Text 2. Leisure activities of youth

 

Read the text and say what the most popular free time activities for British and our teenagers are‚ what activities you like and why.

Britain has recently been described as a “leisure society”. This is because there are a great variety of leisure pursuits. Young people generally go out on Friday or Saturday nights to a disco, to a concert or to a pub. In recent years going out for a meal or getting a take-away meal have become popular too. During the past years there is a great increase in keeping fit and staying healthy. A lot of teens started running, jogging and going to different fitness clubs in their spare time. Aerobics classes and fitness clubs opened in every town, and the number of recreation centres greatly increased. Indoor pools, with their wave-making machines, water slides and tropical vegetation, have become very popular.

And the same is true in Belarus. A lot of teens go in for different kinds of sport. Sport helps them to feel as fit as a fiddle. In both countries there are special programmes for problem teenagers, such as high-risk activities, for example‚ they are taught to jump out of airplanes. But despite the increase in the number of teens participating in sport, the majority of young people still prefer to be spectators. They prefer to be couch potatoes. Watching sports on TV is a popular leisure activity, as is going to football matches on Saturday. Cinemas have been redesigned with four or more screens, each showing a different film at the same time, and a lot of teens like going to the cinemas too.

The young generation is fond of communication. There are many available methods of communication nowadays, and the most popular one is computers. A lot of teenagers spend plenty of time working on computers. The Internet seems really good fun. You may send e-mails to friends from different countries and get their answers instantly. You even may talk to them. It is easy and quick. A lot of teenagers have mobile telephones, so they can always be contacted, if they keep their telephone switched on, at any time of the day or night, or send text messages.

A lot of teenagers in both countries are crazy about animals. They race them, train them and breed them. They like to hear stories about them on television programmes and they like reading books about them. Many teens have a pet animal. It could be a dog, a cat, a goldfish, a bird or a small furry animal like a hamster. Looking after and being kind to their pets is very important for teens. Why are teens so interested in animals? Perhaps it’s because they are rather shy in their heart of hearts. One of my friends says: “I can say anything I like to my dog, but she never thinks I’m silly.”

There are plenty of other kinds of activities, such as travelling, visiting historical places, babysitting, delivering newspapers, putting together jigsaw puzzles, reading, going to different museums, skateboarding, going fishing, hitchhiking, shopping, helping people in need, joining a computer club and others. We can say “So many teens; so many kinds of activities.”

Chapter 7. The Republic of Belarus. Cities of Belarus

Text 1. Belarus

Read the text and do the exercises that follow it.

Study the following vocabulary before reading the text:

to border (on) – граничить

flat – плоский

an auroch – зубр

a meadow – луг

fertilizer – удобрение

fibre – волокно

a fodder harvester – кормоуборочный комбайн

to rank – занимать какое-л. место

representative – представительный

legislative – законодательный

executive – исполнительный

an anthem – гимн

Geographical situation

Belarus is divided into 6 regions: Brest, Vitsebsk, Gomel, Grodno, Minsk, Mogilev. The capital of the republic is Minsk, one of the most beautiful and modern youthful looking cities with the population of over 1,5 million people.

Belarus is very well geopolitically located. It is situated in the heart of Europe where all roads meet. The country stretches for 560 km from north to south, for 650 km from east to west bordering on Russia in the north and in the east, on the Ukraine in the southeast, on Poland in the west and on Lithuania and Latvia in the northwest.

The population of Belarus is almost 10 million.

Most of Belarus is a flat country. It is the land of forests, fields, meadows, rivers. The largest rivers are the Dnieper, the Nieman, the Sozh and the Pripyat. Belarus is also a lake country. The largest lake is the Naroch, 80 square km. The third of Belarus is under forests. The largest forests are Belovezhskaya, Nalibokskaya and Grodnenskaya. Belovezhskaya Pushcha is famous for its aurochs (European bisons).

The climate of Belarus is influenced by moist winds blowing from the Baltic Sea. The climate varies from maritime to continental. Summer is the hottest season of the year. Winter is the coldest. The temperature is sometimes very low, about 20–25 degrees below zего. The warm days of autumn are called “Golden Autumn”.