The best season for a holiday.

It's a universal truth that every season is beautiful in its own way. Isn't it wonderful to tramp down the country lanes on a frosty winter day. Everything is white with snow and it crunches under your feet. The rime sparkles on the branches and the icicles like precious diamonds hang from the roofs of the houses.

It's a merry time for both children and grownups. They can go skating and skiing, sledging and having a fight with snowballs or making a snowman. I suppose, it is very pleasant while the frost lasts, an unpleasant time comes when the thaw begins.

Cars and buses go along streets splashing the mud and slush on the passers-by. Everyone is grumbling and scolding the weather. But soon a warm wind blows up heavy grey clouds and the sun shines brightly in the cloudless azure sky. In a few months summer will come.

Summer is the most suitable season for holidays and vacations. People enjoy bright summer days if they are in the country or at the seaside. They go bathing and swimming, and fishing and boating. But it's unbearable to stay in town on such hot and glaring days. Everybody droops and shambles and tries to hide in the shade.

As to me, I always look forward to summer. I am never tired of its long sunny days, warm rains with thunderstorms and hail, the buzz of mosquitoes and midges. It is a great pleasure to have a rest after a whole year of hard work or study.

Besides, there is a great number of different ways of spending summer holidays. It depends on person, on his culture, education, age, social level and personal tastes and preferences.

However, the beach is a traditional summer destination for thousands of people. Everyone wants to go to the beach! Sun, surf, and sand are a magnetic lure for millions of visitors. The wealth of things to do includes sunbathing, jogging, boating, fishing and surfing. Ever presented breezes keep the temperature comfortable and the water warm.

Beach cities are the centers for easy going life styles. The newest trends in youth culture often originate there. For example, the roller skating craze started on the Venice boardwalk.

Though sea, sun and sand are the same, people try to go to a different place every year, because fauna, and flora, and the air are different. Spending holidays on the beach is a great rest though many people combine sunbathing with visiting museums and places of interest.

And if you want to spend your day-off in the round of your family, you can organize a picknick. Nothing can be compared with sitting near a bonfire in the darkness of the night. Such holiday far from madding crowd makes a person relaxed. Besides it does not require much money or time.

Summer holidays is a time of travelling, for going on excursions, hikes lasting several days, going to the sea or to the mountains.

As we can see, there are a lot of enjoyable and amazing things which you can do in summer. That is why I consider that this season is the best one for a holiday.

Prove that English people have no climate, only weather. (English weather is so changeable). Since the ancient times, people have been trying to predict the weather. Our ancestors prayed to Gods for the good weather or for the rains and tried to make prognosis by special signs. Nowadays we don`t depend on the weather so much, as people did in the past. However, we still want to know what tomorrow is going to be like. Despite having modern equipment, our weather reports are not much more accurate than the foretellings of the previous generations. This problem is especially acute in the UK.

There is a common belief that it rains all the time in Britain or the thick white fog rolls over the country. But it is not quite true. As a matter of fact, the weather is very VERY unstable there. In Britain it changes much more often than in other countries.

So it is extremely hard to predict the weather more or less precisely in Britain. Usually English weather forecasts sound quite vague. For example, “the weather is unsettled today” or “it remains uncertain”. The morning can be quite chilly, the afternoon warm and the evening foggy. Today it is sticky, tomorrow it is thundering and the next day it is murky. So there is nothing left for the English but to predict the weather themselves, using good-old weather sayings, such as “red sky at night – sailors delight”. Now you see why English people talk so much about the weather.

Moreover, it is rather difficult and uncomfortable to work outside in England. You never know if the weather stays the same in the middle of your working day. In spring you may feel hot in the afternoon even if the morning has been rather cold. Working on autumn days, you risk being caught in the rain in the evening, though the sky has been absolutely cloudless before. There is the same problem with winter and summer. Therefore, such jobs, as a milkman, a postman or a policeman, are not very popular in England.

Besides, it is a huge problem for the British to decide what to wear. So, if they go for a long walk or to work or anywhere else, they usually put on a T-shirt, a sweater and a jacket over them not to shiver with the cold or be roasted alive. It is also a good idea to take an umbrella, because, whatever they say, the rain is a frequent thing in Britain.

To conclude, the weather in Britain is extremely changeable. That`s why the English always say: “Other countries have a climate, in England we have weather”.

Ind. Home reading. For my individual home reading I decided to read the Theatre. My father helped me to make a choice. He read this book many years ago in Russian and it seemed very interesting to him. So, I took his advice. Theatre is one of the most famous novels of the outstanding English writer W. Somerset Maugham. It is an amazing and romantic story about the talented actress Julia Lambert and the beautiful but ordinary young man. This novel is full of an amorous passion, an emotional rushing, humor and delicate irony.

I would like to tell you about the main character of this book - Julia Lambert. In her middle 40s she had large blue eyes and florid complexion. Julia was fairly tall for a woman and she had long legs. She was a very good-tempered woman with a warmth, a force of character and a bubbling vitality. There was something about her that prevented people from taking liberties with her. She was very sweet and womanly but at the same time was as strong as a horse and never tired. She wasn’t a brilliant conversationalist, but her eyes were so bright, her manner so intelligent. In fact, Julia was a damned good sort and clever, as clever as a bagful of monkeys; you could talk to her about anything in the world. In addition, she was a born actress. Her talent amazed everyone who has seen her acting even once. Always punctual, naturally polite and kindly Julia won hearts of every man and excited envy in women. Every man wanted Julia to be with him. Although she was wretch, but charming wretch.

Unpredictable infatuation with a young man Tom made Julia worrying about. On the one hand, she was passionately in love and didn’t want to think about consequences. On the other hand, she tried to look at her infatuation for Tom on the sensible side.

All in all, Julia Lambert is very interesting character. All her life was acting. She was honest with herself only in her inner monologues. For sure, people were surprised to know what thoughts had crossed her mind. At the end of the novel Julia arrived at the notion that the theatre is a real life and other people are only objects of her activity. And this conclusion helped her to keep calm and be happy. Some people think that heroine was not a creature of high moral character, great intelligence and nobility of soul, but in my opinion Julia Lambert was a strong woman who could solve the problems and had the courage to be honest with herself.

Everyone needs at least one holiday a year. So when you begin to dream about the sun and the sea, the green countryside and the idleness, there is no doubt that you need to get away from all your usual routines and to get some fresh air and a change of perspective. I’m lucky because I’m a student and I have two holidays a year. After my examinations I will have two brilliant weeks to rest – this is my winter holiday. My hobby is an Alpine skiing and this kind of sport helps me be in close touch with my relatives because they are skiers too. On winter holidays I’m going to spend my time in the holiday center near Sergiev Posad. Every year we go to this quite place which reminds me a fairytale and delight in a fresh air and beautiful nature.In addition, I’m going to meet my classmates I haven’t seen them for a long time. We have good news and emotions connected with our freshman experience.By the way, I would like to visit my relatives who live in German. I have been there at once but I haven’t seen everything in this country yet. I traveled in Frankfort on the Main when I was 8 and I didn’t pay attention for many interesting things. Of course, I want to explore all the suburbs of this country. It will take you a lot of pleasure. In fact, I haven’t opportunity to go to Germany because I haven’t enough money and foreign passport. All in all, I have a lot of plans and I hope that I will have an opportunity to fulfil everything that I have already planned ahead.