which you didn’t know before.

They are interesting people from whom you can learn much new for

yourself. Any kind of travel helps you to understand many things that you

can never see or learn at home. Though you may read about them in books and

newspapers.

As for me I’d like to have a coach tour to some foreign country. Coach

tours are planned and I’ll have a chance to do a lot of sightseeings and

have a good rest at the same time.

Hobbies.

Hobby is what a person likes to do in his spare time. Hobbies

differ like tastes. If you have chosen a hobby according to your character

and taste you are lucky because your life becomes more interesting. The

most popular hobby is doing things. It includes a wide variety of

activities from gardening to traveling, from chess to volleyball. Both

grown-ups and children are fond of playing different computer games. This

hobby is becoming more and more popular. Making things include drawing,

painting, handicrafts. Many people collect something - coins, stamps,

compact discs, toys, books. Some collections have some value. Rich people

often collect paintings, rare things and other art objects. Often such

private collections are given to museums, libraries.

As for me, I like to listen to music. I have a CD Man. I like different

music, it should be good. I collect discs of my favourite groups and

singers. I carefully study the information printed on discbooklets. I try

to find everything about my favourite singers. Also I like to watch music

programmes on TV. I want to keep up with the news in the world of music.

Of course, I like to spend my spare time with my friends. We talk about

all sorts of things ( politics, teachers, girls). We discuss films, books,

TV programmes. In fine weather we like to be in the open air. We find a

nice place somewhere in the forest. We make a fire, bake potatoes and have

a lot of fun. When the weather is bad, my friends come to my place. We

have a good time together.

Environmental protection.

The poisoning of the world's and,air, and water is the fastest-spreading

disease of civilisation. It probably produces fewer headlines than wars,

earthquakes and floods, but it is potentially one of history's greatest

dangers to human life on earth. If present trends continue for the next

several decades, our planet will become uninhabitable. Overpopulation,

pollution and energy consumption have created such planet-wide problems as

massive deforestation, ozone depletion, acid rains and the global warming

that is believed to be coused by the greenhouse effect.

The seas are in danger. They are filled with poison: industrial and nuclear

waste, chemical fertilisers and pesticides. The Mediterranean is already

nearly dead; the North Sea is following. The Aral Sea is on the brink of

extinction. If nothing is done about it, one day nothing will be able to

live in the seas.

Every ten minutes one kind of enimal, plant or insect dies out for ever. If

nothing is done about it, one million species that are alive today will

have become extinct twenty years from now. Air population is a very serious

problem. In Cairo just breathing the air is life threatening- equivalent to

smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. The same holds true for Mexico City

and 600 cities of the former Soviet Union.

Industrial enterprises emit tons of harmful substunces. These emissions

have disastrous consequences for our planet. They are the main reason for

the greenhouse effect and acid rains.

An even greater environmental threat are nuclear power stations. We all

know how tragic the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster are.

People are beginning to realise that environmenta problems are not somebody

else's. They join and support various international organosation and green

parties. If governments wake up to what is happening- perhaps we'll be able

to avoid the disaster that threatens the natural world and all of us with

it.

My visiting card.

My name is ANdrey Brysiev. I'm 14 years old. I likve in settlement of

Razvilka. It is situated near Moscow, capital of Russia.I go to school in

Razvilka. I go to the 9th form "Д". I have a rather big family - Father,

Mother, sister and granddad and me.

My Father and mother work nearby my house, in Gas Institute. My father is

Head of Laboratory. My mother is scientific worker. My is retired. He was a

headmaster and a teacher of Geography. I have relatives all over European

Russia: near St. Peterburg, near Volgograd, near Orenburg and more.

We live in medium flat now. My hobbies are: sports, computing ( especially

playing games), music. My favorite music band is Mumiy Troll. My favorite

kinds of sports are football, basketball, tennis and a lot more. My sign of

the zodiac is Saggitarius. I am a bright represantative of this sign. As

all saggitariuses I am very friendly, optimistic and very funny boy.

Sometimes I laugh too much and have problems with discipline in school. I

like animals and littile children because all are very stupid. I don't know

who I'll be in the future, but it surely will be a job I like.

Holidays in Great Britain,

There are fewer public holidays in Great Britain than in other European

countries. They are: Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Day, Good

Friday, Easter Monday. May Day, Spring Bank Holiday and Summer Bank

Holiday. Public holidays in Britain are called bank holidays, because the

banks as well as most of the offices and shops are closed.

The most popular holiday is Christmas. Every year the people of Norways

give the city of London a present. It's a big Christmas tree and it stands

in Trafalgar Square. Central streets are beutifuly decorated. There are

lots of traditions and customs dedicated to the Christmas day.

People decorate ther trees on the 24th of December. Children hang

stockings at the end of their bed, hoping that Father Christmas will come

down the chimney during the night and fill them with toys and sweets.

Christams is a family holiday. The 26th of December, Boxing Day, is an

extra holiday after Christmas Day.

New Year's Day is less popular in Britain than Christmas. But in Scotland

Hogmanay is the biggest festival of the year. Besides public holidays there

are some special festivals in Great Britain. On that day British burn a

dummy, made of straw and old clothes, on a bonfire and let off fireworks.

This dummy is called a "guy" (like Guy Fawkes and children can often be

seen in the streets before the 5th of November, saying, "Penny for the

guy." If they collect enough money they can buy some fireworks.

There are also smaller, local festivals in Britain.

Great Britain

The United Kingdom of G.B. and Northen Irelands is situated on the British

Isles. The British Isles consists of two large islands, G.B. and Ireland,

and about five thousand small islands. Their total area is over 244,000

square kilometres.

The UK is made up of four countries:England, Wales, Scotland and Northen

Ireland. GB consists of England, Scotland and Wales and doesn't include

Northen Ireland. The capital of the UK is London.

The British Isles are separated from European continent by the North Sea

and the English Channel. The western coast of GB is washed by the Atlantic

Ocean and the Irish Sea.

The surface of the British Isles varies very much. The north of Scotland is

mountainous and is called the Highlands, while the south, which has

beautiful valleys and plains, is called the Lowlands.

There are a lot of rivers in GB, but they are not very long. The Severn is

the longest river, while the Thames is the deepest and the most important

one.

The mountains, the Atlantic Ocean and the warm waters if Gulf Stream

influence the climate of the British Isles. The weather in GB is very

changeable. A fine morning can change into a wet afternoon and evening and

the wrong side out. The english people say:"Other countries have a climate;

in England we have weather." The English also say that they have three

variants of weather: when it rains in the morning, when it rains in the

afternoon or t\when it rains all day long.

The weather is the favourite conversational topic in GB. After they greet

each other they start talking the weather.

The best time of the year in GB is spring(of course, it rains in spring

too). The two worst months in britain are January and February. They are

cold, damp and unpleasant. The best place in the world then is at home by

the big fire. Summer months are rather cold and there can be a lot of rainy

days. So most people who look forward to summer holidays, plan to go abroad

for the summer.

The most unpleasant aspect of English weather is fog and smog. This is

extremely bad in big cities especially in London. The fog spreads

everywhere so cars move along slowly and people can't see each other. They

try not to be run over by a car but still accidents are frequent in the

fog.

The Russian Federation

The Russian Federation is the largest country in the world. It occupies

about one-seventh of the earth's surface. It covers the eastern part of

Europe and the northern part of Asia. Its total area is about 17 million

square kilometres. The country is washed by 12 seas of 3 oceans:the

Pacific, the Arctic and the Atlantic. In the south Russia borders on China,

Mongolia, Korea, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Azerbaijan. In the west it borders

on Norway, Finland, the Baltic States, Belorussia, the Ukraine. It also has

a sea-borders with the USA.

There is hardly a country in the world where such a variety of scenery and

vegetation can be found. We have steppes in the south, plains and forests

in the midland, tundra and taiga in the nirth, highlands and deserts in the

east.

There are two great plains in Russia:the Great Russian Plain and the West

Siberian Lowland. There are several mountains chains on the territory of

the country: the Urals, the Caucasus, the Altai and others. The largest

mountain chain, the Urals, separates Europe from Asia.

There are over two million rivers in Russia. Europe's biggest river, the

Volga, flows into the Caspian Sea. The main Siberian rivers- the Ob, the

Yenisei and the Lena- flow from the south to the north. The Amur in the Far

East flows into the Pacific Ocean.

Russia is reach in beautiful lakes. The world's deepest lake is Lake

Baikal. It is much smaller than the Baltic Sea, but there is much more

water in it than in the Baltic Sea. The water in the lake is so clear that

if you look down you can count the stones on the bottom.

Russia has one-sixth of the world's forests. They are concentrated in the

European north of the country, in Syberia and in the Far East.

On the vast territory of the country there are various types of climate,

from arctic in the north to subtropical in the south. In the middle of the

country the climate is temperate and continental.

Russia is very reach in oil, iron ore, natural gas, copper, nickel and

other mineral resources.

Russia is a parliamentary republic. The Head of State is the President. The

legislative powers are exercised by the Duma.

The capital of Russia is Moscow. It is its largest political, scientific,

cultural and industrial centre. It's one of the oldest Russian cities.

At present, the political and economic situationn in the country is rather

complicated. There are a lot of problems in the national economy of the

Russian Federation. The industrial production is decreasing. The prices are

constantly rising, the rate of inflation is very high. People are losing

their jobs because many factories and plants are going bankrupt.

But in spite of the problems Russia is facing at present, there are a lot

of opportunities for this country to become one of the leading countries in

the world. I'm sure that we, the younger generation, can do very much to

make Russia as strong and powerful as it used to be.

Holidays in Russia.

There are many holidays in Russia, when people all over the country do not

work and special celebrations.

The major holidays are: New Year's Day, Women's Day, May Day, Victory Day,

and Independence Day.

The first holiday of the year is New Year Day. People see the new year in

at midnight on the 31st of December. They greet the New Year with champagne

and listen to the Kremlin chimes beating 12 o'clock.

There are lots of New Year traditions in Russia. In every home there is a

New Year tree glittering with coloured lights and decorations, Children

always wait for Father Frost to come and give them a present. Many people

consider New Year's Day to be a family holiday. But the young prefer to

have New Year Parties of their own.

A renewed holiday in our Country is Christmas. It is celebrated on the 7th

of January. It's religious holiday and a lot of people go to church servies

on that day.

On the 8th of March we celebrate Women's day when men are supposed to do

everything about the house and cook all the meals.

The greatest national holiday in our country is Victory Day. On the 9th of

May, 1945, the Soviet Army and its allies completely defeated the German

fascists and the Second World War and the Great Patriotic War ended. Few

years ago we celebrated 50th year anniversry of this great event.

Independence Day is a new holiday in our country. On the 12th of June,

1992, the first President of Russia was elected.

We also celebrate Day of the Defender of Motherland on the 23rd of

February, Easter, Day of Knowledge and lots of professional holidays which

are not public.

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