Страноведческий материал по английскому языку

                FAVOURITE DRINK OF THE BRITISH AND THE BASHKIRS

“If you are cold, tea will warm you;
if you are heated, it will cool you;
If you are depressed, it will cheer you;
If you are excited, it will calm you.”
― William Ewart Gladstone

A tea bush is a low- growing plant, which is grown in China and India. Tea gathering is very hard and difficult work. The Indian women carry baskets on their backs and they have to gather only young leaves by their hands without using any machinery. After that they dry the leaves.

The first tea was imported from China, but in 1823, a tea plant was found growing in India. And today London's tea markets deal in tea from India and Sri Lanka (Ceylon) more than from China. It is supposed that the British drink more tea than any other nation - about 4 kilos a head, or everyone drinks just under three cups a day.

The most popular sort of tea in Britain is Lipton tea. The British have been drinking Lipton tea for more than 100 years.

The English custom of afternoon tea goes back to the late 18th century, when Anne, the wife of the seventh Duke of Bedford, decided that she needed tea and cakes to bring back her energy around 5 p.m.

The Bashkirs have been drinking tea from early times. They have been drinking herbal tea with honey of wild bees. Drinking tea with herbs is very useful. It helps us to be healthy and look nice.

And though we live far from each other, both the British and the Bashkir have the same "weakness": the both like to drink tea very much. 

Do you know why the British drink milk tea?
People of the UK began to add milk to the drink not because of the good taste, because of the economy. In ancient times, tea from China was expensive and was a deficit product. But milk was cheap, so everyone could afford it.
There is another version. At first, people of the UK preferred to drink tea with jam, but they drank tea from porcelain cups, the cups couldn’t withstand high temperatures and cracked. That is why the British began to add milk to the cups first, and then they poured tea into them.

Bashkirs like to drink tea with milk and honey. The villagers say: "We don't eat anything, just drink tea." If guests come, a tea party is arranged first, and then the main feast.

Bashkirs prefer black tea with oregano or matrushka\dushitsa. Also, St. John's wort, thyme, currant leaves, strawberries, and strawberries are added to the tea.

Bashkirs drink tea for any reason: the wedding, after the wedding, at a party, at home and on a picnic. We also love to drink tea in nature with samovar then tea seems even tastier

Idioms about tea

1.  cup of tea — нечто предпочтительное, желательное

Буквально «чья-либо чашка чаю»

Нечто приятное, знакомое, приходящееся по вкусу:

Teaching children to read is just my cup of tea. — Учить детей читать — это мое.

2. not one's cup of tea — нечто чуждое

Буквально  «не чья-либо чашка чаю»

«Не мой конек», «не мое»:

Going to church, Mary said, was not her cup of tea. — Ходить в церковь, сказала Мэри, ей не по нраву.

3. tea party — 1) безумная вечеринка 2) простое и приятное событие

Буквально  «чаепитие»

1. Буйная, шумная, «безбашенная» вечеринка: There was a loud tea party going on in the pub when Jess came in. — Когда Джесс вошла, в пабе как раз была шумная и буйная вечеринка.

2. Легкое и приятное событие, не вызывающее опасений и волнений: The test was a real tea party. No sweat. — Экзамен был легким. Никакого напряга.

4. not for all the tea in China — ни за что на свете

Буквально  «да ни за весь чай в Китае»

Ни за какую цену, никогда в жизни:

I wouldn't give up my car, not for all the tea in China. — Я не отдам свою машину ни за какие богатства мира.

5. tempest in a teapot — буря в стакане воды

Буквально «буря в чайнике»

 Также tempest in a teacup («буря в чайной чашке) в британском варианте — storm in a teacup. Слишком бурная реакция на незначительное событие:

All that because a handful of the thousand invited guests didn't show up? What a tempest in a teapot! — И все это потому, что кучка из тысячи приглашенных гостей не явилась? Что за буря в стакане воды!

6. tea and sympathy — сочувствие, сострадание

Буквально «чай и сочувствие»

Старомодное выражение, обозначающее поддержку и сострадание к тому, кто расстроен:

Sometimes people want practical advice and sometimes they just want tea and sympathy. — Порой нам нужен дельный совет, а порой — простое человеческое сочувствие.

Tea in the USA

The tradition of evening tea drinking in the United States did not take root: after the rulers of the United Kingdom introduced a tax on the import of tea into the United States in 1773, American colonists defiantly poured a load of tea into the waters of the Boston harbor. The Boston Tea Party was a key event in the development of the American Revolution, and the purely English five-o’clock tradition came to naught.

Therefore, if you order tea in the United States, in most cases they will bring you iced tea with ice and lemon, which perfectly refreshes on a hot day.

My Internet friend from the USA also said that no one drinks tea like the Bashkirs or the British, they prefer coffee.

At the end I want to say that tea at all times remains an integral part of Bashkir and English culture! So let’s drink tea from samovar and let’s not interrupt the traditions of our ancestors!

ЛИТЕРАТУРА:

1.chayguru.info

2.fito-tea.com

3. ru.wikipedia.org

4. infourok.ru