Princess Diana (1961-1997) Принцесса Диана

Diana Frances Spencer was born in Sandringham, Norfolk on the 1-th of July in 1961. She was the youngest daughter of Viscount Althorp. Diana had two elder sisters, Jane and Sarah, and a younger brother, Charles.

Diana was only six years old when her parents separated: her mother, Frances, left to join a wealthy businessman. Diana and her brother, Charles, spent much of their childhood moving from one parent to the other.

When Diana was twelve she attended West Heath School in Kent. She left at the age of sixteen and spent a few years In Switzerland.

In 1979 Diana worked as a nanny and as an assistant at the Young England kindergarten. At that time she got acquainted with Prince Charles and they started seeing each other.

On the 29-th of July, 1981, about 600,000 people filled the streets of London on Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer's wedding day. They married at St Paul's Cathedral. In less than a year Charles and Diana had their first child, William, on the 21-th of June, 1982. A second son, Prince Harry, was born on the 15-th of September, 1984.

Princess Diana appeared a glamorous Princess who won the hearts of the nation, as well as international acclaim. She did a lot of charitable work and in 1989 she opened the Landmark AIDS Centre.

However things were not well with her relationship with her husband and his family, partly because of Prince Charles’ long-running relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles. Because of this the couple separated in 1992 and divorced in August, 1996.

Princess Diana continued her charitable work and became a campaigner against landmines making trips to Angola and Bosnia.

Diana died in a car crash on the 31-th of August, 1997. Her lover, Dodi Al Fayed and the driver, Henri Paul, were also killed in the accident in a tunnel under the Place de l’Alma in Paris after the group were being chased by paparazzi.

Still Princess Diana remains the Princess of the hearts and millions of people remember her.

6. Выдающиеся люди Америки

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) Альберт Эйнштейн

Albert Einstein, one of the most famous scientists in the world, was born in Germany. When he was fifteen his family moved to Switzerland because of money difficulties. There Albert graduated from the Polytechnic Academy of Zurich where he had got scientific education. After that he worked at a patent office. Albert spent his free time studying philosophy, mathematics and science. In 1914 he returned to Germany and worked as a professor of Berlin University.

Einstein's discoveries began in 1905 when he formulated the Theory of Relativity which was published in 1915. Einstein also proved that every planet has a gravitational field similar to the magnetic field around a magnet. This work made him famous.

His other work was called Photoelectric Law. He explained the photoelectric effect in it. In 1922 Einstein got the Nobel Prize for this discovery. In his later years Einstein worked on the Unified Field Theory.

In 1933 Albert moved to the United States as the protest against fascism. He found his new home there. In 1934 the fascist government confiscated his property.

Einstein died in 1955. His discoveries were a great contribution to science. Einstein is considered to be one of the most intelligent people ever born, and people sometimes use the name Einstein to talk about someone who is very intelligent.

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) Эрнест Хемингуэй

Ernest Hemingway is another outstanding person. He is one of the greatest American writers. Ernest was born in Illinois in 1899 into the family of a doctor. In childhood Ernest went in for sport and was a great sportsman. He was also a very bright student at school. He wrote poetry and prose for the school magazine.

In 1914 World War I began, and Hemingway joined the Army. He was sent to Italy and was badly wounded there. Later he was awarded a silver medal by the Italian government. The war made a great influence on his future work.

In 1920 Ernest returned to the United States and started working as a foreign journalist in a newspaper. But his dream was to write novels. He travelled a lot to get material for his work. In 1929 his first novel, A Farewell to Arms, was published. It made Hemingway famous. In this novel he protests against war. In 1936 Hemingway went to Spain and took part in the Civil War. Later he wrote another novel called For Whom the Bell Tolls. It was devoted to the Americans who died in the war for Spain.

During World War II Hemingway was a war journalist. In 1954 he was given the Nobel Prize for literature for his last novel The Old Man and the Sea which was called the best of his works. Ernest Hemingway died in 1961 by shooting himself in Cuba.

Martin Luther King (1929-1968)

Мартин Лютер Кинг

Martin Luther King was another outstanding person of the United States. He was the first black American who won the full civil rights for black people.

Martin Luther King was born in 1929 in Atlanta, to the family of a black pastor. He graduated from the University of Boston where he got a doctor's degree in theology in 1955. Later he was a pastor of a Baptist church in Montgomery where black people lived in strong limitation of their civil rights. The blacks of the city followed King who believed in peaceful protests against the government. Black people of the city went to restaurants and demanded the same rights as white customers. They sat there for hours until they were served. A lot of them were arrested.

In 1963 a big march took place in Washington, D.C. It was organized by Martin Luther King. About 250,000 Americans took part in it.

In 1968 King was lolled by a white man and the nation was shocked. Martin Luther King still remains a great Person in American history and there is Martin Luther King Day in the USA when people remember what he did for the black people of the country.

Madonna (1958 -)

Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone was born on 16 August, 1958, in Michigan.

She won a dance scholarship to Michigan University but dropped out and went to New York. Madonna performed in various dance troupes and bands, and was briefly a backing vocalist dancer to a French disco star.

Madonna's debut album, titled Madonna, was released in 1983, and although it sold three million copies it was her next album, Like a Virgin that made her famous.

Her music continued to be a critical and commercial success and in the past twenty years, Madonna has sold more than 250 million records.

Madonna has been a very successful singer, but she is a woman of many talents. Her photo-book had a great commercial success. Madonna has also appeared in a variety of films including Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), In Bed with Madonna (1991) and Evita (1996). She has also written several children's stories.

Up until recently Madonna ran the record company Maverick, which (after a dispute) she sold to Warner Music.

Madonna has two children: Lourdes and Rocco. Madonna came 8-th in the list of the most powerful celebrities 2005 in the Forbes magazine.

7. Мир вокруг меня

Choosing a Career (Выбор профессии)

Choosing a career is not an easy matter. I am leaving school in two years and I haven't yet decided which profession to choose.

There are a lot of interesting things in the world, so it is difficult to make the right choice.

In childhood I wanted to be a pilot, then I wanted to become a fireman. But now I have to think about my future career seriously. Some people are good at Maths, Physics and Biology, others enjoy History, Literature and Geography.

In my opinion I am good at foreign languages. My favourite language is English. I like it very much and I want to be either a teacher of English or an interpreter. I like watching films in English, reading books in the original and listening to music in English.

I think that young people should ask themselves: What am I interested in? What do I want to become? When they find the answer, they will have the goal to achieve. And then they should do everything to achieve this goal. If you are good at Maths and you want your profession to be connected with this subject, you should start studying it very seriously. The same is with other subjects.

My father wants me to follow in his footsteps and become a businessman. But I am not interested in business or economics. I have always been bad at these subjects and I want my profession to be connected with English.

My mother says that I should choose my future occupation myself. But I am still not sure what to choose. Of course there are a lot of special books about different professions. In addition, a lot of universities and institutes have open house days, so I can go there and choose a good place for my future studies.

However, it is very difficult to enter a university. If you do not have money and if you are not a genius, you will never enter a good university or an institute. I have some friends who were in this situation and they had to choose a career not to their interests and liking.

But some young people still do not know which career to choose even after they finish school, so they have to waste time deciding, or go to find a job. For men it is harder because they may be taken to the Army, that's why a lot of them enter any institute or university just not to become soldiers.

Sometimes young people choose a career they are interested in, they enter a university and after some time they understand that this occupation is not for them, they get poor marks and have to leave the university.

The problem of choosing a career is very widespread among young people and they should think about it seriously before making any decisions.

Doing Sport and Keeping Fit

(Занятия спортом и здоровый образ жизни)

We live in a polluted world, that is why more and more people are concerned about their health and that is why more and more of them start going in for sport.

Sport plays an important role in people's life. It is popular among the young and the old. Many people do morning exercises, go jogging and go to the gym. Others prefer watching sports games on TV and listening to sports news rather than going in for sport.

Physical Education is an important subject in Russian schools now. Pupils have physical training twice a week. Boys and girls play volleyball and basketball during the lessons. School teachers turn pupils' training into enjoyment, not obligation. A lot of different competitions are held at school and many pupils take part in t hem. All participants try to get good results and win.

There are many kinds of sport in Russia. They are: football, hockey, skating and skiing. Russia is also known for its gymnasts, figure skaters and tennis players.

As for me, I do sport regularly. I am not a professional, I am an amateur. I play football with my friends and I jog in the morning. But my favourite sport is swimming and I go to the swimming-pool twice a week. This helps me feel fit and healthy. My father used to play football and hockey when he was a teenager but now he prefers watching these sports games on television. My mom likes watching figure skating.

But keeping fit doesn't mean only doing sport. It also includes the right way of eating. Nowadays it is very popular to go on a diet. On the one hand, it makes you feel better because you avoid eating fatty and unhealthy food, but on the other hand, some people start eating very little and they lose weight and do not look healthy at all.

You need to get all types of vitamins to keep your body healthy. You should eat fruit and vegetable because they contain a lot of important vitamins and one of them is vitamin C. Fruit and vegetables also have fiber, which is very important for our health.

A lot of people like spending most of their spare time watching TV or working at computers. Such people ruin their eyes and their muscles do not work well. This way of life is not healthy. There are also bad habits that can damage your health. They include smoking, drinking alcohol and taking drugs. A lot of young people prefer smoking to going in for sport and this is not good.

I try to lead a healthy life, because I like feeling and happy.

Learning Foreign Languages (1)

(Изучение иностранных языков)

There are many languages in the world. Some of them are spoken in small tribes, others are spread all over the world like English or French.

There are languages that are extremely difficult to learn, others are very easy. But anyway learning a foreign language is not an easy task and it takes a lot of time and effort.

People still learn foreign languages and there are some reasons for that. The most important is communication. More and more people travel abroad and the knowledge of a foreign language helps them understand each other. There are also a lot of interesting books and magazines in foreign languages and people read them to get various information.

If you want to get a good job, you will have to know one or several foreign languages. This is another reason for learning foreign languages. There are languages of international communication and they are English and French.

The English language is the official language of many international organizations such as the Olympic Committee, the United Nations and others. This is the language of computing, too. Most Internet sites and software are in English. It is the native language of many countries such as Great Britain, the USA, Canada Australia, New Zealand and others.

A lot of scientific books and articles are published in English. This language is becoming more and more popular and now it is hard to live without knowing it. Moreover, many languages borrow English words and expressions and people use them in their everyday speech. Sometimes people think that English is the most spoken language in the world. However, Chinese is considered to be the most spoken language. The Chinese language together with Japanese and Arabic are believed to be the most difficult foreign languages!

I learn English at school. I am very glad that I have such an opportunity. Every week we have tests, do exercises and write compositions. We also talk at our lessons a lot. This helps me to improve my English. Now I can read books in English, watch films in English and speak English with foreigners. I am thinking about choosing English as my future career because I am very good at this language.

I would also like to learn German if I had a chance.