Everybody wants to be healthy and happy, though there are few people who really lead a healthy way of life.

Nowadays people eat too much, they become obese, and obesity leads to heart diseases, diabetes and other serious illnesses. We shouldn’t eat too much fast food instead of eating more fruit and vegetables. We shouldn’t smoke. Smoking and drinking shorten our lives.

Lack of exercise is another serious problem. We spend hours sitting in front of our computers and TV sets. Few of us do morning exercises. If we want to be healthy and strong, more organized and better disciplined, we should go in for sports.

Many people all over the world are fond of sports and games. They go in for skating, skiing, gymnastics, athletics, rowing, tennis, bodybuilding and others. All necessary facilities are provided for them: stadiums, sport grounds, swimming-pools, skating-rinks, football fields.

Sport is paid much attention to in our schools and colleges. Gymnastics is a part of children’s daily activities in kindergartens. Physical culture is a compulsory subject at schools and colleges.

There are many sportsmen who go in for sports professionally. They take part in sports competitions and sports events. Professional sport is also paid much attention to in our country. There are different sporting societies, clubs and complexes.

Still there are people who just watch sports games on TV or at the stadiums. They say that they are interested in sports, but that only means that they like to discuss the latest sport events.

We distinguish between winter and summer sports. Skiing, ice hockey, figure skating attract many people in winter. In summer everybody plays different ball games, such as football, volleyball, basketball. Popular indoor games include billiards, chess, table tennis and darts.

            Practically all kinds of sports are popular in our country, but football, gymnastics and tennis enjoy the greatest popularity. As for me I go in for table tennis. It takes mobility, liveliness and much energy. It keeps me fit. I have been playing tennis for five years, but the more I play, the more I like it. I enjoy taking part in competitions or simply playing with my friends in our spare time.

obese [ou′bi:s] тучный, полный; obesity [ou′bi:siti]           тучность

disease [di′zi:z]                                                                    болезнь

diabetes [daiə′bi:ti:z]                                                            диабет

lack [læk]                                                                           недостаток, недостача

rowing [rouiŋ]                                                                     гребля

facilities [fə′silitiz]                                                                удобства

to provide [prə′vaid]                                                           обеспечивать, предоставлять

compulsory [kəm′p∧lsəri]                                                    обязательный

society [sə′saiəti]                                                                 общество

liveliness [′laivlinəs]                                                              живость, подвижность

to keep fit                                                                            сохранять спортивную форму

Questions:

1)        What does a healthy way of life mean?

2)        Why is it important to keep fit?

3)        Do you feel tired after sitting at your homework for a long time? What do you do to get some rest?

4)        Do you smoke? Eat too much fast food? Do morning exercises?

5)        Is sport popular with your friends?

6)        Are you active at your Physical Training lessons?

7)        What kind of sport do you go in for?

8)        How long have you been going in for it?

9)        What other kinds of sports would you go in for if you had time?

10)    Have you won at sport competitions?