- •Let’s talk about family.
- •Let’s talk about your family. What is family for you?
- •Are there any things that you do with your parents together?
- •What will you ask your British friend about his family?
- •What can you advise people who want to have a close and happy family?
- •Nowadays an average family has one child. From your point of view, how many children should there be in a family?
- •Let’s talk about family traditions.
- •Let’s talk about family traditions. Why is it important to have family traditions?
- •Are you on good terms with your parents and grandparents?
- •What will you ask a British teenager about his relatives?
- •What can you advise people who want to have a good relationship with their parents and grandparents?
- •They say that parents and children have difficulties understanding each other because of the generation gap. What do you think about this problem?
- •Let’s talk about friendship and relationship with friends.
- •Let’s talk about friendship. What role do friends play in your life?
- •Do you agree that Belarusian secondary school provides a person with good knowledge? Why (not)?
- •Ask me whether I liked school when I was a pupil.
- •What can you advise a student who is not very good at languages to do to achieve better results?
- •Today some young people think that having a good education is not very important. Do you agree with them?
- •Let’s talk about studying at school.
- •Let’s talk about studying at school. What can you tell me about the place where you study?
- •Do you agree that our school gives a person a good start in life? Why (not)?
- •Ask me what kind of pupil I was when I was at school?
- •You are talking with a British student. What would you advise him to do to prepare for an exam well?
- •Today some young people want to study abroad because they believe that the level of education is higher there. Would you do the same?
- •7. School Traditions.
- •Let’s talk about school traditions. What traditions does your school have?
- •Does your school differ from any other school you know?
- •3. Ask your British friend about his school traditions.
- •4. Which school club would you advise your classmate to join?
- •5. Do you think it is easy to organize a good school party? What problems can you face?
- •Let’s talk about choosing a career.
- •Let’s talk about choosing a career. What would you like to become?
- •Does a person need to possess special qualities to become a good specialist in this or that particular field? Why?
- •What questions will you ask your future employer about your future job?
- •Give me some advice on what I need to think about when choosing a job.
- •Some people think that it is necessary to have a good command of a foreign language to get a good job. Do you agree with this?
- •Let’s talk about life in the city and life in the country.
- •Let’s talk about life in the city and life in the country. Describe your place.
- •Do you find your city/town/village a comfortable place for living?
- •What questions will you ask a person who decided to move to the country?
- •Your friend doesn’t know what to choose: to live in a city or in the country. Give him some advice.
- •They say that living in the country is better than living in a city. What do you think about this?
- •Let’s talk about different types of houses.
- •Let’s talk about different types of houses. Tell me about the house/flat you live in.
- •Do you know any recipes of our national dishes?
- •What questions will you ask a friend about his favourite dish?
- •Which national dishes can you recommend a tourist to taste in Belarus?
- •Let’s talk about the national cuisine of an English-speaking country.
- •Let’s talk about British national cuisine. What can you tell me about eating habits in Britain?
- •Do you know any traditional British dishes ?
- •What questions can you ask a British friend about their national cuisine?
- •Your British friend can’t stop eating fast food. Try to persuade him that is unhealthy.
- •Does British cuisine differ from Belarusian cuisine?
- •Let’s talk about shopping.
- •Let’s talk about shopping. Who does the shopping in your family?
- •Do you like shopping? Why (not)?
- •What questions will you ask your friend who has bought an expensive telephone?
- •What can you advise a person who wants to buy many things (clothes, foodstuffs, etc.) but has little time?
- •5.Parents usually give pocket money to their children. How do you usually spend your pocket money?
- •Let’s talk about leisure time.
- •Let’s talk about leisure time. What do you do in your free time?
- •Let’s talk about customs and traditions of Belarus.
- •Let’s talk about customs and traditions of Belarus. What can you tell me about your favourite holiday in Belarus?
- •Are you proud of our national holidays and traditions?
- •Do you find some British holidays and celebrations special? Why (not)?
- •What questions can you ask a British teenager about his birthday celebration?
- •What British festivals would you advise your friend to visit?
- •Nowadays more and more people are getting interested in customs and traditions of different countries. What do you think about it?
- •Let’s talk about modern means of communication.
- •Let’s talk about modern means of communication. What are they?
- •Is there any means of communication you can’t live without? Why (not)?
- •Let’s talk about sport.
- •Let’s talk about sport. What is your favourite kind of sport?
- •What do you do to keep fit?
- •What questions will you ask a professional sportsman?
- •Are there any sports clubs at the lyceum? Which of them will you advise your friend to join?
- •Some pupils try to skip pe lessons thinking they are of less importance than other school subjects. What do you think about it?
- •Let’s talk about fashion.
- •Let’s talk about fashion. What clothes do you prefer to wear in different situations?
- •Do you prefer fashionable clothes to comfortable ones? Why (not)?
- •What questions would you ask a fashion designer?
- •What can you advise a person who wants to change something about his/her style but doesn’t know how to do it?
- •5.A famous person once said: “Fashions come and go, style is forever.” What do you think about it?
- •Let’s talk about travelling and tourism.
- •1.Let’s talk about travelling. What role does it play in your life? (Do you like travelling? Why?)
- •2. How do you like to travel? (What means of travel do you prefer and why?)
- •3. What questions will you ask a tour guide on a tour to London?
- •4.You’ve visited some foreign countries. Which of them did you like most and would recommend your friend to visit?
- •5. Today people are tired of exotic countries and prefer to spend holidays in the countryside in Belarus. What can attract people to it?
- •Let’s talk about environment.
- •Let’s talk about environment. People say that our planet is in danger. Do you share this opinion?
- •What do you think people should do to protect the environment?
- •Are you weather dependent?
- •What questions will you ask your British friend about the weather in his country?
- •Your friend wants to know what climate change is caused by. Can you explain it to him?
- •They say there’s no bad weather, there are bad clothes. What do you think about it?
- •Let’s talk about Belarus.
- •Let’s talk about Belarus. What can you tell me about our Motherland?
- •Do you know any symbols of our country?
- •What questions about Belarus do you expect to hear from a British teenager?
- •What Belarusian sights would you advise a foreigner to visit?
- •Let’s talk about Great Britain.
- •Let’s talk about Great Britain. What do you know about this country?
- •What part of Great Britain would you like to visit? Why?
- •3)_What would you like to ask a British teenager about Britain?
- •4) Give me a piece of advice on what sights to see in London.
- •5)They say it’s important for a person to speak English nowadays because it is popular all over the world. What is your opinion?
Does a person need to possess special qualities to become a good specialist in this or that particular field? Why?
No doubt a person needs to possess special qualities to become a good specialist in this or that particular field. Let’s take the profession of a teacher, for example. I think that a good teacher of English should possess the following qualities: a good command of English, a tactful way of dealing with pupils, an even temper and a cheerful manner, a good sense of humour and imagination. It’s common knowledge that an ignorant teacher teaches ignorance, a fearful teacher teaches fear, a bored teacher teaches boredom. But a good teacher has a great influence on his pupils’ lives. So it is an incredible responsibility to be a teacher.
What questions will you ask your future employer about your future job?
Give me some advice on what I need to think about when choosing a job.
When choosing a job you should ask yourself if you are suitable for it. You should also find out if you are expected to possess certain qualities needed for the job and whether you will be able to develop these qualities in the process of training and education. It is necessary to consider all pros and contras so as not to regret your decision afterwards. Actually, it’s not a pleasant thing to stay all your life in the job which you don’t like. So the most important thing is to have interesting and creative work. And if it’s well-paid at the same time, then it looks even more attractive.
Some people think that it is necessary to have a good command of a foreign language to get a good job. Do you agree with this?
At present many professions, such as a pilot, a programmer, an engineer, a businessman and many others, require a working knowledge of at least one foreign language. All sorts of diplomatic, business and cultural contacts involve the use of foreign languages. English is the main language of communication in such areas as science, computer technology, mass entertainment and international tourism. So if you have a good command of a foreign language, you will have many more job opportunities.
Let’s talk about life in the city and life in the country.
Let’s talk about life in the city and life in the country. Describe your place.
I live in Mogilev. It is a regional town which lies on the picturesque banks of the Dnieper. The population of Mogilev is about 4 hundred thousand people.
Mogilev is a very old town. It was founded in 1267, so it is more than seven centuries old. Some legends say that Mogilev was named after Masheka, a very strong and courageous man, whose burial place was called “The Grave of the Lion”, which sounds in Russian as “Mogila Lva” or Mogilev.
Pervomayskaya street and Mir Avenue are the main thoroughfares of our town. A lot of shops and offices are located there: the Central Department store, the Main Post-office, the town library and others. The centre of our town is Lenin Square with a huge beautiful building. In fact, it’s a replica of Minsk Government House. It was built in the thirties when it was planned to make Mogilev the capital of Belarus. Most of the town offices are located there.
There are many industrial enterprises in Mogilev: the synthetic fibre plant, the automobile works, the lift-making plant and others. They produce machines, lifts, chemical products, textiles and many other useful things. Unfortunately, some enterprises increase our ecological problems.
I suppose we can say that Mogilev is a big cultural centre. There are several universities, many technical and secondary schools, colleges, lyceums and gymnasiums. We have a good drama theatre and a puppet theatre. There is a picture gallery and several exhibition halls. The museum of Byalynitsky-Birulya has a rich collection of pictures.
There are some places of interest in Mogilev. One of them is a field in Buinichi with a monument to Konstantin Simonov. During the Great Patriotic War 39 tanks were destroyed there. The defence of Mogilev, which stood against the enemy for 23 days when the whole of Belarus had already been occupied, was described by Konstantin Simonov in his book “The Living and the Dead”. Simonov often visited our town, and after his death the ashes of his body were scattered over this field.
In Soviet square one can see the building where the headquarters of the last Russian tsar was. There are also some war memorials and monuments to heroes of war and to other outstanding people in our town.