10. What do You Enjoy Doing in Your Free Time?

By yourself

Look at the questionnaire given below.

Decide which activities you enjoy doing in your free time.

What do You Enjoy Doing in Your Free Time?

watching TV walking in the rain

running/jogging cooking

dancing going to the cinema

taking photos reading

sewing going to museums

daydreaming talking on the phone

singing painting

going on picnics listening to music

playing football relaxing with family/friends

hiking going bowling

writing letters swimming

keeping fit going to parties

growing flowers going out to eat

With a partner

Compare your answers with your partner's.

Did you choose any of the same things?

Explain to your partner why you enjoy doing those things in your free time.

Ask you partner questions about his/her free-time activities and make notes on what, how often, and where.

With the whole class

Tell the class about your partner's free time activities:

What he/she enjoys doing

How often he/she does it

Where he/she does it

11. Free Time

With a partner

From the list below choose activities which you consider to be useful and interesting to do in free time.

Convince your partner of that.

1. going to the cinema / theatre / on an excursion

2. visiting museums / exhibitions / friends

3. playing a musical instrument

4. listening to music /records

5. going to concerts

6. going in for sports

7. painting / drawing

8. singing in a choir

With the whole class

Discuss: What hobbies …

1. help to educate people / to understand life better / to develop man's skills and talents / to develop physically (mentally)?

2. are useful to man's health / to man's artistic development / for your study / for your future work?

3. help to relax / to learn more about nature ( history / different countries / art ), to develop man's memory?

Give your reasons.

12. Discussion Questions

With the whole class

Discuss:

1. How can hobbies be classified? (indoor — outdoor activities; mental — physical activities; doing things, making things, collecting things, learning things) What is the most popular group of hobbies? Why?

2. Do leisure-time activities depend on a person's character/way of life/family traditions?

3. Does the choice of hobbies depend on age? What hobbies would children (teenagers, old people) prefer?

4. Does the choice of hobbies depend on season? What hobbies are preferable in bad / good weather?

5. What time is free time? Is it the same free time and doing nothing? Is it good, when we have too much free time?

6. What occupation do you usually devote your free time to?

7. Are you sometimes idle in your free time? Is it well to be idle?

13. Conversation Topics

With a partner

In a youth hostel you have got acquainted with a boy/girl. Spending your free time together you are...

1. telling your friend about your hobbies.

2. telling your friend of the way you prefer to spend your free time.

3. telling your friend about your collection.

4. telling your friend why you became a collector.

5. telling your friend about your pet.

Role play the given situations.

14. Which leisure activity do you associate with these words?

Example: summer, outdoors, sandwiches—having a picnic.

a) ticket, orchestra, Mozart —

b) clowns, acrobats, animals —

c) gallery, painting, sculptures —

d) music, food, friends, a cake with candles —

e) actors, play, stage —

f) sun, sand, relaxation —

g) camera, places of interest, bus —

h) evening, dancing, going out —

i) fire, river, fish —

15. Look at these extracts from newspaper reviews. What leisure activities are they about?

1. This was a complete waste of an evening. The script was awful, the acting was wooden, and the camerawork was dreadful.

2. It was a terrific event. The goal scored by "Manchester United" will go down in history as one of the very best.

3. The food wasn't too bad but the music was disgusting. It was impossible to dance to it. And you couldn't talk either: so loud the music was!

4. The prices were rather high but you got the best service for your money. There was a swimming pool, a sauna, several cafes, a cinema, a disco club and what not. So it was a real floating town!