HOBBIES AND INTERESTS. Полный тематический словарь, базовая тема, текст для чтения и задания. 10-11 класс.

LEISURE/ FREE TIME/ HOBBIES AND INTERESTS

Topical vocabulary:

A HOBBY

1. Read the texts, and then use them as models when writing / speaking about your leisure time and hobbies. Use as many active words and phrases as possible.

FREE TIME. ( LEISURE. HOBBIES)

I don’t have much free time, because I am very busy at the university/at school. On working days of the week it’s only in the evening that I have some leisure. So I can relax, spend time with my family, watch TV or read a good book. I also enjoy playing computer games or just having fun with my younger/elder brother/sister or with my friends.

On weekends and holidays I prefer outdoor activities. We may take a trip to the country, have a picnic, walk in the forest, go biking or hiking in summer (I also like roller skating), and skiing and skating or snowboarding in winter. On vacations we often travel abroad – to some warm country to relax at the sea-side or visit interesting places with historical and cultural monuments to see famous sights.

We like to have guests and organize parties to celebrate some special occasions or just to meet friends and have a good time together. I often visit my grandparents and other relatives too.

I also have hobbies that I enjoy in my free time. I take pleasure in going in for sports: I go swimming in the swimming pool, exercise in the gym, play football, basketall and tennis.

Sometimes I go fishing with my father (While my sister goes shopping with Mom).

I like music (literature, arts, painting, theater…) I prefer (classical/pop/rock music, science fiction, ghost/detective stories… soap-operas, sitcoms, chat-shows. I often go to the cinema/ concerts/ art-galleries/ museums.

My favorite movie (book, song, singer, actor, show, TV-program…) is __________________

I am rather creative/ artistic and good at (painting, drawing, taking pictures, singing, cooking, pottery/ computer animation, …).

I can (play the guitar/ the piano/ sing/dance/ write stories, poems…). Hobbies are a lot of fun!

1. Read the text and speak about the favorite hobbies in your family

THE HOBBIES OF MY FAMILY

Everyone in our family has a favorite hobby that they practice in their free time to relax or when they feel like being creative.

The thing I like to do most of all at leisure is painting. This is a hobby I devote a lot of my free time to. I took it up when a child and ever since I’ve been doing sketches in pencil or ink, crayons, pastel, chalk or coal, painting pictures in my innumerous albums or in oils on canvas. Sometimes I frame the pictures and give them as presents to my friends and relatives or just hang them on the walls to decorate my home.

In summer I take my easel, paints, brushes and a palette and go to some picturesque place to paint from nature. I enjoy both the process and the result so much! I also like to draw and paint still-lives and portraits. I don’t really like abstract art, but if I have the mood to experiment I may paint wild abstract fantasies of mine in bright colors and weird forms and shapes. But usually I prefer to draw what I see around me. My favorite models are flowers, trees and other plants. I’m so lucky we have a garden!

My Dad just loves gardening: he spends most of his free time weeding and watering the flowers, digging and making new flower-beds, mowing the lawn or planting new trees and bushes. In summer and autumn we help him in the garden, especially by harvesting fruit and vegetables and then cleaning the garden of dead and fallen leaves and branches. We usually see our Dad with a garden hose, a spade, a basket or a rake – he is a devoted gardener!

My Mom’s hobbies are cooking and sewing. She always tries new recipes and creates her own. She often treats us to delicious soups and desserts. Her specialty is an apple cinnamon pie adored by the whole family. In our kitchen there are all special utensils and devices to facilitate the cooking process: all sorts of saucepans, frying pans, special knives, spoons, bowls and pots, a mixer, a blender and the best stove ever with an oven. She feels herself a genuine chef there!

She also takes pleasure in sewing: makes her daughters and herself beautiful dresses. Her sewing machine is always ready if she has a new idea – she is a true fashion designer! She also likes to lay the table nicely: serving meals on lovely china with family silver and embroidered napkins.

My Granny enjoys knitting and embroidering. We all wear sweaters, scarves, socks and hats knitted by her. She also decorates our home with embroidered pictures and cushions. In summer she embroiders sitting in the garden under a tree, in winter she cozily sits near the fire-place and knits her fantastic things. She is a real artist!

My elder sister likes music so much that she can’t live a minute without it: she either listens to her favorite classical staff, a rock group or a jazz band on her i-pod, or plays all possible musical instruments – the piano, the guitar, the flute. She is very good at that. She is learning to play the violin and goes to a music school. Her favorite composers are Mozart, Chopin and Tchaikovsky. She wants to enter the conservatoire and become a professional musician.

My younger brother is keen on collecting things. He has tried collecting stamps and badges, coins, post-cards and mugs. Now he is collecting car models. Sometimes this hobby may be expensive, but he saves money and rejoices getting every new item for his collection, especially a rare or unique one. He’s become a true connoisseur by now. He exposes his collections on special shelves at home, sometimes he even participates in big exhibitions.

Our hobbies make our life brighter, more creative and more fun.

1. Answer the questions. Use them as a plan when you talk about you hobbies and leisure.

1/ Have you got any hobbies? What are they?

2/ When did you first take up your hobby?

3/ How much time do you dedicate to your hobby?

4/ What do you take out of it? What pleasures does it give you?

5/What do you need for your hobby?

6/ Does your family support you?

7/ What are the hobbies of your family members?

8/ What do you usually do at leisure?

9/How do you spend your free time when you get together with your family or friends?

1. Write an essay “Joys and pleasures that my hobby gives me”