A (Very) Brief History of the English Language



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Leisure time


Everybody sometimes has a free time. Somebody prefer only to sleep in their liesure time, but the largest part of us prefer to do a great number of things which are pleasant and interesting for us. It may be reading, various types of sport game, watching TV, listening music and others. If we have a few day or a week we prefer to go to the attractive places. Many people think that pupils and studients have too much liesure time, but in my opinion, they are wrong. We are very busy. Many pupils have six or seven lessons a day and go to school live or six day a week. Even during the holiday we learn our lessons. And we just have no time to go somewhere. Oldest of us are working after school or institutes.I do not spend my time at school and often I have a free time. The large part of my free time is devoted to reading. I like to read books about another countries, another times and another worlds. Also I read books about history of our country. Besides reading I like to do physical exercises. Me and my school friends often gather after school and play basketball, football or other active games. But my favorite hobby is travelling. Usually I travel in summer and ofter it is a trip to the south, to the warm sea. I think all peoples must have other occupations besides their basic work, because it extends the bounduries of the familar world and teaches us something new about people and things.

Libraries


The Word library comes from the Latin word ‘liber’, meaning ‘book’. This is a place where information in print (book, manuscripts, periodicals and musical scores) and in other forms is collected. Libraries can be found in many places. There are libraries in small towns and large cities and there are libraries at schools, universities, colleges. People go to the library to read, look, listen, search, inquire, relax, discuss, learn and think.

The largest and the best known libraries in the world are: the British National library in London, the Library of Congress in Washington and The Russian State Library. The British Library is the largest state library in Britain and is one of the finest libraries in the world. It is a rapidly growing modern research library with all its current publications. People who want to read for higher degrees and who are engaged in research in their spare time visit this library. Other library which is known throughout the world is the Library of Congress. It was established as a reference library in 1600 and gradually would come a world famous institution that now occupies three huge buildings.

A great number of items in collections of books, newspapers, periodicals, manuscripts, films, maps and works of drama, music, art and important and exciting documents from American history are kept in library’s archives. There are materials on practically every subject to which members of Congress can refer. And now I would tell you about Lenin State Library. The Lenin Library is the central library and is one of the world’s largest. The old library building was built in 1786 on a hill opposite the Kremlin by Vasily Bashenov and was a typical example of a Moscow town residence of that time. Its new buildings were built in 1940. When the library was founded in 1961, it contained over 1000.000 volumes, and was then located in the old Pashkov part of the complex. In 1915 its one reading room had a sitting capacity of only 170. Now it has 23 reading rooms of 2500 seating capacities and a book fund of 27 millions. There a wide choice of books: fiction, non-fiction, serious books, detective stories, science fiction, biographic, history and encyclopedias which are extremely useful in work, because it gives information about every branch of knowledge. Of cource there is a catalogue of books.

The titles and authors of all the books in the library can be found in a card catalogue or a computer listing. Each card in catalogue gives very helpful information about the book; the title send the author, the time and place of publication and the even something about it contents. The library is used daily by around 10000 people. Most librarians have a professionally staff whose first duty is to help you.

Librarians also select books and other materials, organize materials so that you can easily use them, answer questions about facts, people, events, or advise you how to find the information you need. The library today is a centre for all kinds of communications: printed, pictured, recorded and even electronically stored.

Lomonosov


Mike Lomonosov is the father of the Russian sciences and outstanding poet, the founder of Russian literature. M.L. was born in 1711 in Arhangelsk province. He liked to spend his time fishing with his father. He began to read himself then he was a little boy. He wanted to study and then he was 19 he went by foot to Moscow. He decided to enter the Slavic-Greek-Latin academy. He entered it and six years later in 1736 he was sent abroad to complete his studies in chemistry and mining. L worked hard and he became a great scientist. He was a physicist, a painter and astronomer, a geographer, a historian and a statesman. M.L. made a telescope; he observed a lot of stars and planets with his telescope. L wrote the first scientific grammar of Russian language. He wrote many poems. L build a factory near Petersburg. It was a factory where glass was produced. He made a portrait of Peter I of pieces of glass. L was a founder of the first Russian University. This University is named after L and it is situated in Moscow. M.L died in 1765 but people still know and remember him.

London


London is the capital of the United Kingdom, its economic, political and cultural center. It is one of the world's most important ports and one of the largest cities in the world. London with its suburbs has a population of about 11 million people.

London has been a capital for nearly a thousand years. Many of its ancient buildings still stand. The most famous of them are the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral. Most visitors also want to see the Houses of Parliament and the many magnificent museums.

Once London was a small Roman town of the north bank of the Thames. Slowly it grew into one of the world's major cities.

Different areas of London seem like different cities. The West End is a rich man's world of shops, offices and theatres. The City of London is the district where most offices and banks are concentrated; the Royal Exchange and the Bank of England are here, too. The East End is a district where mostly working people live. The old port area is now called "Docklands". There are now new office buildings in Docklands, and thousands of new flats and houses.



By the day the whole of London is busy. At night, offices are quiet and empty, but the West End stays alive, because this is where Londoners come to enjoy themselves. There are two opera houses here, several concert halls and many theatres, as well as cinemas. In nearby Soho the pubs and restaurants and nightclubs are busy half the night.


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