July 4m, or Independence Day, is the most important American holiday. It's the birthday of the United States of America. On this day, in 1776, America signed the Declaration of Independence and started the fight for freedom from British rule.

Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492. At least that is what all elementary school children were always taught: "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue." Of course, Columbus never "discovered" North America, and the regions he explored were already inhabited. He only discovered them from the viewpoint of the Europeans.

If you are not wealthy there is no use in being a charming fellow. Romance is the privilege of the rich, not the profes­sion of the unemployed. The poor should be practical and prosaic. It is better to have a permanent income than to be charming. These are the great truths of modern life which Hughie Erskine never realised.

The modern world is becoming smaller all the time. Every day distances between different countries seem less. For this reason it's becoming more and more important to know different languages, especially English. One billion people speak English today.

We've entered a new era: the twenty-first century. Of course, it's exciting and we are trying to predict what our life will be like in the future. It will certainly become better - I'm sure of it.

People have dreamed of travelling in space for thousands of years. But it was not until 1957that it became a reality. On October 4, 1957 Russia launched the first man-made satellite into space. It was called Sputnik 1. On April 12, 1961 the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to orbit the Earth.

Probably in no other country are there such great differences between the various national daily newspapers — in the type of news they report and the way they report it. On the one hand, there are the "quality" newspapers: The Times, The Independent, The Guardian, the Financial Times and The Daily Telegraph.

The planet Earth is only a tiny part of the universe, but it's the only place where human beings can live. Today, our planet is in serious danger. Acid rains, global warming, air and water pollution, overpopulation are the problems that threaten human life on Earth.

Tn the past people learnt about news from newspapers. Nowadays people lusually learn what is happening in the country and in the world from TV or radio news programmes or from the Internet. Still we cannot imagine our life without newspapers. There are dozens of them on every news-stand.

The mass media play an important part in our lives. Newspapers, radio and especially TV inform us of what is going on in this world and give us wonderful possibilities for education and entertainment. They also influence the way we see the world and shape our views.

Scientists say that in the future people will live longer. With healthier lifestyles and better medical care the average person will live to 90 or 100 instead of 70 and 75 like today. When the human genome is decoded, we'll probably live up to 150.

Three months passed. Little by little Andrew got used to this strange town, surrounded by the mountains, and to the people most of whom worked in the mines. The town was full of mines, factories, churches and small dirty old houses.

I was born at Number Nineteen, Tummill Street, London. My mother died when I was five years old. She died fifteen minutes after my sister Polly was born. As my father worked from morning till night, he had no time to look after Polly and me, so he married again soon.

Moscow is the capital of Russia. It was founded eight centuries ago by Prince Yuri Dolgoruky. Historians have accepted the year of 1147 as the start of Moscow's history.

First of all let me introduce myself. My name is Taras. I'm seventeen years old. I'm at 11-th grade. There are two more kids in the family besides - my elder brother Oleg and my younger sister Marija.

As you become older you realize that there are several essential things and places you always long to come back to. They are your birthplace, your home and the school you went to.

I am a pupil of the 11-th form, I study at school number 9. I would like to tell your about our school life. I go to school five days a week.

We did quite a lot of subjects at school. They were: Physics, Mathematics, Biology, Russian Literature, Chemistry, English, History of this country and many other subjects.

On the 5th of September 1977, the American spacecraft Voyager One blasted on its historic mission to Jupiter and beyond. On board the scientists who knew that Voyager would one day spin through distant star systems had installed a recorded greeting from the people of the planet Earth.

English is spoken practically all over the world. It is spoken as the mother tongue in Great Britain, the United States of America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Nowadays it's very necessary to know a foreign language. Knowledge of foreign language helps us to develop friendship and understanding among people.

English is the Language of Communication "Do you speak English?" - with this phrase begins the conversation between two people, that speak different languages and want to find a common language.

Learning a foreign language isn't an easy tiling. Nowadays it's especially important to know foreign languages. Some people learn languages because they need them for their work, others travel abroad, for the third studying foreign languages is a hobby.

The school I would like would have a swimming pool. I'd have one for the first and second years and also the third and fourth years. The playgrounds would be separate, one for the young children and the other for the senior forms.

We have a nice flat in a new block of flats. Our flat is on the fourth floor. It has all modern conveniences: central heating, gas, electricity, cold and hot water, a lift and a chute to carry rubbish down.

I get up at a quarter to seven. I jump out of switch on the radio and do my morning exercises to the radio music. Then I go to the bathroom, wash myself and clean my teeth with a tooth-brush.

My family is not very big, just a typical family: Dad, Mom, me, my brother and sister and our cat. My Mummy is forty-one, she is a teacher of Spanish at the University.

Margaret or Meg is the eldest of the four girls. She is sixteen. Meg is very pretty, plump and fair with large dark eyes and soft brown hair. She has a sweet mouth and beautiful white hands.

1 am Steve Jones. Steve is my first name and Jones is my surname. I am seventeen years old. My family is large. We are four in our family: a father, a mother, a sister, a brother and me.

When a school-girl I always envied those students who went to school five but not six days a week, as we did. So you may guess, I had the only day off - Sunday. On Sunday, I didn't have to hurry anywhere, that's why, I got up at nine or ten o'clock.

As a rule, I get up at half past six. I put on my dressing-gown, go into bathroom and turn on the bath taps. Good health is better than wealth, so I do my morning exercises. I get breakfast at seven-thirty and listen to the news over the radio. I like to begin the day well, so my breakfast is always a good one.

Тhis year we are celebrating the hundredth anniversary of cinematography. A century ago the Lumiere brothers made their first three-minute films which were demon­strated to the public on the 28th of December, 1895. Since then a new era has begun — the era of cinematography.

Тhe Russian Federation is the largest country in the world. It occupies about one-seventh of the earth's surface. It covers the eastern part of Europe and the northern part of Asia. Its total area is about 17 million square kilometres.

Тhe British are known to be great sports-lovers, so when they are neither playing, nor watching games, they like to talk about them. Many of the games we play now have come from Britain. One of the most British games is cricket.

Тhere are fewer public holidays in Great Britain than in other European countries. They are: Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, May Day, Spring Bank Holiday and Summer Bank Holiday.