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WASHINGTON D. C.

Washington is the US capital. The city is named after the first President of the United States General George Washington. Washington is situated on the left bank of the Potomac River in the District of Columbia, outside the jurisdiction of any state. The population of the city is nearly three million people.

The Capitol is the centre of the city. The highest structures in Washington are the Capitol that houses the Congress and the Washington Monument that is 555 feet (over 180 meters) high. It was built in 1888. It is informally called “the pencil” because it is one of the world highest constructions and the tallest one in the USA. The oldest building in the city is the White House, the official residence of the President. From the Capitol to the White House runs Pennsylvania Avenue. All parades are held here.

Washington has many monuments – Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Grant Memorial and many others. The most beautiful of them is the Lincoln Memorial. It was opened on Memorial Day – May 30, 1922. It has 36 columns, there is a figure of Lincoln in it.

The major attractions for the visitors are in the heart of Washington. Among them is the Smithsonian Institution that includes the National Museum of History, the National Collection of Fine Arts housing exhibits that show the development of American art, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden that houses a rich collection of the 19th and 20th century painting and sculpture. The National Gallery of Art houses many of the world finest works of art.

The library of the Congress contains millions of books, manuscripts, prints and photos.

Washington avenues are wide and long, most of them are called after states: Pennsylvania Avenue, Massachusetts Avenue, etc. Numbered streets run north and south, lettered streets east and west. Washington is the city with almost no industry.

The leading universities are Georgetown University and George Washington University.

Most of the well-to-do white people live outside the city and blacks who make up half of the population of Washington are the main city dwellers.

THE HOLY LAND

The land of Palestine is in many ways a rather insignificant¹ land. It is not large enough, nor wealthy enough, nor beautiful enough to command recognition². Yet to millions of people, it is "The Holy Land" and it is especially significant land to Christians because of events there many centuries ago.

When one looks at the position of the Jordan River on a map of Palestine, he immediately realizes that it is a divider for it comes down almost through the centre of the country and divides it into two distinct parts. This makes the river in biblical days an important landmark, and so most of the references to it in the Bible are of a geographical nature. It is not the size³ of the river itself, however, that makes it a divisive factor. There are many rivers which are longer and wider and deeper than it is. But it is the valley through which the river runs that makes it the barrier and the divisive factor that it is. The Jordan Valley, which is from two to fourteen miles in width, is a part of the great rift⁴ valley, a valley with geological fault, which begins up in Lebanon and goes on down to Africa. Through most of Palestine the Jordan River is below sea level on the earth, Palestine itself is a part of the great rock of Arabia.

The district of Galilee is the most northerly district in the country. It is about 50 miles long and 25 miles wide. Its focal point is the heart-shaped, fresh-water lake, about thirteen miles long and eight miles wide at it widest point. Here is the centre of Galilean life. Most roads in the district pass to or near this lake.

In the Old Testament period, this lake is called "Ghennesareth"⁵, because of a small, fertile⁶ plain by that name on its northwest shore. The plain is also called "Gennesaret", and so the lake, in the Gospels, is sometimes called "the lake of Gennesaret".

The Sea of Galilee is surrounded almost completely by mountains, and since it is about 686 feet below sea level its climate is understandably quite warm. At several points narrow gorges⁷ break upon the lake, and cold currents passing from the Mediterranean⁸ in the west are sometimes sucked⁹ down in vortices¹⁰ of air, resulting in the sudden storms for which the lake is noted.

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insignificant a – незначительный recognition n – признание, одобрение size n – размер, величина rift n – расселина, ущелье Gennesaret [gI'nezrIt] – Геннисаретское (озеро)

fertile a – плодородный gorge n – пробка, узкое ущелье the Mediterranean ["medItq'reInjqn] – Средиземное море suck v – всасывать