Hobbies

A hobby is something you like doing in your free time, such as reading, listening to music, making something, growing, collecting different things, etc. Different people like doing different things, so we can say that people have different hobbies. "Tastes differ," the proverb.
My friends are fond of collecting different things: dolls, postcards, coins and stamps. My friend Ann started collecting dolls when her aunt gave her a china doll. It's the oldest one she has in her collection. It was made in France a hundred years ago. Her other dolls are modern. She has twenty-one in her collection. They are different: re made of plastic, wood and cloth. The smallest one is 1 cm tall. The most beautiful are from Germany and Britain, and they are d in regional costumes. She also has a lovely wooden one from Russia. My friend is proud of her collection. She likes to show all her dolls to her friends and to tell interesting things about them.
My other friend has hundreds of postcards and they are all fascinating. At first he started collecting all sorts, from all over the world. That was too complicated, so now he collects local ones. They describe the history of our city during the last hundred years.
One of my classmates collects coins because he likes the history they record. He has a special catalogue where he writes everything he knows about his coins. It's a very interesting hobby.
My brother is fond of collecting stamps. And I think they're the best things to collect. Collectors usually have a theme: stamps from one country, stamps about space, animals, ships, etc. My brother's theme is famous people. He has a special notebook where he writes down everything he knows about famous people from his collection. Of course, collecting can cost you a lot of money if you buy an old thing. But my friends swap with one another. As for me, I am fond of collecting books. So my hobby is reading. My theme is historical books. And Histoiy is my favourite subject at school. I have two hundred books in my collection. It's a family hobby and all in all there are two thousand books in our family collection. I'm very proud of my collection and my family.

Vocabulary

Tastes differ — О вкусах не спорят.
china doll — фарфоровая кукла
cloth — материя
regional costume — национальная одежда
wooden — деревянный
postcard — почтовая открытка
complicated — сложный

local — местный
coin — монета
to record — увековечивать
to cost — стоить
to swap — обмениваться
all in all — всего
to be proud of — гордиться

Questions

1. What hobbies do you know?
2. What is a hobby?
3. What is your hobby? Why?
4. What is your friend's hobby?
5. What are your parents' hobbies? Why?
6. Do all people have their hobbies?
7. Why is it necessary to have a hobby?
8. What exotic hobbies do you know?