Топик: Travelling

- Do all English have their famous five o'clock tea?

- No, not all of them. It is the privilege of the conference participants or the representatives of some leisure classes who take it as a kind of social activity with a chat and a cup of tea with pastries or a cake.

- What do English have for dinner?

- Dinner time throughout England is seven o'clock p.m. For some families dinner is the biggest meal of the day. But for others midday meal is the chief one of the day while in the evening they have a much simpler supper - an omelette, or sausages, or a glass of milk.

- Is British food specific?

- Previously everything people ate was home-made, and prepared in the traditional way. Nowadays produced food is replacing the slow, careful preparation of fresh vegetables and other ingredients. Canteens, cafeterias and even many restaurants serve course meals instead of individually prepared dishes for each customer. As far as I know British restaurants have not always been famous for their good food. Too often they offered fried food and chips with everything. But now healthy food is in fashion and so is international cooking.

- Where have the British taken food ideas from?

- The British have taken food ideas from all over the world. They can eat Chinese, Indian, French, Italian and Greek food in any big city, and in London there is a fantastic variety of restaurants.

- Do the British often go to the restaurants?

- Most British families go to the restaurants only on special occasions, like birthdays, or wedding anniversaries. The restaurant's best customers are business people, who meet in them to talk business in a relaxed atmosphere away from the telephone. For visitors to London, eating out can be fun. In some restaurants the menu and decor are just like they were in Queen Victoria's day, a hundred years ago.

- Where can visitors to London go to have special London feeling?

- If visitors to London want special London feeling, they should go to the "Ritz" in Piccadilly for tea any afternoon at about half past four. Or they can try England's favourite food - chips and fish. They can take it away and eat where they like - in the park, on the bus or while walking down the street. That's what Londoners do!

- Have you ever travelled by air?

- Yes, I have. It happened a year ago when we went to Great Britain. We got to London by air. On the appointed day we went to the airport by car. Soon we boarded the big air-liner. When we took off the voice informed us about the altitude we were flying. The flight took us more than three hours. Time passed quickly. The plane arrived at the airport in time.

- Have you ever used any other way of travelling?

- Certainly. There are different ways of travelling. I have travelled by train, car, and boat. When I travelled by car or train a blurred image of the countryside always smeared the window. It is a peculiar feature of our time not to use legs but to move about in cars, trains, jets, from a very early age. Today people travel hundred of miles every day.

- What kind of travelling do your parents prefer?

- My parents prefer to travel by coach, that is why of all the available tours they choose coach tours. Such tours are not expensive and my parents like them very much. Coach tours give a chance to do a lot of sightseeing and have a good rest at the same time. Last year my parents bought a coach tour. They enjoyed the tour very much. During the ten-day holiday they visited Germany, the Netherlands and France. There was no trouble with the luggage because it was taken care of at every night stop. Moreover hotels were carefully selected and booked in advance. My parents recollect this tour even a year later.

- What role does tourism play in the present day society?

- I think, it is very useful to visit different countries and get familiar with different cultures. People today are travelling far more than they ever used to. Some people think that tourists damage either the districts or cultural and historical places they visit. Certainly, it is a sufficient reason for tourism to be stopped. Others consider that today tourism has been elevated to a kind of religious ritual which is gradually exhausting our planet. Moreover, when people travel at high speeds they live in the future because they spend most of their time awaiting the arrival at some other place, and the present stops to be a reality. One should remember that travelling at high speed is a means not an end in itself.

- Did people travel much in the historical past?

- In the past people did not travel so much as we do today. Tourism is the phenomenon of the 20th century. In the past people set sail in search of new land and trade routes. The period of extensive travelling in called the Age of Discovery.

- Is it possible to date the beginning of the Age of Discovery?

- Some historians think that the Age of Discovery, which opened the world to European shipping, began around 1419 when Portugal's Prince Henry, known as "the Navigator", established a maritime training centre on his country's Atlantic coast.

- What were the consequences of the Age of Discovery for the peoples of Africa?

- They were disastrous. Africa had a slave trade. In 1434 Portuguese adventurers brought the first black slaves to Lisbon. As Europe's transatlantic colonies grew in importance, so did the need for manual labour. It is supposed that as many as 10 million slaves were transported to the New World, perhaps 5 million of them in the 18th century. Nearly two million more died aboard the crowded prison ships that carried slaves to work the sugar fields of the Caribbean or the cotton plantations of the American South.

- Was the Age of Discovery damaging to the New World?

- Native Americans were victimized by colonialism: millions died of imported diseases like smallpox, which their immune systems could not handle. The conquistadors ruthlessly suppressed the cultures of Aztecs of Mexico and Incas of Peru.

- Did the cultures of the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru give anything to the world?