13. Reading. 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», says 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: they are made of plastic, wood and cloth. The smallest one is 1 cm tall. The most beautiful are from Germany and Britain, and they are dressed in regional costumes. 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 Mike 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's got a list where he writes down all about the coins in his collection. What an interesting hobby!

  

My older brother Stan is keen on stamp collecting. To my mind this is great. Usually collectors are interested in some theme: stamps about nature, birds, sea, stamps from a particular country. Stan’s theme is well-known 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.

 

  

1. Ann likes to show all her dolls to her friends.

 

   

 

2. The writer’s brother is keen on stamp collecting.

 

   

 

3. The writer’s brother’s theme is famous companies.