English topics (стр. 1 из 8)

The Russian Federation.

TheRussian Federation is the largest country in the world. It occupiesabout one-seventh of the earth’s surface. It’s total areais about 17 million square kilometers. The country is washed by 12seas of 3 oceans : the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Arctic. Russiaborders 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 millionpeople. The capital of the country is Moscow. It’s its largestpolitical, scientific, cultural and economical center. Russiais very rich in mineral resources. There is gold, platinum, diamonds,coal, peat, oil, gas and wood. There are over two million rivers inRussia. The Europe’s biggest river , the Volga , flows into theCaspian sea. Others main rivers are : the Ob, the Yenisei, the Lenaand the Amur. Russia is also rich in beautiful lakes. The worldbiggest lake - the Caspian sea and the world deepest lake - LakeBaikal are in it. Russia has one-six of the world’s forests.They are concentrated in the European north of the country, inSiberia and in Far East. On the vast territory of the country thereare different types of climate, from arctic in the north tosubtropical in the south. In the middle of the country the climate iscontinental. Russia has four beautiful seasons : winter , spring ,summer and autumn. They are very different. TheRussian Federation is a parliamentary republic. The Head of State isthe President. He is elected for 4 years and his powers are limitedby the Duma. At present Russia has some political and economicalproblems. (The price are rising, the rate of inflation is very high,people are losing their jobs and many factories are stopped). ButI believe that in the future the young generation of your countrywill sold all these problems and they shall make “Great”Russia as strong and powerful as it used to be.

RUSSIA.

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

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

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

It is a wonderful sight yosee our country from the plane. One can hardly imagine a country moreinteresting to trevellers whan Russia.

Siberia covers millions ofsquare kilometres. You fly over mountain, endless forests, large andsmall rivers, railways, motorways. You leave behind the lights ofyoung and small towns, plants and factories. Siberia is a rigeon ofuntold riches.

Father West are the UralMountains the border between Asia and europe. The Urals are riche indifferent minerals.

The country's European partcovers the territory from Urals to the Baltic Sea. The largest citiesof the Russia are situated between theBlack Sea in the south and theBlack Sea in the north. Such an our country from East to West. Thereis no over countrys in which the climet differs so much from one partto another. When it is still winter in the northen regions of ourcountry the first warm days arrive in the south. In the centralregions show storms and cold are still in power, while in the southpeople begin to think of spring crops. In the same season naturelooks different in different parts of our country.

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

MUSICIANS.

I will tellyou 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.Heplayed in the school orchestra,but he did not really enjoy playing classical music.It wastoo 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 leantsome 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 hisgrandfather.It became a sort of trade mark.When he is playing it,it sound like more than one instrument.It hasa device that records music he has Just played,and repeats it again and again.It isa 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 thestreets 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 towrite it.Andhere is another man who has been in the music business for abouttwenty years .His name is PaulKeгак.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 wasthere piano and then later the keyboards.He plays guitar also. He started playing professionally when he wasstill at school.He left school at sixteen.He wasplaying in a band, working on Sunday evening in pubs and clubs. Whenhe left school his only ambitions was to be in a pop group. He wasplayed with «Roxy Music» and »THE Smiths». Andhe made records with «Pretendness» and «Madness».It is very important to him because he made a first hit record withthem. That was in1974 .The song was called «How Long» and it was a big bit allover the world. Since1985he 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». Itis doing quite well,especially in America. His records are often played on radio thereand 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, reflectingvalidity in sound art images, one of the forms of public ideology.Having by powerful force direct emotionaleffect, musicduring of all history of man-kind plays a huge social,cultural andeducational role.

Lieading composers areconnected to progressive public movements,

life, interests and aspirationspeople. Each nations differs by peculiar national features. Folkmusic, being improved by creative efforts of many generations of thepeople, reaches a high degree of art maturity. On the basis of richesof national music professional musical creativity of composers isdeveloped. Rejection of music from advanced ideas epoch of nationalculture, national roots of art leads to it's to decline anddegeneration.

Idia emotional contents ofmusic is passed through sound art images, implemented in musicalsounds. The basic of music is the tune. according to the way ofperformance music is divided into 2 main branches:instrumental andvocal.

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

As for me i like these stylesbecause they are very rythmic and dancing. The beginning of technomusic was put very known singer Fredde Mercuri was the first tocompose music in the style techno. In those years very few peopleevaluated new style of music. But with the years a new style hasgrown up to such global sizes. Now this music is listened to by largepart of youth. I think it's very good that such musical direction asraiv has appeared. Because in raiv there are a lot of musicaldirections. Young people that are fond of music can easily choosejust that style which appeals to them.

Famous actors : Paul Newman, Elizabeth Tailor

Newman,actor, director, and racing driver, was born so good looking thatpeople said it was а shame to waste such beauty on, boy. Hewas born in Cleveland, 0hio, in 1925, and did some acting in high school and college, but never seriously considered making it hisfuture career. However, after graduating, he immediately startedworking in the theater. He met his first wife, Jackie Witte, whilethey were acting together, and they got married in 1949. They hadthree children, a boy and two girls He found work in the theater andon several TV shows in New York. When he was thirty, he went to LosAngeles 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'taccept another film role for two years. The film he chose was hisbig break. He played the boxer, Rocky Graziano, in the film Someoneup There Likes Me. Newman is a method actor who believes in livingthe part before beginning the film He spent days - from morning tillnight - with Graziano. He studied the fighter's speech and watchedhim box, and they talked endlessly about Graziano's childhood. Thepicture brought Newman stardom overnight. He was living in LosAngeles away from his family when he met Joanne Woodward, an actresswho he had first met in New York. They worked together in The LongHot Summer. His wife, Jackie, and Paul recognized that their marriagewasn't working, and got divorced. Newman and Miss Woodward weremarried in Las Vegas in 1958. Newman went on to make films such asCat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Hustler, Butch Cassidy and the SundanceKid, The Sting and Towering Inferno. He has made over forty-fivefilms, and has won many awards, but he has never won an Oscar. Hismarriage to Woodward is one of the longest and strongest inHollywood. They have three daughters, and they have co-starred in sixfilms. Ever since the film Winning, Newman has been passionatelyinterested in car racing, and in 1979 he came second in thetwenty-four hour Le Mans race. But the end of the 1970s was not allgood news for him. In 1978 his only son, Scott, died of a drugoverdose, and as a result Newman created the Scott Newman Foundationto inform young people on drug abuse. He has a strong socialconscience, and has supported causes such as the anti-nuclearmovement, the environment, and driver education. All the money from'Newman's Own' salad dressing, popcorn, and spaghetti sauce, now amulti-million dollar business, goes to charity. He is more than justa movie star. would like to be remembered as a man who has tried tohelp people to communicate with each other,' says Newman, 'and whohas tried to do something good with his life. You have to keeptrying. Thafs the most important thing.'

TVin my life.

TVis very important thing in our life. We can say that TV is our eyesbecause TV helps us to know more about the world, about the otherscounties, about the events that happened in the world. TV even helpsyou to know more about yourself. I like to watch TV very much. I cando that all day, that’s why sometimes my mother makes me turnoff TV. I have about 12 Russian TV channels, they are : NTV, MTV,ORT, RTR, and others. I also have few KOSMOS TV’s channels, forexample: Cartoon network, Discovery channel, TVE, and BBC. I likesome of them and hate others. So here are some words about thechannels that I like. So, my favorite channel is MTV . MTV is a musicchannel. 24 hours a day of music, can you believe it ? I like tolisten 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 hasvery interesting films, for example “ER” - my favoritefilm and a lot of sport programs. I like sport, especially football.NTV usually shows us two football match a week ( one Champion’sLeague match and one Russian national championship’s match ). Ialso like several foreigner channels, especially Eurosport. And youknow why ! Cartoon network is not bad, but I think that it’sbetter for children - not for me. That’s all about me. I alsowant to tell you about my parent’s favorite channels. My fatherlikes different channels with action films. His favorite actor isSylvester 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 bestinformation’s channels in the whole world. The Bush house is aheadquarters of the BBC World Service. Form this building the BBCbroadcasts radio programmers to the hole world. the World Serviceused to be called “ The Empire Service ”. It started in1932, broadcast only in English. At the first the announcers usedformal English and used to speak very slowly and clearly. In the1930s the BBC started broadcasting to the Middle East. And in the1938 it started broadcasting in Arabic. Very soon the BBC wasbroadcasting to all countries occupied by the Nazis. The BBC got areputation for honesty and accuracy. After the Second World War theBBC continued its foreign languages broadcasts, and to this daybroadcasts the news in thirty-nine languages. In the Newsroom ahundred and twenty journalists work day and night , writing twohundred news bulletins every 24 hours. All news in the BBC arechecked at least twice before it is broadcasting. That’s whythe World Service is not always popular with governments. The bb isthe world’s largest international broadcaster. Every week, onehundred and thirty million people listen to BBC World Service radio.In 1992 the World Service started broadcasting TV programs and todaypeople in countries all over the world can see as well as hear thenews from the BBC. Cause of our different tastes, sometimes my familyhas 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 bebetter and everyone will like it.

RADIOAND TELEVISION.

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

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

Iuse my set a good deal for keeping up my forhn lanuges.

Massmedia.

Massmedia ( that is the press, the radio and television ) play animportant role in the life of society. They inform, educate andentertain people. They also influence the way people look at theworld and make them change their views. Mass media mould publicopinion.Millions of people in their spare time watch TV and readnewspapers.

Everybodycan find there something interesting for him. On the radio

onecan hear music, plays, news and various discussions or commentariesof current events. Lot’s radio or TV games and films attract alarge audience. Newspapers uses in different ways,but basically theyare read.

Thereis a lot of advertisment on mass media. Some of the TV and radiostations and newspapers are owned by different corporations. Theowners can advertise whatever they choose.

Butit is hardly fair to say that mass media do not try to raise culturallevel of the people or to develop their artistic taste. Mass mediabrings to millions of homes not only entertaiment and news but alsocultural and educational programs.

Thereare more then six TV channels and lot’s of radio stations andnewspapers now in the Russian Federation.

Museumsand art galleries.

Millions people al over the world spendtheir holidays visiting museums and art galleries. They visit them tosee new things, to know more about other countries, their traditions,about history and even future of the mankind. There are differenttype of museums : historical, military The Tower ofLondon is a historical museum. It is the oldest palace, fortress andprison in Europe. It’s also one of the most popular museums nowadays. The great central tower, the White tower was built around1090 by William the Conqueror on the site of a Roman fort built theremore than 1000 years earlier. Massive defensive walls and othertowers were added later. Through the centuries, the Tower of Londonhas been a citadel, a palace, a prison for offenders against theState, the home of the Mint, the treasury for the Crown Jewels, amenagerie, and the first Royal observatory. Three queens of Englandhave been beheaded within its walls. The Tower’s guardians arethe Yeomen Warders who wear splendid scarlet and gold uniforms datingback to Henry VII’s time. Sir Hans Sloane was agreat collector. He filled his house with rare books and pictures,precious stones, stuffed animals, birds and butterflies, and ancientremains from all over the world. There had never been a collectionquite like it , and visitors were amazed by what they saw. When SirHans Sloane died in 1753, his wife let the King buy the wholecollection for just 20 000 pounds so that it could belong to thenation for ever. This was the start of the British Museums. It tookthirty years and thousands of tons of stone to complete the buildingand the forty-four massive columns which decorated the front. Thebuilding of the British Museums was finished in 1948. Thestate Tretyakov Gallery is one of the best-known picture galleries inthe world. It takes its name from its founder Pavel Tretyakov, aMoscow merchant and art connoisseur. In the mid-19^thcentury, Tretyakov began to collect Russian paintings. He visited allthe exhibitions and art studios and bought the best pictures ofcontemporary artists. Little by little Tretyakov extended his rangeof interest and began to collect earlier Russian paintings. More thanonce he had to add wings to his house, because his collection grewlarger and larger. In 1881 Pavel Tretyakov opened his collection tothe public. 11 years later he donated it to the city of Moscow. Sincethen the gallery has received hundreds of pictures from other museumsand private collection. Today the Tretyakov gallery is not onlyRussia’s biggest and most important museums of Russian art, itis also a research, cultural and educational center.

Japanschool .

We all know that education isimportant in every country , but in Japan it’s more importantfor lots of reasons. The main reason is because the Japaneseattitude to jobs. A good job is important to most people, but inRussia for example many people expect to, and perhaps want to, trymore then one job in their lives. In Japan is different. Peopleusually stay with the same company from the time they leave school oruniversity until they retire. So the children must do well at schoolto get a good job then they leave. The hard work starts at 12 thenthey leave primary school and move to junior high school. There isless relaxed and more competitive. They are about 40 pupils in eachclass and discipline is quite strict. The pupils sit in rows, andbefore each lesson they stand up and bow to the teacher. Politenessand respect are very important in Japan. The pupils don’t askquestions. It’s considered rude to question a teacher. Andanother difference is that they go to school on Saturday. So theyhave 6 days of school a week. They also go to special extra schoolsin the evening, so they are busy most of the time. They have 3 or 4hours of homework every night. The Japanese teenagers go back toschool because that is when they have club activities – sportsclubs, art clubs, English clubs and others. And children like theirschools ‘cause they have no time to be bored. Ithink Russian schools could learn something from Japan.

Educatingchildren at home.

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

Hobbies.

Hobbies differ like tastes. If you have chosen a hobby accordingto your character and taste - you are lucky because your life becomesmore 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 awide variety of activities, everything from gardening to travelingand from chess to volleyball. Gardening is one of the oldest man’shobbies. It is well-know fact that the English are very found ofgardening and growing flowers, especially roses. Both grown-ups andchildren are found of playing different computer games. This is arelatively new hobby but it is becoming more and more popular. Makingthing includes drawing, painting, making sculpture, designingcostumes, handicrafts and others. Two of the most famous hobbypainters were President Eisenhower and Sir Winston Churchill. Somehobbyists write music or play musical instruments. President BillClinton, for example, plays on the saxophone. Almost everyonecollects something at some period in his life : stamps, coins,matchboxes, books, records, postcards, toys, watches and otherthings. Some collection have not real value. Others become so largeand so valuable that they are housed in museums and art galleries.Many world famous collections started in a small way with one or twoitems . People with a good deal of money often collect paintings,rare books and other art object. Often such private collections aregiven to museums, libraries and public galleries so that others might take pleasure in seeing them. No matter what kind of hobby a personhas, he always has the opportunity of learning from it. By readingabout 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 thinkthat everyone should have a hobby, it is liked the target of yourlife.

LEISURETIME AND HOBBY

Manyman,many minds. All people are different and so they

preferspending 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

theytry 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

computergames. 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

connectedwith my hobby. And my hobby is reading books...

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

books.Booksplay such a great role in the development of

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

pretendwe travel to the past, future and to many different,

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

surethat books are our good friends and teachers. From them we

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

tellright from wrong, to love our Motherland, to understand

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

Asfor me I like to read different kinds of books: ......

LIESURE TIME.

Everybody sometimeshas a free time. Somebody prefer only to sleep in their liesuretime, but the largest part of us prefer to do a great amount ofthings which are pleasant and interesting for us. It may be reading,a various types of sport game, watching TV, listening music andothers. If we have a few day or a week we prefer to go to theattractive places. Many peoples thing that pupils and studients havetoo much liesure ,but in my opinion, they are wrong. We are verybusy. Many pupils have six or se-ven lessons a day and go toschool live or six day a week. Even during the holiday we learn ourlessons after school. And we just no time to go some-there. Oldest ofus are working after school or institutes. IТamnot spend my time at school and ofter I have a free time. The largepart of my free time devote to reading. I like to read books aboutanother coun-tries, another times and another worlds. Also I readbooks about history of our country. Besides reading I like to dophysical exercises. I and my school friends often gather after schooland play basketball, fooftball or other active games. But my favoritehobby is travelling. Usually I travel in summer and ofter it is atrip to the south, to the warm sea. thing all peoples must haveother occupation besides their basic work, ba-csuse it extand thebounduries of the familar world and teach us something new aboutpeople and thing.

Traveling.

Here is a story of a man who had anterrible holiday: The first thing that went wrong was that thecountry we were going to decided to have a war a few days before wewere going there. So that was the end of that. But the plane we weregoing on was stopping off at Rome. So rather than not having aholiday at all, we thought we'd go to Italy. Very nice. See thesights. Go to the beaches and get fat with pasta. We were at theairport waiting for the plane and a friend of mine who lived near theairport had come to see us off. So we were having a few drinks in thebar and joking with this friend of mine, Peter, saying 'Poor old youin cold rainy England. This time tomorrow we'll be in Italy on thebeach.' And I went down to see if the flight had been called anddiscovered it had gone. It was a terribly stupid mistake.We hadn't checked thetime of departure. I was sure it was going 9 something but it wasgoing at 19 something which of course is 7 o'clock. So we wereactually there in the bar when it went without us. We weredetermined to have our holiday. The irony was that Peter was nowgoing back to his comfortable home and we were stuck in the cold andthe rain at 10 o'clock at night. You see, it was a charter flight sowe couldn't book another one. We lost our money and all the otherflights were booked up. Well, we got a train to the South Coast andcaught the midnight boat across the Channel, froze to death allnight, it was a terrible crossing with people being sick everywhere.And eventually we got to I think it was Dieppe and then a train toParis. We got to Paris very early in the morning and I thought we'dbe all right. You see, we now had to hitch hike because a lot of ourmoney had gone on the boat and the train, but I thought 'Well, it'svery early in the morning, we'll get a good place to start hitchingand we'll soon be well on our way.' We got to the start of themotorway and I just couldn't believe it. I've never seen so manypeople trying to hitch a lift in all my life. Well, it was then itsuddenly dawned on me. It was August the first wasn't it? and onAugust the first in France the whole population goes on holiday andthere were hundreds of people, stopping the traffic, banging ondrivers' windows trying to persuade them to stop and give them alift. It was chaos, disastrous. Well, we got moving eventually. Alorry 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 wethen set off again the next day. We got some lifts, and met a greatchap who owned a vineyard. He took us back to his farm and we tastedall this wine -Burgundy, my favorite - and we had a great time. Nowthe holiday really was starting. Well, he took us back to themotorway, and there we were by the side of the road, the sun wasshining, we were a bit merry, sang a few songs - you know, life wasgreat. And we got another lift from ... well he was a maniac,complete maniac. He seemed nice enough, but within a few minutes hewas driving at about a hundred miles an hour, overtaking on theinside on the motorway, with his stereo at full volume, one hand onthe 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 neverbeen 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'tstop then she pretended to be sick in his car, and he stopped inseconds. He had this really flash expensive car, and as soon as hestopped we just jumped out and ran. The worst thing was thistremendous drop from feeling so good to thinking that we were goingto get killed. We eventually got down to the south of France andbegan to have a good time, and then down to Italy. We ran out ofmoney, of course, but apart from that, it was good. I've never hadsuch a tiring holiday. When we got back, I was exhausted. At the endof the holiday, I needed a holiday! And this is a story of an oldwoman. She has traveled all over the world in her tiny van. It's anice way of having holiday. Now at this moment, somewhere on theother side of the Atlantic, Olive Gibbs is probably chugging alongthe road, in the early morning in her tiny camping van. The travelbug came to Mrs. Gibbs rather late in life. About 14 years ago, tohelp her get over the death of her husband she went on an overlandbus trip to Katmandu. This fired her with the enthusiasm to travelmore, 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 toAmerica, Australia and South Africa. Ann Catchpole met her at herhome on the Sussex coast just before she was setting out on hercurrent venture another wander around America, Canada and Mexico,that'll take about a year, and she'd been very busy that afternoonpacking up the van, mainly, as she told Ann, with stocks of food. Of all the meals that Ihave during the day, my breakfast is the one that I like. It's notthat 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, Ishould think I have about 10 pounds, and when that run out and if I'mdown in California by then I shall make some marmalade. I takeEnglish things like Marmite which not many other countries of theworld seem to appreciate. I'm also taking crisp breads to the UnitedStates because I don't care for their bread very much. And I takebiscuits because I don't care for their biscuits very much. Butotherwise I can buy everything I need in the United States. But Idon't like wasting my time shopping, so I carry as much as I can andvisit a supermarket only when I'm forced to. Well, I know vaguelywhich way I'm going to go, but I do change my direction if there'ssomething I hear about which I think I would like to see, or I don'tlike the road I'll go a completely different way. And at thebeginning of the day I don't know quite where I'm going to sleep atnight. I wait until I feel tired or I wait until I see somewhere thatattracts me and then I stop. The first thing I do, and I do thisdeliberately, I make myself a cup of tea, and I sit outside my vanbecause I think it, it pleases the Americans to see an English ladyhaving afternoon tea. But as soon as I really ... as soon as Iarrive, especially in the United States or Canada, the men all wantto talk to me about places they've been to when they were in the armyduring the war over here. Other people want to know and tell me aboutwhere their ancestors came from, and nearly always I have been to theplaces, or at least know something about them, because I do travelquite a bit in my own country as well as going abroad. In fact whenI'm trying to unpack at the end of a day's journey and get a meal inthe evening, life becomes very difficult because people gather roundand want to know all about me and it's almost dark before I can geton with my unpacking and getting a meal ready. But I do try to get mycup of tea in first. In Zimbabwe, at that time called Rhodesia, and Iwas actually camping in Zimbabwe by the Zimbabwe ruins. And duringthe night someone went by with a torch. It woke me up, and I justthought it was somebody going to a toilet, and I took no notice. Butwhen I woke up in the morning I found that a lot of my papers hadbeen taken, and the wallet in which I kept them. And of course Ididn't realize at the time what was going on. It must have been thenoise of the door closing which woke me up. I suppose I'm veryfoolish but often I don't lock myself in my van at night. Sometimes Ido if I feel at all nervous or if I'm in a camp site on my own, thenI do lock myself in. Each country has something special about it. ButI think the beauty of South Africa is something that I shall neverforget. 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 thisway again.

National holidays

There are many national holidaysin the world, when people all over the country do not work and havespecial celebrations. For example in Russia the major holidays are:New Year's Day, Victory Day. The first holiday of the year is NewYear's Day. People see the new year in at midnight on the 31st ofDecember. They greet the new year with champagne and listen to theKremlin chimes beating 12 o'clock. There are lots of New Yeartraditions in Russia. In every home there is a New Year treeglittering with colored lights and decorations. Children always waitfor Father Frost to come and give them a present. Many peopleconsider New Year's Day to be a family holiday. But the young preferto have New Year parties of their own. The greatest national holidayin our country is Victory Day. On the 9lh of May, 1945, the SovietArmy and its allies completely defeated the German fascists and theSecond World War ended. A lot of guests from different countries ofthe world came to Moscow to participate in the celebrations. Thereare fewer public holidays in Great Britain than in other Europeancountries. They are: Christmas Day, New Year's Day, Easter Monday,Spring Bank Holiday. Public holidays in Britain arc called bankholidays, because the banks as well as most of the offices and shopsare closed. The most popular holiday is Christmas. Every year thepeople of Norway give the city of London a present. It's a bigChristmas tree and it stands in Trafalgar Square. Central streets arebeautifully decorated. The fun starts the night before, on the 24thof December. Traditionally this is the day when people decorate theirtrees. Children hang stockings at the end of their beds, hoping thatFather Christmas will come down the chimney during the night and fillthem with toys and sweets. New Year's Day is less popular in Britainthan Christmas. But in Scotland, Hogmanay is the biggest festival ofthe year. Besides public holidays there are some special festivals inGreat Britain. There are also smaller, local festivals in Britain.Nowa few words about holidays in Brazil. The most important event inbrazil - this a festival in Rio-de-Janeiro, which passes each year atthe end of February the beginning of March. The festival lasts 4 daysand 4 night. In Rio there are special schools, which train the peopleto dance Samba and Lambada. Each of these schools exposes on aholiday about 4000 dancers and 300 drummers. Other important event inBrazil in the year is ancient religious holiday MACUMBA, which iscelebrated by Brazilian in the new year eve. During this holiday onsand of a beach KOPACABANA people place drinks and meal and lightcandles thirsted in sand. People in the midnight throw in the watertheir gifts and if ocean takes them, the year will be successful, butif it throws out on a coast, the year will not present. In thedifferent countries according to their traditions and history, thereis a set of various national holidays. But there is one thing, whichunites all of them: a holiday is always fun and pleasure.

Sportand healthy way of life : run your way to health

WhenI started running seven years ago, I could manage only about aquarter of a mile before I had to stop. Breathless and aching, Iwalked the next quarter of a mile, then I jogged the next quarter ofa mile, alternating these two activities for a couple of miles.Within a few weeks I could jog half way round Hampstead Heath withoutstop-ping. Soon I started to run up the quarter-mile slope to the topof Parliament Hill, although I had to stop at the top to get mybreath back. Eventually I found that I could even manage to get upthe hill comfortably. I started to run because I felt desperatelyunfit. But the biggest pay-off for me was—and still is—the deep relaxation that I achieve by taking exercise. It tires meout but I find that it does calm me down. In those early days I sawfew other runners. Now there are many more—and not just themacho sports freaks. Men and women of all ages have now taken uprunning. Some 25,000 runners aged five to 85 are attracted each yearto the Sunday Times Fun Run in Hyde Park. In the last two years theLondon Marathon has become the biggest British sporting event—overtaking the boat race and the Derby in the number of spectators itattracts. When I started to jog I never dreamt of running in amarathon, but in 1982 I realized that if I trained for it, it waswithin my reach, and after a slow, six-month build-up I man-aged the26.2 miles in just under four hours. A creditable performance for afirst-timer and a far cry from those days when I had to stop forbreath after a quarter of a mile. Whatabout heart attacks?Mystory shows that an unfit 39-year-old, as I was when I startedrunning, who had taken no serious exercise for 20 years, can do themarathon—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 theexpectation of becoming healthier? What about the chances of injuringyourself or dying of a heart attack? I was personally convinced ofthe health benefits of running because I felt unfit, and I wasn'tworried about the risk of a heart attack, because I was not a smokerand I was sticking to a fairly low animal-fat diet. But one person Iknew well did die immediately after a jog and plenty of people toldme I was mad to start running. Reassuring evidence now comes fromdoctors in Seattle, showing that vigorous exercise actually reducesthe chances of heart attack. They found that people who had a suddenheart attack when they appeared to be completely fit had taken lessexercise than those of similar age. According to their findings,published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (volume248, p 3113) it is necessary to take 20 minutes of vigorous exerciseat least two or three days a week to obtain some protection fromheart 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 ofunaccustomed stress causing a heart attack when a person is veryunfit, but this can be reduced if exercise is always increased ineasy stages. My advice is: if you are under 40, are healthy and feelwell, you can begin as I did by jogging gently until you are out ofbreath, then walking, and alternating the two for about two miles.Build up the jogging in stages until you can do the whole distancecomfortably. At first, two or three times a week will probably beenough. People over 40 who are in any doubt about their health shouldsee their doctor before starting an exercise program. Over-40s shouldbegin by making a vigorous walk of at least two miles part of thedaily routine. When you can do this comfortably you can start themixed jogging and walking routine and progress from there. You willhave to expect soreness of muscles and joints to begin with. Ifsoreness changes to pain, or if you find that you suffer from deeptiredness which you cannot shake off, then stop jogging for a whileand just walk.

SPORTS IN GREATBRITAN.

The English aregreat lovers of sport; and they are neither playing nor wachinggames, they like to talk about them. However, there is importantthing about sport in Britain which we must know. Today, an big sportsis professional and famous players can make a lot of money.

Lat's takeFootball for example. It is the most popular team game in Britain. Itis played in most of the schools, and there are thousands of amaturteams for young man in all parts of the country. But for most of thepublic, football is a professionals games which is watched onsaturday afternoons at the stadiym.

Professionalfootball is big business. Every larg town has one or moreprofessional clubs.

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

Sports competitionget big crowds in Great Britan. All people in Great britan are fondof sport and Englishman know is they train hard Sport will make themsrong and helthy.

Moscow.

I am going to tell you about Moscow.Moscow, the capital of Russia, is one of the largest cities in theworld. The total area of the city is about 900 square kilometers. Itis political, commercial and cultural center of the country. About 10million people live in the city. Moscow was founded in 1147 by princeYuri Dolgoruky. Moscow stands on the bank of the Moskva river. Moscowis also one of the most beautiful city in the world. The heart ofMoscow is Red Square, the central and most beautiful place in Moscow.Here one can see the Cathedral of St. Basil, the monument to Mininand Pozharsky, the Kremlin, the History museums and other interestingthings. Some skyscrapers decorate Moscow including Moscow StateUniversity, the oldest university in Russia. It was founded in 18^thcentury by Lomonosov. Moscow is a city of students. There are over 82higher educational institutes in it. The are more then 80 museums inMoscow. The largest one is Pushkin museums. The world famous artgallery, the State Tretyakov art Gallery, is in Moscow too. Moscow isfamous for it’s theaters. The best-known of them is the BolsoiOpera House. Drama theaters and studios are very popular too. Thereare many parks and gardens in Moscow, that’s why its citizenlike to spend their free time out home. The most beautiful one isPark of Culture. Moscow is also the seat of the Russian FederationParliament ( the Duma ) and the Official Resident of the RussianPresident. I live in Moscow and I think that it’s beautifuland worth seeing and in the future it will be better ‘cause welove 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 bechampions in the world of sport, and the pressures they can be underto win. Now I spoke to Allan Baker, the former British Athleticscoach, and he had this to say.

ABWell the problem is that you want to find these children at quite ayoung age,to train them and motivate them as early as "possible. At thatage they don't have social problems, you know they don't haveboyfriends or girlfriends, so they give their sport the whole oftheir life. But they're so young that they can lose their childhood,and they're adults before they're16.But of course they're not adults at all. Physically they can be quitedeveloped, but emotionally they're still children. Everybody'slooking for the new young star of the future, because there's a lotof money to be earned.

I Tennisis one of the sports where youngsters can play against their elderswith more than a chance of success. In America there are tennisschools which accept children from as young as9. Sofrom the age of 9a boy or girl is playing tennis for four or five hours every day, anddoing ordinary school work around that. I spoke to the team managerof the English Lawn Tennis Association, Pam de Grouchy.

PGYou see, we've already seen two 14-year-old American girls, that'sTracy Austin and Andrea Jaeger, playing at Wimbledon, and now, bothat 18,they are now already showing the pressures on their bodies and theirminds, and people are beginning to question whether this is a goodthing for children. A 14-year-old just can't cope with the pressuresof Wimbledon, the tournament, the Wimbledon crowds, and the pressreporters. Well, I say to my girls, 'Stay at home, stay at school, dothe things that teenagers like doing. If you like swimming, wellswim; if you like going to dances, just go!' And if when they'reolder they'd really like to be a professional tennis player, well,they'll be a little older than the Americans, but they'll be betterpeople for it, of that I'm perfectly sure.

IPam de Grouchy thinks that young players shouldn't be allowed tobecome professionals until the age of17 or18 atleast. I asked her what was responsible for the pressures on theyoung players -was it the money that can be earned, the parents, or perhaps thechildren themselves?

PGOh no, it's the parents, without a shadow of a doubt. They want topush their children. I get letters from parents saying, 'My littleJohnny enjoys playing tennis all day, and he'd like to learn onlythat and be trained by a professional coach', and quite frankly Ijust don't believe it.

IBut what about the youngsters themselves? Robert, a 100-metre and200-metre runner gave me an idea of his training program, and his ownvery simple way of avoiding trouble.

RWell I train under a coach for three days a week, and then decide howmuch running to do. If I've trained hard, well then maybe I run fivemiles, 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, andof course I'd like to win a gold but there are lots of other things Ilike doing with my life too. I play in a rock group and I'm also akeen photographer. Well, I suppose for me the most important thing isenjoyment. If, if you win, you're happy, and if you lose, it's thesame. I mean if you start getting upset every time you lose, I thinkit's time to stop.

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

Youngproblems.

Whenyou leave school you understand that the time of your independencelife and the beginning of a far more serious examination of yourabilities and character has come. You also understand that from nowyou’ll have to do everything yourself, and to “fight”with everybody around you for better life. Thefirst problem that young people meet is to choose their futureprofession, it means that they have to choose the future of theirlife. 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 becomea superman or a policeman or a doctor … It’s very easythey think, but when they become older and see real world theyunderstand that in all professions need to know perfectly about whatyou do, you must be well-educated and well-informed. That’swhy I think it’s very important to have a good education atschool. And if you work hard everything will be OK. Another problemof young people is drugs.This is a relatively new problem but it is becoming more and moredangerous. Millionyoung people today are using drugs, and most of them will die.Usually they want just to try it , then again and again … andafter year may be two years they will die . It is true. Because thereare no medicine to help you. That’s why never do it, if you do- it goes bad, very bad. I think thatpolice must work hard to protect young people from drugs. Becausedrugs will kill our young generation and our future will be very bad.

PROBLEMSOF UNEMPLOYMENT OF YOUNG PEOPLE.

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

THEPROBLEMS OF TEEN-AGES.

Thereare many young people in our country. Each of them has one's own viewpoint on their life and their future. There are many problems whichare common for all young people.For Example: how to spend their freetime, what to do after school, choosing a profession, how to dealwith girl and boy-friends and so on.

Theproblem number one of most of the young people is the problem offathers and sons. All young people want to be independent, they wanttheir parents to listen to their opinion, not to interfere in theirprivate life. Some parents neglect their children, because they cantfind a common language with each other.

Manyproblems were hushed up, but now we can speak openly about them. Ithink that the most difficult and sirious problem of modern teen-agesis drug-habit. Some young man use drugs, because they think that willbe cool guys. But they don't understand, that it's wrong. Some ofthem can't stop that, and they become dependent on drugs. And theycommit 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 youngmen on different principles. Members of every organisation has onsown 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 ofmissundrstanding beetwen different youth groups.

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

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

Nowwe are young people and we are the future of our country. Teen-aegsplay an important role in the modern society. Grown up's mustremember that we are the future of our country and in present momentour character is formed and that's why our parents must not assertpressure on us.

David Attenborough

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

Environmentalprotection.

Our earthis our home, so if we want to protect our home we should protect ourenvironment from harmful effects of human activity. Some of theseactivities cause pollution. Pollution now is a very importantproblem. Some of these problem are : the ozone holes, global warming( or green-house effect), acid rain … The ozone layer is alayer of gases which stop harmful radiation from the sun protectingthe earth. Recent research shows that there is a hole in part of theozone layer which is caused by smoke from factories, car exhaustfumes, aerosol cans ‘cause they contain CFC. Global warming isan increase in world temperature caused by an increase in carbondioxide. Acid rain is rain that contains dangerous chemicals, this iscaused by smoke from factories. Another problem is poisons in food.Farmer soften spray chemicals in crops to safe them from pests. Thesechemicals are called pesticides. Scientists have found thatpesticides often end up in our food and they can cause healthproblems - especially for kids. The seas are in danger. They arefilled with poison : industrial, chemical, nuclear waste. Every tenminutes one kind of animal, plant or insect dies out for ever. And ifnothing is done our earth will die in about 30 years from now. Sowhat can we do to protect our environment ? I think that we shouldrecycle our used things, we should plant more trees, we should notwaste resources but try save them, we also must make smoke fromfactories and car’s fumes more clean, we must not dumpindustrial waste to seas and rivers …Now people are beginningto realize that environmental problems are not somebody else’s.They make different organization, whose aim is conservation. Forexample “ GREEN PEACE ” , “ FRIEND OF THE EARTH ”and others. Everyday millions people from all over the world doeverything to protect our environment , and they need for our help. Ithink we ought to help them , just to make our future better.

Myfuture profession.

Whenyou leave school you understand that the time to choose your futureprofession, your future life has become. It’s not an easy tomake the right choice of a job. I have known for long time thatleaving school is the beginning of my independent life, the beginningof 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 togive a definite answer. As the years passed I changed my mind a lotof times about what science or field of industry to specialize in.It’s difficult to make up my mind and choose one of thehundreds jobs to which I might be better suited. A coupe of years agoI wanted to become a doctor, you know I wanted to help people who hadproblems with health. Then I wanted to become a policeman, then aspaceman, I even wanted to become a professional football player. Butall of them now are in the past, they were like children’sdreams and nothing more. Now I have already decided what to do. I’dlike to be an aviator. I know that it’s very difficult. Ishould know perfectly everything about the planes, airports, weatherand other things. You know that the weather is very important thingfor the flights too. I must be well-educated and well-informed. Sothat’s why at first I am going to go to the Aviation Universityin Moscow, then when I finish studding I’ll go to my country totry to get a job in the air companies. You know may be something willbe not OK, because I don’t know what will happen tomorrow, butI know that I’ll do everything to realize my plane and mydreams. I also want to say that the profession should bechosen according to the character and hobbies of the person. That’swhy parents mustn’t make their children choose the thing theylike ( parents like ). Children must do it themselves. Because theymust love the thing they do, believe that people need them and theirjob will bring them more pleasure.

MYFUTURE PROFESSION

WhatI would like to become? This question pasels me

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

Ithink that nearly all the professions are very important in

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

becausewe must take in to consideration many factors. We must

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

timewe must satisfy the requirements of our society and peoples

needsin one profession or another.

Theend of school is the beginning of an independent life,

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

thatvery serious exam we must choose the road in life which will

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

opportunityto 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

buildingpower stations and new towns. Many opportunities to work

andto satisfy at the same time the requirements of the society

andyour own personal interest are offered in the sfere of the

servicestransport, communications and many others.

Ihave a specially liking for to became a programmist. I

likethis profession because it very interest.

Learningforeigner language.

More and more people realize that every educated personshould know a foreigner language. The most popular language now isEnglish. English is a world language. It’s the language ofprogressive science and technology, trade and cultural relation,commerce and business. It’s the universal language ofinternational aviation, shipping and sports. It is also the majorlanguage of diplomacy. Hundreds and hundreds of books, magazines andnewspapers are printed in English and real all over the world. 75% ofthe world’s mail and 60% of the world’s telephone callsare in English. Half of the world’s scientific literature iswritten in English too. English is spoken by more than 350 millionpeople . It is the official language of the United Kingdom of GreatBritain and Northern Ireland of the United States of America, ofAustralia and New Zealand. English is used as one of the officiallanguages in Canada, the Republic of South Africa and the IrishRepublic. It’s also spoken as a second language speakers inmany parts of Asia and Africa. The number of second language speakersmay soon exceed the number of native speakers. In Russia English isvery popular : it is studied at schools, colleges, universities, andsometimes even at nurse schools. There are also other languages thatare popular in the world. For example Chinese, the first language inthe number of people who speak it, is used by over 1000 millionpeople, it means that out one of every five people in whole worldspeaks Chinese. Another popular language is Arabic, which is theofficial language of several Asia’s countries ( Iran, Iraq,Syria, United Arab Emirates and others). Learning a foreign languageis not an easy thing. It is a long and slow process that takes a lotof time and patience. But to know languages today is absolutelynecessary for everyone. I want to know foreign language because Ihave 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. Foreignlanguages are socially demanded especially at the present time whenthe progress in science and technology has led to an explosion ofknowledge and has contributed to an overflow of information. Thetotal knowledge of mankind is known to double every seven years.Foreign languages are needed as the main and most efficient means ofinformation exchange of the people of our planet.
Today Englishis the language of the world. Over 350 million people speak it as amother tongue. The native speakers of English live in Great Britain,the United States of America, Australia and New Zealand. English isone of the official languages in the Irish Republic, Canada, theSouth African Republic. As a second language it is used in the formerBritish and US colonies.
It is the major international languagefor communication in such areas as science, technology, business andmass entertainment. English is one of the official languages of theUnited Nations Organization and other political organization. It isthe language of the literature, education, modern music,international tourism.
Russia is integrating into the worldcommunity and the problem of learning English for the purpose ofcommunication is espicially urgent today. Learning a foreing languageis not as easy thing. It is a long and slow process that takes a lotof time and patience. But to know English is absolutely necessary forevery educated person, for every good specialist.
It is wellknown that reading books in the original , listening to the BBC news,communicating with the English speaking people will help a lot. Whenlearning a foreign language you learn the culture and history of thenative speakers. One must work hard to learn any foreign language.

ALEC ISSIGONIS

ALEC ISSIGONISwas born in 1906 in Izmir, Turkey. His mother was German and hisfather was Greek with British citizenship. Issigonis didn’t goto school. He was taught by a private teacher at home. After theFirst World War, the family moved to Britain, and Issigonis studiedengineering. He was already a good designer but he couldn’t domath’s. He failed his math’s exam three times attechnical college! He worked for a number of car manufacturers beforejoining Morris in 1936. After the Second World War he design theMorris Minor, the first British car to sell over a million. In 1956he joined the British Motor Corporation. In that year the Suez Crisiscaused petrol shortages in Europe, so everyone wanted cars that didnot use much petrol. Issigonis was asked to design a small economicalcar that could take four passengers. The result was the Mini.Issigonis had complete control over the design of the Mini. He was anarrogant man who did not like to listen to other people. For example,he was told that all modern cars should have radios and seat belts.But he did not listen to the radio himself or wear seat belts, so herefused to put them in the first Minis. Later he changed his mind andseat belts and radios were added. He saw himself as an artist ratherthan a scientist. He once said, ‘Mathematics is the enemy ofevery truly creative man.’ Issigonis always followed hisinstincts. Luckily, they were usually right!AboutMINI. First of all hedecided that the Mini should be three meters long, half a metershorter than most small cars. Next, the wheels were made muchsmaller, with independent suspension. And they were put right at thefour corners of the car. Then, the engine was turned sideways, andthe gearbox was put underneath. Most space was saved by havingfront-wheel drive. And there was still room for four passengers. In1959 this design was revolutionary. Today nearly every small car isbased on the design of Mini. HenryFord (1863-1947) HenryFord was born in 1863. He was a man who transformed the world. Thecar he built changed the lives of people everywhere. In 1896, Fordsucceeded in building an automobile powered by a gasoline engine. Hebuilt this engine in his kitchen sink. In 1903, Henry Fordestablished the Ford Motor Company and introduced the Model T Ford.Henry Ford wanted to make a car that everyone would be able toafford. He was able to lower the price of the Model T from $850 to$360 by introducing mass production assembly line techniques. On anassembly line each person has one specific job and can do it fasterand more efficiently.

The United States of America.

The United States of America is located in NorthAmerica. It is one of the largest countries in the world. Thepopulation of the USA is about 250 million people. The USA has 50states. The largest of America’s states is Alaska. It’snearly 400 times the size of Rhode Island, which is the smalleststate. But Alaska has half the population of Rhode Island. Thecapital of the country is Washington DC ( the District of Colombia ).It was chosen as permanent site for the nation’s capital onDecember 1800 by George Washington. It’s main cities are NewYork, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Boston. There are manytall buildings in them that really scrape the sky, that’s whythey are called skyscrapers. It’s highly developed country. Itis rich in coal, oil, iron and natural gas. It exports a lot of rawmaterials, industrials and agricultural products. The United Statesof America is a federal republic. The American parliament ( calledCongress ) has two chambers : the House of Representative and theSenate. The head of State is the president. He is elected for fouryears and his powers are limited by the Constitution. Now thePresident of the USA is Bill Clinton. The flag of the country has 13red and white stripes representing the original 13 states and 50stars - for each of the state of it. Each state has its own nationalmotto, bird and flower as its symbol. America as any other countryhas its own customs, traditions and holidays. The United States iscalled “ melting pot ” because people from all over theworld have mixed together to create modern America society. Theearliest immigrants came from every countries of the world. Peopleenjoy the wonder of nature practically in every state. TheAppalachians and the Rocky Mountains, forest, plains, parties andeven deserts, wonderful lakes, water falls and rivers cover theAmerican territory that equals about 9.4 million square kilometers.Together with Hawaii and Alaska it is the 4^th largestnation in the world in area behind Russia, Canada and China. Amongthe most famous sites of interest are the Great Lakes, Niagara falls,the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco and other. There are manybeautiful Nation park and protected areas of wilderness in America. I think that the USA is very beautiful country and if you visit ityou will never forget it.

China.

China is the one of the largestcountries in the world. The total area of the country is over million square kilometers. As to population China is the firstcountry in the world. Over one thousand million peoples live in it.It means that one out of every five people in the whole world isChinese. China is a great country, so only it has the man-made objectwhich is visible from outer space - The Great Wall. Chinahas a recorded history of nearly four thousand years. It was amonarchy till 1949 when Mao Tse Tung became a head of the state.Since that year China has been a Socialist Republic. In 1976 Chinastarted the Cultural Revolution, and it finished in 1976 when Maodead. And now China is in the hands of Deng Xiaping, who has giventhe country a little free enterprise. Doors are now open to the restof the world. And you can even come to China to study there. Somewords about China’s education system. At the first allforeigners students will have to share a room with one Chinesestudent, which is very common. Days start very early, so they’llhave to get up at about six o’clock. There are morning exercisein the open air, and they will be invited to join it. The breakfastis at about six thirty. And all meals are communal. Their classeswill probably be in English and Chinese, they’ll begin at seventhirty. Lunch is at twelve, and then more classes until six. Afterschool day students usually go to the cinema. In fact it’s verydifficult to get tickets. People also like to go for walks, to playcards or just to sit outside talking. The air in the streets is notpollute, because there are few cars but literally millions ofbicycles. Chinese food is legendary that’s whyyou can find it in most cities in the world, and people like it verymuch. If you want to visit China you’ll have toget a visa. There are in fact many cities that you can visit withjust the ordinary visa, and others that you need to get a visa fromthe local police station to go to. Now there is a very good trainservice and also an internal air service, but I think that it’llbe better if you travel by trains because you’ll see so muchmore of the country. And I also think that China is worth seeing. Andyou’ll never forget it if you visit it.

"TheBritish Parliament"

TheBritish Parliament is the oldest in the world. It originated

inth 12th century as Witenagemot, the body of wise councellers

whomthe King needed to consult pursuing his policy. The British

Parliamentconsists of the House of Lords and the House of

Commonsand the Queen as its head. The House of Commons plays the

majorrole in law-making. It consists of Members of Parliament

(calledMPs for short). Each of them represents an area in

England,Scotland, Wales and Ireland. MPs are elected either at a

generalelection or at a by-election following the death or

retirement.Parliamentary elections are held every 5 years and it

isthe Prime Minister who decides on the exact day of the

election.The minimum voting age is 18. And the voting is taken

bysecret ballot. The election campaign lasts about 3 weeks, The

Britishparliamentary system depends on politicals parties. The

partywhich wins the majority of seats forms the goverment and

itsleader usually becomes Prime Minister. The Prime Minister

choosesabout 20 MPs from his party to become the cabinet of

ministers.Each minister is responsible for a particular area in

thegoverment. The second largest party becomes the official

oppositionwith its own leader and "shadow cabinet". The leader

ofthe opposition is a recognized post in the House of Commons.

Theparliament and the monarch have different roles in the

govermentand they only meet together on symbolic occasions, such

ascoronation of a new monarch or the opening of the parliament.

Inreality, the House of Commons is the one of three which has

truepower. The House of Commons is made up of six hundred and

fiftyelected members, it is presided over by the speaker, a

memberacceptable to the whole house. MPs sit on two sides of the

hall,one side for the governing party and the other for the

opposition.The first 2 rows of seats are occupied by the leading

membersof both parties (called "front benches") The back benches

belongto the rank-and-life MPs. Each session of the House of

Commonslasts for 160-175 days. Parliament has intervals during

hiswork. MPs are paid for their parliamentary work and have to

attendthe sittings. As mention above, the House of Commons plays

themajor role in law making. The procedure is the following: a

proposedlaw ("a bill") has to go through three stages in order

tobecome an act of parliament, these are called "readings". The

firstreading is a formality and is simply the publication of the

proposal.The second reading involves debate on the principles of

thebill, it is examination by parliamentary committy. And the

thirdreading is a report stage, when the work of the committy is

reportedon to the house. This is usually the most important

stagein the process. When the bill passes through the House of

Commons,it is sent to the House of Lords for discussion, when

theLords agree it, the bill is taken to the Queen for royal

assent,when the Queen sings the bill, it becomes act of the

Parliamentand the Law of the Land. The House of Lords has more

than1000 members, although only about 250 take an active part in

thework in the house. Members of this Upper House are not

elected,they sit there because of their rank, the chairman of

theHouse of Lords is the Lord Chancellor. And he sits on a

specialseat, called "WoolSack" The members of the House of Lords

debatethe bill after it has been passed by the House of Commons.

Somechanges may be recommended and the agreement between the two

housesis reached by negotiations.

GreatBritain.

The United Kingdom and NorthernIreland is situated on the British Isles. The British Isles consistof two large islands, Great Britain and Ireland, and about fivethousand small islands. Their total area is over 244 000 squarekilometers. The United Kingdom is made up of four countries:England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Their capitals areLondon, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast respectively. Great Britainconsists of England, Scotland and Wales and does not include NorthernIreland. But in everyday speech Great Britain is used to mean theUnited Kingdom. The capital of UK is London.

London is political, economic,culture and commercial center of the country. It’s one of thelargest cities in the world and the largest one in Europe. Thepopulation of the city is over 8 million. London is also one of theoldest and most interesting cities in the world. The British islesare separated from the European continent by the North Sea and theEnglish channel. The western coast of Great Britain is washed by theAtlantic Ocean and the Irish Sea. The surface of the British Isles isvaries very much. The north of Scotland is mountainous and is calledHighlands, while the south, which has beautiful valleys and plains,is called Lowlands. The north and west of England are mountainous,but all the rest - east, center and southeast - is a vast plain.Mountains are not very high. There are a lot of rivers in GB, butthey are not very long. The Severn is the longest river, while theThames is the deepest and most important one. The UK is one of theworld’s smaller countries. The population of the country isover 57 million and about 80% of it is urban. The UK is highlydeveloped industrial country. It’s known as one of world’slargest producers and exporters of machinery, electronics, textile,aircraft and navigation equipment. The UK is constitutional monarchy.In law, the Head of State is the Queen, but in practice, the Queenreigns, does not rule. The country is ruled by the elected governmentwith the Primer Minister at the head. The British Parliament consistsof two chambers : the House of Lords and the House of Commons. Nowthe Primer Minister of the United Kingdom is Tony Blair.

GREATBRITAN.

1.The United Kindom of Great Britan and Nothen Island is situated onthe British Iles not far from Europe. It consists of the island ofGreat Britan, the north-easten part of Irland and a great number ofsmall islands. Such as: the Orkney, the Hebrides, the Isle of Whiteand many others.

2.If you look at the map of europe you will see that Great Britan isnot large. It takes 6 hours to trevel in a fast train, from London,the capital of England, to Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Andthe June from London to Plemouth takes a little over 4 hours bytrain.

3.There are 4 part of Great Britain England, the capital is London,Scotland the capital is Edinburg, Walles the capital is Cardif andNorthen Island the capital is Belfast. Griat Britan lies not far fromcontinent. It is siparated from europe by the North Sea and EnglandChannel. The channel in it's narrowest part The Strate of Dover isonly 32 kilometres.

4.Great Britan has a very good geographical position, as it lies on the crossways of the sea routes from Europe to other parts of theWorld.

Thesea connects Britain with most European countrys such as:Belgium,

Holland,Denmark, Norway, Russia and some other countrys. The main sea routefrom Europe to America also passed throught the channel.

5.British climet is miled and damp. It often rains frogs are quitrequent espeacially in the West and south-west. The Gulf Stream awarm ocean current warms to seas around the British coast moderatingthe climet, giving it cold Summers milds winters. The tempirature inwinter seldom folls below zero and the field and meadow are green allyear round.

"USCongress"

TheUnited States of America is a federal republic consisting of

50 states. Each of which has its own goverment ("state

goverment").In some ways the United States is like 50 small

countries.Each state has its own governor, its own police and

itsown laws. The present constitution was proclaimed in 1787 in

Philadelphia,the President is the head of the whole country and

thegoverment and "commandering chief" of the armed forces. He

makesthe most important decisions and chooses the ministers, the

membersof his cabinet. But the President cannot do just what he

wants.The Congress must agree first. Americans choose a new

presidentevery four years. The residence of the President is the

WhiteHouse in Washington, the Capital city. The goverment of the

wholecountry (the Federal goverment) works from Washington, this

iswhere the Congress is based. The Capitol is the seat of the US

Congress.Congress is the American parliament which consists of 2

chambers.The Senate and the House of Representatives. The first

Congressmet in 1789 in New York city. The membership then

consistedof 22 senators and 59 representatives. Today the House

ofRepresentatives has 435 members. Elections to the house take

placeevery 2 years. There are 100 senators (2 from each state),

theyare elected to serve for a period of six years, but every

twoyears elections to the senate took place when one/third of

itsmembers must be changed or re-elected. Election day is always

inthe month of November, on the first Tuesday, after the first

Monday.Americans who aren't yet 25 years old have no right to be

electedto the House of Representatives. Whose, who are under 30

can'tbe elected in the Senate. The main political parties in the

UnitedStates of America are the Democratic Party and the

RepubllicanParty.

"BusinessTrips"

Neverbefore in the history of the world have businessmen traveled

somuch as they do today. It is not surprising because we are

livingin a world of growing international trade and expanding

economicand technical cooperation. Fascinating though it is for

touristtravelling, however, has become the most tiring of all

theoccupations for many businessmen and experts. Choosing a

comfortablehotel to stay at is, therefore, a matter of some

importance.There are plently of good hotels, motels, and guest

houses,in the world, conviently located for major business

centers.Many developing countries, such as India, Egypt,

Nigeria, Lybia, etc have excellent hotels. Their numerous

facilitiesinclude both: large and small cocktail barber's shops

andconference halls, equipped with simultaneous, multilingual

translationsystems. There are parking areas which can accomodate

alot of cars. It might be useful for travelling businessmen and

touriststo know that tailor shops, shoe repair shops and

laundry,dry cleaning services are available for guests. People

inthe office help guests to book train or steamer tickets and

renta car. They are also ready to give all necessary information.

Nowadayspeople who go on business mostly travel by air as it is

thefastest means of travelling. Passengers are requested to

arrive at the airport 2 hours before departure time on

internationalflights and an hour on domestic flights as there

must be enough time to complete the necessary airport

formalities.Passengers must register their tickets, weigh in and

registerthe luggage. Most airlines have at least 2 classes of

travel:first class and economy class which is cheaper. Each

passengerof more than 2 years of age has a free luggage

allowance. Generally this limit is 20kg for economic class

passengerand 30kg for first class passenger. Excess luggage must

bepaid for except for some articles that can be carried free of

charge.Each passenger is given a boarding pass to be shown at

geparturegate and again to the stewardess when boarding the

plane.Watch the electric sign flashes when you are on board,

whenthe "Fasten Seat Belts" sign goes on do it promptly andalso

obeythe "No Smoking" signal. Do not forget your personaleffects

whenleaving the plane.

"Customsand Traditions"

Thereare many customs and traditions in England. And I would

liketo tell you some of them. First tradition is called "Wrong

sideof the bed" When people are bad tempered we say that they

musthave got out of bed on the wrong side. Originally, it was

meantquiet literally. People belive that the way they rose in

themorning affected their behaivor throughout the day. The wrong

sideof the bed was the left side. The left always having been

linkedwith evil. Second custom is called "Blowing out the

candles"The custom of having candles on birthday cakes goes back

tothe ancient Greeks. Worshippers of Artemis, godess of the moon

andhunting, used to place honey cakes on the altars of her

templeson her birthday. The cakes were round like the full moon

andlit with tapers. This custom was next recorded in the middle

ageswhen German peasants lit tapers on birthday cakes, the

numberlit indicating the person's age, plus an extra one to

representthe light of life. From earliest days burning tapers

hadbeen endoued with mystical significance and it was belived

thatwhen blown out they had the power to grant a secret wish and

ensurea happy year ahead. And the last tradition I would like to

tellyou is called "The 5th of November" On the 5th of November

inalmost every otwn and village in England you will see fire

burning,fireworks, cracking and lighting up the sky. You will

seetoo small groups of children pulling round in a home made

cart,a figure that looks something like a man but consists of an

oldsuit of clothes, stuffed with straw. The children will sing:"

Remember,remember the 5th of November; Gun powder, treason and

plot".And they will ask passers-by for "a penny for the Guy" But

thechildren with "the Guy" are not likely to know who or what

daythey are celebrating. They have done this more or less every

5thof November since 1605. At that time James the First was on

thethrone. He was hated with many people especialy the Roman

catholicsagainst whom many sever laws had been passed. A number

ofcatholics chief of whom was Robert Catesby determined to kill

theKing and his ministers by blowing up the house of Parliament

withgunpowder. To help them in this they got Guy Fawker, a

soldierof fortune, who would do the actual work. The day fixed

forattempt was the 5th of November, the day on which the

Parliamentwas to open. But one of the consperators had several

friendsin the parliament and he didn't want them to die. So he

wrotea letter to Lord Monteagle begging him to make some excuse

tobe absent from parliament if he valued his life. Lord

Monteagletook the letter hurrily to the King. Guards were sent

atonce to examine the cellars of the house of Parliament. And

therethey found Guy Fawker about to fire a trail of gunpowder.

Hewas tortured and hanged, Catesby was killed, resisting arrest

inhis own house. In memory of that day bonfires are still

lighted,fireworks shoot across the November sky and figures of

GuyFawker are burnt in the streets.

Customs and traditions of english speaking countries.

Every country and every nationhas it's own traditions and customs.It's very important to knowtraditions and customs of different people. It will help you to knowmore about the history and life of different nations andcountries.One cannot speak about England without speaking about it'straditions and customs .They are very important in the life ofEnglish people.Englishman are proud of their traditions and carefullykeep them up. There are six public holidays a year in G.B.. Cristmasday is one of their favorite holidays.It's celebrated on the 25-th ofdecember. There are some traditions connected with it.One of them isto give presents to each other.It is not only children and members offamily.It's a tradition to give cristmas presents to the people youwork with.Another tradition is to send cristmas cards.All these cardsare brightly and coloured.Most of big cities of G.B.,especiallyLondon, are decorated with coloured lights and cristmas trees. OnTrafalgar Square, in the center of London stands a big cristmastree.It is a gift from the people of Oslo.It is over 50 feet high.Many families celebrate cristmas day in the open air near thecristmas tree in order to catch the spirit of cristmas.Children findcristmas presents in their stockings.The traditional english dinneron cristmas is turkey and pudding.Other great holidays are:FatherТsday,MotherТs day,Helloween and other.

"ThomasJefferson (1743-1826)"

ThomasJefferson one of the American President of the past was

bornin Virginia in 1743. When he was 14 years old, his father

diedand the young boy was left to choose for himself what to do.

Jeffersonstudied literature and languages. He also studied to be

alawyer, and later he wrote many of the Virginia laws. One of

thelaws for which he worked very much was a law to allow many

childto go to school free. Schools in America were only for the

childrenwhose parents were rich. When Jefferson was still a

youngman he was one of those who wanted freedom from England.

Hismost outstanding archivment was as chief author of the

Declarationof Independence, a statement of human rights and

liberties.It was read to the happy people on the 4th of July,

1776.Jefferson also drew up the constitution for his state,

Virginia,and served as its governor. He was sent to France as

the foreign minister of the United States of America and

afterwardswas President's Washington secretary of state. A few

yearslater he became the country's third president, serving in

thisposition for 2 terms. The author of the Declaration of

Independencedid another important thing for the American people.

Heworked out a plan for a university where the students and

teacherscould live and work together in a village build for

them.It was one of the first schools to teach science. Today, it

isthe university of Virginia. This well known man was also a

self-toughtarchitect. He introduced the simple classical design

toAmerica when he designed the Virginia State Capital Building.

Healso designed his own home, he remained the most influencial

architectof his time. Thomas Jefferson did many useful things

duringhis life time and he always thought of how to help

ordinarypeople. He was a practical and theoretical scientist

too.Jefferson's best traditions have been kept up by American

prograssivepeople in their struggle for peace and democracy.

"Pets"

TheEnglish people like animals very much. Pet: dogs, cats,

horses,ducks, canaries, chickens and other friends of men have a

muchbetter life in Britain, than anywhere else. In Britain they

havespecial dog shops, selling food, clothes and other things

fordogs. There are dog hair-dressing saloons and dog cemetries.

TheEnglish arrange dogs' shows and organize dogs' supper parties

forwinners of dogs' competitions. They do all they can to make

animalsfeel well in their home and outside their homes too.

Therewere photographs in English newspapres of a mother duck and

heryoung family, crossing slowly the road from Hyde Park to

KensingtonGarden. All traffic around was stopped to let Mamma

Duckand her little ones walked quitly from one park to another.

Inrecent years the English began to show love for more exotic

animalssuch as crocodiles, elephants, tigers, cobras, camels.

Youwon't be surprised, we think, when we tell you that London

Airporthas a special "animal hotel". Every year thousands of

animalsarrive at London Airport, some stay the night there;

othersstay several weeks. In one month, for example, "the hotel"

lookedafter 47000 creatures: birds, insects, fish, elephants,

mpnkeyand other animals. There are about 4000000 dogs, 6000000

cats,8000000 caged birds and lots of other animals in Britain.

TheEnglish people belive that they are the only nation on the

Earththat is really kind to its animals.

"Washington,DC"

Thecity of Washington, the capital of the United States of

Americais located in the District of Columbia (DC for short)

Manypeople consider Washington DC to be one of the most beatiful

citiesin the world. It is filled with many parks, wide streets

andimpressive buildings. In the centre of the city, in Capitol

Park, visitors' eyes focus on the Capitol, where Congress

convenceto inect laws. Many visitors come to Washington DC to

seethe White House. It is the greatest attraction for many of

them.The White House, the official residence of the President,

issituated at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. The largest room in

thisbuilding of over the hundreds room is the East Room, scene

ofmany state receptions, balls and musicals. Other famous rooms

are:the Green Room, the Blue Room, the Red Room, which are used

forafternoon teas and for receptions held before state dinners.

TheBlue Room, the most formal of these "colors" room is an

oval-shapedroom connecting the Green and the Red Rooms. On the

secondfloor, the floor with the family quarters and quests

rooms,is the Lincoln Room, which one served as an office for

presidentLincoln but today serves as an honor guest room. In

thisroom Lincoln signed the emansipation proclamation of 1863.

Otherlandmarks in Washington DC include memorials to three

Presidents:The Washington Memorial, The Lincoln Memorial and The

JeffersonMemorial; The Library of Congress, The National Gallary

ofArt, The John F. Kennedy center for the Perfoming Arts. The

Capitolis in the very center of Washington. It is located on the

CapitolHill, the highest point in the city. The Capitol is the

highestbuilding in Washington. There is a law in Washington not

tobuild buildings higher than the Capitol. The conrer stone of

theCapitol was laid by George Washington on Sep 18th, 1793. The

Capitolis the seat of the goverment of the United States of

America.

BRITISH THEATRES

Untilreccently the history of the english theatre has been buildaround actors rather then companies. It has been hard to findany London theatre that even had a consistent policy. There areno permanent staff in British theatres. Apply is rehearsed fora few weeks by a company of actors working together mostly forthe first time and it is allowed to run as long as it draws theodious and pays it's way.