книги / Striving For Happiness. I Am a Part of All that I Have Met

Are such hobbies as reading classical literature, going to the theatre, listening to operas out o f date? Are they onlyfor elderly people? Are they still important? Give your reasons.

READING

Read the texts and say if these kinds ofspendingfree time are popular in Russia.

How The British Relax

As British people say "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy". Like everybody else British people like doing outside work. Gardening is a well known favourite. As the weather in Britain is relatively mild, British people manage to do gardening almost all the year round. Mowing grass is also very important. Every Sunday morning (except for winter) they come out to mow their lawns. To outsiders, it almost seems like an obsession but to a British person it is an impartant social duty. The British see an unmown lawn, not only as a sign of laziness, but also as disrespect to others.

Walking is also very popular. Walking as a leasure activity has a long tradition in England. You can buy a variety of maps and guides to walking routes. Organised walking is also popular and is a good way to discover local sights of interest with a group of like-minded people and a good guide.

Cycling is another popular activity. Many people find quiet country roads and spend their whole holidays exploring their homeland on their bikes. More extreme sports like rock climbing also attract people.

Of course, not all British people keep fit by engaging in extreme sport. Many go to the gym, swimming pool, or fitness classes. However, it has to be said that the British are not the sportiest nation in the world. You see, watching TV often gets in the way. Increasingly, British people spend their free time watching TV. Sad, but true. The only comforting thing is that they are not on their own - most of the world seems to be doing the same!

As far as actually going away on holiday, many British people choose to spend their holidays abroad, preferably somewhere warm and dry. Spain, France and Greece are regular destinations due to convenient location and kind climate. City breaks are also a good idea for changing the scenery and enjoying new places without too much trouble.

(a city break - a two-day excursion)

Parachutist, 81, Wins Place Of Honour At Jump

Archie Macfarlane is an unusual person. Although he is an old man, he's interested in very tough sporting activities like parachuting, mountaineering and water-skiing. He started parachuting when he was 75, and he has done 18 parachute jumps over the last 6 years. Recently he was given the place of honour at a parachutists' meeting. His wife and daughter are worried, but think it's best for him to do things that make him happy.

Read the text and say if this kind ofactivity is popular with Russian young people.

Clubbing In Britain

Going to night clubs, or "clubbing" as it is called, is very popular in Britain. From the age of about 15 young people like to go clubbing at the weekend. Usually friends meet in the evening and go to a pub or a cafe, or just sit at home and chat. Then, late in the evening after 10 p.m. they travel to the centre of the town and wait in a queue ouside the night club.

The clubs are usually special buildings with a big space inside for dancing. There is a bar of course, and often a special room with chairs and sofas where it is less noisy. This is for peo­ ple who are tired of dancing. They can rest here for a while. Some clubs only play one kind of music, but most have different music on different nights. If you want to go to a club you need to know what kind of "night" the club is offering. For example, if you like "Hip-Hop" then you probably don’t want to go to a "Disco" night.

DISCUSSION

1.Speak about your hobby if you have one. If don't, then why? What kind of hobby would you like to have?

2.Why is having a hobby so important?

3.Why do people choose this or that hobby? How does it characterise them?

4.How can you characterise people having the following hobbies: animals, parachuting, diving, gardening, chess, shopping, museums?

5.Would you like to have the same or different hobby with your wife (husband)?

6.Can a hobby turn into an obsession? Can it become dangerous for the hobbyist?

fly over the rough track without making a sound. He started to overtake me. I pedalled as hard as I could but it was no use. He rolled past me as if I was standing still.

He was in the lead now and we were only 100 metres from the finish. Then he did a very strange thing. He slowed down. He touched his brakes just enough to let me slip through and win.

All my mates came over to congratulate me after the race.

"That was a great race," they said. "You really showed that new kid. We won't see him around here again."

I didn't feel like celebrating. I knew I hadn't won that race. The kid on the PK Ripper had let me win. It was his race. I knew that and so did he.

My mates were wrong when they said the new kid wouldn't show up again. He was back next week and once again I was up against him in the big race.

The same thing happened. I had the race in my pocket. I was steaming towards the finish leaving all the other riders eating my dust when all of a sudden there he was! He overtook me but slowed down just before the finish. This time I won by just half a metre.

The following week the same thing happened again. It was weird. Nobody knew who the new kid was. He never took off his helmet so we never saw his face. I asked everyone at the track if they knew him, but no one did. He came down to the track every Saturday just before the big race and slipped away as soon as the race was over. His identity was a mystery.

I wanted to know who I was up against. He could beat me with one hand tied behind his back. I was sure of that. But why did he let me win? I decided to find out who he was and where he lived.

The following week at the end of the race, I followed him when he rode out of the track. I trailed him across town for two kilometres and saw him turn into a quiet street near the park. He pulled into the gate half way down the street, on the left. I rode slowly down the street and pulled up outside the house.

Now I knew where he lived, but I wanted to know his name. I couldn't just walk up to the front door and ask. I needed a reason for going to the house. I took off one of my gloves and stuffed it down my shirt. Then I walked up to the front door holding the other glove. I rang the bell and waited. A middle-aged man came to the door.

"Yes?" he said. "What do you want?"

I held out the glove and said, "Er... I found this at the track... I thought it might belong to your son..." The man stood staring at me for a second. His eyes were cold and hard. "Is this some kind of a sick joke?" he said at last.

"No," I said, "I just wanted to..."

The door slammed in my face and I heard the man shouting, "Clear off, you little sa­ dist, before I bring the police to you!"

I stood on the doorstep not knowing what to do or say. Perhaps I should ring the bell again and explain that it was all a joke. I decided not to. Maybe he would bring the police.

As I turned to go I saw a name under the bell push. It said: Mr & Mrs A. J. Clarke. At least I knew the kid's name and address. Maybe now I'd get to the bottom of

the mystery.

The next day I went to see Mr Higgins, the man who ran the BMX track in town. I said, "Do you know a kid called Clarke? He lives at 27 Queens Street and rides a PK Ripper?"

"Oh yes," said Mr Higgins. "I knew him. He was always down at the track. He was one of the best riders in town. He could have become a professional."

"What do you mean," I said. "He could have become a pro?"

Mr Higgins looked at me strangely and said, "He's dead, that's why. Run over by a ruddy great truck. It was his own silly fault, mind you. He was pulling wheelies on the main road."

"When was this?" I said. "When was he killed?"

"A year ago," replied Mr Higgins. "Why? What's it to you?" "Oh nothing...," I said and left.

The following Saturday I was down at the track as usual. There was a bitter wind blowing from the east and it was raining hard. The track was wet and slippery. I thought the races might be cancelled but they went ahead as usual.

We lined up at the starting hill and I was in gate 4. The kid on the PK Ripper was in gate 7. As the gate slammed down I set off determined this time not to be beaten.

There was no escape from the kid on the PK Ripper. He was there, just behind me, lap after lap. At the end of the ninth lap he pulled up alongside me. We raced together towards the final straight.

I'm not sure what happened next. I've tried to remember, many times, but it's all a blurr like a film out of focus. For some reason I suddenly swerved to my left and ran into the kid on the PK Ripper. I smashed into him with a hell of a bang and we both fell off into the mud.

For a second or two I didn't know where I was. When I came to my senses I was lying on the track next to the kid. I got up and knelt beside him. He didn't move and I thought he might be dead. I couldn't see his face because the visor was caked with mud. I raised the visor, just a little way and looked into his helmet. Quite suddenly the kid got up off the ground, closed his visor and got on to his bike. He rode out of the BMX track and nobody ever saw him again.

When my mates came over to see if I was hurt I was still kneeling in the mud next to my bike. They'd seen me look into the kid's visor and they all wanted to know who he was.

"Oh... he was just a kid," I said. "Never seen him before.... just a kid."

I couldn't tell them the truth. I couldn't tell them that the helmet was empty. I know you'll think I'm stupid but it was. The kid's helmet was empty. I don't mean there was nothing inside it. There was something there, but it was empty. I had the same feeling looking into the helmet that I get looking up into the sky on a starry night. I always get the feeling that there's someone out there, in the stars, far away in the darkness. And I'm sure that if I could shout long enough and hard enough someone would answer. I got the same feeling when I opened that visor. For just one second I looked into a starry darkness, a cold void and thought I heard a voice calling out from far, far away.

Answer thefollowing questions.

1.To what genre does this story belong?

2.What did the trouble begin with?

3.What did the new rider look like and what did he wear?

4.What strange thing did he do when the narrator and the new rider were near

the finish?

5.Why did the narrator decide to find out who the newcomer was?

6.What did he learn about the unusual rider?

7.What was the weather like the following Saturday?

8.What happened during the race?

9.Why couldn’t the narrator tell his mates what he had seen when he opened

the kid's visor?

10.What do you see and feel when you are loking up into the sky on a starry night?

11.Do you believe in the immortal soul?

Read the texts about some extraordinary and mysterious phenomena and say whether you believe in them or not.

Ghosts

Ghosts are appearances of the spirits of the dead in a form visible to the living. According to those who have seen ghosts, they usually look pale and cloudy. They can pass through solid objects such as doors and walls. They appear and vanish leaving no trace. Whether they really do exist is still a complete mystery.

Ghosts usually inspire fear when they appear. Many people believe that ghosts are evil creatures which will harm living people and they invent all kinds of customs to protect themselves from ghosts.

Many legends tell of ghosts that appear because they have a special task to carry out. Some ghosts return to avenge a murder. Others come back to put right the wrongs they committed when alive. Sometimes ghosts appear to reveal the hiding place in which they kept money or treasure.

Poltergeist

Poltergeist activity is responsible for some rather alarming aspects of the supernatural such as different objects flying through the air, setting things on fire, moving things through doors and windows. Some people think that such things are the result of the activity of ghosts, but researchers of this phenomenon believe that this is the result of psychokinesis - the ability of children and teenagers to move objects without touching them.

US Navy Submarine Vanishes In Devil's Triangle

A US Navy submarine patrolling the mysterious waters of the Devil's Triangle vanished - and reappeared moments later in the Indian Ocean. 10, 000 miles away! And during this short period of time, the 129-man crew of the nuclear sub had each aged 10 to 30 years.

The incredible incident was revealed in a secret report released to a select group of experts in the field of paranormal travel. The experts were supposed to state that the sub had passed through a time warp during which the crew of the sub had lost 10, 20 or even 30 years of their lives in the span of a few heartbeats.

The sub's captain said: "Everything was proceeding normally when, without warning, the boat began to vibrate. Then the vibrations stopped. Our time recorder indicated the passing of only 60 seconds, yet our satellite navigation system showed our position at 300 miles off the east coast of Africa. We had travelled thousands of miles in only a minute! I immediately requested permission to dock in Kuwait. It was during this voyage that the first signs of ageing began to appear."

Then the crew was sent to a centre for space medicine in Germany. By then, the age­ ing of the men was unmistakable: there was the wrinkling of the skin, greying of the hair, the reduction of flexibility of the joints, as well as the vision problems normally associated with growing old.

For these men the situation is tragic. But for science, it is an opportunity for study that cannot be measured and it mustn't be overlooked.

RENDERING

Render into English.

Инопланетяне наконец-то показали свое лицо

Сенсационная съемка НЛО сделана в Турции - сторож одного из коттеджных поселков Ялчин Ялман запечатлел летающую тарелку с двумя существами внутри. Это первые в мире кадры пилотов НЛО, и они совершенно не похожи на землян!

Запись длится 22 минуты. Руководитель уфологического центра Турции считает, что это самая реалистическая съемка из всех, что были когда-либо сделаны. На ней видна блестящая металлическая поверхность тарелки. Но самое главное - очертания двух существ, передвигающихся внутри. Или пилотов-роботов. Ученый мир в шоке: неужели наконец-то удалось снять настоящих пришельцев?! Сторож, который стал автором сенсационного репортажа, говорит, что уже несколько раз видел подобное и мечтал заснять НЛО, чтобы доказать всем своим друзьям, что говорит правду.

По удивительному совпадению, как раз в эти же дни летающие объекты видели еще в нескольких странах. Массовый «слет» НЛО наблюдали одновременно более 10 человек в американском Техасе - в том числе пилот, полицейский и бизнесмен. Но американские очевидцы не успели их снять.

DISCUSSION

What do you think o f thefollowing:

1."Ghosts" - Do you think they exist? Many people say that they have seen or heard

ghosts.

2."Astrology" - Do the stars and planets influence personality and behaviour? Do

human beings control their own future or it is already determined?

3."Extrasensory Perception" - Can some people read other people's minds and know what happened in the past and what is going to happen in the future?

4."Predicting the future" - Can some people see the future by looking into a crystal

ball, or reading someone's palm, or using cards, or in some other way?

5."Reincarnation" - When people die, do they return to earth as someone or some­ thing else?

6."UFO" —Are we alone in the Universe, or aliens sometimes come to the Earth from

other planets?

7. "Telepathy" —Is it possible to understand other people’s thoughts and feelings from

adistance?

8."Poltergeist" - What does this mischievous creature that moves the objects and

scatters things around our house look like? Have you ever come across this phenomenon? 9. Mermaids, goblins, house spirits - Do they really exist? Why did they appear in

folklore?

Is There Anyone There?

God also eludes our five senses. We can't see him with our eyes and we can t reach out and touch him with our hands. For some, God's failure to show up in the realm of touch, taste, sight, smell, or hearing is enough to settle the issue. "He doesn't exist," they say, "if I can't verify him with my senses." But maybe there are other ways to perceive what is

real besides through our senses. What if we could gain information about God through intui­ tion? What if we had a sense yet undeveloped - like a spiritual sense?

For centuries great minds - philosophers, theologians, and scientists —have argued various positions, hoping to settle the issue of whether or not God exists. And even today the topic is debated as intensely as ever. Sincere, intelligent people remain on all sides of the issue.

There are arguments for and against the existence of God.

Arguments for:

Cosmological - Matter is dependent, changeable and according to the current scientific theories had a beginning (the Big Bang). So it is an effect and something must have caused it. God is not an effect. He is eternal.

Theological - There must have been a designer behind the structure of the Universe. If you have a watch, there has to be a watchmaker.

Moral - All people seem to have a conscience that sends signals of right and wrong. A moral creator, who put this standard in all humans, best explains the universality of this trait.

Experimental - Lots of rational, reasonable people believe in God and claim he answers their prayers, guides them, and comforts them in times of need.

Arguments against:

Spontaneous generation - Life came about through a series of natural forces without the assistance of a supreme being. The changes occur through evolution.

The presence of evil - The exsistence of evil in the world implies that a loving and all-powerful God cannot exsist.

What arguments other than the ones given above can you give for and against the exsistence o f God?

DISCUSSION

Express your point of view on thefollowing statement:

People look for the way to the Heaven for the only reason that they have lost their way on the Earth.

My dictionary defines happy as "lucky" or "fortunate," but I think a better definition of happiness is "the capacity for enjoyment." The more we can enjoy what we have, the happier we are. It's easy to overlook the pleasure we get from loving and being loved, the company of friends, the freedom to live where we please, even good health.

You never know where happiness will turn up next. When I asked friends what makes them happy, some mentioned seemingly insignificant moments. "I hate shopping," one friend said. "But there's this clerk who always chats and really cheers me up."

Another friend loves the telephone. "Every time it rings, I know someone is thinking about me."

I get a thrill from driving. One day I stopped to let a school bus turn onto a side road. The driver grinned and gave me a thumbs-up sign. We were two allies in a world of mad motorists. It made me smile.

We all experience moments like these. Too few of us register them as happiness. Psychologists tell us that to be happy we need a blend of enjoyable leisure time and

satisfying work. I doubt that my great-grandmother, who raised 14 children and took in washing, had much of either.

She did have a network of close friends and family, and maybe this is what fulfilled her. If she was happy with what she had, perhaps it was because she didn't expect life to be very different.

We, on the other hand, with so many choices and such pressure to succeed in every area, have turned happiness into one more thing we "gotta have". We're so self-conscious about our "right" to it that it's making us miserable. So we chase it and equate it with wealth and success, without noticing that the people who have those things aren't necessarily happier.

While happiness may be more complex for us, the solution is the same as ever. Happiness isn't about what happens to us - it's about how we perceive what happens to us. It's the knack of finding a positive for every negative, and viewing a setback as a challenge. It's not wishing for what we don't have, but enjoying what we do possess.

Read the text and say in what way you picture happiness. Does it look like a wheel, a zebra, or a curved line?

The Wheel Of Fortune

I wish this summer could go on and on and on and I wish I could always be this happy. It seems that whenever you are sad or just normal, you're always wishing you were happy, but when you're happy, you start worrying about when all this happiness is going to end. At least that's the way I am. Already, I'm worrying that I'm too happy, and I'm either going to have to pay for this or it's all going to end real soon.

It reminds me of the wheel of fortune that Mrs. Zollar, our teacher, talked about. She said that Shakespeare and all his buddies believed in the wheel of fortune, that your luck kind of went round and round, and when you (or your luck) went at the top, everything would go right. But that it was inevitable that the wheel had to keep spinning, and sooner or later, you’d be at the bottom of the wheel, when everything would go badly. The only thing that kept people from jumping off cliffs when they were at the bottom of the wheel was knowing that sooner or later they would be at the top again.

I feel as if the gods were going to spin my wheel any minute. Oh, please, let me stay where I am for a while!