Lesson 22 my hobby

Hobby is a person's favorite occupation, something that he likes doing in free time. Is it necessary for a person to have a hobby? I think so. It is very important for us to do what we are really interested in and what we are good at. It lets us show our worth and become aware of the importance and usefulness of our life.

It's clear that people usually choose hobbies according to their interests. That's why there're so many ways of spending leisure time. Many people are fond of collecting things. They collect stamps, postcards, badgers, toys, coins, cassettes and CDs. I've a friend collecting toy pigs. She has already got about 150 specimens in her collection.

As far as my interests are concerned, my favorite occupation is drawing. In my early childhood I could be sitting hours at a stretch filling my albums with fancy flowers, animals, people and houses. I drew on everything (including wallpaper, furniture, sand and asphalt) and with everything with pencils, felt-pens, water-colors, chalks and sticks on sand or ground). My room is full of my drawings. In it There're cartoon characters, faces of my friends, parents and teachers, scenery sketches. I used to dream of becoming a painter, but I see no sense now in combining career h hobby. It simply became my favorite activity in my leisure time and is helping me to relax.

My younger brother, on the opposite, is hoping to make his computer hobby his future hrofession. Playing computer games he became seriously interested in computers and is now using it in his everyday life. It's on the PC that he usually writes his school reports, listens to CDs and invents programs and quests of computer games.

His choice is sure to be both interesting and useful, But in my opinion, having an interesting profession as well as an interesting hobby makes our life twice more exciting.

1.occupation - заняття

2.show one's worth - виявити себе

3.leisure – дозвілля, вільний час

4.drawing - малювання

5.at a stretch без перерви

6.to be found of - захоплюватися

7.store - зберігати

8.on the opposite навпаки

9.invent - складати

10.quests of computer games квести комп’ютерних ігор ( нові сценарії для готових комп’ютерних ігор

Lesson 23 theatre

A theatre is a building where plays, operas or bal­lets are performed. It has a stage for the actors and an auditorium for the audience. Thus the auditorium is the part of a theatre where the audience sits.

The stage is raised several feet above the floor of the auditorium. At the sides of the stage there are wings. The curtain separates the stage from the audi­torium. The curtain is dropped or lowered between the scenes or acts of a play {an opera). While the curtain is down, the workers on the stage (called 'stage hands') can change the scenery and prepare the stage for the next part of the performance. Several doors separate the foyer from the seating area.

Each person in a large audience can see actors on the stage without discomfort as the back part of the auditorium is several feet higher than the front part, so that the seats are on a slope.

Above the ground floor there are generally several curved balconies with even steeper slopes of seats.

Seats in the stalls are those near the stage on the ground floor.

Seats in the first rows of the stalls are called orchestra stalls.

Seats behind the stalls are known as the pit. This is the worst part of the English theatre.

Next comes the dress-circle. Its rows of seats are higher up above the stalls and further back in the theatre.

Above the dress-circle, a little higher up, there is the balcony or upper circle, as it is often called. High­est of all is the gallery.

Then there are also boxes in each tier of the theatre.

What's on in town tonight?

Let's have a look at the newspaper. Oh, we have a lot of choice. Firstly, there is the National Theatre on tour with "Othello".

But it'll be impossible to get tickets at such short notice for something as popular as that

The company has just returned from a tour in Ukraine which widely reported in our papers, so that even non-theatre-goers in our town are anxious' to see the actors.

- — We are so used to Shakespeare in England that we need to hear the praise of foreigners to remind us of how good our presentation of Shakespeare can be.

And who is playing the lead? Laurence Olivier himself, I suppose. He is the artistic director of the company, isn't he?

Yes, he is. He is also an excellent actor with a wide range of parts from tragic to comic.

What does he play?

Besides playing tragic heroes such as Shake­speare's Romeo, Hamlet, Macbeth, Lear, Othello and Anthony, he portrays equally well such comic characters as Malvolio in "The Twelfth Night" and Sir Peter Teazle in Sheridan's "School for Scandal".

Is the company's repertory confined to Shake­speare?

No, as far as I know, besides Shakespeare the Company produces modern plays of contemporary authors.

Does Laurence Olivier play in modern produc­tions?

Yes, one of Olivier's most successful roles re­cently was that of the old music-hall actor Archie Rice in John Osborne's play "The Entertainer".

Well, will we try to get tickets? You've made me most anxious to see the performance.

Yes, we might as well. There may be someone at the theatre with a spare ticket to sell, that's our only hope.