My hobby
A "hobby" is a special
interest or activity that you do in your time off. Some people have animals as
hobbies. They keep rabbits, or go fishing. They train dogs to do tricks, or
keep pigeons to race and carry messages. Some are crazy about plants. They try
to grow cacti or rare tropical flowers in their kitchens and sitting rooms.
Others are mad about their car or
their motorbike. They spend their Saturdays and Sundays washing them, painting
them, or buying new bits and pieces to make them go even faster.
Children and teenagers are great
collectors. They collect stamps, or postcards or matchboxes, or pictures of a
favourite footballer or pop star.
Many people make things as a hobby.
Some teach themselves at home, but a lot of people go to evening classes at their
local college. Just look under letter B in a list of London or New York evening
classes and you'll find: Ballet, Batik, Bengali, Body building, Breadmaking and
Byzantium.
But not everyone goes to evening
classes to learn about his special interest. No one helped these people to do
what they did.
A "hobby" is usually
something that a person does alone. But American (and British) families
sometimes like to do things together, too.
American families often have quite a
lot of money to spend on their recreation. They can all enjoy their holiday
home or their boot somewhere in the country away from home.
Americans love to get out of town
into the wild. and many go for holidays or long weekends into the thirty-live
fabulous national parks. These magnificent areas of countryside include
tropical forests, high mountains, dry deserts, long sandy coasts. grassy
prairies and wooded mountains full of wild animals. The idea of these parks,
which cover 1% of the whole area of the USA. is to make "a great breathing
place for the national lungs", and to keep different parts of the land as
they were before men arrived. There are camping places in the national parks as
well as museums, boat trips and evening campfire meetings.
Americans really enjoy new
"gadgets", especially new ways of travelling. In the winter, the
woods are full of "snowmobiles" (cars with skis in the front). In the
summer they ride their "dune buggins" across the sands or take to the
sky in hang gliders.
But Americans do not only spend
their free time having fun. They are very interested in culture too. Millions
take part-time courses in writing. painting and music, and at weekends the
museums, art galleries and concert halls are full.
Questions
1. What is hobby?
2. What hobbies do people have?
3. Are children and teenagers great
collectors?
4. What do people collect?
5. What classes do people attend in
the evening?
6. Does a person usually do his
hobby alone?
7. Do American families like doing
things together?
8. Where do they enjoy their
holiday?
9. What is the idea of the parks
there (in America)?
10. Are the Americans interested in
culture? What do they do to prove their interest?
11. What is your hobby?
12. Does your family support you in
your hobby? What do your parents think about it?
13. Does your family like doing
things together?
14. Do you travel together?
15. Are you a collector? What do you
collect?
16. What is your friend's hobby?
17. Are hobbies a great Russian
tradition?
18. Has your family a car? What does
your father do with it on Sundays? Is it his hobby?
19. Do you have pets as a hobby?
20. Do hobbies help us in our life?
Do they make it more interesting?