Big Ben will bong to welcome in 2022, the Houses of Parliament has confirmed.

The bell will be struck 12 times as it hits midnight on New Year’s Eve, despite other celebrations in the capital being cancelled.

It will be the first time in nearly four years that the clock face of Elizabeth Tower will be on show for the event, following years of restoration.

And it will be the last time a temporary mechanism will be used to sound the bell.

Restoration of the tower and its famous clock began in 2017, meaning the exterior was covered in scaffolding and the bell itself was silenced.

However, it gave Parliament the opportunity to carry out its biggest repair and conservation project in the building’s 160-year history.

The clock was designed by Edmund Beckett Denison and installed by Edward John Dent in 1859.

Its mechanism, which weighs eleven-and-a-half tonnes, was removed and taken to clock specialists the Cumbria Clock Company in the Lake District, where more than 1,000 separate parts were cleaned and repaired.

The pieces have now been returned to Westminster and are being reinstalled over the coming months.

But the clock face – restored to its original colours – is now on show, and from spring next year, Big Ben and the four quarter bells will once again play the “Westminster Quarters” melody and bong on the hour throughout the day.

One of Parliament’s team of clock mechanics, Ian Westworth, said: “It’s iconic – it’s probably the world’s most famous clock, and to have had our hands on every single nut and bolt is a huge privilege.

“It’s going to be quite emotional when it’s all over – there will be sadness that the project has finished, but happiness that we have got it back and everything’s up and running again.”

sources (article; video, picture): BBC News; Behind the clock face: London’s Big Ben reveals facelift | SBS News, SBS News, Youtube

A cikk elolvasása után döntsd el, hogy a következő állítások igazak (T), vagy hamisak (F).

1. The bell will be struck 12 times as it hits midnight on New Year’s Eve and this will be the only celebration in London.
2. It will be the first time a temporary mechanism will be used to sound the bell.
3. The bell hasn’t been struck since 2017.
4. After its mechanism had been removed, it was taken to clock specialists the Cumbria Clock Company, where more than 1,000 separate parts were cleaned and repaired.
5. The clock face will be on show from spring next year.

keys/megoldások:
1. T; 2. F, it will be the last time;
3. T; 4. T; 5. F, it is now on show

A következő feladatban egészítsd ki a mondatokat a megadott opciók egyikével.
Azoknál a munkálatoknál, amiket már befejeztek, Simple Past (egyszerű múlt) igeidőt, amik még tartanak és nem fejeztek be, ott Present Perfect (Befejezett jelen) igeidőket, azoknál a mozzanatoknál, amik a jövőben fognak megvalósulni, Simple Future (egyszerű jövő) igeidőt használj.
Lesznek mondatok, ahol a passive (szenvedő) vagy active (cselekvő) mondatszerkezet között is választanod kell.

1. Robbie Williams used to prefer New Year’s Eve.
2. He met Graham Norton’s wife who completely changed his opinion
   about Christmas.
3. Robbie’s wife works as a professional memory maker.
4. Robbie’s house in America is full of his American relatives and friends
   so British people rarely visit them.
5. Robbie’s American friends wanted to make up a British Christmas tradition.
6. This tradition is called as “bake the bread”.
7. According to this tradition two American relatives hold the baguette either end.
8. While British people in the room are chanting the name of the tradition,
   somebody karate chops the bread.

keys/megoldások:
1. A;
2. B, Robbie Williams’s wife made him change his opinion about Christmas;
3. B, she is like a professional memory maker
4. B, Robbie’s house in America is full of British people and his extended American family and friends also come.
5. B, Robbie and his British friends decided to make up a British tradition for their American friends to fool them.
6. B, it is called as “break the bread”
7. C, he mentions two American people, it is not clear whether they are relatives or friends.
8. A

Most pedig egy másik “kitalált” karácsonyi szokásról olvashattok, mely amerikai családoknál elterjedt. Rajtuk keresztül került el oda, ahonnan “eredetileg” származik. Mi is ez?
A karácsonyfán elrejtett kapros ecetes uborka formájú dísz. Készítettünk hozzá egy olvasott szövegértéses feladatot is nektek.

Every family has its own holiday traditions and some might hide a Christmas dill pickle ornament in their tree.
This tradition, which allegedly has roots in Germany, has been adopted by a growing number of American households in the Midwest and elsewhere. Usually, the glossy green ornament in the shape and texture of a pickle is hung somewhere deep in the tree. The first child to find the pickle on Christmas morning is the recipient of good luck in the coming year and a special gift. (The other children are presumably fresh out of luck.)

Many of these families are under the impression that the Christmas pickle, or Weihnachtsgurke, was brought over to the United States by German immigrants. It’s been said the people of 19th-century Spreewald were too poor to have actual ornaments so they hung pickles instead.

However, the reality is that the vast majority of Germans have never heard of this tradition. In 2016, after word of Americans hanging pickles was picked up by German newspapers, a survey found that 91 percent of German households had no idea about Christmas pickles or what they were intended to represent.

It turns out that clever marketing may be behind it. When retail giant Woolworths began importing German ornaments in the 1890s, they noted that some were in the shape of a pickle and began ascribing a deeper meaning behind it. This was no ordinary ornament—it was a pickle steeped in the customs of an exotic land.

Much later, in the 1990s, ornament artisans began relating the apocryphal story of the pickle, saying its green color blended with the tree and that a child would be rewarded for their “keen observation” in finding it.

One prominent German ornament manufacturer, Lauscha Glass Center, started making the ornaments in the mid-1990s – but only after one of their employees visited Michigan and saw the Christmas pickle adorning trees there.
So, if you’re looking to do something different this season, consider the pickle. Happy holidays.

source: MentalFloss

interesting expression:

to be fresh out of luck: Having bad fortune, experiencing a misfortune

source: Dictionary.com

A cikk elolvasása után válaszd ki, hogy a megkezdett mondatokat melyik opció (A vagy B) egészíti ki, az olvasottak alapján. Lesznek mondatok, ahol mindkét opció helyes (AB) lesz.