Tashkent i

Hundreds and hundreds of books, magazines and newspapers are printed in English and read all over the world. 75% of the world`s mail and 60% of the world telephone calls are in English. Half of the world`s scientific literature is written in English. English is the spoken by more than 350 million people. Geographically, it is the most widespread language on earth, second only to Chinese in the number of people who speak it.

It is the official of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, of the United States of America, of Australia and New Zealand. English is used as one of the official languages in Canada, the Republic of South Africa and the Irish Republic. It is also spoken as a second language in many parts of India and Africa. The number of sevond-language speakers may soon exceed the number of native speakers. Besides, millions of people study English as a foreign languages. In our country English is very popular. It is studied at schools (sometimes even at nursey schools), colleges and universities.

What does it mean to know a foreign language? It is not easy to answer this question. Americans think that you know a foreign language of native speakers understand you. And nobody cares about your mistakes. But of course nobody can call it “good English” and you can use it only if your contracts with native speakers are rare and not very important. If you are connected with foreign countries very closely, especially through your work, you should have a good command of the language. It means that your pronunciation should be standard, you should speak fluently and without mistakes. And of course you should understand your partner correctly. The latter sometimes is the most difficult part of all. As to spelling, it depends whether you have to write or not. If you do then you should do it correctly too.

So far, there is no universal or ideal method of learning languages. Everybody has his own way. Sometimes it is boring to study grammar or to learn new words. But it is well known that reading books in the original, listening to the BBC news, communicating with English speaking people will help a lot. When learning a foreign language you learn the culture and history of the native speaker. One must work hard to learn any foreign language.

EXTENSIVE READING

Extensive reading has the potential to help English language learners become better readers and make emprovements in other aspects of their English skills. Most students are not accustomed to the accorded by extensive reading. In addition, texts may be too short, boring, and extremely difficult which for many learners create conditions of painfully careful reading and constant use of a dictionary. Consequently language learners may not understand the language learning value of reading material.

In extensive reading English language learners read large quantities of easy material in English. They read for information and enjoyment, with the primary goal of achieving a general, overall understanding of the reading material. Students select their own reading material and are encouraged to stop reading if the material is not interesting or is too difficult. Over time, students are also encouraged to expand their reading comfort zone the range of materials they can read easily and with confidence.

Encouraging students to read it is usefull to point our that extensive reading can:

- help the students to read faster and understand more;

- help them to read in meaningful phrases, rather than word-by-word;

- increase their confidence in the reading;

- increase vocabulary knowledge;

- consolidate grammatical knowledge;

- help to improve writing profiency and oral fluency.

Extensive reading material can be any material in English that is easy enough for students to read with overall comprehension. Because students need to read many books, it is important that they are interested in and enjoy what they are reading. If the learners are excited about their books, they won`t want to put them down. Additionally, they will be more likely to attend to the content (meaning) of the text, rather than merely focusing on grammatical aspect. If students do not find books interesting or exciting, it is reasonable to advice them to stop and find other books they may enjoy more. At the same time, teacher might also point our that they should not give up on a book prematurely. Some books start slowly. Reading books second or third time is useful for several reasons. Having already read a book once, students will be able to read it more gluently the second time. This helps to build vocabulary knowledge as well as confidence, and this, in turn, leads to increases in reading rate.           

HALLOWEEN

Halloween is a festival that takes place on October 31. In the United States children wear costumes and masks and go trick-or-treating. Many of them carve jack-o`-lanterns out of pumpkins. Fortunetelling and storytelling about ghosts and witches are popular activities. Halloween developed from new year festivals and festivals of the dead. Christian church established a festival on November 1 called All Saints` Day so that people could continue to celebrate their festivals. The Mass said on All Saints` Day was called Allhallowmass. The day before All Saints` Day was known all hallows` Eve or All Hallow e`en. The main Halloween activity for children is trick-or-treating. Children dress in costumes and masks and go from door to saying “trick or treating”. The neighbours give children such treats as candy, fruit and pennies so that children do not play tricks on them. Jack-o`-lanterns are hallowed-out pumpkins with face carved into one side. Most Jack-o`-lanterns contain a candle inside. An Irish legend says that Jack-o`-lanterns are named after the man called Jack. He could not enter heaven because he was a miser, and he could not enter hell because he had played jokes on devil. As a result, Jack has to walk on the earth with his lantern until Judgment Day. Fortunetelling is an important part of the Halloween. For example, a coin, a ring, and a thimble were baked into a cake. It was believed that the person who found the coin would become wealthy. The one who found the ring would marry soon. And the person who found the thimble would never get married. Today people practice cardreading or palmistry. People once believed that there were many ghosts and witches on the Earth and that they met on October 31 to worship the devil. Today, people do not believe in ghosts and witches but they like to tell stories about them on Halloween.     

VINCENT VAN GOGH

Vincent Van Gogh was born in Holland in 1853. Before becoming a painter he was a teacher. He started painting when he was twenty-seven. In 1886 he left Holland and joined his young brother Theo, who lived in Paris. Here he painted some of his most famous pictures. After living there for two years he moved to the South of France, because the climate was warmer there.

But Van Gogh was mentally ill. During one of his fits of madness he attacted his friend, the artist Paul Gaugin. In another fit of madness, he cut off part of his own ear. Eventually he went into a mential hospital but he didn`t get any better. Finally, on Sunday 27<sup>th</sup> July 1890, in the small village Vincent Van Gogh took a gun. He went into a cornfield and shot himself. Thirty-six hours later Van Gogh died in his brother`s arms. His last words were: “I hope I did it properly”. Nobody has ever painted cornfields or sunflowers like Van Gogh. His paintings are full of colour and sunlight. Today his paintings are worth millions of pounds but in his lifetime he only sold one.   

LEWIS CARROLL

Lewis Carroll was the pen-name of Charles L. Dodgson, the man who wrote a famous book for children “Alice`s Adventures in Wonderland”. Charles L. Dodgson was born in England in 1832. He got his early education at a public school. Then he became a student at Oxford. Charles studied mathematics and later taught this subject in the same college. Charles Dodgson had no family, but he loved children very much. He often visited his friend, who had a large family. There were three little girls in the family. One of them, Alice, was four years old. Dodgson liked Alice very much and he often told her interesting stories which he made up himself. Charles told Alice Lidell about the adventure of a little girl, and she liked the stories very much.

When Alice Lidell was about ten years old, she asked Charles to write down the stories for her, and he did so. He called the heroine of his book also Alice. This hand-written book had many pictures made by Charles himself. They were not very good pictures but he children liked them.

NEW ZEALAND – WAY OF LIFE

New Zealand has a high standart of living. New Zealanders eat more butter and meat per person than do the people of any other country. The government`s medical program provides excellent health care. About 70 % of New Zealand people fterown their houses. Almost every family has a car.

Most New Zealanders live in single-family houses with a small vegetable garden. In the larger cities, some people in high-rise apartment buildings. Almost in every New Zealand home there are refrigerators, wash machines, and other modern electrical appliances. But air conditioning and central heating are rare because the weather rarely becomes extremely cold. In summer, New Zealandders prefer to keep windows open. In winter, fireplaces or electric heater keep the homes warm.

Although about four fifths of New Zealand`s population lives in urban areas, cities are uncrowded. Traffic jams seldom occur, even in downtown areas. Large cities have excellent restaurants, milk bars, theatres, concert halls, and other places of entertainment. City in life New Zealand tends to be rather quiet. However it is changing in larger cities, where international tourism is developing rapidly.

Near a fifth of New Zealand`s people live in rural areas – in some of them, small settlements are linked by good roads. But in other areas, rancher`s nearest neighbours may live kilometers away. Some ranchers live almost in isolation. Nevertheless, most farms and ranches have electricity. Many farm families run their farms with little or no hired help.

THE ROAD TO THE STARS

When did men first begin to think of space travel? Man began to think of space travel in the second ecentury A. D. At that time a Greek, Lucian of Samos, wrote a fantastic story a man who was carred to the Moon by storm. In his second story about space, Lucian`s hero flew to the Moon with a pair of wings which he had made himself.

But for the next 1400 years people could not even think of traveling to the Moon. About 300 years ago the famous Italian astronomer Galileo looked through his telescope and told people about the other worlds which he had seen. Again people began to think of reaching other planets. In 1634, there appeared a story about a journey to the Moon by Johannes Kepler, the German astronomer. He discovered how the planets moved around the Sun. Kepler was a scientist but in his books his hero was carried to the Moon by “magic moon people”, who could fly through space. Kepler gave a detailed description of the Moon which he had seen through his telescope.

After Kepler’s book, there were many others about space travel. The first serious story of space travel was written in 1640 by Bishop Wilkins of England. He described physical conditions on the Moon and he also said about the ways in which man could possibly live on the Moon. The first man who wrote about a rocket as a spaceship was the Frenchman, Cyrano de Bergerac. In his book his space travelers flew to the Moon and the Sun in the rocket.

When those books were written, nobody seriously thought about space travel. Then in 1865 Jules Verne, the French novalist, wrote the story “From the  Earth to the Moon”, in which he try to show the scientific principles of space travel. By the time that H. G. Wells, the English author, wrote “The First Men on the Moon” in 1901, man was already at the beginning of a new era in the development of air travel and conquering outer space.  

WHAT ARE TAXES?

Taxes are a compulsory financial contribution by a person or body of persons towards the expenditure of a public authority. In modern economies taxes are the most important source of government revenues. Taxes on income (i.e. on wages, saleries, profits, dividends, rent and interest) and on capital are known as “direct” taxes. Taxes on Commodities or services are known as “indirect” taxes.

Businesses and individuals are subject to many forms of taxes. The various forms of business organization are not taxed equally. The tax situation is simplest for proprietorships and most partnerships; corporations or companies are treated differently.

In the United States of America nearly all of the federal government`s revenues come from taxes. By far the most important source of tax revenue is the personal income tax. Gross receipts from corporate income taxes yield a far smaller percentage of total federal receipts. Individual states levy their own taxes. As a results, for example, the profits of a corporation are liable to federal and sometimes state corporate income taxes. This often imposes a double tax burden. When the after-tax income is paid out to stock-holders as dividends, it is then taxed again as personal income.

In the United Kingdom there is no single code of tax law, the body of tax legislation being increased by each year`s Finance Act.

The United Kingdom operates a “scheduler” system, taxable income from different sources is calculated and taxed under the rules of a particular “scheduler”.

Tax assessments are normally based on returns issued by the Board, of Irland Revenue (referred to simply as “Irland Revebue”) completion by the taxpayer. While companies may receive tax return they normally submit instead a copy of their annual accounts together with a computation of taxable profits.

The United Kingdom does not yet operate a system of self assessment for tax on income and capital gains, but it is be; introduced at the moment.

Under Russian law, all Russian legal entities, whether they have foreign investment or not, are subject to the profits tax law. Foreign entities that have a taxable permament establishment in Russia are also taxed under this law.

Russian taxes provide revenue for three tiers of the bunget: federal, regional and local. The major taxes paid to the bunget are: Profit tax-Value-added tax (VAT); Securities tax; Withholding tax.

The Russian government tries to create a climate in which business can thrive, to keep the tax burden as low as possible. It also attempts to eliminate tax allowances, which deprive the budget of tax revenues, and to improve tax collection.

Tax returns for Russian legal entities are audited by the authorities at the time they are submitted.

When a company resident in one country receives income or from a source in another, or when shareholders and company domiciled in different countries it is possible that incomes arising be taxable in each country, i.e. taxed twice. Many countries seek to mitigate the potentially harmful effects of double taxation by entering with other countries into double tax treaties, or arrangement preventing the same income being taxed twice.

A number of countries have problems because of significant taxpayer non-compliance.

Along with cases of illegal evasion of tax obligations there entirely legal ways of avoidance by which a person may so arrange his affairs as to minimize, or even eliminate, tax liability on his property and income.

TAX SYSTEM OF THE REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN

Main Tax Board of our republic was formed in 1991 under the Cabinet of Ministers. In 1994 it transformed into the Tax Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

1991 marked the beginning of the creation in Uzbekistan of a new taxation system designed to ensure a steady inflow to the budget of revenues at a period when the foundations of market relationships were being laid down.

The tax system is designed to perform the following five underlying fundtions:

the fiscal function of tax record-keeping;

the re-distributive function;

the simulation function;

the controlling function of tax record-keeping;

the function stipulation the provision of information required for the tax calculation process.

The major function taxes are designed to perform, i.e. the fiscal function, is to help form a centralized fund of money resources needed for the government to maintain the state machinery and armed forces as well as implement all the necessary social and economic tasks. The key moment of this function is the formation of revenues of the state budget by withdrawing, in the form of taxes, a portion of profits derived by enterprises and citizens, which are required to address a complex of pivotal national economic issues.

The re-distributive function of taxes means that the state redestributes revenues through the state fund of money resources (the state budget) made up of incoming taxes. Part of the revenues received is channeled to the development of production and social infrastructure, while another is invested in the priority industries.

The simulation function of taxes, one of the most important functions of the tax system, actively affects the development of manufacturing, the efficient use of raw material, financial and labor resources, and accumulative property etc. In other words, by reducing the tax burden, it is possible to stimulate the growth of production, to improve the state of finance and encourage investment activity.

As for the controlling function of taxes, it represents a complicated process of verification of tax calculations presented by taxpayers. The record-keeping of taxes allows the tax authority to execute more – efficient control and surveillance over the implementation by taxpayers of their tax obligations.

The last but not least function of taxes – the function stipulating the provision of information required to facilitate the tax calculation process, enables the tax bodies to compile and the process the necessary tax-related information. The latter is needed to accurately calculate taxes by those taxpayers who are not obliged, under the current legislation, to keep accounting records.

The State Tax Committee is engaged in a number of activities aimed to improve tax policy and to develop the contractual and legal framework for regulation of foreign economic ties and International tax relationships.

International double taxation may adversely affect the development of the national economy, as it hampers the inflow of foreign investments, which are rightfully viewed worldwide as the fuel for rapid economic growth. Eliminating double taxation is thus one of the major challenges factoring the public`s tax system. To create a fovourable business environment, in which enterprises set up with a share of foreign capital can operate efficiently, work is under the State Tax Committee to reach as many international aggrements on the avoidance of double taxation as possible.