Topics for examination

Dear pupils,

It turned out that recording of my voice is not so easy as I’ve imagined. It’s not easy to make the whole thing nice and understandable. I hope it will be improved with time. Shall I read a bit slower? Do you find the idea useful? Please, write a few words in commentaries for me to know whether it works. Don’t be scared, I’m not going to give you a bad mark if there are any mistakes.

1.Reading in Our Life

I’m fond of reading. In my opinion, books are a source of emotional inspiration and romantic feelings. Reading is very useful, because books enrich our experience with that of other people. Besides, books help me to continue my own education.
I’m sure that a reader lives a richer life than a non-reader. The time spent on a good book is never wasted. Reading is a rewarding pastime. But some people think that the tempo of modern life is too fast to waste time on reading. They are sure that books have begun to lose their prestige and value. I disagree.
I enjoy books of different genres: love and detective stories, thrillers and historical novels, tales, works after classical and modern writers. I’m a great lover of the English and American literature. Among my favourite writers are W. Shakespeare and Ch. Dickens,
J. Galsworthy and A. Cronin, J. London and E. Hemingway to name only a few. I read them in translation and try to read in the original.
I read books after Russian and Belarusian writers, too. We can say that L. Tolstoy,
F. Dostoevsky, A. Chekhov, A. Pushkin are as popular as they used to be. Their works have stood the test of time.
I try to get acquainted with popular works and best-sellers. Luckily there is a big choice of various books in book shops and stalls. But more often I buy books after Joanna Rowling, an American writer, the author of “Harry Potter”.
I can’t imagine my life without reading. «Except a living man there is nothing more wonderful than a book», said one clever man. And I share his opinion. Books teach us what is right and what is wrong, they teach us to understand the world and people in it, they mould our character and at the same time tell us exciting stories.

Vocabulary
enrich v. обогащать
experience n. опыт
genre n. жанр
inspiration n. вдохновение
mould v. формировать
pastime n. времяпрепровождение
prestige n. престиж
reward v. вознаграждать
share v. разделять
source n. источник
test of time испытание временем

2. Environment

(аудио временно недоступно)

We live on the Earth, the only planet in the solar system where there is life. Our planet is very beautiful with its blue rivers, deep seas and oceans, high snowy mountains, green forests and fields. The nature around us is called environment.

It is clear now that man doesn’t live in harmony with nature. Man’s interference in nature has increased and the results are dramatic. Nowadays environmental problems endanger people’s lives. The most important environmental problems that must be solved quickly if people want to survive are:
—         pollution in its many forms (water, air, nuclear pollution)
—         noise from cars, buses, planes, etc
—         destruction of wildlife and countryside beauty
—         shortage of natural resources
—         the rapid growth of world population
I’d like to mention how dangerous acid rains are. Acid rain is the result of air pollution. Forests, lakes, wildlife suffer from acid rains.
Besides, lakes, seas and oceans suffer from industrial waste. Water in them is unfit for bathing because they are used as a dump by factories and plants.
Some countries test nuclear weapons in oceans and oceans become nuclear polluted. Nuclear power stations can also go wrong and cause nuclear pollution.
There are a lot of places on our planet which need immediate help. My country is one of them. Chernobyl disaster seriously aggravated the ecological situation in Belarus. Some places are still dangerous to live. Many families had to leave their homes and now their native towns and villages are uninhabited.
I mentioned only some of the problems. Today people must remember that their lives depend on the state of the environment around them. So nature protection should become everybody’s concern.

Vocabulary
increase v увеличиться
mention v упоминать
bathing n купание
dump n свалка
aggravate v ухудшать

3. My village

I was born in a village and I have lived there ever since. The name of my village is Uritskoye. It is situated in Gomel region. It is a very convenient place to live in because the countryside around there is lovely and yet it takes only fifteen or twenty minutes to get to Gomel (by bus or by car). In fact, half of Uritskoye is a suburb of Gomel and looks like a city. The other part is real countryside.
Unfortunately, not much is known about the past of my village. It doesn’t have any tourist attractions but it bears marks of the World War II. In the center of the village there is a monument to the natives who died defending our Motherland from fascists.
My village is rather large. Most of the population work at a surrounding collective farm named after Uritsky, a state farm «Vostok» and a thermo-electric power plant.
The social sphere of my village is reasonably well developed. We have a secondary school, a music school, a bank, a post-office, a House of Culture, 3 hairdresser’s and two kindergartens. There is a big department store and several small shops, which sell most of the things we need in our everyday life.
I won’t say everything is perfect here. But I think that after I finish my education I will be pleased to return to my native village where most of the people know one another, are friendly and you feel part of the community.

4. About myself

When asked to introduce myself I realise that the best reply would be “I’m nothing special. I’m an ordinary teenager, one of thousands and thousands of others with all my teenage problems, conflicts, happy moments and my own little ways”.
How can I draw your attention to myself? Perhaps, it would do me good if I leave the description of my appearance to a later date and inform you a little bit about my personality, my interests and character.
Let’s start with my character. What kind of person am I? Am I sociable and outgoing? I’d rather say yes. To praise myself still more I must admit that I am reasonable too. I am never in a hurry to accept the idea or solution till I think it over carefully and like it.
It also seems to me that I am a good listener. That is the reason why my friends and mates willingly share their secrets with me. To tell the truth it is not an easy matter to be a shoulder to cry on. But if my attention and care help other people to sort out their problems – why not?
So you see, I am friendly, patient, outgoing and understanding.
My interests are music, taking pictures, visiting interesting places. Recently I’ve found some pleasure in learning foreign languages. I came to a decision that without English it’s rather difficult to be a skillful computer user.
Of course, I’ve got some drawbacks, but as wise people say they are the continuation of my best qualities. (It’s a joke, I mean I’ve got a sense of humor too.)
Back to my bad habits.
I’m not fond of housework. I sometimes leave my room untidy. I eat in front of my computer. I spend too much time texting and serfing the Internet. I’m a little lazy and my Mum often tells me off because of this.
That’s all that I wanted to tell you about myself. If you’ve got any personal questions – you are always welcome.