Sport In My Life.

Sport is probably as old as the humanity itself. It has been developing with the developing and growth of the mankind. To my mind we can hardly overestimate the meaning of sport in our life and day-to-day activities, because its main purpose is to bring up the harmoniously developed generation - the generation of strong and healthy people. Sport makes our bodies strong, quickens our reaction, and shapes the wits. It also prevents us from getting too fat, gives us so valuable practice in making eyes, brain and muscles work together and makes us more self-organized and better disciplined. I'm absolutely sure that doing sports is the best way to keep fit. There is always a kind of sport which will suit you and there are many different kinds to choose from. If you like team games, try hockey, football, volleyball or basketball. Games for you to play with a friend include badminton, squash and tennis, and if you enjoy doing things on your own, you may take up swimming, riding, golf or athletics. I'm sure you know an axiom: "Sport makes people healthy". No doubt, that's true, but frankly speaking one knows that there are some kinds of sport which you cannot go in for if you are not healthy enough. Say, body-building. If you have a heart decease or other sickness, attending the body-building trainings will bring you nothing but harm. And also, going in for sport is always connected with a great risk, because any athlete can get an injury. And we know many examples, when an athlete got trauma at the beginning of his sports career and in the prime of his life had to leave professional sport. But it doesn't mean at all that people shouldn't go in for sports. I only want to say that they should be careful and remember that the health is given to a human being only once, so, do your best not to lose it.

The Printed Word

Many, many years ago a town crier ran through the streets and shouted out all the news. But now we live in the Atomic Age. Too many things happen too quickly for us to learn about them in the old-fashioned way. That is why we have to read more and more in order to find out what is happening in the world. Reading is rarely a waste of time. Have you ever thought about the kind of books people used long ago? It is only in the last 500 years that books have been printed on paper. Before that time the only way of making books was to write them out by hand. No one knows when writing first began, but we have found drawings on the walls of caves and scratchings on bones which are at least 25,000 years old. The invention of paper played a very important part in the development of books. In the 11th century the art of papermaking reached Europe but no trace of printing was found in Europe until 1423. It is known that Johann Gutenberg secretly tried out ways of printing in Strasbourg, Germany, in 1440. The knowledge of the methods of printing spread so quickly over the Continent of Europe that by the year 1487 nearly every country had started printing books. Later people began to learn how to make paper more quickly and cheaply and of better quality. As a result of this, books became much lighter and smaller. The first person to print books in the English language was William Caxton, in Russia - Ivan Fedorov. The first book printed in the Russian language appeared in Moscow on the first of March, 1564. Up to that time there were only handwritten books in Russia. The house built for printing books was not far from the Kremlin. At that time it was one of the best buildings in the Russian capital. Ivan Fedorov and his assistants were the first to use Russian letters. By the 16th century books looked very much as they do today and since then very little change has been made in their appearance.