A (Very) Brief History of the English Language



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My Working Day


I usually start my day with getting up and doing all things that everybody does in the morning: washing, having breakfast, etc. Also, I got used to gather my learning tools: pencils, exercise-books, text-books in the morning. Then I usually go to the university. Fortunately, father takes a car every morning and he often picks me up and drives me to the doors of our university building.

And soon the lectures and lessons begin... We have from 2 to 4 lectures every time, depending on day. I like studying in the university more than in the school because in university it is mostly allowed to miss some lectures (of course, later you should take a summary from your mate and copy it). So, a student is much more free, than pupil is.

After the lessons I usually return home where I have dinner and start thinking about my ways of spending the rest of the day. Very often I go to my friend’s places. During the early autumn and summer I often go to the sports ground or on the beach. I also like visiting different sports events, for example, soccer matches of “Luch” in Russian championship. So, the world is full of enjoyable things to do.

On returning home I usually start doing my homework (perhaps, it is the most dull part of the day). Having finished it, I open a book and read it or watch TV. At last, I go to the bed.

Of course, I would like to tell you more about myself and my working day, but, unfortunately, my time is rather limited and I have got a lot of homework to do. Generally, now you know about my working day enough.

My Working Day


I get up at 7 o'clock in the morning. I do my morning exercises, wash myself and dress. Then I have my breakfast. At 8 o'clock I leave home and go to the Institute. As a rule I come to the Institute at a quarter to 9. The lessons begin at 9 sharp. Today we have two lectures, a seminar and an English lesson. At our English lessons we read the texts, ask and answer questions and do all sorts of exercises. We do not write many exercises. We usually write exercises at home. We speak English at the lessons. We speak English a little now, but we want to speak English well. At about 1 o'clock I generally have dinner at the canteen. I come home at about 6 o'clock. I have supper and do my homework. I always do my homework in the evening, but I never work late in the evening. At 11 o'clock I go to bed.

My Working Day


I usually get up at 7 o'clock in the morning. I do my morning exercises, but not always, make my bed, wash and dress. Then I sit down to breakfast. At 8 o'clock I leave home and go to school. As a rule I come to school in time as the lessons begin at 9 o'clock. I live not far from school and it usually takes me 15 minutes to get to school on foot. Usually we have 6 or 7 classes every day and after classes I return home. At 3 o'clock I have dinner and rest a little. After that I do my home work and help my mother about the house if she needs my help. Then I have supper and if the weather is good I go for a walk with my friends and if the weather is not good I stay at home something I watch TV; sometimes I listen to music or chat with my friends over the telephone. I never work late in the evening. At 11 o'clock I usually go to bed but sometimes I watch television till late in the evening and that's why I may go to bed very late. But I always remember the proverb: "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy wealthy and wise."

New York


New York is one of the largest cities in the world. Its population is over 11 million people. New York is an industrial and cultural centre of the country. Most business is centred in Manhattan Island. The whole area is very small, that's why the sky-scrapers were invented in New York and, especially, in Wall Street. Wall Street is a narrow street with big houses, but it is well known all over the world as the busiest street in the USA. People do business there. There are two more world-famous streets — Broadway and Fifth Avenue. Broadway is the centre of the theatres and night life. It is known as “The Great White Way” because of the electric signs which turn night into day.

It is the city that never goes to sleep. Buses and sub-way run all night. There are many drugstores and restaurants which never close their doors. There are cinemas with films that start at midnight. Fifth Avenue is the great shopping, hotel, and club avenue.

New York is the largest port in America. More than half the trade of the United States goes through this city.

There are many places of interest in New York. They are: the Statue of Liberty, the United Nations Building, Empire State Building, Columbia University, City Hall, New York Public Library and others. When you come to New York you see lots of cars, big and small, black and yellow, old and modem; you do not see any trees or flowers in the streets, but only cars. You'll see and hear advertisements everywhere. There is no getting away from them. Advertisements fill the newspapers and cover the walls, they are on menu-cards and match-boxes, they are shouted through loud speakers and shown in the cinemas.


New Zealand


What is the name of the country which has volcanoes and rivers of ice, deer and sea-elephants?

It is New Zealand, called the Land of the Long White Cloud by the Maoris.

New Zealand is an island country. It is made up of three islands: the North and South Islands and Steward Island, a small land mass just to the south of (he South Island. Most of its people live in North Island, and that is where you find big volcanoes like Egmont and Tongariro and the boiling pools and geysers and lakes of bubbling mud. Auckland, Christ church and Wellington are the biggest cities. Wellington is the capital.

South Island is larger than North Island and has the highest mountains. There you can find the snow-capped Southern Alps, rising 3.764 metres to the tip of Mount Cook (named after Captain Cook, of course, because he visited the islands before sailing on westwards and discovering the eastern coast of Australia).

South Island is very beautiful with its Alps and lakes, its glaciers and fiords. Have you ever heard of Milford Sound? That is one of the most picturesque of the fiords, with cliffs rising straight up out of the water, the whole scene reflected in the water. Down there, too, are the Sunderland Falls, where water drops six hundred metres, making these falls one of the highest waterfalls in the whole world.

So you can see there is plenty to look at in New Zealand. Plenty of things to do for tourists, because New Zealand is also famous for its fishing, snow sports, mountaineering, sailing and hiking.

The climate is pleasant at all seasons, without much difference between winter and summer. New Zealand does not have the terrible heat of Australian summers; the oceans temper its climate and the mountains bring down quite a lot of rain.

What do the people do? Farm mostly. Dairy products, meat and wool are the main exports. New Zealand ranks second only to Australia as an exporter of wool. There are many factories there too, with hydro-electric stations to produce the power for them.

North Island is where you find the Maoris, the fine people who lived in these islands hundreds of years before the white man came. Most of them live near Auckland.

The Maoris, a Polynesian people, are the aborigines of New Zealand. After long stays in Indonesia and the South Pacific, which they explored for many years, they made their great journey to New Zealand about the middle of the 14th century. They sailed in double canoes open to all weathers. They knew the winds, the ocean currents and the stars, and this earned them the name of Vikings of the Sunrise.

The capital of New Zealand since 1865, and one of its busiest ports, Wellington is at southern end of North Island, lying among hills on the western side of a natural harbour.

It is the third largest city in New Zealand.

Auckland (the former capital) is the first largest city, and Christchurch is the second.

The Maori name for Wellington Harbour means the great bay of Tara. According to Maori legend, Tara was the first Polynesian settler in this place. But Nicholson (after a Royal Navy captain) was the name given to it by the first British settlers, and it is still sometimes called by this name.

In 1839 a British officer bought the site of Wellington from the Maoris; he got it in exchange for blankets and some other unimportant things. In 1840 the first settlers arrived and called their settlement Britannia. By 1842 there were 3.700 colonists in the settlement and Britannia had become Wellington.

The kiwi is rather an unusual bird found only in New Zealand. It has no tail, almost no wings, and its nostrils are situated near the end of its bill. No other bird lays an egg so large in proportion to its size. Its egg is about one fifth of its own weight. This is a tremendous size.

In many countries. New Zealander. too, are known as Kiwis, for the bird is also the symbol of people of the two islands.

Forests of exotic pines near the centre of New Zealand's North Island, cover an area of more than 160000 hectares. This is the largest single continuous area of planted forest in the world. New Zealand has more than four hundred thousand hectares of planted forests.



The most important wood is pine, which grows five times faster in New Zealand than in its native habitat in California, USA.


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