Thanksgiving

Every year on the fourth Thursday in November Americans celebrate a holiday called Thanksgiving. The first people to celebrate this holiday were the Pilgrims. In November 1621 they sat down to eat together and to give thanks to God for enabling them to survive the hardships of their first year in America. The Pilgrims were joined at their feast by local Amerindians, who had shared corn with the Pilgrims and shown them the best places to catch fish.

VOCABULARY

1. Make up the collocations:

2. Use a synonym for the underlined word:

1. «Pilgrims» are people who make a trip for religious reasons.
2. They sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in 1620.
3. They were escorted by a number of other emigrants they called «Strangers.»
4. The Pilgrims travelled by trading ship.
5. They decided to step ashore on the best place they could find.
6. Pilgrims established a colony at a place they named Plymouth.
7. The fifty alive people built better houses.
8. Another group of almost a thousand colonists settled close by.
9. They wanted to run away from the rule of a new king.
10. The settlement was successful from the beginning.
11. Many years later the colony joined other colony.
12. They sat down to eat together and thanked God.
13. They overcame the difficulties of their first year in America.
14. The Pilgrims celebrated banquet with local Amerindians.

3. Make up questions to these answers:

1. Because they opposed the official Church of England.

2. To escape religious persecution.

3. The Mayflower.

4. In 1620.

5. Pilgrims.

6. The Boston colony grew and prospered.

7. Massachusetts.

8. On the fourth Thursday in November.

9. To give thanks to God.

10. Amerindians who had shared corn with the Pilgrims.

4. True or false? Give an adequate response to each statement. Do not content yourselves with saying ‘Yes’ or ‘No’:

1. «Pilgrims» are people who make a journey to find treasures.

2. American Pilgrims sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in 1620.

3. This group of people travelled alone.

4. The Pilgrims' ship was a modern yacht, the Aprilrose.

5. They decided to land at the best place.

6. Pilgrims built right away houses.

7. All people survived winter.

8. Amerindians gave them seed of corn.

9. The English king helped Puritans to settle in the New World.

10. The new settlement prospered from the start.

11. The Boston colony combined with the New York colony.

12. The first people who celebrated Thanksgiving day were the Pilgrims.

13. They sat down to eat together to give thanks to local Amerindians.

5. Change the following sentences to passive:

1. The king warned the Puritans that he would drive them from the country.

2. A group of Puritan Pilgrims founded the Plymouth settlement in 1620.

3. People named them the Pilgrim Fathers.

4. Many other Puritans followed the Pilgrim Fathers.

5. Soon they set up a few more settlements in the Boston area.

6. Complete religious freedom which William Penn promised to settlers attracted thousands of immigrants from northern Europe.