No.
3. Exercise 4. Listen and answer the questions.
Part
I. What animals are usually the most favourite pets?
People keep
animals as pets in all countries: in India and England, in America, in Canada and
Russia. These
animals often become the most favourite members of the family. Pets get names. People look after them, teach them
different tricks, buy them tasty food, toys, presents and even clothes. The
most favourite pets in all countries are kittens and cats, puppies and dogs.
But many people keep parrots and other birds at home. Sometimes they have got
hamsters and tortoises, monkeys and snakes, frogs and fishes as pets. Some
people have more than one pet, and some people don’t have any pets at all, as
tastes differ.
Part II. Do people sometimes keep wild animals as
pets? Why?
From books
and films we learn that little wolves, lions, bears, crocodiles and other wild
animals can become pets too. People sometimes find little animals in the
forests, fields, mountains and other places. The cubs have no
mothers to take care of them and they can’t live without any help. People often
take them home and look after them. They try to help. It is not always easy to do so because many people do
not know how to feed cubs or how to take care of them. Wild animals are to go
back to the places where they lived when they grow up. Sometimes people give
them to the zoos or circuses where they become actors.
No.
21.
Better Late Than Never
One
Wednesday morning Finy Fox and Shiny Fox, the two little brothers, were walking
to school. They walked slowly for 10 minutes, then Shiny said, “Be quick or we
shall be late for school! It is half past eight!” But Finy
said, “I don’t want to go to school today. We are already late. We can have so
much fun in the forest. Our
mother thinks we are at school, so we can play in the forest. We
can go home when we hear the boys coming home from school.” Shiny said this was a good idea.
So the
foxes ran to the river. What a good time they had! They laughed a lot, they swam in the river, they
danced with little bears and sang songs with the birds. They got on well with
all the different animals who lived in the forest. The foxes didn’t think at
all about their classroom, their desks, pens, pencils, their books and their
lessons. Wednesday was their longest school day — they had Maths, English,
Handicraft, Art and Nature Study on their timetable. All
the subjects were very important. But the foxes didn’t want to write on the blackboard or in their
exercise books. They didn’t want to study, to learn to
count and to read. They didn’t want to work. They wanted to play outdoors.
No. 35. A
Strange “Burglar” in Big Mountains
Part I The
Jackson family lived in town, but at the end of November they were on the way
to Big Mountains to spend Thanksgiving there. The family went
to Big Mountains by car. There
were four of them, Mr and Mrs Jackson and their children Larry and George. The
brothers kept looking out of the window. It was easy to understand why the
mountains were so beautiful. At last Father stopped the car. “Here we are!” he
said.
There was a
large house in front of them with a big chimney at the back wall. Behind the house
on the left there was a small apple garden and on the right there were big
trees! It was so quiet everywhere!
When Father
gave the children the keys, they jumped out of the car, ran to the house to
open the door and went in. There was a large living room and a
kitchen downstairs. The living
room was lovely. There was a big fireplace in the corner of the room and next
to it on the left a large sofa with a standard lamp near it. On
the right there was an armchair. There
was a beautiful carpet in the middle of the room. The orange curtains made the
living room comfortable.
The kitchen
was small but nice with a fridge and a cupboard at the left wall and a sink and
a cooker opposite them. There was a table and four chairs in the kitchen too.
The parents
began to put the food in the fridge. The
boys ran upstairs to the second floor. There were two small bedrooms with beds
and wardrobes, a bathroom and a toilet there.
No. 48. Don’s Letter to His Friend
Many people write letters to friends in
other countries. They often write about their families and homes or about the
places they live in. Here is Don’s letter to his friend. My name is Donald, but
my friends call me Don. We live in Scotland, in a small house far from the town
centre. Our town is small, but there is a theatre in it, in the main
square.
The streets
in my town are not very wide, but they are very beautiful, with a lot of
flowers and trees. Our house is in the old part of the town. You
can see an old square tower in that part. It was built many centuries ago and
nobody knows the name of the architect. The tower is very high and there is a
large bell in it. You can hear it ring twice a day. The tower has become our
town museum. If you visit this place, turn to the left and the road will lead
you to a beautiful small church. When
you cross the bridge, you will be in the new part of the town.
The streets are wide in this part. There
are also many cinemas and shops as well as some monuments. I have already been
to many places of interest in our town and can show them all to you. If you
have never seen Scotland, come and stay with us. Maybe you’ll find our life
here quite different from your life in the city, but I’m sure you’ll like our
little town.
No.
60.Robbie’s Grandfather
My grandfather lives in the North of
England. He is nearly 60,
but he is strong and he still works. He is a Maths teacher.
My grandfather is very kind and his pupils like him a lot. They say he is
an excellent teacher and they are never tired in his class. He never forgets anything
and explains his subject very well. He always speaks in a friendly voice and so
they enjoy his lessons. My grandad lives in the country and every morning, five
days a week, gets the bus to school. He doesn’t have to
change as the bus takes him right to the school. It’s a through bus. He gets off the bus at half past 8 or there about.
My grandad likes to do many things, but
he likes travelling most of all. He
often goes to different cities (perhaps once or twice a month) and sometimes he
goes to other countries too. He travels by sea, by train or
flies. He likes voyages
very much and often takes pictures on board the ship. He
likes the sea and the wind. Last
month he travelled to Scotland. It was not a lucky
trip. He nearly missed
his train because he arrived late at the railway station. On the train somebody
stole his favourite silver box in which he kept his tobacco. There was no bus
or taxi to take him to the hotel where he wanted to stay and so he had to go on
foot. When he arrived at the hotel he was tired and went upstairs. However
his luggage was not there. So grandad went downstairs again, but couldn’t find
it. When he did, it was midnight and the lift did not work. So he was very unhappy that night and slept badly. However
in the morning the sun began to shine again and life seemed brighter. “There
is nothing like travelling,” my grandad says. “You’ll always enjoy it. Only
look on the bright side.”
No.
72. TV
Interview
Reporter:
Hello everybody. It’s one
o’clock and we begin our afternoon programme ‘Meeting with Famous People’. Here
is Mr Frank Davis, a famous children’s writer. He will tell you
some interesting facts about his hobbies. Welcome to the programme,
Mr Davis. Mr Davis: Now I would like to begin by remembering those times when I
was a little boy. I had so many hobbies then. First, I
think, I was a great collector of different things. I collected stamps, coins, badges, small books,
pictures, pencils and what not. Whatever I collected I always tried to get
as many things as I could. I did
try to have thematic collections.
I
had large collections and was always proud of them.
When I was
older, at the age of twelve, I think, I became fond of sports. I
spent a lot of time outdoors. I
was playing different sport games in the yard. In summer I swam a lot and
became a school champion. In the 5th form I became a theatregoer and spent all
my free time in the theatre and sometimes I also went to the cinema. When I was
finishing school, my parents bought me a computer. So
I forgot about going to the theatre, to the cinema or visiting museums. Working
on computers became my hobby. However,
soon I became tired of this hobby too and decided to change it. I
tried to paint pictures in my free time but I wasn’t very good. I tried dancing and acting, but soon I realized I
could never be a success on the stage.
Then one
day I had an idea to write a story about my dog. The story was
rather short. It was not very
clever or very interesting, but it was my story and I liked it very much. This
is how I began to write stories about birds and animals. My little daughter
liked to listen to them before she went to bed. She said that
she was fond of my new hobby.
Now it’s difficult to say if it is my hobby or
not as it is my work now. I like this work and I have already written five
books for children.
No. 85.Americans out for the Evening
If
Americans want to go out for the evening, where do they go and what do they
see? It is easy if they are in New York as there are a lot of theatres there.
But you don’t have to be in New York to see an interesting show. Many
of the theatres travel from town to town. In many theatres in America you can sit at table and
eat dinner and then watch the show as there are “dinner theatres”.
It’s cheaper of course to go to the
cinema. Americans say “to go to the movies”. Even in small towns in America you can go to the
movies and see the latest film.
If you
don’t want to see a play or a movie, you can always go and listen to music.
Americans have given many forms of music to the world: jazz, blues and rock.
They all come from the music that black people have brought with them from
Africa. You can also hear country music in America.
Some people
spend an evening dancing as this is also very popular with Americans.
Americans
love sports of all kinds. Many people play sports and many go to see games or watch
them on TV. In stadiums people usually shout loudly for their
favourite sportsmen. One of the most popular sports is football.
