Никоненко Тамара Петрівна

   Sports are popular all over the world. Most sports require a combination of physical fitness, mental sharpness, and teamwork. Sports are a good way to make friends. Both professional and amateur sports are a common ground for people of all ages, backgrounds and nationalities.
Many unusual sports are popular nowadays – parachuting, karate, different kinds of dance; but the traditional sports are still just as much fun.
   All kinds of physical exercises are very useful to make our bodies strong enough to keep ourselves fit and healthy. The most popular outdoor winter sports are shooting, hunting, hockey, skating, skiing etc. Some people greatly enjoy figure-skating and ski-jumping. It’s so nice to go to the skating-rink or the forest on a frosty sunny day.
   Summer affords excellent opportunities for swimming, boating, cycling and many other sports. Among outdoor games football takes the first place in public interest; this game is played in all countries of the world. Golf, lawn-tennis, cricket, volley-ball, basket-ball are also popular in different countries.
All the year round many people enjoy boxing, wrestling, athletics, gymnastics and track and field events. Among indoor games the most popular are billiards, table-tennis, draughts and some others, but the great international game is chess.
   If we train and play hard, we become fitter. Our bodies become suppler and stronger. There is a Latin phrase, “mens sana in corpore sano” (a sound mind in a sound body), which express the fact that your body is fit then your mind will be too. So we may say that sport is one of the things that makes people kin. Sport also brings enjoyment. Sport makes us more organized and better disciplined in our daily activities.
   Try to take part in some sport or exercise regularly and you will feel much healthier and happier person. Whatever type of person you are, there is a sport which will suit you, and there are many different ones to choose from.

   “There’s more information on the Internet than in a million schools and in all the teachers and schools books in the world” some of us say, “so, why go to school?”. In my opinion, there’s more education in school than just acquiring information. While the Internet provides information schools can provide knowledge.
   Knowledge is not just information but the organization and interpretation of information, which can be achieved through a good schools curriculum. Besides, the group work, teamwork and games in class can help students define themselves and the way they relate to others. It means that schools, unlike the Internet, provide young people with knowledge, critical thinking skills and social skills.
   It is obviously that some students like school, others think they hate it. For students who are doing well, school is an attractive place. But those who are not successful with their grades and are always pressed by teachers and their parents, consider school boring and uninteresting.
   School is not only a place of formal education, it is a place where students can develop their skills in social relationships, and increase their tolerance and mutual respect for each other.
   At school we can enjoy different cultural and confidence-building activities and, at the same time, realize and demonstrate our individual talents. Everybody has an opportunity to take part in dramatic and musical performances at a school or class party or in school or interschool sports competitions. Now, many of the activities are organized through clubs. They provide variety to the main educational programs and can also be enjoyed away from school and outside regular school hours.
   After the home, school is the main social environment for young people. At school we make our best friends with whom we spend considerable time going together to excursions, concerts, parties and discos.

1. The public right to know of events of public importance and interest is the main task of the mass media.
2. They serve to inform people of different events that take place or may happen.
3. They not only entertain people or even help to make their lives better, they also bring to people different information.
4. Usually daily mass media carry some international, state and local news.
5. I think a person of journalist plays a great role in mass media.
6. I believe the duty of journalists is to serve the truth.
7. To my mind, a good journalist has to gather and present the news with intelligence, objectivity, accuracy and fairness.
8. Journalists can speak unpopular opinion and agree or disagree with the majority through the pages of the papers.
9. A real journalist must be free of obligation to any interest other than the public’s right to know.
10. Many writers during long periods of their lives worked as journalists.
11. Mark Twain is one of them.
12. He worked as a journalist in newspapers in Nevada and California during the years of the Civil War.
13. His witty style, characterizing all his following works, was formed during his work in “Territorial Enterprise”.
14. So, a good journalist’s credo has to be – any information should be true, democratic, it should address contemporary life and embrace all aspects of life.
15. He has to be a born writer of great talent.
16. The conversation has to be witty, humorous and often exact and precise.

1. I think it is a problem, because some people think that zoos are out-of-date and cruel institutions or that they should be closed down, but others think that zoos are not out-of-date and cruel institutions or that they should be closed down.
2. There are zoos in all countries and people like to go to them.
3. As for me, I like zoos, because they help us to see real animals or to study about their lives.
4. Of course we can see or study about animals from TV natural programs and from the books, but we shall not be able to reach any results when we don’t see them with our own eyes.
5. To my mind, animals in zoos live in cages that are too small for them, but they have enough food there.
6. Sometimes I’m very sorry for those animals, but I understand that in such a way we can save some rare species or even we can take them to increase their number.
7. It is so fun to visit the zoo and watch monkeys’ behaviour or to feed birds, when nobody sees that.
8. We know that much money is given to this institution to keep animals in proper order.
9. So I disagree that zoos are out-of-date and cruel institutions.
10. They are useful, interesting, helpful and fun for children all over the world.

   Let me introduce myself. I am Oksana Ivanenko. I am 16. I was born in Varva on May 19, 2000. I have been living in this town since my childhood.
   Now I am going to tell you about my family. We are a family of five. We are a friendly family. We are getting on all right.
   My father is 45. He works as a surgeon in a hospital. He is neither old, nor young. He is a good-looking man, handsome, rather thin with dark brown hair just beginning to get grey. He is a very sociable person. What I don’t like about my dad is that he is always busy. Very often he works overtime. He is a bread-maker in our family. He is fond of going to the country on week-ends because he enjoys working in the garden.
   My mother is three years younger than my father. She works as a teacher at a nursery school. My mother is rather slim and pretty, she is al­ways elegant and smart. In short, she is a pleasant-looking woman of about 42. She is a teacher. She always has a lot of work to do both at school and about the house. She is fond of her work and spends a lot of time there. But she has to cook the food for all the family at home. Shop­ping and cooking is nearly half a day’s work for her. But my granny and I are in a habit of helping her about the house.
   Boris is my older brother. He is six years senior to me. So he is 22 al­ready. He has graduated from the University. He is an economist. He is married. His wife is a journalist. They are three in the family. They have got a child, my nephew. He is a small boy with golden hair and dark brown eyes and a spirit that is always bright and happy, full of joy and gaiety.
   And finally a few words about my granny. To tell the truth, she is my best friend. She always listens to my endless, stories about my friends and school life. She is retired on pension now, but she worked as a teacher (she is a former teacher). I must admit, she is a very understanding person.
   It’s a custom in our family to discuss things during meals. We discuss different topics. I must say that all of us are not alike in tastes, manners, character. But as a matter of fact we get along with each other. We usually show our interest in what the others think and do. We share each other’s joy or borrow. We never remain indifferent to what happens to the others. We exchange our impressions on films or plays we have seen. We are attentive and sincere to each other and all these things unite our family. But we like humour and joking and sometimes we argue and tease each other. But it does not prevent us from being on friendly terms. Everybody is grateful to our mother, because she keeps the house, she takes care of everybody, she is also kind and generous. We try our best to treat our mother most kindly.