Picture 1
Now I will compare and contrast [kən´traːst] these two photos.
I’d like to stress out right from the beginning that lots of young people nowadays are concerned about healthy lifestyle. And these two photos prove that. (вступительная фраза)
So, the theme which relates these photos is the way people take care of their health.
Let me start with the first picture which shows young people who are doing some exercises in the gym at the moment. They are walking on the training simulators. There is an LCD screen in front of each person. I think it might be very convenient to watch the records of your walking speed, pulse and number of loosing calories. It seems to me that they are having their training in the evening when their working day is over.
Picture 2
As for the second picture you can see a young girl jogging in the city park. She is wearing a nice coral T-shirt and dark sports trousers. I guess the action is taking place in a warm summer morning because you can see bright spells of the sun on the emerald green grass and trees. The girl is very slender and looks very happy.
As I’ve already mentioned both pictures depict young people who are taking up sports to be in a good shape (to feel strong and healthy). And this is the main similarity between them. Also both pictures show us cheerful people who really enjoy doing sports (who are doing sports with pleasure).
The most evident (obvious) difference between picture 1 and picture 2 is that in the first picture you can see a group of people doing work out indoors while in the second picture the girl is shown running out of doors on her own (alone). The clothes people wearing in picture 1 are snow-white whereas the girl in picture 2 prefers bright colours.
In conclusion I would like to say that as I spend most of the day studying at school or at home, I would rather go jogging in the open air to avoid hypoxia [hai´pɔksiə].
I’ve come to the end of my talk. Thank you for listening. (Завершающая фраза)
Task 4
Study the photographs. In 1.5 minutes be ready to compare and contrast the photographs:
· give a brief description of the photos (action, location)
· say what the pictures have in common
· say in what way the pictures are different
· say which kind of the activities presented in the pictures you'd prefer
· explain why
Sample answer
Photo 1
Now I am going to compare and contrast [kən´trɑ:st] these two photos. (start with this phrase)
Just at the beginning I would go as far as to say that lots of people are fond of dancing because it is a good way to express their feelings and emotions. And now let’s take a closer look at these two photos.
In the first picture you can see a group of people performing a folk dance on the stage. They are wearing nicely designed scarlet costumes embroidered with pearls and gold work. I am fairly sure that they are performing one of the traditional Russian dances because the girls are wearing kokoshniks which are an integral part of Russian folk costumes (which are a typical head-dress of Russian folk costumes). It looks as if all dancers are in a good mood.
Picture 2
In the second picture I’d like to draw your attention to the couple who might be dancing tango. The man looks very elegant in his black suit as well as his partner in a beautiful red dress. They seem to be showing some dramatic and complex figures.
The main similarity between picture 1 and picture 2 is that they both display / show / depict people who take up dancing. Another resemblance is that people in both pictures are wearing their stage costumes instead of their casual clothes.
The most obvious difference between picture 1 and picture 2 is the style of dances. I’m pretty confident that in picture 1 people are performing a folk dance, whereas picture 2 depicts a kind of ballroom dancing. What is more, in comparison to picture 1 where you can see a folk ensemble (a lot of people), picture 2 shows a partner dance (two people).
As for me, I would prefer to take up ballroom dancing because I am a hot-tempered person so this style of dancing with its speed and emotions will better reflect my character.
Summarizing, I may say that taking part into dancing activity is a good way of recreation.