So it's my flat, my "home, sweet home". S
ometimes after a long journey I return home with such pleasure and happiness, that I feel myself like a baby that returns to its mother. I love every corner and every thing in my flat. "My home is my fortress", it is my territory, my place where I feel go
od and comfortable. Nobody can disturb me here.
------------------------------------------------------------
MY FRIEND

According to the dictionary friendship is a feeling and behaviour that exist between people, but what these feelings are and what this be
haviour is everyone should decide for himself. I consider that friendship is a gift from the God. that's why I highly appreciate it. I think it is hard to find a close friend because people are unique creatures of nature, all of them have their own habits
, opinions and judgments which differ from others.
It makes sense to say that friendship can be compared to a tree. Its seed should find good soil and under favourable conditions it will grow into a tree. As the years go by the tree stands firmer and firmer
on the ground and if it is strong enough it will survive all the storms and winds, but to help it we should take care of it and love it.
In my opinion lucky are the people who have real friends. As for me I'm happy to have lots of friends, some of them ar
e close, some are less, but all of them make my life interesting and enjoyable and I can't imagine my life without them, because friendship means very much for me. Being friends means making allowances for the other person's faults, being tolerant to each
other moods. The most important thing about friends for me is being able to share secrets, to tell each other your problems and share your worries, to help each other out.
As I've said before a real friend is the gift from the God. In my opinion an ideal f
riend should posses such qualities as honesty, sincerity, faith, tolerance and respect in attitude to you. A friend is a person who can help you in no time, lend you a hand, whom you can wake up in the middle of the night just to say you feel worried or w
h
o is eager to do everything for you waiting nothing in return, who supports you in all your beginnings and who will never betray you. To my mind really close and devoted friend can be not only the same sex as you. It doesn't matter your best friend is a g
i
rl or a boy. I think that her or his soul, character and attitude to you are considerably more important. I disagree with people who say that boys are better friends than girls. Such people think that a boy-friend can never spread false stories about you
o
r tell your secrets to the entire world, but to my mind it depends on his moral qualities. I knew one boy who began to spread stories about me, saying I was dishonest, unreliable and impudent, when we broke our relations, but I still actually believe in f
riendship between fellows and girls, that's why I have equal amount of boys and girls among my close friends.
But in my opinion it isn't an easy thing to be a true friend and before somebody can name you his best friend you should prove your friendship. To
my mind everyone can have only one or two true friends, because a friend to all is a friend to none. I believe that faithful friend can brighten your life and make it more interesting, vivid and enjoyable. You are interested in your friend with all his po
s
itive and negative traits of personality and your friend in his turn can understand and forgive you everything. You shouldn't tell a lie to your friend, there mustn't be hypocrisy in your speech and even in thoughts. Before telling your friend something,
before doing anything you should think a lot and guess what kind influence it will render on him and on his life. So I think that it is difficult to be a real friend, but to my mind all of us try to achieve the ideal of a true friend.
I'm sure you will agre
e that nowadays there are various ways of acquaintance. Some people make friends when they are in guests or on weddings, others prefer to find friends with the help of newspapers or the Internet. Somebody can get acquainted with his future friend when he
even doesn't expect it, for example, when he simply walks in a park or goes anywhere by public transport.
What about me I have known my best friend Natasha almost all my life, but 1 can never forget our first meeting. It was in summer when our families deci
ded to rest in the south together. When we drove up to their house my attention was attracted by a little tidy girl in a rose dress, who was sitting to squat and playing with her long blond curl, but I can't say that my first impressions were the same as
m
y opinion about her now, because meeting people for the first time we always make a judgment based on their appearance though the proverb tells us not to make such a mistake. At first she seemed to me so correct, obedient and shy that I didn't like her, b
ut when we began to communicate closer I understood I was mistaken. I think it makes sense to say that when we returned home we were loyal friends.
Today she has changed a lot but we are still best friends and now I think Natasha is a very charming and pret
ty seventeen-year-old girl. She isn't tall and I can't even say that she is of average height but she is always smart and elegant. Natasha has an attractive face which is broaden with open and frank features. She is the owner of a blunt nose, large expres
sive green eyes and radiant smile that immediately makes people smile in return. Her blond hair and sort voice make her similar to a little beautiful princess from a fairy-tale.
My friend likes casual clothes. Natasha hates skirts and formal blouses, but adores tight-fitting trousers and casual T-shirts. She prefers low-heeled shoes to high-heeled, because they are more comfortable to her mind.
I believe that Natasha is a very amazing girl, because she differs from other people. When she was about twelve she
became a real tomboy, she communicated only with boys except me, she liked to play rough and boys' games and she even decided to go to the army when she would come of age. All her friends and relatives tried to dissuade her and at least she agreed, but f
r
ankly speaking. I can't understand her desire even now, though in general we are very alike. It's true that Natasha is a very enthusiastic and active person, you can hardly find her sitting at one place without doing anything but in spite of it she consta
n
tly has no free time. My friend is a gregarious person and an optimist; she is never bored but always smiles and laughs, that is why I like her fascinating smile very much. I should say I can never be bored it my friend keeps company for me, because she i
s
so cheerful and joyous. She is responsible and original, I think. Such friends like she can be characterized as devoted. frank and careful, because she can never refuse if I need support or a piece of advice, she is always eager to help me and to calm me

with the help of a tender word. To my mind Natasha is an intelligent, skillful and diligent girl, that's why her success in study is brilliant. Now she studies at gymnasium number 56 in physics-mathematics class. I'd like to add that she is a great daydre
amer, because she has always got her head in the clouds and she is always dreaming about something.
But like other people she isn't an ideal. Sometimes she is too lazy and stubborn and I dislike it a bit. She is rather impatient, because she can't wait for
long. But these features of her character don't matter much for me; I try not to pay attention to them because in general she is a wonderful person, whom I worship a lot.
Though Natasha is a busy girl and she doesn't have much free time, she always tries t
o find spare time for her hobbies and interests, because she has a lot of them. Most of all she likes to play computer games and solve various problems on it. She says she can't imagine her life without this machine. When Natasha relaxes she likes to look

through different interesting magazines and newspapers but she doesn't like to read books, especially large books like "War and Piece" by Tolstoy. Sometimes she can write poems about love. It happens rarely but I'm always the first person who reads her po
ems and gives an objective mark. Natasha is fond of sport but this year she has very little time for it, because she is very busy with her studying, because she enters the university this year.
And unfortunately that is the main reason why we see each other
quite rarely, but we phone each other almost every day, we try to meet on our days off and that's why we don't feel separation from each other. Though I can't see Natasha every day I think about her all the time.
At these rare times when we see each other
we like to attend cinema or central park, but most of all we like to speak. When we meet our mouths are never close because we can speak for hours, I can discuss with my best friend such problems that I can't discuss with my parents. We speak about fello
w
s and our relations with them, we discuss our problems with parents and share our thoughts and dreams. It doesn't mean that I can't say about all these things to my mother, but I know that nobody can understand me better than Natasha. I know that only she

can support me and help me in everything, because we are very alike, we think in the same way and our points of view often coincide, but in spite of it I can't say that nothing worries me in our relationships, though also I can't say there are some real p
r
oblems or misunderstandings between us. We see each other rather rarely, because we live in different districts and she is too busy even on days off and I dislike it a lot. I consider she is a bit disorderly and she can't plan her day off in a right way,
t
hat's why she doesn't manage to do everything she wants. Natasha often has troubles and problems with her parents and it is another thing that worries me. I know her parents very well and to my mind they are wonderful people, but sometimes my friend can b
e
rude to them and as a result they quarrel, when she tells me about such quarrels I can't take her side because I don't approve her behaviour, that's why I prefer to keep silence in such situations. Sometimes her flippant attitude to some things worries m
e very much. In my opinion she is too flippant in her attitude to preventive words of others. But I believe that all these things can't destroy our friendship, though they influence it a bit.
And of course in some cases our points of view can differ, for ex
ample, sometimes our opinions can be different in clothes, music or films. In such situations we freely express our points of view, we can even argue but we never suppress each other. To my mind thoughts, opinions and habits of your friend can influence y
ou a lot, but they should not destroy your own personality, they shouldn't influence you if you don't want it. I'm happy that both of us understand it.
I believe that friendship should be sincere and. In my opinion your friend should be attentive to you, he
or she should be reliable, honest and he or she should trust you, because, I think, trust probably the most important feeling that exists between friends, but it never appears by itself, it is the result of a long friendship.
As for our friendship, I'm su
re it is strong enough because we trust each other as ourselves, we always share the same joys and troubles together and we support each other at difficult times. And it goes without saying that I like Natasha with all her positive and negative features o
f character and admire her a lot.
-------------------------------------------------
MY HOUSEHOLD CHORES

There are certain things in life which you have to do whether you like it or not. One of such things is household chores, doing which is a necessity. It
is what someone in the family has to do every day in spite of his or her wish and desire. You can hardly find a person who doesn't like comfort, delicious food, clean and tidy clothes. But these things need somebody's attention and doing them is called ho
usework.
To my mind housework is boring and besides it takes a lot of time with a hardly visible result. In my opinion it is not a bad idea to have a kind of subdivision of labour at home when each person knows his own daily household jobs. If every member
of the family does his bit about the house then keeping it isn't difficult or boring and proves the proverb: "Many hands make light work". For example, the children should keep their own rooms tidy, make their beds, lay the table for meals, clear away the

dishes and wash up. The mother could then concentrate on the more specialized jobs of cooking, ironing and mending. Shopping at the supermarket could be a kind of family outing. The father should do more difficult physical work. This is an ideal variant f
or me how to keep house.
In many families the problem of clearing up the flat or house becomes a generation gap. Usually children don't want to clean up their rooms and their parents make them do it. In most of the cases children consider that their parents
have these old-fashioned ideas about making beds in the morning, washing the dishes after every meal, etc. They think that new generation shouldn't care about things like that. On this ground many conflicts develop. Sometimes children promise to help and

then fail to do their jobs so parents have to make them do what they don't want to do or repeat in an angry voice to make the bed or to pick up toys from the floor. It seems you strange but my parents have never made me do anything. They only ask me to do
something. I've always been a conscientious girl so if they asked me to do the house, to wash the dishes or other things I didn't like doing I couldn't refuse to help them.
To avoid conflicts many families engage a domestic servant. She cooks meals, goes s
hopping, does the house in one word she keeps house. But as for me, I wouldn't like anyone to command my own things. I think you are always able to manage your housework even if you are busy because to hire a servant is not a way out of this situation.

I'm
happy that the problem of cleaning up our flat has never been a generation gap in our family. Of course sometimes we quarreled with my brother when we had to clean our room, but then we decided to make a schedule and cleaned the room in turn. Now as we a
l
l are busy people: our parents work, I and my brother spend most of the time in our educational establishments, each of us clean up the house when he or she has some spare time. On Saturday we usually have a big clean. We try to follow the rule of subdivi
s
ion of the housework. Everyone has his two or three rooms to clean I usually clean the bathroom, our room and parent's room. I get out the vacuum cleaner and clean the carpet, then sweep the dust off the floors with a broom. After that I take a wet cloth
a
nd wipe the dust off every surface in the room. In the bathroom I usually scrub the sink and a bath with a washing powder Then I wash the floor. By the way I can not stand washing floor. I dislike it because your hands are rude and disgusting after doing
it.
My brother usually clean the kitchen as it is the most difficult work, I think. The floor and the cupboards cover with dust and fat very quickly and sometimes you should even scrub the dust off. He also cleans the living room and the entrance hall. Whil
e we are doing the house my mum and dad go shopping. After they return home with large bags full of tasty food we begin cooking dinner. I should say I like cooking very much especially if it is a holiday dinner. My grandfather has had birthday recently, a
n
d we decided to cook a delicious dinner for him. So me and my mother garnered in me kitchen, switched on our tape recorder and began to cook. You know, we had a lot of fun, we were chatting and laughing. It seemed to me that we remembered all the jokes we
had known. Our excellent mood helped us to cook very tasty dinner. Everyone was satisfied.
Household chores are the things which I can't avoid. Every day I make my bed, wash up the dishes, wipe the dust of the furniture and take out me rubbish. But I share
my household chore with my brother. It is a great thing, to my mind. If I had no brother I have to clean up the flat on my own, but it is an awful thing. I don't like to draw my mother in doing the house because she usually has to do a lot of other thing
s
like cooking, washing, ironing and mending and it is enough for her I think. It is also my duty to buy bread and milk every day. I usually go to the baker's after my classes. I buy some white and brown bread, biscuits and cakes there. The shop is not far
from our house and it doesn't take me a lot of time to do everyday shopping. But as I am busy with my studies I have no time to do it constantly. My parents understand it and sometimes it's my mother who buys bread.
When my mother is ill or away from home
my father do the cooking, the buying of food and the planning of meals, but I do the washing up and ironing. There is one thing which I like doing about the house. It is ironing. May be it sounds fanny, but it is very interesting, I think. While ironing I
'm having а
rest. I turn on the music and iron the clothes and linen. Then I fold them neatly and put away. Ironing makes me think housework is not such an awful thing. Another thing I like a lot is looking after our indoor plants. My mother has a green thumb so we
have a great amount of indoor plants at home. I enjoy looking after the flowers as it makes me feel relaxed and calm. More often I do it together with my mother. We water the flowers, then wipe them with a wet cloth or sprinkle with a sprayer. My mum alwa
ys teaches me how to plant and look after the flowers. I try to take her advice as I want my own house to be full of such beautiful plants that we have now.
Now I'd like to mention the role of technical progress in making housework easier. In the XXI centur
y it is almost impossible to imagine our life without automatic or electronic appliances which make the housework better and faster. As for me I can't imagine my life without a fridge and an electric iron. Fridge is necessary for freezing and saving food.

I think food freezing is the easiest, safest and most natural way of preserving food. Practically all food can be successfully frozen and can be kept for long periods of time. Provided you use a freezer wisely, it can help to make significant savings on y
o
ur household budget, particularly if you have a large enough garden to grow your own vegetables and fruit for freezing. We have a house in the countryside, where we grow vegetables, fruit and berries. In summer we freeze berries and vegetables. Then it is

very pleasant to eat them in winter. In addition, food freezing saves you from frequent visits to shops. With a freezer you wouldn't be short of food when unexpected visitors arrive. Electric iron is very important as well because I can't go out when my t
r
ousers or shirt are crumpled. On TV they advertise a lot of things for making housework easier from washing powders to washing machines and vacuum cleaners. That's all very well but not all families can afford them as the majority of things of high qualit
y are really expensive.
Generally I like the order, but there are people who keep all their things in a mess. They put empty soft drink cans on their desks, leave the dirty dishes in the kitchen sink and only do the washing up when there isn't a clean plate
to be found in the house. In the 4th form I visited Italy. When I came into the room of my hostess's child I was amazed by the mess. There were clothes on the floor, the bed wasn't made and the dust was on every surface of the room. I was shocked as I ha
v
e never had such a mess at home. To my mind it is not comfortable to leave in such conditions. Besides it is not healthy. Many serious diseases can be caused by the dust and dirt. I want to add that it is not very pleasant to receive guests in such a room
.
My mum has always said to me that the way you keep the house shows what kind of person you are. I agree with her completely. Untidy people usually associate with irresponsible, absent-minded, indifferent and careless people. But when you come to somebody
's house and see the order you will probably think that the host is punctual, responsible and conscientious.
I must admit that when I was nearly 7 years old I used to leave all my books, toys and colour magazines in a mess. But you won't believe, my parrot
taught me to be orderly. That day my mother bought me new colourful magazines. All the day I was reading them. They seemed to me very interesting and exciting. There were a lot of crosswords, quizzes and games in them. When I had finished reading I put th
e
m on my desk and was ready to go for a walk. My mum let me know before going out that they could be spoilt by my parrot if I left them on the desk, but I didn't pay attention to her words. When I had returned I saw only scraps of paper on the table. My pa
rrot tore one of my magazines into pieces with his strong beak. I was really disappointed. Since then I've always kept my thing in order.
So you see keeping house in order is important to me. It brings me as minutes of boredom so moments of joy and pleasure
. I think I spend enough time on keeping the house and hope that such little but nevertheless necessary things like household chores will never become the reason for quarrels and conflicts in our family.
--------------------------------------------------------------
SEASONS OF THE YEAR

In my opinion a person's life depends to a certain degree on the climate conditions he or she lives in. Weather influences our emotions and even the physical state.

According to the dictionary weather is the general conditio
n of the atmosphere at a particular time and place, with regard to the temperature, moisture, cloudiness, etc. Air, fire, earth and water are the elements of the weather according to the ancient Greek philosophers... Substitute the Sun for fire and we hav
e
the essential components of the weather machine. Without air warmth and water the Earth couldn't support life, but without any single one of those elements weather wouldn't exist. The air is the medium in which all weather happens, heat from the Sun prov
ides the energy that drives the weather machine, and water provides much of the variety of our day-to-day weather.
Weather changes according to the seasons. Every season has its specific features of the weather, which are different. In general a season is o
ne of the four periods of the year. Each season lasts about three months and brings changes in temperature, weather, and the length of daylight.
In the Southern Hemisphere, the climatic seasons differ by about six months. This hemisphere has summer when th
e Northern Hemisphere has winter. Some regions don't have all four climatic seasons. In parts of the tropics, for example, temperatures change little, but the amount of rainfall varies greatly, so that these regions have a wet season and a dry season. The
Polar Regions, on the other hand, have a light season and a dark season. In these parts of the world the sun shines almost all the time in summer and almost never during winter.
The changing of the seasons is caused by the changing position of the Earth in
relation to the Sun. Astronomers can tell exactly from the Earth motion around the Sun when one season ends and the next one begins. The dates used for the first day of each season mark the beginning of the astronomical seasons, but the beginning and the
end of the climatic seasons vary from these dates from place to place and from year to year.

Spring is the first season of the astronomical year. It is a transitional period between the extreme temperature cycles of winter and summer. Spring profoundly inf
luenced the ancients and played an important role in mythology, folklore and art. Ancient painters and sculptures often depicted spring as a female figure carrying flowers. The early Christians regarded the seasons as symbolic of the course of human life,

seeing spring as rebirth or resurrection after the death that winter seemed to symbolize. The season is marked by all kinds of beginnings: seed planting, graduations and weddings.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20