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BOOKS IN OUR LIFE

“Books and friends should be few but good”, says an English proverb. “Except a living man there is nothing more wonderful than a book! They teach us and open their hearts to us as brothers”, wrote Charles Kingsley, an English writer of the 19th century. The book is certainly one of the greatest inventions of man. It is a friend and a teacher. We learn many things by reading books. Books teach people to live. After reading some books it is easy to understand what should be done and what must not be done. One can learn a lot by reading books.

There are a lot of libraries in our country, where we can choose any book we need. Everyone has the right to use public libraries. The librarian is always ready to help you to find a book on any subject, even if you do not know the title of the book you want. Those who know how to use the library catalogue can find the books without consulting the librarian.

Talks, exhibitions and other events take place in libraries. Book lists are prepared beforehand so that new interests can be developed afterwards among the visitors. Except reading special and scientific literature it is a great pleasure to read belles-lettres.

Different people like to read different kinds of it. It depends on one's taste and character. Some people prefer detectives or science fiction. Others like historical books. Girls and women prefer love stories. Children like comics very much.

As for me, I prefer ... My favourite book is ... It is very interesting and exciting. The main character of the book is ... He (she) is a real personality. He (she) is clever (kind, courageous, strong, merry). I wish to be like him (her).

10. exciting — ЧПМОХАЭЙК

MY FAVOURITE WRITER

My favourite writer is Ernest Hemingway. He will al-ways be remembered as a writer of prose in which every word had meaning and where nothing was wasted. His style had, in fact, such a widespread effect on British and American literature that dozens of imitators appeared and today many novels are accused of being “pseudo-Hemingway”.

The son of a small-town doctor, Hemingway was born in Illinois in 1898. He gained from his father an early love of fishing and shooting, interests which were to colour his life and work. Hemingway was educated at schools in America and France. His father wanted him to be a doctor, but he became a newspaper reporter, and then served with the Italian Red Cross as an ambulance driver in World War 1.

Severely wounded in the fighting, Hemingway used this, as well as his boyhood experiences, as the material for his first books. In “A Farewell to Arms”, “For Whome the Bell Tolls” and “The Old Man and the Sea” he wrote three classics of 20th century literature.

“A Farewell to Arms” is a powerful anti-war story, but it remains a love-story, telling of the ill-fated romance between Frederic Henry, a young American serving as a volunteer in the Italian army, and Catherine Barkley, a British nurse. Frederic gradually decides to get out of the war and make a separate peace. He and his wife manage to get to neutral Switzerland where they are happy for a time. But the ending is tragic, for Catherine dies. This novel shows Hemingway's hatred of the world that “kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially”. It is very sad, but very interesting and very important. It is my favourite book.

8. to be wounded — ВЩФШ ТБОЕОЩН

16. hatred — ОЕОБЧЙУФШ

MEALS AND COOKING

When we cook, we boil, roast, fry or stew our food. We boil eggs, meat, chicken, fish, milk, water and vegetables. We fry eggs, fish and vegetables. We stew fish, meat, vegetables or fruit. We roast meat or chicken. We put salt, sugar, pepper, vinegar and mustard into our food to make it salted, sweet, sour or simply tasty. Our food may taste good or bad or it may be tasteless.

The usual meals in England are breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner or, in simpler houses, breakfast, dinner, tea and supper.

For breakfast English people mostly have porridge or corn-flakes with milk or cream and sugar, bacon and eggs, marmalade with buttered toast and tea or coffee. For a change they can have a boiled egg, cold ham, or fish.

English people generally have lunch about one o'clock. At lunch time in a London restaurant one usually finds a mutton chop, or steak and chips, or cold meat or fish with potatoes and salad, then a pudding or fruit to follow.

Afternoon tea can hardly be called a meal. It is a substantial meal only in well-to-do families. It is between five and six o'clock. It is rather a sociable sort of thing, as friends often come in then for a chat while they have their cup of tea, cake or biscuit.

In some houses dinner is the biggest meal of the day. But in great many English homes, the midday meal is the chief one of the day, and in the evening there is usually a much simpler supper — an omelette, or sausages, sometimes bacon and eggs and sometimes just bread and cheese, a cup of coffee or cocoa and fruit.

12. for a chat — РПВПМФБФШ

HEALTH

When we are ill, we call a doctor, and he examines us and diagnoses the illness. When we have a headache, a stomach ache, a sore throat, a cold, or a pain in some parts of the body, we call a doctor. He takes our temperature and our pulse. He examines our heart, our lungs, our stomach or the part where we have pain, and tells us what the matter is with us. The doctor prescribes medicine, and gives us a prescription, which we take to the chemist's, who makes up the medicine.

If you follow the doctor's orders, you get better; if you disobey the doctor, you may get worse, and even die. We must obey the doctor, if we want to get better. If we have a temperature, we must stay in bed and take the medicine he prescribes. If we cannot get better at home we must go to hospital.

If we are too ill to walk, we go to hospital in the ambulance. After our illness we can go to a sanatorium until we are strong again.

When we have toothache, we go to the dentist's. He examines our teeth, finds the tooth which hurts us, stops or extracts it.

Now here in Russia health system incorporates a variety of medical institutions. The medical service in Russia is of two kinds. Some state establishments give their employees medical insurance cards. They guarantee the people free of charge medical assistance. Some medical establishments charge fees for treatment. They may be rat-her high, but our medical service now uses all modem equipment and medicines and provides qualified medical help to all people.

MUSIC IN OUR LIFE

People cannot live without music. They listen to music, dance to music or learn to play musical instruments. There is music everywhere: at home, in a concert hall, in the park, at the seaside, in the forest and even in the street.

Music is not a combination of pleasant sounds only. It is an art which reflects life. Music reflects people's ideas and emotions. In this world of ours, filled with conflicts, tragedies, joys and hopes, music strives to speak to people of what is most important, urgent and poignant.

Music in the lives of different people is different: some compose music, others play music, and others only listen to it. A lot of people who cannot play any musical instrument love to listen to music either at home or at a con-cert. Different people like different kinds of music. You may prefer pop or rock music, country or folk music, classical music or jazz, but you certainly cannot think of a day without music.

As for me, I prefer ... music. I have a lot of cassettes (CDs, records). I try to watch all the programmes dealing with it on TV and to go to the concerts as often as possible. My favourite composer (singer, musician) is... I think he (she) is very talented. I can (not) play an instrument (the piano, the guitar, the violin). It is a great pleasure to be able to play an instrument and I like it a lot.

ART, MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES

People reflect their life in art. Real, live art appeals to the heart and mind of man, to his feelings and ideals and it proclaims life. Art is truthful only when it serves life, only when the artist hopes to arouse a warm response in the heart of man. This was the case in the days of Giotto and Raphael, this was the case in the subsequent stages of man's artistic development, and this is the truthful relationship of art and life in the day of Renato Guttuso and Rockwell Kent. Art belongs to the people.

The history of art from the Renaissance to our days confirms this. An artist is a worthy son of his time if his art is addressed to the people, when it deals with life, when he welcomes the sunrise as a wonderful symbol of man's finest hopes. It is close contact with the life of his people that gives an artist's work its power.

One can see masterpieces of old and modern art in various picture galleries and museums. There are nearly a thousand museums in Russia” many of them being world famous. The largest collection of Russian art is the Tretyakov Art Gallery in Moscow. It is a real treasury of canvases by prominent Russian painters. It contains price-less collections of icons, 17—20th centuries paintings and sculptures and contemporary Russian painting and sculpture.

One of the largest and most remarkable museums of the world is the Hermitage, more than three hundred halls housing its exhibitions of articles of the greatest artistic value. The museum's collections now comprise work of various periods in the development of art, from ancient I times up to the present day. Famous painters from different countries are represented there.

The Russian Museum in St. Petersburg is another picture gallery which contains the richest collection of Russian paintings of 18-19th centuries and the best collection of Russian sculpture.

In the Pushkin Museum of the Fine Arts in Moscow the art of the Ancient East and Western Europe is represented. This museum possesses a unique collection of co-pies of the finest sculptures of the old time. It is in this museum that many famous foreign expositions of the Fine Arts are displayed almost every year.

COUNTRY-SIDE

Nature has always been a favourite theme for poets. Storms and adventures on the sea have inspired them to write stirring verses. Great forests have led them to write solemn songs. Mountains and valleys, hills and meadows, too, have given them inspiration. And, indeed, can you find anyone who would not be thrilled by the beauties of nature, who would not be stirred by the charms of shape, colour and motion?

I think everyone enjoys being out in the country. The-re is a great charm about gathering berries or looking for mushrooms in the silence of the wood. Perhaps you enjoy sauntering in the fields or rambling through the sweet-scented woods where as you move along you stop now and then to admire the white-stemmed birch trees or some blossoming shrubs. You may like climbing lulls or following strange trails or looking for unusual plants. At the top of each hill, at each turn in the trail you come upon something new, unexpected.

Perhaps you prefer watching insects, animals or birds. You may watch lines of busy animals as they carry bits of food to their lull-like home, or bees as they hover over flowers. The more you observe, the more you come to know about the beauty of the world around you, and you find a new interest in trees and flowers, fields and valleys and in the animals of the forest.

11. birch tree — ВЕТЕЪБ

ENGLISH COUNTRY-SIDE

England looks like one great well-ordered park. The hedges surrounding the gardens look beautiful in spring. In summer when they are covered with leaves and flowers they are even better. In autumn they are gold, brown and red. In winter they are still beautiful, especially in the early winter when you can see a few red berries. As to the English gardens they are extremely fine with wonderful variety of trees.

Englishmen like to preserve old trees. There are trees which were too old to be cut down for the building of ships in Cromwell's time that is in the 17th century. As the climate in Great Britain is very mild and there is much rain, the grass in Great Britain is much better than anywhere else. The country-side with its large green meadows and gardens with little country-houses and farms is very pleasant to look at.

RUSSIAN COUNTRY-LIFE

Russia has always been a great agricultural country. Russian agriculture produces almost all the farm crops known in the world. The total area under cultivation is largely occupied by grain crops such as wheat, maize, barley, rye, oats, etc. The rest is occupied by potatoes and other vegetables, legumes, fruits and industrial crops. In the orchards and fruit gardens one can see plums and apples, pears and peaches and berries of all kinds. Horses, oxen, cows and sheep feed in the meadows. Cattle farming gives us meat and milk. Poultry farming supplies us with eggs and meat.

The situation in agricultural system in Russia is not simple enough now. There are no state supported collective and state farms any more as it was during the Soviet period. Now there are agricultural joint-stock companies and individual farming. Russian agriculture is undergone the process of economical changes. It is rather difficult to survive in the conditions of deep economic crisis, especially for individual farmers. But we hope that country-men will overcome all the difficulties of our times and our agriculture will make steady advances, that will naturally mean better living standards for the Russian people.

9. industrial crops — РТПНЩЫМЕООЩЕ ЛХМШФХТЩ

16. living standards — ЦЙЪОЕООЩК ХТПЧЕОШ

KEEPING OUR ENVIRONMENT CLEAN

Many years ago people lived in harmony with the environment because industry was not much developed. Now the situation is quite different. People all over the world cannot ignore the problem of the protection of the environment because of modem industry and the need for energy. Newspapers and magazines write a lot about water pollution, air pollution and land pollution. There are some laws and decisions on this important question. There are state organisations and international conventions which pay much attention to this problem.

Many parts of the world are crowded now, much of our waste, especially waste from factories, electric power stations, the chemical industry and heavy industry are very dangerous. Fish dies in the lakes, rivers and seas, forest trees die too.

The problem of radiation has also become a very important problem because it is very dangerous for health of people. There is a science, named ecology, which study the relation between people and their environment. But each of us also must do everything possible to keep our environment clean for ourselves and for the next generations.