Writing

III. Open the brackets and put the verbs into correct form.
Dear Ellen,
Hello from Kyiv! The weather (1) __ (be) sunny I (2) __ (have)
a fantastic time. Mike and I (3) __ (stay) at a lovely hotel in the city
centre. We (4) __ (be) here since Tuesday and we (5) __ (already / do)
many interesting things.
We (6) __ (go) for a walk along Khreschatyk street, the main street
of Kyiv. We (7) __ (do) that on Wednesday. It was amazing! Old
buildings
stand next to modern shops and cafes shining in the evening with bright
lights. We (8) __ (also / visit) St. Sophia Cathedral. We (9) __ (visit) it
on
Thursday. The paintings and the cathedral itself were magnificent. Then
we went along Andriivskyi Uzvis, the best known historic streets and
a main tourist attraction in Kyiv. Its name (10) __ (give) after St.
Andrew’s
church near which the street begins. There were many gift shops
and small art galleries. I have bought some great souvenirs there.
There are a lot of things we (11) __ (not do) yet. We (12) __ (not /
visit) Kyiv National Opera Theatre and Outdoor Museum of folk
Architecture
and Everyday Life in Ukraine, which is situated in Pyrohiv
village, not far from Kyiv. We are visiting the museum tomorrow to
see old wooden village churches, windmills and other original things.
We are also going to visit National Art Museum of Ukraine. It is famous
for its large collection of modern art.
Kyiv is a modern city, noisy and crowded, but fascinating. You
must see it one day. We are returning to New York on the 15th, so I’ll
see you then.
Lots of love,
Janet

Ast week in our blog "Kids" was an interesting and quite an extensive discussion about the mythology of "a happy childhood." As it often happens, the conversation went well beyond the stated theme. Among other things, it is a natural and appropriate way touched upon the process of growing up, and how the final offensive this very adulthood.
And here we are having all sorts of surprises, questions and inconsistencies. What, actually, it is - to become an adult? Whom we can confidently be called an adult, whether there is any indication (set of attributes) which defines it? Do all mentally healthy people will eventually become adults, or a part of and live their lives in a state of neotenic larvae, which gained the ability to reproduce? And even more whimsical: reversible if offensive adulthood? Can I become an adult, and then, changing external circumstances, go back to a state of "non-adult"? Panellists cited examples from their own experience.
Plus the effect of the noosphere. What to do with "maturity" increasing virtualization of modern life? After all, the online computer games can play on an equal footing, and a boy of nine, sixty and uncle. In addition, children learn the virtual world much faster than their parents' generation, and it is understood by both parties. Adulthood as a result of the accumulation of knowledge, skills and useful information is also partly lost its price, for access to information has changed a lot throughout the civilized world in the past 15 years, and valuable today provides the ability to relearn better not completely matured.
Adulthood as acceptance of responsibility - talking about it almost all the panelists. But for some, in fact, the responsibility is it? Responsibility for what? To earn a living? Very good earning hero of the series "The Big Bang Theory" on behalf of Sheldon Cooper - an adult? Responsibility for the other? A child during the year diligently and effectively caring for a hamster, an adult?
All these questions seem to me very interesting, is not confined to "happy childhood" and worthy of a separate discussion. Especially since in the course of the debate, I thought about her for a long time (2009) a mini-study, just on the topic of interest to us, the results of which I now introduce readers to "seed" the conversation.
The study itself was very unpretentious. There was for him and the motive - just at the time I started to often treat parents with complaints of this kind, "He obviously does not want to grow up, although age is high time," "She does not want to take responsibility for anything, but I was at her age ... "" He responds to all the children younger than his age, and I do not know how to explain to him, "" We are at that age would quickly grow and become self-reliant, and they seem to do this is not seek "and so on. d.
The opinion of the parents was clear to me. But it would be interesting to know the opinion of young people themselves, I thought.

A hobby is a special interest or activity that you do in your time off. Some people have animals as hobbies. They keep rabbits, or go fishing. They train dogs to do tricks, or keep pigeons to race and carry messages. Some are crazy about plants. They try to grow cacti or rare tropical flowers in their kitchens and sitting rooms. Others are mad about their car or their motorbike. They spend their Saturdays and Sundays washing them, painting them, or buying new bits and pieces to make them go even faster. Children and teenagers are great collectors. They collect stamps, or postcards or matchboxes, or pictures of a favourite footballer or pop star. Many people make things as a hobby. Some teach themselves at home, but a lot of people go to evening classes at their local college. Just look under letter B in a list of London or New York evening classes and you'll find: Ballet, Batik, Bengali, Body building, Breadmaking and Byzantium. But not everyone goes to evening classes to learn about his special interest. No one helped these people to do what they did. A hobby is usually something that a person does alone. But American (and British) families sometimes like to do things together, too. American families often have quite a lot of money to spend on their recreation. They can all enjoy their holiday home or their boot somewhere in the country away from home. Americans love to get out of town into the wild. and many go for holidays or long weekends into the thirty-live fabulous national parks. These magnificent areas of countryside include tropical forests, high mountains, dry deserts, long sandy coasts. grassy prairies and wooded mountains full of wild animals. The idea of these parks, which cover 1% of the whole area of the USA. is to make "a great breathing place for the national lungs", and to keep different parts of the land as they were before men arrived. There are camping places in the national parks as well as museums, boat trips and evening campfire meetings. Americans really enjoy new "gadgets", especially new ways of travelling. In the winter, the woods are full of "snowmobiles" (cars with skis in the front). In the summer they ride their "dune buggins" across the sands or take to the sky in hang gliders. But Americans do not only spend their free time having fun. They are very interested in culture too. Millions take part-time courses in writing. painting and music, and at weekends the museums, art galleries and concert halls are full.