The novel is set in 18th century London. It is the story about a young English man, Dorian Gray. His friend Basil, a painter, made a beautiful portrait of Dorian very similar to reality. Dorian was seduced by the speeches on the importance of youth and beauty of his friend Lord Henry Wottonon. The Lord indulged the young man to live a life of pleasure without any scruples. Dorian was ready to exchange his fate with that of the paint at the cost of losing his soul. He wanted to avoid the imperfection and old age. Dorian lived an immoral life without any remorses keeping his beauty and youth. His portrait, instead, got old and ugly. The man hated this picture because he realised that this picture was his real image. One day his anguish led him to destroy the canvas with a dagger. Later the servants found the cadaver of an old ugly man on the floor, while the remains of the painting showed the image of the young Dorian Gray. The portrait and Dorian were linked.

"Berenice" by Edgar Allan Poe (attempt of translating) Misery and misfortune are multiform and varied. They are formed by different and distinct intimately fused colors like a rainbow. Like a rainbow they dominate wide horizon. In such way an example of a beauty I would put in contact with the worst of the uglinesses. I would merge a peace symbol to a similarity of pain. Such as in the ethical concepts the evil is the consequence of the good, in the real life the pain arises from the joy. The present anguish originates from the memory of the past happiness and the actual agonies were born from ecstasy which they could be. Thank you in advance

Air smell after raining Everyone knows an air smell after raining. Do you know what makes it so specific and recognizable? It's petrichor mixed with geosmin. The petrichor is secreted by some plants during a drought which get absorbed by ground and rock. The geosmin is a product released after the death of some microorganisms. Both of these substances are aerosolized in air during the rain and contribute to the smell.

Heroes Children At the beginning of December 2018 Anghelina, a seven year old girl, and two friends of her were walking along a river near their village. Suddenly boys decided to test for ice's fortress. They were heading into the middle of the river when the ice broke and the boys fell into the hole. Anghelina understood all danger and urgency of the situation. There wasn't time to ask the help somewhere else and she decided trying to save her friends. Firstly she advanced on all fours for a few meters and then she laid down prone and crawled to the hole. She could pull out her friends drugging them by collar of their jackets one after other. The children were saved. One year after, on 01 November 2019, Anghelina and other nineteen heroic children received awards in the Federation Council in Moscow within national civil-patriotic project "Heroes Children". Each of those children made a real feat, a saved life.

The 9th of May is the Victory day in Russia. In a few days it will be a great day for Russian people. The 9th of May is the Victory day in Russia. It’s the celebration of the end of the Second World War. All of us were grown with sense of the proud about what was done by our grandmothers and grandfathers, their struggles and sacrifices. It was the war for the liberation of the homeland and its motivations were clear and indisputable. I think every family feels to have part of this celebration because everybody has at least one ancestor who took part in this war. We are very patriotic when it comes to the Second World War. Every year in addition to the great parade on the Red Square in Moscow there are the pacific manifestations all over Russia. Its name is “Iimmortal Regiment” (Бессмертный Полк). The people go out with pictures of their relatives in hands and parade down streets. There is plenty of crowd outside composed by people of any ages. It’s to be noted that there are also a lot of children. This celebration is very beautiful and also very important to remind us about the values of life and relationships. Also it's very important that our children feel to be part and they are deeply involved by the event. We are for world peace!

My car is bloken - Hi! How are you? - I'm fine, thank you, and you? - Not bad except my car is broken. The battery is over and the car doesn’t start. I tried to switch on the engine, but it didn't work. My car is new and there is the guarantee for every breakdown. The problem is that during the quarantine mechanics are closed. Everything is close. But I really need my car because I have to go to work. I tried to call the autoassistance service, but they told me that they could make only the emergency start and then I had to drive my car to a mechanic. Mmmm…. Ok, I can do the emergency start by myself and I don’t need any help for it. Actually I already did it a few days ago because I had to bring the car from work to my home, but after two days the battery got over once again. There is nothing to do. I have to wait one week, make the emergency start once again and drive to mechanic. Meanwhile, I'm using the service car of my company when it’s free or I’m asking my husband or colleagues to take me at work. This way is very uncomfortable, first because everyone organizes their day in their own way, second because I depend too much on other people and at the last we have to justify all our journeys because of quarantine and when my colleagues come to pick me up they must do it.

Yesterday I woke up early Yesterday I woke up early because I had to go to other city for my work. I was very sleepy because I wasn't used to waking up so early anymore. During the quarantıne I usually stay at home a lot, I have a possibility to organize my day how I want and I don't need to go at work in the morning. So, yesterday I woke up at 5.00 o'clock in the morning that was very difficult for me. I spent a lot of time and great number of alarm clock rings to stand up. Finally I was on foot and I felt myself quite well. I washed myself, got dressed and left. It was 2 hours way to get my journey's destination. During the driving I was listening to music, audiobooks and the minutes were passing, but after around an hour I got sleepy. I thought that the driving was becoming dangerous, so I had to stop to have a rest. After some minutes I was fine and I could finish my journey. Later I had to drive back, then I worked and I returned at home only at 7.30 p.m. In conclusion, it was a very long and hard day and in the evening I was so tired that I went to sleep at 9.00 pm. It was not unusual day for my past life, but in this period of quarantine I've become more relaxed and lazy. I think I can take advantage of these days to recover my time and my “do nothing”.

Some curious records George Washington was the only American president elected by 100% of the voters (those were two commissions). Also he wasn't a member of any political party. His inaugural speech was the shortest among all of the presidents’ inaugural speeches. William Henry Harrison pronounced the longest inaugural speech and he had the shortest period of presidency. John Tyler had the most numerous number of children (15). Abraham Lincoln was the highest American president (195 cm). James Madison was the tiniest president; he weighed 45 kg and was 164 cm high. William Howard Taft was the biggest president, he weighed 140 kg. Franklin Roosevelt kept a presidential term for 4 times. He was the youngest president at the moment of his election and he was also a relative of eleven of his predecessors. Ronald Reagan was the oldest president at the moment of his election. Richard Nixon was the only president who retired before the end of the presidential term. James Buchanan was not married. Andrew Jackson was illiterate.

When I was a schoolgirl... When I was a schoolgirl of a school of URSS in the middle of 80, our school was taken part of the international club of friendship (КИД). The club included a lot of schools among the USSR and others soviet states. The idea was to create friendly relationship between russian children and schoolchildren of the different Sovetic states, besides to improve our English. There wasn't internet and we hadn't possibility to phone becaus of costs, farther, not all of us had phones at home. So each of us had one o two pen-friend and we wrote a letters to each other. We spent a lot of time preparing our letters. We wrote them in english with help of our teacher, we decorated sheets of paper with ornaments, flowers and drowings. Sometimes we sent and received some little presents like stickers or cards within the letters. These gifts were treasures for us. The corripondence needed around a month to arrave and we was looking forward to found the letters within mailbox. My pen-friend was Pamela and she was from Brno (Czechoslovakia). Her surname was long and difficult, it began with "G" and ended with (ch). I've never seen her, but today I've remebred her. It would be curious and nice to meet Pamela now, after a lot of time....