About myself
    My name is Peter Sidorov. I am 14 years old. I was born in Moscow, where I am still living. Our family is rather large. There are five of us: my mother, my father, my brother, my sister and me.
    My father is 44 years old. He is an eye surgeon. He works in hospital. He is always very busy. He has very little free time. He likes his job. My mother is a teacher of literature. She works a lot. She is always busy checking up the compositions of her pupils. She does her housework and we always help her. My brother is 19 years old. He is a Law Faculty student. He is not married yet and has no family of his own. He wants to be an expert in the field of law that is why he works hard. My little sister is 10 years old. Her name is Ann. Although she is little she knows a lot of wonderful things. She is very clever and intelligent. I can talk with her for hours about the adventures of three musketeers, the Greek and Roman gods and heroes. She learns English. Her favourite books are "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass" by Lewis Carroll. But I like his poem "The Hunting of the Snark". It is nonsense literature of the highest order. Children like this fantastic tale about Alice's adventures very much. The book is successful because it is not an allegory; it has no hidden meaning or message, either religious, political, or psychological. My sister has a good ear for music: she goes to musical school for piano lessons. Once I also attended musical school and learnt to play the piano. Sometimes we go to the Conservatoire with our parents to listen to solo concerts or symphonic orchestras.
    I am always very busy, but when I am free I like to read books, play football with my friends or watch TV or video films. My favourite writer is J.R.R. Tolkien. I like his epic trilogy "The Lord of the Rings" very much. This book is about the struggle between good and evil forces for possession of a magical ring that can change the balance of power in the world. When I have a lot of free time I like to go to the museums and art galleries. My favourite painter is Nikolai Roerich. Roerich is known for his monumental historical paintings and wonderful landscapes of the Himalayan Mountains. His works of art are full of mysticism and symbolism. I like his painting "The Forefathers". This canvas, based on the Slavic legend, is inspired by the northern Russian countryside. It shows an old Slavic piper surrounded by bears against the background of hills.
    My favourite movie is the "Star Wars". It is an inspiring fairy tale about the fight of the good and evil. The action takes places in the far away galaxy in the distant future. One can easily recognise the reality of today. The main characters arouse our admiration. Luke Skywalker can be characterised as a musketeer of outerspace. But most of all I like contemporary music. I am fond of almost every trend of music style. I like Russian music too, but not so much as British or American. I am not interested in music as a passive recipient. I can play the guitar and piano. I take part in a musical project with my friends. In our band I sing and play the guitar. We give concerts at our school. Recently I've started to practice drums and I've found out that I like it very much. Unfortunately, I can not devote as much time as I would like to music. I have to study and do other things as well.
    I have a lot of friends. Friendship is one of the greatest things in the world. Nobody knows how to define it in a proper way. I think that friendship is the highest spiritual achievement of men. I believe that a person can be happy if he has a true friend. My true friend is Mark. He wants to be a pilot. Mark is a very interesting person. We find little difficulty in entertaining ourselves. Mark has a great talent for inventing games to amuse us all. I enjoy spending my free time with him. He is bright, well educated, kind-hearted, and cheerful. Mark is the only person with whom I can share my problems, ideas, and thoughts. He understands me very well, and he always tells me the truth. Mark's hobby is playing billiard and football. I also like to play these games. In each game I appreciate logic on which the development of the games based. We do these sports pretty well, especially football. To play billiard well it is necessary to practice it regularly. Recently our interests in billiard have faded and we play only football. Sometimes at the weekends, especially in autumn, we go to the cinema. We understand each other perfectly well. I am happy to have such a friend as Mark. Unfortunately in our society people often forget how to save someone's faith in kindness.
    Speaking of our apartment, I want to say that it is rather large. We live in a very good place. Our apartment is located in a twenty-storied tower of flats in the northwest of the city. There is a park with a big pond not far from it. We have a four-room apartment on the sixteenth floor.
    The living room with a window facing the park is quite large. In this room there is a bookcase, a sofa, a table with six chairs around it, and two armchairs there. There is a TV-set, a video-recorder and a tape-recorder in this room. On the walls there are three paintings. A thick carpet covers the floor. We spend every evening in this room. My parents' room is rather small. There are two beds, a dressing table with a mirror and a wardrobe there. On the bedside table there is an alarm clock, an electric lamp and some books.
    I share my room with my elder brother. It is our study as well. We have a lot of books in this room. There are books on the shelves all around the walls. We have two desks. My desk is at the window. The computer is on the desk in the corner of the room. There are two sofas in this room. There are two chairs in our room. ............