Now"Covent Garden" in busier than ever, it is one of the fewwell-known opera houses open for 11 months of the year and it employsover 600 people both of the Opera company and the Royal Ballet.
THE NATIONAL THEATRE
Ittook over the hundred years to establish a national theatrecompany. It's first director from 1962 was Lawrence Olivier.This is the first state theatre Britain has ever had. A specialbuilding for it was opened in 1976. It has three theatres inone: "The Oliver theatre", the biggest is for the main classicalrepertoire; "The Lyttilton", a bit smaller is for new writingand for visiting foreigh countries and "The Cottesloe theatre",the smallest is used for experimental writing and productions."The Royal Shakespeare company" are devided between thecountry and the capital and it's produces plays mainly by Shakespeareand his contempraries when it performs is "Stratford -on-Avon",and modern plays in it's two auditoria in the Cities, Barbicancentre.
AUSTRALIA.
1. The Commonweaith ofAustrelia is a self govering federal state. It is situated in thesouth-west of the Pasific ocean, ocuping the continent of Australiaand a great number of islands of which Tasmania is the mostimportant. Australia is a continent-island washed by the Indian andthe Pasific Oceans.
2. The country consistsof 6 (six) states and 2 (two) territories. 16 million people live inAustralia. The capital is Canberra. The offical language is English.
3. Australia has aParlament has two chambers, the house of Representatives and theSenate. the governmant of the country is headed by the PrimeMinister.
4. Australia is notonly far from the rest of the world, it has a bad climet, too. Theclimet is better in the east and south-east, where most big citieshave grown-up. But the northen coast has too much rain, and thewesten coast is too dry.
5. The highest part ofAustralia, and almost all the mountains are near the coast. The wholecentral part of the country is dry; it never rains, there are nolarge rivers and no water there. So there is no very rich plant lifein Australia, except in the east and south-east.
6. Australia is animportant producer and exporter of primary products: wool, meat,sugar, fruit, black, coal, iron, copper, lead, gold and so on.
7. Most of thefactories are situated near big cities. There are 5 (five) big citiesin Australia: Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and bris bane. Thesecities are also the country's main ports.
8. Canberra wasspecially planned as a capital. It is a quriet city. All the gover-
ment buildings aresituated there. There no industrial plants in the city. About 300000
people live in Canberra.
9. Sydney is the oldestand largest city in Australia. It was founded in 1788. Sydney
is a big industrialcentre. About 3 million people now live in the city.
THEEDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OF GREAT BRITAIN.
Theeducational system of G.B. is extreamely complex and bewilder- ing.Itis very difficult to generalise about particular types of schools asschools differ from one to the other. The departament of educationand science is responsible for national educational policy,but itdoesnOt employe teacher or prescribe corricular or text books. Eachschool has itOs own board of governers consisting of teachers,parents, local politicians, members of local community, businessmenand sometimes pupils. According to the law only one subject iscompulsary. Such as religious instruction. Schooling for children iscompulsary from 5 to 16, though some provision is made for childrenunder 5 and some pupils remain at school after 16 to prepare forhigher education. The state school system is usually devided into 2stages (secondary and primary). The majority of primary schools aremixed.They are subdevided into infant schools(ages 5 to 7),and juniorschools(ages 7 to11). In junior schools pupils were often placed inA,B,C or D-streams, according to their abilities. Under the pressueof progressive parents and teachers the 11+ examination has now beenabolished in most parts of the country. There are some types ofschools in G.B.Grammar schools provided an academical cause forselected pupils from the age of 11 to 18. Only those children whohave the best results are admitted to these schools. They give pupilsa high level of academic education wich can lead to the university.Technical Schools offer a general education with a techni- cal biasand serve those pupils who are more mecanically minded. Thecorricular includes more science and mathematics. Secondary modernschools were formed to provide a non-academic education for childrenof lesser attainment. The corricular includes more practicalsubjects. The comprehensive schools brings about a generalimprovement in the system of secondary education.
BRITISHEDUCATION
Britisheducation emas us to develop fully the abilities of
individuals, for their own benefit and of society as a whole.
Compulsoryschooling takes place between the agers of 5 and
16,but some pupils remain at shool for 2 years more, to prepare
forfurther higher education. Post shool education is organized
flaxebly,to provide a wide range of opportunities for academic
andvacational education and to continue studying through out
life.
Administrationof state schools is decentralised. The
departmentof education and science is responsible for national
educationpolicy, but it doesn't run any schools, if doesn't
employteachers, or prescribe corricular or textbooks. All shools
aregiven a considerable amount of freedom. According to the law
onlyone subject is compulsary. That is religious instruction.
Childrenrecieve preschool education under the age of 5 in
nurseryschools or in infant's classes in primary schools.
Mostpupils receive free education finenst from public fonds
andthe small proportions attend schools wholy independent. Most
independentschools are single-sex, but the number of mixing
schoolsis growing.
Educationwithin the mantained schools system usually
comprisestwo stages: primary and secondary education. Primary
schoolsare subdevided into infant schools (ages 5 - 7), and
junior schools (ages 7 - 11). Infant schools are informal and
childrenare encouraged to read, write and make use of numbers
anddevelop the creative abilities. Primary children do all their
workwith the same class teacher exept for PT and music. The work
isbeist upon the pupils interests as far as possible.
Thejunior stage extence over four years. Children have set
piritsof arithmetic, reading, composition, history, geography
naturestudy and others. At this stage of schooling pupils were
oftenplaced in A, B, C and D streams according their abilities.
Themost able children were put in the A stream, the list able in
theD stream. Till reccantly most junior shool children had to
seatfor the eleven-plus examination. It usually consisted of an
arithmeticpaper and an entelligent test.
Accordingto the results of the exam children are sent to
Grammar,Technical or Secondary modern schools.
Socalled comprehansive schools began to appear after World
War2. They are muchly mixed schools which can provide education
forover 1000 pupils. Ideally they provide all the courses given
inGrammar, Technical and Secondary modern schools.
Bythe law all children must receive full-time education
betweenthe ages of 5 and 16. Formally each child can remain a
schoolfor a further 2 or 3 years and continue his studies in the
sixthform up to the age of 18 or 19. The course is usually
subdevidedinto the lower 6 and the upper 6. The corricular is
narrowedto 5 subjects of which a pupil can choose 2 or 3.
Themain examinations for secondary school pupils are
general certeficate of education (the GCE) exam and certificate
ofsecondary education (the CSE) exam. The GSE exam is held at
twolevels: ordinary level (0 level) and advanced level (A
level).
Candidatsset for 0 level papers at 15 - 16 years away. GCE
levelis usually taken at the end on the sixth form. The CSE
levelexam is taken after 5 years of secondary education by the
pupilswho are of everage abilities of their age.
Exploration
Christopher Columbus
300-400 years ago a great deal of the world wasundiscoveried. But now there seems little more to explore, the wildnorth was conquered, the jungle was conquered too. And it seems thatall the pages of the great book called “The Earth” hasbeen filled in, but exploration still goes on.
In the 15th century people knew only 3 continents:Europe, Asia and Africa. They knew nothing about America. The man whowas thought to be the discoverier of America was born in 1451 inItaly. His name was Cristopher Columbus.
Knowing that the earth was round he desided to reachIndia by sailing to the west. It was very difficult for him toorganize an expedition as nobody wanted to help him. At last theSpanish government gave him some money. In the 1492 he sailed with 3small ships in to the Atlantic ocean. They had been sailing for morethan 2 months and at last they saw land. Columbus was certain thatthe lands he discoveried were part of India and he called theseislands “The West Indias”. He made 3 voyagers to America.His last voyage was made in 1502-1504. After that, seriously ill, heremained in Spain until his death. He died believing that Cuba waspart of Asia. Colum-buse’s voyagers gave Europe first importantknowledge of the new world. Many places have been named in hishonour. America however was named after another explorer AmerigoVespucci.
Americus Vespucius (or Amerigo Vespucci, as the nameis spelled in Italian) was born in Florence, Italy, in 1454. He wasin Spain at the time of Columbus' first and second voyages. In aletter, written in 1504 and printed in 1505, he claimed to have madefour voyages, on the first of which, in 1497, he explored the SouthAmerican coast. This would make him the first European to land on theAmerican continent, for at that time Columbus had only reached theoutlying islands. Most scholars reject Vespucius' version of thisvoyage. Vespucius perhaps did accompany a Spanish expedition that ofAlonzo de Ojeda to South America in 1499, and in 1501 and 1503 heprobably went with Portuguese expeditions. Probably he nevercommanded an expedition himself and, of course, was not the firstperson to set foot on the continents to which his name is given.Vespucius died in Seville, Spain, in 1512.
Historic cities :Durham, York, Oxford
York. York is one of Europe’shistoric cities. It began as an important roman city. In medievaltimes a stone wall was built around it, and wall is still theretoday. There is the river Omse near Lendal bridge. And from here youcan walk around the city on the wall, it takes about two hours. Inthe south wall is Micklegate bar, where kings and queens entered thecity. There is also Monk bar and Booth bar. Inside the city there isa cathedral. It was begun in 1220 and finished two centuries later.If you compare this English cathedral with a catholic cathedral, youwill see that they are different. Cathedral in Protestant Englanddon’t have colorful paintings on the wall, the color is in thewindows. In the center of window of this cathedral is white rose-the symbol of York. There are also different interesting museums inYork. One of them is the National Railway Museum. There are a lot oftrains in it, for example the first public train in the world, builtin 1825 and the fastest steam train in the world are here.. WestYorkshire. The West Yorkshire moors, wheretwo great writers, Charlotte and Emily Bronte, lived. Their books areJane Eyre and Wuthering Heinghts. They lived in the 1800s in thevillage of Haworth with four brothers and sisters. Their father wasthe minister at the village church. All the children died by the ageof thirty, except Charlotte. She lived on alone with her father inthis house. Then at thirty-eight she married. But only nine monthlater she died too and was buried in the church by her old father.OXFORD. Oxford is oneof oldest and most famous cities in the world. it is famous for it’suniversity, the Oxford university. It also called a city of students,because over 12000 students are living and studding here in thirtyfive colleges. Oxford is a place of young people and old traditions,for example teachers are called dons and still wear black grows.Student here are taught one-to-one in the Socratic tradition. At thelibraries you can still see notices written in Latin - the ancientlanguage of scholars. Students here are surrounded by old stonebuilding. One of them is Hertford College, one of smallest collegesin the university. About two hundred students live and work here. ButOxford is not all work, there are a lot of clubs and otherinteresting places for students and dons to visit. For example theSheldonian theater, which is used for concerts and university’sceremonies. Opposite the theater is book shop, where people buybooks. It is one of the word biggest book shops, with sevenkilometers of selves. There are also a lot of pubs and cafes in thecity, where you can buy cheap food and drink a cup of coffee withfriends. There are two rivers in Oxford. People usually travel in therivers by boats called punts. Oxford is also famous for it’sgardens, which has a maze.
LEISURE TIME ANDHOBBY
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 connected with my hobby. And myhobby is reading books...