Text 3 Exercise 1. Read the text and do the tasks MY HOBBY My hobby is collecting stamps. When I was still a baby, my mother began collecting them for me. They were in four albums, but since then I have added three more, so that now I have a bigger collection than any of my friends. How do I get my stamрs? I have never bought a single one from a shop. My father, who works in a big office, sometimes brings me stamps from different parts of the world. And I have friends both here and in other countries who send me stamps in return for the ones I send them. Now that I am working for my living, I don’t have as much time as before to spend on my stamps. But in the evening what can be better than to sit down at a table with my albums arranging the new stamps in them, writing in the names of the countries, or, if I am too tired, only looking through the stamps already in the albums. Each stamp has a story to tell of distant countries and strange people. I see pictures of men and women, birds and animals that I myself have never seen. Kings and presidents pass before my eyes, and I can follow the history of whole nations. But my stamp collection doesn’t make me think of the past. Just as my moth er collected for me, so I, too, am collecting for my future child. What better way will there be of making him interested in history, geography and languages? If I can pass my hobby on to him, he will be grateful to me for it, as I am grateful to my mother. Exercise 2. Agree or disagree, use speech patterns. 1. The young man has three albums with stamps. 2. His mother began collecting stamps for him. 3. He buys stamps in a shop. 4. He spends much time on his hobby now. 5. Each stamp tells him a story of distant countries and people. 6. Stamp collection makes him think only of the past. 7. Stamps help him to follow the history of whole nations. 8. The young man wants to pass his hobby to his future child. Exercise 3. Do you agree that stamp collecting is very useful and interesting? Why/why not?