Топик: Много топиков по английскому языку /english/
MY FRIEND
Frankly speaking, I have a lot of friends. Most of them are my classmates. They say that I am a good mixer and always have a way with people. But my bosom-friend is Olga. We are of the same age, we are both 15. She is pleasant looking girt not very tall but pleasantly plump. They say, she is the very image of her father, but, to my mind, she takes a lot after her Mum in looks - fair curly hair and dark blue eyes. When she smiles, 2 pretty dimples appear on her cheeks. To my mind, she is really a beauty. But her inner beauty is more important than physical one. Olga is well bred, jolly and king, life and soul of every company. She is tactful, witty generous and kind- hearted, careful and sensitive. She always ready to help other people. She is well-read and fond of reading very much. She always has 2 or 3 books at hand. Her second hobby is knitting and sewing. She is always elegant and always wears whet suits her. She is good at cooking I think she is cut out for a housewife.
Olga like all teenagers likes different music which helps her to relax. In this point we have much in common. We both go in for sports- aerobics I think, she is very gifted and capable.
She always manages to be cheerful, energetic, full of life and energy. She is a sunny soul by nature, she never feels sour.
As I have told, she is a helpful person and every time she tries to do her best to help somebody when he has problems.
Olga is very attentive to her parents and is simply mad about her dog. She cannot imagine her life without her.
Of course, Olga has some drawbacks - sometimes she is a hurly-burly girl, a bit stubborn. But still like her as she has a good sense of humour and pleasant to deal with.
We spend much time together - watch video or listen to the music, walk or go to the cafe discussing all sorts of things. If there is some misunderstanding between us we try to make peace soon. I respect Olga for intellect and modesty. You know, I miss her very often. Our friendship helps me feel strong and sure of myself.
MY HOME IS MY CASTLE.
I think, every person always dreams about the place where he can speak about his problems, chat with close friends, where he can feel happy and quiet. For me it is my family and my home. It is the best place in the world and my dearest people live here.
My family is not large we are 4. I have a father, a mother and a brother. We all live together in a new flat.
My father is 45. He is a tall and well-built man with short black hair and grey eyes. He is quiet and hardworking . Really, he is a bread maker of the family. Dad is handy with many things. His hobby is fixing everything at home.
My mother is very lively. She is life and soul of the family. She is a pleasant woman of forty with beautiful chestnut hair and dark brown eyes. She is a lofty ideal for me. My parents have been married for 20 years they have much in common, in everyday life Dad is impractical and needs mother to look after him. Parents have different views on music, books, films. For example, my father likes horror films and my father likes “soap operas”. My father is a football fat and Mum doesn’t like sports. But they try to have the same opinion about the education and upbringing of their children.
My brother is only 11. He goes to school. He is funny and curious. He is constantly asking many questions often silly ones. But this only a moment - I can’t imagine my life without our little monster.
We all feel happy when we are together. In the evenings we often have little gatherings in the kitchen by the cup of tea, chatting, laughing and discussing the events of the day. Those evening are the best of all. But sometimes I have problems with my parents. They don’t like the clothes I wear the music I listen to and the friends I bring home. It’s not easy to be a teenager. In summer I visit my Granny. I love her when I was a child she used to tell me fairytales and stories of her life.
My parents are hardworking. They combine work with housekeeping. Mum manages our household very well. We all are in the habit of helping her to run the house. They say “Men make houses, women make home”. My home is a cosy place. Our relatives and friends like to come to our place. My parents are very hospitable everybody feels at home in their flat. Really “There is no place like home”.
OUR TOWN.
We live in Usinsk. It’s a small town with the population of about 60 thousand people situated near the river Usa in the north-east of the Komi Republic. Usinsk is young it was founded in 1975. It is a multinational town, the people of many nationalities live here - the Russians, the Ukranians, the Tatars, the Komis, the Bashkirs and so on.
The climate is severe, the winter is cold and long it lasts for 6-8 months, the spring and the summer are short and cool.
Usinsk district is rich in oil, so they get oil here. There are many industrial enterprises in it connected with oil extraction, they are “Komineft”, “Arkhangelsk Negtegaz” and others. There are some joint - ventures such as “NobelOil”, “KomiArcticOil”, “KomiQuest” and others where the specialists from Canada, the USA, Great Britain, France work. In autumn 1994 our Usinsk became world - known as the town where the greatest ecological catastrophe took place. The old oil pipeline was broken, a lot of oil and products streamed on and in the ground, flew into the rivers and their tributaries. The news has quickly spread in the world, many foreign correspondents visited Usinsk in November 1994. “Green Peace” called this a great ecological catastrophe but our Komi oil bosses called it only a local incident without much consequences. The rescue operation I has been done to clean the banks of the rivers and the nearest places covered (polluted) with oil and oil products. The old broken pipeline was changed with the new one. I think, it’s such an unpleasant event in the life of our town.
As our town is young we have no theatres and museums, historical and memorial places. But we have a cinema, the Palace of Technics a swimming-pool, a hockey stadium, the House for Schoolchildren where there are a lot of different clubs, studios for teenagers and a lot of pupils attend them.
There is also a musical and art school, seven schools, many kindergartens. There is an airport and a railway station and our people can go to Moscow, Syktyvkar, Ufa, Kazan by plane and by train.
Our town is surrounded by forests, there are also small rivers and lakes. Our people like to spend weekends in the forests picking mush-rooms and berries in autumn, skiing in winter and in early spring. Our men and boys are fond of fishing.
As for me, I like my town, it’s so lovely.
RUSSIAN TRADITIONS.
Almost every nation and country has a reputation of some kind. The Englishmen are reputed to be cold, reserved, rather naughty easy-going and fond of sport. They are the nation of stay-at-homes. “There is no place like home”, they say. The English man’s home is his castle is a saying known all over the world. They prefer a small house built for one family, with a small garden are a fire in the centre of the house. They like animals very much and follow the traditions concerning food and meals. We know much about English traditions and customs but now I’d like to say a few words about the traditions of my native land-Russia. First, about Russian people. To my mind, the main traits of their characters which differ them from other people are hospitality, their “open heart”, “golden hands”, wise Russian fairytales reflect this wisdom. Our people are hardworking, patient, never loosing hope for better life. The Russians are the talented nation. Russia gave the world beautiful names of Pushkin and Lermontov, Chaikovsky and Repin, thousands of names of world famous poets, writers, composers, scientists. All of them are the pride of the nation because they sand the beauty of our nature and people.
Besides these great names in literature and music, our country is famous for Russian traditional specific crafts its skilled craftsmen. Painted boxes of Palekh, coloured shawls of Pavlov Posad, clay toys of Dymkovo, laces of Vologda are known all over the world.
The names of Gzhel and Khokhloma are considered to be the symbols of Russia as well as matryoshkas and samovars. The history of khokhloma goes back into the 17th century Producing of tableware-dishes, spoons, mugs was begun at that time in the villages of Suomino and Khokhloma in the Nizhniy Novgorod Province. On the banks of the great Russian river Volga. Many carpenters, painters have been working since then reviving traditions of old masters. The Khokhloma style is characterized by using plant elements in painting the tableware. The prevailing colours are black, yellow, golden, green and red. And nowadays this craft is sure to be saved, it will be developed and brought into the future by the new generation of painters.
The reviving of old crafts is connected with the reviving of the traditional arts of all peoples inhabiting our big country. There are 100 of them. They revive their culture, costumes, dances and language. It is the revival of our souls. Now we celebrate the forgotten holidays - Troisa, Maslenitsa, Easter. We again sing Russian folk songs and chastushki, dance Barinya and perform khorovods, ride in troikas. Traditional Russian cooking is world-famous for such dishes as okroshka, shi, pelment, kurnik, kvass. We begin to build and reconstruct churches. The example of it is the building of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. It is the symbol of reviving human feelings, national pride and patriotism.
THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN
AND NORTHERN IRELAND.