Make a story about your favourite TV programmes. Why do you like them? What don’t you like on TV?

 

IV. Music as a part of your leisure time.

Charmed with music*

I have never thought that I will fall in love with music. I haven't got an ear for music. Even more, when being a schoolgirl, I was not accepted to the school choir. Only two girls from the whole class were not chosen – my deskmate and me. It was a great tragedy for us. We cried for several hours in our empty class. We were in the blues till the first rehearsal, when everybody should stay but not we. Then we understood that the life was not as bad as it seemed to us. But since that moment I disliked music. I dared to sing only when nobody could hear me and I did it in our bathroom shutting the door of it tightly.

My attitude towards music changed when I was in the tenth form. Just before the start of the academic year my Mum found a private teacher of English for me. The teacher's name was Oleg Leonidovich, and I was dying of fear going to the first lesson to his place. The man opened the door to me had a rather dignified appearance. He was in his middle fifties, tall and strong and he had huge moustache. I don't know why, but his moustache frightened me most of all. And the first question of my future teacher didn't give me any courage: "Do you like music?" At a loss I began to murmur and mumble something and he interrupted me sharply: "Well, I see, you know nothing. Maybe, that's better. After the lesson I put one record for you and tell something." And really he gave me to listen to a record with the music of 'The Seasons' by Tchaikovsky. Of course I heard it before but that time I listened to it purposefully and therefore discovered a lot of new things for me. Since that time after every lesson I stayed for another hour to listen to some music. I listened to practically all Russian classics and a lot of western composers – symphonies, operas, ballets, concertos for different instruments (piano, cello, violin and others), romances and so on and so forth. And to that, when listening to some play or opera, Oleg Leonidovich told me about different composers, their works, instruments, orchestra staffs and even anecdotes connected with musicians and music. I admired those music lessons not less than the lessons of English. For the next several years I learnt a lot and could recognize many works by ear. It was a real music education. The most striking thing was that my teacher was not a musician but an engineer. He knew several languages, was a great expert in constructing of buildings and loved music passionately.

 

And what were your first meetings with music?

Would you like to have such a guide to the world of music?

 

The power of music.  Make sentences of your own using these lexical material.

a) My favourite music is … I enjoy … I adore … My joy is … b) When I listen to (classical) music it … pictures in my mind … makes me remember … makes me think of … provokes (evokes) the picture of … c) Music can … Music … our hearts and feelings. d) The music I love is … Being free I listen to … music. It depends on my mood. When I am … I listen to … music. e) The music I hate is … I switch off the radio when I listen to … music. I think music makes us …

What sort of music do you like? pop music   martial rock             sacred classical      organ folk              spiritual country        jazz dance How can music influence people? appeals to … transforms … inspires …  entertains … destroys … enriches … conquers …   What music irritates you? cluttered rubbish tuneless dreadful appalling annoying boring     foolish complicated sacrilegious

What does music makes you think of? happy days my early childhood different seasons days off a dark day New Year   What music do you like listening to when you have free time? romantic      amazing melancholy  sweet sentimental  soft catchy          eloquent fascinating   torchy passionate  unforgettable appealing    sensational overwhelming breathtaking

 

  Answer these questions.*

1. What is your favourite kind of music?

2. Do the people you live with and your close friends share the same tastes in music as you?

3. Where and when do you listen to music?

4. If you could choose one musical instrument to be able to play brilliantly, what instrument would it be?

5. Do you like having background music while you are working?

6. How often do you go to the concerts?

7. Do you buy records, cassettes or compact discs? If so, how often?

8. What usually makes you decide that you want to buy a certain record (disc, cassette)?

9. Do you have one or two favourite performers (groups, orchestras) at the moment? If so, who?

10. What instrument do you most like the sound of?

11. Do you have an ear for music?

V. From animals to antiquities … (Museums and Exhibitions)*

Museums are not only for getting knowledge; it's also cool!

There are so many museums in the world and they all are so different. One of the first museums where you go in the childhood is a historical museum or a museum of natural history. You slowly move from one exhibition hall to another one and look at the exhibits displayed in the showcases (витрина) reading the notes to them. Any museum of natural history contains ancient remains of extinct animals, stuffed animals, birds, collection of butterflies and other insects, precious stones and so on. A bit later you go to a museum of Fine Art or a picture gallery. There one can see many pictures and sculptures of many artists. The pictures are of different genres: portraits, landscapes, still life, marines, genre scenes, battle scenes. In some picture galleries we can see Russian ancient icons.

There are several very interesting museums in Moscow: the museum of Applied Arts (музей прикладного искусства), the Bakhrushev theatrical museum, the museum of Oriental Arts (музей восточных искусств) and the Polytechnic museum. There is the museum of Toys, the museum of Science (people there can touch practically all exhibits and even make some experiments) and the museum of Medicine and Florence Nightingale in London. In Prague one can visit the museum of Aviation. In Kaunas people like to go to the museum of devils. In Munich people like to visit the Museum of the Puppet theatre. The fans of space adore the museum of the NASA. And the inhabitants of a small town Myshkin on the Volga River created the museum of mice. Our city has got the museum of Radio and the museum of Fire-fighting Tools and Firemen.

So you can choose any museum you like for visiting. And I think your visit will be not only amusing and enjoyable but educational too.

 

1. Read and translate all the words from the text printed in bald.

2. What other kinds of museums can you name? What interesting exhibitions you have visited can you tell about?

 

VI. All That Tourist Romance

1. Use the list of words and make a story about camping holiday which was a) a great fun, b) a complete failure.

pack / unpack huge sacks sleeping bags cooking utensils folding bed

fold-up tables and chairs first-aid kit waterproof and wellies choose a camping site put up / pitch a tent

make a bonfire / camp fire sing songs to the guitar feed the mosquitoes burn trainers forget something

 

2. Read and retell the text.

Hiking as a way of spending free time.*

No, I can't say that I liked hiking very much. But after the only and, I hope, the last trip over our Ural Mountains I simply can't stand that entire tourist romance. My friends tempted me to go with them promising a lot of fresh air, beauties of the nature, swimming in the cleanest rivers, and so on. The first thing that terrified me was my rucksack. To be more exact, its size. I had never thought that an average person was able not only to raise that huge bag but also to drag it for many kilometres. During the first day I didn't see any beauties because I was afraid that if I had a look at some of them, I wouldn't be able to see where my feet stepped. I was horrified to fall down with that huge bag on the back. When we made a stop for a night I was so exhausted that I wanted nothing but to fall down under any tree and not to move. But my friends laughed and sang, and meanwhile the tents were put up, the fire was made and our supper was cooked. I stupidly looked at that picture because I myself was in no condition to move even a finger.

The morning was awful. I was aching all over. But … but I was afraid to be left alone even more and only because of that I put that rucksack onto my back again and shuffled behind the friends. To my surprise it seemed to be a bit easier. As it turned out folks took food from my sack for the supper they had made the previous night. In few days I used to my rucksack, long hours of moving and hard bed. But there were several things that I couldn't bear. Firstly, there were huge mosquitoes that attacked us every evening in the camp, they could find even the smallest chink (щель) in your clothes or in the tent and sting you. Secondly, I simply hate all kinds of porridge, and especially semolina (манная каша). And when it is burnt I am ready to be hungry the whole day but not to eat it. Thirdly, I like comfort, TV, a soft bed and so on; therefore tourist evenings at the fire with songs to guitar are not for me.

No, I can't say that everything was so horrible. The sights of nature made a great impression on me. I spent several films (пленок) taking pictures. I liked to ride on the back of a horse (we did it one day when we were in a small village). And I liked berries. Once we got onto a berry place in the forest. At the beginning we bent to take berries, then we sat into the grass and gathered berries around ourselves and changed the position then, but at last we simply crawled picking them. We all were covered with berry juice and there were a lot of bees around us. So we had to escape in the river. I had never run so quickly before! Our teacher of PE would be very glad with our results.

Next year my friends are going to raft down one river somewhere in the mountains. They invite me. But thank you, I'm not an adventurous person. I prefer to watch it on TV and to lie on the beach at the Black Sea coast.

 

VII. Are You a Couch Potato?

1. Read this text and say what the reason is for appearing of a couch potato.

Centuries ago people didn’t have much free time, because everybody was working too hard. In Britain in the nineteenth century, people had more spare time, but because the Victorians hated relaxing and doing nothing, they invented football, rugby and cricket. People took up more gentle activities too, like gardening, bird-watching and train-spotting, and it was even possible simply to watch a sport and give the impression that you were actually doing something. Gradually, leisure activities have become less and less demanding, and most people have a variety of more or less energetic interests and hobbies.

But now there is a new type of person who thinks that lying on the sofa, watching television on Sunday afternoon or reading the newspaper from cover to cover is the most exciting activity they can manage. This is the twentieth-century couch potato. For them, every activity is too much trouble, and laziness is an art form!

So how do you spend your free time? Are you a couch potato?