As I was going past the Art Theatre on my way home I heard somebody ask in a low voice, "Want to come to the theatre?" It was a young fellow with no hat on and a disappointed look on his face. I understood at once: his girl hadn't turned up, otherwise he would not have had a ticket for the Art Theatre to spare—they're not that easy to come by.
"What's on?" I asked.
"A revival of Pogodin's 'Kremlin Chimes'."
That was a play I had been wanting to see for a long time. I wasn't dressed for the theatre and I had not had any dinner, but why be bothered with trifles when such luck had come my way. I accepted.

The Palace Theatre in Cambridge Square is a sort of half-way house on the ambitious tour which Sir John Gielgud is undertaking at the head of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Company now presenting "Much Ado About Nothing" and "King Lear." Already the players have appeared in Vienna, Zurich, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and the Hague, and when their season at the Palace finishes on September 17th, they will go back to the Continent to give performances in Berlin, Hamburg, Oslo and Copenhagen before returning to visit six major cities in the United Kingdom. Finally there is to be a short season at Stratford-upon-Avon.

As well as national costume, national dishes and a national sport, a nation should have a dance. Argentina has its tango, Poland has the polka, Russia has the russkaya plyasovaya and England has the morris.

Every May Day, outside the village pubs of England, you can see strangely dressed people jumping into the air, waving handkerchiefs and sticks, with bells jingling from their clothing. They perform a traditional morris dance and welcome the return of spring.

The origins of morris dancing have been lost in history, but most specialists agree that it goes back at least to the 15th century.
There are many styles of morris dancing. The most well-known of them is the Cotswold Morris dance (the Cotswolds is a hilly region in south-west England).
In addition to the dancers there are often other characters involved. The most common is a fool, who keeps the public amused and the dancers in order. The fool has another important job - that of collecting money from the audience.

SCHOOL-LEAVING AGE

• Children have to stay at school until the age of 16. There is no upper age limit.

ALCOHOL

• You have to be 18 to buy alcohol in a shop or a pub, but if you are 16 and you are having a meal in a pub, you can drink beer or wine with it.

PROSECUTION

• In Scotland, you can be prosecuted for a crime at the age of 8. In England and Wales, the age is 10. You can't be sent to prison until you are 21.

Welcome to the Russian National Costume Museum. We hope you will enjoy your tour with us today. We will see a variety of national costumes that come from all regions of Russia. If you follow me, we will go to our first exhibit...
This is an example of an 18th century peasant shirt, kosovorotka, a very popular item of clothing that could be worn every day and on special occasions, at home and at work.

In December 1955, Moscow theatre-goers saw "Hamlet" played by an English company under the direction of producer Peter Brook. The performances were given at the Moscow Art Theatre. The troupe was formed especially for the staging of "Hamlet" by the Tennent TheatreCompany founded  by  H.  Beaumont  in   1942.
Theatre organization in England is such that only a few theatres have their own permanent company. Troupes are formed for a season, sometimes for a single play, the director inviting from various places the actors whom he considers most suitable to appear in the parts.

On the north-east coast of Northern Ireland you can see a mass of unusually shaped rocks. Scientists say that that they were formed by a flow of lava into the sea about 60-65 million years ago. But when these amazing rocks were discovered in the late 17th century, it wasn't known whether they were formed by men with tools or naturally. So another theory went round, too - that they were the work of the giant called Finn McCool.

The Liberty Bell

The Liberty Bell is a symbol of freedom. It was made in London and taken to Philadelphia in 1752 where it cracked when it was first used. It was repaired, and when the Declaration of Independence was signed, it rang out the day. It cracked again in 1835 and 1846. In 1976 it was placed in a special case of glass and steel behind Independence Hall (the building in Philadelphia where the Declaration of Independence was written and signed).

Stars and Stripes

The flag of the US has 13 stripes for the 13 original colonies and 50 stars for the 50 states. American citizens and immigrants sometimes recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag: 'I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the Unites States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, One Nation, under God, indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.'

"The Great Mississippi, the majestic, the magnificent Mississippi, rolling its mile-wide tide along, shining in the sun."
Mark Twain

"A raindrop falling at Lake Itasca (at the Mississippi headwaters) would arrive at the Gulf of Mexico in about 90 days."
National Park Service

•     Chicago is the third largest American city. It is in the state of Illinois on Lake Michigan. It was founded in the 1830s and quickly became the transportation, financial and industrial centre of the American Middle West.

•     The world's first skyscrapers appeared in Chicago. They were built after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The fire lasted 27 hours and destroyed 17,450 buildings.
•     During Prohibition Chicago was known for its gangsters. The most notorious of them was Al Capone. He had seven rival criminals murdered in the St Valentine's Day Massacre, but the police couldn't find enough evidence on which to arrest him. He was finally sent to prison in 1931 for not paying enough income tax.