Зиновьева Кристина Михайловна учитель английского языка МБОУ СОШ №5 г. Шахты
тексты для отработки навыков чтения в 5-7 классах
Weather
The weather is a subject we can always talk about. It often changes and brings cold and heat, sunshine and rain, frost and snow. One day is often unlike the next. In summer the sun shines, often there is no wind and there are no clouds in the sky which is blue and beautiful. We can see stars and the moon at night and people like walks, outdoor games and sports in the fresh air.
When autumn comes, the days become shorter and colder. It gets dark earlier and often heavy clouds cover the sky bringing rain with them.
Sometimes there is heavy rain, so that an umbrella or a raincoat is necessary if we don’t want to get wet through. Then you can hear people say, «What bad weather! When is this rain going to stop?» Many people then catch cold and must go to bed. Then a fire at home is so pleasant. At last frost and snow come.
Fields, forests and houses are covered with snow and rivers and lakes with ice. But spring again brings sunshine and warm winds. Sometimes it snows but snow will not remain long, it will melt in the warm sun. Spring will bring bright sunshine, green grass and flowers.
We usually say: «A nice day», «Not a bad day» or «It’s nice weather for the time of the year» if the weather is fine.
We can say: «It looks like rain», «It looks like snow» of «It’s bad weather» when the weather is bad.
Walt Disney and his heroes
Walt Disney was born in Chicago, his father being Irish Canadian, his mother of German-American origin. He revealed a talent for drawing and an interest in photography early on and after service with the American Red Cross in the First World War. In 1923 he left with his brother Roy for Hollywood and for some years struggled against poverty while producing a series of cartoon films. In 1927 he had some success with the series called «Oswald the Lucky Rabbit», but it was not until September 1928, when «Steamboat Willie» appeared, the first «Mickey Mouse» with sound, that he achieved lasting success. Mickey Mouse became a household word together with such companions as Minnie, Pluto, and — perhaps the favourite of them all — Donald Duck.
«The Three Little Pigs» and » Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs», with their still familiar songs by Frank Cherchill, immediately spring to mind. After the Second World War Disney turned his attention to real-life nature studies and non-cartoon films with living actors. After a rather unsuccessful feature cartoon «The Sleeping Beauty», he made a triumphant come-back with the very successful «Mary Poppins».
In 1955 he branched out into a different enterprise —»Disney-land», a huge amusement park in southern California.
Disneyland is situated 27 miles south of Los Angeles, at Ana-heim. Of all the show-places none is as famous as Disneyland. This superb kingdom of fantasy linked to technology was created by Walt Disney.
The park is divided into six themes and there is so much to see and do in each that no one would attempt to see all of them in one visit. For extended visits, there are hotels nearby.
Walt Disney died in California at the age of 65. His works have given so much pleasure for many years to many people, young and old, in many countries.
Robin Hood
Robin Hood is a legendary hero of England. He lived in the twelfth century. The legend said Robin Hood lived in Sherwood Forest with his merry men.
Robin Hood and his merry men took money from the rich and gave it to the poor. There are many stories about them. Here is one of them.
One day Robin Hood was walking through the Forest with his men when he saw a young man. The young man was wearing a very fine red coat and singing merrily. The next morning Robin Hood saw the same young man without his fine coat. The young man was looking very sad. Robin Hood sent Little John to bring the young man. When the young man came to Robin Hood the latter asked him, «What is your name?» The young man answered that his name was Allan-a-Dale. Then Robin Hood asked:»Have you any money?» AIlan-a-Dale answered, «I have only five shillings and a ring that I have kept for seven years. I wanted to marry a nice young girl. Yesterday I went to marry her, but her father is against it. He wants to marry her to a rich old man. Now I am unhappy.»
Robin Hood asked the young man: «What will you give me and my merry men if we help you to get your girl back again?» Allan-a-Dale had neither money nor gold, but he promised to be Robin Hood’s true servant. So Robin Hood decided to help Allan-a-Dale and they all went to the town where the girl lived. When they came to the town they saw the girl Allan loved. She was going into the church with the rich old man. Robin Hood and his men went into the church and asked the priest to marry the girl to Allan-a-Dale.
When the priest refused, Robin Hood pulled off the priest’s coat and put it on Little John. So Little John married the young people and they returned together to the merry Greenwood.
The United States of America
The United States of America or the USA is a large country. Its area is only a little smaller than the area of Europe. As to population, it is the fourth largest country in the world. About 250 million people live there.
Once the United States of America was an English colony. In the War of Independence (1776—1783) she freed herself from British sovereignty and became independent. At that time she consisted of 13 states, which stretched from the Atlantic Coast to the Mississippi. For two and a half centuries the USA extended her territory to the Pacific Ocean. Now the USA consists of 50 states.
The flag of the United States is called ‘Stars and Stripes’. The 50 stars — white on a blue field represent the 50 states and the 13 stripes represent 13 original English colonies, which in 1776 became free and independent of England.
The first colonists from England established a home in regions covered with thick forest against which they had to fight as hard as against the long and cold winters and storms in the northern parts. Very often they were short of clothes and other things necessary for life. When the news of rich soils behind the mountains came, many farmers decided to leave their homes. The first westward travel to make a new home there began.
Great parts of the land the cultivation of which had taken tens of years were deserted.
The coastal states changed their character when the coalfields in Pennsylvania and iron ore in the Appalachians were found. Many people left agriculture for the quickly growing industrial towns. Besides, the North-East is the main area of the industries which produce textiles of any kind, metal goods, rubber products, motor-cars, machinery and others.
Agriculture and cattle-breeding are carried out in the Middle West which comprises the Mississippi-Missouri-Ohio Basin and Lake District. This region of monocultural farms, especially of wheat and maize, and extended meadows is called the ‘Corn Belt’. Besides wheat and maize the Corn Belt farmers grow oats.
What does the Corn Belt farmer do with his crops? He sells the wheat to people. Maize and most of the oats and corn are fed to animals in the states where they are grown. So the Corn Belt farmers usually fatten cattle, produce milk or grow pigs. The centre of the meat industry is Chicago.
One single product — cotton unites one sixth of the United States into a region called the ‘Cotton Belt’. It stretches all over the Southern States from Virginia to Texas. Although sugar-beet and rice are grown there as well, about half of the cultivated land is planted to cotton. So important is this main product that the prosperity of the Cotton Belt depends on cotton.
West of the Rocky Mountains we find the State of California. It is full of contrasts. In San Francisco you would like to wear your overcoat sometimes. The north-western part of California has a very pleasant climate. The south-eastern part of the state has miles of light brown sand dunes like those of the Sahara.
Go over to the mountains to the west and you come into the garden and fruit country which attracted a lot of people since the gold rush in 1848. About 44 years later oil was found there. And again people came, but few of them found the riches they were looking for, as it had been by those who had come in the twenties of this century when they were drawn from their Oklahoma or Texas homes.
You know that the capital of the United States is Washington. It was named in honour of the first President whose name was George Washington. The population of Washington is over 3 million. The most important cities of the USA are: New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and others.
Sports and games
We are sure you are all interested in sport. Many of you certainly play such games as volleyball or football, basketball or tennis. People who play a game are players. Players form teams and play matches with other teams — their opponents. Two players playing with each other are partners. Each team can lose or win. In a football match players try to score as many goals as they can.
Most matches take place in large stadiums.
Athletics is the most popular sport. People call it ‘the queen of all sports’. It comprises such kinds of sports as: running (for different distances), jumping (long and high jumps) and others.
From time to time international championships and races (horse-races, motor-races, cycle-races) take place. Representatives of various countries can win a gold, silver or bronze medal. Such great championships in sport are organized every four years and we call them Olympic Games. Only the best may take part in them.
There are so many kinds of sports, such as cycling, swimming, gymnastics, boxing, skating, skiing, rowing, yachting and many more in which you can take an active part or just be a devoted fan.
Seasons
It is very nice in spring. The sky is often blue. The sun shines brightly in the sky.’It is warm. It sometimes rains, but the rain is warm and pleasant.
Spring is a hard time for those who live in the country. There is a lot of work to do in the fields. Sometimes people are busy from morning till night. Tractors work in the fields day and night.
Children do not work in the fields. They go to school. They should work hard at the end of the school year.
Summer is as nice as spring. The sun shines brightly. It is warm and sometimes hot. It is warmer and hotter than in spring. The days are longer than in spring. The longest day of the year is the 22nd of June.
In summer children do not go to school. They have summer holidays. They olten help fathers and mothers on a farm. There is always a lot of work there in this season.
Summer is a pleasant season. There is a lot of fruit and vegetables at that time. Some people like summer best of all.
After summer autumn comes. The days are shorter than in summer. The weather is not so pleasant as in spring and in summer. II often rains. The rain is cold and not pleasant at all. In September, the first autumn month, the school year begins in our country.
Autumn is the season of fruit and vegetables. It is the hard est time for country people. They should work hard in the fields. Children always help them with fruit and vegetables in autumn.
November is the coldest month in autumn. It sometimes rains and it often snows.
Winter is the coldest season in the year. Sometimes the weather is pleasant. It often snows. Some people like when it snows. There is a lot of snow on the ground. The snow is clean and white. The ground is all white with snow. It is pleasant to walk when it is not very cold and it snows. The best holidays in winter are the New Year and Christmas.
Scotland
Scotland lies to the north of England. People who live in Scotland arc Scots.
The capital of Scotland is Edinburgh, but Scotland has no separate Parliament, for the Scottish MPs (Members of Parliament) sit with the English ones in Westminster in London.
Edinburgh is not the largest city in Scotland. Glasgow, which lias a population of over one million, is twice as large as Edinburgh.
Even so, Edinburgh remains the centre of the life of Scotland. Here are the administrative centres of the Navy, the Army, and tlie Air Force, the chief banks and offices; and the famous university.
Edinburgh, unlike Glasgow, has no large factories. Publishing is its well-known industry. It has been famous for its printers since the early years of the sixteenth century, when the first Scottish printing-press was set up within its walls. The publishing of books is today a very important industry. Much printing is done for London publishing houses, and there are many paper-mills near Edinburgh.
Edinburgh is a beautiful city. The first thing you see in Edinburgh is the Rock -— the very large hill in the middle of the city, on which stands Edinburgh Castle.. The Castle looks like a castle from a fairy-tale, and parts of it are more than a thousand years old. From the top of the Castle there is a beautiful view of the hill and the sea.
Besides the Castle there are many other interesting buildings, such as Holyrood Palace which is the old royal residence, the Art Gallery, the University of Edinburgh.
Edinburgh is famous for many things: its festivals (plays and music), its college of medicine, its museums and libraries, and for its writers Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson and others.