Английский язык. Александрова Г.А. - 81 стр.

14. What is the Mansion House?

                                  Text 5
      Give the idea of the text in Russian

        Snobbery is not so common in England today as it was at the begin-
ning of the century. It still exists, however, and advertisers know how to
use it in order to sell their goods.
        A snob, the dictionaries tell us, is a person who pays too much
respect to social position or wealth, the popular newspapers know that
many of their readers are snobs. That is why they give them unimportant
and useless information about persons of high social position, photographs
of «Lady X and her friends» at a ball, or «Lord V and his friends» at the
races.
        It is snobbery that makes some men feel annoyed when on the en-
veloped of letters addressed to them, they find «Mr.» before their names
instead of «Esq.» after their names. Snobbery explains why many people
give their suburban house a name, such as «The Oaks, The Pines, The
Cedars», even though there are no oak trees, pine trees or cedar trees in
their gardens. People of high social position have country houses with
names, so a house with a name seems «better» than a house with a num-
ber. Numbers make the postman’s work much easier, but that is not impor-
tant.
        The advertisers are very clever in their use of snobbery. Motor-car
manufacturers, for example, advertise the colours of their cars as «Bal-
moral Stone». Balmoral stone is the grey colour of ordinary stone, but
Balmoral is also the name of the residence in Scotland of the British royal
family.

     Notes:
     to advertise - рекламировать
     advertiser - лицо, помещающее объявление; газета с
объявлениями
     to pay respect (to) - обращать внимание (на)
     to make some men feel annoyed - вызывать у некоторых людей
раздражение
     Esq. = Esquire - эсквайр (зд. дворянское звание)
     instead of - вместо (чего-либо)

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