Hobbies

When a man says that he hasn't a hobby don't believe him. Everybody has something attracting him more than the other things (why not to call it "a hobby"?) he may simply not realise it.

Remember your childhood. No doubt that when you were a child you collected calendars, nice sea stones, toy cars, dolls, puzzles and so on. Any of you made herbariums during your school years.

Shortly speaking a hobby is what you like to do in your spare time. It's a favourite occupation of a person. If you have chosen a hobby according to your character and taste you are lucky because your life becomes more interesting and exciting.

Any occupation you have chosen certainly broadens your out- look and helps you to become a harmoniously developed person. It goes without saying that people having the same hobbies will probably become your new friends. What can be better than to talk about the things you are both keen on? They say: "Birds of a feather flock together." Hobbies differ like tastes. The most popular hobbies are philately, collecting post-cards, coins and books, reading books, learning foreign languages.

Some people are interested in music. They collect records and tape recordings. And others are keen on photography. Women are often fond of knitting or sewing.

People living in cities and towns would like to be closer to nature, so they are fond of spending their spare time in the country. Some of them hike, and some find pleasure working in their gardens.

For example, gardening and growing flowers, especially roses, is the most common hobby among Englishmen.

Nowadays many new hobbies have appeared. Many people are fond of hunting, but not with guns. They enjoy "hunting" the sea animals and fish with a camera.

Both grown-ups and children are fond of playing different computer games. It has become one of numerous hobbies.

Very often hobbies help you to choose your future profession.

As for my friend Vladimir he is very fond of listening to music. That is why he has recently decided to collect compact disks. Volodya has a good ear for music and likes jazz very much. Besides jazz, he also likes rock music, pop music, classical music. He doesn't like techno, metal and rap. He himself says that he likes any good music. Now Volodya collects compact disks of his favourite groups and singers, he carefully studies the information printed on disk booklets. He also tries to find out everything about the singers he likes. That's why he reads a lot of specialised magazines and never misses MTV shows (he thinks he must keep up with the news in the world of music). He even writes letters to some fan-clubs in other countries, so he has brushed up his English.

Vocabulary:

according to - в соответствии с ............ .

harmoniously developed - всесторонне развитый

1.2 Read the words correctly:

taste, differ, coin, knit, sew, hike, hunt, print, occupation, character, excite, foreign, spare, especially, among, gun, recently, collect, specialized.

1.3 Read the following words. Pay attention to the reading of -ous:

numerous, marvellous, harmonious, various, continuous, gaseous, luxurious, enormous, fabulous, delicious, advantageous.

1.4. Form nouns from the verbs with the help of -ing.