Vocabulary. irrespective of —- независимо от

irrespective of —- независимо от

social classes — (зд.) сословие

to get skills and habits — приобрести навыки и привычки

track and field athletics — легкая атлетика

high-fat food — пища с большим содержанием жира

to gain the weight — набирать вес

to take drugs — принимать наркотики

All over the world people of different ages and nationalities are fond of sports and games. Sport makes people healthy, keeps them in good shape, teaches them to be more organized and better disci­plined. Sport builds character, it teaches people to win and to lose. It makes them strong and helps to work off extra energy. And of course sport unites people and makes them friends irrespective of their nationalities, social classes, religious.

Sport is very popular in Russia. More than 30 mil­lion people go to sport centres, among them there are teenagers. All schoolchildren have at least two PT lessons a week. Most schools have well-equipped gyms, swimming pools and tennis courts where stu­dents can develop physically and get all the necessary skills and habits.

Teenagers as well as adults participate in a great number of sport events. They include indoor and out­door sports such as football, ice hockey, volleyball, basketball, track and field athletics, etc,

One of the most popular kinds of sport is football. According to official figures, nearly 5 million people go in for it. Ice hockey is one of the most popular win­ter sports. Russian players have been taking part in world championships since 1954 and have won the world title on many occasions. In 1988 it was the hundredth anniversary of athletics. Track and field athletics are participated by more than seven million people now. Russian sportsmen are the European, World and Olympic records holders in different dis­ciplines. Other popular team games are basketball and volleyball. More than six million people play volleyball in physical culture teams and sporting clubs. The men's and women's teams won Olympic, European and World Champions titles for many times. A little less people play basketball. Since 1952 our volleyball -teams have been among the Olympic prize winners for several times.

So sport is a very important part of our life. It helps people to be in good health. But some people don't think about their health very much. They eat a lot of high-fat food, such as bread, sweets and so on and gain the weight. They are not active physically. They sleep too much or too little. The worst habits some people have are smoking, drinking alcohol and taking drugs. All these things destroy their health. They don't look, attractive-at all and their future isn't clear. So if people want to feel and look great it's very important for them, to go in for sports,.to have good healthy food, to sleep seven or eight hours, give up smoking and alcohol.

There is nothing more important than health, because you can't be good at your studies or work well, it's difficult to be happy in your private life if you don't take care of you health.