Hello, my friends! Today I’d like to demonstrate the Uzbek national music to you. All you have to do is just listen to it and share the national music of your country.

Karnai and surnai

National Music of Uzbekistan

The music of Uzbekistan has reflected the diverse influences that have shaped the country. It is very similar to the music of the Middle East and is characterized by complicated rhythms and meters. Because of the long history of music in the country and the large number of different music styles and musical instruments, Uzbekistan is often regarded as one of the most musically diverse countries in Central Asia.

Classical music of Uzbekistan

The music of what is now Uzbekistan has a very long and rich history. Shashmaqam, a Central Asian classical music style, is believed to have arisen in the cities of Bukhara and Samarqand in the late 16th century. The term "shashmaqam" translates as six maqams and refers to the structure of music with six sections in different musical modes, similar to classical Persian traditional music. Interludes of spoken Sufi poetry interrupt the music, typically beginning at a low register and gradually ascending to a climax before calming back down to the beginning tone.

After Turkestan became part of tsarist Russia in the 19th century, first attempts were taken to record national melodies of Turkestan. Russian musicians helped preserve these melodies by introducing musical notation in the region.

In the 1950s, Uzbek folk music became less popular, and the genre was barred from radio stations by the Soviets. They did not completely dispel the music. Although banned, folk musical groups continued to play their music in their own ways and spread it individually.[4] After Uzbekistan gained independence from the USSR in the early 1990s, public interest revived in traditional Uzbek music. Nowadays Uzbek television and radio stations regularly play traditional music.

The people's Artist of Uzbekistan Turgun Alimatov is considered by broad musical public and ethnomusicologists as the first virtuous of Shashmaqam, Uzbek classical and folklore composer, and skilled tanbur, dutar, and sato player. He has gained widespread popularity not only in Uzbekistan, but around the world with his unparalleled mastery in his performances and compositions. His most famous compositions include "Segah", "Chorgoh", "Buzruk", "Navo", and "Tanovar". His image is associated with national pride and has been presented as the symbol of Uzbek classical music to the world.

Another well-known Uzbek composer is Muhammadjon Mirzayev. His most famous compositions include "Bahor valsi" ("The Spring Waltz") and "Sarvinoz." "Bahor valsi" is played on Uzbek television and radio channels every spring.

Currently Sherali Joʻrayev is probably the most famous and influential singer of traditional Uzbek music in Uzbekistan. However, he has fallen out of favor with the Uzbek government and the latter has banned his performances on all Uzbek TV channels as well as his public performances since 2002. He still performs at Uzbek wedding parties and in other countries to popular acclaim.

In recent years, singers such as Yulduz Usmonova and Sevara Nazarkhan have brought Uzbek music to global audiences by mixing traditional melodies with modern rhythms and instrumentation. In the late 2000s, Ozodbek Nazarbekov emerged as a new popular singer who mixes contemporary music with elements of traditional Uzbek music.

There is an opinion concerning listening comprehesion: if you cannot repeat or reproduce orally what you listen to as a phrase or a sentence, or interprete a piece of oral information, your understanding leaves a lot to be desired.

What does it mean?

It means that whatever you listen to, you should be able to reproduce orally as well.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Barack Obama: Remarks on the death of Osama bin Laden (2011)

Hay there! Today is about LISTENING COMPREHESION!

I recomend this <<story of the language course>> for practicing 
Spoken English (or Oral English) even for the beginners 
[no matter if you are a beginner of English or an advanced learner!] so that they can practice LISTENING COMPREHESION 
at the very beginning.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/English-Online-with-Jahangir-Abdullaev/557262277689400

In the It you can find a lot of useful websites as well as uTube that can help you learn and master your English. All you have to do is just take advantage of it........

I think people everywhere dream about having lots of money. I know I do. I would give anything to make money hand over fist. I would like to earn large amounts of money. You could win a large amount of money everywhere through lotteries. People pay money for tickets with numbers. If your combination of numbers is chosen, you win a huge amount of money – often in the mil-lions. Winning the lottery is a windfall (a large amount of money that is won or received unexpectedly).
A few years ago, my friend Bakhrom who lives in Russia won the lottery. It changed his life. He did not have a rich family. He was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Instead, my friend was always hard up for cash. He did not have much money. And the money he did earn was chicken feed – very little (a ridicu-lously small sum of money).
Sometimes Bakhrom even had to accept hand-outs (gifts from his family and friends). But do not get me wrong. My friend was not a deadbeat (a person who tries to evade paying their debts). He was not the kind of person who never paid the money he owed. He simply pinched pennies (If a person or company is feeling the pinch, they do not have as much money as they used to, and so they cannot buy the things they would like to buy.). He was always very careful with the money he spent. In fact, he was often a cheapskate (If you say that someone is a cheapskate, you think that they are mean and do not like spending money.). He did not like to spend money. The worst times were when he was flat broke and had no money at all.
One day, Bakhrom scraped together a few dollars for a lottery ticket. He thought he would never strike it rich or gain lots of money unexpectedly. But his combination of numbers was chosen and he won the lottery. He hit the jackpot. He won a great deal of money.
Bakhrom was so excited. The first thing he did was buy a cost-ly new car. He splurged (an act of spending money freely or ex-travagantly) on the one thing that he normally would not buy. Then he started spending money on unnecessary things. He start-ed to waste it. It was like he had money to burn. He had more money than he needed and it was burning a hole in his pocket so he spent it quickly.
When we got together for a meal at a restaurant, Bakhrom paid every time. He would always foot the bill (pay (the bill) for something, esp. when the bill is considered large or unreasonable), and pick up the tab (pay for something). He told me the money made him feel like a million dollars. He was very happy.
But, Bakhrom spent too much money. Soon my friend was down and out again. He had no money left. He was back to being strapped for cash (short of money). He had spent his bottom dollar, his very last amount. He did not even build up a nest egg. He had not saved any of the money.
I admit I do feel sorry for my friend. He had enough money to live like a king. Instead, he is back to living on a shoestring — a very low budget. Some might say he is penny wise and pound foolish. He was wise about small things, but not about important things.
______________________________
on a shoestring — We still have to operate on a shoestring — Нам все еще приходится считать каждую копейку/ I've been living on a shoestring since my father stopped sending me money — С тех пор, как отец перестал присылать мне деньги, мне пришлось потуже затянуть пояс

From the ancient Greeks and Romans to current day writers and professors have been debating about happiness. What makes someone happy? In what parts of the world are people the happiest? Why even study happiness? 

The Greek philosopher Aristotle said that a person’s highest happiness comes from the use of his or her intelligence. Religious books such as the Koran and Bible discuss faith as a form of happiness. The British scientist Charles Darwin believed that all species were formed in a way so as to enjoy happiness. And, the United States Declaration of Independence guarantees “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” as a basic human right. People throughout history may have had different ideas about happiness. But today, many people are still searching for its meaning.

Married people are happier than single ones. People who like to be with other people are happier than unsocial people. And people who have sex a lot are happier than those who do not. And those people who are with their children are equally happy as couples without children. And wealthier people are only a little happier than poorer people. those people who who live in strongly democratic and wealthy countries are happier than those who do not.

Studying happiness no longer involves just theories and ideas. Economists, psychiatrists, doctors and social scientists are finding ways of understanding happiness by examining real sets of information.

Positive psychology is the new term for a method of scientific study that tries to examine the things that make life worth living instead of life’s problems. Traditional psychology generally studies negative situations like mental suffering and sickness. But positive psychology aims to study the strengths that allow people and communities to do well. Martin Seligman, the director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, says: "Positive psychology has three main concerns: positive emotions, positive individual qualities and positive organizations and communities".

There is also an increasing amount of medical research on the physical qualities of happiness. Doctors can now look at happiness at work in a person’s brain using a method called magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI. For example, an MRI can show how one area of a person’s brain activates when he or she is shown happy pictures. A different area of the brain becomes active when the person sees pictures of terrible subjects.

Doctors are studying brain activity to better understand the physical activity behind human emotions. This research may lead to better understanding of depression and other mental problems.

Happiness is an extremely popular subject for books. If you search for "happiness" on the Web site of the online bookseller, Amazon.com, you will find more than two hundred thousand results. Experts from several areas of study recently published books on the subject.

The historian Darrin McMahon examines the development of happiness in “Happiness: A History.” Mr. McMahon looks at two thousand years of politics and culture in western countries. He says it is only in recent history that people think of happiness as a natural human right.

Darrin McMahon explains how the ancient Greeks thought happiness was linked to luck. He says it was not until the Enlightenment period in eighteenth century Europe that people began to think they had the power to find happiness themselves. He notes that in demanding happiness, people may think something is wrong with them or others if they are not happy. Mr. McMahon sees the pressure to be happy as actually creating unhappiness.

Darrin McMahon says his book will not make readers happier. But he says that by comparing your situation with people throughout history, you can have a better understanding of the idea of happiness.

The journalist Eric Weiner recently wrote a book called “The Geography of Bliss." Mr. Weiner traveled to countries such as Switzerland, Bhutan, Qatar and Thailand to investigate happiness in different parts of the world. He met with experts and talked with local people to try to understand what makes people in different societies happy.

For example, Eric Weiner learned that in Bhutan, the government measures “Gross Domestic Happiness” as a way to tell whether its citizens are happy. Mr. Weiner also traveled to Moldova, a country he says is one of the least happy countries in the world. And he traveled to Iceland because studies show that it is one of the happiest nations in the world.

Mr. Weiner at first could not understand why a country with so little sunlight in the winter and so many alcohol drinkers could be so happy. But, he decided that happiness in Iceland is linked to its close community, striking natural beauty and high levels of creativity. Denmark, another cold country, also has been listed as one of the happiest countries. Mr. Weiner says the United States is the twenty-third happiest country in the world.

Dan Gilbert teaches psychology at Harvard University in Massachusetts. He recently published “Stumbling on Happiness.” Mr. Gilbert looks at the way the human mind is different from other animals because we can think about the future and use our imaginations. He also explains how our minds can trick us in a way that creates difficulties in making happy choices for the future.

For example, a person might think that buying a new car would make him or her happy even though the last car the person bought did not. So, events that we believe will bring us happiness bring us less than we think. And, events we fear will make us unhappy make us less unhappy than we believe. The book provides valuable information on the surprising ways in which our minds work. Here is a recording of Mr. Gilbert talking about this “impact bias.” It was taken from the Big Think Web site.

DAN GILBERT:

"Most of the time when people are wrong about how they’ll feel about the future, they’re wrong in the direction of thinking that things will matter to them more than they really do. We are remarkable at our ability to adjust and adapt to almost any situation; but we seem not to know this about ourselves. And so we mistakenly predict that good things will make us happy . . . really happy for a really long time . Bad things, why they’ll just slay us. It turns out neither of these things is by and large true."

Why is studying happiness important? There are many answers to this question. One has to do with understanding happiness in order to create better public policies. Richard Layard is a British economist and lawmaker who studies this subject. His research is influenced by the eighteenth century thinker Jeremy Bentham. Mr. Bentham believed that the goal of public policy was to create the “greatest happiness for the greatest number.”

Richard Layard has looked at the relation between happiness and a country’s wealth. He questions why people in western countries are no happier than they were fifty years ago although they now earn more money.

Mr. Layard believes that part of the problem is that economics and public policy tend to measure a country’s success by the amount of money it makes. He notes that happiness depends on more than the purchasing power of a person or a nation.

Mr. Layard says that public policy should also help people improve the things that lead to happiness such as job security and health. To help improve public health policies in Britain, Mr. Layard has pressed the British government to spend more money on mental health treatment centers. He argues that by helping people recover from mental illness, the government can make a big step in the effort to increase happiness.

Many people have also written songs about happiness.