Natural Phenomena in Weather and Seasons

There are four seasons in a year: spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Every season is beautiful in its own way.

When spring comes nature awakens from its long winter sleep. The days become longer and the nights become shorter. The ground is covered with emerald-green grass and the first flowers. The air is fresh, the sky is blue and cloudless, and the sun shines brightly. The trees are in full blossom. The nightingale begins to sing its lovely songs, and sweet melodies may be heard from every wood and park. The days are warm and everything is full of life and joy.

Spring is followed by summer. The weather is usually fine in summer, but it can be very hot, especially in July. Sometimes there are storms with thunder and lightning. In summer people try to get away from the city noise and spend more time in the open air. They pick mushrooms and berries in the forest, swim in the rivers and lakes, go fishing and boating. Most people prefer to have their holidays in summer.

Autumn begins in September. The days become shorter and the nights become longer. The leaves turn yellow, red and brown and fall to the ground. Most birds fly away to warm countries. There is a short spell of dry sunny weather in September, which is called ‘Indian Summer’. It is a beautiful time when the sky is cloudless, the trees around are golden, the air is transparent and it is still warm. But gradually it gets colder and colder. It often rains in October and November which makes autumn an unpleasant season.

In winter the sun sets early and rises late. The rivers and lakes are frozen over. Everything is covered with snow. Sometimes it is very cold, about 25-30 °C below zero. Going out in such weather isn’t pleasant. Winter is a good time for sports. People go in for skating and skiing. Tobogganing is also popular, not as a kind of sports, but rather as a fun.

As for me, I like all the season, but I think there is nothing like late spring.

 

Global Environmental Problems

The planet Earth is only a tiny part of the universe, but it's the only place where human beings can live. The world environment means simply what is around us. Some people live in towns, other in the country. There are a lot of ecological problems. The most serious ecological problems are: noise from cars and buses; destruction of wildlife and countryside beauty; shortage of natural resources; the growth of population; pollution in its many forms For example water pollution: water is everywhere, but there is no ocean or sea which is not used as a dump. Many rivers and lakes are poisoned too. Fish and reptiles can t live in them. People can t drink this water. So we have to clean the water environment. But it is not the only problem with pollution. Another problem is air pollution. Air pollution influents the health of people. There are a lot of dangerous. For example: ultraviolet radiation from the sun can cause skin cancer. Normally the ozone layer in the atmosphere protects us from such radiation, but if there are holes in the ozone layer ultraviolet radiation can get to the earth. Many scientists think that these holes are the result of air pollution. Also we have problem with nuclear pollution. Nuclear pollution cannot be seen but its effect can be terrible. To make air clear clean again we need good filters at nuclear power stations, at factories, in cars and buses. Another problem is growth of population. They don t have enough places to live. They need more water, more food. So it is the reason of the shortage of the natural resources. It is very difficult to solve this problem. Also one of the most serious problems is green house effect. It works like this: sunlight gives us heat. Some of the heat warms the atmosphere and some of the heat goes back into space. Nowadays the heat can’t go into space. That’s why winter and summer temperatures in many places have become higher. If the temperature continues growing up the snow on the mountains and ice will melt, so the most of the earth will be under water. So every person has to understand how important it is to solve these problems that endanger people’s life. For example I try not to throw out in our city.

 

Modern Means of Communication

We cannot imagine the world without modern ways of communication. They make the lives easier, the business quicker and more flexible and connect people all over the world in no time. Of course there is still nothing better than a face-to-face contact. This way one can see the eyes of the person he or she speaks to and understands the impression or feelings one has.

Everybody uses contemporary ways of communication but there always comes a moment when I want to see my friends in person. Thus we can talk, play the piano or study together and we are able to notice gestures which help to understand what we feel.

While I was preparing my papers for the application in some universities and while I was registering for my TOEFL exam I found the Internet quite convenient. It saves a lot of time, provides vast field of information and gives me the opportunity to visit virtually any spot of the world. It helps me pay my taxes quickly; it secures up-to-date knowledge about my sphere of interest.

Cell phones are modern means of communication and they often prevent a person from serious troubles. Having quick access to Emergency Services, no matter how far you are is quite an advantage. The constant contact with my loved ones is a fact that keeps me calm. Sending immediate pictures of a wonderful scene I witness and sharing them with my friends makes me happy and fills my life with positive emotions.

In the century in which the most precious of all is information modern technologies are the key for doing successful business and for safe communication. God has created us different in order to share our uniqueness and in this busy stressful world of alienation we should all cherish any valuable moment of personal contact with others. Looking at somebody’s eyes can preserve people as human beings. Modern technologies are quite beneficial but they could never replace the old fashioned personal contact between people who need to see, touch and feel the warmness of the men.

 

Computer in Our Life

Computers grew rapidly and widely used throughout the world. They are used to deal with many tasks due to their various potential. Therefore, they have much influence on our life. Their impact can be classified into three categories: communication, facilities and medical care.

First of all, computer can improve quality of communication. Nowadays, barriers seem to be gradually destroyed. Computer can bring people closer together and facilitate contacts between them. For example, people can communicate with others worldwide by using e-mail. It saves their time compared with letter. We’re no longer print the letters, put in the envelopes and transport them over long distances. It’s very convenient for people who’d like to send letters to other countries. Also, we can easily access to e-mail almost everywhere. We can check mail from both personal computer at home or public one.

In addition, computer can improve quality of media. Since television and radio play important role in communication, computer is main equipment to provide facilities for them. For example, TV directors use computer to manage their program plan. For radio, cd-players are replaced by computer. Music is converted into digital file which can save time and space.

Computer also facilitates our life and provides convenience. For transportations, it facilitates the way people travel. For example, both sky train and subway can make people move from one place to another in a few minutes even in rush hours. It saves time and relieve severity of traffic jam.

Besides, computer provides potential for improving the effectiveness of medical care. For example, computer is used to store data of hospital such as patient data and medical information. Physician and nurse can access to this data easier which result in decreasing the process of operation.

In addition, many operations are no longer manually performed, rather computers are used to manage these tasks. For example, in laboratory, medicine invention and some operations, some tasks are done by computer instead of people. Therefore, it saves time for both patients and physicians which result in reducing delay action.

In conclusion, computer plays important role on human behaviours. It provides facilities for our life and also create effective production.

Youth Problems

Everybody says your youth is probably the best time of young life that being young means romance, love, new discoveries & so on. But it is also the most difficult time because you have to make some very important decisions, which will influence all your future life.Things are not easy nowadays even for adults, but for teen-ages, who have to find their own place in society, it’s very difficult. It’s necessary not only to adapt to your society, but also to be confident about your position in 5, 10 or 20 years time.For your future it is essential to have a good job. Every girl or boy leaving secondary school should choose an institution of higher education, or if he or she doesn’t want to study any more, choose a job straight way.But even if you are studying, you need money of your own to pay for extra clothes, tapes, books. It’s something the problem.Emotional problems for young people can be far more difficult than financial ones. The typical teenager problem is drug-habit. Some young man use drugs, because they think that will be cool guys. But they don’t understand that it’s wrong. Some of them can’t stop that, and they become dependent on drugs. And they commit different serious crimes, because they need some money to buy drugs.Youth is also the time to meet your first love. It is, of course, wonderful, but, as it is widely known that first love often has an unhappy end, this also increases young people’s problems.We also face the problem how to spend our free time. We can do it in different ways. Some of teen-ages spend their free time in different night clubs. Other young people spend their free time in the streets.Another typical problem for most of the teen-ages is problem with their parents. Leo Tolstoy said: “All families are happy in the similar way and unhappy in its own way”. And happiness or unhappiness of any family mostly depends on relations in it.So many families so many family relations. Each family establishes its own relations in its own way. It has its own traditions & customs & its own unwritten constitution including rights & duties of every member of the family. The level of democracy is also different in different families, which mostly depends on the viewpoints of adults usually not coinciding with a child’s point of view. So the problem of misunderstanding becomes urgent. Some people can it generation gap. It as a rule sharpens as soon as a child approaches his or her difficult teens. And both sides (parents & children) should be patient & tactful & it’s the only way to settle down all the problems & stay friends.Parents say that it’s difficult to discipline children. But experts state that parents will get the best results if they try to prevent or stop misbehavior in natural, logical & when possible fun ways. Here are some pieces of advice to help them keep their kids in line.So, as you see, it is very difficult to be young nowadays, as, need, it always was. But you only can be young once and some wonderful things can happen only when you’re young. So, try to enjoy youth while it lasts.

Shops and Shopping

When we want to buy something we go to a shop. There are many kinds of shops in every town or city, buy most of them have a food supermarket, a department store, men’s and women’s clothing stores, grocery, a bakery and a butchery.

I like to do my shopping at big department stores and supermarkets. They sell various goods under one roof and this is very convenient. A department store, for example, true to its name, is composed of many departments: ready-made clothes, fabrics, shoes, sports goods, toys, china and glass, electric appliances, cosmetics, linen, curtains, cameras, records, etc. You can buy everything you like there.

There are also escalators in big stores which take customers to different floors. The things for sale are on the counters so, that they can be easily seen. In the women'’ clothing department you can find dresses, costumes, blouses, skirts, coats, beautiful underwear and many other things. In the men’s clothing department you can choose suits, trousers, overcoats, ties, etc. In the knitwear department one can buy sweaters, cardigans, short-sleeved and long-sleeved pullovers, woollen jackets. In the perfumery they sell face cream and powder, lipstick, lotions and shampoos.

In a food supermarket we can also buy many different things at once: sausages, fish, sugar, macaroni, flour, cereals, tea. At the butcher’s there is a wide choice of meat and poultry.. At the bakery you buy brown and white bread, rolls, biscuits. Another shop we frequently go to is the greengrocery which is stocked by cabbage, potatoes, onions, cucumbers, carrots, beetroots, green peas and what not. Everything is sold here ready-weighed and packed. If you call round at a dairy you can buy milk, cream, cheese, butter and many other products.

The methods of shopping may vary. It may be a self-service shop where the customer goes from counter to counter selecting and putting into a basket what he wishes to buy. Then he takes the basket to the check-out counter, where the prices of the purchases are added up. If its not a self-service shop, and most small shops are not, the shop-assistant helps the customer in finding what he wants. You pay money to the cashier and he gives you back the change.

But there is a very good service called Postal Market. It really helps you to save you time and get goods of high quality. You have just to look through a catalogue, choose the things you like, order them and wait a little to get them.

Food and Meals

It is not a secret that our meals influence our mood. Also it is very important for our health. Every single person should eat proper kinds of food – dairy products, meats, fruit and vegetables, fats and sugars, cereals and grains. Dairy products provide us with calcium, meat provide our bodies with protein, iron, zinc. Eating fruit and vegetables helps to keep us healthy too because they give us fibre, vitamins and minerals. We should eat fats and sugars in moderation, because too much fats and sugars can cause different heart-diseases. Cereals and grains are important for us because they provide us with the energy we need for physical activity.

In this fast-moving world it is necessary to watch what we eat – it should be healthy food, not junk one, which has become very popular. Eating too much junk food can cause overweight and a heart-disease. For example, it is much better to eat an apple or a banana than to eat a double hamburger with ketchup and mayonnaise. You will feel full in both cases, but a fruit or a vegetable is healthier.

Today there are a lot of different restaurants and cafes where you can eat delicious and not really expensive food. The service is usually excellent and friendly waiters help you to relax and enjoy your meal fully. You can eat any types of food in restaurants – you can try homemade cakes, beefsteaks, pasta and macaroni and others. For a main course you can order fish, meat or chicken with some rice or potatoes, also you can ask for pasta and salad. You can eat a bowl of ice-cream, a piece of apple pie, strawberries with cream or something like that for dessert. For drink you can order a glass of water or juice, a cup of coffee or tea or alcohol drink such as wine or beer.

Eating habits are different in different countries. For example, Brazilians never eat with their hands – they always use a knife and a fork, even when they eat hotdogs. Finns like to eat hot sausages and drink beer in the streets; many Philipinos prefer to eat with their hands. Also they think that it is polite to leave a little food on the plate at the end of a meal.

Well, as for me I do respect their eating habits and like to eat different countries’ food such as Italian Pasta, Japanese rice with sushi or Indian spicy meat. But most of all I like just ice-cream. It doesn’t matter what kind – with raspberry favor, with marmalade, chocolate chips or pieces of fruit. I can eat it anytime and anywhere. But anyway whatever you like you should remember words of wisdom which say that we eat to live, but not live to eat.

Health

People nowadays are more health-conscious than they used to be. They understand that good health is above wealth.

To be healthy we should avoid different bad habits that can affect our health. Smoking and drinking too much alcohol, are the worst ones. It’s common knowledge that they can shorten our lives dramatically. Smoking, for example, causes a number of heart and lung diseases, such as pneumonia, emphysema and cancer. Besides, it makes your teeth yellow and skin unhealthy. Fortunately, in recent years smoking has received a lot of bad publicity, and fewer people smoke nowadays. Some companies don’t employ people who are smokers. Smoking has been banned in most public places because everyone agrees it does harm to our health.

Smoking and drinking are joined by less dangerous habits, such as skipping meals, eating unhealthy food, or even overeating. If we eat too much, we'll become obese, and obesity leads to serious health problems. A lot of people like drinking coca-cola and coffee, and enjoy pizzas and hamburgers. But what is tasty is not always healthy. In recent years eating habits have undergone a change. People are encouraged to eat less fat and more fibre. Fat is believed to be one of the major causes of obesity and heart disease. High fibre and low fat foods can now be found in all shops and supermarkets. Salads, beans, and fruit have taken the place of steak and ice cream. The fashion for health food is growing all the time.

Many people feel they are too fat, even if their doctors disagree. And a lot of people try to improve their fitness. There are a lot of ways to lose weight and avoid gaining it. Perhaps the most popular of them is following a diet. If you want to lose weight, you should cut out snacks and desserts, and cut down on fat. People have also become more aware of calories, the energy value of food.

But excessive dieting may be dangerous, too. Some people refuse to eat meat as they consider it harmful. They say a vegetarian diet reduces the risk of cancer and vegetarians live longer than others. I can’t agree with them, because meat is an excellent source of good nutrition. In my opinion, it’s wrong to put down a food simply because excessive amounts can cause health problems. Consumed in moderate amounts, meat is perfectly good for our health.

The only way to stay healthy and to keep fit is by going in for sports. Among the benefits of regular exercise are a healthier heart, stronger bones, quicker reaction and more resistance to various illnesses. Besides, you can eat and drink as much as you want because you are burning it all off.

To be healthy, it is also very important to spend a lot of time in the open air. It is useful to go for a walk before going to bed, or at least to air the room.

Leisure Time

Leisure or free time, is a period of time spent out of work and essential domestic activity. It is also the period of recreational and discretionary time before or after compulsory activities such as eating and sleeping, going to work or running a business, attending school and doing homework, household chores, and day-to-day stress. The distinction between leisure and compulsory activities is loosely applied, i.e. people sometimes do work-oriented tasks for pleasure as well as for long-term utility.

For an experience to qualify as leisure, it must meet three criteria: 1) The experience is a state of mind. 2) It must be entered into voluntarily. 3) It must be intrinsically motivating of its own merit.

The word leisure comes from the Latin word 'licere', meaning “to be permitted” or “to be free,” via Old French leisir,'' and first appeared in the early fourteenth century. The notions of leisure and leisure time are thought to have emerged in Victorian Britain in the late nineteenth century, late in the Industrial Revolution. Early factories required workers to perform long shifts, often up to eighteen hours per day, with only Sundays off work. By the 1870s though, more efficient machinery and the emergence of trade unions resulted in decreases in working hours per day, and allowed industrialists to give their workers Saturdays as well as Sundays off work.

Active leisure activities involve the exertion of physical or mental energy. Low-impact physical activities include walking and yoga, which expend little energy and have little contact or competition. High-impact activities such as kick-boxing and soccer consume much energy and are competitive. Some active leisure activities involve almost no physical activity, but do require a substantial mental effort, such as playing chess or painting a picture. Active leisure and recreation overlap significantly.

Passive leisure activities are those in which a person does not exert any significant physical or mental energy, such as going to the cinema, watching television, or gambling on slot machines. Some leisure experts discourage these types of leisure activity, on the grounds that they do not provide the benefits offered by active leisure activities. For example, acting in a community drama (an active leisure activity) could build a person's skills or self-confidence. Nevertheless, passive leisure activities are a good way of relaxing for many people.

Arts

Art reflects life, so the saying goes. Art appeals to our hearts and minds, to our feelings and ideals and it proclaims life. Art is truthful only when it serves life, and only when the artist hopes to arouse a warm response in the heart of the viewer. This was the case in the days of Raphael, this was the case in the subsequent stages of man’s artistic development, and this is the truthful relationship of art and life in the day of Renato Guttuso and Rockwell Kent.

Art belongs to the people. The history of art beginning in the Renaissance and continuing on to our day and age confirms this. An artist is a worthy son of his time if his art is addressed to the people, when it deals with life, when he welcomes the sunrise as a wonderful symbol of man's finest hopes. It is close contact with the life of his people that gives an artist's work its power. One can find and study masterpieces of old and modern art in various picture galleries and museums.

The arts in Britain are flourishing, and present a varied and lively picture. London has become an international forum of the arts, with major exhibitions of painting and sculpture and theatre, opera and ballet companies and orchestras drawing large audiences. Throughout Britain there are festivals and centres of artistic activity – among them the Edinburgh International Festival, the music festivals at Aldeburgh, Windsor and Cheltenham and opera at Glyndebourne.

The spread of musical interest in Britain owes much to the British Broadcasting Corporation with its daily music programme and its partial financing of the Promenade Concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, London.

There are over 900 museums and art galleries in Britain and art exhibitions are shown all over the country through the Arts Council, which distributes government grants for music, drama, painting and sculpture. Local authorities play an important part in encouraging the arts, supporting galleries, orchestras and arts centres – an example is the ambitious Midlands Art Centre for young people in Birmingham.

British artists, writers, musicians and architects exert a powerful influence abroad. Notable figures include sculptors Henry Moore and Anthony Caro, painters Francis Bacon and Graham Sutherland and, among younger artists, Richard Smith, winner of a major international prize in 1967, Richard Hamilton, who painted the first ‘pop’ picture, and Bridget Riley, internationally known artist whose work has also inspired fashion.

British music owes much to the composer Benjamin Britten, whose influence has produced a new school of British opera. In architecture the work of Sir Basil Spence (Coventry Cathedral, Sussex University) and the collective work of modern British architects in housing and town planning are outstanding.

Literature presents great diversity. Poetry has received fresh stimulus from regional movements including the Liverpool poets, who write for public performance. Among novelists of worldwide reputation are Graham Greene, Angus Wilson, William Golding, Iris Murdoch and Muriel Spark.

In the town

In the streets, roads and squares of the town we see people walking and vehicles driving. The vehicles are: trams, buses, trolley-buses, taxi and motor-cars, motor-cycles, motor-scooters and bicycles.

Along the streets there are street lamps, at the corners of the streets there are traffic lights. The street lights are switched on when it gets dark; they are switched off hen it gets light. When the red traffic light is switched on, the traffic stops; when the green light is switched on, the vehicles drive on.

Along the streets we also see bus, trolley-bus and tram stops. This is where people get on and off. People wait for buses, trams and trolley-buses at the stops. They get on and off public transport there. In the streets there are also Tube stations where people get on and off the under-ground electric railway.

At big crossroads in large towns and cities there are subways for pedestrians, and fly-over for vehicles. There are sometimes subways for traffic, too. At nearly all street corners there are pedestrian crossings for people to cross the road.

Every year between one and two hundred thousand people are injured. These people are killed or in­jured in road accidents.

If you are in England and if you listen to the eight o’clock news you will often hear news of road accidents. You may hear something like this: “On Monday evening last, at about twenty minutes to ten, a cyclist was knocked down by a motor van at the junction of Oak Road and High Street, in London. The cyclist has since died from his injuries. Will anyone who saw the accident please commu­nicate with New Scotland Yard, telephone number White­hall one, two, four, two.”

Accidents are often caused by carelessness. There are rules that help to make the roads safe, but people do not always obey the rules. They are careless. If everybody obeys the rules, the roads will be much safer.

In Great Britain traffic keeps to the left. Motor-cars, motor-vans, buses and cyclists must all keep to the left of the road. In most countries traffic keeps to the right. Be­fore crossing the road, stop and look both ways. Look right, look left, look right again. Then, if you are sure that the road is clear, that there is nothing coming, it is safe to cross the road. If you see small children, or very old people, or blind people, waiting to cross the road, it is a kind act to help them to cross the road in safety (safely).