Newspapers and magazines

There are a lot of different newspapers, both daily and weekly, in Russia today. Besides such well known old newspapers as the “Versia”, the “Isvestiya”, the “Komsomolskaya Pravda”, the “Literaturnaya Gazeta” and others, there is a great variety of new papers that appeared recently. Among them are the “Economica i Zhizn”, the “Kommersant”, the “Delovoy Mir” and others.

It is impossible to imagine our life without newspapers.

Newspapers and magazines play a very important part in our life. Practically there is no family that does not read them. We can learn many things from newspapers. Perhaps that is why many years ago an American humorous writer said: “All I know is what I see in the papers”; and another American author more than half a century ago wrote that “the careful reader of a few good newspapers can learn more in a year than most scientists do in their great libraries”.

The newspaper contains current news, detailed articles about home and international events, reviews of new books, plays, TV shows, letters of readers to the editor. I like to read articles on social issues and the pages devoted to literature and the arts.

We can agree or disagree with these statements (better to disagree, because scientific books and magazines have more information than newspapers), but we’ll have to say that newspapers help us in many ways. There are a lot of different kinds of newspapers in our country. One can buy them practically everywhere. It is impossible to read all the newspapers and magazines. Everyone has favorite ones.

Answer the questions

1. What news do these newspapers specialize in?

2. What national daily (weekly) papers do you know?

3. Do you read any local newspapers?

4. Do you prefer to read articles on political, cultural or social issues?

5. Do you follow sports news in newspapers?

6. Some newspapers run gossip columns (колонки сплетен). Do you read them?

7. Most newspapers print letters from readers with problems. Along with the letters are answers written by psychologists, doctors, educators, etc. Do you read such letters and answers?

8. Do you read any newspapers in English?

9. What do you think of Moskovsky Komsomolets?

10. Do you read any magazines?

11. In some countries, newspapers are owned by government or by political parties. What about Britain? Russia?

VI. Art, Museums And Galleries

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People reflect their life in art. Real, live art appeals to the heart and mind of man, to his feelings and ideals and it proclaims life. Art is truthful only when it serves life, only when the artist hopes to arouse a warm response in the heart of man.

One can see masterpieces of old and modern art in various picture galleries and museums. There are nearly a thousand museums in Russia, many of them being world famous. The largest collection of Russian art is the Tretyakov Art Gallery in Moscow. It is a real treasury of canvases by prominent Russian painters. It contains priceless collections of icons, 17-20^th centuries paintings and sculptures and contemporary Russian painting and sculpture.

One of the largest and most remarkable museums of the world is the Hermitage, more than three hundred halls housing its exhibitions of articles of the greatest artistic value. The museum’s collections now comprise work of various periods in the development of art, from ancient times up to the present day. Famous painters from different countries are represented there.

The Russian Museum in St. Petersburg is another picture gallery.