Most striking traits of peoples character
EDUCATION IN RUSSIA
Secondary education is mandatory in
Russia. Children start school at the age of 6 and finish at 17 . As a rule, a
child attends the school located in the neighborhood,the one which is the
closes to home . However , there in big cities there are also so-called
"special" schools , offering more in-depth studies of the major
European languages ( English , French, or German), or the advanced courses in
physics and mathematics, and children attending one of these may have to
commute from home. There are no school buses in Russia. The first stage of
education is elementary school for grades 1 through 4. The second is secondary
school for grades 5 through 9 . Upon graduation from secondary school ( which
is not the equivalent of having completed their secondary education ) ,
students are given the choice of either continuing to attend the same school
(high school; grades 10 and 11 ), or entering a vocational school or trade
school. Both vocational school and trade schools are meant to provide one ,
long with the certificate of secondary education, with a number of useful skills
( e.g. , those of an electrician, technical, or computer operator ).One attends
the former for two years, and the latter for three or four. Haveing completed
one's secondary education, one can either become part of work force or go on to
college ( " institution of higher learning " ). There are
universityes and so-called "institutes" in Russian . The former
stress a more teoretical , fundamental approach to education , while the latter
are more practice oriented. There are no medical schools or departments with in
the structure of Russian universitys . Future doctors attend medical
institutes. There are no degrees in Russian equivalent to those of bachelor's
or master's. Students spend approximately five years in college or six in a
medical institute. To be admited to an institution of higher learning , one has
to pass a series of oral and written tests. Grades in the certificate of
secondary education are also taken account. Entry to higher education is quite
competitive. Some college departments ( philologist,foreign
languages-especially English,law, journalism ) have dozens of applicants for
one prospective student's position. The same is true of medical and theatre
institutes. Up to the present, neither college students nor schoolchildren have
had any say in the selection of courses they had to take. Everyone has studied
according to uniform series of guide lines approved by the Ministery of Higher
Education . Evidently , this situation is going to change in the near future.
Education in Russian has until recently been free on all levels. College
students with good grades were rewarded with a modest stipend . All
institutions of higher learning were subsidized by the government . Now that
the country is changing to a market-place economy, the system of education is
also bound to undergo profound changes . The first private scholls , gymnasiums
and lycees, have already been founded in Moscow and St. Petersburg , in an
attempt to revive the pre-1917 traditionals of Russian educational system with
its high standards of excellence.
Education in Russia.
Everyone in our country has the right to
education. It is said in our Constitution. But it is not only a right, it is a
duty, too. Every boy and every girl in Russia must go to school, that is they
must get a full secondary education. So, when they are 6 or 7 years old they
begin to go to school. There are thousands of schools in Russia. There are
schools of general education, where the pupils study Russian (or a native
language), Literature, Mathematics, History, Biology, Geography, Music, Foreign
languages. There is also a number of specialized schools, where the pupils get
profound knoledge of foreign languages, or Maths, or Physics. After finishing 9
classes of the secondary school the young people can continue their education
at different kinds of vocational or technical schools, colleges. They not only
learn general subjects, but receive a speciality there. Having finished a
secondary or a vocational, or a technical school, young people can start working,
or they may enter an institute or a university. By the way, some people think,
that professional trainings makes it easier to get a higher education. As for
high schools, there are a lot of them in our country. Some of them train
teachers, others - doctors, engineers, architectors, actors and so on. Many
institutes have evening and extra-mural departments. That gives the students an
oportunity to study at an institute without leaving their jobs at plants or
factories.
Learning foreign language
Foreign languages are absolutely necessary
for us no-wadays because of our growing international contacts with all the
countries of the world. There are many reasons why we begin to study foreign
language. One of them is to be able to communi-cate with other people who use
this language. We may be planning to travel in one or two countries where the
lan-guage is spoken. If we know the language of a foreign country, we can talk
to its people and understand what they are saying to us. If we are working in
any branch of science, we naturally wish to read scientific books and magazines
in other languages. Making business nowadays also means knowing foreign
languages because of the gro-wing international business contacts. Knowing
foreign lan-guages helps people of different countries to develop mutual
friendship and understanding. We can also make our intellectual and cultural
horizons wider through con-tacts with people of another culture. It is also
very inte-resting to read foreign literature in the original. We can also read
foreign newspapers and magazines and to un-derstand films in foreign languages
without any help. Learning foreign languages is compulsory in all the secondary
and higher schools in our country. English is a very popular language. People
use it in many parts of the world and there is a lot of business correspondence
and literature in English. I think, it is very important to know at least one
fore-ign language - English, German, French, Spanish or any other one.
LEARNING FOREIGN LANGUAGE
The great German poet Goethe once said: He
who know no foreign language does not know his own one. Learning foreign
languages is specially important nowadays. Some people learn foreign languages
because they need them in their work, others travel abroad, for the third
studying languages is a hobby. Every year thousands of people from Russia go to
different countries as tourists or to work. They can not go without knowing the
language of the country they are going to. A modern engineer or even a worker
can not work with an imported instrument or a machine if he is not able to read
the instruction how to do it. Ordinary people need language to translation the
instruction or the manual to the washing-machine or a vacuum-cleaner, medicine
or even food-products. Some people are as a rule polyglots. Historians
diplomats need some languages for their work. If you want to be a classified
specialist you must learn English, the language of international communication.
English is one of the world languages. It is the language of progressive
science and technology, trade and cultural relations, commerce and business. It
is the universal language of international aviation, shipping and sports. It is
also the major language of diplomacy. Hundreds and hundreds of books, magazines
and newspapers are printed in English, most of the world's mail and telephone
calls are in English. Half of the world's scientific literature is written in
English. English is spoken by more than 350 million people. Geographically, it
is the most widespread language on earth, second after Chinese. It is the
official language of the UK, the USA , of Australia and New Zealand, it is used
as one of the official languages in Canada, the South Africa. Millions of
people study and use English as a foreign language. In our country English is
very popular. It is studied at schools, colleges and universities. Learning
English is not an easy thing. It is a long process and takes a lot of time and
patience. But to know English today is absolutely necessary for every educated
person. I want to know English because it's interesting for me to know foreign
countries, their cultures and tradition. English will be of great use in my
future profession connected with computers.
Learning foreign languages
Somebody said: "English is a language
that came from nowhere to conquer the world…" These words are really true
and I will prove it. Firstly I would like to talk to you where English comes
from. English is a member of the West Germanic subgroup of the Germanic branch
of Indo-European language family. Secondly I would like to dwell on some of the
chief literary works written in English language in different periods.
"Beowulf" is the most important poem in old English. It is remarkable
for its sustained grandeur of tone and for the brilliance of its style. The
Canterbury Tales were written by Geoffrey Chaucer, "the father of English
literature". He added tremendously to the prestige of English language by
using it instead of more fashionable French spoken at that time. The third is
the King James Bible. It exercised enormous influence on the development of the
English language. It remains a classic of English history. But the most
important contribution was made by William Shakespeare. Shakespeare's influence
on everyday English speech is great, people all over the world quote
Shakespeare. The English language arrived in Britain on the point of a sword.
That is why there are so many loans in English language. In 1940 Winston
Churchill wished to appeal to the hearts and minds of English-speaking people.
It was the time of Patriotic war and that it why he used the plain bareness for
which Old English is noted. His purpose was to show the independence of English
language and English people. It was his celebrated passage which helped people
to fight. Now I would like to tell you about Standard English and Regional
accents. Received pronunciation is the form of British English pronunciation
used by many educated people in every part of Britain. It is thought of a
standard form and is often used by the BBC. It is also used in teaching English
in many parts of the world. The King's of the Queen's English is a good correct
English as it should be spoken. Accent is the sound of a person's pronunciation
of the language. It shows where a person comes from and what class he or she
belongs to. Cockney is the way of speaking English and it is known as the
London dialect. Rhyming slang is a way of speaking, ordinarily popular among
cockneys in which a rhyming phrase, or a part of it, is substituted for a
standard word. There is a standard form of the language and some dialects in
our country too. To my mind, every country needs a standard form of the
language because of the contact between people of this country. But there are a
lot of loanwords in every language nowadays. Every day for example in
advertisements we can hear and see new, incomprehensible, bad words, and they
become widespread among the population. In conclusion I would like to say that
now there are more than 60 countries that speak English as the dominant or
official language. My purpose is to show you why the English is a world
language. The present day world status of English is the result of two factors:
the expansion of British colonial power, which peaked towards the end of the 19th
century, and the emergence of the US as the leading economic power of the 20th
century. English is the chief language of international business and academic
conferences, and the leading language of international tourism. English is the
main language of popular music, advertising, home computers and video games.
Most of the scientific, technological and academic information in the world is
expressed in English.
Learning foreigner
language.
More and more people realize that every educated
person should know a foreigner language. The most popular language now is
English. English is a world language. It's the language of progressive science
and technology, trade and cultural relation, commerce and business. It's the
universal language of international aviation, shipping and sports. It is also
the major language of diplomacy. Hundreds and hundreds of books, magazines and
newspapers are printed in English and real all over the world. 75% of the
world's mail and 60% of the world's telephone calls are in English. Half of the
world's scientific literature is written in English too. English is spoken by
more than 350 million people . It is the official language of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland of the United States of America,
of Australia and New Zealand. English is used as one of the official languages
in Canada, the Republic of South Africa and the Irish Republic. It's also
spoken as a second language speakers in many parts of Asia and Africa. The
number of second language speakers may soon exceed the number of native
speakers. In Russia English is very popular : it is studied at schools,
colleges, universities, and sometimes even at nurse schools. There are also
other languages that are popular in the world. For example Chinese, the first
language in the number of people who speak it, is used by over 1000 million
people, it means that out one of every five people in whole world speaks
Chinese. Another popular language is Arabic, which is the official language of
several Asia's countries ( Iran, Iraq, Syria, United Arab Emirates and others).
Learning a foreign language is not an easy thing. It is a long and slow process
that takes a lot of time and patience. But to know languages today is
absolutely necessary for everyone. I want to know foreign language because I
have always been interested in foreign countries and their cultures. You know I
think that who doesn't know a foreign language , doesn't know his own language.
Learning languages
The problem of learning languages is very
important today. Foreign languages are socially demanded especially at the
present time when the progress in science and technology has led to an
explosion of knowledge and has contributed to an overflow of information. The
total knowledge of mankind is known to double every seven years. Foreign
languages are needed as the main and most efficient means of information
exchange of the people of our planet. Today English is the language of the
world. Over 350 million people speak it as a mother tongue. The native speakers
of English live in Great Britain, the United States of America, Australia and
New Zealand. English is one of the official languages in the Irish Republic,
Canada, the South African Republic. As a second language it is used in the
former British and US colonies. It is the major international language for
communication in such areas as science, technology, business and mass
entertainment. English is one of the official languages of the United Nations
Organization and other political organization. It is the language of the
literature, education, modern music, international tourism. Russia is
integrating into the world community and the problem of learning English for
the purpose of communication is espicially urgent today. Learning a foreing
language is not as easy thing. It is a long and slow process that takes a lot
of time and patience. But to know English is absolutely necessary for every
educated person, for every good specialist. It is well known that reading books
in the original , listening to the BBC news, communicating with the English
speaking people will help a lot. When learning a foreign language you learn the
culture and history of the native speakers. One must work hard to learn any foreign
language.
HOUSE OF MY DREAM
Everyone likes dreaming. It helps us to overcome the
difficulties of our daily routine. As a rule, people imagine they have a lot of
money, their own family, happy family and full social life. I’d like to tell
you about the house of my dream. I’d like to have my house abroad. May be in
America, because it’s rather warm there all year round. I want my house to be
near the ocean. I don’t want to have it in town, because there is little fresh
air and a lot of litter on the streets. I’m likely live there with my husband
& my child. I imagine my house has 3 stories. Near the front it has a
facade with columns & steps up to the front door. There’s also small
balcony in my house. The windows are in the shape of arches. Through them you
can see a wonderful view. There are lots of palm trees and flowers around the
house. And there is nothing like walking in the shade of these trees &
listening to the whisper of waves. The sun is shining, the birds are singing
their sweet songs. Oh, it’s lovely to wake up in the morning in our house &
see the sun shining through the window & hear the far-off plash-plash of
the ocean. As you come through the front door, you find yourself in a large
hall with an open fireplace, which is unusual. One of the doors leads to the
living room. This room faces the south, so it’s very sunny & has a lovely
view of the whole valley. In the middle of this room there’s a thick carpet. We
have little furniture in this room. On the left there’s a sofa & small
table near it, on the right you can see TV set & type recorder. There are
some armchairs in this room. In the living room we spend our evenings chatting
with each other & my child plays with a kitten. Then a wide staircase takes
you to the second floor where there are some bedrooms. My child’s room is
really vast. The wallpaper is very colorful. Also there are lots o toys for my
child to play with. Behind the house there is a swimming pool & some
plastic armchairs. Our house looks peaceful & calm, & the calmest room
is my husband’s study. He’s a businessman & he likes reading. But as for me
I prefer associating with my friends. We have many different electrical
appliances in our house. They make our life more comfortable. Also we have some
people to help us. They look after the house, grow vegetables in our garden
& cook. So we enjoy having green & fresh food on our dinner table. Our
house is beautiful place to be at any time of the year. In winter it’s warm
& cosy, & in summer there is so much to do outside.
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