English Topics for Exams

The best way to explore the city is to make a tour. If I were a guide I would show the tourists my favourite places in Minsk. They are numerous. But the shortest way to get acquainted with our city and its people is to walk down Francisk Skorina avenue from Independence square to Yakub Kolas square. I think, this is the most beautiful and the busiest part of the city.

Tourists can see the most famous places of interest here: the House of the Government, the State University, the Catholic church, the Russian Academic Drama Theatre, the Art Museum of the Republic of Belarus, Y.Kupala Belarusian Drama Theatre, October Square, the Palace of the Republic and zero kilometre mark, the State Circus, Opera and Ballet House, the embankment of the Svisloch, Victory Square and the Obelisk of Victory with the Eternal Fire, the Palace of Arts, Philharmonic Society, the monument to Y.Kolas, beautiful parks and gardens and everything what our city is rich in. And then they will understand why our city is considered to be so beautiful, clean, green, calm, optimistic and hospitable.

On the first day of the month it is lucky to say "white rabbits, white rabbits white rabbits," before uttering your first word of the day.

Catch falling leaves in Autumn and you're have good luck. Every leaf means a lucky month next year.

Bad Luck Unlucky to walk underneath a ladder. Seven years bad luck to break a mirror.

Unlucky to see one magpie, lucky to see two, etc. Unlucky to spill salt. If you do, you must throw it over your shoulder to counteract the bad luck. Unlucky to open an umbrella in doors. The number thirteen is unlucky. Friday the thirteenth is a very unlucky day. Friday is considered to be an unlucky day because Jesus was crucified on a Friday. Unlucky to put new shoes on the table. Unlucky to pass someone on the stairs.

Health

One of the first duties for us is to keep our bodies in perfect health. If our body suffers it won't make much progress in knowledge, and we are unfit to perform those duties which are required of us in social life. There are certain laws of health which deserve particular attention and they are so simple that even a child can learn them. A constant supply of pure fresh air is indispensable to good health. To secure this, nothing impure should remain either within or near our homes, and every room in the house especially the bedrooms, should be properly ventilated every day.

Perfect cleanliness is also essential. The whole body should be washed as often as possible. The skin is full of minute pores, cells, blood vessels and nerves. It "breathes" the way the lungs do. Therefore it should always be clean. Besides its importance to health, there is a great charm in cleanliness. We like to look at one who is tidy and clean. If the skin is kept clean, the teeth thoroughly brushed, the hair neatly combed, and the finger-nails in order, we feel pleased with the person, even though his (her) clothes may be coarse and much mended. A certain amount of exercise is necessary to keep the body in perfect condition. All the powers (mental and bodily) we possess are strengthened by use and weakened by disease. Therefore labour and study should succeed each other. The best way of getting exercise is to engage in some work that is useful and at the same time interesting to the mind. It is most essential for the old and the young to do morning exercises with the windows wide open in your room or, if possible, in the open air. Remember that exercises warm, invigorate and purify the body. Rest is also necessary to the health of both body and mind. The best time for sleep is during the darkness and stillness of the night. Late hours are very harmful to the health as they exhaust the nervous system. We should go to bed early and get up early. Most essential to our body is food. Our body is continually wasting, and requires to be repaired by fresh substance. Therefore food, which is to repair the loss, should be taken with due regard to the exercise and waste of the body. Be moderate in eating. If you eat slowly, you will not overeat. Never swallow your food wholesale -- you are provided with teeth for the purpose of chewing your food -- and you will never complain of indigestion. We should abstain from everything that intoxicates. The evils of intemperance, especially of alcohol, are too well known. Alcohol costs a lot of money, which might be used for better purposes. The mind is stupefied by drink and the person who drinks will, in course of time, become unfit for his duties. Both health and character are often ruined. Thus we must remember that moderation in eating and drinking, reasonable hours of labour and study, regularity in exercise, recreation and rest, cleanliness and many other essentials lay the foundations for good health and long life.

Work. Job satisfaction

Having a job and having a career are two very different things. A job is something you do to make money. You may enjoy the job, work hard at it and do well, but you are primarily doing it for money to satisfy your other interests outside of the work environment. A career is something that integrates your desirers and interests so what it gives you satisfaction above and beyond the money you make. It is up to each individual to decide whether a job or career is best for them. People may share the same talent and interest but other aspects of their personality will dictate witch direction to go with that interest. Whether you decide to get a job or plan a career, the job market today is quite different from that of your parents. Now, not only are there no guarantees after university, institute or school, but available jobs are scarce and difficult to secure. The young person in today's world faces a very competitive job market.

Have you ever asked yourself what you are working for? If you have ever had time to consider this question, or put it to others, you might well have heard some or all of the following. «It's the money of course», “Work is power and a sense of status”. But you can make your job work for you. Don't let the salary be your main reason for taking the job. Sometimes a lower paying job with the right company and the right contacts can do a lot more for you than a higher salary. Decide what is the lowest pay with which you can be satisfied. Than decide what other things can be important. How much training or experience can you get on this job? Some companies give their new employees priceless training. On-the-job experience can be very valuable to you when you apply for your next job. It gives you the practical experience that no school can offer. This can lead to a much higher salary later. Another very important item for you to think about when you apply for the job is the type of contacts you can make. OK, so now you have the job and you want to make an impression-you want people to notice you. What can you do to become a valuable employee? Do a little bit more and do it well. It really isn't that hard to be successful in your life. It's too bad, but many people try to do as little as they can on the job. Take advantage of that - do just a little bit more. Do remember that other employees can be helpful to you. You should at least try not to score points by being critical of a fellow employee who is also doing his or her best job. Ambition, jealousy, and personality differences are encountered on any job, but the more friends you make and the fewer enemies, the better position you are in.

With unemployment in many countries so high, and often scores of applicants chasing every job, you have to account yourself lucky to be called for an interview. If it's your first you are bound to be nervous. How you dress and act during an interview can be as important in creating an impression as what you have to say. While many employers encourage individuality, let basic good taste determine how you dress for an interview.

War and peace

Several hundred definitions exist for the word "war." War is the waging of armed conflict against an enemy, a gathering at which the main event is one or more fighting competitions for large groups of participants, involving the use of combat and heavy weapons. It happens everywhere, on the ground and underground, on the water and under water, and in the air. The sides may be drawn from different lands or other geographical groups, or conversely, they may be people of the same nation come up against each other. In any case wars bring hatred, spite, disaster, bloodshed, starvation and torment.

Human nature or aggressive instinct is resurrected as the explanation for wars and violence. The men are not gentle, friendly creatures wishing for love, who simply defend themselves if they are attacked; we have a powerful measure of desire for aggression which is inborn and revealed instinctively. We can compare human being with animals. The instinct for aggression, in animals' world, is not a means of destruction, but as s means of preserving the various species. Man's natural instinct is to kill with weapon, he is an animal.

A desire for power, the existence of hateful enemy, danger - are the most common cases of war.

The Cold War was the period of conflict, tension and competition between the United States and the Soviet Union and their allies from the mid 1940s until the early 1990s. The main U.S. allies were Western Europe, Japan and Canada. The main Soviet allies were Eastern Europe and China. It was a confrontation generated and sustained by the clash of ideological interests and was proliferation of a nuclear arms race that cast a permanent threatening shadow over the politics of the period. Throughout this period, the rivalry between the two “superpowers” was played out in multiple arenas: military coalitions; ideology, psychology, and espionage; military, industrial, and technological developments.

In 1947 the term "Cold War" was introduced by two Americans scholars to describe emerging tensions between the two former wartime allies. There never was a direct military engagement between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, but there was a half-century of military buildup, and political battles for support around the world, including significant involvement of allied and satellite nations. Although the U.S. and the Soviet Union had been wartime allies against Nazi Germany, the two sides differed on how to reconstruct the postwar world even before the end of the Second World War. Given the Soviet Union's history of being invaded from the West, Stalin made it clear from 1941 that postwar Soviet boundaries would have to include the Baltic States and at least part of Poland as a buffer zone that would offer some guarantee against future invasion. Over the following decades, the Cold War spread outside Europe to every region of the world, as the U.S. sought the "containment" of communism and forged numerous alliances to this end, particularly in Western Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.

In addition to the obvious fiction generated by Stalin's insistence, different other factors helped to worsen US and Soviet relations. The death of US President Roosevelt and his replacement by Vice President Truman had its role in deterioration of relations within two “superpowers”. Roosevelt had sought to accommodate Stalin's concerns while at the same time securing US priorities. He had no intention of sharing information concerning the atomic bomb with Stalin - indeed, so restricted was information concerning the project that Truman himself was unaware of it before becoming President. As for Truman, it was clear from his first meeting with Soviet Foreign Minister in 1945 that he would be less accommodating than Roosevelt. The USA's use of atomic bomb in 1945 on the Japanese cities had provoked panic in Soviet Union, as it served as dramatic illustration to the USSR of the implications of America's atomic power. It accelerated further the distancing of the former allies, while also initiating the bipolar nuclear arms race which was to be defining characteristic of the Cold War.

Cinema

No other art form has had quite the impact on our lives that the motion pictures have. Indeed, the movies are truly an art of our time -- they were born and have come in the twentieth century, and they now demand the serious consideration given to the other arts. Everybody loves a story. Children mesmerized for hours before a television set watching cartoons they are seeing for fifth or sixth time, or long lines of shivering movie-goers outside a theater on a winter night, convincingly demonstrate that truth. No one has ever seriously doubted that movies are a powerful force in contemporary life. Quite the contrary. Their potential for propaganda purposes was immediately recognized and in some cases exploited. Yet the movies are not now as disturbing for intellectuals as they once were. One reason, no doubt, is that they are no longer, at least in the United States, the popular art - television has stolen the public interest. At present suspended somewhere between the hell of mass culture and the heaven of high art, the movies are undergoing aesthetic purification.

Much remains to be accomplished, however. Since we have to live with the movies, we would prefer not to be embarrassed by them. Action films usually include high energy, big-budget physical stunts and chases, possibly with rescues, battles, fights, escapes, destructive crises (floods, explosions, natural disasters, fires, etc.), non-stop motion, spectacular rhythm and pacing, and adventurous, often two-dimensional 'good-guy' heroes (or recently, heroines) battling 'bad guys' - all designed for pure audience escapism. Adventure films are usually exciting stories, with new experiences or exotic locales, very similar to or often paired with the action film genre. They can include traditional swashbucklers, serialized films, and historical spectacles (similar to the epics film genre), searches or expeditions for lost continents, "jungle" and "desert" epics, treasure hunts, disaster films, or searches for the unknown. Comedies are light-hearted plots consistently and deliberately designed to amuse and provoke laughter by exaggerating the situation, the language, action, relationships and characters. The choice of the picture depends on me mood. Crime (gangster) films are developed around the sinister actions of criminals or mobsters, particularly bank robbers, underworld figures, or ruthless hoodlums who operate outside the law, stealing and murdering their way through life. Epics include costume dramas, historical dramas, war films, medieval romps, or 'period pictures' that often cover a large expanse of time set against a vast, panoramic backdrop. Epics often share elements of the elaborate adventure films genre. Horror films are designed to frighten and to invoke our hidden worst fears, often in a terrifying, shocking finale, while captivating and entertaining us at the same time in a cathartic experience.

"Cinema has multiple roles”. It is hardly surprising to learn that most people go to the movies to be entertained, but entertainment can also be educational, informative and illuminating.

Painting

Art is an all embracing notion. Art had the most important role in the development of the mankind. The first were found on the walls of ancient caves. So we can guess that painting was the first way of art. Painting is the most understandable way of art, because it gives us the most full and vivid impressions.

I think that art has many functions and it's hard to overestimate the role of art in one's life. Art has great influence on our souls, feelings, forms, our moral values. Art forms our outwork and enriches our inner world. Art makes us think of the sense of life, how people must live, what is an ideal of beauty, what is love. Art helps us to understand people who lived hundred years ago and to learn the history of mankind. Art has a great educational significance. Art brings people up, makes them more humane and kind. The language of art is universal. Everybody in spite of age, nationality, occupation understands what is said by the painter. But I think that not every painter becomes famous. Only talented, genius people can create great, eternal art, a real masterpiece. Art is great only if it has links with people's lives, interests, ideals. If it hasn't, it won't be understood or acknowledged.

As to the trends of art I prefer old art: painting of old is one of the greatest treasures of mankind; old painting reflects the collective experience of human spiritual life of many centuries, because, as I have already said, painting is the first way or art; the advanced technical experience of modern painters would have been impossible without supreme technical achievements of old masters.

My favourite genre of painting is portraiture. My favourite picture is perhaps the most famous in the world-the mysterious portrait of Mona Lisa. The masterpiece is executed by an outstanding artist, a genius Leonardo da Vinci. He was a representative of Italian Renaissance. Leonardo's paintings, drawings show that he was the most famous creative mind of his time. His contribution to Art is enormous. He was the first painter whose pictures conveyed a sense of space. The half-length portrait of Mona Lisa depicts her sitting de the window. Her figure is placed against the background of a mountain landscape. The silhouette of the woman merges onto a single entity with nature. The artist portrays Mona Lisa in a modest black dress, without useless frills and jewelry. Thus, he emphasizes the beauty of her face and hands. Her eyes are following you however you look at her face and her smile produce a magnificent impression. Leonardo perfectly combines form and colour into harmonious unity.

School education

Schooling is voluntary under the age of 5 but there is some free nursery school education before that age. All British children must go to school from the age of 5 until they are 16. Many of them stay longer and take final examinations when they are 17 or 18. Secondary education has been available in Britain since 1944.

State schools are divided into the following types:

- Grammar schools. Children who go to grammar schools are usually those who show a preference for academic subjects, although many grammar schools now also have some technical courses.

- Technical schools. Some children go to technical schools. Most courses there are either commercial or technical.

- Modern schools. Boys and girls who are interested in working with there hands and learning in a practical way can go to a technical schools and learn some trade.

- Comprehensive schools. These schools usually combine all types of secondary education. They have physics, chemistry, biology laboratories, machine workshops for metal and woodwork and also geography, history and art departments, commercial and domestic courses.

There are also many schools which the State doesn't control. The private sector is running parallel to the state system of education. There are over 2500 fee-charging independent schools in GB. They are private schools. They charge fees for educating children and many of them are boarding schools, at which pupils live during the term time. Most private schools are single-sex until the age of 16. More and more parents seem prepared to take on the formidable extra cost of the education. The reason is the believe that social advantages are gained from attending a certain school. The most expansive day or boarding schools in Britain are exclusive public schools like Eton college for boys and St. James' school for girls. After leaving school many young people go to colleges or further education. Those who become students at Colleges of Technology come from different schools at different ages between 15 and 17.