My family

I think that a family is the most important thing for every person. Family are the people that always love you, support you and help you. For me it is impossible to live without my family. My family is rather large (small). There are: my parents, brother, sister and grandparents.

My father is a_______ He is a professional. My father does his work very well. My mother is a ___________. She looks after the house and us, the kids. Mother makes very tasty breakfasts and dinners. Our mother is very kind, but strict to us. She always checks how we do our homework. Mother arranges our free time, so that we cannot just fool around.

My elder brother, Jason, is a student of the medical faculty. He wants to become a good surgeon, like our father. Besides he is also a member of the local theatre club. He plays main parts in several plays.

My sister, Jenny, is finishing school this year. But she has not yet made up her mind about her future profession. On one hand she loves animals and can become a vet, on the other hand she is very good at mathematics and knows some complex computer programs. Maybe she will have a year off to think over her future possibilities.

As for me, I have always loved music. I can play the guitar and piano very well (I can`t play any musical instruments). I love all kinds of music, but mostly I prefer (rock, pop classical) music. After school I am planning to enter the (university, __________college).

Our grandparents are __________ (pensioners). They likes to _________ . We all get on very well with each other.

Everyone in our family is rather busy, but we always happy to spend some time together. My family means a lot to me.

Cinema

In England the cinema is usually called “the pictures”. In America the word “the movies” is often used. Cinema-going is a favourite pastime in Britain. People go to the cinema once or twice a week. But if it is cold and wet outside, many people like to stay at home to watch TV.

Cinemas in England are usually large and more comfortable than the theatres. Often there is a restaurant, so that it is possible to spend an afternoon and evening there (if you have enough money, of course). Behind the cinema screen there is a stage, so that the building can be used for concerts and other performances.

British cinema-goers see mainly English and American films, though many of the foreign films are often shown in London and in the South of the country.
In our country cinema-going is not so popular now as it was earlier. People prefer to stay at home and watch TV or video.

There are such film genres as: the western, the thriller, the musical, the drama and the comedy.

I like to watch films very much. I prefer thrillers, comedies and horror movies, but I do not like tragedies and melodramas very much, and I hate soap operas, although they are becoming very popular in our country. My favourite film is ... with ... starring. It is really wonderful from the beginning to the end. There are a lot of films which are worth seeing, but this one is the best one to my mind.

Why do we Learn the English Language

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. 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. Also I like to travel. But it is difficult to visit countries, when you don't know the language of these countries. If I know English, it will be easy for me to travel there. Best of all I want to visit (Britain, Canada, New Zealand …) .

I know that this country …..

Food.

It is not a secret that our meals influence our mood. Also it is very important for our health. Every person should eat proper kinds of food – dairy products, meats, fruit and vegetables, fats and sugars, cereals and grains. In this fast-moving world it is necessary to watch what we eat – it should be healthy food, not fast food, which has become very popular. Eating too much fast food can get you overweight and a heart-disease. For example, it is much better to eat an apple or a banana than to eat a double hamburger with ketchup and mayonnaise.

The usual meals in England are breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner.

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 between five and six o'clock. It is rather a sociable sort of thing, as friends often come in to chat while they have their cup of tea, cake or biscuit.

In some houses dinner is the biggest meal of the day. As a rule British have an omelette, or sausages, sometimes bacon and eggs and sometimes just bread and cheese, a cup of coffee or cocoa and fruit.

Russia is a multicultural country? That`s why we have a lot of dishes in our cuisine. But our traditional dishes are known everywhere. They are: borsh, okroshka and pelmeny.

Well, as for me I like ice-cream. It doesn’t matter what kind – with raspberry favor, with marmalade, chocolate chips or pieces of fruit. I can eat it anytime and anywhere. Anyway I think everybody should remember that we eat to live, but not live to eat.

RUSSIA

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 kilometers. The country is washed by 12 seas of 3 oceans: the Pacific, the Arctic and the Atlantic.

The Russian Federation is rich in natural and mineral resources. It has deposits of oil, gas, coal, iron, gold and many others. The current population of Russia is more than 150 million people.

Russia is rich in beautiful lakes. The world’s deepest lake (1.600 meters) 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 Siberia and in the Far East. On the vast territory of the country there are various 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 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 center. It is one of the oldest Russian cities.

Moscow is the port of five seas, as the Volga Canal links Moscow with the Baltic, White, Caspian and Black seas and with Sea of Azov. Moscow is the cultural center. There are a lot of theatres, museums, institutes, libraries and cinemas. Young people like to visit The Central Military Museum. Everyone can see The Kremlin and Red Square in the city. There are many fine buildings, wide streets, green parks, large squares, churches and monuments in Moscow. There are a lot of famous monuments to Pushkin, Fedorov, and many, many others.

Travellers can visit St. Petersburg. The creation of Peter the Great, it is best known for its 18th- and 19th-century palaces; the Peter and Paul fortress, a former prison, the Hermitage Museum, and the White Nights.

The Golden Ring is a group of towns and cities — including Suzdal, Vladimir, Yaroslavl, Kostroma and others. They offer a host of restored and abandoned churches, monasteries and fortresses, rich museums and preserved wooden villages.

The pleasure of reading

I want to tell you about reading in my life. Reading plays a very important role in the life of people. I’m fond of reading. In my opinion, books are a source of emotional inspiration and romantic feelings The world of books is full of wonders. Reading books you can find, yourself in different lands, countries, islands, seas, oceans. We enjoy the beauty and wisdom of books which teach us to be kind and clever, brave and honesty, to understand what is right and what is wrong, the world and people in it.

People are fond of reading different kinds of books. There are books of different genres: love and detective stories, thrillers and historical novels, tales, works after classical and modern writers. Fairy tales are enjoyed and read by children, books about adventures and journeys are enjoyed by those who are fond of travelling. Legends and myths are read by those who are fond of history. I’m a great lover of the English and American literature. Among my favourite writers are W. Shakespeare and Ch. Dickens. I read books of Russian writers too.

I can’t imagine my life without reading. You can find all kinds of books at the library. Every school in our country has a library. A school library is a collection of textbooks and books for reading. Our pupils and teachers go for reading, to look some magazines or newspapers or to prepare for a report.

My favourite book is "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway. This story is one of the well-known works of the writer. The author depicts the characters of the old man and the boy and their relations very vividly and skillfully. The words of the main character "man can be destroyed but not defeated" are the main idea of this story. "The Old Man and the Sea" is a masterpiece for its imaginative language and the description of nature.

Famous people.

Almost everybody dreams about being famous sport star or a great actor. But does everybody know how hard it is to have such kind of job?

In my opinion being famous is very difficult and people who are famous deserve all the money they earn. A star should be polite and kind because he or she is an example to be followed for many young people. Famous people work hard long hours every day and do their best for their fans. Also I think that famous people don’t have private lives, they don’t see their relatives and friends often. A lot of stars lose themselves and pretend a lot.

It is not always easy to be famous. Even for the famous, beautiful princess like Diana, life was certainly very difficult at times.

She was born on the first of July in 1961 in Norfolk, England. Her parents divorced when she was a little girl. Diana studied at a boarding school in Kent, and then in Switzerland. She was just twenty years old when she married Prince Charles, and from that moment millions of people around the world watched every move she made.

She was kind and helpful; Diana helped poor, homeless and sick people, so her nickname was “the people’s princess”. But Diana’s life wasn’t as happy as it seemed to be – she and Prince Charles had problems with their marriage and they finally divorced in 1996.

From our famous people we can mention Ilia Repin. He was born in 1844 in a small Ukrainian town of Tchuguev in the family of a military settler. At the age of 19 he entered the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. For his diploma work (1871) Repin was awarded The Major Gold Medal and received a scholarship for studies abroad. After returning to Russia Repin settled in Moscow.

Repin is the author of many portraits but he never painted faces, he painted real people, managing to show their natural state. Repin rarely painted historical paintings. The most popular in this genre is "Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan".

So, in conclusion I should say that as for me, I agree that being famous sounds nice, but it is very hard. I guess I don’t want to be really famous. Yes, famous people have everything – money, popularity and fame, but stars lose much more – their private lives and their friends.