Topics

                The negative emotions

                          The plan

1. The definition of emotions.

2. What kind of signals our feelings are.

3. Biorhythms.

4. The high and low energy periods.

5. The critical time of the period.

6. The way to overcome the low spirit by means of geshtalt psychology.

7. Hobbies and physical activity.

8. The ancient Celts.

9. The benefit of showering and diet.

‘Emotion’ is the general term, which unites the feeling tone, the physiological state and even chemical changes we are beginning to understand under the impact of the sensations we experience.

Feeling is our subjective awareness of our own state of stability. They are fine tunings directing the ways, in which we will manipulate our surroundings. When something is wrong, we feel anxiety, tension and strive to avoid the incipient threat. Feelings  allow us to model our behaviour according to certain ideals and register when we have moved away from these ideals or have not yet achieved them.

At the beginning of this century, medical scientists made a surprising discovery: that we are built not just of flesh and blood but also of time. The forces that regulate the rise and fall of our body energies are called biorhythms; they create the ‘highs’ and ‘lows’ in our everyday life.

Scientists have identified the following three biorhythmic cycles: physical, emotional and intellectual. Each cycle lasts approximately 28 days and each is divided into a high and low energy periods of equal length. During the high energy period, we are more resistant to stress, high-spirited and hardworking. Usually high periods of physical and emotional energy clash.  The low energy period puts energy into our ‘batteries’ for the next high period.

The critical or the weakest time is the time of changeover from the high energy period to the low energy period. This critical time usually lasts a day. During this low emotional day, we should be reserved and control our behaviour when dealing with other people, especially children. If a teacher got angry because of odd reason, the children stay upset for a long time that retards their mental activity.  

The best way to overcome one’s low spirit is to concentrate all one’s attention on the image of the desired aim, and made all the ‘batteries’ have charged from various sources of positive emotions. It may be friends, music, games, and shopping and so on. In case, if reasons of our frustration are obvious we can tell about it to an imaginary companion. We should put a chair in front of us and try to retell all the most offensive points of this case. Then we should do something good and pleasant for ourselves. It is possible that after all our ‘batteries’ will suggest something interesting and useful.

Another tested technique is physical activity, such as laundry, ironing, washing up, gardening, cooking,  all types of work we are used to do. If we have hobbies, favourite sports, we should do something with it, or just changeover mental and physical activities.  

The ancient Celts told:

‘Discover happiness and passion in everything you have been doing, all this is noting more than internal rays of the Sun of your soul.’

Green, red and yellow are colours of joy and hope. Wear red clothes, if you foresee the necessity of courage. Red is a colour of command, it gives energy to those who rely on it.

Showering and light meal are also  good benefits in the period of stress.  

         National Identity. What is it to be a Russian?

     I usually don’t care what nationality a person is.

     It’s not due to my pupils’ age, but our new century has many features of cultural globalization.  It’s also too difficult for me to identify myself as a Russian, because, in fact, I’m not Russian, I am a little bit Finish. My daughter is less Russian than I am. My granddaughter is Russian and Pole and Ukrainian and Finish and is fond of Chinese language.  We live in the capital of the country where more people of different foreign nationalities live than in any other part of the country. Moreover, this is right. However, we can’t help feeling what kind of people Russian people are. Russians are a great people, and we are proud to be Russians too.

      Our developing multicultural country is a huge community of more than 160 nationalities and ethnic groups. Russian people comprise 80% of the 146 million people living in the Russian Federation. Linguists have named about 150 different languages spoken in Russia.

       I don’t mean that our great people consist totally of great persons, but I am sure that it is the most heroic and the most tolerant people all over the world. I can’t tell that our national feature would be politeness and law-abidance. It’s not true. But all Russians love their native land, are always ready to defend it and are always proud of it. They have a great national pride. My father was Russian, he liked to recite Nekrasov’s poems about Russian people who would overcome everything and  lay the wide and clear way for himself. I think that the most important Russian feature is the hope and belief in the better life. The greatest heroes were inspired with it. The Decembrists, the defenders of Moscow, the young Komsomol members of the Young Guard during the World War II are among them. Russians hates wars.

      Russians are serious and strict people, not very religious. They are hardworking and talented. They are not afraid of work. The whole world knows the names of Russian Nobel prize winners. They are Russian doctor Ivan Pavlov, the writer Mikhail Sholokhov, Russian physicists Pyotr Kapitsa, Andrei Sakharov and Gores Alferov, the first Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.

     Russian people like to celebrate, to have a rest. The Russian Folk Art and Russian ballet are famous all over the world. Russian people like to save and restore their historic sights and architect monuments. Russians don’t much care about traditions and customs. It is the most important to save not only money, but  one’s honour, because the sweetest and lightest dream of all Russians used to be truth, and now they are truth, justice and wealthy life.

    Our family was not a very rich one, but my father bought me a piano. It was his dearest present for me. I learnt music for several years, and then my piano was sold. My father died and I am not too rich now, but I have another piano. My friends presented it to me. Isn’t it a kind deed? I think so.  

                          Healthy way of life  

If people want to be healthy they should take care of their health constantly, it means to adhere to the healthy way of life. The healthy way of life consists of three main points. They are fitness and sport, reasonable diet and continual link with nature.

If you are fit, it gives you energy, you look great and you also do not have so much weight. You can regulate your physical form changing the time of training in the gym. Exercises are good for your future health and your figure looks better. However, people who become obsessed in working out can do much harm to their health. Sport if it is not your basic occupation must be enjoyable. Especially useful are swimming, skiing, skating and gymnastics for children to strengthen the spine and develop the thorax.

It is very important to follow a healthy diet. Nowadays the foodstuff in our supermarkets is spoiled quickly so people must eat products of guaranteed freshness. People should eat healthy food and follow balanced diet. Eating fruits, vegetables, drinking milk and fresh water are useful for everybody. Eating meat is useful for the people with the first group of blood; eating fish is useful for the people with the second group of blood.  The third and the fourth groups should eat both meat and fish.

The link with nature is a matter of great importance especially for children. A bowl with fish, a kitten or a dog, a bird in the cage or something else fluffy week and nice, alive and friendly does the best psychological air in the house. Good attitude to the plants, trees and wood, a great attention to the matters of protection of the environment make our life wonderful. Sport games and walks in the fresh air give their psychological effect as well in social upbringing of youth.

The very useful remedy from many illnesses occurs to be washing up and cleaning the house. There are many cosmetic products for showering, shampoos, creams and conditioners, which are known by every woman.

Comfortable, confident and intellectual rest must replace alcohol, smoking and drugs and it is not only a problem of cultural development, but it is one of the main problems of the advertising of the healthy way of life.

                 Chernobyl disaster.

   Chernobyl is a small town in the Ukraine. The big Nuclear Power Station consisting of 4th power block was built there.  Each block contains a boiling water reactor with graphite as a moderator connected with steam turbines. On the 26th of April in 1986, there were unplanned tests of the turbines of the 4th block. During the tests, an unexpected breakdown of the equipment of the both turbines causes the sharp increasing of the steam in the reactor,  encapsulation loss and thermal explosion of the containment. All this situation was followed by the fire and scattering of the nuclear decay products in the air. It was about nine o’clock in the evening. All people were killed in an accident as well as some fire fighters arrived. The radioactive contamination arisen had been extended very quickly.    The citizens of the town and nearby villages had immediately been evacuated. Some of them died or became invalids. The catastrophe finely left its trace on the nearby regions: Belarus, Russia, the Ukraine,  on some regions of West Europe and even Asia. All this caused a harmful influence on the health of children and adults there.

    Russian engineers and builders have erected a protective sarcophagus for the destroyed 4th power block of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station. It was  heroic manual labour of Soviet people in very hard and dangerous conditions.      Some of the participants of the liquidation of Chernobyl catastrophe consequences has already died or has serious problems with their health.

     Most of people consider nuclear power station very dangerous, sometimes even a great thread for life.   Nevertheless, I see the more serious danger. It is irresponsibility and incompetence of the followers of the greatest Fermi’s discovery.

            The teenager’s problems

                  The plan

1. The hard age. The point is to be popular.

2. The two poles. The dangerous negative pole.

3. The parents should support.

4. The Bordeaux experience in France.

5. Problems of friendship.

6. Learning is not the main point.

7. Problems of the children do not differ much from those that theirs fathers had.

8. The ways of captivating teaching.

9. The Goths.

When a pupil attends secondary school at the age of 13-16, he becomes a teenager. This age is very hard both for himself and for his parents and teachers around him. The teenager appreciates his own abilities, capabilities among his friends and classmates and relations with them. Their opinion about him and evaluation of his actions are very important to him and influence on his growth and development.  While a first class boy is showing off, a teenager endures if he is not popular in his class and company. He does not know clearly the answer to the question: ‘What kind of person am I?’  He wish to be significant.

There are two poles in the life of every teenager. One is positive and another is negative. In addition, nobody could say which one attracts him more. Either he will become a confident and tolerable person or he will hits in a situation of mixture of roles. In this case, when his own place among others is not clear, but obscure for him, he can occupy the negative pole. He or she behaves in such a way to prove that he is not a dull, ordinary person. Especially if adults are very strict and hostile with him, he gradually becomes embittered. Avoiding depressing situations, he will follow the line of least resistance. He is striving to be quite different from what his parents would like him to be. He became unpredictable.

The enormous quantity of patience and tact and love is necessary. Otherwise, his future may become sad and even criminal. The parents  must be able to explain his beloved child that a flop is not the point, but some additional afford is required to succeed. Strength and will are useless because adults cease to be undisputable authorities.

 Problem adolescents in Bordeaux, France, were being taught to jump out of airplanes in summer time. The Essone Youth Project Service is trying to find an occupation for underprivileged youngsters who have nothing to do in summer. It is not proved that parachuting is a benefit. However, the instructors at Essone believe that the surge of adrenalin at the moment of the big jump could replace the emotional charge felt by a teenager committing a crime.

Problems of friendship (How many friends could I have got?), getting on with people, problems of love become the problems of his own, which he or she have to cope with by himself. A person can and should have many friends. However, there can be only one or two true friends.

Learning is not so important for teenagers and all teachers know about it, but sports, extreme, hobbies and, of course, captivating studies are the best way to overcome all their crises of all ages.

At present young people face the problems, which do not differ much from those that once their parents had to deal with. Nevertheless, every generation is unique and has his ideals. The majority of the young people do not want to live in the past. They want to make their own mistakes, but not to listen to the forewarning of their parents. They cannot accept the values of their fathers, because they had not their difficulties. Teenager need real help and care and a lot of attention, we should appreciate their useful activity and successes like the dawn of the new life.

When I have a group of teenager pupils I try to give them contemporary information, use new methods, new forms of teaching English and help them to identify their individualities. The pair and group work during the lesson make them be tolerable and sociable. Their attempts of researching are of great importance. The complete pedagogical effect should be motivating and encouraging to the creativity.

Young people with startling white make-up, black or purple hair, black lipstick or fingernails certainly stand out in the crowd. They are called Goths. They see the world as a dark place and try to be suitable. This is nothing more than a call for help.  

Domestic violence

The great attention is paid to a problem of domestic violence with respect to children and women in some TV programs. There is an according clause of law convicting the cruel child abuse in Russia. Every woman can not only get a divorce but also imprison her husband if he beat her.

If a man appears to be under the psychological pressure at home, he can leave his family or he can began to display aggression with respect to it. There are many other reasons of this phenomenon in the modern conditions of life.  Firstly, they are alcohol, drugs and smoking. In this case, the woman must make her husband undergo a cure if she wants to save her marriage. If the reason is unknown, the woman should apply for a psychological assistance. Probably, he has a lover or some problems with the sexual orientation.

Anyway, the woman must not allow him to beat her or children. She must stand for kind and creative air in the dwelling of her children. Their happiness is a necessary condition of their normal development.

If parents admit domestic abuse with respect to their children, the children can be taken away from them and placed in the children’s home.

Russian women do their best to save their marriage and often they forgive their domestic hooligans. It is badly. The young woman should look for her true love, not humiliate herself or loose her heart.

To be afraid of loneliness is a natural trait of women’s character, but each woman must remember that she belongs to the week sex and can perish in the struggle for false values.

                     Family matters

      If a person is positive, has some educated and positive views, and dreams about his future he intends to be married. Men and women are opposed in their roles in the process of the childbearing, but they must and often are united in the process of children up bringing. People living in the same cell of the society form the same definite relation to it, and they are influenced by the society too. It is much easier to resist the harmful influences being among relatives than alone. Especially for children. Children in the incomplete family have constantly the lack of care and attention from their parent’s side. It does not matter how useful for the society both parents are they don’t let their children be happy developing if they are going to divorce.   Children can’t avoid any psychological and sociological problems.

     Even the family is complete working mothers can’t look after children in a way she should do, it’s difficult for her to cook meals and control children on time. The number of problems tends to increase. It’s OK if you have positive intelligent children    and parents to help. Otherwise, the fault of the parents lies on the child’s shoulders and we have more problems with the nerves. If mothers must work, the society should help in upbringing of her children. They say that Russia’s population decrease has stopped. I think, it can be true. However, we are surrounded by many countries with a big population and small territories. We must have growth in population    to survive. All this depends on two young tender lovers a girl and her fiancée that are positive and intend to get married.

                   Television in our life

     Television now plays an important role in our life. The most favourite hobby in Great Britain is watching TV. In our country, it is considered as a part of everyday life. We can tell about advantages or disadvantages of television, but how could we do without watching the evening news? There are some people who prefer listening to the radio or reading a newspaper even among British. Tastes differ. In addition, Internet, computer games and the other modern amusements distract people’s attention from TV programmes.  As to me, I have been watching and collecting DVD-films  for last several years. It is my pleasure. Besides, I like listening to the radio, too. However, I think, that TV is the most important means of communication. It has become. A lot of new channels and programmes began their work. A great variety of talk shows, political discussions and debates, soup operas, films, news and reports with commentaries from the spot of emergence events.

Theatregoers can also sometimes join their families and watch TV-performances that can be better installed than theatre performances being shot beforehand.

Our TV screen is a source of information about fashion, cooking, animals, cars, gardening, history, politics, sports, art, and education. We can get it, discuss it with our friends and colleagues. The most important events in musical, sport, social and cultural life, such as concerts, competitions, elections,  clips and ads, all this we can see indoors.

Those who watch TV during hours every evening can’t help feeling that it dominates their lives. They stay passive with their other occupations postponed. It is bad especially for children.  Besides children can watch some unpleasant, harmful and forbidden things that can affect them in unwanted manner. Parents must control their children pastime and restrict the time in front of TV.  However, how joyful for young children are all programmes for kids. Parents should learn TV programmes and choose an appropriate one for their little TV-spectators.    They needn’t close this little window into the whole world.  Programmes about animals, fairy-tales, ‘good night stories’ are useful, developing, but then children must get some parent’s attention, heat and love.

     To shoot a TV-programme is a hard work. For example, a New Year Eve show that was on for about five hours had been shooting for nine days and operators’, producers’ and actors’ working day continued for more then 16 hours.

          Reading preferences

      I am keen of reading. From time to time, I feel an irresistible wish to visit a bookshop and buy a new book. Many hours of my life, I spend in the library reading books in math, physics and linguistics. If the new book is gripping I can’t help doing anything else but reading.  It seems to me that some ideas and discoveries that I learn reading this book are related personally to me, to my life, to my experience, to my ideology.

     I don’t know why I like old books very much. They tenderly touch my imagination and present their eternal gifts of wisdom. I always think: ‘How could I live without it? Everybody knows! ‘.

    When I read magazines or newspapers, I rarely notice the    name of the author. They give me a piece of very useful, modern information and all. Only a mirror reflecting the reality and all.

   I can’t name my favourite genre of literature. Probably detectives, because I hardly have a detective at home that I haven’t yet read. Certainly, I haven’t read all my books. I look forward to reading some of them. It is easier for me to name my favourite writers: in math - Kiselev, in physics - Shihov, in linguistics - Galperin, in Russian literature - Turgenev, in English literature - Dickens, in French literature - Balzac, in Spanish literature Lope de Vega, in American - Dreiser. My favourite poet is Block. I like Shakespeare’s sonnets. Among women-writers, I prefer Agatha Christy. They say most books published by the same author in the world are hers. I wonder how she could be so inventive in the plots of her detectives. Among modern writers, I like Kravchenko. He published the textbook ’Politology’ in 2008.

 I also have my favourite English textbooks’ authors. They are women. Their names are Virginia Evans and Jenny Dooley.

           Important images of the XX-XXI centuries  

   Every year six Nobel prizes are awarded for outstanding works in sciences, literature, economics, and the promotion of peace. The international prize was founded by the Swedish scientist Alfred Nobel, who invented dynamite and built up companies and laboratories in countries all over the world.

    The first Russian Nobel winner for medicine in 1904 was Ivan Pavlov who discovered the conditioned reflex and carried out experiments on dogs that had a great impact in behavioural psychology. The outstanding writer of the 20th century Sholokhov was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1965.  In 1979, Russian Physicist Pyotr Kapitza shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on magnetism and low temperature physics. He founded the Institute of Physical Problems in Moscow.  Two more times Russian physicists Sakharov and Alfyorov have been awarded this prize. The first Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev was awarded the Nobel Prize for the promotion of peace.  Yurey Gagarin the first cosmonaut in the world has glorified his country and Soviet science forever.

   In the field of art, Russian artist Ilya Glazunov created many beautiful and impressible pictures. Russian dancer Maia Plisetskaya has gone a long unforgettable way in ballet. She is an ideal image of Russian dancer    of the XX century.  Soviet actor Tykhonov performed the best image of Soviet spy in Germany during the World War II. The long living images of English band Beatles has the great influence on the musical style of singing.

   In politics, the most significant figures are Lenin, President Kennedy, Martin Looter King and Barrack Abama in the USA, Indira Gandy in India. She was the first woman who had become a president.

                                  Leisure

     Most people live getting stress nowadays. It is habitual for people of the active type, but for others it is dangerous and harmful. Psychologists state that stress creates actual changes   in the body hormonal balance including mood alternations. We often dream and fantasise about vacation though our plans do not always turn into reality. Last July was the worst for fans of relaxation in the village.

      We can suffer from anxiety, irritability and more serious psychological problems including mild depression and it takes a while get rid of them after you have arrived at our holiday destination.

       As to people of the active type, their motto is ’if you want to have a rest you should change your activity’. Some extreme sports may cause a shock of spectators. Sky jumping, speed skiing, snow-rafting, bungee jumping are too terrific for imagination of those who are used to lie on the beach or visit museums. For example, speed skiers speed down the top of a frozen waterfall, which is so steep that it is nearly vertical. Ten seconds later the beginning of skiing from the top of this ice-course their speed is about 250 kilometres per hour. The course is more than 3 kilometres long; they cannot change the position of the body. Falling on the back, skiers may heat it so strong that catch a fire and get heavy burns. Therefore, they need very special equipment.

       Leisure is the time when everybody can do what he likes - hobbies, games, music, dancing, playing with children, reading, sleeping until afternoon and so on.  Both adults and children like to play.  One of the most impressive events at the Highland Games in Scotland is the tossing of caber.  A caber is a long log; it is 5 metres long and weighs about 45 kilos. The athlete wearing his kilt and sneakers holds the caber by one end and tries to throw it so that it lands on the other end and falls away from the thrower.

      As to me my favourite occupation during my spare time is reading.

                    Human Rights

                                       The plan

1. The right to life.

2. The personal immunity, dignity and sanctification of the home.

3. The personal freedoms

4. The right to take part in the state business management.

5.  The right to the private property.

6. The right to labour.

7. The right to the health protection.

8. Children’s rights.

9. How new laws pass.

      Human Rights in the RF are declared with the Constitution.

      In Russia, people have the right to life. All murderers and robbers must be caught and imprisoned.  

    The personal dignity, immunity and sanctification of the home  is protected by the state. Russian people have the right to dwelling.

Nobody being unbidden can intrude anybody else’s habitation.    The state guarantees  the personal freedom,  the freedom of speech and thought, the freedom of assembly, the liberty of conscience  and religious beliefs for its citizens.

    The RF citizens have the right to take part in the state business management both directly and with the help of their representatives. The RF citizens besides criminals and mad people after eighteen years old have the universal suffrage. They can elect and be elected in the government bodies. They can appeal personally and also sent individual or collective appeals in the government and local bodies.

    The law protects the right to the private property. The land can be regarded as the private property. It can belong to citizens and unions of citizens.

    The labour is free. Everyone has the right to labour in the proper conditions, besides all adult people can choose their professions. A labour under compulsion is forbidden.

     Everyone has the right to the health protection and medical   assistance. Elderly and disabled people have the right to the social maintenance. Everyone has the right to the legal advice consultation.

      Maternity and childhood are protected by the state. All children have the right to education.

     Children have the right to be brought up educated and happy. They can’t be injured, beaten and insulted. They can choose the only parent to live with after the parents’ divorce when children are 12 years old. While studying at school, no one must subject them to the psychological oppression. They can marry after 16 years old if their parents agree. After fourteen years old, they can be judged and imprisoned for a crime. Everyone being accused is considered as innocent until they prove his guilty and convict him in the court.

     The State Duma   discusses and  approves all new laws and amendments to the Constitution, and then they are confirmed by the President to pass.