1. What kind of communication problems can one face in real life?
D. Psychologists say that social networking sites can have serious disadvantages. It is hard for children to have real conversations and make friends. They become selfish personalities and lose interest in real life. Parents spend less time with their children and all members of the family spend less time with each other because they are using the Internet instead of communicating in person.
2. What are different opinions about social networks?
A. The popularity of social networking sites such as Vkon-takte, Facebook, MySpace, and Classmates has risen more than four times from 2005 to 2009. Many users say these sites are good for our society, but others are sure that there are more dangers in them than benefits. Your attitude to such websites depends on your age, job, interests and way of life.
3. Why do some people call social networking sites “time eaters”?
C. Social networking sites make people spend more time online and less time communicating face-to-face. The sites have many time-wasting activities. You stay online longer than you planned and do nothing serious or important. Experts say that teenagers spend about nine hours every week on social networking sites.
4. What are the hidden dangers?
5. What kind of new communication opportunities are provided by social networks?
B. Social networks promote communication with friends and family, they give people necessary and useful computer skills and teach them to express their ideas in a clear way. Another thing is that the sites let people create new relationships and reconnect with old friends. In every way, more communication, even online, makes connections stronger.
6. What are the new prospects in education?
F. New research shows that social networking sites can be used in schools. Teachers should find ways to use them in class. It would help students to learn how to get information from Internet resources and share it with classmates. Students would also be able to express themselves creatively and present themselves better.
7. What is a fact about worrying time statistics?
E. Internet users spend most of their time on social networks and blogs. Users in the USA spend about five and a half hours every month on their favourite site. And the number is growing. Russians spend 6.6 hours monthly on social networking sites. It is more than people in any other country. For example, in Europe it is 3.7 hours a month.
For a long time the Bolshoy ranked with the best theatres of Europe and remained the largest theatre in Europe. The theatre was rebuilt many times, burnt down and erected again from the ashes. Operas, ballets and plays were staged at that theatre. Its auditorium had three tiers and accommodated about 2000 spectators. But it was rebuilt in the first decade of the 19th century by Jean-Francais Thomas de Thomon.
Then the St. Petersburg Conservatoire was housed in this building. The first institution of higher musical education in Russia was founded in 1862 on the initiative of the composer Anton Rubinshtein. Pyotr Tchaikovsky was one of the first graduates of the Conservatoire. Many outstanding composers and musicians, including Sergey Prokofyev and Dmitry Shostakovich, studied in it. In 1944, the Conservatoire was named after the great Russian composer Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov.
Next to the Conservatoire there are two monuments to the outstanding Russian composers. The monument to Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov was designed by sculptors Veniamin Bogolyubov and Victor Ingal and erected in 1952. The monument too Mikhail Glinka is the creation of the sculptor Robert Bakh. It was mounted in 1906.
Opposite the Conservatoire stands the Mariinsky Theatre. Between 1847 and 1849, a circus-theatre was built on this site. After the fire of 1859, the building was reconstructed according to the design of the architect Albert Kavos. The appearance of the building, its main façade is a result of the reconstruction undertaken between 1894 and 1895 under the supervision of the architect Victor Schroter.
The new theatre was named the Mariinsky Theatre after Maria Alexandrovna, the wife of Alexander II. The theatre was inaugurated on the 2nd of 20 October, 1860 with the opera ―Life for the Tsar‖ (―Ivan Susanin‖) by Mikhail Glinka.
Fiodor Shaliapin, Leonid Sobinov sang on the scene of this theatre. Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina, Mathilda Kshesinskaya, Vaslav Nizhinsky, Mikhail Fokin, Galina Ulanova and other outstanding actors danced there. Many works by the greatest composers were performed on its stage for the first time. For several years the ballet company was headed by Maurice Petipa.
The stalls and five circles of the auditorium have 2000 seats to accommodate spectators.
The Mariinsky Theatre is famous all over the world by its preserved traditions of Russian classic ballet