My Hobbies and Pastime (топик на английском)

MY HOBBIES AND PASTIME
Hobby is what people like doing in their free time. Most people choose a hobby according to their likes and dislikes.
One of the most popular hobbies is collecting different things. Some people collect badges and stamps, some people collect bottles or flowers. There are people who collect paintings or cars.
I collected coins when I was a child. I have a collection of more than one thousand coins from all over the world. My father collects stamps. His grandfather started collecting them and then he gave his collection to my father as a birthday present. There are very rare stamps in the collection.
Making things with hands is another type of hobbies. This includes drawing, painting, handicraft, etc. For example, my friend sews small plush toys. My brother makes toy planes. He has a big collection of them at home.
Playing computer games has become a very popular hobby today. My brother is fond of computer games. On the one hand it is good that a person has such a hobby, but on the other hand it is not healthy, it can harm his eyes.
Speaking about me, my major hobby is English. I am very good at it. My hobby includes reading books in English, listening to English radio stations and watching films in English. I also talk to my foreign friends and this helps me improve my knowledge of the language.
I also like listening to music. I have a big collection of CDs with different kinds of music. I also have some favourite singers and I collect information about them.
Sport is another type of hobbies. It is not a professional sport, mostly amateur sport. Some people play football or volleyball. Others prefer spending their free time watching sports programmes on TV. I think that doing sport is a good hobby.
Now I want to talk about ways of spending free time. I think that hobbies and pastime are connected with each other because you do whatever you like in your free time. My friend likes travelling and he spends most of his free time travelling to small Russian towns. He has a car and every weekend he drives to the country to see new places. Sometimes I go with him. I think that this is a very good hobby. You spend much time outdoors and you see new places.
Personally, I like reading and watching TV in my free time. Most of all I like English educational programmes, though there are few of them unfortunately. I think it is necessary to have a hobby. Your free time is not wasted.


Vocabulary:
according [э'ко:ёщ] согласно
coin [кот] монета
dislikes [dis'laiks] отсутствие интереса
handicraft ['haendikraift] ремесло
improve [im'prurv] улучшать
include [m'klu:d] включать
likes [laiks] увлечения, интерес
outdoors ['autdo:z] на улице
plush toy ['pLvftoi] плюшевая игрушка
rare [геэ] редкий
sew [sau] шить
unfortunately [un'fo:tfmtli] к сожалению
waste [weist] тратить по пусту
weekend ['wi:k'end] выходные


Questions:
1. What is a hobby?
2. What is one of the most popular hobbies?
3. Do you collect anything?
4. What hobbies do the members of your family have?
5. Do your friends have any hobbies?
6. What is your hobby?
7. How do you usually spend your pastime?

 

Помощь:

1. Прослушать произношение слова и перевод на howjsay.com .  Направление перевода выберите один раз из списка, в дальнейшем оно сохранится. Для многократного повторения подводите стрелку мышки к выделенному слову в колонке слева.

2. Правила чтения слов смотрите здесь.

3. Подробный перевод в словаре Мультитран. (В часы перегрузок Интернета работает медленно, но словарь хороший.)