How Did I Spend My Summer Holidays

My Favourite Book

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. Santiago, the old man, was one of the writer's beloved characters. The old man was a born fisherman, but he was not a butcher and fished only for a living. He was very lonely. He had a devoted friend - the boy, Manolin. The boy loved the old man for his kind heart, his devotion to the sea. Manolin was like a son to Santiago. He took care of the old man's food and his belongings. The old man was glad to pass his experience to the boy. He looked forward to going to the sea together with the boy. All Santiago's life had been in preparation for the battle with big fish. He knew that he had been born for this and it was time to prove it. A strong man at last had met a strong fish. The battle was a difficult one and full of danger. Though the sharks had eaten the fish and nothing had left but the backbone, the old man had morally won the battle. Santiago's words "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.

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. Reading is very useful, because books enrich our experience with that or the other people. Besides, books help me to continue my own education. 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 other people. 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. Books help us to be good friends. They teach us to understand the beauty of nature, to take care of it, to love our homeland. I read books Russian and Belarusian 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.

Books teach us what is right and what is wrong, to understand the world and people in it. It educates a person, enriches his intellect.

How Did I Spend My Summer Holidays

After each term in school we had our holidays. It's fun to have holidays, you can do whatever you like, you don't have to get up too early, do your homework or think of troubles which occur very often at school. Most of all I liked summer holidays, they were the longest ones, though, when winter was snowy and and frosty, I enjoyed my winter holidays skating and skiing, sledging and making a snowman or having a fight with snowballs.

I'd like to tell you about my summer holidays I spent in Sochi. It was just three years ago. My parents and me were sitting in the living-room discussing our plans for the summer holidays. My father suggested that we should go to Sochi. On hearing that I jumped up with joy and said it was a wonderful idea. My mother wasn't against the idea either.

So one summer morning we started for our journey to Sochi. First, we travelled to Odessa by plane and from there we got to Sochi by boat. We stayed in Odessa for three days, our relatives live there and they gave us board and lodging. So we had an excellent opportunity to go round the city, to see beautiful monuments to the famous people who had lived in Odessa, museums and the Odessa Opera House.

We enjoyed our trip from Odessa to Sochi. The Black Sea was calm. We sat on deck in the lounge chairs and looked atthe sea. I like Sochi very much. We bathed and went boating and swimming, lay in Jk the sun on the beach. In the evenings we went for a walk or dropped in at a cafe to have ice-cream or juice. My father showed us the famous Botanical Gardens, we went for hikes in the mountains, we saw the magnificent Augura Waterfalls.

My Day

My every day activities are quite routine. They do not differ much from those of any other pupil of our country. My working day begins at 7 o'clock in the morning when I get up. I do my physical jerks, wash, brush my teeth and comb my hair. Then I have breakfast. For breakfast I usually have toasted bread, fried eggs, corn flakes, tea or coffee and some jam.
At ten to eight I leave for school. I go to school five days a week. It takes me twenty minutes to get to school by bus. At school I usually have six or seven lessons. The lessons are over at two o'clock. I return home at three o'clock. I have lunch and take a short rest.I go for a walk with my friends. In spring we play football, in winter we play hockey or ski. I am back at home at a quarter past four. At four thirty I begin to do my home-work. It takes me three hours to do it. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday I attend preparatory courses at the University. I leave home, at four thirty and come back at eight thirty.
My parents usually return home at seven o'clock. When I am at home we have dinner at seven thirty. After dinner we go to the sitting-room. There we read books, watch TV, chat with the friends on the phone.
At ten o'clock I take a shower, brush my teeth and go to bed. I fall asleep fast and have no dreams.

My Favourite Subject

Speaking about my favourite subject I must admit that I was privileged to study at a school where the English language was taught since the first form. It wasn't a specialized English school, it was the school of fine-arts. Since the first days at school English has become my favourite subject. At the age of 7 we were introduced into foreign speech and were taught to read, write and listen to short texts in English. Our English teacher made each lesson an interesting game which we enjoyed very much. It was exiting and easy to learn English at that time by plaing games and singing songs. We looked at the pictures the teacher showed us, repeated the words after her, asked her questions: ''What's your name? '' and full of pride we answered: ''My name is …'' We wanted everybody to see that we knew English.

The first lessons, first weeks and months passed. As we grew older our lessons became more instructive and serious. Our optimism and courage disappeared and a real job began. Not everybody liked it, not everybody wanted to work hard everyday. Any language is like music. It requires, everyday training. And this training consists of four main parts of exercises, if you like. They are listening, reading, writing and speaking. And the more you work, the more you do, the better you understand: you know to little, and you will discover that English consists of Her Majesty Grammar. A first it seems illogical and impos-sible to understand. And spelling! Everybody knows that in English you write Manchester and read Liverpool. And why only 26 letters? A lot of questions. You are trying to find the answers. The more you find, the more you understands the laws that govern this language.

You see how laconically beautiful it is, how expressive and impressive it can be. I think only at this moment you actually begin working at your English because you can understand what you need, what for you need it.

It is not surprising that many intellectuals and well-educated people know many foreign languages, because I have always interested in foreign countries, their culture, and people. I learn English because I understand that I can use it. I want to learn English in particular not only it is the language of such great countries as Great Britain or the USA because it became an international language of progressive science, engineering.

Knowledge of foreign languages helps young people of different counties to develope friendship and understanding. When they meet at festivals or in interna-tional friendship camps, they can associate in English.

I learn English, because I want to read foreign literature in original. I like such English and American writers as M. Twain, J. London, L. Carroll, W. Shakespeare, M. Michel and others. I understand that I must learn English because I can be able to go to go to the library an take books by English and American writers in original. I like to read books and newspapers, too. If I know, for example, English well I'll be able to read "The Morning Stap", "The Daily News". I know that these are very popular newspapers.

Today, one person in seven of the world's population either knows English or learns it. So a modern and cultured person must learn foreign language.

I think that to know English today is absolutely necessary for every educated men, for every good specialist.

My future career

When you leave school you understand that the time to choose your future profession, your future life has become. It's not an easy to make the right choice of a job. I have known for long time that leaving school is the beginning of my independent life, the beginning of a far more serious examination of my abilities and character.

What do I want to be when I leave school? It's very important question for me. A few years ago it was difficult for me to give a definite answer. As the years passed I changed my mind a lot of times about what science or field of industry to specialize in. It's difficult to make up my mind and choose one of the hundreds jobs to which I might be better suited. A coupe of years ago I wanted to become a doctor, you know I wanted to help people who had problems with health. Then I wanted to become a policeman, then a spaceman, I even wanted to become a professional football player. But all of them now are in the past; they were like children's dreams and nothing more. Now I have already decided what to do. I'd like to be an aviator. I know that it's very difficult. I should know perfectly everything about the planes, airports, weather and other things. You know that the weather is very important thing for the flights too. I must be well educated and well informed. So that's why at first I am going to go to the Aviation University in Moscow, then when I finish studding I'll go to my country to try to get a job in the air companies. You know may be something will be not OK, because I don't know what will happen tomorrow, but I know that I'll do everything to realize my plane and my dreams.

I also want to say that the profession should be chosen according to the character and hobbies of the person. That's why parents mustn't make their children choose the thing they like (parents like). Children must do it themselves. Because they must love the thing they do, believe that people need them and their job will bring them more pleasure.

My household chores

Doing household chores is a necessary part of our life. People all over the world try to work hard. They usually have a lot of duties. I have a lot of duties, too. My parents are often tired and I must take care of them. Everybody is happy when the home is always bright and clean. Day after day I can have fun when I do my household chores. I sweep the floor, tidy my room, clean the shoes, dust the furniture, make food myself and do every kind of work. It's not easy to do every kind of work at home, but I can learn to do everything myself. When I do my household chores well, everybody in the family is happy. If I have a holiday party at home, I can help my mother and grandmother a lot. How happy mother is to see everything bright! It's a nice present for my parents to tidy the house! It's wonderful to make people happy! If I have time, my mother asks me to go to the shop. I go there and buy bread, eggs and sugar. Very often I go to the market with my mother. We buy some vegetables and fruits. Then I help my mother to carry them. My mother cooks well; sometimes I help her when she makes cakes. She usually makes them before holidays and on my birthday. We have got a country house. There is a big garden with many trees, bushes and flowers in it. There is a lot of work in our garden and I help my parents to do it. We must do our household chores, because if we hadn't done it our flat would look like a trash can. I usually clean my flat on Friday. First of all I clean with duster table, piano, some boxes, TV, lamp and many other things. At second I clean with vacuum cleaner carpet in my room, then I clean carpet in mother's and father's room. I usually wash the floor in all rooms. Then I wash bath-shell with «Pemolux». Later I wash stove with «Fairy». Every day I must feed my cat. It is very big and fat. I cook a fish soup I to it. After supper I always wash plates and dishes. Sometimes I cook myself, but my cookies up aren't so nice as mother's. I think I make an impact in tiding our place. It is necessary to help the parents. Try to make people happy and you will be happy yourself

The USA

There are fifty states in the United States of America. Two of these states, Alaska and Hawaii, are not connected to the other states. The US are washed by the Pacific Ocean in the west, by the Atlantic Ocean in the east, by the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico in the south. In the north are situated Great Lakes. More than 250 million people live in the United States. The United States is a young country. Its written history is only a few hundred years old. It is sometimes called the “New World”. Over the last 400 years millions of people have come to start a new life in this “New World”. The people of the United States are a mixture of many different nationalities. These different people brought to their new land a wonderful mixture of customs and traditions. The German brought Christmas trees. The Irish brought St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. The Scots brought Halloween. The US government has three branches. The 1st branch is the Congress. The Congress is a meeting of representatives from all states. The people elect those representatives. The Congress makes the laws that everybody must obey. The Congress meets in the US Capitol in Washington, D.C. The Congress is divided into two parts, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Every state, no matter how large or small, sends two people to the Senate. These people are called senators. There are one hundred senators in the Senate. A senator’s term is six years. Each state also sends people to the House of Representatives. They are called congressmen or congresswomen. The number of congressmen from each state depends on the number of people who live in the state. All in all there are 425 congressmen in the House of Representatives. A representative’s term is two years. The Constitution gives many powers to the Congress. One important power of the Congress is the power to declare war. The 2nd branch of government is the President and his helpers. They carry out the laws that the Congress makes. The President signs bills and then they become law. The Vice President and members of the Cabinet help the President to make decisions. The US President is Commander in Chief of the country’s armed forces. A person who wants to become President must be at least 35 years old and must live in the United States for at least 14 years before becoming President. The President’s term is four years and one can be President for one or two terms, but not longer. The 3rd branch of government is the Supreme Court. It is made up of nine judges – the most important judges in the land. They have to make sure that the President and the Congress follow the Constitution. Americans are very proud of their Constitution. It was written more than 200 years ago and it is still working!

Sights of the USA

One should start sightseeing in America from Washington. There are many beautiful parks and gardens in Washington. It is interesting to see the famous cherry trees, the gift from Japan. They were brought to America in 1912. The NASA museum is devoted to the USA achievements in the exploration of space. Capitol Hill is the highest place in the city. There is a law that forbids to build houses higher than the Capitol on Capitol Hill. From the Capitol to the White House Pennsylvania Avenue used for all processions and parades runs. The Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument are the most famous ones in Washington. The Washington Monument is one of the most impressive sights in the city. It is situated in Potomac Park. It was erected to the memory of the first president of the USA in 1888. It is called “the Pencil” because it is one of the tallest stone constructions in the world and the tallest in the USA.

There are many sights in Philadelphia, for example, the National Historical Park. You can also see the Liberty Bell, which is a symbol of freedom. The sound of this Bell told the people about the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence in July 1776. You can also visit the Philadelphia Museum of Art — one of the greatest art museums of the world.

One should also visit New York, the city of skyscrapers with the Statue of Liberty. A new American Immigration Museum has been opened at the base of the statue. The Metropolitan Opera House, the Madison Square Garden, the Modern Arts Museum are popular among the tourists. One can also visit Lyndon B. Johnson Space Centre near Houston in Texas or go to Florida or California to enjoy the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean beaches. And I would like to see them all myself.

London

London is the capital of the United Kingdom, its economic, political and cultural center. It is one of the world's most important ports and one of the largest cities in the world. London with its suburbs has a population of about 11 million people.

London has been a capital for nearly a thousand years. Many of its ancient buildings still stand. The most famous of them are the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral. Most visitors also want to see the Houses of Parliament and the many magnificent museums.

Once London was a small Roman town of the north bank of the Thames. Slowly it grew into one of the world's major cities.

Different areas of London seem like different cities. The West End is a rich man's world of shops, offices and theatres. The City of London is the district where most offices and banks are concentrated; the Royal Exchange and the Bank of England are here, too. The East End is a district where mostly working people live. The old port area is now called "Docklands". There are now new office buildings in Docklands, and thousands of new flats and houses.

By the day the whole of London is busy. At night, offices are quiet and empty, but the West End stays alive, because this is where Londoners come to enjoy themselves. There are two opera houses here, several concert halls and many theatres, as well as cinemas. In nearby Soho the pubs and restaurants and nightclubs are busy half the night.