My School (Учебный день)

At the age of 6 or 7 ail boys and girls go to school. I am a schoolboy as well. My school number is 121. Our school is large, airy and light. It is neither old nor new. There is a large schoolyard and a stadium. We sometimes have physical training lessons here. There are 3 floors in the school. There is a workshop on the ground floor. It is big and there are all kinds of iron-processing tools and machines here. There is also a woodwork room where we learn to make different things of wood. Another room is for girls to learn housekeeping and craft-work. It is also on the ground floor. There is a dining room you can enter from the foyer. It is next to the woodwork room. Here pupils and teachers have their breakfast and dinner. The dining room is very clean and has beautifully designed interior. There are many nice pictures on the walls and some of them are drawn by the most gifted schoolchildren. There is also a gymnasium near the dining room and the woodwork room. All pupils like to attend it because at our physical training lessons we usually play exciting sport games and have a lot of fun. There is a library on the first floor of the school building. There are a lot of old and new books there. But unfortunately there is no reading room there. The library regulations are quite strict and one cannot take more than two books at a time and keep them for more than two weeks period. There are many classrooms in the school. The English classrooms are supplied with an audio systems controlled from the teacher's desk and there are headphones provided connecting the cassette decks with the pupils' desks. There is a lot of research laboratory equipment both in the Physics and Chemistry classrooms. The Geography and History classrooms have a lot of maps and books. Every classroom has a flower-stand or some pots with beautiful home plants or flowers. The teacher's desk is usually between the pupils' ones and the blackboard. There are around twenty desks in each classroom. Some classrooms have TV sets that are used sometimes at the lessons. There is a school conference hall on the third floor where meetings, conferences and school dancing parties take place. There are also holidays celebrated and concerts and competitions of various kinds are held except the sports events, which take place in gymnasium or in the open. School theatre once in two or three months performs its plays here. The most remarkable event of the school life — the Last Bell is also celebrated here. The pupils of the first and eleventh forms prepare themselves for this day with great enthusiasm. The teacher's room is on the second floor. There are tables and armchairs for teachers to take a short rest or to do some preparations. There is a TV set with video player here and there are two computers connected with the director's and head teacher's ones. There Is also a telephone and a fax machine. The teachers' room is quite comfortable and cozy and some teachers like to spend their time there. I like my school and sometimes I think that I would like to be a teacher.

My Day Off (Выходной день)

On weekdays I usually go to school, but on my days off I rest. I hate getting up early in the morning, and on my weekends I can afford to get up a bit later than usual, because I don't have to hurry anywhere. As a rule at our leisure time we go in for sports, read the books, go to the cinema, theatre, park, museum or exhibition. Sometimes we go to the zoo or circus and enjoy ourselves watching animals. We try to spend most of the time out-of-doors. Some people prefer to go to the country to see their relatives and friends. In winter we like to go to the forest to ski or to the skating-rink to skate. After having such a pleasant rest in the open air, you are happy to come home and have a rest sitting near the TV set and watching an interesting TV programs. In summer and spring picnics are popular with schoolchildren and students. Children are fond of picnics chiefly because they have an excellent opportunity to admire the beauty of nature, to run and play games, to have a bite without observing table manners. But the most exciting event is making a fire. They are fond of collecting wood and sitting round the fire. And again, children like to return home after having a picnic. Now they think that «There is no place like home», as the saying goes. As for me, my days off are normally like this. I get-up at 9 o'clock, do my morning exercises, wash my face and hands and brush my teeth. After having breakfast I relax a little: listen to a lovely stereo music and try to forget about all my problems. Then I can visit my friends and have a chat with them about our school life. Sometimes my friends and I go to the museum or art exhibition. As a rule, my activities on weekends depend on my plans, but in any case I manage to do a lot of things and have a real rest. I always try to do my best to have a good time. But unfortunately time flies very quickly on weekends, and the next Monday morning comes, and I am looking forward to my next days off.

Hobbies (Увлечения)

Hobbies differ like tastes. If you have chosen a hobby according to your character and taste — you are lucky because your life becomes more interesting. Hobbies are divided into four large classes: doing things, making things, collecting things, and learning things. The most popular of all hobby groups is doing things. It includes a wide variety of activities, everything from gardening to traveling and from chess to volleyball. Gardening is one of the oldest man's hobbies. It is well-known fact that the English are very found of gardening and growing flowers, especially roses. Both grown-ups and children are found of playing different computer games. This is a relatively new hobby but it is becoming more and more popular. Making things includes drawing, making sculptures, designing costumes, handicrafts and others. Two of the most famous hobby painters were President Eisenhower and Sir Winston Churchill. Some hobbyists write music or play musical instruments. Ex-president Bill Clinton, for example, plays on the saxophone. Almost everyone collects something at some period in his life: stamps, coins, matchboxes, books, records, postcards, toys, watches and other things. Some collection have not real value. Others become so large and so valuable that they are housed in museums and art galleries. Many world famous collections started in a small way with one or two items. People with a good deal of money often collect paintings, rare books and other art objects. Often such private collections are given to museums, libraries and public galleries so that others might take pleasure in seeing them. No matter what kind of hobby a person has, he always has the opportunity of learning from it. By reading about the things he is interested in, he is adding to what he knows. Learning things can be the most exciting aspect of a hobby. So I think that everyone should have a hobby, it is like the target of your life.