Hоbbies

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Exercise 1. Read and translate text.

Notes:

to make sculpture – заниматься скульптурой

to design a costume – разрабатывать модель костюма, создать костюм

a hobby painter – художник-любитель

to be housed in museums and galleries – размещаться в музеях и галереях

an item – предмет, пункт, экспонат

a rare book – редкая книга

an art object – предмет искусства

a private collection – частная коллекция

A hobby is a favourite pastime of a person. Hobbies differ like tastes. If you have chosen a hobby to your liking, lucky you are: you have made your life more interesting.

Numerous hobbies can be subdivided into four large classes: doing things, making things, collecting things and learning things.

The most popular of all hobby groups is doing things. It includes a wide variety of activities, everything from gardening to travelling and from chess to volleyball. Gardening is one of the oldest man’s hobbies, especially in some countries (Britain, for example). A relatively new hobby which is becoming more popular is playing computer games.

Making things includes drawing, painting, making sculpture, designing costumes, and handicrafts. Some hobbyists write music. Two of the most famous hobby painters were President Eisenhower and Sir Winston Churchill.

Almost everyone collects something at some period in his life: stamps, coins, matchboxes, books, records, postcards, toys, watches. Some collections have no real value. Others become so large and so valuable that they are housed in museums and galleries. Many world-famous collections started in a small way with one or two items. People with a good deal of money often collect paintings, rare books and other art objects. Often such private collections are given to museums, libraries and public galleries so that others might take pleasure in seeing them.

No matter what kind of hobby a person has, he always has the opportunity of learning from it. By reading about the things he is interested in, he is adding to what he knows. Learning things can be the most exciting aspect of a hobby.

Exercise 2. Answer the questions to the text:

1. What is a hobby?

2. What classes can hobbies be divided into?

3. What activities does doing things include?

4. What do hobbyists preferring making things do?

5. What do people collect?

6. How do people learn from his or her hobby?

Exercise 3. Find a key-sentence in each passage

Exercise 4. Make up a plan of the text, using the phrases in a proper order:

Collecting things

Doing things

Making things