Warwick Castle

This is, quite simply, the greatest medieval castle in Britain. With a history that dates back over 1, 000 years, Warwick Castle will take you back in time - to a world of splendid banquets, bloody battles and royal luxury. The castle really brings history to life. Visit the waxworks displays of Madame Tussauds, where you can watch and hear the Earl of Warwick's preparations for battle. Feeling brave? Then take a look at the ghostly dungeons where prisoners were tortured. Alternatively, relax with a stroll through the castle's beautiful gardens.

Shakespeare's Stratford

The birthplace of William Shakespeare, the greatest writer in the English language, and home to the theatres of the world-known Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford is a charming market city. Our tour includes a visit to Shake­speare's birthplace. Then we enjoy lunch in a 15^th century inn before heading towards Oxford.

Oxford

The grandest of all the colleges is Christ Church, home to Oxford's cathe­dral and the university's largest court. We enjoy a private tour through the-4//ce in Wonderland gardens where the real Alice chased her Cheshire cat. Then we head to the college's spectacular dining hall, chosen as a key location in the Harry Potter film. We offer a special champagne reception in either the gardens or the hall so you can feel the magic of the film and the book and learn about the traditions of college life.

1. The film was so boring that I dozed off in the middle of it.

2. Bernard Shaw said his hobbies were cycling and showing off.

3. I'm sorry I can't come to your party tomorrow. I'm seeing off my sister.
She is leaving for London.

4. " Look, we can't drive there! They've roped off the road. I wonder what
has happened."

5. Don't put off till tomorrow what you can do today.

6. They wrote to us that they had sent off all the documents a few weeks
before.

Keys

14.

The world famous Micky Mouse has never suspected that in Russia he has cousins descending from a little mouse in whose honour a whole city on the Volga is named.

The legend has it (according to the legend) that approximately (about) the time when William the Conqueror became the King of England (that is in 1066 A.D.) a young Russian prince was once hunting in a thick forest on the bank of the Volga. He got tired and lay down to have a rest under a tree on the steep bank of the river. He was fast asleep when he was woken up by a little mouse that had run across his face. He was still sleepy, so seeing the mouse running away to the forest, he got very angry and was about to throw a stone at it when he no­ticed a viper creeping towards him. If the mouse hadn't woken him up, the viper would have stung him and he would have died. The mouse had saved his life! The grateful prince ordered the area to be roped off and that a shrine should be built there. Gradually people began to settle round the shrine and at the prince's order the settlement was named Myshkin, which can be understood either 'be­longing to the mouse' or as 'in honour of the mouse'.

That is the legend. Like any other legend it can be neither proved nor dis­proved. Anyhow, the steep hill on the bank of the Volga turned out to be an ideal place for building a settlement that later became a town.

There were dramatic periods in its history, but no matter how hard were the times the mouse has always been its faithful patron.

In the reign of Katherine II the town was allowed to have its own coat-of-arms with pictures of a bear and a mouse.

Now it is a flourishing city and a tourist attraction with several interesting museums, among them the Museum of the Mouse, the only museum in the world of that kind. And, of course, everywhere in the city you can buy souvenirs with the mouse in different fancy dress.