First of all let me introduce myself. My name is Taras. I'm seventeen years old. I'm at 11-th grade. There are two more kids in the family besides - my elder brother Oleg and my younger sister Maria. Oleg is twenty-one, he attends a University, he will be a dentist. Maria is only twelve, she is a schoolgirl. I forgot to mention one more member of our family. It's our favourite poodle Tim.
Nowadays it's almost impossible to imagine our life without books. Perhaps, there are more books on our planet than men alive. Long before the invention of printing people valued books as treasure troves of the human knowledge and experience. Hand — written manuscripts took months of writing and were collected by and kept in monasteries with utmost care. We can distinguish books between three
Many, many years ago a town cryer 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 td find out what is happening in the world. Reading is rarely a waste of time.
Libraries are very important in the life of all people. We can't buy all the books we want to read. That's why we take out books from libraries. A lot of people go to libraries on Saturdays. They have some time to spare, because Saturday is a day off. They bring their books to the library and go home taking new books.
My family is not very big, just a typical family: Dad, Mom, me, my brother and sister and our cat. My Mummy is forty-one, she is a teacher of Spanish at the University. She is a born teacher. She has teaching abilities. My Dad is forty-two, he is a professional painter, he works for a design company. My parents both like their work very much.
My father is the best father in the world. His name is An-drey. His second name is Vasilievich and family name is Kravenko. He is 43. My dad is an engineer. He works at an industrial plant.
After each term in school we had our holidays. It's fun to have holidays, you can do whatever you like, you don't have to get up too early, do your homework or think of troubles which occur very often at school.
Hobby is a favourite occupation of a person in his free time. I have many friends. They are very different and they have different kinds of hobbies. One of my girl-friends, for example, likes to knit very much. Another girl-friend of mine spends all her free time sewing things: skirts, blouses, dresses. She makes it nicely and she always looks fine.
How close are you as a family? We usually see each other at least once a month, maybe more often. We have lunch together on Sunday if we haven't got anything special to do. We live in Tula, which is about an hour and a half away, but we always come to Moscow where my mother and father live. It's not so far.
One of the most difficult problems a young person faces is deciding what to do about a career. There are individuals, of course, who from the time they are six years old "know" that they want to be doctors or pilots or fire fighters, but the majority of us do not get around to making a decision about an occupation or career.