Topic 4 :

Everybody has his or her own hobby. My favourite hobby is reading. I enjoy reading a book when I am free. I started to get the hobby from my father when I was four years old. My father is a researcher so he has a great collection of books on many fields: literature, science, art,…
I enjoy reading because it allows me to explore my own imaginative world. I keep the hobby of reading at least one hour every day. I usually read books at home, in my own room, at my office or at the local library. On my freetime, I can spend hours reading and thinking about facts described in each kind of books.
My favourite author is J.K.Rowling who wrote world-famous books “ Harry Potter”.
For me a good book is not only a true companion but also a well-experienced teacher guiding me through my life. There are a lot of advantages of reading. Reading makes me feel relaxed and calm. It has the miracle to relieve my suffering and my hardship and reveal to me strange and new horizons. I can also learn new vocabularies and grammars. So I can further improve my English. Moreover, it gives me unlimited imaginations. I can learn about different cultures of other countries in the world, too.
Instead of indulging myself in futile entertainments, I am often keen on reading books, which broadens my mind and improves my knowledge.
In a few words, the reading of books contributes to the moral and intellectual formation of a man. I love reading and I love books. I will collect more and more books and I wish I can write my own books in the future.

Topic 3 :

I would like to talk about the Lunar New Year festival, also known as the Tet holiday, which is the occasion expected the most by Vietnamese people every year. The festival usually lasts for around 3-4 days, and it takes place when a new year comes according to the lunar calendar.

The Lunar New Year festival takes place because it is one of the most well-known traditions of Vietnam. Our people have been celebrating this occasion for thousands of years, and although there has been some recent argument about whether we should stop celebrating this festival, I do not think this activity will come to an end soon, at least not in the short term.

There are some common things that people do during this festival. Perhaps the most important thing is that people who work and study in big cities would go back to their hometown to celebrate the new year with their families and relatives. The new year festival is one of very few occasions that families can gather together, so it is easy to understand why everyone in Vietnam expects this festival so much. Another thing that we usually do is that we give children some “lucky money” with the hope that it will bring fortune to those kids. We also have some other activities such as making “chung” cake, visiting temples and pagodas… and so on.

The new year festival is so important to me and also to all Vietnamese citizens. The reason is because we get more days off from work and study, and therefore we have more time to spend with our families and our loved ones. It is also a great time to think about what we have done in the previous year, and to make plans for the upcoming year.

Though I have been born and raised in a metropolitan city, I visited my grandfather’s house many times and that’s a beautiful village that I have ever seen. This village is in the north part of the country and falls under the ......( tự điền tên ) . This village is situated beside Lam river and has more than 10 thousand inhabitants.

I went there in my childhood with my parents and the latest visit was in the last January with my mother. This village is almost 125 kilometres away from the place we currently live in. First, we took a train to reach the station of the district/state/ country where my grandfather’s village is and from the station we took a taxi to reach the river port of our village. There we took a boat and finally we walked 1-2 kilometres to reach the village.

My grandfather has passed away a few years back and my grandmother, 2 of my uncles 2 aunts and their children still live in this village. Apart from our family members, the farmers and workers who work for my uncles, live there.

This, in my opinion, is the most beautiful village I have ever been to. My forefather lived there and my father spent his childhood and teenage there. So in terms of bonding, this is a very important place for me. My grandmother and some of the cousins are very fond of me and I mostly meet them in whenever I go there. So in terms of my relation to my origin and relatives, this is the village I admire most.

Besides that, this is a very beautiful village that seems like a painting by a famous painter. The environment is calm and pollution free, the green fields, fresh air and hygienic foods offer a very attractive reason for being there. The flowing river, the forest, the simple lifestyle of residence and my of my relatives are the main things I love about this village.

There are very few things that I dislike about this village and the village itself has nothing to do about it. Like the education facility and treatment facility of this village is very poor and primitive. That’s something bothers me a lot.

The village has always been known to be a place of peace and quiet. The scattered houses among hundreds of plants and trees at once indicate the lack of activity in the village.

The workers in the village leave their homes early in the morning to work in the plantations or towns nearby. Some have their own plantations, and some make certain articles in their homes to sell them in the towns. A few of the villagers, including women, go out to catch fish in the streams and rivers found in the village. Though the people of the village do not usually earn much, yet they seem to be contented.

In the afternoon, most of the villagers are at home. Some of them take a nap after lunch; some work in their small gardens, and some visit the small shops in the village. In various parts of the village children may be seen playing the popular games of the village. Occasionally, a cyclist passes by.

Then, in the evening, the villagers meet one another. Some play cards and other types of games peculiar to the village. Some talk about the day's incidents in the village, and those whose minds go beyond the village discuss world events.

In almost every village there is a headman whose duty is to settle quarrels among the villagers and maintain peace in the village. Whenever there is a dispute, the villagers go to the headman who is held in such esteem that his word has the force or law. In this way the villagers have developed their own simple laws, and the crimes of cities are almost unknown to the people of the village.

During a festival, the whole village is alive with activities. Everyone is in a happy mood and plays his part to make the festival a success. This is the time for the men, women and children of the village to wear their best clothes and the village is full of colour. These simple ways of life in the village, however, must soon change. Progress in science and education has already begun to affect the outlook of the people in the village, and hundreds are leaving the village to seek their fortunes in the towns and cities.

I like living in the countryside because of some reasons. Environmentally speaking, it is a peaceful place. The air is fresh. The space is quiet. We can enjoy healthy natural conditions without worrying much about environmental pollution.As for social security, the countryside is a safer place than a city. While urban security situation is always complicated with all kinds of crimes, rural areas are much more secure because most of countrymen are friendly and ready to help one another.Moreover, rural life is also easier that in cities. People in cities are easy to get stressed because of pollution, job pressures, competitions, etc ... On the contrary, those bad things are very rare in the countryside. To sum up, except income matters, the countryside is a better residence than cities.

Topic 1 :

I would like to talk about the Lunar New Year festival, also known as the Tet holiday, which is the occasion expected the most by Vietnamese people every year. The festival usually lasts for around 3-4 days, and it takes place when a new year comes according to the lunar calendar.

– The Lunar New Year festival takes place because it is one of the most well-known traditions of Vietnam. Our people have been celebrating this occasion for thousands of years, and although there has been some recent argument about whether we should stop celebrating this festival, I do not think this activity will come to an end soon, at least not in the short term.

– There are some common things that people do during this festival. Perhaps the most important thing is that people who work and study in big cities would go back to their hometown to celebrate the new year with their families and relatives. The new year festival is one of very few occasions that families can gather together, so it is easy to understand why everyone in Vietnam expects this festival so much. Another thing that we usually do is that we give children some “lucky money” with the hope that it will bring fortune to those kids. We also have some other activities such as making “chung” cake, visiting temples and pagodas… and so on.

– The new year festival is so important to me and also to all Vietnamese citizens. The reason is because we get more days off from work and study, and therefore we have more time to spend with our families and our loved ones. It is also a great time to think about what we have done in the previous year, and to make plans for the upcoming year.

Topic 2 : A couple of months ago I went to the Greek island of Crete. We stayed in a town called Xania, which is on the coast in the north west of Crete. It is a really picturesque town with small cobbled streets, a large harbour and many ancient buildings. I went there with my husband Brendan for a one-week holiday. We got there by various means of transport, taking a train to the airport, then a four-hour flight, followed by a twenty-minute taxi ride from the airport to where we were staying. The whole journey took around eight hours from door to door, which was a bit longer than we expected it to take, although we didn't have any major delays, thank goodness. I enjoyed my stay there very much, as I had not had a holiday for ages and needed to switch off from working. We didn't do much sightseeing, although Xania itself has a long and fascinating history so went to the local museum in order to learn more about it. I spent a lot of time reading books and swimming in the sea, which I must admit was quite a lot colder than I thought it would be. I also enjoyed eating the delicious Cretan food, and walking around the ancient streets in the town. One of the things I enjoyed the most was going to a restaurant called Xalkina, where they had live Cretan music every night. The musicians were playing instruments that I had never seen before, and I loved the style and tempo of the music they played. I would definitely like to go back to Crete one day, though next time I would probably make more effort to see the amazing sights of the rest of Crete.

Topic 1

I would like to talk about the Lunar New Year festival, also known as the Tet holiday, which is the occasion expected the most by Vietnamese people every year. The festival usually lasts for around 3-4 days, and it takes place when a new year comes according to the lunar calendar.

– The Lunar New Year festival takes place because it is one of the most well-known traditions of Vietnam. Our people have been celebrating this occasion for thousands of years, and although there has been some recent argument about whether we should stop celebrating this festival, I do not think this activity will come to an end soon, at least not in the short term.

– There are some common things that people do during this festival. Perhaps the most important thing is that people who work and study in big cities would go back to their hometown to celebrate the new year with their families and relatives. The new year festival is one of very few occasions that families can gather together, so it is easy to understand why everyone in Vietnam expects this festival so much. Another thing that we usually do is that we give children some “lucky money” with the hope that it will bring fortune to those kids. We also have some other activities such as making “chung” cake, visiting temples and pagodas… and so on.

– The new year festival is so important to me and also to all Vietnamese citizens. The reason is because we get more days off from work and study, and therefore we have more time to spend with our families and our loved ones. It is also a great time to think about what we have done in the previous year, and to make plans for the upcoming year.

Topic 2 :

I’d like to talk about Singapore, one of several cities I have visited and really enjoyed. I vacationed in this wonderful city last summer with my sister, Min, and we stayed there for 5 days.

Singapore is a state-city located to the southeast of Vietnam and it took us only 2 hours to fly there from Hanoi.

When I arrived in Singapore, I was quite impressed by the way the city looked. The streets were incredibly clean, I could walk around the city all day and come back home without any dirt on my shoes. During my stay in Singapore, I did some shopping and visited some famous landmarkslike the Merlion statue, Singapore zoo and the botanical gardens.

For me, Singapore is well worth visiting for many reasons. Firstly, the public transport system in Singapore is extremely reliable. People don’t have to spend hours waiting for buses or trains, and the staff are very friendly and helpful. Another thing that I miss about Singapore is its multi-cultural nature. During the 5 days that I spent in Singapore, I bumped into people from many different countries. English is the first language of this country so it was great to get the chance to practice my English-speaking skills with the local people and also other tourists. Five days in Singapore passed by so fast that I wish I could’ve stayed a bit longer.