Главная страница «Первого сентября»Главная страница журнала «Английский язык»Содержание №48/2004

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Составляем темы сами

Учебный год начался недавно, но пора уже думать об его окончании, в частности об экзаменах. Как составная часть экзамена во многих школах до сих пор практикуется контроль подготовленного монологического высказывания или, попросту говоря, рассказ темы. Иногда эти темы выносятся на зачет. Во всяком случае, темы, или, как их называют дети, “топики” весьма актуальны в современном учебном процессе. При подготовке этих тем можно раздать ученикам тексты, чтобы они их выучили, можно порекомендовать им купить сборник таких тем, можно задать им составление темы на дом. Но в последнем случае трудно быть уверенным, что тема будет подготовлена самостоятельно, а не списана с книги или не скачена с интернета.

Мы готовим темы в классе. Фразу за фразой. Обсуждаем и конечный вариант пишем на доске. На зачете можно рассказать тему, созданную в классе, а можно свою собственную. Но я уже точно могу быть уверена, что участие в создании этих тем принимал каждый ученик. Может быть, опубликованные в сборниках темы более складные и стилистически выдержаные, но зато в наших искренние мысли и чувства учеников. И мне даже кажется, что они и стилистически не так уж плохи.

Прочитайте, пожалуйста две из этих тем:

The Problems of Youth

I think that young people all over the world have almost the same problems. I also think that these problems existed in the past and will remain in the future. And when our parents were as young as we are now they also had the same problems.

There are two main problems of young people: frequent misunderstanding with adults, especially with parents and the choice of future profession. These two problems are connected with each other, because our parents want to help us to make this choice and they often think that they know better than we do what profession we should choose. Of course they have life experience, they love us and want us to be happy and rich and that is why they want to help us to make the most important choice in our life. But it is our life, our choice and our future. Our parents can give us some very good advice, but we should have the right to follow our parents’ advice or not. Also parents like giving advice about our friendship and love. That’s even worse. Because if the problem of our future profession can be discussed with our parents, our friendship and love is so private, so personal that we don’t usually want to discuss it. If we need some advice, we will ask for it.

There are a lot of family problems that we will be glad to discuss with our parents, for example: what new furniture to buy, how to feed our dog, what provider to choose for our internet and so on. We will be glad to listen to our parents’ opinion, if they listen to ours. That is the only way to understanding: we should listen to each other and we should respect the opinion of each other. And our parents should understand that we want to live our own life, to make our own choice, and to make our own mistakes. Sometimes they understand this, but sometimes they don’t.

Another problem of young people is money. Of course it is not only our problem. But adults can work and earn some money. We can also earn some money, but our parents want us to study and not to work. And we understand that we have to study a lot. So we have to ask our parents to give us some money. They give, but ask us how we want to spend this money. It is not very pleasant. I don’t want to say that we are going to do something bad with this money, but it is so pleasant to buy something secretly. Maybe this problem is small and trivial compared with the choice of future profession, but I think parents should trust their children. If children don’t want to tell them how they are going to spend some money, they should never suspect them of doing something bad.

Problems of City and Country Life

If I could choose where to live I would choose the country life. In spite of the fact that I have lived all my life in Moscow, I would like to live in a cottage somewhere near a river and a forest. Maybe it is because I’m tired of polluted air, overcrowded transport, traffic jams and people who are always in a hurry. Of course, there are places in Moscow that I love. For example, the Moscow Zoo. I love this place because I love animals. But if I lived in the country, I would be able to go to Moscow and visit my favourite Zoo. Another hobby of mine is riding horses. And my dream is to have my own horse, to take care of it, and to ride it every day. It’s difficult to do in Moscow.

If we live in Moscow it is very easy for us to go to the theatre, to the cinema, and to visit interesting exhibitions. But do we do this often? I think that if you really want this, you can do it even if you live in the country. Many people say they love going to restaurants and cafes but then they usually say that they are so tired of such life. So maybe it’s time to change something? And if you live in Moscow, you don’t have an opportunity to breathe fresh air, to enjoy wonderful nature, and to feel yourself a part of this nature. Many people love busy city life. It is enough for them to visit the country at week-ends. Almost half of humanity lives in cities. I think I’ll join the other half of humanity. But everybody should have an opportunity to make their own choice!

Дорогие коллеги, расскажите, пожалуйста, как вы работаете с темами? Или вы считаете этот вид работы устаревшим? Напишите нам! Ждем ваших писем!

Наталья Федотова