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EXAMS. Topics. Status. Where. 1.Russia. 2.Moscow . 3.GB London. 4.Historic cities Durham, York, Oxford. HR 5.Lake district and lake poets Cornwall, Bath, Brighton. HR 6.Scotland 7.Wales 8.Famous writers Shakespeare. 9.Conan Doil, Ian Fleming. 10.Art music purple violin,

Paul Kerak . 11.Famous actors Paul Newman, Elizabeth Tailor. HR 12.Mass media TV in my life and BBC. 13.Museums and art galleries Hartfield House. HR 14.School in Russia, Japan, England. HR 15.School other ways of getting education . 16.Past time, hobby. 17.Traveling the best way to see the world Ann Gibson, disastrous holidays .

18.Holidays in Brazil, Switzerland, Egypt, Russia , other countries. 1 NR ! 19.Sport and healthy way of life run your way to health. 20.Sport children in sport. 21.Youth problems job, drugs. 22.Environmental problems David Ottenboro and his programs life on Earth. 23.Environmental problems. 24.My future profession.

25.The importance of learning foreign languages 26.Issigonis 27.English speaking countries USA Повыбору 1 страну 28.China Ready 22 Half ready 5 HR Not ready 1 NR Made and printed by st.ab. All rights reserved. Children in sport. I Hello, and welcome to today s You Yours . On today s program we look at children who are trying to be champions in the world of sport,

and the pressures they can be under to win. Now I spoke to Allan Baker, the former British Athletics coach, and he had this to say. AB Well the problem is that you want to find these children at quite a young age, to train them and motivate them as early as possible. At that age they don t have social problems, you know they don t have boyfriends or girlfriends, so they give their sport the whole of their life.

But they re so young that they can lose their childhood, and they re adults before they re 16. But of course they re not adults at all. Physically they can be quite developed, but emotionally they re still children. Everybody s looking for the new young star of the future, because there s a lot of money to be earned. I Tennis is one of the sports where youngsters can play against their elders with more than a chance of success. In America there are tennis schools which accept children from as young

as 9. So from the age of 9 a boy or girl is playing tennis for four or five hours every day, and doing ordinary school work around that. I spoke to the team manager of the English Lawn Tennis Association, Pam de Grouchy. PG You see, we ve already seen two 14-year-old American girls, that s Tracy Austin and Andrea Jaeger, playing at Wimbledon, and now, both at 18, they are now already showing

the pressures on their bodies and their minds, and people are beginning to question whether this is a good thing for children. A 14-year-old just can t cope with the pressures of Wimbledon, the tournament, the Wimbledon crowds, and the press reporters. Well, I say to my girls, Stay at home, stay at school, do the things that teenagers like doing. If you like swimming, well swim if you like going to dances, just go!

And if when they re older they d really like to be a professional tennis player, well, they ll be a little older than the Americans, but they ll be better people for it, of that I m perfectly sure. I Pam de Grouchy thinks that young players shouldn t be allowed to become professionals until the age of 17 or 18 at least. I asked her what was responsible for the pressures on the young players - was it the money that can be earned, the parents, or perhaps the children themselves?

PG Oh no, it s the parents, without a shadow of a doubt. They want to push their children. I get letters from parents saying, My little Johnny enjoys playing tennis all day, and he d like to learn only that and be trained by a professional coach , and quite frankly I just don t believe it. I But what about the youngsters themselves? Robert, a 100-metre and 200-metre runner gave me an idea

of his training program, and his own very simple way of avoiding trouble. R Well I train under a coach for three days a week, and then decide how much running to do. If I ve trained hard, well then maybe I run five miles, you know, if not so much, then eight miles. Well, of course, I d like to go to the next Olympics and represent Great Britain, and of course I d like to win a gold but there are lots of other things

I like doing with my life too. I play in a rock group and I m also a keen photographer. Well, I suppose for me the most important thing is enjoyment. If, if you win, you re happy, and if you lose, it s the same. I mean if you start getting upset every time you lose, I think it s time to stop. I The sports stars of tomorrow, and good luck to them.

China. China is the one of the largest countries in the world. The total area of the country is over million square kilometers. As to population China is the first country in the world. Over one thousand million peoples live in it. It means that one out of every five people in the whole world is Chinese. China is a great country, so only it has the man-made object which is visible from

outer space - The Great Wall. China has a recorded history of nearly four thousand years. It was a monarchy till 1949 when Mao Tse Tung became a head of the state. Since that year China has been a Socialist Republic. In 1976 China started the Cultural Revolution, and it finished in 1976 when Mao dead. And now China is in the hands of Deng Xiaping, who has given the country a little free enterprise.

Doors are now open to the rest of the world. And you can even come to China to study there. Some words about Chinas education system. At the first all foreigners students will have to share a room with one Chinese student, which is very common. Days start very early, so theyll have to get up at about six oclock. There are morning exercise in the open air, and they will be invited to join it.

The breakfast is at about six thirty. And all meals are communal. Their classes will probably be in English and Chinese, theyll begin at seven thirty. Lunch is at twelve, and then more classes until six. After school day students usually go to the cinema. In fact its very difficult to get tickets. People also like to go for walks, to play cards or just

to sit outside talking. The air in the streets is not pollute, because there are few cars but literally millions of bicycles. Chinese food is legendary thats why you can find it in most cities in the world, and people like it very much. If you want to visit China youll have to get a visa. There are in fact many cities that you can visit with just the ordinary visa, and others that you need to get a visa from the local police station to go to.

Now there is a very good train service and also an internal air service, but I think that itll be better if you travel by trains because youll see so much more of the country. And I also think that China is worth seeing. And youll never forget it if you visit it. David Attenborough is very gloomy about much of what he s seen. What s depressed him most has been the huge speed and scale of change that human beings are inflicting

on the world. People destroy everything around them. For example they cut down forests just because they need firewood to keep warm. And they dont think about the future. When they cut down forests, the good soil have no umbrellas to protect them from the heavy rains. Water washes all good soil and in the future we will have no soil, no forests. Every year people destroy about 29,000 square miles.

That is an area the size of the whole Scotland disappearing every year. Forty per cent of our drugs, our medicines, are derived from plants and most of those come from the tropical rain forests, and most of those come from the Amazon. But if nothing will be doing Amazonian jungle will disappear in just few years. Trees are a vital part of the water cycle, and of course they give us the oxygen.

That means that well have nothing to drink, to eat and no oxygen to breathe. Cutting down forests also causes floods. But we cant say to these people that they mustnt cut down that tree in order to cook their food. And it is an important problem of mankind - thinks David. But there are also other environmental problems today. Some of these problems are the ozone holes, global warming or green-house effect , acid rain

And the tragedy is that the people who suffer first are the deprived people, the people who are living on the edge of prosperity. And if they think that they are insulated from that, they are wrong. I think now a lot of people are beginning to realize that environmental problems are not somebody elses. They make different organization, whose aim is conservation. For example GREEN PEACE , FRIEND OF THE EARTH and others.

Everyday millions people from all over the world do everything to protect our environment , and they need for our help. I think we ought to help them , just to make our future better. Educating children at home. Now educating children at home is something that apparently twice the number of parents are talking on than used to be the case. It is estimated that about 6000 children are being taught at home without going to school.

Education Otherwise is the name of one organization of parents who have taken this step, and Bruce Cox is one of their number. Bruce thinks that it is not against the law to take the children out of school or not to put them in school. Children must be educated, according to the 1944 Act, but whether you educate them in school or otherwise, is a matter for parents to choose - he thinks. For some of children it is better to be educated at home or in alternative school than in governments

school. People dont sent their children to school in the first place for a variety of reasons. They arent particularly hostile to school in some respects, that they could do just as good a job. And they very much enjoy having their family all together at home. They have done a certain amount of more organized maths, but most of the things they do arise out of the ordinary business of day-to-day life and responding to their interests and questions.

They also thinks that children, who were educated at home, are perfectly OK as far as reading and writing are concerned, though theyve been much more happy to leave the direct teaching of it to a later point in their lives than perhaps would happen at school. Parents dont have to be a qualified teacher to their children at home. Most of them parents went to school and were quite successful, quite enjoyed it.

They did think that it was very dependent on the carrot and stick motivation. It means that they dont hate the school, they just want better for their children. Maybe it is right, maybe not, but we should to try to understand and help them. Environmental protection. Our earth is our home, so if we want to protect our home we should protect our environment from harmful effects of human activity.

Some of these activities cause pollution. Pollution now is a very important problem. Some of these problem are the ozone holes, global warming or green-house effect , acid rain The ozone layer is a layer of gases which stop harmful radiation from the sun protecting the earth. Recent research shows that there is a hole in part of the ozone layer which is caused by smoke from factories, car exhaust fumes, aerosol cans cause they contain

CFC. Global warming is an increase in world temperature caused by an increase in carbon dioxide. Acid rain is rain that contains dangerous chemicals, this is caused by smoke from factories. Another problem is poisons in food. Farmer soften spray chemicals in crops to safe them from pests. These chemicals are called pesticides. Scientists have found that pesticides often end up in our food and they can cause health problems - especially for kids.

The seas are in danger. They are filled with poison industrial, chemical, nuclear waste. Every ten minutes one kind of animal, plant or insect dies out for ever. And if nothing is done our earth will die in about 30 years from now. So what can we do to protect our environment ? I think that we should recycle our used things, we should plant more trees, we should not waste resources but try save them, we also must make smoke from factories

and cars fumes more clean, we must not dump industrial waste to seas and rivers Now people are beginning to realize that environmental problems are not somebody elses. They make different organization, whose aim is conservation. For example GREEN PEACE , FRIEND OF THE EARTH and others. Everyday millions people from all over the world do everything to protect our environment , and they

need for our help. I think we ought to help them , just to make our future better. Newman, actor, director, and racing driver, was born so good looking that people said it was а shame to waste such beauty on, boy. He was born in Cleveland, 0hio, in 1925, and did some acting in high school and college, but never seriously considered making it his future career. However, after graduating, he immediately started working in the theater.

He met his first wife, Jackie Witte, while they were acting together, and they got married in 1949. They had three children, a boy and two girls He found work in the theater and on several TV shows in New York. When he was thirty, he went to Los Angeles and made his first film. It was what Newman called an uncomfortable start in the movies, in the role of a Greek slave. The experience was so bad that he went back to the theater and didn t

accept another film role for two years. The film he chose was his big break. He played the boxer, Rocky Graziano, in the film Someone up There Likes Me. Newman is a method actor who believes in living the part before beginning the film He spent days - from morning till night - with Graziano. He studied the fighter s speech and watched him box, and they talked endlessly about

Graziano s childhood. The picture brought Newman stardom overnight. He was living in Los Angeles away from his family when he met Joanne Woodward, an actress who he had first met in New York. They worked together in The Long Hot Summer. His wife, Jackie, and Paul recognized that their marriage wasn t working, and got divorced.

Newman and Miss Woodward were married in Las Vegas in 1958. Newman went on to make films such as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Hustler, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting and Towering Inferno. He has made over forty-five films, and has won many awards, but he has never won an Oscar. His marriage to Woodward is one of the longest and strongest in

Hollywood. They have three daughters, and they have co-starred in six films. Ever since the film Winning, Newman has been passionately interested in car racing, and in 1979 he came second in the twenty-four hour Le Mans race. But the end of the 1970s was not all good news for him. In 1978 his only son, Scott, died of a drug overdose, and as a result Newman created the Scott Newman Foundation to inform young people on drug abuse.

He has a strong social conscience, and has supported causes such as the anti-nuclear movement, the environment, and driver education. All the money from Newman s Own salad dressing, popcorn, and spaghetti sauce, now a multi-million dollar business, goes to charity. He is more than just a movie star. would like to be remembered as a man who has tried to help people to communicate with each other, says Newman, and who has tried to do something good with

his life. You have to keep trying. Thafs the most important thing. Famous writers. There are many famous English writers. Among them are William Shakespeare, Keepling and many others. I will tell you about the life and work of Arthur Conan Doyle and Ian Fleming, because I like their books most of all.

Ian Fleming is the author of internationally famous James Bond spy novels. And in his life he was like the hero of his books James bond. Ian Fleming was born on may the 28th , 1908 in England. His family were rich. His grandfather was a millionaire banker and his father was a member of parliament. He was killed in the First World War when

Ian was only nine. He had three brothers and he was quite close to them, but he was different from them. They all went to Eton. His brothers liked it. He hated it. He hated the army too. He didnt want to be a soldier. He was good at languages, so he went to study in Geneva in 1930. Then the next year he wanted to join the Foreign office but did not pass the exams.

He went back home and he was living with his mother again, feeling very bored, when he got a job as a journalist. He worked in London, Berlin and Moscow. Then he worked as a stockbroker and he was doing this when the Second World War started. Thats when he started working in the world of spies. He joined the Naval Intelligence and had a lot of contact with

MI5 and the Secret Service. He went on secret missions to North Africa, Lisbon and America. He was a good-looking man. He loved money and had expensive way of life. He always dressed very carefully. He had a lot of girlfriends. He didnt marry until he was forty-three. He drank a lot of gin, martini, vodka and smoked 60 cigarettes a day.

Probably as a result of this he had a bad heart from quite a young age. He started writing after the war. He went to Jamaica in 1952, loved it and decided to buy some land by the sea and built a house. He called it Goldeneye. And in Jamaica in 1952 three very important things happened he got married, he got a son and started writing about James Bond. His first book was Casino

Royale , then his second book was Live and Let Dye in 1954. After that there were more twelve James Bond books. His last book was The Man with the Golden Gun . He helped choose Sean Connery for Dr.No , but he died while they were making the Second Bond film, From Russia with LOVE . His books were successful.

Forty millions were sold by the time oh his death.All over the world, detective stories are the most popular kind of fiction. My favorite detective is Sherlock Holmes. Although he is a fictional character, Sherlock Holmes had a real address-221b Baker street. Today this is the Sherlock Holmes museum. The author of the

Sherlock Holmes stories was Arthur Conan Doyle. He was born in Scotland, in 1859. He was a doctor, and he wrote detective stories to spare time. He wrote twenty-six Sherlock Holmes stories between 1887 and 1895. Then, he decided to kill of his hero. At the end of the story called The Final Problem Holmes and Moriarty fall into the

Reichenbach falls in Switzerland. The readers were very upset. Public pressure was too great and he had to bring Holmes back to life, although he did not like him. He thought that Sherlock Holmes books were not serious. He wanted to write historical novels. Conan Doyle continued writing about his hero for another twenty-

five years. Conan Doyle books are still famous and popular. ALEC ISSIGONIS was born in 1906 in Izmir, Turkey. His mother was German and his father was Greek with British citizenship. Issigonis didnt go to school. He was taught by a private teacher at home. After the

First World War, the family moved to Britain, and Issigonis studied engineering. He was already a good designer but he couldnt do maths. He failed his maths exam three times at technical college! He worked for a number of car manufacturers before joining Morris in 1936. After the Second World War he design the

Morris Minor, the first British car to sell over a million. In 1956 he joined the British Motor Corporation. In that year the Suez Crisis caused petrol shortages in Europe, so everyone wanted cars that did not use much petrol. Issigonis was asked to design a small economical car that could take four passengers. The result was the Mini. Issigonis had complete control over the design of the

Mini. He was an arrogant man who did not like to listen to other people. For example, he was told that all modern cars should have radios and seat belts. But he did not listen to the radio himself or wear seat belts, so he refused to put them in the first Minis. Later he changed his mind and seat belts and radios were added. He saw himself as an artist rather than a scientist.

He once said, Mathematics is the enemy of every truly creative man. Issigonis always followed his instincts. Luckily, they were usually right!About MINI. First of all he decided that the Mini should be three meters long, half a meter shorter than most small cars. Next, the wheels were made much smaller, with independent suspension. And they were put right at the four corners of the car.

Then, the engine was turned sideways, and the gearbox was put underneath. Most space was saved by having front-wheel drive. And there was still room for four passengers. In 1959 this design was revolutionary. Today nearly every small car is based on the design of Mini. Henry Ford 1863-1947 Henry Ford was born in 1863.

He was a man who transformed the world. The car he built changed the lives of people everywhere. In 1896, Ford succeeded in building an automobile powered by a gasoline engine. He built this engine in his kitchen sink. In 1903, Henry Ford established the Ford Motor Company and introduced the Model T Ford. Henry Ford wanted to make a car that everyone would be able to afford.

He was able to lower the price of the Model T from 850 to 360 by introducing mass production assembly line techniques. On an assembly line each person has one specific job and can do it faster and more efficiently. Great Britain. The United Kingdom and Northern Ireland is situated on the British Isles. The British Isles consist of two large islands, Great

Britain and Ireland, and about five thousand small islands. Their total area is over 244 000 square kilometers. The United Kingdom is made up of four countries England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Their capitals are London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast respectively.

Great Britain consists of England, Scotland and Wales and does not include Northern Ireland. But in everyday speech Great Britain is used to mean the United Kingdom. The capital of UK is London. London is political, economic, culture and commercial center of the country. Its one of the largest cities in the world and the largest one in Europe. The population of the city is over 8 million.

London is also one of the oldest and most interesting cities in the world. The British isles are separated from the European continent by the North Sea and the English channel. The western coast of Great Britain is washed by the Atlantic Ocean and the Irish Sea. The surface of the British Isles is varies very much.

The north of Scotland is mountainous and is called Highlands, while the south, which has beautiful valleys and plains, is called Lowlands. The north and west of England are mountainous, but all the rest - east, center and southeast - is a vast plain. Mountains are not very high. 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 most important one. The UK is one of the worlds smaller countries. The population of the country is over 57 million and about 80 of it is urban. The UK is highly developed industrial country. Its known as one of worlds largest producers and exporters of machinery, electronics, textile, aircraft and navigation equipment. The UK is constitutional monarchy. In law, the Head of

State is the Queen, but in practice, the Queen reigns, does not rule. The country is ruled by the elected government with the Primer Minister at the head. The British Parliament consists of two chambers the House of Lords and the House of Commons. Now the Primer Minister of the United Kingdom is Tony Blair. York.

York is one of Europes historic cities. It began as an important roman city. In medieval times a stone wall was built around it, and wall is still there today. There is the river Omse near Lendal bridge. And from here you can walk around the city on the wall, it takes about two hours. In the south wall is Micklegate bar, where kings and queens entered the city. There is also Monk bar and Booth bar. Inside the city there is a cathedral.

It was begun in 1220 and finished two centuries later. If you compare this English cathedral with a catholic cathedral, you will see that they are different. Cathedral in Protestant England dont have colorful paintings on the wall, the color is in the windows. In the center of window of this cathedral is white rose- the symbol of York. There are also different interesting museums in

York. One of them is the National Railway Museum. There are a lot of trains in it, for example the first public train in the world, built in 1825 and the fastest steam train in the world are here West Yorkshire. The West Yorkshire moors, where two great writers, Charlotte and Emily Bronte, lived. Their books are Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heinghts. They lived in the 1800s in the village of

Haworth with four brothers and sisters. Their father was the minister at the village church. All the children died by the age of thirty, except Charlotte. She lived on alone with her father in this house. Then at thirty-eight she married. But only nine month later she died too and was buried in the church by her old father. OXFORD. Oxford is one of oldest and most famous cities in the world. it is famous

for its university, the Oxford university. It also called a city of students, because over 12000 students are living and studding here in thirty five colleges. Oxford is a place of young people and old traditions, for example teachers are called dons and still wear black grows. Student here are taught one-to-one in the Socratic tradition. At the libraries you can still see notices written in

Latin - the ancient language of scholars. Students here are surrounded by old stone building. One of them is Hertford College, one of smallest colleges in the university. About two hundred students live and work here. But Oxford is not all work, there are a lot of clubs and other interesting places for students and dons to visit. For example the Sheldonian theater, which is used for concerts and universitys ceremonies.

Opposite the theater is book shop, where people buy books. It is one of the word biggest book shops, with seven kilometers of selves. There are also a lot of pubs and cafes in the city, where you can buy cheap food and drink a cup of coffee with friends. There are two rivers in Oxford. People usually travel in the rivers by boats called punts.

Oxford is also famous for its gardens, which has a maze. Hobbies. 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. Hobbies are divided 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 traveling and from chess to volleyball. Gardening is one of the oldest mans hobbies. It is well-know fact that the English are very found of gardening and growing flowers, especially roses. Both grown-ups and children are found of playing different computer games. This is a relatively new hobby but it is becoming more and more popular.

Making thing includes drawing, painting, making sculpture, designing costumes, handicrafts and others. Two of the most famous hobby painters were President Eisenhower and Sir Winston Churchill. Some hobbyists write music or play musical instruments. President Bill Clinton, for example, plays on the saxophone. Almost everyone collects something at some period in his life stamps, coins, matchboxes, books, records,

postcards, toys, watches and other things. Some collection have not real value. Others become so large and so valuable that they are housed in museums and art 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 object. 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 thing can be the most exciting aspect of a hobby. So I think that everyone should have a hobby, it is liked the target of your life. There are many national holidays in the world, when people all over the country do not work and have

special celebrations. For example in Russia the major holidays are New Year s Day, Victory Day. The first holiday of the year is New Year s 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 colored 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.

The greatest national holiday in our country is Victory Day. On the 9lh of May, 1945, the Soviet Army and its allies completely defeated the German fascists and the Second World War ended. A lot of guests from different countries of the world came to Moscow to participate in the celebrations. There are fewer public holidays in Great Britain than in other

European countries. They are Christmas Day, New Year s Day, Easter Monday, Spring Bank Holiday. Public holidays in Britain arc 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 Norway give the city of London a present. It s a big

Christmas tree and it stands in Trafalgar Square. Central streets are beautifully decorated. The fun starts the night before, on the 24th of December. Traditionally this is the day when people decorate their trees. Children hang stockings at the end of their beds, hoping that Father Christmas will come down the chimney during the night and fill them with toys and sweets.

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. There are also smaller, local festivals in Britain. Now a few words about holidays in Brazil.

The most important event in brazil - this a festival in Rio-de-Janeiro, which passes each year at the end of February the beginning of March. The festival lasts 4 days and 4 night. In Rio there are special schools, which train the people to dance Samba and Lambada. Each of these schools exposes on a holiday about 4000 dancers and 300 drummers.

Other important event in Brazil in the year is ancient religious holiday MACUMBA, which is celebrated by Brazilian in the new year eve. During this holiday on sand of a beach KOPACABANA people place drinks and meal and light candles thirsted in sand. People in the midnight throw in the water their gifts and if ocean takes them, the year will be successful, but if it throws out on a coast, the year will not present.

In the different countries according to their traditions and history, there is a set of various national holidays. But there is one thing, which unites all of them a holiday is always fun and pleasure. Japan school . We all know that education is important in every country , but in Japan its more important for lots of reasons. The main reason is because the Japanese attitude to jobs. A good job is important to most people, but in

Russia for example many people expect to, and perhaps want to, try more then one job in their lives. In Japan is different. People usually stay with the same company from the time they leave school or university until they retire. So the children must do well at school to get a good job then they leave. The hard work starts at 12 then they leave primary school and move to junior high school. There is less relaxed and more competitive. They are about 40 pupils in each class and discipline is

quite strict. The pupils sit in rows, and before each lesson they stand up and bow to the teacher. Politeness and respect are very important in Japan. The pupils dont ask questions. Its considered rude to question a teacher. And another difference is that they go to school on Saturday. So they have 6 days of school a week. They also go to special extra schools in the evening,

so they are busy most of the time. They have 3 or 4 hours of homework every night. The Japanese teenagers go back to school because that is when they have club activities - sports clubs, art clubs, English clubs and others. And children like their schools cause they have no time to be bored. I think Russian schools could learn something from Japan. Bath Bath is an unusual city because it was built for leisure and health.

Most of the houses were built in the eighteenth century when Bath became a fashionable place. The houses were built with the pale golden-coloured stone from the nearby hills. Some of the terraces in Bath were built in crescent or circular shape. Some of the streets in Bath are closed to cars, so walking around, relaxation and pleasant conversation are as popular as they were in the eighteenth century.

In those days the favourite meeting place was the social center of Bath, a building called The Pump Room . Here you can drink tea in the elegant atmosphere of the eighteenth century. The Pump Room was built over a spring, where natural hot water comes up from the underground. This water contains minerals which are good for you. The English were not the first to enjoy this warm, healthy water.

The Romans built hot baths, swimming pools, and a temple here nearly two thousand years ago. The Roman Bath was fonded in 1878 and now uts stil work there. Near Bath you can visit beautiful gardens and classical country houses. Devon. Around the world there are about forty Plymouths-all named by people who sailed from this town in sixteenth and seventeenth century. In the early seventeenth century men and woman left from here

to build a new life in America. The English Plymouth of today is Devons largest city. Its an interesting city to visit and many of the houses overlooking the sea are hotels, guest houses and bed and breakfast. A bed and breakfast is a private house which offers a room and a breakfast. Guest houses are like hotels but usually smaller and cheaper. The countryside of Devon has narrow country roads with high banks on both sides, which protect you

from the wind. Devon is a green hilly county with many rivers and estuaries. Salcombe is a popular holiday town on the Kingsbridge Estuary. Here you can hire a boat and explore. Its one of the most popular places in Britain for sailing. One reason for its popularity is climate. This area is the most southernmost part of Britain, so its little warmer than elsewhere.

Another good thing is absence of big modern hotels. They are not allowed in this protected area of natural beauty. The local drink in Devon is a strong cider called scrumpy. Its made of apples, using a traditional process. When the apples have been cut up, the pieces are scooped up with a wooden shovel and carried to a press. The lid of the press is placed on top, making a giant

sandwich. The cogwheels begin to turn and the juice is squeezed out, quickly at first. A few month from now this apple juice will be a good scrumpy. Learning foreigner language. More and more people realize that every educated person should know a foreigner language. The most popular language now is English. English is a world language. Its the language of progressive science and technology, trade

and cultural relation, commerce and business. Its the universal language of international aviation, shipping and sports. It is also the major language of diplomacy. Hundreds and hundreds of books, magazines and newspapers are printed in English and real all over the world. 75 of the worlds mail and 60 of the worlds telephone calls are in English. Half of the worlds scientific literature is written in

English too. English is spoken by more than 350 million people . It is the official language of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland of the United States of America, of Australia and New Zealand. English is used as one of the official languages in Canada, the Republic of South Africa and the Irish

Republic. Its also spoken as a second language speakers in many parts of Asia and Africa. The number of second language speakers may soon exceed the number of native speakers. In Russia English is very popular it is studied at schools, colleges, universities, and sometimes even at nurse schools. There are also other languages that are popular in the world. For example Chinese, the first language in the number of people who speak it, is used by over 1000

million people, it means that out one of every five people in whole world speaks Chinese. Another popular language is Arabic, which is the official language of several Asias countries Iran, Iraq, Syria, United Arab Emirates and others . Learning a foreign language is not an easy thing. It is a long and slow process that takes a lot of time and patience.

But to know languages today is absolutely necessary for everyone. I want to know foreign language because I have always been interested in foreign countries and their cultures. You know I think that who doesnt know a foreign language , doesnt know his own language. TV in my life. TV is very important thing in our life. We can say that TV is our eyes because TV helps us to know more about the world, about the others counties,

about the events that happened in the world. TV even helps you to know more about yourself. I like to watch TV very much. I can do that all day, thats why sometimes my mother makes me turn off TV. I have about 12 Russian TV channels, they are NTV, MTV, ORT, RTR, and others. I also have few KOSMOS TVs channels, for example Cartoon network, Discovery channel,

TVE, and BBC. I like some of them and hate others. So here are some words about the channels that I like. So, my favorite channel is MTV . MTV is a music channel. 24 hours a day of music, can you believe it ? I like to listen music very much , and sometimes I even make myself the music, that is why I enjoy to watch

MTV. I also like NTV. This channel has very interesting films, for example ER - my favorite film and a lot of sport programs. I like sport, especially football. NTV usually shows us two football match a week one Champions League match and one Russian national championships match . I also like several foreigner channels, especially

Eurosport. And you know why ! Cartoon network is not bad, but I think that its better for children - not for me. Thats all about me. I also want to tell you about my parents favorite channels. My father likes different channels with action films. His favorite actor is Sylvester Stalonne. My mother likes talk-shows, for example

Я сама on TV6, and information programs, like Сегодня on NTV, Время on ORT, and Вести on RTR. She also likes BBC channels, which is one of the best informations channels in the whole world. The Bush house is a headquarters of the BBC World Service. Form this building the BBC broadcasts radio programmers to the hole world. the

World Service used to be called The Empire Service . It started in 1932, broadcast only in English. At the first the announcers used formal English and used to speak very slowly and clearly. In the 1930s the BBC started broadcasting to the Middle East. And in the 1938 it started broadcasting in Arabic.

Very soon the BBC was broadcasting to all countries occupied by the Nazis. The BBC got a reputation for honesty and accuracy. After the Second World War the BBC continued its foreign languages broadcasts, and to this day broadcasts the news in thirty-nine languages. In the Newsroom a hundred and twenty journalists work day and night , writing two hundred news bulletins every 24 hours.

All news in the BBC are checked at least twice before it is broadcasting. Thats why the World Service is not always popular with governments. The bb is the worlds largest international broadcaster. Every week, one hundred and thirty million people listen to BBC World Service radio. In 1992 the World Service started broadcasting

TV programs and today people in countries all over the world can see as well as hear the news from the BBC. Cause of our different tastes, sometimes my family has a problem with choosing channels. Somebody thinks that TV is bad, but I dont think so. I believe that in the future TV will be better and everyone will like it. Moscow. I am going to tell you about Moscow. Moscow, the capital of

Russia, is one of the largest cities in the world. The total area of the city is about 900 square kilometers. It is political, commercial and cultural center of the country. About 10 million people live in the city. Moscow was founded in 1147 by prince Yuri Dolgoruky. Moscow stands on the bank of the Moskva river.

Moscow is also one of the most beautiful city in the world. The heart of Moscow is Red Square, the central and most beautiful place in Moscow. Here one can see the Cathedral of St. Basil, the monument to Minin and Pozharsky, the Kremlin, the History museums and other interesting things. Some skyscrapers decorate Moscow including Moscow

State University, the oldest university in Russia. It was founded in 18th century by Lomonosov. Moscow is a city of students. There are over 82 higher educational institutes in it. The are more then 80 museums in Moscow. The largest one is Pushkin museums. The world famous art gallery, the

State Tretyakov art Gallery, is in Moscow too. Moscow is famous for its theaters. The best-known of them is the Bolsoi Opera House. Drama theaters and studios are very popular too. There are many parks and gardens in Moscow, thats why its citizen like to spend their free time out home. The most beautiful one is Park of Culture. Moscow is also the seat of the

Russian Federation Parliament the Duma and the Official Resident of the Russian President. I live in Moscow and I think that its beautiful and worth seeing and in the future it will be better cause we love it very much. Museums and art galleries. Millions people al over the world spend their holidays visiting museums and art galleries. They visit them to see new things, to know more about other countries, their traditions,

about history and even future of the mankind. There are different type of museums historical, military The Tower of London is a historical museum. It is the oldest palace, fortress and prison in Europe. Its also one of the most popular museums nowadays. The great central tower, the White tower was built around 1090 by William the Conqueror on the site of a Roman fort built there more than 1000 years earlier.

Massive defensive walls and other towers were added later. Through the centuries, the Tower of London has been a citadel, a palace, a prison for offenders against the State, the home of the Mint, the treasury for the Crown Jewels, a menagerie, and the first Royal observatory. Three queens of England have been beheaded within its walls.

The Towers guardians are the Yeomen Warders who wear splendid scarlet and gold uniforms dating back to Henry VIIs time. Sir Hans Sloane was a great collector. He filled his house with rare books and pictures, precious stones, stuffed animals, birds and butterflies, and ancient remains from all over the world. There had never been a collection quite like it , and visitors were amazed by what they saw. When Sir Hans

Sloane died in 1753, his wife let the King buy the whole collection for just 20 000 pounds so that it could belong to the nation for ever. This was the start of the British Museums. It took thirty years and thousands of tons of stone to complete the building and the forty-four massive columns which decorated the front. The building of the British Museums was finished in 1948.

The state Tretyakov Gallery is one of the best-known picture galleries in the world. It takes its name from its founder Pavel Tretyakov, a Moscow merchant and art connoisseur. In the mid-19th century, Tretyakov began to collect Russian paintings. He visited all the exhibitions and art studios and bought the best pictures of contemporary artists. Little by little

Tretyakov extended his range of interest and began to collect earlier Russian paintings. More than once he had to add wings to his house, because his collection grew larger and larger. In 1881 Pavel Tretyakov opened his collection to the public. 11 years later he donated it to the city of Moscow. Since then the gallery has received hundreds of pictures from other museums and private collection.

Today the Tretyakov gallery is not only Russias biggest and most important museums of Russian art, it is also a research, cultural and educational center. MUSICIANS. I will tell you about not a very popular and famous musician. His songs sound wonderful, and be has an interesting way of making his melodies. Ed Alleyne-Johnson is a composer and violinist. Ed leant to play the violin at school.

He played in the school orchestra, but he did not really enjoy playing classical music. It was too rigid. He did not go to the music college. He studied painting at the school of Drawing and Fine Art in Oxford. But he carried on playing the violin in rock bands and folk bands. He tried to make career as a painter, but it was too difficult so he went back to music.

He started playing on the streets in England, and then he traveled around the Europe and the States. He met a lot of different musicians in different countries and leant some of the styles. He does not imitate them. Not many people play electric violin on the street, so people are usually interested. His violin is also a special one. Normal violins have four strings. Ed is violin has got five.

He painted it purple as his first violin which he inherited from his grandfather. It became a sort of trade mark. When he is playing it, it sound like more than one instrument. It has a device that records music he has Just played, and repeats it again and again. It is a sort of high-tech, one-man band. He has also made a CD. It is called The Purple Electric Violin Concerto .

At the moment he is recording a new CD. He is going to go back to Europe and give free concerts on the streets and in record stores. His music was inspired by the streets, and he would tike to take it back to the people who helped him to write it.And here is another man who has been in the music business for about twenty years .His name is Paul Keгак. He never had another job. He started playing when he was just a kid, he taught

himself to play. He tried few instruments , First there drums-it was when he was only five. After that it was there piano and then later the keyboards. He plays guitar also. He started playing professionally when he was still at school. He left school at sixteen. He was playing in a band, working on Sunday evening in pubs and clubs. When he left school his only ambitions was to be in a pop group.

He was played with Roxy Music and THE Smiths . And he made records with Pretendness and Madness . It is very important to him because he made a first hit record with them. That was in 1974 . The song was called How Long and it was a big bit all over the world. Since 1985 he is with Mike and the Mechanics . He is the singer -vocalist and Mike plays the guitar. He always wanted to work in

America. He was pleased when his records were successful there. And last summer he made an own record. It came out in the October and it is called Groove Approval . It is doing quite well, especially in America. His records are often played on radio there and there are more people that have heard of him then in Britain. He is not a superstar of course. But people know his name and buy his albums.

My future profession. When you leave school you understand that the time to choose your future profession, your future life has become. Its 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 ? Its 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. Its 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 childrens dreams and nothing more. Now I have already decided what to do. Id like to be an aviator. I know that its 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 thats why at first I am going to go to the Aviation University in Moscow, then when I finish studding Ill 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 dont know what will happen tomorrow, but I know that Ill 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. Thats why parents mustnt 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. When I started running seven years ago, I could manage only about a quarter of a mile before I had to stop. Breathless and aching, I walked the next quarter of a mile, then I jogged the next quarter of a mile, alternating these two activities for a couple of miles. Within a few weeks I could jog half way round Hampstead

Heath without stop-ping. Soon I started to run up the quarter-mile slope to the top of Parliament Hill, although I had to stop at the top to get my breath back. Eventually I found that I could even manage to get up the hill comfortably. I started to run because I felt desperately unfit. But the biggest pay-off for me was-and still is- the deep relaxation that

I achieve by taking exercise. It tires me out but I find that it does calm me down. In those early days I saw few other runners. Now there are many more-and not just the macho sports freaks. Men and women of all ages have now taken up running. Some 25,000 runners aged five to 85 are attracted each year to the Sunday Times Fun Run in Hyde Park. In the last two years the

London Marathon has become the biggest British sporting event- overtaking the boat race and the Derby in the number of spectators it attracts. When I started to jog I never dreamt of running in a marathon, but in 1982 I realized that if I trained for it, it was within my reach, and after a slow, six-month build-up I man-aged the 26.2 miles in just under four hours.

A creditable performance for a first-timer and a far cry from those days when I had to stop for breath after a quarter of a mile. What about heart attacks?My story shows that an unfit 39-year-old, as I was when I started running, who had taken no serious exercise for 20 years, can do the marathon-and that this is a sport in which women can beat men. But is it crazy to do it?

Does it make sense to run in the expectation of becoming healthier? What about the chances of injuring yourself or dying of a heart attack? I was personally convinced of the health benefits of running because I felt unfit, and I wasn t worried about the risk of a heart attack, because I was not a smoker and I was sticking to a fairly low animal-fat diet.

But one person I knew well did die immediately after a jog and plenty of people told me I was mad to start running. Reassuring evidence now comes from doctors in Seattle, showing that vigorous exercise actually reduces the chances of heart attack. They found that people who had a sudden heart attack when they appeared to be completely fit had taken less exercise than those of similar age. According to their findings, published in the

Journal of the American Medical Association volume 248, p 3113 it is necessary to take 20 minutes of vigorous exercise at least two or three days a week to obtain some protection from heart attack. Apart from jogging, the exercise might be swimming, singles tennis or squash, digging or chopping wood. Whatever it is, the exercise should leave you out of breath. There is a small risk of unaccustomed stress causing a heart attack when a person is very unfit, but

this can be reduced if exercise is always increased in easy stages. My advice is if you are under 40, are healthy and feel well, you can begin as I did by jogging gently until you are out of breath, then walking, and alternating the two for about two miles. Build up the jogging in stages until you can do the whole distance comfortably. At first, two or three times a week will probably be enough.

People over 40 who are in any doubt about their health should see their doctor before starting an exercise program. Over-40s should begin by making a vigorous walk of at least two miles part of the daily routine. When you can do this comfortably you can start the mixed jogging and walking routine and progress from there. You will have to expect soreness of muscles and joints to begin with. If soreness changes to pain, or if you find that you suffer from deep tiredness which you cannot shake

off, then stop jogging for a while and just walk. Scotland. Scotland is one of four part of the GB. In area Scotland is more than half as big as England. The principal cities of the country are its capital Edinburgh and the main industrial center Glasgow. Scottish towns look very different from English towns. Some words about Edinburgh . Edinburgh, capital of

Scotland, is one of Britains most attractive cities. Its a city for people who like to walk. You are never far from green parks, gardens and hills - even in the main shopping streets. Its a busy modern city, but the history is everywhere. At the top of the highest hill in Edinburgh is Edinburgh Castle. It was the home of Scotlands royal family until 1603 when

King James the 6th of Scotland became king of England and moved to London. The road which begins at the castle and goes eastwards is called Royal Mile. At the other end of the Royal Mile is the Palace of Hollyroodhouse. It was built by a Scottish king before Scotland and England were united to make Great Britain.

Now it is a second home for the Queen or her children, who usually visit Edinburgh in the summer. When the royal family is not there you can visit the palace and see a lot of interesting things. There are nine hills in Edinburgh. They are long-dead volcanoes. From the tops of them you can see two bridges the modern road bridges an the old rail bridges which has carried trains to the

Highlands for more than a hundred years. The highlands of Scotland is mountainous and wild. In the winter its white with snow but in the summer its purple. Highlands are famous for the Scottish Olympics or the Highland games its real name . These games are not only sporting competitions music and different traditional games are very important too. While athletes throw the hammer at the one end of the arena, you can watch

a dancing competition at the other end. there is also a game for the strongest athletes - tossing the caber, which weights 60 kilos and is six metres long. These games are very popular in Highlands. Usually between the mountains are rivers and lakes. Scottish people like fishing very much, thats why they say that Scottish rivers are good for two fishing is one, the other is

Scotch whisky. Whisky is made from water and barley. The method hasnt changed for hundreds years. Scotch whisky is the best one. Scotland is also famous for its kilt, the most important part of national dress and bagpipes - the national instrument. I thing Scotland is very beautiful country and if you visit it you shall never forget it. William Shakespeare. Shakespeare is the most famous

British playwright in history. People know his name in almost every country in the world. But who exactly was William Shakespeare? That is the question! Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon on 23 April, 1564. Families were big in those days. William had seven brothers and sisters. But his parents werent poor his father, John Shakespeare, was a successful businessman who bought and

sold leather and wool. His mother was the daughter of a rich farmer. When Shakespeare left school, he went to work for his father. But soon after, he met and fell in love with Ann Hathaway, the daughter of a farmer who lived in Stratford. They got married in December 1582, and just five months late, their first daughter, Susanna, was born. William was 18. Ann was 25. What did

Shakespeare do for the next ten years? We dont know exactly. We dont know why he gave up a good job in his fathers business and moved to London. We dont know exactly when or why he became an actor and playwright. All we know is that in 1592 he wrote his first play. After that, his plays became popular very quickly, and he made a lot of money.

Four hundred years ago, Shakespeare built a theatre - The Globe - here in the center of London. It was one of Londons first theatres. It was round and had no roof over the center - like the theatres of ancient Rome. OK in Rome - not such a good idea in cold, rainy London! The people of London loves going to the theatre.

The globe could hold three thousand people. Some people sat to watch the plays other stood in the middle, in front of the stage. The audience were usually noisy, often clapping and cheering, and shouting to the actors - and there were only actors, no actresses. Young boys played the parts of women. It often rained in London then, too. And everyone got very wet. In 1610, after about twenty-five years in

London, Shakespeare came back here to Stratford. He was rich, and he had a big house where he enjoyed life with his family and friends. But he didnt stop writing plays. What kind of plays did William Shakespeare write? Well, he wrote thirty-nine plays. Some of them are comedies, for example, A Midsummer Nights Dream and Comedy of Errors. They have happy endings.

Others are stories from English history, for example, stories about the kings of England. They are very patriotic. Queen Elizabeth 1 often went to see them. And the others are tragedies, such as Hamlet and MacBeth - these are sad, dark stories of murder and revenge. Shakespeare died on his fifty-second birthday in 1616. He is buried in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford. But the characters in his plays are still with us today.

The Russian Federation. The Russian Federation is the largest country in the world. It occupies about one-seventh of the earths surface. Its total area is about 17 million square kilometers. The country is washed by 12 seas of 3 oceans the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Arctic. Russia borders with many country.

They are Korea, China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Norway, Finland, the Baltic states, Belorussia and the Ukraine. It also has a sea border with the USA. The population of the Russian Federation is nearly 250 million people. The capital of the country is Moscow. Its its largest political, scientific, cultural and economical center.

Russia is very rich in mineral resources. There is gold, platinum, diamonds, coal, peat, oil, gas and wood. There are over two million rivers in Russia. The Europes biggest river , the Volga , flows into the Caspian sea. Others main rivers are the Ob, the Yenisei, the Lena and the Amur. Russia is also rich in beautiful lakes.

The world biggest lake - the Caspian sea and the world deepest lake - Lake Baikal are in it. Russia has one-six of the worlds forests. They are concentrated in the European north of the country, in Siberia and in Far East. On the vast territory of the country there are different types of climate, from arctic in the north to subtropical in the south.

In the middle of the country the climate is continental. Russia has four beautiful seasons winter , spring , summer and autumn. They are very different. The Russian Federation is a parliamentary republic. The Head of State is the President. He is elected for 4 years and his powers are limited by the Duma. At present Russia has some political and economical problems.

The price are rising, the rate of inflation is very high, people are losing their jobs and many factories are stopped . But I believe that in the future the young generation of your country will sold all these problems and they shall make Great Russia as strong and powerful as it used to be. The United States of America. The United States of America is located in North America. It is one of the largest countries in the world.

The population of the USA is about 250 million people. The USA has 50 states. The largest of Americas states is Alaska. Its nearly 400 times the size of Rhode Island, which is the smallest state. But Alaska has half the population of Rhode Island. The capital of the country is Washington DC the District of

Colombia . It was chosen as permanent site for the nations capital on December 1800 by George Washington. Its main cities are New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Boston. There are many tall buildings in them that really scrape the sky, thats why they are called skyscrapers. Its highly developed country. It is rich in coal, oil, iron and natural gas.

It exports a lot of raw materials, industrials and agricultural products. The United States of America is a federal republic. The American parliament called Congress has two chambers the House of Representative and the Senate. The head of State is the president. He is elected for four years and his powers are limited by the

Constitution. Now the President of the USA is Bill Clinton. The flag of the country has 13 red and white stripes representing the original 13 states and 50 stars - for each of the state of it. Each state has its own national motto, bird and flower as its symbol. America as any other country has its own customs, traditions and holidays. The United States is called melting pot because people from all over the world have mixed together

to create modern America society. The earliest immigrants came from every countries of the world. People enjoy the wonder of nature practically in every state. The Appalachians and the Rocky Mountains, forest, plains, parties and even deserts, wonderful lakes, water falls and rivers cover the American territory that equals about 9.4 million square kilometers. Together with Hawaii and Alaska it is the 4th largest nation in the world in area behind

Russia, Canada and China. Among the most famous sites of interest are the Great Lakes, Niagara falls, the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco and other. There are many beautiful Nation park and protected areas of wilderness in America. I think that the USA is very beautiful country and if you visit it you will never forget it. Traveling. Here is a story of a man who had an terrible holiday

The first thing that went wrong was that the country we were going to decided to have a war a few days before we were going there. So that was the end of that. But the plane we were going on was stopping off at Rome. So rather than not having a holiday at all, we thought we d go to Italy. Very nice. See the sights. Go to the beaches and get fat with pasta.

We were at the airport waiting for the plane and a friend of mine who lived near the airport had come to see us off. So we were having a few drinks in the bar and joking with this friend of mine, Peter, saying Poor old you in cold rainy England. This time tomorrow we ll be in Italy on the beach. And I went down to see if the flight had been called and discovered it had gone.

It was a terribly stupid mistake. We hadn t checked the time of departure. I was sure it was going 9 something but it was going at 19 something which of course is 7 o clock. So we were actually there in the bar when it went without us. We were determined to have our holiday. The irony was that Peter was now going back to his comfortable home and we were stuck in the cold and the rain at 10 o

clock at night. You see, it was a charter flight so we couldn t book another one. We lost our money and all the other flights were booked up. Well, we got a train to the South Coast and caught the midnight boat across the Channel, froze to death all night, it was a terrible crossing with people being sick everywhere. And eventually we got to I think it was Dieppe and then a train to

Paris. We got to Paris very early in the morning and I thought we d be all right. You see, we now had to hitch hike because a lot of our money had gone on the boat and the train, but I thought Well, it s very early in the morning, we ll get a good place to start hitching and we ll soon be well on our way. We got to the start of the motorway and I just couldn t believe it. I ve never seen so many people trying to hitch a lift in all my life.

Well, it was then it suddenly dawned on me. It was August the first wasn t it? and on August the first in France the whole population goes on holiday and there were hundreds of people, stopping the traffic, banging on drivers windows trying to persuade them to stop and give them a lift. It was chaos, disastrous. Well, we got moving eventually.

A lorry driver gave us a lift. And then things started to get better, as we got further south and it got warmer, you know, and we thought At last, the holiday s beginning. Well, we camped that night and we then set off again the next day. We got some lifts, and met a great chap who owned a vineyard. He took us back to his farm and we tasted all this wine -

Burgundy, my favorite - and we had a great time. Now the holiday really was starting. Well, he took us back to the motorway, and there we were by the side of the road, the sun was shining, we were a bit merry, sang a few songs - you know, life was great. And we got another lift from well he was a maniac, complete maniac. He seemed nice enough, but within a few minutes he was driving at about a hundred miles an hour, overtaking

on the inside on the motorway, with his stereo at full volume, one hand on the wheel and well the other hand on various parts of Susan s body. What! So what did you do? I don t know why I m laughing I ve never been so frightened in all my life. We were absolutely -helpless. Susan tried to say that she had to go to the toilet, but he wouldn t stop then she pretended to be sick in his car, and he stopped in seconds.

He had this really flash expensive car, and as soon as he stopped we just jumped out and ran. The worst thing was this tremendous drop from feeling so good to thinking that we were going to get killed. We eventually got down to the south of France and began to have a good time, and then down to Italy. We ran out of money, of course, but apart from that, it was good. I ve never had such a tiring holiday. When we got back,

I was exhausted. At the end of the holiday, I needed a holiday! And this is a story of an old woman. She has traveled all over the world in her tiny van. It s a nice way of having holiday. Now at this moment, somewhere on the other side of the Atlantic, Olive Gibbs is probably chugging along the road, in the early morning in her tiny camping van. The travel bug came to Mrs. Gibbs rather late in life.

About 14 years ago, to help her get over the death of her husband she went on an overland bus trip to Katmandu. This fired her with the enthusiasm to travel more, but as she couldn t afford to go on extensive organized tours, she bought a camper and took to the road alone. Now at the age of 72, she s clocked up about 75,000 miles on trips that have taken her to America, Australia and South Africa. Ann Catchpole met her at her home on the

Sussex coast just before she was setting out on her current venture another wander around America, Canada and Mexico, that ll take about a year, and she d been very busy that afternoon packing up the van, mainly, as she told Ann, with stocks of food. Of all the meals that I have during the day, my breakfast is the one that I like. It s not that I have a large breakfast but

I do like my toast and marmalade. I ve got quite a few pounds of marmalade in my van at the moment, I should think I have about 10 pounds, and when that run out and if I m down in California by then I shall make some marmalade. I take English things like Marmite which not many other countries of the world seem to appreciate. I m also taking crisp breads to the United States because

I don t care for their bread very much. And I take biscuits because I don t care for their biscuits very much. But otherwise I can buy everything I need in the United States. But I don t like wasting my time shopping, so I carry as much as I can and visit a supermarket only when I m forced to.

Well, I know vaguely which way I m going to go, but I do change my direction if there s something I hear about which I think I would like to see, or I don t like the road I ll go a completely different way. And at the beginning of the day I don t know quite where I m going to sleep at night.

I wait until I feel tired or I wait until I see somewhere that attracts me and then I stop. The first thing I do, and I do this deliberately, I make myself a cup of tea, and I sit outside my van because I think it, it pleases the Americans to see an English lady having afternoon tea. But as soon as I really as soon as I arrive, especially in the

United States or Canada, the men all want to talk to me about places they ve been to when they were in the army during the war over here. Other people want to know and tell me about where their ancestors came from, and nearly always I have been to the places, or at least know something about them, because I do travel quite a bit in my own country as well as going abroad. In fact when I m trying to unpack at the end of a day s journey and get a meal in the evening, life

becomes very difficult because people gather round and want to know all about me and it s almost dark before I can get on with my unpacking and getting a meal ready. But I do try to get my cup of tea in first. In Zimbabwe, at that time called Rhodesia, and I was actually camping in Zimbabwe by the Zimbabwe ruins. And during the night someone went by with a torch.

It woke me up, and I just thought it was somebody going to a toilet, and I took no notice. But when I woke up in the morning I found that a lot of my papers had been taken, and the wallet in which I kept them. And of course I didn t realize at the time what was going on. It must have been the noise of the door closing which woke me up.

I suppose I m very foolish but often I don t lock myself in my van at night. Sometimes I do if I feel at all nervous or if I m in a camp site on my own, then I do lock myself in. Each country has something special about it. But I think the beauty of South Africa is something that I shall never forget. I used to stand sometimes when

I was there and say to myself, Just look and look as much as you can in case you don t come this way again. Wales. Wales is a country of lakes and mountains. Its about the half the size of Switzerland, and it has a population of two and three quarter million. On the north of Wales is some of the most beautiful scenery in the British islands, the Snowdon mountain. Snowdon is Britains second highest mountain.

Wales is an not independent nation. In 1292, the English king, Edward , invaded Wales and built fourteen huge castles to control the Welsh people. His son, Edward, became the first prince of Wales, since then all the kings and queens of England have given their eldest sons the title, Prince of Wales. Prince Charles became the twenty-first

Prince of Wales. Although the English have ruled Wales for many centuries, Wales still has its own flag, culture, and, above all, its own language. In the towns and villages of North Wales, many people speak English only as a second language. Their first language is Welsh. In Llanberis, a small town at the foot of Snowdon, eighty-six per cent people speak

Welsh as their first language. At the local primary school children have nearly all their lessons in Welsh. The children should be bilingual by the time that they are eleven years old. It is not a problem for children to learn two languages at the same time. Children have insight into two cultures, so have all the folk tales of two languages. Children like Welsh because in Welsh you spell things just how you say them, in

English there are more silent letters. Welsh is one of the oldest languages in Europe. Its a Celtic language, like Breton in France, Gaelic in Ireland, or Gaelic in Scotland. Two and a half thousand years before these languages were spoken in many parts of Europe. They died out when the Romans invaded these areas, but some of them survived in the north-west corner of

Europe. But over the last hundred years the number of Welsh-speaker has fallen very quickly. Now only twenty per cent of Welsh people speak Welsh. Here are some of the reasons for the decline. In the nineteenth century people thought that Welsh an uncivilized language. If you wanted to be successful in life you had to learn

English, the language of the British Empire. So in many schools children were forbidden to speak Welsh. At the beginning of the twentieth century many English and Irish people moved to South Wales to work in the coal mines and steel works. They did not learn Welsh. People, especially young people, moved away from the Welsh-speaking villages and farms of north and west

Wales to look for work in the big towns and cities, so the Welsh-speaking communities became much smaller. In the 1960s and 1970s many English people bought holiday cottages in villages in Wales. Most of them did not learn Welsh. This also pushed up the price of houses so that local Welsh-speaking people cold not afford them. English comes into every

Welsh home trough the television, the radio, newspapers, books, etc. There are Welsh-language TV and radio stations, but far fever than English ones. And now there is cable and satellite TV, too-in English, of course! The decline has now stopped, because a lot has been done. Road signs, bilingual documentation, and there is a

Welsh language act. The future of Welsh is uncertain. The problem is that Welsh has to survive next door to English, and, as we all know, English is a very successful language. Young problems. When you leave school you understand that the time of your independence life and the beginning of a far more serious examination of your abilities and character has come.

You also understand that from now youll have to do everything yourself, and to fight with everybody around you for better life. The first problem that young people meet is to choose their future profession, it means that they have to choose the future of their life. Its not an easy task to make the right choice of a job. You know children have a lot of dreams about their future to become a superman or a policeman or a

doctor Its very easy they think, but when they become older and see real world they understand that in all professions need to know perfectly about what you do, you must be well-educated and well-informed. Thats why I think its very important to have a good education at school. And if you work hard everything will be OK. Another problem of young people is drugs. This is a relatively new problem but it is becoming more and more dangerous.

Million young people today are using drugs, and most of them will die. Usually they want just to try it , then again and again and after year may be two years they will die . It is true. Because there are no medicine to help you. Thats why never do it, if you do - it goes bad, very bad. I think that police must work hard to protect young people from drugs.

Because drugs will kill our young generation and our future will be very bad.