Last month my mother had her birthday. My father decided to throw a surprise party for her. Two weeks, before the event he booked a room in my mother's favourite cafe. And then my father began to invite our relatives and friends. Of course, that was a great secret. It was sometimes difficult to keep mother from suspecting anything. It was also difficult to make some people understand that it was to be a surprise. For example, the only time he could ring mother's parents was when she happened to be in the house. However, she didn't suspect anything and her parents didn't said a word about the invitation.

Christmas Day is celebrated on December 25. Many people look on Christmas as the time to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, but really the tradition goes back to the earliest of times. In those days the sun meant so much to primitive man that when it began to go lower each day till December 23, people thought the sun was going to die out and they were worried. They ate less keeping the food for the next year.

St. Valentine's Day has roots in several different legends. One of the earliest popular symbols of the day is Cupid, the Roman god of Love, who is represented by the image of a young boy with a bow and arrow. Three hundred years after the death of Jesus Christ, the Roman emperors still demanded that everyone believe in the Roman gods. Valentine, a Christian priest, had been thrown in prison for his teachings. On February 14,Valentin8 was beheaded. The night before he was executed, he wrote the jailer's daughter a farewell letter signing it, "From Your Valentine".

When we speak about somebody's figure, face, hands, feet we mean his or her appearance. A person may be tall, middlesized or short, thin or plump. A face may be round, oval or square. In summer some people may have freckles on their faces. Old people have wrinkled faces. People's hair may be long or shot, thin or thick, good or bad, straight or curly. If it is long it is often plaited. Its colour may be black or fair, chestnut or red. Old people have grey hair.

My family isn't large. It consists of four members. But each member of owe family has his own tastes and interests. For example, my brother is fond of sports. So early in the morning he goes jogging. That's why he has nothing to eat before it, because it would be bad for him to eat before exercises.

We go shopping every day. The other day my mother took me on a usual shopping round. We went to the grocer's and greengrocer's as we had run out of sugar and onions. At the greengrocer's there was a long queue. But we had nothing to do but stand in the queue if we wanted to get to the counter and have some onions. The shop-girl weighed us half a kilo of onions, we thanked her and went out. Then we made our way to the grocer's where we bought a kilo of sugar and some sausage. We were about to go home as my mother suddenly remembered we had hardly any bread in the house. We dropped in at the baker's and bought a loaf of brown bread, some rolls and buns. On our way home the mother decided to call at a commercial shop. She was looking for a present to my father — as it was his birthday soon.

When we want to buy something, we go to a shop. There are many kinds of shops in every town or city, but most of them have a food supermarket, a department store, men's and women's clothing stores, grocery, a bakery and a butchery.

If you want to buy stamps, postcards, envelopes, to send a telegram or money order, to subscribe to newspapers or magazines, you have to go to the post-office. At some post-offices there is a special window where you may pay your rent, telephone, gas and electricity bills

From early times Englishmen have been great collectors and travellers. The general level of art in Great Britain has always been high. But it has never reached that of France and Italy. Many greatest foreign masters were attracted to Britain by lavish rewards and honours. Among them were the Flemish Anthony Van Dyck, Harts Holbein of German extraction. They were the originators of the brilliant school of English painting.