Achievements and talent

Outstanding people

An outstanding person is one who became famous in art, cinema, science, sports and etc. Everyone knows about such artists as Rubens, Repin, Serov, Levitan, Constable or such scientists as Mendeleev, Edison, Bill Gates. But nowadays when we speak about outstanding people, we think about stars and famous people. I think it is so due to development of the Internet, social networks and television. Scientist, painters, astronaut are also outstanding people for us, but their lives are often more secretive.

The role of famous people and stars in modern society is quite important. Many people admire some actors, singers, athletes. Such people try to follow all the changes in the lives of their idols. With the development of the Internet and social networks it has become much easier. Almost every star has its own page on Facebook or Twitter. The influence of famous people is very great on ordinary people because they want to be like them, want to be fashionable and popular. On the one hand, it turns out that famous people have more power over people. They can set the canons and fashion trends. On the other hand, what thoughts and attitudes will they give to society, sometimes without realizing it? These ideas can be different and don't only positive.

Famous people have always had an influence on people, now this influence has increased. Unfortunately, it is not always positive. I believe that the life of stars and famous people can only be one option of how a person's life can develop. Other people shouldn't copy someone or imitate the famous people. Because every person's life is individual and everyone should live their own life, create it as they would like, and not copy the images and lives of celebrities.

As for me outstanding people are people who have achieved success in the chosen field, who like this sphere or have done some outstanding actions, for instance, saving someone's life or something else. It can be painters, scientists and ordinary people.

Questions: 1.What role do you think celebrities and famous people play in modern society? 2.What kinds of people do you admire most? Why?

Environment

Environment is living (biotic) or non-living (abiotic) things. It includes physical, chemical and other natural forces. There are different interactions between animals, plants, soil, water, and other living and non-living things in the environment.

Unfortunately, not all living beings do not harm nature. Man is the only cause of environmental pollution. Nature created man in order to protect and cherish the planet, but, for the most part, humanity has forgotten how important the environment is for our lives. Man set himself completely different goals, and strives to achieve them. Environmentalists are sounding the alarm, as people bring an unchanging and catastrophic effect on nature.

Plants, factories, planes and cars pollute the environment. Polluting the environment, humans brings damage to himself. In today's world, a large amount of water and food is already poisoned by harmful chemicals and toxins, that ruinously affect our health.

The results of such human behavior are acid rain, global warming, the emergence of new diseases, animals and plants die, humans have allergies and cancer, and much more.

People breathe polluted air. Thanks to progress, we destroy not only nature itself, but also our health. The number of deaths is growing. Nature itself cannot cope with such a catastrophic situation, so every person on earth must understand this and make his small contribution every day. Man was born in order to protect nature and planet Earth.

How people can help save the environment?

1. Use public transport more often. The choice of vehicles in the city has a significant impact on greenhouse gas emissions. You can opt out of your personal car in favor of walking, cycling or public transport. On long trips, take the train, not the plane.

2. To save energy. Unplug electrical appliances that you don’t use. Turn off the lights if you are not in the room.

3. Reduce meat intake. Production and transportation of meat entails significantly larger emissions of greenhouse gases than the production of chicken, the cultivation of vegetables, fruits and grain crops. It is also worth reducing the consumption of dairy products. Their production and transportation makes carbon dioxide emissions. Try to buy local and seasonal food and reduce the amount of food thrown away.

4. Save water. Turn off the water while brushing your teeth and soaping your head. This will save up to 50 liters of water per day. Use a dishwasher. According to the expert company Intertek, where the machine needs 6.5 liters of water, when you wash the dishes by hand, use all 49.

5. Take care of the forest. Paying bills online, you will not only save time, but also save the tree. And if you start using electronic receipts instead of paper, the number of trees saved will be in the thousands. Save packaging. Everyone loves to receive beautifully packaged gifts, but you can help nature and not use the packaging at all.

6. Stop using plastic. From 500 million to 1 billion plastic bags are used annually in the world. Small particles of polyethylene trapped in the ocean kill animals and fish. Go to the store with a bag, do not buy plastic bags.

7. Sort garbage. A resident of Russia produces 400 kilograms of waste per year. This is 40 million tons of garbage from all over Russia, 93% of which is disposed of in landfills. Separate collection allows processing up to 90% of waste. Resources are spent on garbage production: oil, wood, clean water. For a separate collection system, almost all waste is recycled, which can be used more than once for the production of new products.

8. Inform other people. It is necessary to disseminate as widely as possible knowledge about changes in the climate and what they bring with them.

These steps will help us save our planet. I try to save water and electric energy, eat meat less often, support eco-activists, sort garbage. Each person can take these simple steps, and if we all do this, we prevent the destruction of nature and its resources.

Questions: 1.What do you think are the worst kinds of natural disasters? Why? 2.Why do you think some people cope better with challenging situations than others?

Achievements and talent

Today we can meet a lot of talented people. But sometimes we only think that it’s talent. Some people go through a very difficult and thorny way to achieve such mastery, and some don’t put much effort into it, but simply do what they like. I think that all people can make achievements in their favorite sphere but first of all we need to find this sphere. There a lot of famous artists today. But can we be sure that all of them are talented? No, we can’t. And is it really so important for us? Let’s consider this situation.

On the one hand, we know a lot of outstanding artists who decided to create something in art sphere and then they became famous. For example, Paul Gauguin, who was just a broker. His way to art was difficult and it required a lot of audacity of the man but he was talented and it helped him. He had troubles with inspiration but he had never had problems with his painting technique. We can say that he was a gifted person because he was able to create magnificent canvases without any education in this sphere. So, we can confirm that talented people don’t get education to be gifted, they can be self-taught.

On the other hand, we can find much information about not so talented but outstanding and gorgeous artists too. For example, Ilya Efimovich Repin who was an excellent student of different schools, academies and institutes. He decided to engage in the field of art since childhood and constantly improved his skills. At first, Repin attended classes on typography, then he moved to an icon-painting (иконопись) school, of course, he studied at Academy of Fine Arts. He always developed and became famous not so much because of talent, but because of diligence and right goals. Undoubtedly, he was gifted but first of all he was a capable student.

We can see that people who relies more on talent and people who just work hard can succeed but all of them need to develop in the sphere. As for me, I like talented artists without education in art sphere because their stories more interesting for me. I think they are like rebels going against a system, they achieve heights thanks to talent and their perseverance. But of course, artists who improves skills in schools, universities and so on can be excellent masters, but only if they really want to be masters in this sphere.

To sum up, I think that it doesn’t matter if you are a talented artist or just work hard. We should pay attention to the result of his/her way. And of course, there are many artists who can paint like a God but their works can’t say anything for viewers. I think the ability to convey thoughts and feelings through the picture is a real talent.

Questions: 1. What makes something a work of art? 2.Do famous artists have natural talent?

Life lessons

When we talk about life lessons, discuss how to prepare children for adulthood, we should first think about what we generally consider as life lessons and what we learn new and useful.

When we talk about a life lesson, we assume some kind of situations that have given us new experience and a model of behavior in similar situations. These can be both positive and negative lessons. But more often than not, we remember situations that were unpleasant for us, which we were not ready for. We try not to repeat that negative experience anymore.

Often we receive the most important and painful lessons during the period of becoming independent. When a child begins to live separately from his parents, he faces things that he has not even thought about before. The ability to spend money and manage finances, the choice of products, and we shouldn’t forget about cooking, housing, job search. At this time, many people are caught in a cheat's net, choose a bad job or just eat very poorly.

Even such trifles seem to be something complicated and catastrophic if you were not prepared for them in childhood. This does not mean that a small child needs to be told how to pay bills for water and light, or forced to cook dinner for the whole family. But you definitely need to teach him\her to be adult, to teach basic self-service things, such as cooking, cleaning, sewing (well, at least how to sew a button).

These are very simple skills that all people need.

Of course, education does not end with everyday skills. Adults should give the child social skills. Communication, empathy, emotional control, self-development, hobbies - all this is a social component of the development of the child, without which it will be very difficult for him\her in adulthood. To develop the right skills (OR: To provide children with the right skills), there are many social models in fairy tales, cartoons that adults must explain to children.

Adults must understand that they cannot teach a child everything, it is impossible to transfer absolutely all skills, you can only give the right direction and ability to analyze your actions. It is necessary to give the child the opportunity to make mistakes, to learn from his own experience, but he\she definitely needs an experienced adult who will help him to understand his mistakes and correct them.

Questions: 1.Is important to help children prepare for what might happen to them later in life. Why? 2. Which of your childhood experiences have had an impact on your adult life?

 

Opportunities

Nowadays, man has more and more opportunities, both in personal and global terms. Humanity is developing, it is developing technologies, transport, communications, and all this gives a lot of opportunities to an ordinary person.

The ability to cover a huge distance in a couple of hours of flight, the ability to find any information and contact any person anywhere in the world via the Internet, the ability to develop skills and learn new things, the ability to earn without leaving home, the opportunity to study and choose a profession.

Human capabilities are something that can be continuously developed and improved. It depends on a person only whether he wants to use the opportunities given to him, what he will choose and how much effort he will make to achieve the goal. Many people have the opportunity to choose hobbies - sports, creativity, collecting, reading - it depends on personal preferences. Someone loves vivid emotions, fear and he will choose extreme sports, while someone will choose competitive sports or calm and meditative yoga.

It happens that one desire is not enough to do what you want. Someone needs time, someone needs finances, someone needs health. But these days it’s becoming easier to make money, and new technologies can give health to you. Society is developing to give all people the opportunity to realize themselves and help others with their dreams.

Questions: 1.Why do you think some people like doing extreme and dangerous things? 2.Do you think they do these things in spite of the risk or because of the risk?

Future life

Nowadays our world is changing so quickly. We have many different things which didn't exist 50 or 100 years ago. Internet, mobile phones, robots and etc. And in this situation we have a big question - what will be in our future life. Let’s consider some points of a possible near future.

I’d like to point out that everyone knows fantastic books and films about our future. Many of them tell about robots in the future life. Robotics is rapidly developing and improving. Now we have a large number of areas in which robotic technology helps people, sometimes replaces them. For example, in factories, in medicine they help to perform delicate and complex operations. It is possible that soon robots will be able to replace humans in other areas. For example, many scientists talk about robots in education. As for me I hope that it won't happened. Because one of the purpose of education is development of sense of beauty, love of nature and of place where people live, robots can't feel like people and its won't be able to teach it to children. I think robots help to make our lives easier, but we shouldn't use them in all sphere of our lives.

Now I would like to tell you about future of cars. We are used to using them. And every year the number of cars is growing. But often people forget that the number of pollution increases with number of cars, traffic jams increase. To combat air pollution, scientists are trying to come up with new ways. Now electric cars, electric buses began to appear. The number of metro stations and Railways increases, there are high-speed trains that reduce travel time and are faster than cars. I think that we can't stop using car in the future, but I hope that more people will use electric transports. Maybe in future scientists will invent flying cars.

After all I would like to say that people should think more about preserving our planet. I hope that in the future people will find a way to reduce the amount of pollution and damage they cause to the planet, I hope that we will find a replacement for plastic and can make our lives more environmentally friendly.

Questions: 1. Should air fares be increased to discourage people from travelling by train? 2. Will people stop using cars? Why? Why not?

Around the globe

People travel for various reasons. Most people travel because they want to see their families, friends or soul mates who live far away. Invitations from families and friends are seldom so you will decide to travel just to see them.

Other people travel because they want to learn others cultures. They want to see the difference between their culture and other cultures. And they want to see all beautiful scenery of different countries. Others would want to take pictures because it serves as souvenirs.

Another reason is that people travel to seek for work because they want to experience how to work from another place. We must admit that earning money is hard and some people decide to work abroad because they are looking for better live. Other place pays bigger rates than their own place. We may also say that their expertise is not favorable in their own place. Unfortunately, they have to leave their families for a while for a job opportunities abroad.

I really like traveling, although I do not get it very often. Traveling for me is a new experience, new emotions and impressions. This is a way to recharge and move forward. I like visiting museums, art exhibitions and historical monuments of different countries and cities. I like to learn something new about the world, other countries, other people and their languages. My dream is to be a free artist, travel around the world and learn many languages.

I must say that you need not be afraid to travel alone. I want to share this wonderful experience. This summer I very spontaneously decided to go to Vienna for a couple of days. I was very worried about going to Austria alone and without knowledge of German. But I tried to think over all the details of the trip. I wrote a detailed plan for the day, printed out a map of the metro and city center, downloaded off-line maps and an off-line translator in case of a lack of Internet. My fears were unnecessary. I spent an amazing time in Vienna. I practically learned by heart all the sights of Vienna and how to get to them. I got acquainted with the architectural monuments of the Habsburg era and visited 5 museums. But I can name one moment when I regretted that I was alone.

I planned a trip to the Prater amusement park. There is an amazing carousel. I really wanted to ride on it, but unfortunately I could not. The fact is that you had to leave the bag down on a shelf. You can't ride a carousel with a bag. But there was everything in my bag: passport, all the money, phone, plane tickets. I could not leave my bag. I sat for a long time under the carousel and watched people ride on it. Then I thought that if I were with a friend, we would ride the carousel in turn. But I was alone. Then I thought that I would definitely ride this carousel the next time when I will be with someone.

So, I want to say that traveling is great. Travels fill you with positive and new unforgettable emotions. It's worth it.

Questions: 1.Do you prefer travelling alone or with other people? Why\Why not? 2.What are the positives and negatives of going on long journeys?

 

City living

Living in a city people are usually surrounded by a plenty of different buildings and infrastructure objects. Even small cities have a lot of buildings, so as their own architecture style. That’s why architecture is an important thing in questions of comfortable city living. Architecture influences people’s every day mood and the general attitude to their city and even their life.

Colors of buildings and surrounding infrastructure can make you happy or sad, calm or nervous. Maybe those things are not that obvious, but they surely make some difference. Modern architecture style tends to be comfortable, neat and nice to look at.

That’s a pleasure to know this information, because going back to the history of Russia, we can remember that cities didn’t look good at all. For example, we have a lot of post-soviet architecture that came from the XXth century in Russia and, in my opinion and in the opinion of the most Russian people so as tourists, there is no pleasure to look at some of those houses. Moreover, if the new buildings become similar to them, Russian architecture can become moody and unattractive. There were only Moscow and St. Petersburg which didn’t look so moody because of some Imperial-time buildings which made the centers of the cities look beautiful. Nevertheless, speaking of the neighbourhoods of those cities, the picture was completely different. In addition, even nowadays, the most of the small towns still have the old architecture and infrastructure and they are unsuitable for comfortable living.

Speaking of the outer look, it’s unavoidable that as time goes forward, the style of buildings changes and a city can soon become a chaotic collection of different houses and styles of buildings. That’s why it is quite important to make new buildings similar to the old ones.

There is also a question of individual taste. Some people think that old, historic buildings are no need for the city and they should be destroyed and replaced with modern ones. However, other people believe that historic buildings must be preserved in order to know and remember our past.

Therefore, I think, the city environment should improve and become more pleasant year-by-year to make the citizens feel that they live in a nice and beautiful place and not make them move away from this country or city. It can be achieved by making new buildings prettier and taking into account the general style of architecture. Otherwise, the city can look ugly or scattered and no one will like it.

What about city neighbourhoods, in my opinion, it’s right to develop them. Everything needs to be developed and improved, because times change and things can become old and unmodern very fast. I don’t see any reason to leave city neighbourhoods as they are, especially if they look old and ugly, which is true in most cases. They shouldn’t be fundamentally changed and become completely different or overly modern. However, it is necessary to make some basic improvements, for example to use new materials or technologies of building and infrastructure. The only thing that should be the preserved is the traditional style of the neighborhood, if it has one. Some cities have their own unique style of architecture, which is liked by the citizens, and surely, this should be saved. But it doesn’t mean that all the things should be the same as 20 years ago, simply because a lot of things could have outdated.

Questions: 1.Do you think new buildings should fit in with their surroundings or stand out from them? Why? 2.Do you think it’s right to develop and alter city neighbourhoods or should they be preserved?

Money and finance

Money is an integral part of our society. When there was no currency, people simply exchanged goods from each other, but it was not convenient. Money often helps us achieve what we want. Travel, hobbies, leisure, health and much more. But "money does not grow on trees." This phrase is often said by adults to children, just like the phrase "I do not print money." In this way, parents try to explain to the child that you have to pay for everything, and money does not appear out of nowhere with ease. This means that you need to make efforts to get what you want. We understand this when we become adults and begin to earn money ourselves, and we do not depend on parents any more.

The most important thing is to understand that money is not a goal, but only means. Yes, there are people who seek to earn as much money as possible, and do not think why they need it.

You need to understand that in order to enjoy life, you need to choose a job not for the sake of money, but for the sake of interest and joy. Work should be loved and pleasing every day, and money is only a pleasant bonus.

Of course, many people dream of just getting money, or dream of a world where everyone has unlimited money. But this is impossible, because then money will lose its value and will be useless pieces of paper, and people will not work. And if no one works, then there will be no factories, shops, science and creative work.

Humanity came to the use of money because it was very convenient and I see no reason to abandon these rules.

Questions: 1.There is a common expression in English: “Money doesn’t grow on trees”. What does this mean and when people say it? 2.If money did grow on trees, do you think most people would be happier? Why\Why not?

Crime

Hello. Today we will talk about the crime. Every day we face various crimes in the news, in the street or in the movies. There is a huge number of detective stories. From them we learn how the police, secret agents work. But it's on the screen. And in real life sometimes we prefer not to notice if crime is committed in front of us. They can steal a wallet on the subway, hit someone by a car in the street, or we can guess about domestic violence. The crime came with the first man. Theft, murder appeared because of envy. As we remember in the Bible it is told about Cain and Abel and about the first murder. There are many types of crimes. Their number grows with the development of mankind. We evolve and evolve, and with it crimes become more sophisticated. As we know in the 20th century there were many new types of crimes: drug trafficking, hijacking, cybercrime. In the 21st century, they have only improved. And statistics shows an alarming increase in violent crime and criminality. This is due to the illegal sale of weapons around the world. Unfortunately, women and children are often victims of crime. It happens that rich people or their children are kidnapped and someone demands a ransom for them. In conclusion, I want to talk about the origin of words related to the law in the English language.

In 1066, England fell under the rule of the Normans. And its king was the Norman Duke William. After that, French became the official language of law and industry, it was also taught in universities. Therefore, English words in this area are similar to French.

Questions: 1. Do you think it is always important to be honest? 2.What would you do if you saw your best friend stealing in the supermarket?

Discoveries

Humanity has existed for several millennia. For the past centuries, there have been countless inventions and advancements in the world. Today we can’t imagine our life without smartphones, cars, Internet, medicines, etc., but several years ago people could live without it.

Undeniably, one of the greatest discovery is а discovery of penicillin. Thanks to penicillin and other antibiotics, countless lives have been saved. Without antibiotics humanity could have died out of the flu a long time ago. In addition, penicillin was the first medicine, on the example of which the existence of resistance of microbes to antibiotics was observed.

In my opinion, another great discovery of the world is electricity. This discovery was the impetus for many other modern inventions. Today electricity plays the most important role in our life. Everything that is available in your house is necessarily created with the participation of electricity. Huge factories operate all day long, producing the highest quality products, which can significantly raise the standard of living. We do not see this, but everything will immediately become noticeable if everything is taken away at once.

Unfortunately, not all discoveries and inventions are designed to improve standard of living. For example, the invention of atomic bombs and chemical weapons has not given anything good to humanity. It is just the mortal instruments in the hands of a creature, who considers himself the crown of the nature. Previously, no one could have imagined that entire cities could be crushed into powder in an instant. With the advent of the atomic bomb, no one could feel safe. But the worst weapon has not only affected the politics of superpowers - it has left its mark on culture, science fiction, and you and me.

Humanity could not exist without constant progress, finding and introducing new technologies, inventions and discoveries. All discoveries open up new opportunities and help to implement many ideas. We continue to invent and discover the laws, phenomena and properties of objects in the material world surrounding us, expanding the horizons of our knowledge, but it should not be forgotten that everything that we create or discover will either give us the opportunity to live happily ever after, or will kill everything that lives.

Questions: 1.Imagine you could have a robot built for you. What would you want it to do? Why? 2.Do you think new inventions and discoveries always lead to an improved quality of life? Why\Why not? Think of examples.

Career

Questions: 1. When people have high ambitions, what kinds of expectations do they have of themselves? 2. Do you think people are sometimes unrealistic in setting goals for themselves? Why?

Cultural differences

There are a lot of people on our planet. And all people are different, everyone has their own habits, traditions, holidays and cultural differences. We found these differences due to the different directions and pace of cultural development. A lot of things that we don’t even think about are explained by different climate, historical background, abundance or lack of flora and fauna.

For example, eating habits. Cold northern countries prefer fatty and high-calorie food. Their diet consists of most of all fish, venison, a lot of fried food and few fruits. Asian cuisine has a lot of fish and vegetables, while the Mediterranean is rich in fruits. Due to such differences, hunting and cattle breeding are more common for northern countries, and farming and gardening are more common for southern countries.

There are differences in traditions and behaviors, which often look like clichés. For example, Russians are considered being morose, rude. The Japanese are hard workers, proud. Brazilians are temperamental and funny. Often this opinion is formed due to linguistic differences and manner of speaking. The speech of the Russian people is very calm and even. But such a way of speaking of Englishmen shows to the interlocutor that you are bored or angry.

You can see a lot of “clichés” in films (balalaika, bear, hat with earflaps and the CSS).

Now the negative traits of different cultures disappear or turn into a joke. The more people from different countries communicate with each other, the more truth they learn, and the more they begin to understand the essence of these differences.

Questions:  1. Why are cultures different?  2. When people from other countries think about your culture, what do they usually think of?

Modern Art

1. What is art? What would life be like without art?

Art and its definition will always be controversial. There will always be debates about what art is and what is not. I can say that in a broad sense, art is any creative work of a human being. In my opinion, art is a way of self-expression. Art allows me to convey my feelings and thoughts through creative activity.

What would life be like without art? I think, nobody can imagine his life without art. We use the arts for cultural appreciation, aesthetics, personal improvement, our entertainment and even social change. We use the arts in order to thrive in this world. The role of art in our life is tremendous. Art develops sense of beauty, such qualities as kindness, sympathy it teaches us to hate cruelty. Art makes our life more interesting and increases our cultural level. Man will not understand the true beauty of life without art.

2. What painting do you admire? Why?

V. Serov – the painting “A Girl with Peaches”. It was painted in the summer of 1887. The heroine of the portrait is the daughter of a famous entrepreneur and patron of the arts Savva Mamontov – Vera.

The job was not easy for Serov, and it took him three months to complete the canvas. But in the picture itself this cannot be said: it is so penetrated by lightness, airiness and light that it seems that it was created in one breath. The picture is filled with sincerity, happiness and ease.

Serov’s works are distinguished by truthfulness, a deep understanding of human nature and on the motives behind human actions.