Английский язык. Темы для экзаменов. Уровень В2

Павленко Александр Владимирович

I don’t know how much pollution comes from factories, but where I lived in South London it seemed like the air was much cleaner. Although, saying that, whenever I came back from my parents’ house in the country, I could immediately smell the pollution in London when I got off the tube. I got this smell of oily tar in the back of my throat and thought “Back in London!”

The area where I live is also not good from the point of view of noise, especially in the morning, as every morning at six o’clock, a rubbish van comes to take away the rubbish from the hotel opposite… every day at six o’clock… and they crash around. They’re only there for about ten minutes, but that’s enough to wake me up. And at night, there’s always people walking past, singing and shouting, because there are a couple of all-night bars down the road. This can also be a bit irritating sometimes.

A lot of traffic goes down the road outside our house. I’ve heard they’re hoping to make it into a pedestrian precinct and ban all cars from using it, which would be wonderful. I think it would increase the value of the flat by, I don’t know, ten times. I’d certainly prefer to live somewhere where there was no traffic going past. At the moment, people use it as a short-cut, particularly in the morning when there’s rush-hour traffic, and as it’s a very narrow street with cars parked on both sides of the road, people have to walk in the road, and then the cars start using their horns and shouting at people, and getting angry and stressed out. So all these things together, don’t make for a very peaceful life.

Two years ago, before I came here, I lived in London in an area called Brixton. I lived in a similar kind of situation to here. I was in a flat with three other people, for six or seven years. Different people came and went, different flatmates. Sometimes it was all girls, and sometimes there was a mixture of girls and boys. It was a really cheap flat, but it was also very noisy, as it was right by an intersection where five roads met, so there was always traffic going past and the house used to shake. It was also on the route ambulances used on the way to hospital, so there were all these sirens going past.

My parents live in the country, so I’ve lived in both the heart of the city and in the depths of the countryside, and I know the differences. The country is really nice… It’s really nice to go to the country for a break, but on the other hand I do get bored if I’m there for a long time, and miss things like being able to go out and go to the cinema, meet friends, and things like that. It was my ideal really when I lived in London, because I had all of that, but I could also go home to my parents and take a breath of fresh air, and just relax and do nothing for a while. Of course, the town is much better for work and for going out, although with the pace of modern life I think all of the people there get really stressed out and nervous, so it would be good if everybody had the opportunity to get out.

DAILY ROUTINE

Vivien

My daily routine is a bit different now that I’m working freelance, but when I was working regularly at the newspaper, I would start the day by getting up at about half past seven, have a shower, brush my teeth, put in my contact lenses and try to listen to the radio at eight o’clock, because they have fifteen minutes of news in English which was useful for my work. If there were any news stories I was interested in, I would quickly jot down the information and then follow it up at work. Then I would go to work, and maybe get a cake or something on the way, if I hadn’t had time for breakfast, or buy some fruit from a little stall on the street. Quite often I walked to work, which only took about twenty minutes. It was a good way to wake up, and I’d buy a newspaper on the way so I could read about what was happening in this country, as it used to be my task to write about the political comings and goings.

When I got to work, I was usually one of the first people there, which was quite nice because it meant I could make a cup of tea – being English, of course, I drink tea all the time. Next I’d read the paper, and then I’d start working on certain tasks that I’d have to do every week for the newspaper, like writing some short news briefs or going through the papers to find any interesting, juicy stories. The things they liked were murders, bank robberies and things like that.

Then I usually had a few interviews to do, and afterwards I’d write them up on the computer, and at some point, I’d go out for lunch. I liked to just go out to the market and get some vegetables. I used to be a vegetarian in England, but it’s not quite so easy here. Well, it’s not only that it’s not easy, I actually quite liked meat, in Hungary I had an excuse, to try all of the different types of meat produce. Still, I don’t eat meat every day and I very rarely cook it, so I like to buy lots of vegetables. So, I would buy peppers and tomatoes and some bread rolls and things, and then have a cold lunch. In the afternoon, it would be more of the same, writing up, or maybe working on some longer story or interview.

Now that I work freelance, I tend to work at home a lot, or to go out and do interviews and then come home and type them up.

It’s difficult calling newspapers in England, ‘cause you have to call them in the mornings, and so it’s very expensive. Also, I find it quite difficult dealing with people on the phone. If they don’t know who you are, they just hear a name and a voice on the other end of the line, and you have to be really pushy to sell your story to them. So, the business side of journalism is quite difficult, and it’s not something that I particularly enjoy.

I used to come home at about seven. I stayed quite late at work, and then did some shopping on the way back to get some food for the evening, and when I got back, I’d start cooking. My flatmate would cook maybe once a week, but I actually enjoy cooking. I find it really relaxing. After thinking all day, it’s nice to just chop up vegetables and think of something really mindless, and not have to concentrate too hard. I make a lot of Indian food, I suppose. My parents used to cook lot of Indian meals with spices, so I bought lots of spices in London. Some of them are quite difficult to get here. My flatmate likes pasta and Italian food, so I cook that sometimes. I also cook a lot of vegetable dishes.

After dinner, I usually watch television. I usually watch the news in English and Hungarian. Quite often on weekdays I’m too tired to go out, but, if I do, maybe I go to the cinema with my flatmate or friends, or I go out to dine at other people’s houses. Where I go also depends on how much money I have. Sometimes I go out to a restaurant or go for a pizza.

Now we’ve got all these channels on the TV, it’s quite tempting to just stay in and watch something on TV. I brought a guitar with me from England and sometimes I play that, which is quite a good way of relaxing.