Subject Olympiads In Russia, we have a number of subject olympiads for pupils. They proceed through four stages. Firstly, we compete among other pupils from our school. Then, students who showed the best results compete among students from other schools of the town, then among the students from the different towns of the region, and finaly, the best of the best compete in the all-Russian Olympiade. I myself took part in literature, Russian language and English language Olympiads. I am proud that I managed to score an amount of points required for the next stage of the Olympiade on every subject. The second stage of literature Olympiade have already taken place, the two others are coming soon.

Extreme Sports I think extreme sports are becoming more and more popular nowadays due to changes in people's minds: today emotions and feelings are considered to be more valuable than wealth. In the end, memories are the only thing that will stay with you forever, and extreme sports can give you a wonderful experience, though they also can be very dangerous. I have already tried one extreme sport myself. It was tandem skydiving. I had never thought I will take up such a sport before September 2014, when a friend of mine, Katya, told me that she had done her first jump. She was really impressed, so I decided to give it a try, too, but it wasn't untill the summer of 2016 that I actually did it. As you can imagine, when I told my mum I was going to go skydiving, she wasn't happy at all, but I also told her about Katya's experience on that (by this time she has already gotten 3rd sport category in this sport). My dad encouraged me, and eventually I got my permission. I remember people were asking me all the time if I was scared, but actually, I wasn't, not before I got into the plane, not after that, and I don't know why. I can't call myself a very brave person. The skydiving is the most incredible thing that have ever happend to me. I would like to do it again, but unfortunatelly, it is quite expensive.

Interesting discoveries Last week, our French teacher gave us a task of doing a project on the history of our families. She said that we would be amazed by how interesting our discoveries would be, and she was right. I asked my mum if she could tell me something about my ascendants. One of the things that surprised me the most was the fact that my great-great-grandfather was actually polish. Another interesting thing for me was that a number of wooden buildings in my town were built by my great-grandfather. I have seen one of those buildings before I even knew that it was him who built it.

Should people read only historical books? One of the Agree or Disagree TOEFL topics proposes a statement, which says that people should read only those books that are about real events, real people, and established facts. I definitely disagree. My literature teacher has always told me that a good fiction helps you to build your personality, and it teaches you very important things about life. I think that’s true. The historical texts have to be impartial, and the fiction books are more emotional, so you can associate yourself with the main character, live his or her life, gain the same life experience with less losses and then avoid mistakes that he or she has made. Maybe you can associate yourself with famous people like Julius Caesar or Napoleon, too, but since the history books won’t tell you about how they interacted with other people, you unlikely to learn something useful in life from their biographies. History books can be really interesting, but you will hardly need to use the knowledge of how to rule the Roman Republic, and a good fiction book always teaches you a life lesson, even if you don’t notice that. In the end, it is such a pleasure to read a fiction book and not just learn about bare facts. Why should anybody deny yourself this pleasure in the first place?

Country I would like to visit If I had the opportunity to visit a foreign country, it would probably be an English-speaking country, as I want to improve my English, and being immersed in the environment could help me a lot. Also, we have a country studying classes at school where we learn about the culture of English-speaking countries. It would be great to see some of the attractions that we have learnt about with my own eyes. It is hard to choose just one country, as English-speaking world is so diverse. I think that countries like UK and USA have a really interesting history, and New Zealand is probably one of the most beautiful countries in the world. In addition, I heard that the movie ‘Lord of the Rings’ was filmed in in New Zealand. I can’t say I am a big fan of this movie, but I like it and it would be interesting to see places where it was filmed. Australia is another wonderful English-speaking country. It is situated in Southern Hemisphere, that’s why in Australia summer is from December to March and winter is from June to September. This is so unusual! I think that every English-speaking country has its own history and original culture and I would be glad to visit any of them.

My favorite book I have often been asked what my favorite book is. The question seems to be very simple, but I don't think I will ever manage to answer it just because there are so many incredible books out there! I can't choose just one and I'm glad I don't have to. Some of the books are so different thats they can't be compared at all. Another thing that get in the way when I try to choose my favorite book is that the last book I read always seems to be the best one because the impression is fresh. After some time I realize that though I still like the book, it does not excite me this much any more. So, I have a bunch of favorite books. Among them are such books as Jane Eyre, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Invisible man (the one by H. G. Wells), Amber Spyglass and a lot of others.

Driving In Russia, driving age is 18. If you are 16-17 years old, you can learn to drive but you won't get your driver license until you are 18. In America, driving age varies from state to state, but 16 is the most common. I think that this difference between driving age in Russia and America has something to do with the value of the driver license in US. As far as I know, it is the main citizen's identity document in America, as long as citizen stays in the country at least. And in Russia, our main identity document is Internal Russian passport, which we get at the age of 14. It is hard to say if younger driving age is better or worse. Statistics say that teenage drivers are more likely to crash, but I think that's because they have no or very small driving experience. Your driving experience is not the only thing that matter, though. You should be responsible on the road too. The problem with the driving age is that it is equal for everybody, but some people can be mature enough to drive when they are 16, and some of them ignore traffic rules when they are over 18. Unfortunately, the solution of this problem is unlikely to exist. The only thing we can do is helping novise to get used to the driving.

My haircuts I had my hair cut today. Now it's shorter than it ever was, and although somebody may say it's still not very short, this new haircut is a bold experiment for me. I hadn't had my hair cut at all until I was six, and even then the hairdresser just trimed the split ends, so my hair still was very long. When I was a child, I hated cutting my hair because I wanted it to be as long as possible. My mum had to persuade me to go to the hairdressing salon every time I needed to remove split ends. After a while I realized that I should do it for my hair to be healthier, but still, it always was a stress for me and I didn't think that I would ever cut my hair short. However, time has passed and I stopped carrying about the length my hair this much. And as I have thought a lot about changing something about my appearance recently, I decided to cut my hair short. And I don't regret. I feel differently, but I like my hair this way.

Learning English Hello! I’m a native Russian speaker, and I am learning English. I am also studying French in school, but my French is way worse than my English and I’m mainly focused on learning English anyway. I have always been told that English is very important for life, but that is not the only reason for me to learn it. Learning a language is a magical feeling. You always express yourself while speaking, but when you are speaking your first language you may not realize that. Language is the key to understanding other cultures, and as English is spoken worldwide, it can actually show you the world. Also, it feels so good to read the original book, not the translation. It’s like having a heart-to-heart talk with the author. The similar thing with the movies. That’s why learning English is not just a very useful thing for me, it is a great fun too. I have a passion to learn something new about other cultures. And I hope learning English will help me to gain confidence as well.