I enjoy books of different genres: love and detective stories, thrillers and historical novels, tales, works after classical and modern writers. I’m а great lover of the English and American literature. Among my favorite writers are W. Shakespeare and Ch. Dickens, J. Galsworthy and А. Cronin, J. London and Е. Hemingway to name only а few. I read them in translation and try to read in the original.

I read books after Russian and Belarusian writers, too. We can say that L. Tolstоу, D. Dostoevsky, А. Chekhov, А.Pushkin are as popular as they used tо be. Their works have stood the test of time. My favorite modern writers are V.Karatkevich and Е Solzhenitsyn.

I try tо get acquainted with popular works and best-sellers. Luckily there is а big choice of various books in book shops and stalls.

I can' t imagine my life without reading.

«Except а living man there is nothing more wonderful than а book», said one clever man. And I share his opinion. Books teach us what is right and what is wrong, to understand the world and people in it, they mould our character and at the same time tell us exciting stories.

THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

The Russian Federation is the largest country in the world. It occupies about one- seventh of the earth' s surface. It covers the eastern part of Europe and the northern part of Asia. Its total area is about 17 million square kilometers. 12 seas of 3 oceans wash the country: the Pacific, the Arctic and the Atlantic. In the south Russia borders on China, Mongolia, Korea, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Azerbaijan. In the west it borders on Norway, Finland, the Baltic States, Belorussia, the Ukraine. It also has а sea- border with the USA.

There is hardly а country in the world where such а variety of scenery and vegetation can be found. We have steppes in the south, plains and forests in the midland, tundra and taiga in the north, highlands and deserts in the east.

There are two great plains in Russia: the Great Russian Plain and the West Siberian Lowland. There are several mountain chains on the territory of the country: the Urals, the Caucasus, the Altai and others. The largest mountain chain, the Urals, separates Europe from Asia.

There are over two million rivers in Russia. Europe's biggest river, the Volga, flows into the Caspian Sea. The main Siberian rivers — the Ob, the Yenisei and the Lena— flow from the south to the north. The Amur in the Far East flows into the Pacific Ocean. Russia is rich in beautiful lakes. The world' s deepest lake (1,600 meters) is Lake Baikal. It is much smaller than the Baltic Sea, but there is much more water in it than in the Baltic Sea. The water in the lake is so clear that if you look down you can count the stones on the bottom.

Russia has one-sixth of the world's forests. They are concentrated in the European north of the country, in Siberia and in the Far East.

On the vast territory of the country there are various types of climate, from arctic in the north to subtropical in the south. In the middle of the country the climate is temperate and continental.

Russia is very rich in oil, coal, iron ore, natural gas, copper, nickel and other mineral resources.

Russia is а parliamentary republic. The Head of State is the President. The legislative powers are exercised by the Duma.

The capital of Russia is Moscow. It is its largest political, scientific, cultural and industrial center. It is one of the oldest Russian cities.

At present, the political and economic situation in the country is rather complicated. There are а lot of problems in the national economy of the Russian Federation. The industrial production is decreasing. The prices are constantly rising, the rate of inflation is very high. People are losing their jobs because many factories and plants are going bankrupt.

But in spite of the problems Russia is facing at present, there are а lot of opportunities for this country to become one of the leading countries in the world. I’m sure that we, the younger generation, can do very much to make Russia as strong and powerful as it used to be.

Sport

All over the world people of different ages are fond of sport and games. Sport not only helps people to become strong and to develop physically but also makes them more organized and better disciplined in their daily activities. In every town there are amateur clubs and keep-fit centers, where people can do aerobics, body-building or work with different training devices.

There are a lot of different kinds of sport: football, basketball, volleyball, tennis, track-and-field, water polo and many others. The main sport competition is the Olympic Games.

The Olympic Games have а very long history. They began in 777 BC in Greece and took place every four years. For the period of the Games all the wars stopped. So the Olympic Games became the symbol of peace and friendship. In 394 AD the Games were abolished. In 1894, а Frenchman, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, addressed all the sports governing bodies and pointed out the educational value of sports. Two years later the first modern Olympic Games took place in Greece to symbolize the centuries old tradition. Russia joined the Olympic movement in 1952. In 1980 Moscow hosted the Twenty-Second Olympic Games. The latest Olympic Games were held in Sydney. Sydney was the host for the Games of the 27th Olympiad in 2000. About 200 countries took part in the competitions. There were 10000 athletes and 5000 officials. There were 27 sports on the program for the 2000 Olympic Games. Triathlon and Taekwondo were included in Sydney for the first time at any Olympic Games. Our Russian team took part in the Olympic Games too, we were the second in the overall count of won medals, after the USA team.

As for me, I like sport very much, but I like sport not only as a sport fan, but also as a sportsman. I had been training judo for 9 years, until I came to 11 form, I had to stop training because I had a lot of homework and I had not much time to train. But I don’t stop to go in for sport: sometimes in the morning or in the evening I run and sometimes I visit keep-fit center (trainer hall).

Study and plans for the future

This school year is very important for us, because we must decide what to do after leaving school. There different ways for us to choose. Those who like technique can become engineers and work in the field of industry. Those who like nature can become agronomists and work in agriculture, school-leavers who want to work directly with people may become doctors and teachers.

Many young people follow the examples of their parents and choose their professions. I think it is not bad, as they know these professions better. There are school-leavers who choose only modern professions such as an economists and lowers. I don’t think that it is bad, but in nowadays there are a lot of economists and lowers and it is not easy for them to find work.

So the main thing for us is to choose our future profession correctly to satisfy our own fasts and needs and to work with the best results.

As for me, I want to be an expert in foreign relations (diplomat), but it is very difficult to enter the university, there I can study foreign relations. What’s why, most likely, I will have to become an economists, it is not bad profession and I try to get at once two specialty: marketing and finances and credit.

The problem of spare time.

No doubt that the problem of spare time is one of the most important problems. Speaking about grownups we should say that they have to work much to survive in such difficult economic situation.

Teenagers have to study much if they want to get good knowledge and later to enter a prestige educational institution.

But when people have some spare time they prefer to spend it on their hobbies. Hobbies differ like tastes. If you have chosen а hobby according to your character and taste you are lucky because your life becomes mоre interesting.