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Text A. Summer Holiday in England
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I don't like crowds when I'm on holiday. I remember that when I was a small boy we – my brothers and sisters and I – always tried to get away from other people. We always had our holidays on the coast. Sea and sunshine, that’s what we looked forward to every summer. We always went to a small fishing village on the Devon coast. And if, when we got to the place where we usually bathed, there were other people there, we stopped and said, “Oh, we can't bathe here today! Somebody's got here before us!” Today people seem to like crowds.
Hotels at the large seaside towns on the south coast, such as Folkestone, Hastings or Brighton are expensive. It would cost you, probably, for the two of you, at least ₤ 25 a week. I don’t know whether that’s more than you want to pay. Besides, hotel rates are highest in July or August.
But you can if you like go to a holiday camp. That doesn’t mean sleeping and eating in tents. The kind of holiday camp I mean is nothing like an army camp, or the kind of camp that Everest climbers live in. Holiday camps in England are permanent buildings with every modern convenience and comfort. There are wooden cabins with good beds, electric light, running hot and cold water. There are large buildings – a dining-hall, a large hall for dancing (and good dance bands), a cinema, a theatre, a bar, a cafe, rooms for games such as billiards. In fact there is, in the camp, everything you want. The camp usually has its own swimming- pool and tennis courts. Some camps are large enough for a thousand people; others take a much smaller number. A camp of medium size takes about five hundred guests.
I'm not quite sure what the rates will be for holiday camps this summer. About two-thirds of the cost of a good hotel, perhaps less.
Here's another suggestion – a caravan holiday. If you arrived by your car in England, you could hire quite a comfortable caravan for a few pounds a week. There’s a caravan association that would give you information about places where you could stay. There are caravan camps all round the coast, and at these you can get water and other things you need. A caravan holiday isn’t lonely, as you might think at first. Every evening you'd be in a camp with lots of other people. They are all very friendly, I believe. Of course, you'd have to cook. You can see a lot of places in a month, or, if you wish, stay in one place for several days and then move on to another place. If I were as young as you are, I'd have a walking holiday.
Walking holidays are much cheaper than the kind of holidays I've been telling you about. Maybe you know something about the Youth Hostels Association, I'm sure. It's international. There are hostels all over England now and thousands of young people use them. Members of the Association get beds for 2s. 6d. a night and meals are very cheap indeed. Members can even take their own food to the hostels and cook it in the kitchen. They have to help by sweeping and cleaning the rooms, or washing up after meals. But that's not a hardship, is it? You'd meet young people of all classes – factory workers, office workers, shop girls, college students, and many young people from European countries and sometimes from Russia. A walking holiday depends for enjoyment upon the weather, of course. But nobody can promise you good weather!
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You needn’t walk. Cyclists are allowed to stay at our youth hostels. But you’re not allowed to stay in them if you arrive in a motor-car, or on a motor-cycle or motor-scooter or even on a bicycle with one of those little motors on the back wheel. Youth hostels are for people with not much money to spend. You wouldn’t have to worry about clothes if you decided to use youth hostels. Any old clothes would do.
2. Comprehension check. Work in pairs. Ask and answer as many questions as you can about a holiday.
3. Make up a short story about the summer holiday of your own.
Text B. Hobby
My hobby is collecting things, connected with the Royal family.
I first got interested in the Royal family when I saw the wedding of Princess Margaret on TV in 1960. My father wouldn't let us have a television in the house because he said it would stop me doing my homework. So on the day of the wedding, I went round to the friend's house, and I just sat in front of the screen, mesmerized. But it wasn't until later that I started collecting. I've been collecting for eighteen years. The first thing I bought were a dish with the Queen's head in the center, and a few Coronation mugs to go with it.
What sort of things have I got? Oh, everything! Oh, pictures, paintings, ashtrays, hundreds of mugs, tea-pots, tea-cloths, biscuit tins, posters, books, flags, toast racks, egg cups, candle sticks, the lot! I've got over four thousand Royal souvenirs.
And they all are in this house. The house has been extended three times to fit it all in. They are in, all the rooms downstairs, and in the four bedrooms upstairs and in the attic, too.
I should say that it takes all my spare time to keep everything clean and dusted I'm always playing around, making a special area for one of the Royals or another. It keeps me amused for hours, and the visitors who come mainly foreign visitors, never get tired of talking about our Royal family.
But of course, there is one piece that's my favourite. I was desperately upset when Princess Diana and Prince Charles split up, and I wrote to Princess Diana, saying I hoped they might get together again. I got a lovely letter back from her Lady-in-Waiting Sarah Campden and that is the most important part of my whole collection. As for money I have had to spend a lot of money on my collection.
I don't know exactly. I have never thought about it. No, I don’t think so. Once, when Prince Andrew married Fergie, a shop filled its windows with nothing else but mementoes of them and I walked in and bought the lot.
But I can’t remember how much it was. I collect it all over the place. There are a lot of people who collect this stuff. I go up down the country. We have conventions where we swap things. And there are specialist magazines and shops, and jumble sales.
Sometimes, but very seldom one has to fight to get something you really want. In this connection I remember once I was in a shop and shop keeper was drinking his tea from a lovely Coronation mug. I offered to buy it from him, but he wasn’t interested. So off I went to a shop nearby and bought a plain mug and presented it to him. “Now will you do a swap?” I said to him. And he did. Oh, it was driving me mad, the thought of him using this mug every day! I wanted to give it a proper home.
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4. Divide the text into two parts and the group into two smaller groups. Each group reads its part of the text. Then one representative of each group has a conversation with the representative of the other group about the part they have just read.
UNIT 8. MY WORKING DAY
1. Pre-reading task. Answer the following questions.
1. When do you usually get up?
2. Do you work or study at a college or an institute?
3. What is your future trade?
4. How do you get to the institute?
5. How many lessons do you have every day?
6. What is your favourite subject in the institute?
7. Do you like gardening?
8. Have you got any hobby?
9. Can you drive a car?
10. Do you know how to behave at interviews at an office?
11. Would you like to get a job connected with business trips?
12. When will you graduate from the institute?
13. What are you going to do after leaving the institute?
Text A. My Working Day
On weekdays the alarm-clock wakes me up at 6.30 and my working day begins. I don’t like to get up early, that's why it's very difficult for me to get out of bed, especially in winter. I switch on my tape-recorder and do my morning exercises. Then I go to the bathroom, take a warm shower, clean my teeth and shave. After that I go to my bedroom to get dressed.
Usually my mother makes breakfast for me. But sometimes I make breakfast myself. While having breakfast, I listen to the latest news on the radio.
I leave the house at 7.30 and go to the nearest underground station. Last year I tried to enter Moscow University, but unfortunately I failed my entrance examinations. After that I entered the institute of technology, ecology and management. There are not entrance examination. But studying is charged. So I thought I should work somewhere. It wasn’t easy to find a job, but I managed to get a position of a secretary in a small business company. They agreed to take me because I had studied typewriting, computing and business organisation at school. And besides, I passed my English school-leaving exam with an excellent mark.
It takes me an hour to get to work. But I don't want to waste my time while going to my office. I've got a small cassette-player and I listen to different texts and dialogues. Sometimes I read a book and retell it silently. If I come across an interesting expression I try to memorise it. I also write some English words on flashcards and learn them.
I usually arrive at work at ten minutes to nine though my working day begins at 9 sharp. There are always some fax messages to translate from English into Russian. Sometimes my boss wants me to write a letter to our business partners abroad. There are also a lot of phone calls which I have to answer.
At 1 o'clock in the afternoon we have lunch. We usually have lunch in a small cafe just round the corner. At 2 o'clock we come back to work. And we work hard till 5 o'clock. After that I go to my institute. Lessons usually last from 6 to 10 p. m.
I come home at about 11 o'clock in the evening. My parents are usually at home, waiting for me. I eat something and go to bed.
Of course by the end of the week I get very tired. All I can do on Sundays is to sleep till eleven o'clock, watch television, listen to music and read something in English.
And still I always look forward to my next working day because I like my job. I think I get a lot of useful experience, and shall be a good manager.
2. Comprehension check. Work in pairs. Ask and answer as many questions as you can about working day.
3. Match up A and B
| A | B | ||
| a. | I go to my bedroom | 1. | His entrance exam |
| b. | It takes him | 2. | To my next working day |
| c. | The boss wanted me | 3. | Waiting for me |
| d. | I left the house | 4. | I try to memorize it |
| e. | My friend failed | 5. | An hour to get to the office |
| f. | I always look forward | 6. | To translate this letter |
| g. | My parents are usually at home | 7. | To get dressed |
| h. | If I come across an interesting expression | 8. | At 8. 00 yesterday |
4. Retell the text
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UNIT 9. THE PLACE I LIVE IN
1. Pre-reading task. Answer the following questions.
1. What is your home town?
2. Where is it situated?
3. What places of interest are there in you town?
4. What theatres and museums are there?
5. What is your native town famous for?
6. Are there any higher educational institutions in the town?
7. Where do people usually spend their free time?
8. Are there any sports facilities?
9. What is your favourite place in the town?
10. How often do you go to your native town?
Text A. My Native Town
I am Ann Sokolova. I`ll tell you about my lovely hometown – Sochi. I am sure everyone knows where Sochi is. For those who are not really sure I remind that it is situated on the Black Sea coast about 1500 km south from Moscow.
Sochi is the only southern subtropical city in Russia. One can bathe in the Black Sea from May till October because the water of the Black Sea is still warm. The water of the Black Sea contains many chemical substances. That reacts with your body and makes you healthier. There are many mineral water springs in Sochi and its area.
Have you ever heard the name Big Sochi? Sochi is one of the most stretched cities along the sea coast – it is 148 km long! Small towns and cities Adler, Khosta, Kudepsta, Dagomys and Lazarevskoye belong to Big Sochi.
The history of this area goes back to the ancient times.
One can call this area «the Cradle of Mankind». People came here from the Asia Minor 400-350 thousand years ago. There are more than 150 historical places of interest in the area. Here the camps and caves of prehistoric people have been found.
The dolmens – massive prehistoric grave structures from the 2nd thousand B. C. are the features of the Bronze era. The most ancient five-stone dolmens are found in the Sochi area. Travellers of the 19th century called dolmens «the houses of the giants» because each grave stone weighs from 500 to 3000 kg. It is still uncertain what technical developments made it possible to construct such structures.
The rich lands of the Caucasus always attracted Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Turks and other invaders.
Christian religion was brought over from the Byzantynne three centuries earlier than to Russia. In the end of Xth – beginning of the XIth centuries A. D. the first known Christian constructions were built in Loo, Galitsino and Veseloye.
During the XVIIIth – XIXth centuries Russia conducted long wars with Turkey for the exit to the Black Sea. In 1829, after the end of Russian-Turkish war, by the peace treaty the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, from the mouth of the Kuban river up to a fort St. Nicholas (to the south of modern city Poti), has departed to Russia.
Symbol of the victory of the Russian weapon in the war of 1829 is the monument near modern hotel “Leningrad” – “Anchor and Cannon”.
The end of Russian-Turkish war has not solved all the problems of strengthening of Russia on the Black Sea coast. The Black Sea coastal line consisting of 17 forts was created with this purpose.
On April 21st, 1838 a small wooden fortress was established in the Sochi river area to protect this land from local tribes. But in 1854, because of the beginning of the Crimean war, the fortress was destroyed by Russian army. Russians left this area. Only 10 years later the new fortress named Dakhovskiy was established on the place of the fortress.
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In 1896 by the decision of the Tsarist government fortress Dakhovskiy was renamed in the settlement of Sochi, after the name of the river Sochi.
In Soviet times Sochi was a quickly developing port, industrial and resort city on the Black sea. The fast development of the city and construction of modern houses was due to Joseph Stalin's sympathy to this place. Many streets in the center of Sochi look like the center of Moscow built in 30s and 50s.
Until now the favourite residence of Russian Presidents was Bocharov creek. Ski resorts of Krasnaya polyana, warm blue waters of the Black Sea, luxurious tennis courts create irresistable atmosphere around the place.
2. Comprehension check. Work in pairs. Ask and answer as many questions as you can about
1. The location of Sochi;
2. The history of this town;
3. The resorts of the town.
3. Retell the text if you were
1. A citizen of Sochi;
2. A visitor.
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