Books in Our Life

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 classes of them.

Firstly, books on different branches of knowledge, works by brilliant minds of mankind. Secondly, textbooks, reference books and numerous dictionaries. And at last, books of all kinds and genres to read at leisure.

Classics should be taken a little at a time. One's understanding of books by Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, Mopassan and Balzak depends on one's age and experience.

Serious books are to be read conscientiously and maybe more than once. To a thinking reader they will provide new food for thought every time he rereads it. Many people indulge in reading science fiction, fantasy or detective stories. Of course, there are some advantages and disadvantages of this kind of literature, often reffered to as «easy reading».

As for me, good science fiction and fantasy develop imagination, logical thinking, broader one's outlook.

Книги в нашей жизни

Сегодня почти невозможно представить нашу жизнь без книг. Наверное, на нашей планете больше книг, чем людей.

До изобретения книгопечатания люди считали книги сокровищницей человеческого знания и опыта. Рукописи писались месяцами, собирались и хранились в монастырях с благоговением. Существует три типа книг.

Прежде всего это книги различных отраслей знаний, работы блестящих умов человечества. Затем это учебники, справочники и множество словарей. И в конце концов? книги всех видов и жанров для чтения на досуге.

Классику необходимо читать всякий раз не спеша. Понимание книг Толстого и Достоевского, Мопассана и Бальзака зависит от возраста и опыта.

Серьезные книги должны читаться вдумчиво и, может быть, не один раз. Думающему читателю они дадут пищу для размышлений каждый раз, когда он перечитывает их. Многие люди увлекаются чтением фантастики, в том числе научной, или детективов. Конечно, есть свои преимущества и недостатки у этого вида литературы, относящегося к «легкому чтиву».

На мой взгляд, хорошая фантастика развивает воображение, логическое мышление, расширяет кругозор.

Mass Media (2)

Mass Media has become an important part of our life. We all have already become listeners, readers, viewers long time ago. We get information we need while we are reading newspapers and magazines, watching TV, listening to the news on the radio. If you want to relax, you can just switch on any FM station and enjoy music or you switch on your TV set, choose one of the music channels and have a fun. Now you can hardly imagine that just 15 years ago there were no FM radio in the state, no satellite television and internet at all.

Newspapers, with their enormous circulation report, different kinds of news can supply any kind of information. They carry articles that cover the latest international and national events, all kind of rumours, advertising, fun stories, biographies of well-known people, etc. You can buy newspapers also for the radio and TV programs, where a full coverage of commercial, financial and public affairs is given. There are newspapers and magazines for young people. They give a wide assortment of news, events and reports on education, sports, cultural life, entertainment, fashion, etc. There are many advertising programs now. If you like to know more about the World, you can watch Discovery channels that represent a huge massive of information on people lives, biographies (Discovery People channel), new discoveries in science (Discovery Science, Discovery Sci-Tech channels). If you are keen on traveiling, ancient extinct civilizations, Discovery Civilization is your channel. There are about dozen of Discovery Channels, with the help of which we can choose everything we want. Our television provides so much information which can vary from social and economic crises, conflicts, wars, disasters, earthquakes, to diplomatic visits, negotiations; from terrorism, corruption, to pollution problems, strikes, social movements that sometimes we are lost in this information ocean.

Radio broadcasts are valued mainly for their music programs (Europe Plus, Russian Radio, etc.).