New Zealand Way of Life

1. Words and expression to remember:

   health care	здравоохранение	extremely	слишком
   to own	владеть	urban	городской
   single-	на одну семью	uncrowded	малонаселённый
   family	бытовая техника	downtown	центр города
   electrical	иметь	rural	сельскохозяйственный
   appliances	тенденцию быть	hired help	наёмная рабочая сила
   to tend	связывать
   to link

2. Read and translate the text.

New Zealand has a high standard of living. New Zealanders eat more butter and meat per person than do the people of any other country. The government's medical program provides excellent health care. About 70% of New Zealand people own their houses. Almost every family has a car.

Most New Zealanders live in single-family houses with small vegetable gardens. In the larger cities, some people live in high-rise apartment buildings. Almost in every New Zealand home there are refrigerators, wash machines, and other modern electrical appliances. But air conditioning and central heating are rare because the weather rarely becomes extremely hot or extremely cold. In summer, New Zealanders prefer to keep windows open. In winter, fireplaces or electric heater keep the homes warm.

Although about four fifths of New Zealand’s population lives in urlan areas, cities are uncrowded Traffic jams seldom occur even in downtown areas. Large cities have excellent restaurants, milk bars, theatres, concert halls, and other places of entertainment. City life in New Zealand tends to be rather quiet. However, it is changing in larger cities, where international tourism is developing rapidly.

Near a fifth of New Zealand’s people live in rural areas in some of them, small settlements are linked by good roads. But in other areas, rancher’s nearest neighbours may live kilometers away. Some ranchers live almost in isolation.

Nevertheless, most farms and ranches have electricity. Many farm families run their farms with little or no hired help.

3. Answer the questions.

1. Who pays for health care in New Zealand?

2. How many New Zealanders own their houses?

3. Where do the most New Zealanders live?

4. Are central heating and air conditioning popular in New Zealand? Why?

5. What does city life in New Zealand look like?

6. How do New Zealand farmers live?

Additional reading

India

India is the seventh largest and the second most populous nation of the world. India is bounded by the Great Himalayas, which occupy a major place in the life and culture of India.

Four seasons are recognized by the Indian Meteorological department, they are: the cold weather (December-February, the hot weather (March-May), the rainy weather (June-September and the season of the retreating south-west monsoon (October- November).

The modem nation of India is smaller than the Indian Empire formerly ruled by Britain. Burma (now Myanmar) was administratively detached from India in 1937. Ten years later, when Britain granted independence to the peoples of the Indian subcontinent, two regions West Pakistan and East Pakistan became the separate nation of Pakistan.

India’s official name is “Republic of India” and its system of government is called “Multiparty Federal Republic”. It has 25 states and 7 union territories. Each has its own language, dress, religious rituals, arts, crafts and food.

India’s head of state is the president, who is elected by the members of both houses of Parliament. The powers of the president are largely nominal and ceremonial, except in times of emergency and the president normally acts on the advice of the prime minister.

The Constitution lists 15 official Indian languages. Hindi is the most important of them. The general policy of the Government is to encourage progressive use of Hindi as the official language, but English continues to be used alongside or in addition to Hindi for most official and business purposes and for communication between the States of India.

The National Animal of India is the majestic Tiger, which symbolizes power and gorgeousness. Lotus is the National Flower of India.

Its population totals about 1,02 billion. The capital of India is New Delhi with population more than 10 million. It is a political, educational, cultural and transportation centre.