Americans eat a lot. They have three meals a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner. Most of Americans don't eat home but prefer to go to restaurants. They can choose from many kind of restaurants. There is a great number of ethnic restaurants in the United States. Italian, Chinese and Mexican food is very popular. An American institution is the fast food restaurant, which is very convenient but not very healthy.

In 1937 the McDonnald brothers, Dick and Mark, opened little restaurant in California. They served hot dogs and milk shakes. In 1945 they have 20 waiters. All the teenagers in town ate hamburgers there. When the 1948 year came they got paper boxes and bags for the hamburgers.

In Britain all children from five to sixteen go to school. They spend six years in "primary" school and then go on to "secondary" school. In Britain there are "state" schools, which are free and private schools for which parents pay. Many British private schools are "boarding" schools. The children there usually wear uniforms. They stay at school all the time and only come home in the holidays.

On July 4 the Americans celebrate their national holiday — Independence Day. The United States gained independence as a result of gradual and painful process. By the mid 1700's, it became difficult for thirteen British colonies in the New World to be ruled by a king 3000 miles across the ocean. The British empire imposed high taxes upon the colonies.

Halloween is a festival that takes place on October 31. In the United States children wear costumes and masks and go trick-or-treating. Many of them carve jack-o'-lantens out of pumpkins. Fortunetelling and storytelling about ghosts and witches are popular activities.

Almost in every culture in the world there is a celebration of thanks for rich harvest. The American Thanksgiving began as a feast of thanksgiving almost four hundred years ago.

Americans are very fond of sport. The most popular sports in the USA are football, which is played from April to October, baseball, played from September to December, basketball, played from October to April and ice hockey, played in most northern cities from October to March.

Our youth is mostly similar to the youth abroad in many aspects of life. Numerous youth organizations have been formed since the Second World War, uniting young people from all classes and sections of the population. In the USA exists a Young Republican Federation, Young Christian Association, some religious organizations for Jewish youth. Youth organization Green peace deals with the most urgent ecological problems of today's world. It protests against nuclear weapon test, sea and soil pollution, etc.

Many British people don't think about clothes very much. In Britain, as well as in the USA, men in offices usually wear suits and ties and women wear dresses or skirts (not trousers). Doctors, lawyers and business people wear quite formal clothes.