English topics

The Russian Federation.

The Russian Federation is the largest country in the world. It occupies about one-seventh of the earth’s surface. It’s total area is about 17 million square kilometers. The country is washed by 12 seas of 3 oceans : the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Arctic. Russia borders with many country. They are : Korea, China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Norway, Finland, the Baltic states, Belorussia and the Ukraine. It also has a sea border with the USA. The population of the Russian Federation is nearly 250 million people. The capital of the country is Moscow. It’s its largest political, scientific, cultural and economical center. Russia is very rich in mineral resources. There is gold, platinum, diamonds, coal, peat, oil, gas and wood. There are over two million rivers in Russia. The Europe’s biggest river , the Volga , flows into the Caspian sea. Others main rivers are : the Ob, the Yenisei, the Lena and the Amur. Russia is also rich in beautiful lakes. The world biggest lake - the Caspian sea and the world deepest lake - Lake Baikal are in it. Russia has one-six of the world’s forests. They are concentrated in the European north of the country, in Siberia and in Far East. On the vast territory of the country there are different types of climate, from arctic in the north to subtropical in the south. In the middle of the country the climate is continental. Russia has four beautiful seasons : winter , spring , summer and autumn. They are very different. The Russian Federation is a parliamentary republic. The Head of State is the President. He is elected for 4 years and his powers are limited by the Duma. At present Russia has some political and economical problems. (The price are rising, the rate of inflation is very high, people are losing their jobs and many factories are stopped). But I believe that in the future the young generation of your country will sold all these problems and they shall make “Great” Russia as strong and powerful as it used to be.

RUSSIA.

Russia occupy a large territory. It strech almost 10 000 (ten thousend) kilometres from east to west and nearly 5 000 (five thousend) kilometres from north to south. It's population is 150 000 000 (one handred and fifty) million people.

From spring till autmn the sun never sets over Russia: in Kaliningrad peole see it sitting in the Baltic, while in Kamchatka it rises out of the Pasific Ocean at the some time. People in our country see the New Year in eleven times in one night.

If you begin to trevell in the Far East by air and fly 8 000 (eight thousend)kilometres towards the west, you will land in Moscow on thr same hour same day that you left the Far East.

It is a wonderful sight yo see our country from the plane. One can hardly imagine a country more interesting to trevellers whan Russia.

Siberia covers millions of square kilometres. You fly over mountain, endless forests, large and small rivers, railways, motorways. You leave behind the lights of young and small towns, plants and factories. Siberia is a rigeon of untold riches.

Father West are the Ural Mountains the border between Asia and europe. The Urals are riche in different minerals.

The country's European part covers the territory from Urals to the Baltic Sea. The largest cities of the Russia are situated between theBlack Sea in the south and the Black Sea in the north. Such an our country from East to West. There is no over countrys in which the climet differs so much from one part to another. When it is still winter in the northen regions of our country the first warm days arrive in the south. In the central regions show storms and cold are still in power, while in the south people begin to think of spring crops. In the same season nature looks different in different parts of our country.

Russia is rich in oil, coul, iron, gold, silver and other minerals.

MUSICIANS.

I will tell you about not a very popular and famous musician. His songs sound wonderful, and be has an interesting way of making his melodies. Ed Alleyne-Johnson is a composer and violinist. Ed leant to play the violin at school. He played in the school orchestra, but he did not really enjoy playing classical music. It was too rigid. He did not go to the music college. He studied painting at the school of Drawing and Fine Art in Oxford. But he carried on playing the violin in rock bands and folk bands. He tried to make career as a painter, but it was too difficult so he went back to music. He started playing on the streets in England, and then he traveled around the Europe and the States. He met a lot of different musicians in different countries and leant some of the styles. He does not imitate them. Not many people play electric violin on the street, so people are usually interested. His violin is also a special one. Normal violins have four strings. Ed is violin has got five. He painted it purple as his first violin which he inherited from his grandfather. It became a sort of trade mark. When he is playing it, it sound like more than one instrument. It has a device that records music he has Just played, and repeats it again and again. It is a sort of high-tech, one-man band. He has also made a CD. It is called «The Purple Electric Violin Concerto». At the moment he is recording a new CD. He is going to go back to Europe and give free concerts on the streets and in record stores. His music was inspired by the streets, and he would tike to take it back to the people who helped him to write it.And here is another man who has been in the music business for about twenty years .His name is Paul Keгак. He never had another job. He started playing when he was just a kid, he taught himself to play. He tried few instruments , First there drums-it was when he was only five. After that it was there piano and then later the keyboards. He plays guitar also. He started playing professionally when he was still at school. He left school at sixteen. He was playing in a band, working on Sunday evening in pubs and clubs. When he left school his only ambitions was to be in a pop group. He was played with «Roxy Music» and »THE Smiths» . And he made records with «Pretendness» and «Madness». It is very important to him because he made a first hit record with them. That was in 1974 . The song was called «How Long» and it was a big bit all over the world. Since 1985 he is with «Mike and the Mechanics». He is the singer -vocalist and Mike plays the guitar. He always wanted to work in America. He was pleased when his records were successful there. And last summer he made an own record. It came out in the October and it is called «Groove Approval» . It is doing quite well, especially in America. His records are often played on radio there and there are more people that have heard of him then in Britain. He is not a superstar of course. But people know his name and buy his albums.

MUSIC.

Music - it art, reflecting validity in sound art images, one of the forms of public ideology. Having by powerful force direct emotional effect, music during of all history of man-kind plays a huge social,cultural and educational role.

Lieading composers are connected to progressive public movements,

life, interests and aspirations people. Each nations differs by peculiar national features. Folk music, being improved by creative efforts of many generations of the people, reaches a high degree of art maturity. On the basis of riches of national music professional musical creativity of composers is developed. Rejection of music from advanced ideas epoch of national culture, national roots of art leads to it's to decline and degeneration.

Idia emotional contents of music is passed through sound art images, implemented in musical sounds. The basic of music is the tune. according to the way of performance music is divided into 2 main branches:instrumental and vocal.

There are a lot of different styles of music. Such as: Jazz, Pop, Rock, Classic; and new musical directions.Such as: Rave, Hard Core, Jungle, Break Beat and many other. I like to listen to rave music and Happy Hard Core.

As for me i like these styles because they are very rythmic and dancing. The beginning of techno music was put very known singer Fredde Mercuri was the first to compose music in the style techno. In those years very few people evaluated new style of music. But with the years a new style has grown up to such global sizes. Now this music is listened to by large part of youth. I think it's very good that such musical direction as raiv has appeared. Because in raiv there are a lot of musical directions. Young people that are fond of music can easily choose just that style which appeals to them.

Famous actors : Paul Newman, Elizabeth Tailor

Newman, actor, director, and racing driver, was born so good looking that people said it was а shame to waste such beauty on, boy. He was born in Cleveland, 0hio, in 1925, and did some acting in high school and college, but never seriously considered making it his future career. However, after graduating, he immediately started working in the theater. He met his first wife, Jackie Witte, while they were acting together, and they got married in 1949. They had three children, a boy and two girls He found work in the theater and on several TV shows in New York. When he was thirty, he went to Los Angeles and made his first film. It was what Newman called an 'uncomfortable' start in the movies, in the role of a Greek slave. The experience was so bad that he went back to the theater and didn't accept another film role for two years. The film he chose was his big break. He played the boxer, Rocky Graziano, in the film Someone up There Likes Me. Newman is a method actor who believes in living the part before beginning the film He spent days - from morning till night - with Graziano. He studied the fighter's speech and watched him box, and they talked endlessly about Graziano's childhood. The picture brought Newman stardom overnight. He was living in Los Angeles away from his family when he met Joanne Woodward, an actress who he had first met in New York. They worked together in The Long Hot Summer. His wife, Jackie, and Paul recognized that their marriage wasn't working, and got divorced. Newman and Miss Woodward were married in Las Vegas in 1958. Newman went on to make films such as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Hustler, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting and Towering Inferno. He has made over forty-five films, and has won many awards, but he has never won an Oscar. His marriage to Woodward is one of the longest and strongest in Hollywood. They have three daughters, and they have co-starred in six films. Ever since the film Winning, Newman has been passionately interested in car racing, and in 1979 he came second in the twenty-four hour Le Mans race. But the end of the 1970s was not all good news for him. In 1978 his only son, Scott, died of a drug overdose, and as a result Newman created the Scott Newman Foundation to inform young people on drug abuse. He has a strong social conscience, and has supported causes such as the anti-nuclear movement, the environment, and driver education. All the money from 'Newman's Own' salad dressing, popcorn, and spaghetti sauce, now a multi-million dollar business, goes to charity. He is more than just a movie star. would like to be remembered as a man who has tried to help people to communicate with each other,' says Newman, 'and who has tried to do something good with his life. You have to keep trying. Thafs the most important thing.'

TV in my life.

TV is very important thing in our life. We can say that TV is our eyes because TV helps us to know more about the world, about the others counties, about the events that happened in the world. TV even helps you to know more about yourself. I like to watch TV very much. I can do that all day, that’s why sometimes my mother makes me turn off TV. I have about 12 Russian TV channels, they are : NTV, MTV, ORT, RTR, and others. I also have few KOSMOS TV’s channels, for example: Cartoon network, Discovery channel, TVE, and BBC. I like some of them and hate others. So here are some words about the channels that I like. So, my favorite channel is MTV . MTV is a music channel. 24 hours a day of music, can you believe it ? I like to listen music very much , and sometimes I even make myself the music, that is why I enjoy to watch MTV. I also like NTV. This channel has very interesting films, for example “ER” - my favorite film and a lot of sport programs. I like sport, especially football. NTV usually shows us two football match a week ( one Champion’s League match and one Russian national championship’s match ). I also like several foreigner channels, especially Eurosport. And you know why ! Cartoon network is not bad, but I think that it’s better for children - not for me. That’s all about me. I also want to tell you about my parent’s favorite channels. My father likes different channels with action films. His favorite actor is Sylvester Stalonne. My mother likes talk-shows, for example “ Я сама ” on TV6, and information programs, like “Сегодня” on NTV, “Время” on ORT, and “Вести” on RTR. She also likes BBC channels, which is one of the best information’s channels in the whole world. The Bush house is a headquarters of the BBC World Service. Form this building the BBC broadcasts radio programmers to the hole world. the World Service used to be called “ The Empire Service ”. It started in 1932, broadcast only in English. At the first the announcers used formal English and used to speak very slowly and clearly. In the 1930s the BBC started broadcasting to the Middle East. And in the 1938 it started broadcasting in Arabic. Very soon the BBC was broadcasting to all countries occupied by the Nazis. The BBC got a reputation for honesty and accuracy. After the Second World War the BBC continued its foreign languages broadcasts, and to this day broadcasts the news in thirty-nine languages. In the Newsroom a hundred and twenty journalists work day and night , writing two hundred news bulletins every 24 hours. All news in the BBC are checked at least twice before it is broadcasting. That’s why the World Service is not always popular with governments. The bb is the world’s largest international broadcaster. Every week, one hundred and thirty million people listen to BBC World Service radio. In 1992 the World Service started broadcasting TV programs and today people in countries all over the world can see as well as hear the news from the BBC. Cause of our different tastes, sometimes my family has a problem with choosing channels. Somebody thinks that TV is bad, but I don’t think so. I believe that in the future TV will be better and everyone will like it.

RADIO AND TELEVISION.

Of all the discoveries ever made by man, radio or wireless, is one of the most wonderfull. By means of wireless, you can speak to a man on the other side of the world. Seated confortably in your own home, you can hear music or talks, broadcast thousand of miles away from your- talks on national and international affairs, on science, history and other educational subject.

I listen to the wireless almost every evening, mine is are eght-valve set an arial which gives splended results. I t has medium, long and short wave-lenghts and it quit simple to manipulate. All I have to do it's to tune into the station I require.

I use my set a good deal for keeping up my forhn lanuges.

Mass media.

Mass media ( that is the press, the radio and television ) play an important role in the life of society. They inform, educate and entertain people. They also influence the way people look at the world and make them change their views. Mass media mould public opinion.Millions of people in their spare time watch TV and read newspapers.

Everybody can find there something interesting for him. On the radio

one can hear music, plays, news and various discussions or commentaries of current events. Lot’s radio or TV games and films attract a large audience. Newspapers uses in different ways,but basically they are read.

There is a lot of advertisment on mass media. Some of the TV and radio stations and newspapers are owned by different corporations. The owners can advertise whatever they choose.

But it is hardly fair to say that mass media do not try to raise cultural level of the people or to develop their artistic taste. Mass media brings to millions of homes not only entertaiment and news but also cultural and educational programs.

There are more then six TV channels and lot’s of radio stations and newspapers now in the Russian Federation.

Museums and art galleries.

Millions people al over the world spend their holidays visiting museums and art galleries. They visit them to see new things, to know more about other countries, their traditions, about history and even future of the mankind. There are different type of museums : historical, military The Tower of London is a historical museum. It is the oldest palace, fortress and prison in Europe. It’s also one of the most popular museums nowadays. The great central tower, the White tower was built around 1090 by William the Conqueror on the site of a Roman fort built there more than 1000 years earlier. Massive defensive walls and other towers were added later. Through the centuries, the Tower of London has been a citadel, a palace, a prison for offenders against the State, the home of the Mint, the treasury for the Crown Jewels, a menagerie, and the first Royal observatory. Three queens of England have been beheaded within its walls. The Tower’s guardians are the Yeomen Warders who wear splendid scarlet and gold uniforms dating back to Henry VII’s time. Sir Hans Sloane was a great collector. He filled his house with rare books and pictures, precious stones, stuffed animals, birds and butterflies, and ancient remains from all over the world. There had never been a collection quite like it , and visitors were amazed by what they saw. When Sir Hans Sloane died in 1753, his wife let the King buy the whole collection for just 20 000 pounds so that it could belong to the nation for ever. This was the start of the British Museums. It took thirty years and thousands of tons of stone to complete the building and the forty-four massive columns which decorated the front. The building of the British Museums was finished in 1948. The state Tretyakov Gallery is one of the best-known picture galleries in the world. It takes its name from its founder Pavel Tretyakov, a Moscow merchant and art connoisseur. In the mid-19^th century, Tretyakov began to collect Russian paintings. He visited all the exhibitions and art studios and bought the best pictures of contemporary artists. Little by little Tretyakov extended his range of interest and began to collect earlier Russian paintings. More than once he had to add wings to his house, because his collection grew larger and larger. In 1881 Pavel Tretyakov opened his collection to the public. 11 years later he donated it to the city of Moscow. Since then the gallery has received hundreds of pictures from other museums and private collection. Today the Tretyakov gallery is not only Russia’s biggest and most important museums of Russian art, it is also a research, cultural and educational center.

Japan school .

We all know that education is important in every country , but in Japan it’s more important for lots of reasons. The main reason is because the Japanese attitude to jobs. A good job is important to most people, but in Russia for example many people expect to, and perhaps want to, try more then one job in their lives. In Japan is different. People usually stay with the same company from the time they leave school or university until they retire. So the children must do well at school to get a good job then they leave. The hard work starts at 12 then they leave primary school and move to junior high school. There is less relaxed and more competitive. They are about 40 pupils in each class and discipline is quite strict. The pupils sit in rows, and before each lesson they stand up and bow to the teacher. Politeness and respect are very important in Japan. The pupils don’t ask questions. It’s considered rude to question a teacher. And another difference is that they go to school on Saturday. So they have 6 days of school a week. They also go to special extra schools in the evening, so they are busy most of the time. They have 3 or 4 hours of homework every night. The Japanese teenagers go back to school because that is when they have club activities – sports clubs, art clubs, English clubs and others. And children like their schools ‘cause they have no time to be bored. I think Russian schools could learn something from Japan.

Educating children at home.

Now educating children at home is something that apparently twice the number of parents are talking on than used to be the case. It is estimated that about 6000 children are being taught at home without going to school. “ Education Otherwise ” is the name of one organization of parents who have taken this step, and Bruce Cox is one of their number. Bruce thinks that it is not against the law to take the children out of school or not to put them in school. Children must be educated, according to the 1944 Act, but whether you educate them in school or otherwise, is a matter for parents to choose - he thinks. For some of children it is better to be educated at home or in alternative school than in government’s school. People don’t sent their children to school in the first place for a variety of reasons. They aren’t particularly hostile to school in some respects, that they could do just as good a job. And they very much enjoy having their family all together at home. They have done a certain amount of more organized maths, but most of the things they do arise out of the ordinary business of day-to-day life and responding to their interests and questions. They also thinks that children, who were educated at home, are perfectly OK as far as reading and writing are concerned, though they’ve been much more happy to leave the direct teaching of it to a later point in their lives than perhaps would happen at school. Parents don’t have to be a qualified teacher to their children at home. Most of them ( parents ) went to school and were quite successful, quite enjoyed it. They did think that it was very dependent on the ‘ carrot and stick ’ motivation. It means that they don’t hate the school, they just want better for their children. Maybe it is right, maybe not, but we should to try to understand and help them.

Hobbies.

Hobbies differ like tastes. If you have chosen a hobby according to your character and taste - you are lucky because your life becomes more interesting. Hobbies are divided into four large classes : doing things, making things, collecting things, and learning things. The most popular of all hobby groups is doing things. It includes a wide variety of activities, everything from gardening to traveling and from chess to volleyball. Gardening is one of the oldest man’s hobbies. It is well-know fact that the English are very found of gardening and growing flowers, especially roses. Both grown-ups and children are found of playing different computer games. This is a relatively new hobby but it is becoming more and more popular. Making thing includes drawing, painting, making sculpture, designing costumes, handicrafts and others. Two of the most famous hobby painters were President Eisenhower and Sir Winston Churchill. Some hobbyists write music or play musical instruments. President Bill Clinton, for example, plays on the saxophone. Almost everyone collects something at some period in his life : stamps, coins, matchboxes, books, records, postcards, toys, watches and other things. Some collection have not real value. Others become so large and so valuable that they are housed in museums and art galleries. Many world famous collections started in a small way with one or two items . People with a good deal of money often collect paintings, rare books and other art object. Often such private collections are given to museums, libraries and public galleries so that others might take pleasure in seeing them. No matter what kind of hobby a person has, he always has the opportunity of learning from it. By reading about the things he is interested in, he is adding to what he knows. Learning thing can be the most exciting aspect of a hobby. So I think that everyone should have a hobby, it is liked the target of your life.

LEISURE TIME AND HOBBY

Many man,many minds. All people are different and so they

prefer spending their free time in different ways. Some of them

go the parks, forests,to the country and enjoy the beauty of

nature. Others like to stay at home watching TV or reading

books. There are people who are fond of cinema and theatres, so

they try to go there as often as pos- sible. As for me I prefer

to spend my free time in different ways. I like to go in for

sports, to play football, basketball or volleyball with my

friends. I like to watch TV, to listen a tape recorder and play

computer games. Also I like to go for a walk in the country and

enjoy the beauty of nature.And my way of spending free time is

connected with my hobby. And my hobby is reading books...

I"d like to say that it"s hard to imagine our life without

books.Books play such a great role in the development of

personality. They help as to forget our daily problems and to

pretend we travel to the past, future and to many different,

wonderfull places that we can"t visit in reality. I am also

sure that books are our good friends and teachers. From them we

get to know the life around as better, they teatch as how to

tell right from wrong, to love our Motherland, to understand

friendship, people"s feelings. So, they teach us how to live.

As for me I like to read different kinds of books: ......

LIESURE TIME.

Everybody sometimes has a free time. Somebody prefer only to sleep in their liesure time, but the largest part of us prefer to do a great amount of things which are pleasant and interesting for us. It may be reading, a various types of sport game, watching TV, listening music and others. If we have a few day or a week we prefer to go to the attractive places. Many peoples thing that pupils and studients have too much liesure ,but in my opinion, they are wrong. We are very busy. Many pupils have six or se-ven lessons a day and go to school live or six day a week. Even during the holiday we learn our lessons after school. And we just no time to go some-there. Oldest of us are working after school or institutes. IТam not spend my time at school and ofter I have a free time. The large part of my free time devote to reading. I like to read books about another coun-tries, another times and another worlds. Also I read books about history of our country. Besides reading I like to do physical exercises. I and my school friends often gather after school and play basketball, fooftball or other active games. But my favorite hobby is travelling. Usually I travel in summer and ofter it is a trip to the south, to the warm sea. thing all peoples must have other occupation besides their basic work, ba-csuse it extand the bounduries of the familar world and teach us something new about people and thing.

Traveling.

Here is a story of a man who had an terrible holiday: The first thing that went wrong was that the country we were going to decided to have a war a few days before we were going there. So that was the end of that. But the plane we were going on was stopping off at Rome. So rather than not having a holiday at all, we thought we'd go to Italy. Very nice. See the sights. Go to the beaches and get fat with pasta. We were at the airport waiting for the plane and a friend of mine who lived near the airport had come to see us off. So we were having a few drinks in the bar and joking with this friend of mine, Peter, saying 'Poor old you in cold rainy England. This time tomorrow we'll be in Italy on the beach.' And I went down to see if the flight had been called and discovered it had gone. It was a terribly stupid mistake. We hadn't checked the time of departure. I was sure it was going 9 something but it was going at 19 something which of course is 7 o'clock. So we were actually there in the bar when it went without us. We were determined to have our holiday. The irony was that Peter was now going back to his comfortable home and we were stuck in the cold and the rain at 10 o'clock at night. You see, it was a charter flight so we couldn't book another one. We lost our money and all the other flights were booked up. Well, we got a train to the South Coast and caught the midnight boat across the Channel, froze to death all night, it was a terrible crossing with people being sick everywhere. And eventually we got to I think it was Dieppe and then a train to Paris. We got to Paris very early in the morning and I thought we'd be all right. You see, we now had to hitch hike because a lot of our money had gone on the boat and the train, but I thought 'Well, it's very early in the morning, we'll get a good place to start hitching and we'll soon be well on our way.' We got to the start of the motorway and I just couldn't believe it. I've never seen so many people trying to hitch a lift in all my life. Well, it was then it suddenly dawned on me. It was August the first wasn't it? and on August the first in France the whole population goes on holiday and there were hundreds of people, stopping the traffic, banging on drivers' windows trying to persuade them to stop and give them a lift. It was chaos, disastrous. Well, we got moving eventually. A lorry driver gave us a lift. And then things started to get better, as we got further south and it got warmer, you know, and we thought 'At last, the holiday's beginning.' Well, we camped that night and we then set off again the next day. We got some lifts, and met a great chap who owned a vineyard. He took us back to his farm and we tasted all this wine -Burgundy, my favorite - and we had a great time. Now the holiday really was starting. Well, he took us back to the motorway, and there we were by the side of the road, the sun was shining, we were a bit merry, sang a few songs - you know, life was great. And we got another lift from ... well he was a maniac, complete maniac. He seemed nice enough, but within a few minutes he was driving at about a hundred miles an hour, overtaking on the inside on the motorway, with his stereo at full volume, one hand on the wheel and well the other hand on various parts of Susan's body. What! So what did you do? I don't know why I'm laughing I've never been so frightened in all my life. We were absolutely -helpless. Susan tried to say that she had to go to the toilet, but he wouldn't stop then she pretended to be sick in his car, and he stopped in seconds. He had this really flash expensive car, and as soon as he stopped we just jumped out and ran. The worst thing was this tremendous drop from feeling so good to thinking that we were going to get killed. We eventually got down to the south of France and began to have a good time, and then down to Italy. We ran out of money, of course, but apart from that, it was good. I've never had such a tiring holiday. When we got back, I was exhausted. At the end of the holiday, I needed a holiday! And this is a story of an old woman. She has traveled all over the world in her tiny van. It's a nice way of having holiday. Now at this moment, somewhere on the other side of the Atlantic, Olive Gibbs is probably chugging along the road, in the early morning in her tiny camping van. The travel bug came to Mrs. Gibbs rather late in life. About 14 years ago, to help her get over the death of her husband she went on an overland bus trip to Katmandu. This fired her with the enthusiasm to travel more, but as she couldn't afford to go on extensive organized tours, she bought a camper and took to the road alone. Now at the age of 72, she's clocked up about 75,000 miles on trips that have taken her to America, Australia and South Africa. Ann Catchpole met her at her home on the Sussex coast just before she was setting out on her current venture another wander around America, Canada and Mexico, that'll take about a year, and she'd been very busy that afternoon packing up the van, mainly, as she told Ann, with stocks of food. Of all the meals that I have during the day, my breakfast is the one that I like. It's not that I have a large breakfast but I do like my toast and marmalade. I've got quite a few pounds of marmalade in my van at the moment, I should think I have about 10 pounds, and when that run out and if I'm down in California by then I shall make some marmalade. I take English things like Marmite which not many other countries of the world seem to appreciate. I'm also taking crisp breads to the United States because I don't care for their bread very much. And I take biscuits because I don't care for their biscuits very much. But otherwise I can buy everything I need in the United States. But I don't like wasting my time shopping, so I carry as much as I can and visit a supermarket only when I'm forced to. Well, I know vaguely which way I'm going to go, but I do change my direction if there's something I hear about which I think I would like to see, or I don't like the road I'll go a completely different way. And at the beginning of the day I don't know quite where I'm going to sleep at night. I wait until I feel tired or I wait until I see somewhere that attracts me and then I stop. The first thing I do, and I do this deliberately, I make myself a cup of tea, and I sit outside my van because I think it, it pleases the Americans to see an English lady having afternoon tea. But as soon as I really ... as soon as I arrive, especially in the United States or Canada, the men all want to talk to me about places they've been to when they were in the army during the war over here. Other people want to know and tell me about where their ancestors came from, and nearly always I have been to the places, or at least know something about them, because I do travel quite a bit in my own country as well as going abroad. In fact when I'm trying to unpack at the end of a day's journey and get a meal in the evening, life becomes very difficult because people gather round and want to know all about me and it's almost dark before I can get on with my unpacking and getting a meal ready. But I do try to get my cup of tea in first. In Zimbabwe, at that time called Rhodesia, and I was actually camping in Zimbabwe by the Zimbabwe ruins. And during the night someone went by with a torch. It woke me up, and I just thought it was somebody going to a toilet, and I took no notice. But when I woke up in the morning I found that a lot of my papers had been taken, and the wallet in which I kept them. And of course I didn't realize at the time what was going on. It must have been the noise of the door closing which woke me up. I suppose I'm very foolish but often I don't lock myself in my van at night. Sometimes I do if I feel at all nervous or if I'm in a camp site on my own, then I do lock myself in. Each country has something special about it. But I think the beauty of South Africa is something that I shall never forget. I used to stand sometimes when I was there and say to myself, 'Just look and look as much as you can in case you don't come this way again.

National holidays

There are many national holidays in the world, when people all over the country do not work and have special celebrations. For example in Russia the major holidays are: New Year's Day, Victory Day. The first holiday of the year is New Year's Day. People see the new year in at midnight on the 31st of December. They greet the new year with champagne and listen to the Kremlin chimes beating 12 o'clock. There are lots of New Year traditions in Russia. In every home there is a New Year tree glittering with colored lights and decorations. Children always wait for Father Frost to come and give them a present. Many people consider New Year's Day to be a family holiday. But the young prefer to have New Year parties of their own. The greatest national holiday in our country is Victory Day. On the 9lh of May, 1945, the Soviet Army and its allies completely defeated the German fascists and the Second World War ended. A lot of guests from different countries of the world came to Moscow to participate in the celebrations. There are fewer public holidays in Great Britain than in other European countries. They are: Christmas Day, New Year's Day, Easter Monday, Spring Bank Holiday. Public holidays in Britain arc called bank holidays, because the banks as well as most of the offices and shops are closed. The most popular holiday is Christmas. Every year the people of Norway give the city of London a present. It's a big Christmas tree and it stands in Trafalgar Square. Central streets are beautifully decorated. The fun starts the night before, on the 24th of December. Traditionally this is the day when people decorate their trees. Children hang stockings at the end of their beds, hoping that Father Christmas will come down the chimney during the night and fill them with toys and sweets. New Year's Day is less popular in Britain than Christmas. But in Scotland, Hogmanay is the biggest festival of the year. Besides public holidays there are some special festivals in Great Britain. There are also smaller, local festivals in Britain. Now a few words about holidays in Brazil. The most important event in brazil - this a festival in Rio-de-Janeiro, which passes each year at the end of February the beginning of March. The festival lasts 4 days and 4 night. In Rio there are special schools, which train the people to dance Samba and Lambada. Each of these schools exposes on a holiday about 4000 dancers and 300 drummers. Other important event in Brazil in the year is ancient religious holiday MACUMBA, which is celebrated by Brazilian in the new year eve. During this holiday on sand of a beach KOPACABANA people place drinks and meal and light candles thirsted in sand. People in the midnight throw in the water their gifts and if ocean takes them, the year will be successful, but if it throws out on a coast, the year will not present. In the different countries according to their traditions and history, there is a set of various national holidays. But there is one thing, which unites all of them: a holiday is always fun and pleasure.

Sport and healthy way of life : run your way to health

When I started running seven years ago, I could manage only about a quarter of a mile before I had to stop. Breathless and aching, I walked the next quarter of a mile, then I jogged the next quarter of a mile, alternating these two activities for a couple of miles. Within a few weeks I could jog half way round Hampstead Heath without stop-ping. Soon I started to run up the quarter-mile slope to the top of Parliament Hill, although I had to stop at the top to get my breath back. Eventually I found that I could even manage to get up the hill comfortably. I started to run because I felt desperately unfit. But the biggest pay-off for me was—and still is— the deep relaxation that I achieve by taking exercise. It tires me out but I find that it does calm me down. In those early days I saw few other runners. Now there are many more—and not just the macho sports freaks. Men and women of all ages have now taken up running. Some 25,000 runners aged five to 85 are attracted each year to the Sunday Times Fun Run in Hyde Park. In the last two years the London Marathon has become the biggest British sporting event— overtaking the boat race and the Derby in the number of spectators it attracts. When I started to jog I never dreamt of running in a marathon, but in 1982 I realized that if I trained for it, it was within my reach, and after a slow, six-month build-up I man-aged the 26.2 miles in just under four hours. A creditable performance for a first-timer and a far cry from those days when I had to stop for breath after a quarter of a mile. What about heart attacks?My story shows that an unfit 39-year-old, as I was when I started running, who had taken no serious exercise for 20 years, can do the marathon—and that this is a sport in which women can beat men. But is it crazy to do it? Does it make sense to run in the expectation of becoming healthier? What about the chances of injuring yourself or dying of a heart attack? I was personally convinced of the health benefits of running because I felt unfit, and I wasn't worried about the risk of a heart attack, because I was not a smoker and I was sticking to a fairly low animal-fat diet. But one person I knew well did die immediately after a jog and plenty of people told me I was mad to start running. Reassuring evidence now comes from doctors in Seattle, showing that vigorous exercise actually reduces the chances of heart attack. They found that people who had a sudden heart attack when they appeared to be completely fit had taken less exercise than those of similar age. According to their findings, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (volume 248, p 3113) it is necessary to take 20 minutes of vigorous exercise at least two or three days a week to obtain some protection from heart attack. Apart from jogging, the exercise might be swimming, singles tennis or squash, digging or chopping wood. Whatever it is, the exercise should leave you out of breath. There is a small risk of unaccustomed stress causing a heart attack when a person is very unfit, but this can be reduced if exercise is always increased in easy stages. My advice is: if you are under 40, are healthy and feel well, you can begin as I did by jogging gently until you are out of breath, then walking, and alternating the two for about two miles. Build up the jogging in stages until you can do the whole distance comfortably. At first, two or three times a week will probably be enough. People over 40 who are in any doubt about their health should see their doctor before starting an exercise program. Over-40s should begin by making a vigorous walk of at least two miles part of the daily routine. When you can do this comfortably you can start the mixed jogging and walking routine and progress from there. You will have to expect soreness of muscles and joints to begin with. If soreness changes to pain, or if you find that you suffer from deep tiredness which you cannot shake off, then stop jogging for a while and just walk.

SPORTS IN GREAT BRITAN.

The English are great lovers of sport; and they are neither playing nor waching games, they like to talk about them. However, there is important thing about sport in Britain which we must know. Today, an big sports is professional and famous players can make a lot of money.

Lat's take Football for example. It is the most popular team game in Britain. It is played in most of the schools, and there are thousands of amatur teams for young man in all parts of the country. But for most of the public, football is a professionals games which is watched on saturday afternoons at the stadiym.

Professional football is big business. Every larg town has one or more professional clubs.

Ragby football is played with an oval ball which may be carried. The players in the other team try to stop the man running with the ball by frowin him to the ground. There are fifteen players in each team.

Sports competition get big crowds in Great Britan. All people in Great britan are fond of sport and Englishman know is they train hard Sport will make them srong and helthy.

Moscow.

I am going to tell you about Moscow. Moscow, the capital of Russia, is one of the largest cities in the world. The total area of the city is about 900 square kilometers. It is political, commercial and cultural center of the country. About 10 million people live in the city. Moscow was founded in 1147 by prince Yuri Dolgoruky. Moscow stands on the bank of the Moskva river. Moscow is also one of the most beautiful city in the world. The heart of Moscow is Red Square, the central and most beautiful place in Moscow. Here one can see the Cathedral of St. Basil, the monument to Minin and Pozharsky, the Kremlin, the History museums and other interesting things. Some skyscrapers decorate Moscow including Moscow State University, the oldest university in Russia. It was founded in 18^th century by Lomonosov. Moscow is a city of students. There are over 82 higher educational institutes in it. The are more then 80 museums in Moscow. The largest one is Pushkin museums. The world famous art gallery, the State Tretyakov art Gallery, is in Moscow too. Moscow is famous for it’s theaters. The best-known of them is the Bolsoi Opera House. Drama theaters and studios are very popular too. There are many parks and gardens in Moscow, that’s why its citizen like to spend their free time out home. The most beautiful one is Park of Culture. Moscow is also the seat of the Russian Federation Parliament ( the Duma ) and the Official Resident of the Russian President. I live in Moscow and I think that it’s beautiful and worth seeing and in the future it will be better ‘cause we love it very much.

Children in sport.

I Hello, and welcome to today's 'You & Yours'. On today's program we look at children who are trying to be champions in the world of sport, and the pressures they can be under to win. Now I spoke to Allan Baker, the former British Athletics coach, and he had this to say.

AB Well the problem is that you want to find these children at quite a young age, to train them and motivate them as early as "possible. At that age they don't have social problems, you know they don't have boyfriends or girlfriends, so they give their sport the whole of their life. But they're so young that they can lose their childhood, and they're adults before they're 16. But of course they're not adults at all. Physically they can be quite developed, but emotionally they're still children. Everybody's looking for the new young star of the future, because there's a lot of money to be earned.

I Tennis is one of the sports where youngsters can play against their elders with more than a chance of success. In America there are tennis schools which accept children from as young as 9. So from the age of 9 a boy or girl is playing tennis for four or five hours every day, and doing ordinary school work around that. I spoke to the team manager of the English Lawn Tennis Association, Pam de Grouchy.

PG You see, we've already seen two 14-year-old American girls, that's Tracy Austin and Andrea Jaeger, playing at Wimbledon, and now, both at 18, they are now already showing the pressures on their bodies and their minds, and people are beginning to question whether this is a good thing for children. A 14-year-old just can't cope with the pressures of Wimbledon, the tournament, the Wimbledon crowds, and the press reporters. Well, I say to my girls, 'Stay at home, stay at school, do the things that teenagers like doing. If you like swimming, well swim; if you like going to dances, just go!' And if when they're older they'd really like to be a professional tennis player, well, they'll be a little older than the Americans, but they'll be better people for it, of that I'm perfectly sure.

I Pam de Grouchy thinks that young players shouldn't be allowed to become professionals until the age of 17 or 18 at least. I asked her what was responsible for the pressures on the young players - was it the money that can be earned, the parents, or perhaps the children themselves?

PG Oh no, it's the parents, without a shadow of a doubt. They want to push their children. I get letters from parents saying, 'My little Johnny enjoys playing tennis all day, and he'd like to learn only that and be trained by a professional coach', and quite frankly I just don't believe it.

I But what about the youngsters themselves? Robert, a 100-metre and 200-metre runner gave me an idea of his training program, and his own very simple way of avoiding trouble.

R Well I train under a coach for three days a week, and then decide how much running to do. If I've trained hard, well then maybe I run five miles, you know, if not so much, then eight miles. Well, of course, I'd like to go to the next Olympics and represent Great Britain, and of course I'd like to win a gold but there are lots of other things I like doing with my life too. I play in a rock group and I'm also a keen photographer. Well, I suppose for me the most important thing is enjoyment. If, if you win, you're happy, and if you lose, it's the same. I mean if you start getting upset every time you lose, I think it's time to stop.

I The sports stars of tomorrow, and good luck to them.

Young problems.

When you leave school you understand that the time of your independence life and the beginning of a far more serious examination of your abilities and character has come. You also understand that from now you’ll have to do everything yourself, and to “fight” with everybody around you for better life. The first problem that young people meet is to choose their future profession, it means that they have to choose the future of their life. It’s not an easy task to make the right choice of a job. You know children have a lot of dreams about their future : to become a superman or a policeman or a doctor … It’s very easy they think, but when they become older and see real world they understand that in all professions need to know perfectly about what you do, you must be well-educated and well-informed. That’s why I think it’s very important to have a good education at school. And if you work hard everything will be OK. Another problem of young people is drugs. This is a relatively new problem but it is becoming more and more dangerous. Million young people today are using drugs, and most of them will die. Usually they want just to try it , then again and again … and after year may be two years they will die . It is true. Because there are no medicine to help you. That’s why never do it, if you do - it goes bad, very bad. I think that police must work hard to protect young people from drugs. Because drugs will kill our young generation and our future will be very bad.

PROBLEMS OF UNEMPLOYMENT OF YOUNG PEOPLE.

People of almost every age are susceptible to this pernitious disease but it hits the youth the hardest. It's name is unemployment. The persent-age of unemployed youth in the total number of the jobless is high. In many developing countries the situation is more serious. Many young people to commit suside. Unless the economic situation in the world changes, youth unemployment will mount. This prodictions refer to all catigories of workers-with high and low skills in town and country. For all there possible distinctious,these young people over outside the production structure of society. The are deprived the possebility of creting there are "surplus" from time to time some may get a hit of luck, but the lot of the majority is to feel their unlessles to lose their ideals and become disillusioned. Unemployment greatly intemcilicselle tendency among the youth towards, drug education , frastretion and crime. This is a time bomb and is a heavy acusation of any social economic system.

THE PROBLEMS OF TEEN-AGES.

There are many young people in our country. Each of them has one's own view point on their life and their future. There are many problems which are common for all young people.For Example: how to spend their free time, what to do after school, choosing a profession, how to deal with girl and boy-friends and so on.

The problem number one of most of the young people is the problem of fathers and sons. All young people want to be independent, they want their parents to listen to their opinion, not to interfere in their private life. Some parents neglect their children, because they cant find a common language with each other.

Many problems were hushed up, but now we can speak openly about them. I think that the most difficult and sirious problem of modern teen-ages is drug-habit. Some young man use drugs, because they think that will be cool guys. But they don't understand, that it's wrong. Some of them can't stop that, and they become dependent on drugs. And they commit different serious, because they need some money to buy drugs. There are also many other problems: alchoholism, smokin and so on. There are many youth organisations in our country, wich unite young men on different principles. Members of every organisation has ons own world out looks. Each of them has their own morral qualities. There are some informal organisations, for example: skinheads, hippies, panks and so on. Now there exists the problem of missundrstanding beetwen different youth groups.

We also face the problem how to spend our free time. We can do it in different ways. Some of teen-ages spend their free time in different night clubs. Other young people spend their free time in the strets.

As for me, i spend my free time at home or in the night clubs. I also have some problems with my parents. But every time then i have them i try to slove them without quorrel.

Now we are young people and we are the future of our country. Teen-aegs play an important role in the modern society. Grown up's must remember that we are the future of our country and in present moment our character is formed and that's why our parents must not assert pressure on us.

David Attenborough

David Attenborough is very gloomy about much of what he's seen. What's depressed him most has been the huge speed and scale of change that human beings are inflicting on the world. People destroy everything around them. For example they cut down forests just because they need firewood to keep warm. And they don’t think about the future. When they cut down forests, the good soil have no umbrellas to protect them from the heavy rains. Water washes all good soil and in the future we will have no soil, no forests. Every year people destroy about 29,000 square miles. That is an area the size of the whole Scotland disappearing every year. Forty per cent of our drugs, our medicines, are derived from plants and most of those come from the tropical rain forests, and most of those come from the Amazon. But if nothing will be doing Amazonian jungle will disappear in just few years. Trees are a vital part of the water cycle, and of course they give us the oxygen. That means that we’ll have nothing to drink, to eat and no oxygen to breathe. Cutting down forests also causes floods. But we can’t say to these people that they mustn’t cut down that tree in order to cook their food. And it is an important problem of mankind – thinks David. But there are also other environmental problems today. Some of these problems are : the ozone holes, global warming ( or green-house effect ), acid rain … And the tragedy is that the people who suffer first are the deprived people, the people who are living on the edge of prosperity. And if they think that they are insulated from that, they are wrong. I think now a lot of people are beginning to realize that environmental problems are not somebody else’s. They make different organization, whose aim is conservation. For example “ GREEN PEACE ” , “ FRIEND OF THE EARTH ” and others. Everyday millions people from all over the world do everything to protect our environment , and they need for our help. I think we ought to help them , just to make our future better.

Environmental protection.

Our earth is our home, so if we want to protect our home we should protect our environment from harmful effects of human activity. Some of these activities cause pollution. Pollution now is a very important problem. Some of these problem are : the ozone holes, global warming ( or green-house effect), acid rain … The ozone layer is a layer of gases which stop harmful radiation from the sun protecting the earth. Recent research shows that there is a hole in part of the ozone layer which is caused by smoke from factories, car exhaust fumes, aerosol cans ‘cause they contain CFC. Global warming is an increase in world temperature caused by an increase in carbon dioxide. Acid rain is rain that contains dangerous chemicals, this is caused by smoke from factories. Another problem is poisons in food. Farmer soften spray chemicals in crops to safe them from pests. These chemicals are called pesticides. Scientists have found that pesticides often end up in our food and they can cause health problems - especially for kids. The seas are in danger. They are filled with poison : industrial, chemical, nuclear waste. Every ten minutes one kind of animal, plant or insect dies out for ever. And if nothing is done our earth will die in about 30 years from now. So what can we do to protect our environment ? I think that we should recycle our used things, we should plant more trees, we should not waste resources but try save them, we also must make smoke from factories and car’s fumes more clean, we must not dump industrial waste to seas and rivers …Now people are beginning to realize that environmental problems are not somebody else’s. They make different organization, whose aim is conservation. For example “ GREEN PEACE ” , “ FRIEND OF THE EARTH ” and others. Everyday millions people from all over the world do everything to protect our environment , and they need for our help. I think we ought to help them , just to make our future better.

My future profession.

When you leave school you understand that the time to choose your future profession, your future life has become. It’s not an easy to make the right choice of a job. I have known for long time that leaving school is the beginning of my independent life, the beginning of a far more serious examination of my abilities and character. What do I want to be when I leave school ? It’s very important question for me. A few years ago it was difficult for me to give a definite answer. As the years passed I changed my mind a lot of times about what science or field of industry to specialize in. It’s difficult to make up my mind and choose one of the hundreds jobs to which I might be better suited. A coupe of years ago I wanted to become a doctor, you know I wanted to help people who had problems with health. Then I wanted to become a policeman, then a spaceman, I even wanted to become a professional football player. But all of them now are in the past, they were like children’s dreams and nothing more. Now I have already decided what to do. I’d like to be an aviator. I know that it’s very difficult. I should know perfectly everything about the planes, airports, weather and other things. You know that the weather is very important thing for the flights too. I must be well-educated and well-informed. So that’s why at first I am going to go to the Aviation University in Moscow, then when I finish studding I’ll go to my country to try to get a job in the air companies. You know may be something will be not OK, because I don’t know what will happen tomorrow, but I know that I’ll do everything to realize my plane and my dreams. I also want to say that the profession should be chosen according to the character and hobbies of the person. That’s why parents mustn’t make their children choose the thing they like ( parents like ). Children must do it themselves. Because they must love the thing they do, believe that people need them and their job will bring them more pleasure.

MY FUTURE PROFESSION

What I would like to become? This question pasels me

greatly. Every job has its elements of difficulties and interest.

I think that nearly all the professions are very important in

life. But to choose the right occupation is very difficult,

because we must take in to consideration many factors. We must

consider our personal taste and our kind of mind. At the same

time we must satisfy the requirements of our society and peoples

needs in one profession or another.

The end of school is the beginning of an independent life,

the beginning of a more serious examination. In order to pass

that very serious exam we must choose the road in life which will

help us best to live and work. Each boy and girl has every

opportunity to develop mind and use knowledge and education

received at school. Some may prefer to work in factories or

works, others want to go into construction: to take part in

building power stations and new towns. Many opportunities to work

and to satisfy at the same time the requirements of the society

and your own personal interest are offered in the sfere of the

services transport, communications and many others.

I have a specially liking for to became a programmist. I

like this profession because it very interest.

Learning foreigner language.

More and more people realize that every educated person should know a foreigner language. The most popular language now is English. English is a world language. It’s the language of progressive science and technology, trade and cultural relation, commerce and business. It’s the universal language of international aviation, shipping and sports. It is also the major language of diplomacy. Hundreds and hundreds of books, magazines and newspapers are printed in English and real all over the world. 75% of the world’s mail and 60% of the world’s telephone calls are in English. Half of the world’s scientific literature is written in English too. English is spoken by more than 350 million people . It is the official language of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland of the United States of America, of Australia and New Zealand. English is used as one of the official languages in Canada, the Republic of South Africa and the Irish Republic. It’s also spoken as a second language speakers in many parts of Asia and Africa. The number of second language speakers may soon exceed the number of native speakers. In Russia English is very popular : it is studied at schools, colleges, universities, and sometimes even at nurse schools. There are also other languages that are popular in the world. For example Chinese, the first language in the number of people who speak it, is used by over 1000 million people, it means that out one of every five people in whole world speaks Chinese. Another popular language is Arabic, which is the official language of several Asia’s countries ( Iran, Iraq, Syria, United Arab Emirates and others). Learning a foreign language is not an easy thing. It is a long and slow process that takes a lot of time and patience. But to know languages today is absolutely necessary for everyone. I want to know foreign language because I have always been interested in foreign countries and their cultures. You know I think that who doesn’t know a foreign language , doesn’t know his own language.

Learning languages.
The problem of learning languages is very important today. Foreign languages are socially demanded especially at the present time when the progress in science and technology has led to an explosion of knowledge and has contributed to an overflow of information. The total knowledge of mankind is known to double every seven years. Foreign languages a