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About myself

My name is Rob Fellows. I come from Dundee, a town on the east coast of Scotland, but I’m a student at Durham University, in the north of England. I’m studying French and German, and I can speak the languages quite well. I also know a little Spanish, so I can speak four languages. I’m enjoying the course a lot, but it’s very hard work!

I live in Durham Castle because the Castle is part of the University, with about thirty other students. The course started two years ago, and I’m in my third year. After the course I’m going to work in France, but I don’t know where yet.

My name is Maggie Wood. You spell that W-O-O-D. I come from Australia. I’m studying art, but I don’t go to university. I work at home. I watch special programmes on television. I’m reading about Italian painters at the moment in Italian, which is difficult because I only speak a little Italian. The course is really interesting, but it isn’t easy having a part-time job and studying!

I live near London. I came to England fifteen years ago. I’m married, and my husband’s name is Dave. He’s a taxi-driver. We have three children, two boys and a girl. My course started a year ago, and it’s three years long. After the course I’m going to look for a job as a librarian in a museum.

Answer the questions:

What’s his/her surname?
What is he/she studying?
How many languages does he/she speak?
Is he/she enjoying the course?
Where does he/she live?
Whom does he/she live with?
When did his/her course start?
What is he/she going to do after the course?

Answer these questions about yourself.

Aries (21/3 – 20/4): energetic, bossy, often bad-tempered, warm, generous, sensitive, artistic.

Taurus (21/4 – 21/5): hardworking, calm, friendly. Interested in business, money, friends and family.

Gemini (22/5 – 21/6): clever, witty, very talkative, changeable. Interested in books, people and ideas.

Cancer (22/6 – 23/7): humorous, conservative, often happy, anxious, shy. Interested in history.

Leo (24/7 – 23/8): proud, bossy, independent; either very tidy or very untidy; passionate and generous.

Virgo (24/8 – 23/9): practical, punctual, critical, hardworking, perfectionist. Interested in nature.

Libra (24/9 – 23/10): friendly, energetic (but also lazy), pleasant, argumentative. Interested in sport, animals.

Scorpio (24/10 – 22/11): brave, sometimes violent, extremist, possessive, passionate. Often very religious.

Sagittarius (23/11 – 21/12): talkative, self-confident, cheerful. Interested in sport, travel, living dangerously.

Capricorn (22/12 -20/1): conservative, polite, serious, sociable but shy. Interested in home, politics, people.

Aquarius (21/1 – 19/2): tolerant, sociable but unstable. Interested in sport and politics. Often brilliant or mad.

Pisces (20/2 – 20/3): sensitive, emotional, imaginative, artistic, depressive. Very interested in themselves.

Write a few sentences about yourself.

e.g.: It’s true that I am energetic, but I do not think that I am bossy, and I do not agree that I am often bad-tempered. I look calm, but actually I am rather nervy. I think I look like a businessman.

My family

Keiko Wilson is Japanese, but she lives in New York because she is married to an American. She is an interpreter. Keiko likes New York because it is interesting, but her husband, Walter, doesn’t like it. He wants to live in the country.

Keiko and Walter have two children. Walter takes them and their dog out of the city in his free time. They go walking in summer and skiing in winter, but Keiko doesn’t go with them because she doesn’t have any free time.

My brothers. I have twin brothers, Tim and Tom. They are very similar and a lot of people don’t know which is which. They both have blond hair and blue eyes, and they always wear jeans and T-shirts.

They like doing the same things, too. For example, they both like jazz and they’re crazy about football. They go to a football match once a week. Tim doesn’t like dancing or discos and Tom doesn’t like them, either. Although they are twins, they’re not exactly the same at everything. Tim works hard at school because he wants to go to university, but Tim is a bit lazy.

Our mother is often away from home because of her job, so we all work together in the house. Most of the time it’s fine, but sometimes we fight a bit!

My sister and I. My sister and I like each other very much although we are very different. She’s six years older than me and she works in a bank. I’m still at school, so I don’t have a job. My sister likes her job, she earns a lot of money, so she can go out and enjoy herself. She’s very kind and often invites me to go with her, but I’m studying very hard at the moment because I want to pass my exams. I usually say no when she asks me, but last night I was tired of work so I went with her to a dance. We had a great time!

Answer the questions:

Is your family large?
Have you got parents, sisters, brothers, cousins?
What do they do?
What do they look like?
What are they like?
Have you got children?
Do the go to school (kindergarten)?
What do the members of your family do in their free time (in summer, in winter, etc.)?

(I like/ don’t like dancing, visiting museums, doing crosswords, walking, skiing, listening to music, watching TV, taking photographs, ice-skating, cooking, playing computer games, sailing, painting, swimming, reading, eating in restaurants, going to the cinema, playing volleyball, windsurfing, sunbathing, playing cards, fishing, hunting)

My family

nature характер

manage the house управлять домашним хозяйством

chestnut каштановый

flatter льстить

Take after smb. in character / appearance

быть похожим на к.-л. по характеру

become deaf оглохнуть

bother беспокоить

old-age pension пенсия по старости

Now nobody knows what a “normal” family is. I think my family can be classified as “normal” and I like it very much. I have a mother and a father and a brother.

My father, Mike is 45. He is a tall and well-built man with short black hair and grey eyes. He works at a plant producing aircraft equipment. By nature my father is a quiet man, but there is strength under his quietness. Strength is generally quiet. Mother is, on the contrary, energetic and talkative. Her name is Tina. She is a teacher of music. Chopin is her favourite composer and she “infected” us with her love to music. Most of all I admire her ability to combine work with housekeeping. It seems she knows everything about the house and she manages it (as well as our father) very well. He is a very practical man as far as his job goes, but in everyday life he is unpractical, and he needs mother to look after him. Our mother is a pleasant-looking woman of forty, with beautiful chestnut hair and soft dark-brown eyes. As you can see, she is a perfect example, for me, and sometimes I flatter myself thinking that I take after her both in character and appearance.

My brother Alex is only 12, and we are quite different. I’m calm and he’s very energetic. I’m brown haired and grey-eyed and he has fair hair and blue eyes. I like reading and he likes football. And he listens to heavy metal. I hate heavy metal – this music is too loud and aggressive. When he turns on his stereo I think I’d become deaf. He loves The Iron Maiden and laughs at me and mother when we watch TV pop music programmes. In fact we quarrel a lot but I think we love each other. After all, he is not fool and when he sees that he bothers us too much with his music he stops it and goes to his friends. What worries me and parents – he started smoking. We are really worried and we don’t know what to do. Father’s strong words and mother’s moral instructions don’t help.

Our parents don’t always agree with what we say, what clothes we wear, what music we listen to and what friends we bring home. They say it’s not easy to be parents. Аs you can see we have problems in our family.

On week-ends we often go to village where our grandmother lives. She is always happy to see us. When I was small she used to tell me fairy-tales and stories of her life. Now she is in poor health, gets a terribly low old-age pension and asks us to come and see her more often.

I have many other relatives: uncles, aunts, cousins. We don' t see one another very often, but when we join all together we have a great time.

My working day differ – отличаться to wake up – просыпаться sleepy – сонный to switch on – включать grab – хватать rush – мчаться to be over – заканчиваться rest – отдых sweep – подметать to be tired – устать

My day off lucky – удачливый early riser – человек, встающий рано hurry – торопиться tasty – вкусный pie [pai] – пирог gloomy – мрачный relative – родственник take a nap – вздремнуть exhibition – выставка nasty – противный gain – приобретать

My Working Day

I am very busy on my weekdays. My weekdays do not differ much one from another. On weekdays my working day begins early in the morning. My school starts at 8 о’clock, so I have to get up at 7, to be ready in time. I never wake up myself, my mother always wakes me up.

Sometimes I do my morning exercises, then I rush to the bathroom. I clean my teeth, wash my face. Cold water makes me feel not so sleepy. Then I go back to my room, make my bed. I switch on the radio, usually I listen to radio "Yes". I put on my clothes, comb my hair, put a little make-up. By that time my breakfast is ready (my mother cooks it for me).

At a quarter to eight I grab my bag and rush to school. My school starts at 8 o'clock and I don't like to be late. Usually I have six or seven lessons a day, they last till 3 o'clock. After each lesson there is a break, so I can talk to my friends or eat my sandwich. When school is over, I go home. First of all I need to walk with my dog. Then I have dinner and a little rest.

The teachers give us a lot of homework, so I start doing it about 16.30 or 17.00. As a rule it takes me two or three hours to do my home assignments. My parents get home at about six o'clock. We watch a soap-opera on TV, have supper together. We share all the news, I tell them about the lessons and school. After that, I help my mother to do some work about the house-wash the dishes, sweep the floor, clean the room.

Twice a week in the evening I go to play tennis. When I do not go to play tennis, I stay at home and watch TV, listen to music, read magazines. Sometimes my friends call on me and we go for a walk. At eleven o'clock tired after a long working day I go to bed and fall asleep.

Questions:

1. What time do you get up on your week-days?

2. Do you usually do your morning exercises?

3. Who cooks your breakfast?

4. What time do you leave your house to go to work?

5. When does your working day start?

6. Do you have a break? What do you do during the break?

7. What do you do in the evening?

8. What time do you go to bed?

My day off

I go to school five days a week, so I have two days off –Saturday and Sunday. I’m lucky, because some other pupils have only one day off. During the week I am very busy, so I like having a rest at the weekend.

I am not an early riser and it is a rare Saturday or Sunday when I get up before 9 o'clock. I enjoy staying in bed, when I don't have to hurry anywhere. We have late breakfast at 10 and watch TV. Usually we have something tasty: meat salad, fried potatoes, chicken, cake or pie.

If the weather is fine, I usually do not stay indoors, I and my dog go outside. We often go to the park and play there. If the weather is rainy and gloomy, I stay at home and watch TV, listen to music, read books. After dinner we go to visit our grandparents or relatives, or just simply take a nap. Sometimes when my friends call on me, we go roller-blading near the Opera theatre. I like roller-blading very much, I think it is a lot of fun.

In the evenings I like watching video and music programs. There is a big armchair in my room right beside the lamp with a blue shade. If it is cold, I like sitting there with a cup of coffee and reading. Sometimes I do something special at the weekend: go to an art exhibition, to the theatre, to the concert. I always go to bed late on Sundays, and Monday morning is the nastiest thing all the week through. I like weekends very much, because I can rest and gain some energy for the next week.

Questions:

1. How many days off do you have?

2. When do you get up on Sunday?

3. What do you usually do during weekends?

4. What do you do if the weather is sunny?