindness was not necessary. Apparently the letter had come from her brother, from whom she heard every three months. In order that it should not cause her any expense, they had an arrangement that he merely sent a blank sheet of paper, which meant he was well, and there was no need to accept any pay for it.

FROM A WRITER'S NOTEBOOK

(from S. Maugham)

We were spending the night at a small town in Texas The hotel was full.

Everyone went to bed early At Ion o'clock a woman in one of the rooms put in a trunk-call to Washington, and we could hear plainly every word she said.

She wanted a Major Tompkins, but she didn't know his number. She told the operator that he was in the War Department. Presently she got on to Washington. But then the operator told her she couldn't find him That made the woman angry, she said that everyone in Washington knew Major Tompkins. It was very important, she had to speak to him. She was cut off and in a low minutes she tried again. She tried every quarter of an hour. She made more and more noise. Nobody could bleep.

Indignant guests rang down to the office and the night manager came up and tried to make her quiet. But she rang and rang. She shouted. Furious men and women banged on her door telling her to stop making so much noise as they couldn't sleep. She told them all to go to hell. The manager sent for the sheriff. The sheriff came, but ho was no match for her and not knowing what else to do sent for a doctor. She went on telephoning. At last she got Major Tompkins. It was four in the morning and no one in the hotel had shut an eye.

«Have you got Major Tompkins?» she asked the operator

«You're quite sure you've got him? Is he on the line?» Then she said-

«Tell Major Tompkins that I DON'T WANT TO SPEAK TO HIM.» With that she banged the receiver down onto the cradle.

Proverbs and Sayings

A good face is a letter of recommendation.

Bad news has wings.

Little pigeons can carry great messages.

Never write what you dare not sign.

No news is good news.

For evil news rides post, while good news baits. John Milton.

Creative Tasks

 1. Make up dialogues on the following situations.

1) Discuss with a friend what to send and how to send a parcel as a wedding present to your elder sister.

2) Discuss with your friend how to write your first letter to an English pen-friend.

3) Discuss with your friend what books to choose and how to send them by post to your little niece.

4) Discuss with your mother where and when to pay telephone rental, electricity and gas bills, etc.

5) Discuss with your friend the hobby of collecting postage-stamps, postcards, coins