Hobbies. Leisure Time. Бекерова Е.А - 23 стр.

1.3. Reading.                                                              surfing, that's your choice. There are, however, many rewarding
                                                                           pursuits out there. With all the extra leisure time that we supposedly
        Do You REALLY ENJOY BEING A COUCH POTATO?
                                                                           have, it behooves us to know how to spend it interestingly. Here are
                                                                           three of the more unusual and interesting popular hobbies.
        A husband and wife               Are you having an exciting                                                           Roller coasting has
come home from work,                     time surfing, dear?                                                           become so popular that
exhausted and stressed out.                                                                                            there's even an organization
They don't feel like preparing                                                                                         called ACE         (American
a real dinner, so they pop                                                                                             Coaster Enthusiasts) that is
something in the microwave.                                                                                            dedicated to preserving,
Then they sit down on the                                                                                              appreciating, and enjoying
couch for an evening of being                                                                                          roller     coasters.      The
mesmerized by the TV set.                                                                                              precursors of roller coasters
Hours later, after having                                                                                              originated in Russia as ice
fallen asleep, they wake up                                                slides built high into the air, and the first actual mechanical roller
and stumble off to bed. Each                                               coasters were also constructed in Russia. From there the idea migrated
day they continue to do the                                                to Paris, where a kind of roller coaster with wheels was built in 1804.
same thing: Get up, go to work, come home, grab a bite, then sit down      Eventually the roller coaster made its way to the United States, with
and vegetate in front of the TV set Does this sound like you? If so, are   more and more coasters being built until Depression times. Then they
you satisfied with your existence? Isn't there more to life than being a   began to fell out of fashion, and many were torn down. It was not until
couch potato?                                                              the 1950s, with Walt Disney's opening of the first Disneyland, that
        Some people apparently don't think so. In their recent book Time   roller coasters began to make a comeback. Now they're being built at
for Life, researchers John Robinson and Geoffrey Godbey state that the     breakneck speed. Marie Miller, a member of ACE now in her eighties,
average amount of time that people in the United States have to devote     is a major enthusiast. She figures she's ridden on most of the roller
to leisure activities is actually increasing. While this may sound         coasters in the United States, saying, "There was a time when I rode
unlikely.                                                                  every wooden coaster in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, but I
        Robinson and Godbey claim that Americans now spend almost          can't keep up with them. One thing's certain: I'll never stop riding until
forty hours a week doing leisure-time activities, and something similar    I'm in my grave."
may be true all over the industrialized world. Here's what Robinson and           Another fascinating pastime is orienteering, a combination of
Godbey say are the top five leisure activities among Americans:            map reading and cross-country skiing or running. Orienteers are given
Watching television, at 15.0 hours a week, is by far the most popular.     a map that shows where a set of "control points" are located. They try
Number two on the list is socializing – 6.7 hours a week. Number           to follow the map by interpreting it carefully and using a compass to
three, at 4.4 hours weekly, is home communication. Reading, at 2.8         plot their course. Each time they succeed in finding a control point,
hours a week, ranks number four. And number five on the list,              they stamp a card that validates their having completed that part of the
engaging in hobbies, comes in at 2.7 hours a week. Judging from these      game. The sport is competitive: Participants get a starting time and
statistics, we might conclude that many Americans seem to enjoy being      have a prescribed time period for locating all of the control points.
couch potatoes. Now, if you want to spend your leisure time channel

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