Education

(The British or American system of education)

British system:
From 3 to 5 years children can visit nursery school or kindergartens as in Czech Republic. Children from 5 to 7 years go to infant schools where they must attend this school; it’s given by the law. At 7 years they go to primary schools called junior schools. Children go there to 11 years. They learn there writing, reading and counting (počítání).  From 12 to 16 they attend secondary school called comprehensive (všeobecná). The children are divided into groups called streams according to their abilities. They are allowed to study only the subjects they are interested in. At the age of 16 they leave the school and do the O-level exams in 10 subjects (no subjects are compulsory -povinný). Then they decide whether (zda) they want continue or not. If yes, they study 2 or 3 years in sixth form college and then they must pass the A-level exams in 3 or 4 subjects. Then they have open door to university eventually to postgraduate. In Britain are about 47 universities. The most known are Oxford and Cambridge. University usually lasts 3 or 4 years, medicine 5 or 6 years. Students can get a degree of bachelor and they could study further to get a degree of master. In contrast to Czech Republic in University in GB, students usually have their own teacher who helps them, it called tutorial system.
Marking in GB students aren’t marked by number but by letters from A to E. In Britain students are supposed to wear uniforms (to prevent discrimination against poorer).
Also exist there private schools, students are admitted according to their abilities. There is a possibility get a scholarship. The student cannot pay tuition fees.
U. S. system:
Children go to nursery schools or kindergartens to 5 years as in GB. Then they go to elementary school which has 6 grades as in GB system. At the age of 12 they go to middle school. They stay there to 13 years. For next 4 years there is a high school. At the age of 18 they go to college. The students of each grade have special name: freshmen, sophomore, and junior, senior. They are there for 4 years. There are no entrance exams, the students go to school of their district (oblast). During this studying are very popular some activities as sport. There is no exam to graduate. In the end of studying, students get H. S. Diploma. People who want a higher education can be attended to university (graduate school). Studying of university or college can pass from 2 to 5 or 6 years. Students can get AA degree, BA or BS degree, Master’s degree and Doctoral degree. Most important subject is called major and second most important elective (volitelný) subject is called minor.
The most prestigious US universities are Yale, Harvard or Princeton.

Sports

Sports are one of the most popular leisure time activities

Czech Republic
The most popular sports in the Czech Republic is football in this collective game two teams of 11 members play with a ball on a grass playing field, the purpose is to kick the ball so as to get it into the opposite goal
In our country is also very popular ice-hockey  the highest ranking ice hockey competition called The Extraliga, the national team won their first Olympic Gold at the 1998 in Nagano – famous hockey players are: Jaromír Járg and Dominik Hašek, national team won six-times Ice Hockey World Championship
Other famous sports are: athletics, tennis, basketball, volleyball, skiing, swimming, cycling
Famous sportsmen are: Roman Šebrle (decathlon), Jan Železný+Barbora Špotáková (javelin), Tomáš Berdych (tennis), Petr Čech (football), Martina Sáblíková (speed skating)

Great Britain
The British are great lovers of competitive sports. England was also the first home of many popular modern games among these, football is the most widespread , in Britain there are a great number of clubs (Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea) and in London is one of the biggest football stadiums the Wembley Arena
Rugby football is also very popular – in this game the ball is oval
English national game is cricket and golf is of Scottish origin
In Great Britain is also very popular rowing race between Oxford and Cambridge, which is held on river Thames
For tennis season its peak every year at the Wimbledon tournament, which is played in London in early June
For relaxation squash is also played

USA
Sports in the United States is an important part of American culture
The four most popular team sports are:
1) baseball - Baseball has a long tradition in the United States
2) American football -  final match of the National Football League called Super Bowl
3) basketball - the highest ranking basketball competition called National Basketball Association (NBA)
4) ice hockey - The Nationall Hockey (NHL)  league is the major professional hockey league in North America

Canada
Most popular sports in Canada are: ice hockey, swimming, skiing, curling, baseball and lacrosse is national sport

Australia
Most popular sports are: baseball, cycling, golf, horse racing and cricket is national sport

English literature

-Old English  is old form of English. This English is written in the Anglo-Saxen language 
                            (10th century)
    Aelfnic-author of old English prose
    Beowulf-anonyms, is the oldest heroic poem
 -the main hero-a young , who lived in Scandinavia. He lead the fight with a horrible monster ,Grendel´ and he killed it in a kingshall. Then he had to kill monster´s mother in under the sea and he started rulling people. Later he had to destroy dragon, he killed it, but died himself. The poem ends with his funneral.
-Middle English is English of the middle ages (5th-15th century)
    Geoffrey Chaucer-father of English poetry
                              -Canterbury Tales- it is a series of 23 poems (stories), it is about Pilgrims, who travelled from London to Canterbury, Pilgrims are people of all social groups (knight, housewife, cook, sailor, mill, lawyer,..)
-Renaissance especially William Shakespeare, then Christopher Marlowe, John Lyly, Ben     
   Jonson, Edmund Spenser
-17th century – it was very harsh, hard time, because this century was full of fights-Monarchy
  (Charles I., Church of England)×Republic (Oliver Cromwell, Puritans) -> it lead to Civil war and it lasted nearly ½ a century (40 years) -> 1660 restorations started - O. Cromwell was leader of war, he beheaded Charles I., but in the end, people beheaded Cromwell too, so Charles II. come from France and started with restoration
John Milton-Paradise Lost-poem is about losing ideas and illusions
-18th century –the century of inventimes, of industry, of stability. It is the time of literary Greaters.It´s named Golden Age of prose
 Henry Fielding-novel History of Tom Jones
 Daniel Defoe-Robinson Crusoe
 Jonathan Swift- Gulliver´s Travels – the main hero is Gulliver, who shipwracked on
  his voyage and met different creatures-little ones and big ones
-British Romanticism- the sekond half of 18th century
    Sir Walter Scott- Ivanhoe, Waverley-historical theme-he thought his countrymen to be
proud of Scottish history and language
Robert Burns-he was born on 21/1 and today this day is national holiday
                  -poem A Red, Red Rose, Auld long syze (Večírek na rozloučenou)-theme of folk traditions
 Lord George Gordon Byron-Childe Harold´s Pilgrimage-theme of ancient history
 William Wordsworth-theme of nature (especially the Lake District)
 Percy Bysshe Shelley-he was anarchist--theme of revolt
                               -poem The Mask Of Anarchy
                               -his wife Mary Shelley written short story Frankenstein
 John Austin-theme of love and position woman in society
                  -novels Pride and Prejudice, Emma,  Sense and Sensibility
-19th century: -the time of Victorian´s reign, time of realism, Great Britain became a very
   rich country, because of colonies and industry
   Charlotte Brontë-Jane Eyre
   Emily Brontë-Wuthering Heights
   Carrol- Alice in Wonderland
 Oscar Wilde- fairytales The Happy Prince, The Nightingale and the Rose and his plays
                The Picture of Doryan Gray, The Importanceof Being Earnest
 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle-he created a literatury figure Sherlock Holmes and captain Watson

Charles Dickens-the greatest author of realism and social critism (he came from a very
poor family), all his work is about poor people, novels Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club
    Rudyard Kipling-The Jungle Book
-20th century: -century of two world wars and politoval changes in all countries   
 (hippie movement, immigration waves)
-Angry young men-they were angry with society
 John Osbourne-play Look Back in Anger
 Salman Rushdie-Sataniet Verse
 Kingsley Amis-novel Lucky Jim
 Agatha Christie-play Mousetrap
 Virginia Woolf-novel To the Lighthouse
 George Bernard Shaw-Pygmalion
 Samuel Beckett-Waiting for Godot
 William holding-Lord of the Flies
 George Orwell-novel The Animal Farm
 J.R.R.Tolkien-The Lord of the Rings and  Rowling´s Harry Potter

The British writers who were awarded the Nobel Prize for literature:
    1907-R. Kipling
    1923-W. B. Yeats
    1925-G. B. Shaw
    1932-J. Galsworthy
    1948-T. S. Eliot
    1950-B. Russell
    1953-W. L. Churchill
    1969-S. Beckett
    1981-E. Canetti
    1983-W. Holding
    1995-S. Heaney
    2001-V. Surray (Nailpaul)

My Town

Our town is called Havlíčkův Brod and it is situated on the both banks of the river Sázava in the centre of Czech-Moravian Highlands which is a potato region. It is said we are in the heart of Europe.
   
    The first settlement was founded on the bank of river Sázava near the Vojtěch’s church. It was on the important merchant route Haberská stezka. The reason for founding town here was that the merchants could cross the river here because there was a ford. This settlement was founded in the twelfth century.
    The original name of our town was Brod. During the centuries the town was several times renamed. In the thirteenth century it carried the name Smilův Brod after Smil z Lichtenburka who founded the first settlement.
In the fourteenth century the name of our town was changed to Německý Brod because many German miners lived here. After the Second World War the town was finally renamed after Karel Havlíček Borovský. He was a famous Czech writer and journalist who lived in our town.
   
    One of the most important events for the town was the right to build the town walls. This right our town got in 1297. The town walls were built from stones so the town became safer and the centre of trade and crafts developed here. The town spread and flourished.
    The biggest development and flourishing of our town was in the fourteenth century.
In the surroundings there were silver mines so our town was quite rich.
It was interrupt in the fifteenth century by Žižka’s army. They destroy completely and burned off the town. The life returned here after a few years and the town was flourished again especially in the sixteenth and seventeenth century.
   
    There are several legends about our town. I know some of them and I would like to tell you one of them which says about one townsman who betried our town. In the past there were troubles between Brod and town Jihlava. One day in the morning women from our town went to the river to wash clothes and they saw many people with weapons in front of the gate of our town. They immediately ran back into the town and say it to all people. The town gate was closed in this moment but one man his name was Hnát opened it to people from Jihlava to could go into our town and obtained it. Hnát was stoned to death for his betrayal. His skeleton was shown above the door of town hall. The skeleton is there till now but the present skeleton is made from wood.
   
    A big influence on local educational and cultural life had founding of grammar school – it was in 1734. After that many famous people came to tour town to study here. There were composers, journalists, painters,
for example Bedřich Smetana, Josef Václav Stamic, Karel Havlíček Borovský, Josef Dobrovský, and Jan Zrzavý.
Karel Havlíček Borovský owned a house in the square where he lived with his family but unfortunately he was arrested and taken to exile in Brixen. Nowadays there is a museum in his house. Karel Havlíček Borovský was very important person for Havlíčkův Brod because he gave the name to our town so there were made a statue of him. It is situated in local park. The author of this statue was Bohumil Kafka.
   
    Nowadays Havlíčkův Brod is quite small town which has about twenty-five thousand inhabitants.
   
    The present life in our town is quite modern and comfortable.
There are several schools here (nursery, basic and secondary), new shops and supermarkets are built here, for example Hypernova, Plus, Lidl and Kaufland should been built here.
Our town has some new hotels for example The Gold Lion in the square, The Brixen and The Sun.
There were established important firms and factories here like Pleas – it produces underwear and Futaba which is run by Japanise and it produces car parts.
In our town we have quite develop sports. We have a sports area Kotlina which includes a winter stadium where you can find an ice-rink, a swimming pool, a sauna, a court for squash, fitness and a gym for aerobic.
A few years ago our sports hall was rebuilt, here you can do almost all indoor sports. In its surroundings there is a football field with an athletic oval, tennis courts and playgrounds for handball and beach volleyball.
Transport in our town is as well quite good because there are both railway, and bus station here. The bus station is reconstructed in these days.
    Our town offers many sights and places of interest to visitors.
In the middle of town there is a historical Havlíček’s Square which is surrounded by nice houses in Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque styles. These houses have very deep cellars. The Malina’s house is considered to be the finest house of them. The houses were reconstructed, they got a new painting and nowadays there are shops, banks, pharmacies and museums in these houses.
Next to the Havlíček’s house which I mentioned earlier you can visit the town gallery.
In Hanusovský House there is a regional museum.
Our town has two town halls-old and new one. Both of them are situated in the Havlíček’s square. In the old town hall there is a library, concert and exhibition hall and a wine cellar.
In the middle of the square there is Koudela fountain and plaque Marian column.
Near to the Havlíče’s square there is another square which name is Smetana’s square. Originally there were beautiful old house but there were pulled down in 1970s so new blocks of flats were built there.
Visitors can also go to our park Budoucnost which is near the square. This park is more than one hundred years old. It is clam place in the town to relax there are many benches and trees there, but you can also see there remnants of the town walls, Štáfl’s Bastion, statue of historical persons like Karel Havlíček Borovský and Bedřich smetana who was a famous musician.
In the surrounding of the Havlíček’s square there are many churches:
•Vojtěch’s church in Romanesque style with an old Jewish churchyard. In the last years it was rebuilt and nowadays the concerts are held here.
•Our biggest church is the Church of the Assumption of Virgin Mary. It is a dominant of the town. It has tall tower with a view point to the town. On the top of the tower there are three belles-William, Václav and Barbora. The bell William is the oldest one the central Europe it was made in the thirteen century. This church was originally built in gothic style but in 1422 it was destroyed by fire (by the Hussites). In 1707 a new church building was built in baroque style.
•The church of saint Catherine is situated by the river Sázava. Saint Catherine was a patron of miners. Originally  one part of the church was a hospital for poor miners.
   
    The surroundings of the town is interesting too.
In a small town Lipnice nad Sázavou – maybe it is a village - you can visit a castle and a museum in Jaroslav Hašek’s house.
The other interesting place is Havlíčkova Borová which is a birthplace of Karel Havlíček Borovský.
You can also visit two natural resorts- Doubravka and Stvořidla.
   
    I think Havlíčkův Brod is small but very beautiful town, you can see here both modern supermarkets and old historical houses.

Travelling

People travel for different reasons. I think nearly everybody travels every day or only uses some means of transport. An everyday form of travelling may be commuting to work or school, going shopping or visiting friends. The travelling forms for several days can be business trips and going to holidays.
There are two possibilities how you can travel. You can use your own means of transport for example your car or a bike or you can travel by public transport for example by bus, train, underground and so on. The own means of transport is more comfortable than the public one but if you drive must be careful and you can’t have a rest. If you use a bike you are great because you make your health better and you save our environment.
People and goods can be transported by land, air and water.
It is says that the water transport is relatively cheap but also slow. That’s why the rivers, seas and oceans are filled with ships and it is very dangerous because it pollutes the water and that’s why many water animals die. I think not so many people use water transports because they are afraid of sea-sick.
Air transport is expensive but very fast and comfortable. But I think that a big disadvantage of travelling by plane is that you have to be in airport about two hours before your departure. But some people can’t travel by air because they hate or they are afraid of highs.
Most of people travel by land. As I mentioned earlier they can use their own means of transport or they can use public one. We can use car, bus, train, underground, taxi, bike or motorbike.
    Travelling by car or by motorbike is quite expensive because the prices of petrol are so high. But is very pleasant because you can go nearly everywhere and you can go when you want. But in big cities is better travel by public transport. It is often overcrowded but it is faster than travelling by car. Because in large cities can be traffic jam an you can wait there several hours.
   
In my everyday life I use especially car and bus because I live in suburb of our town so I must commute to school. Nowadays I can travel by car because in Autumn I got a driving licence. It isn’t easy – at first I had to attend driving lessons and after them I had to pass a driving test. I like driving a car. In spite of I have a driving card I spend several minutes in a bus every day. In the morning it is about ten minutes but in the afternoon sometimes it is twenty minutes. The time depends on number of bus because each number has different route. If I travel somewhere with my friends we usually use trains. I like travelling by train I think it is very comfortable and it isn’t so expensive for students.
    A love travelling at all but the most I like travelling to abroad. I usually go abroad during the summer holidays and my journey is usually to the sea. If I travel abroad I like travel by plane. My farest destination was to Egypt. I was there twice I visited both Asia and African part of the country. It is very exciting country but I wouldn’t live there because women have no privileges there. But I can recommend to you for your holidays because there is beautiful life under the water and the nature isn’t typical for our climate conditions. I like the country.
    If you travel abroad you usually have book some accommodation. It can be for example hotel. Staying in the hotels is very pleasant and comfortable. The staff of hotels take care of you, it give all services what you want.

Shopping

Nowadays shopping is a modern kind of leisure time activity especially during the weekends.
Originally it was only necessary activity to buy some foods. Nowadays if we say shopping we usually have on our minds shopping of clothes. Especially in big cities the shops are still crowded.

    People in Czech Republic usually like shopping and they also usually want buy something new and save money so they do their shopping in periods of sales – it means after Christmas and in the end of each year’s season.
Opposite that British people don’t like shopping very much. They are going shopping because they must. So in Great Britain people usually buy only food and they do it only once a week when they do a big shopping (only fresh milk is delivered every day to their homes).

    People can do the sopping in supermarkets, department stores or in small shops.

SUPERMARKETS AND DEPARTMENT STORES
In the last years were built many supermarkets and department stores. They were usually built in suburbs of towns and cities. In these supermarkets you can buy everything what you want and need under one roof – it means that department stores save our time. In these big shopping centres there are more goods than in small shops, the goods are also cheaper but sometimes its quality isn’t too high. Disadvantage of doing shopping in supermarkets is commuting in it (because as I mentioned earlier they usually aren’t in centres of cities) and they are nearly always crowded. In these big supermarkets and department stores people usually do their big shopping once a week or sometimes they can go here to have a fun – for example to the cinema.

SMALL SHOPS
We can also doing our shopping in small shops. They are usually concentrated in centres of towns. Each shop specialize on some kind of goods it means there exist many types of these small shops. For example in
green grocer’s you can buy vegetables, in butcher’s meat, in stationary some exercises-books, pens or papers, florist’s specializes on flowers and plants and so on. In these small shops the goods usually have higher quality but there is usually smaller choice of the goods. I think that the shopping in small shops is more pleasant than the shopping in department stores where the shop assistants are sometimes impolite to customers. In small shops the salesmen are usually more helpful too.

    I am a teenage girl so I love shopping, especially shopping of clothes. I like going shopping to large cities like Praha because the shopping conditions in our town aren’t too good. Our town is quite small and there are only several shops situated in the square but they are expensive and they usually have little goods. If want buy some modern clothes I go for a trip to Prague or to some other city and I buy it in department stores specialized on clothes. I can do my shopping the whole day – I don’t mind it – I like it. In the department store you mustn’t only doing shopping you can sit in a café and have a rest for a while or you can go to the restaurant or fast-food to have a lunch or you can also visit the cinema.
In suburbs of our town there are several supermarkets where my family does the usual shopping. We always go by car there. It is comfortable for us because we live in an opposite suburb of the town than the supermarkets are built.

There are two possibilities how you can pay in the shops. It means paying by cash or by credit card. I usually pay by cash because I think that paying buy credit card lasts longer. But my mum pays more often by credit card. The biggest advantage of credit card is you needn’t have money in your purse you must have only one card – credit card.

At the doctor

People should take care of their health. For example they can do sports, eat healthy food which should consist of a lot fruits and vegetables it is very good for health because it contains many vitamins. If you want to be really healthy and feel well you shouldn’t of course smoke, eat so much to not be obesity and drink a lot of alcohol. But a little alcohol can be healthy for example in beer there vitamins and red wine is good for blood pressure. Some people also bath in icy water and visit sauna to have healthy heart.
I do my best to be healthy – for example I eat lots of vegetables and fruits and do many sports. Sports are my hobby number one.
But sometimes everybody fall ill. It is very unpleasant because you shouldn’t nearly anything. If you are ill you feel exhausted very often. And you should immediately visit you GP (general practitioner).
    In our country everybody must be insurance with some medical insurance company. We have several different these companies in the Czech Republic however the most popular is the General Medical Insurance Company. If you become a member of some insurance company you get its card which you must always show to a doctor at your visit.
    There exist two kind of medical care in our country. It means a state and a private care. Each citizen can choose from these possibilities which one he want use.
If you decide for the state care you don’t usually pay anything for the medical help. But if you decide for the private one you must usually pay for everything.
As I mentioned earlier people who feel that they fall ill they should visit their GP. I think that’s better to call to the ordinary and book before the visit because you shouldn’t wait so long for the examination. If come to a waiting room you must wait for a nurse who usually wants you to give her your insurance card. Later she calls your name and invites you in the ordinary. In ordinary there is your doctor who examines you and usually asks you some questions. After that he decides for some treatment. When your illness isn’t serious he usually prescribes you some medicaments like pills, drops or ointment and recommends you to stay at home in your bad for a few days. With the prescription you must go to the pharmacy and buy your medicaments. Some medicaments you must pay some of them are free of charge. If your illness is more serious the doctor sent you to some specialist or to a hospital for more detailed examination or special care. It can mean x-ray, operation, special injections and so on.
    I think I have a big luck because I am not often ill. Sometimes I catch a cold or some flu, sometimes I have a headache or toothache but I think it isn’t too serious diseases. Of course when I was a child I suffered from typical children diseases – for example I had chicken-pox. Every child must go to regularly check-ups when they are for example vaccinated against tuberculosis, tetanus and whooping cough.  I am happy and lucky that I shouldn’t visit doctor very often because both my mother and my father are doctors.
    I think people in each country suffered from some typical diseases. In our country it is especially obesity, high blood pressure and heart-attack which are connected with bad eating habits. More people still suffered from cancer of different kind.  Unfortunately cancer is very often fatal diseases.
People especially in countries of “third world” suffered from AIDS.
Nowadays many illnesses and diseases disappeared thanks to the vaccination but there appeared new ones which are difficult to cure today.
    In the case of an accident people should be able to provide the first aid to keep the injured people alive and they should immediately call an ambulance. The phone number of the ambulance in our country is 155. The first aid is taught from basic schools to secondary ones.