1.Teenagers and their problems

There are many young people in our country. Teenagers are a group of young people of the age of thirteen – nineteen years old.

I’m fifteen so I belong to that group. There are many problems, which are common for all young people. For example: how to spend free time, what to do after finishing school, how to deal with the classmates and parents. The problem number one is the problem of fathers and sons. All teens want to be independent, we don’t like when our parents try to rule every step of our life. Our parents don’t like our clothes and our music. They often try to treat us like small children. But if you really want to solve this problem you must try to understand each other.

Some teens begin smoking and drinking alcohol to show that they are grown-ups already. This will lead to poor health in future (especially for girls). I don’t like smoking (nobody smokes in our family) and I think you mustn’t do it to look like a cool guy.

The most serious problem nowadays is taking drugs and AIDS (the disease when the body’s immune system is not working).

I think that every teen must go into sports or have a hobby, and know that you are responsible for your life by yourself.

Lesson 2

Youth movement in Ukraine

Life of youth in Ukraine is determined by the economic, social, and political situation of the country. The economic crisis in Ukraine has led to unemployment, especially of youth. As a result of it the criminal situation has immensely changed for the worse. That's why Ukrainian government took special measures for the foundation of youth organisations in Ukraine. They are, the Students' League, Young Socialists, Green Peace, The League of Ukrainian Youth, Sokil, Ukrainian Youth Environmental League, Youth Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists, Eastern-Ukrainian Union ofYouth Organisations (VUSMO), Ukrainian Scouts and various youth clubs which unite young people according to their interests.

Students' League is aimed at solving various students' problems, including economic ones. The members of this league organise youth forums, festivals, and group meetings.

Young Socialists is the organisation of young people who share the views of socialism. They participate in the movement of socialist organisations abroad and support the policy pursued by the Socialist Party of Ukraine.

A lot of young people in Ukraine are active in the movement of "the greens". They organise various actions of protest against the pollution of environment. The members of the Green Peace organisation stand for preserving safe environment. They fight against the destruction of flora and fauna on the Earth.

League of Ukrainian Youth was founded at the end of 1990 by students and teachers who had taken part in protest demonstrations and a hunger strike in Kyiv earlier in the fall. It was organised for the "development of democracy and realisation of human rights in Ukraine; to support Ukrainian education; and to draw youth into scientific work."

Sokil is Youth Organisation of Union of Ukrainian Officers. It is a labour and professional organisation aimed at Ukrainian youth.

Ukrainian Youth Environmental League was established in 1993. It promotes biodiversity protection and technology for "environmentally clean" products and runs education projects to involve youth in the environmental movement.

Youth Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists YCUN works to facilitate the "consolidation of Ukrainian patriotic youth organisations." The organisation was formed in June 1998.

Eastern-Ukrainian Union of Youth Organizations SUSMO is a consortium of 26 organisations of various types, including youth and children's organisations, youth political parties and non-governmental organisations working in the educational, cultural and other fields.

Scouting in Ukraine was started in 1911, under the name Plast (a direct translation of the word scouting). The renewing of this most worthwhile youth movement happened in 1991, when Ukraine became independent. Ukraine needs Scouting to educate its young people in the spirit of good citizenship, leadership, and to foster civil initiative.

Youth clubs of different interests have come into being these days. They unite music fans, sports fans, theatregoers and others. Besides,there is the "All-Ukrainian Association of Young Businessmen", who try to find their own way of raising the country out of the economic crisis.

Lesson 3

Transport and the environment

People have always polluted their surroundings. But until now pollution was not such a serious problem. In past most people lived in uncrowded rural areas and didn’t have pollution-causing machines. But with the development of crowded industrial cities the problem of pollution has become more important. Using automobiles and other machines made pollution steadily worse. Since the 1950’s people have become alarmed with the danger of environmental pollution.

Air, water, and soil are necessary for existence of all living things. But polluted air can cause illness, and even death. Polluted water kills fish and other marine life. On polluted soil, food products can’t be grown. In addition environmental pollution spoils the natural beauty of our planet.

Pollution is a very complicated and a serious problem. Automobiles are polluting the air but they provide fast transportation for the people. Plants and factories pollute the air and the water but they provide jobs for people and produce necessary goods. Fertilizers and pesticides are important for growing crops but they pollute soil.

Thus, people would have to stop using many useful things if they wanted to end pollution immediately. Most people don’t agree to do that. But pollution can be reduced gradually. Scientists and engineers can find the ways to reduce pollution from automobiles and factories. Government can pass the laws that would make enterprises take measures for reducing of pollution. Individuals and groups of people can work together to persuade enterprises to stop polluting environment.

Lesson 4

Ukraine and European Union

The European Union or the EU is an intergovernmental and supranational union of 25 European countries, known as member states. The European Union was established under that namein 1992 by the Treaty on European Union, the Maastricht Treaty. However, many aspects of the Union existed before that date through a series of predecessor relationships, dating back to 1951.

The European Union's activities cover all areas of public policy, from health and economic policy to foreign affairs and defence.« However, the extent of its powers differs greatly between areas. Depending on the area, the EU may therefore resemble a federation, for example, on monetary affairs, agricultural, trade and environmental policy or a confederation, for example, on social and economic policy, consumer protection, home affairs, or even an international organization, for example, in foreign affairs.

A key activity of the EU is the establishment and administration of a common single market, consisting of a customs union, a single currency adopted by 12 of the 25 member states, a Common Agricultural Policy, a common trade policy, and a Common Fisheries Policy.

The most important EU institutions are the Council of the European Union, the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Court of Justice.

As to the enlargement of the EU there were five successive enlargements, with the largest occurring on May 1,2004, when 10 new member states joined.

Notwithstanding Greenland doesn't enter the EU because it was granted home rule by Denmark in 1979 and left the European Community in 1985, following a referendum.

Romania and Bulgaria will join the EU on 1 January 2007, so European Union will have 27 member states but if Croatia enter the EU by the year 2008 it will have 28 member-states. In time the European Union may grow to 30 member states. The process of enlargement is sometimes referred to as European integration.

In order to join the European Union, a state needs to fulfill the economic and political conditions generally known as the Copenhagen criteria, after the Copenhagen summit in June 1993. Also, according to the EU Treaty, each current member state and the European Parliament have to agree.

The European Union has 25 member states, an area of 3,892,685 km2 and approximately 460 million EU citizens as of December 2004. If it were a country, it would be the seventh largest in the world by area and the third largest by population after China and India.

The European Union has land borders with 20 nations and sea borders with 31.

Lesson 5

Europe is our home

I`d like to tell you about Europe. Europe is our common home. All the history is going up from Europe. Europeans had opened other continent and the European languages are speaking all over the world today. It consists of 42 countries, such as the UK, France, Germany and others, and Russia is among them. Europe is the second smallest part of the world after Australia. The area of Europe is about 10 million sq. km. The population is about 700 million people. The largest countries by the area are: the European part of Russia (4 million sq. km.) and the Ukraine (600.000 sq. km.). The largest countries by population are the European part of Russia (100 million people) and Germany (79 million people). There are some facts about Europe.

Europe.	Area.			the Altitude.
Name.	million     sq. km.	% of the dry-land	the middle (metres)	the highest point (m.)	the lowest point (m.)
Facts.	10.2	6.8	300	4807	- 28

The longest rivers in Europe are: the Volga (3`530 km.) and the Danube. The largest lake is the Caspian Sea (371`000 sq. km.). The highest peak is Elbrus (5`642 m.), the lowest point is the Caspian sea (28 m. below the sea level).

There are much recourse in Europe, among them are: coal, oil, gas, precious metals and metal ores. For example, today in Turkey there is ‘the golden fever’. 

Europe is named after a legendary Phoenician princess Europa. Europe is a part of the continent of Eurasia.

There are 42 countries in Europe. Most of them are on the mainland. Some of the countries lie on islands, for example the U.K., Iceland, and Cyprus. Such countries as Italy lie on the peninsulas. Europe is washed by the Arctic Ocean in the North, by the Atlantic ocean and the North sea in the West, by the Mediterranean and Black sea in the South. In fact Europe is really a westward exlention of Asia.

There are many mountains in Europe. The best known are: the Alps, the Pyrenies, the Caucasus and the Urals. Elbrus is the highest peak (5`642 m.). There are many rivers in Europe. The most important are: the Volga, the Don, the Dnieper, the North Dvina, the Elber, the Rhine in Germany, the Seine in France. The largest lakes are the lake Onega and the lake Ladoga.

Most winds in Europe come from the West. They are wet because they have come from the Atlantic Ocean. The arrangement of the peninsulas, mountains and seas allows these wet winds to blow far inland, bringing rain. In winter warm Atlantic Ocean current keeps the coast free from ice. Far from the sea, for example in Russia, winters can be very cold. The Mediterranean region has warm, wet winters and hot , dry summers. {There is a long period of sunshine and clean blue sky in summer.}

In sprite of Europe is the second smallest part of the world, it is the most crowded; 1/8 of the entire world`s people live in Europe.

Many languages are spoken in Europe. Among them are English, French, German, Spanish, Russian and others. The languages, spoken in Europe, can tell us much about the history of the countries. German, Dutch, Danish, Swedish and English are all German languages. Polish, Bulgarian, Slovak and Serbo-Croat are Slavonic languages. Russian, Italian, Spanish, Romanian, French developed out of the Latin language. Today European can be heard all over the world: English in North America and Australia, French in Canada and Southeast Asia, and Spanish in Africa. All this facts prove that European languages are spread all over the world.

The members of the European Parliament are directly elected by voters in each member state. The Parliament is able to comment on proposals, put up by the commissioners and influence the budget and it is slowly gaining more powers.

The Court of justice has the power to enforce Community law on member states. {This Court has sometimes overturned a decision made by the British law courts.} All citizens of Community countries have the right to appeal to the European Court of Justice.

For many people the main purpose of the European Community is to create a continent whose countries need never go to war with each other again, because Europe is our common home.

Lesson 6