Давайте поиграем в небольшую экологическую игру.

1. В любом помещении, в котором вы регулярно пребываете (на работе или в любой комнате дома, например) посмотрите вокруг и посчитайте, сколько вы видите пластиковых предметов (не нужно открывать шкафы и заглядывать в ящики столов, - просто на поверхностях). Смотрите внимательнее - некоторые ( Read more... )

1.1. The police in the Soviet Union, and later, in Russia, were called militia until several years ago. A slogan about them, popularized by newspapers and movies, read "Our native (own) militia keeps us safe".

I have never had much to do with the militia. I have been to a precinct thrice of my own volition: at 18, to receive my first passport; at ( Read more... )

People from large towns tend to look down on those who live in the smaller ones and in the country and call those undereducated mannerless louts many unpleasant names.

One such name, which was popular in Russia in the XIX and early XX century, is "provincial", a noun derived from the word "province", the official small territorial unit of the ( Read more... )