‘Avuçiçi İngilizce’ iki bölümden oluşmaktadır: Gramer ve Sözlük. Herkesin çok kolay anlayabileceği bir şekilde tablolarla verilen gramer kuralları örneklerle pekiştirilmektedir.

Sözlük bölümü ise, titiz bir çalışma sonunda seçilen günlük hayatta en sık kullanılan kelimelerden oluşmaktadır.

‘Avuçiçi İngilizce’nin ses CD’sinde ise kitapçığın sözlük bölümünde verilen kelimeler seslendirilmektedir. Kullanım kolaylığı açısından her sayfa ayrı bir ses dosyası olarak hazırlanmıştır. Ayrıca, duyduğunu anlama yeteneğini geliştirmek amacıyla, sözlükteki konularla bağlantılı 10 parça yer almaktadır.

'AVUÇİÇİ İNGİLİZCE'  CD'Sİ İÇİNDE VERİLEN

10 ADET EK SES DOSYASININ METİNLERİ

Traveling

The school system in Great Britain

Education in Britain is compulsory and free for all children between the ages of 5-16. Nine tenths of all children are educated in state schools. All books and equipment are provided free. Uniform is worn in many schools but this is now quite flexible. Students never repeat a year in British system, but they may be sent to a vocation school or section.

Primary school. Schoolchildren start to go to a primary school when they are 5 and attend it for 6 years. They study general subjects and special help is given to children with handicaps and learning difficulties. At the age of 11 almost all children in the state system change schools.

Secondary school. When students transfer to Secondary school at the age of 11, they don't take any examination, but their reports are sent on from Primary school.

Most children - over 80 % - go to a comprehensive school. "Comprehensive" means all-inclusive. They admit pupils of all abilities. But there are also grammar schools and secondary modern schools. The pupils have to pass an exam to go there; so admission depends on the result of the selective exams and the pupils’ abilities.

Subjects.

Pupils in all State schools in England and Wales study 10 main subjects: English, Mathematics, and Science. Foundation subjects are History, Geography, A Modern language, Art, Music, Information Technology, Physical education; Religious education is given as well.

Attainment tests are taken by the pupils at the ages of 7, 11, 14 and 16. At the end of a 5-year course, when they are 16 years old, students sit the General Certificate of Secondary Education exams in as many subjects as possible. Weak students may only sit for three or four subjects. Better students take ten.

At the age of 16 about two-thirds of these pupils leave school and get jobs or apprenticeships. About one-third of pupils stay at school until the age of 18, preparing themselves for higher education.

The 6-th form. More ambitious pupils continue to study in the 6-th form. They stay on at school for one or two years to prepare themselves for university. They have only three or four main subjects which are necessary to pass the advanced level exams. In addition to the foundation subjects the 6-th formers are offered many other courses such as Classical Civilization, Further Mathematics, Information Technology, History of Art, Social Biology and many others.

The school year is divided into three terms with the intervals between them during the Christmas and Easter holidays, lasting about two weeks each, and the summer holiday which begins rather late and is usually six weeks long.

All kinds of out-of-class activities are part of school life in Britain. Students have a lot of opportunities for playing sports, attending different clubs and singing in choir. Most schools have very good libraries which students use for reference work.

Private Education.

Seven per cent of British schoolchildren go to private schools. There are 3 levels of private schools: primary schools (age four to eight), preparatory schools (age eight to thirteen). At the age of 13 children take an examination. If they pass it, they go to public school, where they usually remain until they are 18. Many preparatory and most public schools are boarding schools; the children live at school during the school terms. But though these schools are called public, they are, in fact, private and it can be very expensive to send a child to such a school.

The most famous public schools have a long history and tradition. It is often necessary to put a child's name on a waiting list at birth to be sure he or she gets a place. Children of wealthy and aristocratic families go to the same public school as their parents and their grandparents.

Health

People nowadays are more health-conscious than they used to be. They understand that good health is above wealth.

To be healthy we should avoid different bad habits that can affect our health. In my opinion, smoking and drinking too much alcohol, are the worst ones. It's common knowledge that smoking and drinking can shorten our lives dramatically. Smoking, for example, causes a number of heart and lung diseases. Besides, it makes your teeth yellow and skin unhealthy.

Fortunately, smoking has been banned in most public places, because everyone agrees it does harm to our health. Moreover, some companies don’t employ people who are smokers. When it comes to drinking we may say that this disastrous liquid is like a poison for mind and body.

Less dangerous than smoking and drinking are there bad habits, such as skipping meals, eating unhealthy food, or even overeating. Of course, they are not quite as deadly as mentioned above, but they also affect our health negatively.

If we eat too much than necessary, we become obese, and obesity leads to serious health problems. A lot of people like drinking coca cola and coffee, and enjoy pizzas and hamburgers. But what is tasty is not always healthy. Fast food makes you fat, that's why Americans are the fattest people in the world.

In recent years eating habits have undergone a change. People are encouraged to eat less fat and more fibre. Fat is believed to be one of the major causes of obesity and heart disease. High fibre and low fat foods can now be found in all shops and supermarkets. Salads, beans, and fruit have taken the place of steak and ice cream.

The fashion for health food is spreading all over the world. However, many people are still either fat or feel they are overweight, even if their doctors disagree. So they take up losing weight and try to avoid gaining it. There are a lot of ways to get slimmer. Perhaps the most popular of them is following a diet. If you want to lose weight, you should cut out snacks and desserts, and cut down on fat. People have also become more aware of calories, the energy value of food. Some people count the number of calories they eat every day; so that they can try to take in fewer calories and lose weight. This is called a calorie-controlled diet. Manufacturers are increasingly producing special foods with fewer calories for slimmers. But everyone must know that excessive dieting is dangerous, so consulting a dietician is advisable.

My flat

We have a nice flat in a new block of flats. Our flat is on the fifth floor of a nine-storied building. It has all modern conveniences: central heating, running hot and cold water, electricity, gas, a lift and a chute to carry rubbish down.

We have a three-room flat which consists of a living-room, a bedroom, a study (which is also my room), a kitchen, a bathroom and a toilet. There are also two closets in our flat. Our flat has two balconies.

The living-room is the largest and the most comfortable one in the flat. In the middle of the room we have a square dinner-table with six chairs round it. To the left of the dinner-table there is a wall-unit which has several sections: a sideboard, a wardrobe and some shelves. At the opposite wall there is a piano and a piano stool before it. To the right there is a little table with colour TV set on it. Opposite the TV set there are two cozy armchairs. A divan-bed and a standard lamp are in the left-hand corner. In front of the armchairs there is a small round table for newspapers and magazines. There is a thick carpet on the floor. Two water-colours hung on the wall above the divan-bed. In the evening we usually draw the curtains across the windows, and a red lampshade gives a warm colour to the room.

The bedroom is smaller than the living-room and not so light as there is only one window in it. In this room there are two beds, two dressing-tables and a wardrobe. In the corner of the bedroom there is a small color TV set. On the dressing table there is an alarm-clock and small lamp with green lamp-shade.

Hobbies

Hobbies differ like tastes. If you have chosen a hobby according to your character and taste - you are lucky because your life becomes more interesting. Hobbies are divided into four large classes: doing things, making things, collecting things, and learning things. The most popular hobby group is doing things. It includes a wide variety of activities, everything from gardening to traveling and from chess to volleyball. Gardening is one of the oldest man's hobbies. It is a well-known fact that the English are very fond of gardening and growing flowers, especially roses. Both grown-ups and children are keen on playing different computer games. This is a relatively new hobby but it is becoming more and more popular. Making things includes drawing, painting, making sculpture, designing costumes, handicrafts and others. Some people write music or play musical instruments as a hobby.

President Bill Clinton, for example, plays the saxophone. Almost everyone collects something at some period of his or her life: stamps, coins, matchboxes, books, records, postcards, toys, watches and other things. Some collections don't have real value. Others become so large and so valuable that they are housed in museums and art galleries.

My future career

What do you want to be when you grow up? We have heard this question many times during our school years. Perhaps, it was difficult for us to give a definite answer earlier. But now we understand that time to choose our future profession has come. Finishing school is the beginning of an independent life for millions of school-leavers. Many roads are open before us: technical schools, colleges and universities. Centuries ago there were only a few jobs: people were farmers, bakers, butchers or carpenters. Today there are thousands of different kinds of jobs, and new ones are constantly appearing. No wonder that it is not an easy thing to make the right choice.

When choosing a future career, we should consider different factors. In my opinion, money is one of the most important factors to have in mind when you make a choice. There are highly-paid jobs and low-paid jobs. For example, a businessman, a president or a film star, are highly paid jobs. A worker, a doctor or an engineer, are low-paid jobs. I think everybody wants to earn as much money as possible. Training, promotional prospects and conditions should be also taken into account.

On the other hand, it's good when you get satisfaction from your job. It is very important to choose a profession that suits your interests. To my mind, a job should be interesting and socially important. You should also decide whether you want to work outdoors or indoors.

To make the right choice, you should take into account traits of your character. It goes without saying that to become a good doctor you must be patient, caring and kind. Teacher's work requires love for children, profound knowledge of subjects, and the ability to explain. A secretary has to be efficient and careful in order to do her work quickly and accurately. Salespeople need to be friendly and persuasive to get people to buy their products.

There are so many people who influence us in choosing our occupation. Parents and friends play a very important role in our choices.

My father works for an international company as a managing director. It is a highly paid job and it offers a lot of opportunities. You can travel abroad and meet different people. My father is a friendly person and he is easy to talk to. He thinks that I must choose my future profession according to my taste and preferences. I respect him and I want to become a businessman, too.

I have always been interested in economics and I am good at Maths. I have an aptitude for working with people, and I think I'm rather communicative and have good social skills. I have good analytical abilities and I am good at problem-solving. Besides, I am good at English. English has become the standard language for all kinds of international business communications. To know English today is absolutely necessary for every businessman.

To become a successful businessman you should know a lot. So after finishing school I want to enter a university and to study marketing or management. Management deals mainly with people. A manager is a person who directly supervises people in an organization. Managers spend a great deal of time communicating, coordinating and making decisions affecting the daily operations of their organization. Almost everything, a manager does, involves decisions, and in decision-making there is always uncertainty and risk. So managing is a very interesting, but difficult, job.

Marketing deals with market research and commercial activity in general. It involves analyzing business situations, evaluating market opportunities, developing market strategies and controlling their implementation. It is important for a specialist in marketing to be flexible and prepared to make adjustments where and when necessary, as it is unlikely that any marketing plan will succeed exactly as planned.

Shopping

Learning Foreign Languages

Is it necessary to learn foreign languages nowadays? You can just go to the shop and buy an electronic translator. But is it capable of giving you really required information? More and more people come to a thought that electronic machine will never be able to replace human's brain. All over the world people are learning foreign languages. Everybody knows his own language, but another one is very useful. It is important to know it when we travel to other countries or when we must read foreign literature. It is necessary in the 21-st century when international cooperation sits at its highest level.

There are more than 2700 languages in the world and some of them are international ones.

English, for example, is spoken not only in Britain and the USA, but also in other parts of the world. It is considered to be the international language by plenty of world systems and associations.

About 250 million people speak it as their mother-tongue, and another 200 million people use it as a second language.

It is next to impossible to define how many people are learning it.

If you know a foreign language, you can talk to foreign people and understand what they say.

Seasons

There are four seasons in a year: spring, summer, autumn and winter. March, April and May are spring months. Spring is the most pleasant of all the seasons of the year. The weather becomes warmer, everything changes and seems to revive. The trees begin to bud. Sometimes it rains, but there are no rough winds; the sun shines brightly. The grass is green and one can see a lot of flowers peeping out from it. In spring all the migratory birds return. They sing sweetly on the branches of the trees. The summer months are June, July and August. Summer is the hottest season of the year. The days are the longest in summer. The longest day of the year is the 22-nd of June. Some people like summer best of all. All of us enjoy it with its cloudless sunshine, with its gardens and meadows full of flowers. There are a lot of vegetables and fruit at that time. In summer many people leave town and spend the hottest time in the country or at the seaside. After summer autumn comes. The autumn months are September, October and November. Early autumn is really beautiful with its yellow, red and brown trees and golden leaves falling down. Autumn is the season of fruit and vegetables. But the days become shorter and the nights longer and darker. The weather is not so good as in spring and in summer. It often rains and the air gets colder and colder. Winter is the coldest season of the year. The winter months are December, January and February. The winter days are short and gloomy. It often snows and it freezes. Winter is a very beautiful season too. Some people like it very much. It is pleasant to walk when it is not very cold and snows. The ground is covered with snow. The trees and the roofs are white with snow, too. Winter also gives great opportunities for those who go in for winter sports.

Sports in Great Britain

Sport is a very important part of life in Great Britain. Thousands of people devote their leisure time to outdoor and indoor games: athletics, mountain climbing, boxing and other sports. Outdoor games played in GB are team games such as football, cricket, and hockey, and games in which individuals or couples try their skill, for example golf. The number of spectators shows that the most popular of team games are football and cricket, and the most popular individual game is lawn-tennis.

Football. One type of football, in which players carry the oval ball in their hands, appeared in 1859 at Rugby School. That is why its name is Rugby football. The rules of the game are different from soccer’s. Football matches get big crowds. The Cup Final is one of the most important football matches of the year in England; it is always played at the Wembley stadium, near London.

Cricket. Cricket is England's national summer game. Nobody knows exactly how old the game is, but some forms of cricket were played in England in the 13-th century. The rules of the game have changed over the years. Nowadays cricket is played in schools and universities, and almost all towns have their cricket team which play regularly at least one match a weak during the season - from May to September. There are thousands of cricket grounds all over England.

Lawn-tennis. The number of people who play lawn-tennis is great. The tennis championships held at Wimbledon for two weeks at the end of June and at the beginning of July are main events of the lawn-tennis season in Britain and, in fact in the world. These championships in which men and women of many nationalities compete, are very famous.