The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

The United Kingdom is situated in the north-west coast of Europe between the Atlantic Ocean on the north and north-west and the North Sea on the east. The U.K. includes Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Great
Britain, the largest island in Europe, contains England, Scotland and
Wales. The U.K. has an area of 94,249 square miles. The capital of the country is London. English is the official language. The population of the
U.K. is nearly 60 million people. The population lives mostly in towns and cities and their suburbs. Four out of every five people live in towns. Over
46 million people live in England. Over 3 million – in Wales. A little over
5 million – in Scotland. About 1,5 million - in the Northern Ireland.
London’s population is over 7 million people. The British nation consists of the English, Scots, the Welsh and the Irish. There are many people of all colours and races in the U.K. the climate of Great Britain is mild. It is not too hot in summers or too cold in winter. It often rains in England.
Rain falls in the summer and in the winter, in autumn and in spring. Snow falls only in the north and west of country. The surface of England and
Ireland is flat, but Scotland and Wales are mountainous. Many parts of the country have beautiful villages. There are many rivers in Great Britain.
The main river is the Thames. Many ships and barges go up and down the river. The longest river is Severn. It is 350 kilometres long. There are many universities, colleges, libraries, museums and theatres in the country. The most universities are Cambridge University, Oxford University and Glasgow University. The U.K. is a parliamentary monarchy. The British
Parliament consists of two Houses: the House of Lords and the House of
Commons. The Prime Minister is the head of the government. The main political parties of Great Britain are the Labour Party, the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party. The Communist Party of Great Britain was founded in 1920. It is a party of the working people. The U.K. has few mineral resources. Coal and oil are the most important of them. The U.K. is one of the world’s most industrialized countries. The main industrial centres are Sheffield, Birmingham and Manchester. The largest cities of the country are London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester, Glasgow, Belfast and
Dublin. Agriculture takes an important sector economy of the country. The
British people grow wheat, fruit, vegetable and oats.

Sports in our life

Sport is very important in our life. It is popular among young and old people. Many people do morning exercises, jog in the morning and train themselves in clubs in different sections and take part in sport competitions. Other people like sports too, but they only watch sport games and listen to the sport news. They prefer reading interesting stories about sportsmen. But they don’t go in for sports. Physical training is an important subject. Students of our college have physical training lessons twice a week. They play volleyball and basketball at the lessons. There is a sportsground near our college and students go in for spots in the open air. A lot of different competitions are held at the college, a great number of students take part in them. Sport helps people to keep in good health. 2002 is the year of health in our country. Nowadays most of the teenagers smoke, dink alcohol, and take drags. I’m against of it. On the contrary I advice them to give up smoking and cut down. If you go in for sports, you have good health and don’t catch cold. Everybody must take care of their health and do morning exercises regularly. The are some popular kinds of sports in our country: football, volley-ball, hockey, gymnastics, skiing, skating and boxing. Everybody may choose the sport for himself.
There are summer and winter sports. My favourite sport is swimming. I go to the swimming-pool twice a week. Everybody must remember that the first wealth is health.

I want to be a programmer

I want to become a computer programmer. It is interesting and useful profession. I’m interested in computers. It is a whole new world. Many people continue careers or there parents but it is not the case with me my mother is a teacher and my father is a doctor. But I don’t want to be neither a teacher nor a doctor. My favourite subjects in school are math, physics and of course computer science. I’m not interested in such subjects as geography, biology or chemistry. My hobby is computer games and computer programming. I have computer at home and I can spend hours working at it.
It is much easier to do things on computer, for example to write a composition. You can change the text, as many times as you want and you don’t need to rewrite everything if you changed something. I think that the profession of programmer can give many opportunities. Computers are the most rapidly changing sphere of modern technology. We are living in the age of information. And I think that the future is just filled with computers.
Today, in England or in USA people can work, go shopping or even go on dates sitting at their computers. In our country, computers have been used just for a short time. So after I finish college I want to enter the university and study computer science. I know that knowledge is power. I want to be high classified and educated person.

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan is independent Republic. Kazakhstan is ancient and hospitable land, which occupies a large part of Central Asia. On the eastern border of Kazakhstan lies China. To the south lies its fraternal
Republics – Kyrgyzia, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, to the north and to the west lies the Russia. Kazakhstan has 14 regions, 84 cities. More than 17 million people of over hundred nationalities ethnic groups live in the republic. The head of Kazakhstan is a president his name is Nursultan
Nazarbayev. Almaty is a former capital of Kazakhstan. In 1997, the president of sovereign Kazakhstan made a decision to transfer the capital from Almaty to Akmola. In 1998 the government of the country decided to change the name of the capital into Astana, what means “capital” in Kazakh language. In Kazakhstan people speak Russian or Kazakh languages.
Kazakhstan has hundreds of nationalities that’s why all people speak their native language. There are many parties in Kazakhstan, for example: Azat,
Otan, Alash, Azamat. The president is elected every seven years. The parliament can divided in two parts. One of them is deputation of Senate and the other is deputation of Mazhilis. The Kazakhstan is rich in mineral resources. Coal, oil, timber and gas are the most important of them. I’m proud of my country.

Travelling

I like to travel. First of all, the numbers of our family usually have long walks in the country. Such walks are called hikes. If we want to see the countryside, have to spend a part of our summer holidays on hikes. It is useful for our family. We take our bags, we don’t think about tickets, we don’t hurry up and we walk a lot. During such hikes we see a lot of interesting places, sometimes we meet interesting people. I like to travel by car. It is interesting too, because you can see many things in a short time. When we go by car, we don’t take tickets, we put all things we need in a car. We don’t carry them. It is comfortable to travel by train and by plane. When I travel by plane, I don’t spend a lot of time going from one place to another. I like to fly. If I travel by train or by plane my friends see me off at the railway station or in the airport. Sometimes we go to the seaside for a few days. As usual the weather is fine. If it is warm, we can swim. It is pleasure to watch white ships. I think that travelling is very useful thing for us.

Seasons and weather

There are four seasons in the year: winter, spring, summer and autumn.
Each of them lasts three month. In Kazakhstan winter is usually a cold season. It often snows. The most unpleasant thing about winter is that the sun sets early and rises late – especially in December and January. The days are short, the sky is often grey, nature is slipping and sometimes it gets rather boring. But at the and of March the weather gets gradually milder. The sun shines more brightly. The days become longer. The snow begins melting. Spring comes and nature awakes after a long sleep of winter. All kinds of plants and flowers come out. The birds return from the
South and build their nests. The farmers begin the sowing campaign.
Everything around is full of life and joy. Spring is followed by summer.
The weather gets still warmer and some times it is very hot. The sky is blue and cloudless. But sometimes there are storms with thunder and lightning. The gardens are gay with flowers all summer months. In summer people spend much time in the open air. Autumn comes in September. Early autumn is still the harvest time, the time when the fruits and vegetables become ripe. It is also a very beautiful time in the year, when the weather is still warm and the leaves change their colour for green to yellow. But towards the end of October the weather gets colder and colder. There is much rain and fog. Leaves fall from trees and cover the ground. Birds fly away to the warm countries. Low and heavy clouds hang in the sky. Nature slowly falls asleep for winter. In fact every season has its fine days and is pleasant in its own way. And it is not difficult to see this beauty.

Shopping

There are many shops and supermarkets in our city. They are Zangar,
Ardager, Ramstor, Smat, Resey, Astana etc. My family has a shopping day. It is Saturday. We get up early in this day. Early to rise and early to bed makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. My father and I usually go to
Ramstor because it is near our house. In the morning we ask our mother what we need. We take bags and go to the shop. First of all we go to the butcher’s store. We buy sausage, meat, fish, and eggs there. In the baker’s store we buy sweets, cakes, rolls and buns. In the greengrocer’s store we buy fresh vegetables and fruits such as carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, cucumbers, apples, lemons. An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
Last week we had our mother’s birthday. We usually prepare for this holiday: we bought food and a present for her. We wanted to make her happy.
She is the woman of taste, so we bought a perfume. She was so pleased and thanked for our shopping.

Leisure

When we have time for leisure, we usually need something that can amuse and interest us. There are several ways to do this. People use radio or television. They switch on the radio set or TV set and choose the program they like best. Some people like music. They listen to various concerts of modern and old music, new and old songs, and see dances. Everybody likes to see skating and dancing on the ice. Radio and television extend our knowledge about the world in which we live. Television helps us to “visit” different lands, see new plants, animals, unusual birds, fish and insects, mountains and valleys, lakes, rivers and seas. We are shown different countries, cities and towns and people who live there. This is what we can do at home. If we want to go out, there are a lot of cinemas, theaters, and museums. In our city it is often difficult to decide where to go in the evening. Newspapers tell us what is on at cinemas and theaters. If you are a theatergoer, you will choose a play you want to see. If you are a film fan, you will go to the cinema. The cinema has really become the most popular kind of art. Young and old people like to see films very much.
There are many sections in Almaty. Those who like to dance join a dancing section. Those who are interested in music join a musical section where they are taught to play different musical instruments. People who are fond of sports can join sport sections, such as football, skiing, chess and others.

The happiest day in my life

The happiest day in my life is my birthday. I have my birthday on the
27th of December. Birthday is a very remarkable day for me. In the morning my parents come to my place and say, “Happy birthday!” They give me presents. I enjoy to get them. I usually have my birthday party at home. My parents and I prepare for this day. We invite my friends and relatives to the party. I usually celebrate my birthday on Sunday. I get up early in the morning. My father and I go to the shop and to the market to buy something we need for the party. My mother stays at home. She cleans the flat, makes cakes, lays the table and waits for the guests. I like this day. At four o’clock my relatives and friends come to congratulate me and I’m glad to see them. They bring flowers, books and sweets as birthday presents. I thank my friends. We have got a good holiday dinner on this day. Mother brings us a cake with candles on it. My friends sing the song: “Happy birthday to you” and I blow all the candles out. During our gay party we sing songs, play guitar, dance, make jokes, play games and speak our life and future. After having tea we dance, watch TV and tell stories and funny jokes. I enjoy my birthday party. My friends like this day too.