Summer Holidays

File added Y10113
Last minor change Y010113

The following text appears as an English-language reading lesson in
E. Belova and L. Todd,English: A Textbook of the English Language for the 7th Grade in 7-year and Secondary Schools (third edition)State Textbook and Pedagogical Publishers of the Ministry of Education of the RSFSR, Moscow, 1952; pp. 12-13.

SUMMER HOLIDAYS

All Soviet children like very much to go back to school in September after the summer holidays. When they see their school-friends again, they ask them many questions about the holidays. They are glad to see their teachers again, they like to get their new books and they want very much to begin lessons once more.

Most Soviet children who live in big towns and cities spend the summer in the country. Some go to villages and summer-cottages with their parents; others go to pioneer camps in the country or near the sea. They play games in the garden, or go for walks in the woods where it is always cool and pleasant in summer. When they want to get berries and mushrooms, they go to the woods early in the morning.

Some boys and girls like to read very much and during the summer months they sit out-of-doors, or lie on the ground and read books. Most boys and girls like to bathe and swim, and so pioneer camps are usually near a river, a lake or the sea.

After the 22nd of June, 1941, when the Great Patriotic War began, very many of our men went to the front to defend our Soviet Fatherland. During the Great Patriotic War, schoolboys and schoolgirls did not spend the summer holidays in quite the same way as before. They went to the collective farms and helped to do the work of the men who were at the front. They often did quite hard work. They made hay and helped with the harvesting. Our Soviet Army and our people needed much corn1 and Soviet boys and girls worked in the fields yellow with ripe corn. In this way they helped the Soviet Army to fight for our country against the German fascists. The hard work in the fields made their bodies strong, and when school began again, they were ready to work hard at their books once more.

Now the war is over. Under the leadership of Comrade Stalin our Soviet Army defeated the enemy. Today our children again rest during the holidays at pioneer camps or with their parents in the country.

Proverbs:

Notes

Note 1--corn
This is British English, meaning what Americans call "wheat" or "grain." "Maize" is the British and continental word for what Americans call "corn."
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