c
 




 

 


 
O
 

 
    

The weekends are a time for families in Britain. Often the parents
are not at work having worked a five day week from Monday to
Friday. Saturdays are a busy time for shops with many families
going shopping.

Sundays used to be a very special day of the week in Britain. It

was the one
day of the
week for
'worship and rest'. The shops were closed and most people were at
home or at church. Popular leisure activitie s on Sunday used to be
going to church and doing odd jobs around the home such as
gardening and DIY.

Until a few years ago shops were not permitted to open on a Sunday.
Sundays today are becoming like any other day other week with
shops open. Some families will now spend their time shopping rather
than going to church or they will combine the two activities.

Britain is becoming a far less Christian country with fewer peo ple regularly attending Church.Many Christian's believe that
Sunday should be kept special, as a time given to worshipping God. They think it is important for Christians to meet
together, listen to readings from the Bible and celebrate Holy Communion. Others believe that it is important that families
have time to be together. (The shopping hours on a Sunday are less than on any other day of the week.)

0

 

People enjoy various indoor and outdoor activities in Britain.

An Euro stat survey, the EU's statistical office, discovered that people in Britain spend about 45% of their free time
watching television, 24% of their free time socializing, 22-23% on sport and hobbies, and 10% on other activities. Other
popular leisure activities are listening to the radio, listening to pre -recorded music, reading, DIY, gardening, eating out and
going to the cinema.



The most common leisure activit y in the UK is watching television. The average viewing time is 25 hours per person per
week. Almost all households have at least one television set. The proportion of hous eholds using satellite, cable or digital
television was 44 per cent in 2002. Many television programmes are about wildlife, animals, holidays, cooking and
gardening. All these things are much cherished by British people.
Television viewing is Britain's mos t popular leisure pastime. About 96 per cent of the population of Britain have television
in their homes. In 1999, 13% of households had satellite television and 9% cable television. It is estimated that about 10
per cent of household have two or more sets . The average viewing time per p erson is over 25 hours a week.
Many television programmes are about wildlife, animals, ho lidays, cooking and gardening.




  Men Behaving Badly, Inspector Morse, Cracker, Absolutely Fabulous, the Royal Family, Dalziel &
Pascoe, Soldier Soldier, Darling Buds of M ay, Poirot, The Bill, Casualty.



- a series of television or radio programmes about the lives and problems of a particular group of characters. They
run over a long period and are broa dcast several times every week. The most popular are "Eastenders", an often shocking
drama about life in East London, and "Coronation Street", which is about life in Northern Britain. We also watch
"Emmerdale", about life in a farming village and two Australian s oaps, "Neighbours" and "Home and Away".


!

 : These type of programmes involve filming normal people in their every -day lives or putting several
people in a specially built house where they can be filmed 24 hours -a-day and giving them challenges to do. The most
famous of these is Big Brother .

"

 : We watch a lot of American programs including Friends, Will and Grace, Frasier, ER as well as
Sabrina the Teenage Witch, The Simpsons a nd The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

"

People in Britain listen to an average 15 hours and 50 minutes of radio each week.
The only radio I listen to is the Top 40. I like to find out who is number one in the pop charts each week.

ü
 
                  
ü

#"$

In 2005/06, 88 per cent of UK households had a CD player and 79 per cent a mobile phone. In April to June 2006, 26 per
cent of people aged 15 and over owned an MP3 player.

In January to April 2006, 56 per cent o f households in Great Britain had a desktop computer, 30 per cent had a portable or
laptop computer, and 7 per cent had a handheld computer.

 "#

The second most popular activity in Britain is visiting or entertaining friends or relations.

$%"&%0'(

Britons made 123 million visits to the cinema in 1998 making it the most popular cultural activity in the UK.

ü
                      ü

"#'

Eating out has grown in popularity, with British people spending in 1999 an average of £5.63 per person per week on food
(excluding alcohol) outside the home.

0%"#" 

The British are known as a nation of gardeners. Most people have a garden
on their property. Gardening has been a popular pastime since Roman
times.Many people in Britain are proud of their houses and gardens. They
want their houses and gardens to look nic e. Every town in Britain has one
or more DIY (Do it Yourself) centres and garden centres. These are like supermarkets for the home and garden. These
places are very popular with British home -owners at the weekends.

ü     

   
 
    
   
 

   

             
      
   ü

") *  0

Saturday is traditionally the day for shopping and watching sports.

"0 "+&0#(

A newspaper survey found that 20 per cent of women are compulsive

shoppers.
Saturday is the main day when we go shopping. Sometimes we will go
into town after school.

The main shopping street in many towns is called the High Street, where
you should head for if you want to go shopping. A few small shops are
owned by local people. Most are owned by national 'chains' of stores.
This makes many town centres look the same. Some towns also have
street markets where fresh food and cheap goods can be bought. Away from the town centre, small 'corner' shops provide
groceries to local cus tomers.

 "0+$""$

Sports and physical recreation have always been popular. Local governments
provide cheap sport and leisure facilities such as swimming pools, tennis
courts, parks and golf courses. People go to watch other people pl ay sports like
football or take part in sports themselves.
Most popular sports are:
cricket,football(soccer),rugby,tennis,netball,basketball,golf,horse
racing,polo,ping-pong,badminton,fishing,boxing,swimming,darts,

'

Going to the pub is the most popular leisure activity outside the home.

The word pub is short for public house. There are over 60,000 pubs in the UK (53,000 in England and Wales, 5,200 in
Scotland and 1,600 in Northern Ireland). One of the oldest pubs, Fi ghting Cocks in St. Albans, Herts, is located in a building
that dates back to the eleventh century.Pubs often have two bars, one usually quieter than the other, many have a garden
where people can sit in the summer. Children can go in pub gardens with the ir parents.
 Most pubs belong to a brewery (a company which makes beer) but sell
many different kinds of beer, some on tap (from a big container under the
bar) and some in bottles. The most popular kind of British beer is bitter,
which is dark and served a t room temperature (not hot, not cold). British
beer is brewed from malt and hops.

Nearly all pubs sell pub lunches. One of these is the Ploughman's Lunch
which is a great wedge of Cheddar cheese, some bread, some pickle, and an
onion. Other typical pub foods are scampi (kind of shellfish) and chips (fried
potatoes), pie and chips, and chicken and chips.