Jamie Oliver is a genius in the world of food and one of Britain's most famous cooks. He has encouraged people to spend more time in the kitchen and enjoy it. His programmes are shown in over 100 countries including the USA, Australia, South Africa, Brazil, Japan and Iceland. They were translated into over 30 languages. Jamie Oliver's cookery books are bestsellers not only in the UK but across the world.

Jamie Oliver was born in 1975 in England. From an early age he got interested in food. His parents had a pub where he often helped them in the kitchen. He actually began working there at the age of eight. Jamie cut vegetables like any other ordinary worker in the pub.

Jamie Oliver left school at 16 without any official certificate. He went to Westminster College to study economics and after that travelled to France. Jamie knew that in France cooking was a kind of art. And he wanted to master that art. It was no doubt the best place to study if he wished to become a professional chef.

After returning from France, Jamie worked in a number of British restaurants. At that time there was a programme on the telly about the cafe where Jamie worked. TV producers were impressed by the young chef. The next day Jamie received calls from five different TV companies wishing to work with him. He soon became the best-liked celebrity chef on television and his programme was a real revolution in cooking shows. Thanks to an informal and friendly manner Jamie Oliver won crowds of fans around the world.

However, Jamie devotes his time not only to cooking. He's a family man, with a wife and four children. He also works on a number of projects. For example, Jamie Oliver created the "Fifteen Foundation". Each year, fifteen young people are trained and taught to work in the restaurant business. It's interesting that they are not common people. They are from unhappy families, they are unemployed. Some of them were in prison or took drugs. In this way Jamie Oliver tries to help them start a new life.

Another project by Jamie Oliver was connected with school dinners and lunches. He wanted school children to begin eating healthy food instead of junk food. The British government supported the project. It spent extra 280 million pounds to improve school meals. Part of the money was spent on training cooks and buying modern equipment for schools.

It's really hard to name all the TV programmes, shows, projects that Jamie Oliver had and is still having. He's so creative and imaginative, that there's no end to new ideas and projects. Except television, Jamie Oliver is a writer. His every book immediately becomes a bestseller. It's interesting that he became the best-selling author in the country after J. K. Rowling, the "Harry Potter" writer.

A great fight still goes on. The question is: should students wear school uniform? As with most things, there are two sides to the debate. Some people say that all schools should introduce uniforms. Others are sure that school uniforms are old-fashioned. However, both arguments have experts on their side. There is no clear answer. Let's look at the pros and cons of it.

Many experts believe that students who wear school uniforms study much better than those who don't. This is because you don't have to worry about what you are wearing each day. As a result your attention improves and you learn to concentrate better on your studies. Wearing a uniform in calming colours makes you feel more serious and responsible.

They say if you wear a uniform then you won't behave in a violent or inappropriate way at school. A uniform is a rule and rules must be obeyed. Research showed that students in uniforms don't play as many tricks on their classmates, tease or bully them as much as their casually dressed mates.

Everyone wants to look their best and better than their classmates. Everybody wants to be popular and wear the latest fashions. However, not all students have enough money to buy stylish clothes. Uniforms make them all equal, social differences are not seen. No one wears expensive brands. Everyone wears the same thing, exactly the same brand. With a uniform, there is less competition in class.

School uniforms, however, are not always cheap for parents, especially if there are two or more children in a family and they all go to school. Parents can't buy any skirt or trousers they want. They can't shop in the sales either. What is more, many schools have several uniforms such as an everyday uniform, a formal uniform for special events and a uniform for P.E. classes.

Students in uniforms look the same. Uniforms don't give students individuality so they have to look for other opportunities to express themselves. For example, they might start using make-up early, behaving badly or wearing bright accessories as a reaction against it. It's not the answer.

Finally, there's comfort. Lots of students complain that they feel uncomfortable when they wear uniforms in class. Some children have sensitive skin and like to wear 100% cotton clothes. Uniforms are often made from synthetics, such as polyester which is harmful for a child's skin, especially if the child spends the whole day at school.

And we are back to the question: to wear or not to wear? You decide.

Cambridge University is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world (after the University of Oxford) and the seventh-oldest in the world.

The story of Cambridge University begins in 1209 when several hundred students arrived in the little town of Cambridge after having walked 60 miles from Oxford. These students were all churchmen and had been studying in Oxford at that city's well-known schools. It was a hard life at Oxford for there was constant trouble, even fighting, between the citizens of the town and the students. Then one day a student accidentally killed a man of the town. The Mayor arrested three other students who were innocent and they were put to death. In protest, many students left Oxford, some of them went to Cambridge. And so the new University began.

It was Cambridge University. Of course, there were no Colleges in those early days and student life was very different from what it is now. Students were of all ages and came from anywhere and everywhere. Life in University was strict. Students were forbidden to play games, to sing (except sacred music), to hunt or fish or even to dance. Books were very rare and all the lessons were in the Latin language which students were supposed to speak even among themselves.

In 1440, King Henry VI founded King's College, and other colleges followed.

Nowadays there are more than 30 different colleges, including five for women students and several mixed colleges, in the University. The number of students in colleges is different: from 30 to 400 or 500.

The training course lasts 4 years. The academic year is divided into 3 terms. The students study natural and technical sciences, law, history, languages, geography, medicine, economics, agriculture, music and many other subjects. After 3 years of study a student may proceed to a Bachelor's degree, and later to the degrees of Master and Doctor.

There are many ancient traditions that are still observed at Cambridge. Students are required to wear gowns at lectures, in the University library, in the street in the evening, for dinners in the colleges and for official visits. One more tradition is to use Latin during public ceremonies of awarding degrees.

All the students must pay for their education, examinations, books, laboratories, university hostel, the use of libraries. The cost is high. It depends on college and university speciality. Very few students get grants.

Many great men studied at Cambridge, for example, Bacon (the philosopher), Milton and Byron (the poets), Cromwell (the soldier), Newton (the outstanding physicist), Darwin (who is famous for his theory of evolution) and Kapitsa (the famous Russian physicist).

Shakira Ripoll was born on February 2, 1977, in Colombia. She was the only daughter of a well-respected jeweller and his wife. In naming the newborn daughter, her mother chose from several names, containing the letter “K”. She thought about Karime and Katiuska but finally chose Shakira. It's an Arabic name which comes from the word “Shukram” meaning “Grace”. So Shakira's full name is translated as “a woman of Grace”.

When Shakira was a child, her mother discovered that the girl had a gift for writing. Shakira knew the alphabet by the age of eighteen months, and at three she knew how to read. By the time she was four, she was ready for school. School was not just a place where little Shakira learnt her arithmetic and geography. There she began to understand such great things as kindness, love, trust, and other human ideals. She realized what real friendship was and how much her family meant to her. Later it helped her to decide what to do with the big money she earned.

Shakira loved attention and wished to find a way to get it. She sang a lot for her schoolmates and teachers. However, the music teacher told her that she sounded “like a goat”. Shakira wasn't too upset about it and soon found a more original way to become the centre of attention. It was dancing. It helped her to express herself and become famous in school. What is interesting is that no one had ever taught her to dance.

In school Shakira was disciplined, but absent-minded. She was usually writing lyrics for her songs on the back of her notebooks. However, Shakira was a good student because she was a quick learner and could understand her teachers' explanations faster than others.

As soon as the bell rang after class, Shakira was the first one to run and get in line for the cafeteria. She usually bought a pepsi, a hamburger and something sweet, like a muffin or a piece of cake. She seldom took a packed lunch from home. Though Shakira was a lover of fast food, she had no weight problems, as she loved dancing.

When she was eight, Shakira's father lost all his money because his business went bankrupt. For a while Shakira had to stay with her relatives in Los Angeles. When the girl returned, she was shocked to see almost everything that her family had, had been sold. She later said: “In my childish head, this was the end of the world.”

To show her that things could be worse, her father took her to a local park to see the homeless children. What she saw shocked her deeply and she said to herself: “One day I'm going to help these poor kids when I become a famous singer or dancer”.

Between the ages of ten and thirteen Shakira was invited to various dance events and became very popular in the area. It was at this time that Shakira met a local theatre producer, who was impressed with her performance and as a result tried to help her career. This woman organized a meeting with the managers of the Sony company. After Shakira sang, they decided to sign a contract for three albums with the talented girl.

You can travel almost anywhere in the world, and you will probably see graffiti. Although graffiti is more common in big cities, today you may find it in almost any region or district, big or small. It's everywhere: on trains, walls, bridges and buildings. Love it or hate it but graffiti is part of the everyday urban world. Some people consider it art while others think it's vandalism. However, few of them really know how old graffiti is.

The word graffiti itself probably comes from the old Greek verb which means “to write”. Writings on walls already existed in ancient Rome. The Romans cut graffiti on walls and monuments. What was it like, you may ask? Ancient graffiti was absolutely different from today's. It showed phrases of love, political ideas, simple thoughts, magic spells, alphabets, and famous quotations from literature.

Modern graffiti dates back to the US of the 1960s. At that time for young people it was a form of self-expression and a political protest. Teenage groups in New York, for example, painted graffiti to mark their territory. Later, there started competitions between different groups. That meant that the quality of graffiti became more important than just the amount of it.

Today graffiti has travelled all over the world. However, it is still an illegal art. It has been always painted on private or public property, like cars, trains, fences and house walls. As a result most people see it as vandalism. Besides, it's rather hard to clean graffiti paints, and cities spend millions every year on it. So, in most countries graffiti is forbidden.

On the other hand, modern graffiti is, by its nature, a form of painting. After all, the artists uses the same methods and materials. However, instead of paints a graffiti artist prefers sprays, markers, and crayons. Some of their works are really impressive and fascinating, they are powerful and have a deep meaning. Graffiti often makes grey walls look cheerful.

The purpose of some graffiti is to spread and declare social ideas. That's why a lot of graffiti paintings have political topics. Some cities have special places where the walls of different buildings can be used to create pieces of graffiti art.

Probably, the most famous graffiti artist is Banksy, who comes from Bristol, England. He strongly believes that writing graffiti on buildings is an effective way to communicate with people. His works are very often aggressive, provocative and even rude. In his graffiti he expresses personal political and social views, which are against war and capitalism.

Banksy is known not only for his graffiti works. He also likes playing “jokes”. He sometimes unofficially hangs his works in the main art galleries. He doesn't want to be paid for them because he's sure art should be free. He says he wants to see how long it will take people to notice it. Once Banksy went into the Tate Gallery dressed as an old man, and glued a picture to the museum wall in protest of the Iraq War.