ABOUT MYSELF.
My name is Natalia. My surname is Govorova. I am 15. I was born in 1982 in Chelyabinsk. I live in a small town of Usinsk in the Komi Republic. My address is Flat 116, 19, Pionerskaya Street. My phone number is 41-5-81. I am a pupil. I go to school Numbers 1. I am a good pupil. I do well in all subjects. They say, that I am a hardworking person. To tell the truth, all school subjects come easy for me but sometimes. I have to sit much, for example, to do lessons in Physics or Chemistry, to write a composition or to learn a poem by heart. But my favourite subject is English. I spend much time on it reading books, doing tests etc. May be, English and learning it will be a part of my future carreer. I like reading. I think comics and detective stories are much easier to read but I prefer to read novels - historical or up-to-date. I like music. My musical tastes are different, but it depends on my mood. But I think every apple is good in its season. I play the piano and the guitar, not seriously, but for my soul. Sometimes I like to listen to the Russian classical music. My favourite composers are Chaikovsky and Mozart. I don’t like rock music, but I like “Queen” and “Beatles”. Also I like Russian folk songs. I have not much time to watch IV but sometimes I spend an hour or two watching an interesting film or a news programme. In the evening I often read newspapers (our local ones) or magazines. I like fresh air and exercise. I’m sorry I have not much time for doing sports. But some aerobics in the morning, a swimming-pool twice a week, a ski-walk on a frosty day are of great help. Sports is fun.
I have a wide circle of interests. I’m very sociable, so I get a way with people. I have many friends, most of them are my class-mates. We spend much time together, going out to the cinema or to the disco party, speaking about lessons and music, discussing our problems. But most of all I like my family. We all are great friends and deeply attached to each other.
You see, it’s me - a person with his good and not good characteristics, liking this and hating that. But it’s interesting for me to live, to open new things.
BOOKS IN MY LIFE
A book is one of the greatest wonders of world. Why are so many people fond of reading? The world of books is full of wonders. Together with the characters of books you can find yourself in different and countries, have a lot of adventures. The book is a faithful friend. They form our values and characters. We try to look like the characters of your favourite books: to be brave, honest, not to be silly and greedy, to be real friends. We enjoyed the beauty and wisdom of fairy-tales and fables when we were babies and Granny read them. They taught us to be kind, clever, hardworking, to understand other people and help them. They teach us to understand the beauty of nature, take care of it, to love our homeland.
Books have been with us since childhood. Who hasn’t read “Alice in the wonderland”, “Mowgli”? Who hasn’t travelled with Marry Poppins to her imaginary world? Who hasn’t imagined himself to be Robinson Crusoe on the deserted island?
I have read a lot of interesting books, but my favourite book is “The adventures of Tom Sawyer” by Mark Twain. This well-known book is popular with the children all over the world.
The main character of the book is Tom Sawyer, who lived in a small town on the Mississippi River. He was a boy with a wild imagination. He and his friends often dreamed of different adventures. Tom was naughty, kind and brave. Besides he was noble. I like this boy because he teaches us to be true friends.
If you are not fond of reading, take a book to your liking or borrow it from the library and read it. Books are worth reading. Readly, they are our good friends.
KEEPIHG FIT AND DOING SPORTS .
I you want to feel fit you’d better go in for one kind of sport or another. I should admit that everyone must do all he can to be healthy. Good health is better than the best medicine. “You have a sound mind in a sound body” as the old Latin saying goes. The English proverb “Sickness in the body brings sickness to the mind” expresses a similar idea but from different point of view. All kinds of physical exercises are very useful to make our bodies strong and to keep ourselves fit and healthy. To tell the truth I don’t do sports regularly and it is not an essential part of my daily life. In the morning I do some exercises just to awake. Then some aerobics for myself. It puts me into the fine moods. In summer I go swimming as there is a beautiful river with pure water where my Granny lives. In winter, it’s rather long at our place, I should say, I prefer skiing (There is nothing like the sight of a winter forest - a real fairy-tale). I like to ride the bike and tobogganing in winter. Mum says that I’m to old to do it, why not after all? I shouldn’t call myself a sports fan. Of course , I like to watch sports competitions on TV . Fortunately , they show different ones - football , basketball . I like tennis tournaments very much . I think , it’s a very intelligent kind of sport for clever thinking people . Also I admire skiing championships , biathlon , swimming . But what I like most is basketball . The best games are viewed on TV. I came to know that modern basketball appeared in 1891 in the USA. The originator, John Naismith was a coach at the college. He invented the baskets and the rules of the game. Since then basketball has be become very popular and is spread all over the world. It is the sport of strong tall men, the sport of giants.
Doing sports a man become strong, healthy and gay. He begins to take care of his health.
“Good health is better than wealth”, you know. It’s true, I should say. In our school we have a nice gym. Sports and games are popular among pupils. A lot of children train at special sport schools.
LEARNING FOREIGN LANGUAGE.
The great German poet Goethe once said: “He who know no foreign language does not know his own one. Learning foreign languages is specially important nowadays. Some people learn foreign languages because they need them in their work, others travel abroad, for the third studying languages is a hobby.
Every year thousands of people from Russia go to different countries as tourists or to work. They can not go without knowing the language of the country they are going to. A modern engineer or even a worker can not work with an imported instrument or a machine if he is not able to read the instruction how to do it. Ordinary people need language to translation the instruction or the manual to the washing-machine or a vacuum-cleaner, medicine or even food-products.
Some people are as a rule polyglots. Historians diplomats need some languages for their work. If you want to be a classified specialist you must learn English, the language of international communication.
English is one of the world languages. It is the language of progressive science and technology, trade and cultural relations, commerce and business. It is the universal language of international aviation, shipping and sports. It is also the major language of diplomacy. Hundreds and hundreds of books, magazines and newspapers are printed in English, most of the world’s mail and telephone calls are in English. Half of the world’s scientific literature is written in English. English is spoken by more than 350 million people. Geographically, it is the most widespread language on earth, second after Chinese. It is the official language of the UK, the USA , of Australia and New Zealand, it is used as one of the official languages in Canada, the South Africa. Millions of people study and use English as a foreign language. In our country English is very popular. It is studied at schools, colleges and universities.
Learning English is not an easy thing. It is a long process and takes a lot of time and patience. But to know English today is absolutely necessary for every educated person. I want to know English because it’s interesting for me to know foreign countries, their cultures and tradition. English will be of great use in my future profession connected with computers.
MOSCOW
The best way to see a strange city is to buy a map and a guide-book. If you want to learn, more about a city, it is useful to walk along the streets and look around to see historical places, buildings and monuments. There is no doubt that you should visit art galleries and museums.
Moscow, the capital of Russia, is one of the largest cities in the world. It stands on the bank of the Moskva River. About 10 million people live in the city. Moscow is famous for its historical and architectural monuments that were built by outstanding architects and sculptors: Kazakov, Bazhenov, Martos and others.
The best starting point of the tour around the city is Red Square, the central and the most beautiful square in Moscow. It is the place of parades, meeting and demonstrations. Here one can see the Cathedral of St.Basil the Blessed, or St.Basil’s cathedral, erected by architects Postnik and Barma to commemorate Russia’s conquest of the Kazan Kingdom in 1552. It is a masterpiece of Russian architecture. Tourists can see the monument to Minin and Pozharsky designed by Ivan Martos in 1818 in
memory of the Russian victory over the Polish invaders, the History Museum. The heart of Moscow is the Kremlin, a wonderful architectural ensemble with 3 magnificent cathedrals, the Bell Tower of Ivan the Great palaces, fortress walls and 20 towers. The most famous of the towers is the Spasskaya Tower with a big clock. The Kremlin with golden domes and tower makes a strong impression on tourists. The Alexander Garden with the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is the place of memory. Some Skyscrapers decorate Moscow Including Moscow University, a palace of knowledge and students. Moscow is a scientific and cultural centre where there are a lot of institutes, universities, libraries, museums. The city leads a varied cultural life. It has a lot of cinemas, clubs, concert halls, more than 40 drama and musical theatres, including the Bolshoi Theatre, the Art Theatre. The Maly Theatre. The Vakhtangov Theatre.
Muscovites are proud of their museums : the Tretyakov Gallery, Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, literary museums.
Crowds of people visit the Tretiakov Gallery admiring beautiful pictures of Russian painters.
Moscovites are fond of going in for sports so, there are a lot of stadiums, swimming-pools, courts and sports ground.
The citizens of Moscow enjoy spending their weekends in parks and gardens - the Park of Culture and Rest, Izmailovo, Sokolniki.
Moscovites do their best to create the atmosphere of the old Moscow with its unique monuments. Before the 850th anniversary of Moscow the Cathedral of Christ the Savior was completed.
Moscow is the place where things are happening in all spheres of life.
MY FRIEND
Frankly speaking, I have a lot of friends. Most of them are my classmates. They say that I am a good mixer and always have a way with people. But my bosom-friend is Olga. We are of the same age, we are both 15. She is pleasant looking girt not very tall but pleasantly plump. They say, she is the very image of her father, but, to my mind, she takes a lot after her Mum in looks - fair curly hair and dark blue eyes. When she smiles, 2 pretty dimples appear on her cheeks. To my mind, she is really a beauty. But her inner beauty is more important than physical one. Olga is well bred, jolly and king, life and soul of every company. She is tactful, witty generous and kind- hearted, careful and sensitive. She always ready to help other people. She is well-read and fond of reading very much. She always has 2 or 3 books at hand. Her second hobby is knitting and sewing. She is always elegant and always wears whet suits her. She is good at cooking I think she is cut out for a housewife.
Olga like all teenagers likes different music which helps her to relax. In this point we have much in common. We both go in for sports- aerobics I think, she is very gifted and capable.
She always manages to be cheerful, energetic, full of life and energy. She is a sunny soul by nature, she never feels sour.
As I have told, she is a helpful person and every time she tries to do her best to help somebody when he has problems.
Olga is very attentive to her parents and is simply mad about her dog. She cannot imagine her life without her.
Of course, Olga has some drawbacks - sometimes she is a hurly-burly girl, a bit stubborn. But still like her as she has a good sense of humour and pleasant to deal with.
We spend much time together - watch video or listen to the music, walk or go to the cafe discussing all sorts of things. If there is some misunderstanding between us we try to make peace soon. I respect Olga for intellect and modesty. You know, I miss her very often. Our friendship helps me feel strong and sure of myself.
MY HOME IS MY CASTLE.
I think, every person always dreams about the place where he can speak about his problems, chat with close friends, where he can feel happy and quiet. For me it is my family and my home. It is the best place in the world and my dearest people live here.
My family is not large we are 4. I have a father, a mother and a brother. We all live together in a new flat.
My father is 45. He is a tall and well-built man with short black hair and grey eyes. He is quiet and hardworking . Really, he is a bread maker of the family. Dad is handy with many things. His hobby is fixing everything at home.
My mother is very lively. She is life and soul of the family. She is a pleasant woman of forty with beautiful chestnut hair and dark brown eyes. She is a lofty ideal for me. My parents have been married for 20 years they have much in common, in everyday life Dad is impractical and needs mother to look after him. Parents have different views on music, books, films. For example, my father likes horror films and my father likes “soap operas”. My father is a football fat and Mum doesn’t like sports. But they try to have the same opinion about the education and upbringing of their children.
My brother is only 11. He goes to school. He is funny and curious. He is constantly asking many questions often silly ones. But this only a moment - I can’t imagine my life without our little monster.
We all feel happy when we are together. In the evenings we often have little gatherings in the kitchen by the cup of tea, chatting, laughing and discussing the events of the day. Those evening are the best of all. But sometimes I have problems with my parents. They don’t like the clothes I wear the music I listen to and the friends I bring home. It’s not easy to be a teenager. In summer I visit my Granny. I love her when I was a child she used to tell me fairytales and stories of her life.
My parents are hardworking. They combine work with housekeeping. Mum manages our household very well. We all are in the habit of helping her to run the house. They say “Men make houses, women make home”. My home is a cosy place. Our relatives and friends like to come to our place. My parents are very hospitable everybody feels at home in their flat. Really “There is no place like home”.
OUR TOWN.
We live in Usinsk. It’s a small town with the population of about 60 thousand people situated near the river Usa in the north-east of the Komi Republic. Usinsk is young it was founded in 1975. It is a multinational town, the people of many nationalities live here - the Russians, the Ukranians, the Tatars, the Komis, the Bashkirs and so on.
The climate is severe, the winter is cold and long it lasts for 6-8 months, the spring and the summer are short and cool.
Usinsk district is rich in oil, so they get oil here. There are many industrial enterprises in it connected with oil extraction, they are “Komineft”, “Arkhangelsk Negtegaz” and others. There are some joint - ventures such as “NobelOil”, “KomiArcticOil”, “KomiQuest” and others where the specialists from Canada, the USA, Great Britain, France work. In autumn 1994 our Usinsk became world - known as the town where the greatest ecological catastrophe took place. The old oil pipeline was broken, a lot of oil and products streamed on and in the ground, flew into the rivers and their tributaries. The news has quickly spread in the world, many foreign correspondents visited Usinsk in November 1994. “Green Peace” called this a great ecological catastrophe but our Komi oil bosses called it only a local incident without much consequences. The rescue operation I has been done to clean the banks of the rivers and the nearest places covered (polluted) with oil and oil products. The old broken pipeline was changed with the new one. I think, it’s such an unpleasant event in the life of our town.
As our town is young we have no theatres and museums, historical and memorial places. But we have a cinema, the Palace of Technics a swimming-pool, a hockey stadium, the House for Schoolchildren where there are a lot of different clubs, studios for teenagers and a lot of pupils attend them.
There is also a musical and art school, seven schools, many kindergartens. There is an airport and a railway station and our people can go to Moscow, Syktyvkar, Ufa, Kazan by plane and by train.
Our town is surrounded by forests, there are also small rivers and lakes. Our people like to spend weekends in the forests picking mush-rooms and berries in autumn, skiing in winter and in early spring. Our men and boys are fond of fishing.