I want to get a good education and find an interesting and useful work. I have a hobby. I like to sing songs. My father likes to sing songs too. He knows many good songs and we usually sing songs together.
Nowadays young people don't like classical music. They prefer pop music. My parents invite me to some very good concerts of classical music. It is great. I am very grateful to my parents because now I begin to understand how wrong I was going only to pop concerts.
I am proud of my mother and father. They are musicians. We like to spend our free time together. We often go to the museums, to the Concert Halls, to the theatres.
I want to say that I respect my parents.
I HAVE A DREAM TO BE A DOCTOR
There are many interesting and noble professions. I want to become a doctor.
I like this profession and I am eager to get a medical education and work at a hospital.
It is a good tradition in our family. My mother is a doctor, my grandfather is a doctor and I want to be a doctor, too.
When I was a little boy my grandfather worked at a hospital and I spent some time at the hospital with him. He is a surgeon and works in a surgical department.
Day by day he takes care of his hospital patients, he treats them well. He is very attentive. Every day he comes into
wards asking patients, "What do you complain of?"
He wants all people to be able-bodied and he tries to treat his in-patients in a proper way.
To operate on persons is his main task. He is a kind and skilled surgeon.
Every day he comes into an operating-room and operates on his in-patients. After each operation he takes care of his in-patients. Day by day he helps them to recover and he is glad when he can say, "My in-patient is quite recovered."
Sometimes he advises his in-patients to go to sanatoriums after leaving the hospital. He instructs them in detail what they can do and eat after their operations.
My grandfather tells me a lot of true stories about doctors, their profession, their aid for people.
I respect my grandfather. I like his profession and I have a dream to be a doctor too.
SPORT AND A HEALTHY MODE OF LIFE
Sport is very important in our life. It is popular among young and old people.
Many people do morning exercises, jog in the morning, train themselves in clubs, in different sections and take part in sport competitions.
Other people like sports too, but they only watch sports games, listen to sports news. They prefer reading interesting stories about sportsmen. But they don't go in for sports.
Physical training is an important subject at school. Pupils have got physical training lessons twice a week. Boys and girls play volley-ball and basket-ball at the lessons. There is a sportsground near our school and school-children go in foi sports in the open air.
A lot of different competitions are held at schools, a great number of pupils take part in them. All participants try to get good results and become winners. Sport helps people to keep in good health. If you go in for sports, you have good health and don't catch cold.
Children and grown-ups must take care of their health and do morning exercises regularly.
There are some popular kinds of sports in our country: football, volley-ball, hockey, gymnastics, skiing, skating. Athletics is one of the most popular kinds of sports. It includes such kinds of sports as running, jumping and others. Everybody may choose the sport he (or she) is interested in.
There are summer and winter sports.
My favourite sport is swimming. I go to the swimming-pool twice a week. But I prefer to rest by the lake or the river and swim there.
My friend Kostya goes in for boxing. He is a good boxer and he is a brave and courageous boy. His hobby helps him in his everyday life.
Sports in Great Britain
National sports in Great Britain... It is a very interesting question, because many kinds of sport have taken the origin in England.
The Englishmen love sports, they are called sports-lovers in spite of the fact that some of them neither play games nor even watch them. They only like to speak about sports.
Some kinds of sport are professional in England.
Many traditional sporting contests take place in England, for example, cricket. It is played from May till September. This game is associated with England. There are many cricket clubs in this country. English people like to play cricket. They think that summer without cricket isn't summer. Cricket is the English national sport in summer. If you want to play cricket you must wear white boots, a white shirt and white long trousers.
There are two teams. Each team has eleven players. Cricket is popular in boys' schools. Girls play cricket too.
Football. It has got a long history. Football was played by the whole village teams in the middle ages in England.
Now football is the most popular game in Britain. It is a team game. There are some amateur teams but most of the teams are professional ones in England. Professional football is a big business. Football is played at schools too.
Rugby football. You can see a ball in this game, but it is not round. It is oval. This is a team game. There are fifteen players in each team. It is a popular game in England. There are many amateur rug-by football teams in this country.
If we speak about football we can mention an American football too. It is a game that is played between two teams of players using an oval ball that can be handled or kicked. The captain of the team must be the oldest or best player.
Table tennis or ping-pong. Englishmen heard about table tennis in 1880. Then the International Table Tennis Association was formed and the international rules were worked out.
Many people like to play table tennis. This game is played by men and women.
There are some tennis clubs in England, but if you play there it is necessary to pay money for it.
Englishmen like playing tennis but many of them prefer to watch this game.
Wimbledon. It is the centre of lawn tennis. Some years ago Wimbledon was a village, now it is a part of London. The most important tennis competition takes place there every summer.
Englishmen pay much attention to swimming, rowing and walking. Usually the Oxford—Cambridge Boat Race takes place at the end of March or at the beginning of April. It is an interesting contest between the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. It is usually held on the Thames River. The first such race was held in 1820. There were a lot of people watching this race.
There are some racing competitions in England. They are motor-car racing, dog-racing, donkey-racing, boat-racing, horse-racing. All kinds of racings are popular in England. It is interesting to see the egg-and-spoon race. The runner, who takes part in this competition, must carry an egg in a spoon. It is not allowed to drop the egg.
We must speak about the Highland Games in Scotland. All competitors wear Highland dress. There are such competitions as putting the weight, tossing the caber and others. The English are great lovers of sports.
LEARNING FOREIGN LANGUAGES
It is necessary to learn foreign languages. That's why pupils have got such subject as a foreign language at school. Everybody knows his own language, but it is useful to know foreign languages.
I learn English, because I understand that I can use it. For example, if I go to England I'll be able to speak English there. If I go to the USA, I'll speak English too. English is used not only in England, but also in other parts of the world.
I learn English because I want to read foreign literature in the original. I know and like such English and American writers as Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Lewis Carroll and others. I understand that I must learn English. If I know English well, I'll be able to go to the library and take books by English and American writers in the original.
I like to travel. But it is difficult to visit countries, when you don't know the language of these countries. If I know the language of the country, where I am going to, it will be easy to travel there. If I want to ask something, I can do it in English.
I like to read books. And I like to read newspapers, too. If I know, for example, English I'll be able to read English newspapers and magazines. Knowledge of foreign languages helps young people of different countries to understand each other, to develop friendship among them. For example, we have a foreign exhibition in Moscow. If I know a foreign language, it is easy for me to visit this exhibition.
You can see a lot of advertisements, signboards, names in the streets. They are in foreign languages. Very often they are in English. If you know English, you can read and understand them.
Now we buy many clothes from other countries If you know English well, you can read something about the size of this or that thing. It is clear for you what it is made of.
There are a lot of films in foreign languages. If you know foreign languages, you can understand films without any help.
There are international friendship camps in the world. If you can speak foreign languages, it will be easy for you to visit such camps and speak with the boys, girls, men even they don't know Russian.
In short, I understand that I have to learn English in a proper way and I try to do it.
I LIKE TO TRAVEL
I like to travel. First of all, the members of our family usually have long walks in the country. Such walks are called hikes. If we want to see the countryside, we have to spend a part of our summer holidays on hikes. It is useful for all members of our family. We take our rucksacks, we don't think about tickets, we don't hurry up and we walk a lot. During such hikes we see a lot of interesting places, sometimes we meet. interesting people.
I like to travel by car. It is interesting too, because you can see many things in a short time. When we go by car, we don't take tickets too, we put all things we need in a car. We don't carry them.
THE PROTECTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT
Our country. Our environment. There are many big and small rivers, green forests, high mountains, lakes and seas in Russia.
Our Earth is our home. I think people must take care of our Motherland.
There are some laws and decisions on this important subject. We have state organizations which pay attention to this problem.
The international conventions pay much attention to the control of pollution too.
There are a lot of industrial enterprises in our country, that's why we can't ignore the problem of the protection of our environment. Our main aim is the protection. Our environment must be clean. What V must we do for it? We have to control atmospheric and water pollution, to study the man's influence on the climate. The pollution of the environment influences the life of animals, plants and our human life. If we don't use chemicals in a proper way we'll pollute our environment.
Our plants and factories put their waste materials into water and atmosphere and pollute the environment.
There are many kinds of transport in our big cities, that's why we must pay attention to the protection of our nature and the health of the people.
Radiation. Now it has become one of the main problems. It is not good for J health of people. Many people died from radiation some years ago in Chernobyl. It ' was a tragedy. Another problem is earthquake. We know some terrible earthquakes in the world. Our scientists try to forecast earthquakes, then we can protect ourselves from them.
The people all over the world do everything to protect their nature, to make their country richer, to make their life happier.
CHRISTMAS DAY
Every country has its own customs and traditions. English people are proud of their traditions and they keep them up.
It is difficult to speak about England without speaking about its holidays. Christmas Day is among them.
All English people celebrate Christmas (or X-mas) on the 25th of December.
Christmas! What kind of holiday is it? It is the yearly celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. It falls on December 25 by the Catholic Church and on the 7th of January by the Orthodox Church. This holiday means the beginning of the new year and the new life. English people celebrate this holiday with the evergreen tree — Christmas tree. Children rut
along sock, called a Christmas stocking at the end of their beds and Santa Claus conies down the chimney to bring them presents.
Christmas Day is the greatest holiday in England. It is interesting to visit the shops before this holiday. There are a lot of nice Christmas cards and presents there. English people like this holiday very much and prepare for it beforehand. They buy presents for each other, try to send Christmas cards for their relatives and friends.
It is interesting to visit London during this holiday. There is a Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square. We can see many lights, toys and sweets all over this tree. Everywhere you can see slogans "A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year".
The traditional English dinner on Christmas is turkey and pudding.
NEW YEAR'S DAY
There are many holidays in our country. They are: New Year's Day, Christmas, Women's Day, Victory Day, May Day and others.
I like New Year's Day, it is my favourite holiday. The 1st of January is a winter holiday and now it is the first day of the New Year.
Peter the First changed the Russian calendar in 1699. He made the 31st of December, 1699 the last day of the year. The first of January 1700 became New Year's Day.
The 1st of January is in the middle of winter. The weather is usually fine and there is a lot of snow everywhere. As the 1st of January is a holiday I don't go to school and my parents don't go to work.
We usually have got a very interesting New Year's party at school. We have got it on the 28th or 29th of December.
Our family prepares for this holiday beforehand. My father buys and brings home a beautiful New Year's tree at the end of December. Our family has a tradition to buy it. I like to decorate the New Year's tree with toys, little coloured lights, sweets and a beautiful star on the top.
My mother and grandmother prepare our holiday supper and lay the table. I make a cake.
All the members of our family clean the flat before this nice holiday and then each of us try to dress well. We like to see the New Year in at home with our relatives. They come to see us at 11 o'clock in the evening.
At 12 o'clock we are sitting at the table and we are glad to see the New Year in. We say, "Best wishes for the New Year!"
I hope that next year will be better than the last one.
The New Year's Day is always connected with our new hopes and dreams.
It is a pleasant moment to get presents on the New Year's Eve.
I usually get many nice useful things from my parents and relatives.
My parents put their presents under the New Year's tree.
We don't go to bed till morning, we watch TV, dance, eat tasty things and make jokes.
I enjoy this holiday very much.
YURI GAGARIN (1934-68)
Yuri Gagarin was the first cosmonaut in the world. Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin was born on the 9th of March, 1934. He was born in the village of Klushino in the Smolensk region.
Yura was an active, brave and curious boy. His father was jack of all trades and he helped his son when Yura made toy planes by hand. But the war began. Yuri Gagarin and his mother, father, brother and sister left their house and had to live in a dug-out.
After the war Gagarin's family moved to Gzhatsk. Now it is Gagarin. It was named after the first cosmonaut.
In 1951 Gagarin graduated from a vocational school in Lyubertsy near Moscow.
Yuri Gagarin attended an aeroclub and began to fly when he was a student of a technical secondary school in Saratov.
In 1955 he entered a school for pilots. Then he became a pilot and joined the first group of cosmonauts.
In 1960 Gagarin began to prepare for the flight into space.
On April 12, 1961 Yuri Gagarin flew into space and spent 108 minutes there. Jt was the first time in history that the Russian spaceship "Vostok" with the man on board was in space. After his flight he visited many countries and saw millions of people. Gagarin became a Hero of our country.