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In fact, I dont spend a lot of time on hobbies. At weekends I usually - a szabadid eltltse, like only relaxing and pursue some hobbies that are collecting music and szrakozsi lehetsgek listening to the latest songs that I am interested in. Besides, Im fond of - egyni rdeklds, hobbik watching and listening concerts on DVD. In these respects I take after my father a bit, because he has been a big collector since I knew him. I used to - sznhz, mozi, opera, koncert draw and used to pursue modelling when I was a child, but I ga e it up - tv (msor a!tk", #!sg, rdi because lack of the time. !n these days in my spare time I like going on trips - olvass$ knyvtr, to the nature with my family or sometimes reading "nglish topics on the olvasmnyok, kedvenc knyve Internet. I dont keep any pets as I li e in a freehold flat and in my opinion their place is not there. !ther people keep dogs, cats, hamsters, guinea#pigs, parrots or ha e big tanks with goldfish or terrapins in them. Although, both cooking and baking cakes are not my line, I seldom make my fa ourite meals such as a $rench salad, a %ungarian lecs& or a pi''a. If you are a stay#at#home type, you can pursue a lot of hobbies that are typically home occupations. (ome of them are only for women ) I ha e ne er seen a man knitting, crocheting or sewing e.g. neither ha e I seen a woman hammering ) others are for men, for instance do#it#yourself. *ost of these hobbies, howe er, are unisex, that is, they suit both sexes. +hey are, collecting stamps, napkins, coins or e en buttons- making soft toys, gifts- drawing, painting or writing poetry, modelling, mounting and de eloping photos, playing card games, chess or other party games or keeping pets. As far as I know keeping pets has always been an "nglish hobby. If they cant afford to keep a pet, they go bird#watching and this brings them a lot of en.oyment. /ardening is another common British hobby as well as taking photos, printing and enlarging them. +he most popular outdoor games are football, golf and cricket. %obbies indoor, painting, drawing, collecting, reading, playing card games, board games, chess, keeping pets, do#it yourself, sewing, knitting, cooking, learning languages, listening to records, doing embroidery, crossword pu''les %obbies outdoor, fishing, angling, gardening, pot#holing, mountain climbing, hiking, doing sports, hunting If you li e in a big town you are a lucky chap from the point of iew of entertainment possibilities. 0ou ha e a rich choice of museums, exhibitions where you can see paintings, graphics, water#colours and sculptures. If you want to dine out or listen to folk or gypsy music there are se eral restaurants, pubs, night clubs which you can choose from. +heatre Im not much of a theatre goer. In fact neither my time nor my money allows me to go to the theatre regularly. And, to tell you the truth, I am not really interested in it. I prefer watching +V or ideo films at home, or perhaps going to the cinema. If you stay at home, you dont ha e to dress up, and this is a great ad antage. Anyway, the play I saw last was a great one. I wasnt disappointed, because it was a splendid adaptation of two famous ladys life called *arlene Dietrich and "dit 1iaf. +he plot of the play was really gripping and rich in surprising returns. It held the attention of the audience from the beginning to the end. I can buy a theatre tickets at the booking#office. I like to sit in the boxes because they are 2uite near the stage and they are by far the most comfortable. I normally sit in the stalls, which are the seats on the ground floor. ! er the boxes is the dress circle then follow the balconies and finally the gallery. As you enter the theatre there is usually a big foyer, where people can meet before the performance. +he two main parts of a theatre are the stage and the auditorium. +he hall is usually separated from the stage by the orchestra pit. A curtain, when lowered, co ers the stage and during the performance footlights illuminate the stage. In a big theatre there are se eral cloakrooms where you can lea e your hats and coats. +hen you show your ticket to the usherette, who will offer you a programme and lead you down the aisle to your row and seat. 3hile the beginning of the play, you can leaf the programme booklet from which you learn about the cast, the director, about the approximate plot of the play and perhaps the programme of the theatre for that season. 4ight before the performance the orchestra begins tuning up. +hen the lights go out, the curtain rises and the play begins. A play usually consists of at least two acts, but sometimes there are three acts with two inter als in between them. During the inter al you can go to the refreshment room where you can discuss the play o er a nice drink. After then the bell rings for the next act. In the end of the play the curtain fall and the lights go up. +he audiences usually applaud the company. 5urtain call follows curtain call and the whole cast is gi en a standing o ation.

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6. SZABADID, SZRAKOZS, KULTRA

5oncert I 2uite like pop music although I wouldnt call myself a fan. I gladly like listening to any music. At the beginning of this year we went to a 6#day concert was gi en by some well#known (candina ian bands, in the 7etherlands. 8ots of guitar artists appeared there who celebrated the 9: th guitar festi al at +ilburg. +here were some ery young, ambitious bands who were ery talented musicians with a fine techni2ue. $or example there was a little nine#year#old drummer. " erybody was ery surprised at his ability. Anyway, the instrumental music lo ers were really delighted including me, too. +heir 5D co ers, labels were signed by the famous guitarists after the show. 5inema +he usual cinema show consists of a feature film begun by a newsreel, lots of commercials and of course short films like trailers from the future films. +he main film is usually cinemascope and dubbed. %owe er, an undubbed film is ery good for language learning. And if you master the gi en language you can e en en.oy the films without looking at the subtitles. 8ow attendance at cinemas is due to se eral factors. !n one hand the price of cinema tickets has been raised and it is not a cheap e ening any more to go out to see a film- mostly if you would like to ha e a popcorn or a refreshment. !n the other hand the cinema owners seem to forget that most families ha e ideo or DVD players at home and you can borrow all films from the ideothe2ue. +here are some different films like these, western, ad enture film, thriller, horror film, science# fiction fantasy, detecti e film, comedy, screen adaptation of a successful no el entitled e.g. %arry 1otter. +V, radio I usually switch on the +V in the e enings and read on the teletext channel the +V programmes for the day. +here is usually 2uite a rich choice of programmes. +o tell you the truth I like watching +V because it brings the world into your home and keeps you informed about what is happening around you. I especially en.oy %ungarian soap#operas and some programmes that show you famous people o er the world. I ne er miss the half#past#se en oclock news either. I also lo e witty and humorous cartoons like ;+om and <erry= or ;the 4oadrunner=. !nly one or maybe two %ungarian state channels used to be recei ed at home, because there was no one who could ha e made a business from the broadcasting. +oday, I dont know exactly how many channels I can get on +V, but there are 2uite a lot. +here are two well#known and popular commercial channels called 4tl# >lub and +V6. +here is no great difference between them. +hey are financed by its ad ertisements so the programmes are interrupted for commercials, which I dislike. Besides we can also recei e lots of different %ungarian channels such as my mums fa ourite +V 1aprika or my dads much liked political channels, the old ones *+V?#6 and +V Danube, our local tele ision programme, the satellite channels about sports and documentaries and of course some /erman or "nglish ones. +o be frank, there is only one thing that these programmes are good for and this is the language learning. Im interested in historical films, ad enture films and series. I also en.oy witty and exciting detecti e stories, particularly one of them titled 5olumbo. I like 1eter $alk the star of 5olumbo because he can always find the murderer, although he always forgets e erything that he needs. %e is so funny with his old fashioned balloon coat or his broken down car and he always comes back to ask the suspect one more 2uestion e en if the suspect thinks that he wont any more. I cant help watching the next part if it is on in a reasonable time on +V. I 2uite often watch ideo or cinema films and Im a regular customer at the ideo hire shop. I en.oy perhaps crimes the most because they are usually ery well done and gi e you a lot of excitement. I ha e ne er been disappointed by horror films, they are macabre or spine#chilling and I think somewhere at the back of their minds e erybody longs for ad enture and thrills or e en fear. And these films are able to fill in this gap in our li es. Anyway, in my opinion it isnt worth sitting in front of the telly, because your health could be damaged because of sitting there for so long and e en you may become a couch potato. 3e begin the day by switching on the radio in my colleagues car to listen to the time#signal, which is of great help when we are in hurry, the news broadcast and the weather forecast. 3e are listening to some kind of radio stations it depends on the persons in the office. 4adio ;1et@fi= used to ha e mainly a lot of light music programmes, pop, .a'', folk, rock or gypsy but it totally changed today. 1erhaps radio A>ossuth has the most aried and serious programmes. It transmits running commentaries, radio plays, political and economic programmes, lectures, press re iews and e en bedside stories for children. At my workplace all of us lo e musical broadcasts such as ;4adio ?=, 4adio ;Danubius= or 4adio ;(lBger=.
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6. SZABADID, SZRAKOZS, KULTRA

7ewspapers, libraries $or each week all radio and tele ision programmes are published in the 4adio and +V +imes. +his weekly has 2uite a big circulation, bigger than most dailies. Daily papers are almost the same in appearance and lay#out. +hey all ha e a political section containing world and domestic news. +he main news is usually placed on the first page right under the heading. 5urrent e ents or topicalities may also be reported and commented on by the editor on the front page, usually with big headlines. +he arts re iew and the science pages are usually in the middle of the paper followed by the fashion, gossip and tra el columns while sports news is generally on one of the last pages. Apart from news, newspapers also contain many other features like ad ertisements, announcements of births, marriages and deaths, crossword pu''les, horoscopes, letter from readers, obituaries of famous people who ha e died, weather forecasts and classified ad ertisements, which may be personal or ad ertise .obs, houses or cars for sale. <ust like many other countries, %ungary, too, has local and national papers. +hey are either serious or sensational. At present most of them are tabloids. +here are also se eral periodicals coming out weekly, monthly and 2uarterly. <ournals dealing with specialised sub.ects such as medicine, science, trade or education are usually published monthly or 2uarterly. +he well#known %ungarian daily papers perhaps are ;the 7apl&= and ;the 7Cps'abadsBg=. +he popular tabloids are the Blikk or +he (tory *aga'ine and there is a .ournal with financial affair called %V/. (ome serious British papers are +he +imes, +he /uardian, +he (un or the Daily *irror. I always skim through the whole paper first and choose the articles that at first sight seem to be interesting. +he headlines are printed in block letters so they easily catch the eye. After scanning the paper I always start reading the sport pages first. +hen I read the .obs or the political re iews and the internal affairs. I can borrow books from a library. In fact, nowadays I dont need to ha e a lot of books, therefore I 2uite rarely use the local lending library of which I am not a member at the moment, but my father is. Anyway, I used to be a member there when I was a student. At that time I was used to reading as we had to read all compulsory readings. +o .oin a library you ha e to fill in a lending card. If you want to borrow a book, you write the authors name, the title and I(B7 number on the book card and the librarian puts down on your card the date when the book is due for return. Books are issued for three weeks, but can be renewed for another three. !nly a limited number of books can be borrowed at a time. $or o erdue books fines are charged. +here are a lot of books in a library that normally cannot be borrowed. +hey are mainly encyclopaedias, dictionaries and lexicons. 0ou are allowed to work with them in the reading room, where you will also find newspapers and periodicals published in %ungary from the ?DEFs. I often go to the bookshops .ust to look around. But sometimes I cant resist temptation and buy some languages books, maps or a maga'ine for my mother. 8ast time I bought two expensi e dictionaries, but it was worth buying them, because I can use them in the future, too.

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