Weather and climate

Climate is the weather a certain place has over a long period of time. Climate has a very important influence on plants, animals and humans and is different in different parts of the world. Some scientists think that the world is becomming hotter. If you compare Moscow winter and summer temperatures at the beginning of our century and at its end you will see that climate has really changed. Winters have become warmer. Sometimes there is little snow in January, and there were winters when it rained on the New Year's Eve. Many people say that it is so because of the greenhouse effect. During the last 100 years people have produced a lot of carbon dioxide. This gas in the atmosphere works like glass in a greenhouse. It lets heat get in, but it doesn't let much heat get out. So the atmosphere becomes warmer. Where does the carbon dioxide come from? People and animals breathe in oxygen, and breathe out carbon dioxide. We produce carbon dioxide when we burn things. Trees take this gas from the air, and produce oxygen. But in the last few years, people have cut down and burn big areas of rainforest. This means there are fewer trees, and, of course, more carbon dioxide! As we see the climate in different parts of the world changes a little from year to year. These changes can be dangerous for our planet, which needs protection. Earth is millions of years old, much older than the humans. We know many of its secrets. Yet there is still much to learn.

Environment

Our planet Earth is only a tiny part of the universe, but nowadays it's the only place where we can live. People have lived on our planet for many years. They lived and live on different continents, in different countries. People depend on their planet, the sun, animals and plants around them. Environment is everything in the world around us that surround and affects all life on earth, including the air, food, water, plants, animals and other.

Environment is the place where we live. Since ancient time nature has served man, being the source of his life. For thousands of years people lived in harmony with environment and it seemed to them that natural riches were unlimited. But man's interference in nature began to increase with the development of civilization. Our ecology becomes worse and worse with every new day. Many species of animals and birds are disappearing nowadays. People destruct wildlife, cut down trees to make furniture. They forget that people can’t live without trees and plants, because they fill air with oxygen.

There are a lot of ecological problems. The most serious ecological problems are: noise from cars and buses; destruction of wildlife and countryside beauty; shortage of natural resources; the growth of population; pollution in its many forms. Water is everywhere, but there is no ocean or sea which is not used as a dump. Many rivers and lakes are poisoned too. Fish and reptiles can’t live in them. People can't drink this water. So we have to clean the water environment. Another problem is air pollution. Air pollution influents the health of people. For example: ultraviolet radiation from the sun can cause skin cancer. Normally the ozone layer in the atmosphere protects us from such radiation, but if there are holes in the ozone layer ultraviolet radiation can get to the earth. Many scientists think that these holes are the result of air pollution. Also we have problem with nuclear pollution. Nuclear pollution cannot be seen but its effect can be terrible. To make air clear clean again we need good filters at nuclear power stations, at factories, in cars and buses.

Another problem is growth of population. They don't have enough places to live. They need more water, more food. So it is the reason of the shortage of the natural resources. It is very difficult to solve this problem. Also one of the most serious problems is greenhouse effect. It works like this: sunlight gives us heat. Some of the heat warms the atmosphere and some of the heat goes back into space. Nowadays the heat can't go into space. That's why winter and summer temperatures in many places have become higher. If the temperature continues growing up the snow on the mountains and ice will melt, so the most of the earth will be under water. So every person has to understand how important it is to solve these problems, which endanger people's life.

Great Britain

The United Kingdom of G.B. and Northern Irelands is situated on the British Isles/ The British Isles consists of two large islands, G.B. and Ireland, and about five thousand small islands. Their total area is over 244,000 square kilometers.

The UK is made up of four countries: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. GB consists of England, Scotland and Wales and doesn't include Northern Ireland. The capital of the UK is London.

The British Isles are separated from European continent by the North Sea and the English Channel. The western coast of GB is washed by the Atlantic Ocean and the Irish Sea.

The surface of the British Isles varies very much. The north of Scotland is mountainous and is called the Highlands, while the south, which has beautiful valleys and plains, is called the Lowlands.

There are a lot of rivers in GB, but they are not very long. The Severn is the longest river, while the Thames is the deepest and the most important one.

The mountains, the Atlantic Ocean and the warm waters if Gulf Stream influence the climate of the British Isles. The weather in GB is very changeable. A fine morning can change into a wet afternoon and evening and the wrong side out. The English people say: "Other countries have a climate; in England we have weather." The English also say that they have three variants of weather: when it rains in the morning, when it rains in the afternoon or twhen it rains all day long.

The weather is the favorite conversational topic in GB. After they greet each other they start talking the weather.

The best time of the year in GB is spring (of course, it rains in spring too). The two worst months in Britain are January and February. They are cold, damp and unpleasant. The best place in the world then is at home by the big fire. Summer months are rather cold and there can be a lot of rainy days. So most people who look forward to summer holidays, plan to go abroad for the summer.

The most unpleasant aspect of English weather is fog and smog. This is extremely bad in big cities especially in London. The fog spreads everywhere so cars move along slowly and people can't see each other. They try not to be run over by a car but still accidents are frequent in the fog.

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.

Minsk

Minsk is the capital of Belarus, an ancient and beautiful city with a long and exciting history.

It was first mentioned in chronicles in 1067 in connection with the battle of the Nemiga River during which it was completely destroyed. It was destroyed, burned, ruined by the conquerors many times during its 930 year history: by the Crimean Tatars in 1505, French troops in 1812, German occupants in 1919-1920, fascists during World War II. But each time it rose from the ruins and ashes as the mythical bird Phoenix. Many conquerors have passed through Minsk because it is situated on the cross-roads of the busiest trade-routes connecting the Baltic and the Black seas, the East and the West. Thus, this advantage often turned into a disadvantage. But nevertheless Minsk steadily increased in importance first as a provincial centre after 1793 and later as an industrial centre after the building of the Moscow - Warsaw and Liepaja - Romny railways through Minsk in the 1870s. In 1919 it became the capital of the Byelorussian republic and remained the capital when Belarus gained independence in 1991. The same year the city became the administrative centre of the CIS.

Minsk stands on the Svisloch river in a picturesque place. The present-day city is almost entirely of new construction. It is the city with broad streets and avenues, modern architecture, shady parks and some churches which have survived as relics of the past.

Minsk is the major industrial centre of Belarus. The economy is based on machine-building, particularly the manufacture of trucks and tractors. Other products include electric motors, bearings, machine tools, radio and television equipment, refrigerators, watches, textiles and foodstuffs. The city is also a major educational and cultural centre with the Academy of Sciences of Belarus, the Belarusian State University founded in 1921 and numerous institutions of higher education and scientific research. It's the city where you can find the best pieces of Belarusian cultural heritage: museums, exhibitions, theatres and so on.

My School

I've just graduated and I would like to tell you a few words about my school. I went to school in 1988. This school I studied in is a three storied building. When you enter the school yard you can see poplar trees and beautiful flowers. To the right of the school building there is a big playground. When the weather was fine we had our classes in physical training there. When you enter the school you come in to a large hall and a cloak-room, there we left our coats, rain-coats and jackets. On the ground floor where is also a school library and a gym. The class rooms, the assembly hall, the teachers room and the canteen are on the upper floors. On the walls of the corridors you can see the portraits of famous writers, poets, scientists and our school wall newspaper. It is done by the pupils of our school and has a lot of interesting things to read. I learned different subjects at school: Russian, English, maths, physics, chemistry, geography, history and some others.

My favorite subjects were Russian and English. I also liked literature. I was good at these subjects and usually got good marks in them. I worked hard at English lessons: read and translated texts, made up dialogues, did a lot of ex, but best of all I liked different tests, I was fond of grammar. But I was poor in chemistry. I always failed to learn formulas and terms properly. I liked my class, everybody was so friendly easy to get along with. I was on good terms with my class maids and we often spend our free time together.

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