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the time. The two faces of the Focus Vignale concept are a perfectly driven coupe that can be transformed into a cabriolet. Speaking of two faces quite literally, the designers made both the front and rear lights looking like «eyes» according to the latest trend's. Some may even mistake the front for the rear of the car. Like on other coupe cabrios, the Focus concept roof folds into the boot. The roof is made not according to the more complicated system of three parts but the same way as on the Peugeot 307 SS and Renault Megane Coupe-Cabriolet, made of two large panels. That is why the Vignale's rear hood won't be larger than in its competitors'. Besides the stylish exterior and unconventional technical aspects, the Ford's concept has a magnificent interior. It is finished with white leather and dark-lilac suede and decorated by inserts of polished aluminium. No exact details for the technical specifications of the new car have been announced as yet. Most likely it will be the same as the other Focus models. Those cars have six engines to choose from: four petrol ones from 1.4 to 2 litres and 80 to 145 hp and two turbo diesel engines of 1.6 and 2 litres and 109-136 hp accordingly. The least powerful petrol Ford can reach 100 km/h in 14.1 seconds and has a top speed of 164 km/h. The most powerful can reach 100 km/h in 9.2 seconds with atop speed of 206 km/h. The 2-litre turbo diesel Focus reaches 100 km/h in 9.3 seconds with a top speed of 203 km/h. The average fuel consumption for the petrol engines is no more than 7.1 litres/100 km and 5.6 litres for the diesel engines. The car is expected to be equipped with a 5- and 6-gear manual transmission, or a 4-gear automatic transmission and CVT variator with manual shifting in 7 fixed positions.

The body of the Focus Vignale is smooth shapes underlined by laconic details. They have that kind of special attractiveness that makes you want to run your hand over the surface of the car. This was obviously the major desire of its designers.

(The inflight magazine of the Transaero Airlines, June/ July 2005)

TEXT 8.

ITALIAN HOSPITALITY IN RUSSIA. PART II

Nafplia Palace Hotel & Villas

The luxury hotel complex is located under the walls of the ancient Akronafplia Fortress. From the top of the hill you get a charming view of the sea, the old town and the tiny island of Burdzi. The Nafplia Palace Hotel & Villas complex consists of 33 new, modern villas. Each one is unique and original in style and design with every interior detail, from the veranda to the bathroom, carefully considered. There are individual swimming pools with heated water in most of the villas, while guests in other villas have exclusive access to a large seaside pool whose waters appear to blend with the blue of the sea. There is also the Arvanitia private beach a few steps from the hotel.

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The town of Nafplion, the first Greek capital, is only one and a half hours south of Athens and close to ancient monuments: the Epidaurus Theatre and the ruins of Mycenae and Tyrins. The magnificent Nafplia Palace Hotel & Villas is the place where contemporary design and luxury coexist in harmony with ancient history.

Kalimera Kriti Hotel & Village Resort

This comfortable hotel and village of 40 medium-size bungalows in traditional Cretan style are located in a seaside territory of 20 hectares. The hotel has its own 300m-long sand beach. There's a natural picturesque cave in a park, which serves as a site for a disco club and various shows every evening. In every room there's an air conditioner, satellite TV, music center, direct telephone line, safe and mini-bar. All rooms have a balcony or an open terrace with a view of the sea or the park. The bungalows are located in the first row along the coast. Guests will appreciate several bars (a piano-bar among them), three restaurants with terraces and a bridge room. For business meetings there are nine special conference rooms for 500 people total; Europe Auditorium has up-to-date equipment and provides simultaneous translation in four languages, audio and light systems; Athena Conference Hall has 450 seats. You'll also find at Kalimera Kriti Hotel a cozy tavern, a children's play-ground, two open fresh-water swimming pools and one in-

door swimming pool with heated water, six tennis courts, a mini-golf course, table tennis equipment, souvenir and jewelry shops, leather and fur stores, a mini-market and a shop that sells national Greek and Cretan food products.

(The inflight magazine of the Transaero Airlines, June/ July 2005).

TEXT 9.

TECHNOLOGY. PART II Style and durability

Whatever colour you choose – blue lagoon, black shine or beige gloss – a waterproof µ-mini DIGITAL S from Olympus stretches the imagination. Since its launch last autumn it has enjoyed great popularity. The futuristic design reminds one of an extraterrestrial spaceship and the glossy porcelain finish makes it difficult to take your eyes off this camera for long. The metal case, cut from a single piece of steel and with a fine flat lens cover, protects against water, so now you don't have to worry about a few raindrops. The 5 mega pixel matrix and TruePic TURBO graphic processor allow µ-mini to create surprisingly detailed pictures. Video recording with sound allows you to shoot videos limited in size only by the capacity of the xD-Picture memory card. The result can be seen on a bright 4.6cm LCD monitor. Its Hyper Crystal technology screen provides a wide-angle view from any point and

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perfect quality, even in extreme sunlight. Picture editing functions are available in the camera, and printing is easy with PictBridge technology. City dwellers who love gadgets and are style-conscious will love the design of this award-winning camera for its special technical characteristics.

Sound: who’s got more?

Creative have announced the updated version of their popular portable M P3 player, Zen Micro. The competitor to Apple's iPod, this music box is expected to be priced approximately the same. Compared to previous models, this one has got a larger hard drive: it has grown from 4-5 to 6 Gb. The player has a backlit LCD display, a built-in microphone and FM tuner. It can play files encoded in MP 3 and WMA formats, and is also able to record radio and any outside audio signal. It also features an organizer, calendar, alarm clock and timer as well as 32 radio station preset functions and an eight position equalizer. There is also a personally adjustable interface, several modes of play and the ability to download music from major online music stores. The battery is powerful enough to provide you with sound for 20 hours. The dimensions of the device are 51x84xl9mm, and it weighs 108g including the battery. There are ten differently coloured bodies for the player.

Mobile Interior

This mobile phone is one of the first folding models with a built-in antenna. Everybody will understand how important that is: the antenna in older mobiles was always an annoying inconvenience. The designers at SonyEricsson have created this phone with men in mind. The typical user's profile is simple: a successful male between the ages of 25 and 45 who needs maximum functionality from his phone and likes sophisticated designs. The potential group of buyers was enlarged by using replaceable front and rear panels. This idea had already been used once, but failed to get as much attention as expected. The company offers four main colours for the phone and two more extra Style-Up panels in every set. The phone looks very stylish with the mono-coloured blue panel and becomes flirtier with the pink and stripped panels. But the real special quality of this phone is a special game pad that can be bought separately. This is a veritable gaming machine that will be very familiar to fans of Sony-made video games. Hundreds or even thousands of different games for mobile phones are known throughout the market. What else would you need to entertain yourself while waiting around or on trip? The processor is powerful enough and the control panel is well designed, so please beware of getting to involved in a game and missing a meeting or your station. Of course, the phone has all you need to stay connected to the Internet and for good quality communication.

(The inflight magazine of the Transaero Airlines, June/ July 2005).

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TEXT 10.

LAND OF THE RICE EARS

The exciting world of Japanese cuisine, unusual to Europeans, has a centuries-old history. The strongest influence upon the culinary traditions of Japan was undoubtedly China, where lots of the products came from, in particular soy and green tea. Chinese cuisine, which is more refined, has always been based on the principles of respect to any form of life. That is why meat in Japanese cuisine was not popular for a very long time. They say that in the old days the Japanese could faint from just smelling pork or beef. However, it is wrong to think that all Japanese are strict vegetarians. Since the 19th century, when the country became more open to foreigners, the diet of its inhabitants began to change. Beef and pork appeared on the lunch menu more often, but as delicacies. Nowadays an appetizing shish kebab yakitory can be eaten at many restaurants made from small slices of chicken meat strung on short skewers and vegetables or kacudon - minced pork chop that has been stuffed with eggs. It is necessary to mention the pearl of Japanese cookery - the marble meat kobu-goo. It is prepared in your presence on a special table-brazier next to your dining table. The meat is so gentle that it literally melts in your mouth. Everybody knows that the favourite Japanese food is rice - an ancient name for Japan was the Land of the Rice Ears. The Japanese began to cultivate rice approximately two thousand years ago. The quantity of rice which is necessary for one adult per year (about 180 litres) was, for a long time, the basic measure of wealth. Now, as before, the Japanese eat rice two times a day and usually without spices. And they believe that rice is extremely good for your health. The second important component of the Japanese diet is most definitely fish and seafood.

It's not common to fry seafood in Japan; it is usually only steamed or served practically uncooked. The favourite meal for any celebration is raw fish, and exactly the kind that is considered the tastiest that year and in that district. The traditional methods for preparing these meals are easy and they retain the most important flavours for a long time. Other things the Japanese borrowed from the Chinese are bean and soy meals. They consist mostly of tofu - a delightfully tasty bean cheese similar to cottage cheese, and soybean sauce sau which the Japanese add to everything on their table. Sau is made from a mix of beans, soy and grains of wheat, and its fermentation process takes about two years. The size of the meal served is also very important. It is very different from, for example, Russian cuisine which may be very tasty, but «filling» with much bigger portions. All Japanese meals are measured to avoid satiation. When you are composing the menu it is important to pay attention to the variety of ingredients and their preparation. By the way, there is another feature to Japanese cuisine: as seafood is usually small in size, there is no such concept as «the main course». There are also no first

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courses, second courses, soups or hot and cold dishes. Dinner can begin with any course, but is always accompanied by green tea. The Japanese like a meal to consist of lots of small pieces with different tastes, so that breakfast and dinner and supper all seems to Europeans to be some kind of tasting session. The classic dinner for Japanese aristocrats consisted of 15-20 different kinds of small meals. The process of cooking often takes place in front of guests. The perfect movements of the cook are in themselves charming. Involuntarily you reflect: what endurance should a person have to work as a cook till the end of day with what appears to be the ease of a conjurer? If he notices that you are interested in his work, the chef will comment on the process with great pleasure. Sometimes in small snack bars where the making of sushi does not demand a lot of effort you can even have a lively conversation with the cook. In every place this ritual has its own features. In some places the chef serves everybody, but sometimes the show is only for you. In this case the cook approaches a table equipped with a cooker, turns it on and starts to fry meat, mushrooms and vegetables literally before your eyes. From time to time he throws new viands into your plate. It can turn into some kind of competition: whether he can fry more than you can eat? Of course, you should learn to use chopsticks so that you can perform a whole range of useful operations without much effort: hold your meal, mix sauce, divide food into pieces, and crush and even cut it. Fortunately, culinary rules mean that meals are served in small slices so that they are a convenient size for putting into your mouth. The art of serving is the most important part of Japanese culture. It is no wonder that Japanese cuisine is sometimes called a toy for adults. Japanese «eat» with their eyes. The design of the meals is very important for them. This probably comes from a time when the grace and beauty of design imbued a modest set of products. Pleasure is gained in every possible way: the meals are not only delightful in terms of tastes, but also are rather healthy delicacies. The food is not only low fat and low-calorie with delicate aromas but also contain a significant amount of the necessary vitamins and minerals. Therefore we can say with absolute confidence that the longevity of the Japanese nation is directly connected with what they eat, as well as the beauty and the harmony of forms of their food that always reflect the season. In the opinion of the people of this beautiful country, each season offers up its own delicacies. The conformity to a season, as well as the freshness of a product, is appreciated in Japan even more than the preparation itself. It is no wonder that during a mellow autumn you can serve soup with slices of carrots cut in the shape of maple leafs, and the spring dish will remind you of the blossoming sakura. No matter where or when, Japanese cuisine will not fail to impress you.

(The inflight magazine of the Transaero Airlines, June/ July 2005)

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TEXT 11.

GUARDIANS OF THE EARTH

Тhe local Kremlin (a common name for citadels in old Russian towns) stands on the higher bank above the Volga. It resembles a string of coral beads carelessly scattered along the surrounding Dyatlov Hills. This is where the city’s history started 784 years ago. This is where Nrzhny’s Old Town stands, with its museums, theaters, administrative buildings and spectacular cathedrals. “This city was majestically set up to reign over all of eastern Russia. The people who founded it were not inclined to settle just anywhere... or anyhow,” the famous Russian painter Ilya Repin said about the city.

Nizhny Novgorod is a city of merchants and markets, famous for its fairs. Every year goods and wares from all over Russia and many foreign countries were brought here. These days, Nizhny is a major industrial center. The aircraft, machinery and auto plants are mostly located on the lower bank across the Volga. Until the breakup of the Soviet Union, Nizhny Novgorod was one of the foremost centers of the military industrial complex and was therefore a “closed” city, i.e. it was off limits to foreigners.

Quiet old streets, merchant’s stone mansions, tiny wooden huts and apple orchards – that’s how the city looked a century ago. Nizhny was never famous for its tidiness. In the early 20th century, the famous writer Maxim Gorky, who lived in Nizhny for over 30 years, expressed his disappointment: “I saw dirt, litter and decay accumulated over dozens of years. And it’s not only the city’s outskirts that remain in this primeval and filthy state. Many of the busy streets in the center have an odor they did not have one, five or ten years ago.” Unfortunately, the locals' attitude towards their city hasn’t changed much over the centuries.

On my way home from school I once saw a man in front of respell on a small patch of dandelions next to the sidewalk. I was enraged. My schoolteacher’s words came to mind: “Our land is our dearest and most valuable possession. Spitting on it is like spitting on your mother.” I shuddered at the thought of what people did with my country’s land, with their own town - such indifference and not a hint of compassion! It wasn't just the industrial pollution. As a kid, I imagined that a wicked witch lived in people's heads. She ruined their sense of pride and they lost respect for their town, started to litter in the streets and break beer bottles around playgrounds. These people preferred to dump their waste in the nearest river or in the woods. I simply couldn't comprehend such behavior, so I decided to act.

Time for action. I remember descending into some mysterious basement on one of the main streets where I was told I could find intelligent people who cared about the environment. First, I sensed the fresh pungent smell of a fir tree and then an avalanche of new impressions overwhelmed me! I found myself in front of a long table overflowing with Christmas de-

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corations, fir branches, large paper rolls, markers and cans of gouache. There were a lot of other teenagers there. They were covered with paint and became very excited upon my arrival for some reason. They told me immediately that I would help them. They sat me down at tile large table, brought a samovar, which they found somewhere amid this festive chaos, poured some tea and gave me a staple Russian treat - honey cake. Their tradition was to solve all problems over a samovar tea party. On that particular day they were preparing a public action to protect fir trees. They told me that they stopped buying live trees long ago because more of them are cut down in Russia for New Year’s than are planted. It takes a long time for a tree to grow, so it’s much wiser to use fir twigs or branches that are left in abundance at the wood processing factories. The members of this organization make beautiful New Year bouquets that are later sold at a special event. The money goes to charity. This time it will go to a handicapped boy from a small town in the region. So they asked me to make slogans for the banners one part of the group was making.

On the big day we met on one of Nizhny s main streets. There were tents, banners, fir bouquets and a little play with Father Frost (the Russian Santa Glaus) and a Fir Tree who told the story of its sad predicament. My new ecologist friends performed all the parts.

I made a lot of personal discoveries that day and ended up very confused emotionally. On the one hand, I was very proud because I had overcome my natural shyness, approached and talked to total strangers and handed out leaflets. On the other, 1 felt angry and even desperate because many of these people had no time to listen to me. Then again I felt happy because I had managed to persuade at least some of the passers-by not to buy fir trees. We sold 70 New Year’s bouquets and raised 738 rubles for the sick boy. We were very happy! Later I wrote a story about it and sent it to a local newspaper. I had to rewrite it four times but finally it was published. This was my first journalistic experience. They believed in me. I felt great!

Beauty will save the world. Green Sail, an ecological organization for children and youths, came into existence in 1990. Kids from the bionics and bio-cybernetics study groups at the Nizhny Novgorod House of Scientists under the leadership of Rashid Khabibullin, a biologist, founded it. Rashid happened to have many friends who shared his ideas: physicists, biologists, programmers and journalists. They agreed to teach the study groups practically for free. That was the beginning of the Ecology School where all the subjects (even drawing, programming, journalism and English) were taught with an emphasis on environmental issues. But the funds allocated by the District Department of Education were always too small for new equipment or renovations. Then in 1994 they came up with the idea of registering Green Sail as a non-commercial organization and to compete for a grant

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from the Eurasia Foundation supporting the use of high technology in the environmental education of children. They got the grant and spent ten thousand dollars on new computers, water testers, dosimeters and other equipment for their research.

Green Sail currently has over 600 members 10 to 18 years old. The organization boasts a rare combination of various activities: studies, social events, entertainment, interest/target groups, research projects, environmental actions, interactive games/debates and fieldtrips. In a way, Green Sail does the job of a child psychologist helping kids to navigate through life. Many of my friends made their decision about their future professions through this organization: after studying in the bio-cybernetics group some of them decided to become programmers, while others chose ecology or biology. It taught me to think, to formulate, to defend my opinions and to appreciate the beauty of the world in which we live.

One of my clearest childhood memories is our annual summer camp in Roostay, a village in the Nizhny Novgorod region where the Kerzhensky state nature reserve is located. For the kids who gathered there from the whole region it was a joyous contact with nature and a harmonious kinship of youngsters concerned about the environment. I remember the intoxicating scent of the pine forest, the lichens and the soil, the old wooden school with the creaking “musical” floor where we lived, our sleeping bags, the buckwheat porridge for dinner, our walking trips deep into the forest, microscopes and binoculars that helped us to discover the wonderful world of birds and moss, lichens and ants. It became clear to me how good it was to be attentive and compassionate to all the living creatures around me, how great it was to count the stars, to hear the alarming crane calls in the early morning, to seek protection from the rain under an ancient spruce, to inhale the pungent smell of wet tree bark and to sing boisterous Russian folk songs in any weather! A mutual passion for the undying eternal beauty of nature united all of us - kids, leaders and teachers.

Mourning the Kova River. Green Sail is a unique phenomenon. Youngsters are trusted to solve serious, adult problems. They organize public protests against merciless deforestation, the pollution of city parks and rivers and the sale of endangered spring primroses picked and sold by people who lack money. It's not Green Sail’s aim to create a juvenile army of street-sweepers: it wants to change children’s attitudes towards the environment and thereby influence the adults as well. Green Sail wants to convey to the local authorities and to the general public that what’s important to the kids’ must be important to everyone.

In 2000, Green Sail won a grant to improve the riverbed and riverside of the tiny Kova River that runs along the borders of two city districts. We inspected every kilometer of the river and came to the conclusion that the

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Kova needed help. With some trees planted along its banks to make a beautiful park, the river could become the city’s environmental centerpiece. Every one of us had their own idea about the river’s sad fate. I remember going down to the river, talking to it, crying and even writing some poems. I felt as sorry for the river as I would for any dying creature. It was a small but lively river with many rapids and tributaries, but every inch of soil around its banks was littered with plastic bottles. It seemed that the chiming of the church bells couldn’t reach it from the top of the hill. The local inhabitants seemed to compete with each other in the amount of garbage they could throw into it. They dumped rotting vegetables and old shoes, automobile tires and even a Zaporozhets car into it! So we, the children, cleaned up a kilometer of the riverside, planted some trees, cleaned and fixed one of the springs and organized a theatrical water show on the banks of the Kova.

Guess what?! The locals looked at us as if we had come from another planet! They turned a deaf ear to our appeals. Some of them just ignored us, some blamed the authorities for not removing the garbage, someone even suggested channeling this charming river into a pipe. Why is this happening? What's wrong with the people of Nizhny Novgorod? Is it the absence of environmental culture, negligence, laziness or a weakness of character that makes us blame somebody else and complain, but do nothing? And we never take the time to look around because there’s always something more important to do. I remember how terrible I felt when we couldn’t change things immediately. It was a tough blow to my childish uncompromisingness. Later, when we discussed the results of our Kova action, my colleagues explained to me that it was naive to expect too much too soon. Green Sail’s main principle was to move slowly but steadily in the right direction. Saving the Kova River was the first small step towards reviving the entire country!

I often come to the Dyatlov Hills, look down at the Volga and think about my country. There’s no shortage of good people here. There's an organization that educates people to love their land. “We’re bringing up the guardians of the earth, who are currently in short supply,” said our teacher Rashid Khabibullin. When I’m in a bad mood and my inner voice tells me that our work is hopeless, I recall the words of a provincial theater actress. It all happened during the Soviet days when open opposition to authority was useless, so the actors went on strike and threatened self-immolation right on stage. The authorities tried to calm them down by saying that nobody would ever find out about it anyway, but the actress replied: “I’m doing this in order not to become an animal!” This is my motto, too.

(Aeroflot Inflight magazine, 3(12) May/June 2006, by Aleksandra Andronova)

TEXT 12.

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THE ANCIENT GATES HAVE OPENED

I remember that fine summer morning. I crossed Red Square and headed for the St. Nicholas Tower. The sun bathed everything in its light. From a distance it looked as if the transparent clouds touched the top of St. Basil Cathedral's colored domes and floated off behind the Moscow River. The square was already noisy and alive. There were thousands of people rushing towards the gates of Savior Tower. The throng was quite colorful, but you could occasionally spot plainly dressed women and babushkas in headscarves, old men and handicapped people. Groups of foreign tourists in bright clothes carried cameras and spoke loudly. Kids laughed and shouted. Although the Kremlin clock had only chimed 9:15, the crowd covered the entire space between the Moscow-River and the GUM department store.

After presenting my special pass to the officer on duty, I entered the St. Nicholas Gates and ascended the steep ladder inside the tower. It was cool and dark in there.

There was another check-point deep inside the arched entrance before the exit from the Arsenal. I crossed the Kremlin's shortest street, Troitskaia. which runs from the Trinity Gates to the corner of Kommunisticheskaia (formerly Dvortsovaia) Street at the corner of the building that used to house the Armory Chamber.

To the bewilderment of Muscovites, the government demolished this building (which was an architectural monument) at the end of the 1950s. Rumors circulated that Chief Moscow Architect M.V. Posokhin misled Nikita Khrushchev by promising to preserve the building's historic facade and to build the State Palace underground. (In reality this would have been impossible.) So they started dynamiting, jack-hammering and drilling until they discovered that the walls of the ancient Assumption Cathedral were beginning to crack. The pointless construction project cost the Soviet Union hundreds of millions of rubles and resulted in the State Palace that Muscovites immediately baptized the “Department Store” – yet another appalling product of Soviet architecture. The new State Palace disrupted the austere yet majestic ensemble of Ivanov Square and became an eyesore in the Kremlin complex.

After they checked my identification documents for the third time, I finally made it to the Armory Chamber, where I'd been a tour guide since April. At ten o'clock, the Kremlin gates opened, letting in a flood of people. Some walked but most ran to touch the Kremlin's holy stones for the first time! I was lucky; it was my day to show the Cathedral at the Archangel Michael, which filled up with people in no time, yet nobody pushed and nobody gut trampled, I recounted the Cathedral's history; it was built in honor of the Archangel Michael on the very spot where Ivan Kalita had built the original in 1333 and its beautiful interior was decorated according to me-

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