As for high schools, there are a lot of them in our country. Some of them train teachers, others-doctors, actors and so on. Many institutes have evening and extra-mural departments. That gives the students an opportunity to study at without leaving their jobs.
11. Education in the USA
The American system of school education differs from the systems in other countries. There are state public schools, private elementary schools and private secondary schools. Public schools are free and private schools are fee-paying. Each state has its own system of public schools. Elementary education begins at the age of six or seven, when a child goes to the first grade (form).
At the age of sixteen schoolchildren leave the elementary school and may continue their education at one of the secondary schools or high schools, as they call them. The programme of studies in the elementary school includes English, Arithmetic, Geography, History of the USA, Natural Sciences and, besides, Physical Training, Singing, Drawing, Wood or Metal Work, etc. Sometimes they learn a foreign language and general history. Beside giving general education some high schools teach subjects useful to those who hope to find jobs in industry and agriculture or who want to enter colleges or universities. After graduating from secondary schools a growing number of Americans go on to higher education.
The students do not take the same courses. During the first two years they follow a basic programme. It means that every student must select at least one course from each of the basic fields of study: English, Natural Sciences, Modern Languages, History or Physical Training. After the first two years every student can select subjects according to his professional interest. The National Government gives no direct financial aid to the institutions of higher education. Students must pay a tuition fee. This creates a financial hardship for some people. Many students have to work to pay their expenses. The Americans place a high value on education. That’s why Kennedy said, “Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education.
12. Music in Our Life
People cannot live without music. Music accompanies us everywhere. Small children hear their mothers’ songs when they put them to bed. We hear the music of the birds in the gardens and woods. We listen to music on the radio and TV. When we grow up, we prefer to listen to music we like.
Music can be classical and modern. Classical music is performed by symphonic orchestras in the great halls. Some people are fond of classical music and attend opera houses and concert halls. There are a lot of famous composers whose music are serious and require good understanding or it may seem to be boring and dull.
Most of people prefer modern music. Especially young people, are more interested in light and pop music. Modern music is performed by TV and radio. Modern music has different kinds: pop, rock, disco, rap, techno and others.
Many young people, especially students, compose music and write lyric themselves, they take part in the contests of amateur singers which are very popular.
There are a lot of music schools and children’s choirs in small and big town, where children learn to play different musical instruments, to sing and to appreciate music.
Young people in bigger cities like to spend their free time in disco clubs, where they listen to their favourite music and dance.
Today everybody has an opportunity to enjoy the kind of music he or she likes best. I’m fond of music and like to listen to for it help me to have good relaxation.
13. My Favorite Composer
Music is an essential part of everyone’s life. I can’t imagine a person living without music. We can listen to it at home, at work, in the car or even while walking along the street.
If to speak about classical music I have always liked the works of Peter I. Tschaikovskyi. I like his works because they are deeply Slavonic in their spirit. In his creative work Tschaikovskyi used folklore melodies. He also created a musical language, organically connected with the music life of common people.
He taught music at Moscow Conservatory and his students always appreciated him deeply. Tschaikovskyi worked hard at different programmes of musical education. He also created the first textbook on harmony of music, which was later translated into German and French.
I like his First Symphony “Winter Dreams” most of all. Tschaikovskyi reflected his impressions of the trip to Lake Ladoga and Valaam in it. There one can see winter nature, fields with glimmering snow and bright sun. It is very tender, and at the same time solemn and grand.
14. Books in Our Life
Books are one of the greatest wonders in the world. They follow us during all our life. When you read a book you enrich your mind with knowledge. This knowledge will help you in different subjects. People who read many books are very clever. If you read many books you will get a lot of information on many subjects and situations.
Some of young people don’t like reading books. They prefer watching TV, playing computer games, and other kinds of entertainment.
Some books help us in self-education, and also to imagine the future, to look into the past.
Books develop our intellect, our soul, but of course, except of some modern crime or love novels, which you can find in any bookshop and which are printed only for entertain. I don’t like this kind of literature and in my opinion, reading such books is only waste of time.
Everybody has his favourite books. They can be novels, detective stories, science literature and many others. All of them distinguish and form some individual traits of character in everybody.
As for me, I like to read books in my free time. Books help me to go away from life problems, to get into another world. I like various literature directions and authors. It depends on my mood which book I take to read. There is no definite author which I like most of all. Also I like novels, written by Nabokov, Tolstoy, Mopassan and Remark. From their books you can learn more about people’s feelings, about life; you can even begin to see the world from another angle after reading these books.
Every book gives birth to special inner world in my mind and in my soul. I like to imagine main characters of my favourite books, their clothes and faces. In conclusion, I think books help us in self-education and in solving problems of life.
15. My Favourite Writer Agatha Christie
For every person it’s a real problem to name a favourite writer. I quite agree with it. There are several favourite writers in different genres of literature, foreign and Russian as well. But Agatha Christie, “the Queen of crime stories” is loved almost by everybody.
She was born in England in 1890. Her father was an American and died very early. Her mother was an English woman. Agatha (Miller in her childhood) and her sister got a home education. Later, she was sent to Paris to take classes in singing. Then she got a primary medical education. In 1914 she got married A. Christie but, unfortunately, they divorced soon.
She was 25 when she won a bet writing her first crime story. After her first successful experience she continued writing stories. She became popular.
Agatha Christie wrote 78 crime stories but she also wrote plays and novels. The Mousetrap, Ten Little Niggers, Sleeping Murder, The Body in the Library are among the well-known works of the writer.
There are some peculiar features in her stories. As usual, the number of characters is limited and all of them gather in a small place which they can’t leave. And it’s difficult to guess who the real murderer is till the end of the book.
People read Agatha Christie’s books with great pleasure and that’s why her stories have been translated into more than one hundred languages. Everybody knows her famous characters Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Agatha Christie’s stories and plays are shown on TV, broadcasted over the radio. There are also movie and theatre versions of her books.
16. Art, Museums and Galleries
People reflect their lives in art. Real, live art appeals to the heart and mind of every person, to their feelings and ideals, it proclaims life. Art is truthful only when it serves life, only when the artist hopes to arouse a warm response in the heart of a person. That was the case in the days of Giotto and Raphael, that was the case in the subsequent stages of the world's artistic development, and that was the truthful relationship of art and life in the days of Renato Guttuso and Rockwell Kent. Art belongs to people.
The history of art from the Renaissance to our days confirms this. It is close contact with the life of the nation that gives artists' work its power.
One can see masterpieces of old and modern art in various picture galleries and museums. There are nearly a thousand museums in Russia; many of them are world famous. The largest collection of Russian art is the Tretyakov Art Gallery in Moscow. It is a real treasury of canvases by prominent Russian painters. It contains priceless collections of icons, 17—20th century paintings and sculptures and contemporary Russian paintings and sculpture.
One of the largest and most remarkable museums of the world is the Hermitage, more than three hundred halls housing its exhibitions of articles of the greatest artistic value. The museum's collections now comprise works of various periods in the development of art, from ancient times up to the present day. Famous painters from different countries are represented there.
The Russian Museum in St. Petersburg is another picture gallery which contains the richest collection of Russian paintings of 18-19th centuries and the best collection of Russian sculpture.
In the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow the art of the Ancient East and Western Europe is represented. This museum possesses a unique collection of copies of the finest sculptures of the old time. It is in this museum that many famous foreign expositions of fine art are displayed almost every year.
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