Ex. 2. Ask your own questions to the text

Ex. 3. Read the text and translate it using a dictionary:

I. Y. Yakovlev – the Great Chuvash Educator

Ivan Yakovlevich Yakovlev the great Chuvash enlightener, educator, and writer was born on the 25th of April in 1848 in the village of Koshki-Novotimbayevo, today's Tatarstan.

In 1875, Ivan Yakovlev graduated from Kazan University. While he was still a gymnasium student, he invested his own capital and private donations into the establishment of Simbirsk Chuvash School in 1868. Thanks to the efforts of Ilya Ulyanov Vladimir Lenin's father, this school was funded by the government starting 1871. In 1877, the school was transformed into Simbirsk Central Chuvash School. After his graduation from the university, Ivan Yakovlev worked as an inspector of Chuvash schools in the Kazan School District (until 1903) and headed the Chuvash School for Teachers which prepared thousands of teachers during its 50 years history.

Ivan Yakovlev contributed to the establishing of Chuvash and other national schools in the Volga region. He was the one to create special instruction methods based on Konstantin Ushinsky’s pedagogical legacy. In the early 1870s, Ivan Yakovlev made a new Chuvash alphabet (as the old one based on the Old Bulgar language had been forgotten), wrote several primers and textbooks based on the Russian alphabet. He is also known for having translated some of the Russian writers (Alexander Pushkin, Ivan Krylov, Leo Tolstoy, Nikolai Nekrasov, etc.) and the Bible into the Chuvash language. During his life I. Yakovlev published more than 100 books and pamphlets.

The Chuvash State Pedagogical University bears Ivan Yakovlev’s name.

Ex. 4. Fill in the blanks:

1. K. D. Ushinsky was the founder of … and pedagogical training for teachers.

2. K. D. Ushinsky was … of the Journal of the Ministry of Education.

3. The Journal wrote about … .

4. K. D. Ushinsky’s basic pedagogical principles are … .

5. According to K. D. Ushinsky, "life without ... can neither be worthy nor happy".

6. Ivan Yakovlev was … .

7. While he was still a … , he invested … into the establishment of Simbirsk Chuvash School.

8. In the early 1870s, Ivan Yakovlev made …, wrote … based on the Russian alphabet.

9. Ivan Yakovlev is known for … some of the Russian writers.

Ex. 5. Speak about a great teacher you know.

Topic: Sport

Ex. 1. Read the text using a dictionary.

Sport in Britain

The British are great lovers of competitive sports; and when they are neither playing nor watching games they like to talk about them, or when they cannot do that, to think about them.

Great Britain has given birth to more major sports than any other country including: football (soccer), tennis, squash, golf, boxing, rugby, cricket, billiards, badminton and curling. It has also played a key role in the development of sports such as boxing and Formula One.

Domestic sport and international sport both have high profiles in the United Kingdom. The four home nations of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland have separate teams in most team sports, but the United Kingdom sends a combined team to the Olympics.

Football is a very popular spectator sport, played between August and May. In Britain football is commonly referred to as “soccer” to distinguish it from either rugby football or American football. Most British towns and cities have a soccer team. Every year each team plays in the Football Association (FA) competition.

Rugby football (or rugger) is played with an egg-shaped ball, which may be carried and thrown. Each team has 15 players, who spend a lot of time lying in the mud or on top of each other and become very dirty.

Tennis is another popular game in Britain. There are plenty of tennis clubs, but most towns provide tennis courts in public parks, and anyone may play it cheaply on a municipal court. Every summer, in June, the biggest international tennis tournament takes place at Wimbledon, a suburb of London.

Cricket is a typically British sport which foreigners have difficulty in understanding. Nearly every village, except in the far north, has its cricket club. It is played widely in summer (May – September) on village greens. The game looks slow, but it can be exciting if you understand what's going on. There are two teams of eleven players: one man (the "bowler") throws the ball, and the "batsman" hits it with his bat. Cricket is a very long game. Matches last from one to five days.

Rowing has a great history in Britain, beginning in some schools and universities. Rowing race on the River Thames is held every year for well over a hundred years at the end of March or the beginning of April between teams from Oxford University and Cambridge University. It is a popular national event and is shown on TV.

Many British people who live near the sea, a lake or a river enjoy sailing. If you are really enthusiastic, and rich enough to buy your own boat, you can take part in one of the annual sailing races or "regattas" at Cowes, near Portsmouth, for example, or at Henley on the river Thames.

Golf courses (together with the bars in their club houses) are popular meeting places of the business community; it is, for example, very desirable for bank managers to play golf. There are also cheap municipal golf courses in Scotland but few in England.

Cycling is a popular pastime, but few people take it up as a serious sport. Sailing and horse-riding are popular among those who can afford them, and some yacht races attract wider interest.

The most popular of all outdoor sports is fishing from the banks of lakes and rivers or in the sea, from jetties, rocks or beaches. Some British lakes and rivers are famous for their trout or salmon, and attract enthusiasts from all over the world.

Winter sports such as skiing are generally impossible in Britain (except in Scotland) owing to the unsuitable climate, but more and more people spend winter holidays on the Continent in order to take part in them.

Sport in British schools is compulsory and schoolchildren spend at least one afternoon a week playing sport. In winter boys play soccer as it is or rugby and go cross-country running, while girls play netball or hockey. Some boys' schools also teach rowing. In summer boys play cricket, do athletics or go swimming, while girls play rounders (a British version of baseball), do athletics or go swimming.