peole see it sitting in the Baltic, while in Kamchatka it rises out of
the Pasific Ocean at the some time. People in our country see the New
Year in eleven times in one night.
If you begin to trevell in the Far East by air and fly 8 000 (eight
thousend)kilometres towards the west, you will land in Moscow on thr
same hour same day that you left the Far East.
It is a wonderful sight yo see our country from the plane. One can
hardly imagine a country more interesting to trevellers whan Russia.
Siberia covers millions of square kilometres. You fly over mountain,
endless forests, large and small rivers, railways, motorways. You leave
behind the lights of young and small towns, plants and factories.
Siberia is a rigeon of untold riches.
Father West are the Ural Mountains the border between Asia and
europe. The Urals are riche in different minerals.
The country's European part covers the territory from Urals to the
Baltic Sea. The largest cities of the Russia are situated between
theBlack Sea in the south and the Black Sea in the north. Such an our
country from East to West. There is no over countrys in which the climet
differs so much from one part to another. When it is still winter in the
northen regions of our country the first warm days arrive in the south.
In the central regions show storms and cold are still in power, while in
the south people begin to think of spring crops. In the same season
nature looks different in different parts of our country.
Russia is rich in oil, coul, iron, gold, silver and other minerals.
THE NATIONAL THEATRE
It took over the hundred years to establish a national theatre
company. It's first director from 1962 was Lawrence Olivier. This is the
first state theatre Britain has ever had. A special building for it was
opened in 1976. It has three theatres in one: "The Oliver theatre", the
biggest is for the main classical repertoire; "The Lyttilton", a bit
smaller is for new writing and for visiting foreigh countries and "The
Cottesloe theatre", the smallest is used for experimental writing and
productions. "The Royal Shakespeare company" are devided between the
country and the capital and it's produces plays mainly by Shakespeare
and his contempraries when it performs is "Stratford -on-Avon", and
modern plays in it's two auditoria in the Cities, Barbican centre.
Moscow theatres
For decades Moscow has had a reputation as a city of theatres. The
birth plays of the historic "Bolshoy", "Maly" and "Moscow Art" theatres
the city has been and steel is a centre for the development exploretary
modern ideas in the dramatic art and is famous for it's great number of
highlygifted, interesting directors, actors, playwrigts and artists.
Every evening the doors of Moscow theatres open to streams of
theatre-gowers. The best Moscow theatres devoded themselves to
developing the principals of directing and acting laid down by
Stanislavsky, Meerhold, Nemerovich-Danchenko, Vachtangov and others. The
discoveries and successes of Moscow theatres today exists due to
experience and triumphs of preceding generations.
I'd like to tell you about the Bolshoy Theatre. The magestic building
of the Bolshoy Theatre stands in Theatre Square in Moscow's central
quater, not far from Kremlin. This is the leading Russian opera house
with the best vocalists and choreographers in it's company.
The Bolshoi traces it's history to 1776 when a standing opera company
was organized in Moscow. The first opera shown in Bolshoi theatre was
opera "life of tsar" (now "Ivan Susanin"). At later times operas by
Dargomyzhsky, Serov, Tcaikovsky, Borodin, Moussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov
and Rubinstein were produced here.
At the same time the Bolshoi company staged the best operas and
ballets by West European composers-Mozart, Rossini, Weber, Verdi and
others.
The bolshoi ballet company enjoys well-deserved fame as the world's
finest. This is equally true of it's brilliant realistic style of
perfomance and repertoire.
My favorite painter
One of my favorite artists is Rembrant is the greatest Dutch master,
one of the supreme geneuses in the history of art. To this day the art
of Rembrant remains one of the most profound witness of the progress of
the soul in it's earthly pilgrimage towards the realisation of higher
destiny. The son of the prosperous miller, Rembrant was born in Leiden
in 1608. He studied at Leiden University, but his real vocation was
painting. His rapid sugsess promoted him to move to the Amsterdam in
1631.
In 1632 Rembrant bought a splendid house, started a collection of
paintings and rarities.
The universal artist dealt with many world subjects. Rembrant created
a number of portraits and some group portraits which were traditional to
the Dutch art. The best of them are "Anatomy lesson of Dr. Tulp" and
"The night watch".
In 1655 Rembrant found himself in the midst of several financial
troubles. At that period he painted "The Polish Rider", which is an
allegory of the man's earthly journey.
Probably in 1669, the year of his own death, Rembrant painted his
famous "Return of the Prological son", which stands at the ultimate peak
of Cristian spirituality, illuminating the relationship of the self to
the eternity.
The biblical theme was very important to Rembrant. He painted
"Artakserks, Oman and Eshpir", "The Saint Family".
Rembrant was not understood when he was alive. He died in poverty.
But it is the spirituality of his art that distinguishes Rembrant from
his Dutch contemporaries making him the greatest artist of the world.
Theatres, music halls and cinemas
Theatres are very much the same in London as anywhere else; the chief
theatres ,music halls and cinemas are in the West End. If you are
staying in London for a few days, you'll have no difficulty whatever in
finding somewhere to spend an enjoyable evening. You'll find opera,
balley, comedy, drama, revue, musical comedy and variety. Films are
shown in the cinemas during the greatest part of the day.
The best seats at theatres are those in the stalls, the circle and
the upper circle. Then comes the pit, and the last of all the gallery
where the seats are cheapest. Boxes, of course, are the most expensive.
Most theatres and music halls have good orchestras with popular
conductors.
You ought to make a point of going to the opera at least once during
the season if you can. There you can get the best of everything - an
exellent orchestras, famous conductors, celebated singers and well
dressed audience. But, of course, if you are not fond of music and
singing, won't interest you.
At the West End theatres you can see most of the famous English
actors and actresses. As a rule, the plays are magnificently staged -
costumes, dresses, scenery, everything being done of the most lavish
scale. Choose a good play, and you'll enjoy yourself thoroughly from the
moment the curtain goes up to the end of the last act. Get your seats
beforehand, either at the box-office of theatre itself or at one of the
agencies. When you go to a theatre, you'll probably want to seat as near
to the stage as possible. But if you are at the cinema, you may prefer
to seat some distance from the screen. In fact, I would say, the further
away the better.
Music in our life
Music - it art, reflecting validity in sound art images, one of the
forms of public ideology. Having by powerful force direct emotional
effect, music during of all history of man-kind plays a huge social,
cultural and educational role.
Leading composers are connected to progressive public movements,
life, interests and aspirations people. Each nations differs by peculiar
national features. Folk music, being improved by creative efforts of
many generations of the people, reaches a high degree of art maturity.
On the basis of riches of national music professional musical creativity
of composers is developed. Rejection of music from advanced ideas epoch
of national culture, national roots of art leads to it's to decline and
degeneration.
Idea emotional contents of music is passed through sound art images,
implemented in musical sounds. The basis of music is the tune. According
to the way of performance music is devided into 2 main branches:
instrumental and vocal.
There are a great number of different styles of music, such as Jazz,
Pop, Rock, Classic; and new musical directions. One of the new music
directions is Rave. I prefer to listen hard-core and more quiet music
such as Roxette and others.
Now days the number of music styles is growing, and every young
people, which are fond of music can easily choose that style which
appeals to them.
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.
LONDON, Jack (1876-1916).
The novelist and short-story writer Jack London was, in his lifetime,
one of the most popular authors in the world. After World War I his fame
was eclipsed in the United States by a new generation of writers, but he
remained popular in many other countries, especially in the Soviet
Union, for his romantic tales of adventure mixed with elemental
struggles for survival.
John Griffith London was born in San Francisco on Jan. 12, 1876. His
family was poor, and he was forced to go to work early in life to
support himself. At 17 he sailed to Japan and Siberia on a seal-hunting
voyage. He was largely self-taught, reading voluminously in libraries
