5. Read and translate the following text. Personal Identification

It took eighteen years to create who I am today. Within these years, I have been given the freedom to explore the world in order to satisfy my curiosity toward all the strange and wonderful things in the world around me.

First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Alexander Shevchenko but I am sometimes called Alex for short. I was born on the 7^th of May, 1995. I am eighteen years old. I come from Kryvyi Rih, a beautiful city in the central part of Ukraine, where I live now with my parents and my elder brother Andrei. When I look at myself in the mirror I see a well-built boy with short dark hair and green eyes. I look athletic because I am rather tall and have a slender figure. I do not like experimenting with new clothes – I prefer wearing casual jeans and a T-shirt. I suppose I took it from my father.

To tell the truth, I grew up in a healthy family and this made my childhood days more colourful. My parents both have stable careers and this provided my brother and me with more opportunities to learn what we desired to. As for my parents, they both were born in Kryvyi Rih. My brother and I grew up here. Our parents have worked at the same plant for many years. My father started his career as an economist at the Planning Economic Department of the plant just after graduation. He is a 44-year-old man of medium build with dark hair and brown eyes. Although he is surrounded with a great amount of figures and statements, he is really fond of music. It was he who taught me to play the guitar. I am sure that he is the most open-minded and intelligent person I have ever met at all.

I must say that I am absolutely proud of my mother. She is in her forties and she works as a book-keeper at a book-keeping department of the plant. She has fair hair and green eyes. My mother is very extrovert – she would rather arrange camping somewhere in the country than stay at home to watch a family movie. Besides, she is a hard-working person and a dedicated mother.

I should say that my brother and I have slightly different personalities. Andrei is a 19-year-old student of the Mining faculty at Kryvyi Rih National University. He is a very serious and dedicated student. He wants to be an expert in his field that is why he does his best. He reads a lot and appreciates people’s honesty, intelligence and sense of justice.

Back to myself, I am quite a lazy person like most teenagers but I am still responsible when it comes to my duties. Generally, I am an easy-going person and keen on such outdoor activities as basketball, skateboarding and skiing. To my mind, it is necessary to be active, healthy and open-minded. However, I am into less active activity – reading historical novels connected with warfare of Ukraine and other countries. Sometimes I can walk my dog. As it was mentioned above, I have a good ear for music – I play the guitar and the piano a little.

As I am a freshman at Kryvyi Rih National University, I try to do well in my studies. I am going to take a degree in Computer Programming. I have always been interested in how the computer functions. This curiosity triggered my ambition of taking this course. When I complete my degree, I will have the opportunity to obtain a stable and challenging career. One day I intend to go to Great Britain as I find it a fascinating country to visit and fulfill my dreams. That’s why I am looking forward to having a penfriend there. I need to move on in order to reach my goals.

And the last thing I would like to tell you about is the ambitions I hope to achieve in my life: to make a very successful career, to build the house of my dreams and to find someone in my life to share all that with.