I've just left school and I'd like to tell you a few words about it. My school is one of the oldest specialized schools in Moscow. It's famous for its highquality education and strict discipline. The school is very well-equipped. On the ground floor there's a gym, a canteen, a library and two workshops. On the first floor there's a large assembly hall, a home economics room, a computer class and a language laboratory. On the second floor there are physics, chemistry and biology labs. I went to school five days a week. Classes began at nine o'clock in the morning. But I usually came to school ten minutes earlier. Each lesson lasted forty minutes. After three or four lessons we had a thirty-minute break. During this break we went to the canteen to have lunch. Every day we had 7 or 8 lessons. The lessons were over at four o'clock in the afternoon. We usually had a lot of homework and it took me several hours to do it. I sometimes had to sit up to write a composition, to prepare a report, to translate a newspaper article from English into Russian or to learn a poem by heart. After classes I didn't usually go home right away. We had some out-ofclass activities. Our social and cultural life was well-organized. For example, we had an orchestra, a choir, an arts club, an International Friendship Club. I took part in the drama club. At school we had classes in Russian, Literature, Mathematics, Biology, Geography, Physics, Chemistry, English, History, Computer Programming. We also had Music, Physical Education, and Information Technology. My favourite subject was English. I liked to learn new words, to dramatize texts and dialogues. I liked it when we discussed something interesting to us, when we were taught to debate, when we had small-group discussions or set up a role play. But I wasn't very good at chemistry. I always failed to learn formulas and terms properly. Maybe our chemistry teacher was too serious, too academic. She was not imaginative enough and her lessons were a little bit dull. I liked my class. I always felt at home there. Everybody was so friendly and easy to get along with. I was on good terms with my classmates and we often spent our free time together.
Vocabulary specialized ['spejalaizd] school специализированная high-quality высокого качества школа strict строгий discipline ['disiplin] дисциплина well-equipped [,weh'kwipt] хорошо оборудованный gym [d3im] спортивный зал canteen [kaen'tiin] столовая workshops мастерские assembly [a'sembli] hall а ктовый зал home economics [^ka'nomiks] room кабинет домоводства computer class компьютерный класс language laboratory лингафонный кабинет physics ['fiziks] физика chemistry ['kemistri] химия biology [bai'olad3i] биология to sit up засиживаться допоздна, не ложиться спать, бодрствовать composition сочинение report [n'po:t] доклад right away сразу же out-of-class внеклассный social f'saujl] общественный orchestra f'o:kistra] оркестр choir f'kwaia] хор arts club художественный кружок International Friendship Club Клуб интернацио- нальной дружбы drama ['dra:ma] club драмкружок geography [d3ftgrafi] география physical education [,fizikal edju'kei/n] физкультура Information Technology [tek'nobdji] информатика to dramatize f'draemataiz] инсценировать to debate [di'beit] проводить дебаты, спорить, обсуждать to set up a role play проводить ролевую игру formula ['fcxmjula] формула term [torn] термин properly ['propali] как следует serious ['siariasj серьезный academic [,aka'demik] академичный, оторванный от практики imaginative [i'msedjinativ] изобретательный dull [dAl] скучный to get along with ладить to be on good terms with быть в хороших отношениях
Questions 1. What kind of school did you go to? 2. Was your school well or poorly equipped? 3. Was the quality of teaching high? 4. Did you have any problems with discipline? 5. How many lessons a day did you have? 6. Did you spend much time on your homework? 7. What was your favourite subject? 8. Were there any subjects you were bad at? 9. Were you taught computer skills? 10. What subjects do you think should be studied at school? 11. Did you take part in any out-of-class activities? 12. Were you on good terms with your teachers? 13. Did you get along with your classmates?
