New York
New York is the largest city in the USA and the biggest seaport. It is the business centre of the United States. New York is situated in the mouth of the Hudson River.
New York has always been the gate of the USA. But it is more than just a door: it is also a window through which the life of the whole nation may be observed. New York is a city of striking social contrasts. It is a place where most of the millionaires live and at the same time a greater proportion of New Yorkers live at a lower level than the average for the US. In 1626 Dutch colonists set up here the first settlement, named New Amsterdam. They bought Manhattan Island from Indians for 24 dollars and a barrel of rum. The Americans say that it was the best business deal ever made in New York. In 1664 the colony was captured by British fleet under Duke of York and renamed New York.
Now New York includes five boroughs: Manhattan, the Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn and Richmond.
Manhattan is the smallest of the five city boroughs in size and it is not the largest in population although the majority spends a considerable part of the day in this center of business life. Here are Broadway, Wall Street and the Stock Exchange. This is the heart and source of American policy.
Harlem is also in Manhattan. Thick walls separate this «Black Bottom» with 450,000 colored people from the white population.
In the bay stands the bronze Statue of Liberty given to the United States by France as a present in 1886. Its torch is 60 meters high and can be seen at night for many miles. A new American Museum of Immigration is open at the base of the Statue.
The Bronx is a more residential rather than industrial part of the city. The well-known Zoo and Botanic Gardens are in the Bronx.
Queens is both a residential and industrial area. New York's two biggest airports are both there.
The Brooklyn Navy Yard is the largest naval shipbuilding center in the world. Brooklyn has more people than any other part of the city — about 3,000,000. It is mostly a district of middle-class people.
Richmond is the borough of piers and warehouses. Its population is only 200,000.
What makes New York? First of all, it is a great seaport, the greatest in the USA. The sea encircles many of the city areas. It is also a great financial center, where «money-making» is the main law of life. It is the symbol of big business and its Wall Street has become a nick name for big monopolies all over the world. New York is the leading textile center of the country and its clothes industry. It has a considerable printing industry and many book-shops; It is also undoubtedly one of the centers of social and spiritual life of America. There are a lot of Art Galleries, among them rich Henry Frick collections, and many impressive art museums (Metropolitan Museum, Modern Art Museum, American Art Museum and others). For a long time New York specialized in giving visitors a good time at its theatres, restaurants, night clubs, sporting arenas, and therefore has a large hotel industry. It is the main publishing, advertising and radio center with Columbia and New York universities and various city colleges.
Among (he inhabitants of New York one can meet people of almost all nations. The population of New York numbers about 16 million. Thu citizens speak seventy-five different languages.
Exercise 4. The questions below will certainly help you:
Is New York a capital of the USA?
Where is New York situated?
Is New York an industrial centre?
What are the two world-famous streets in New York?
What is the nickname of New York?
Would you like to visit New York?
London is the capital of Great Britain. It is a very old city. It is two thousand years old. London is not only the capital of the country; it is also a huge port.
London is situated upon both banks of the Thames. There are 17 bridges across the river. The population is about 14 million people.
London has got three parts: the City of London, the West End, and the East End.
The City of London is the oldest part of London. There are many offices, firms and banks in this part of London. The City of London is the financial centre of the United Kingdom.
The West End is the centre of London. There are many sights in the West End. They are, for example, the Houses of Parliament with Big Ben. It is interesting that clock “Big Ben «came into service in 1859.Big Ben is the biggest clock bell in Britain. It weighs 13.5tons.
The other interesting place is Westminster Abbey, which was founded in 1050.It is situated in the centre of London. Many great Englishmen were buried in the Abbey; Newton, Darwin and others.
The official London residence of the Queen is Buckingham Palace. It was built in the 18th century.
There are many nice squares in London. Trafalgar Square is one of them and it is in the centre of the West End. One can see a statue of Lord Nelson in the middle of this square.
There are many museums, libraries and galleries in London. The Tate Gallery is one of the well-known galleries in London. Henry Tate was a sugar manufacture. He was fond of paintings and collected many pictures.
The British Museum is a very interesting place in London. It was founded in 1753.The library of this museum has a lot of books.
The East of London is the districts for the working people. There are many factories, workshops, docks there.
There are many cars and buses in London. There is an underground in London, too.
One can say that the City is the money of London, the West End is the goods of London, and the East End is the hands of London.
Exercise 5. The questions below will certainly help you:
What is the capital of Great Britain?
What do know about the population of London?
What are the main parts of London?
What kind of interesting places are there in London?
Where is Trafalgar Square?
Where is the official London residence of the Queen?
Have you been to London?
Exercise 6. A.Read the text and try to understand the meaning of tube, poor and run.
Many of the world's major cities were built long before the car appeared and people realized the need to built efficient road systems. Current traffic management problems may be connected with old city planning.
The thing that saves some of these cities is an effective public transport system, usually below ground. London has an old but effective underground train system known as a tube, and a comprehensive bus and train system above the ground. Hong Kong has cheap, swift and effective public transport in the form of Mass Transit Railway, buses and ferries.
But there are newly built cities, such as, for example, Dallas, Baltimore and Los Angeles in America. Dallas is a wealthy city in Texas, which has grown up in an era when cars were considered to be essential to move about. It has an excellent road system, as does Baltimore, another new city with wise city leaders who insisted on building good roads. However, the public transport system in both Baltimore and Dallas is extremely poor. As a result, travel in these cities is easy except for peak hour, when a twenty minute run can take more than an hour in traffic jams. Los Angeles suffers from chronic highway blockages, despite efforts to encourage people to use public transport.
Cities with good road systems can use other methods to reduce the number of vehicles travelling together at peak hour. Flexible time is one good method: offices open and close at different times so people are travelling to and from work at different times. Vehicles carrying more than one person can use special priority lanes, which mean they can travel more quickly. There are even systems to make peak hours car use more expensive, with electronic chips recording the presence of a vehicle in a given high traffic area at a given time.
B. Find the words expressing:
1.demand 5. easily changed for new needs or conditions
2.rich 6. full, including many kinds of
3.journey in a car 7. having experience, knowledge
4.fast 8. main public road
C.Insert antonyms of italicized words.
1.Public transport in Hong Kong is cheap, but in London it is...
2.Paris has the Metro railway below ground and a large bus system ...
3.People should ... and finish work at different time to reduce peak hour traffic jams.
4.City administration try to encourage people to use ... transport, not private cars in the city center.
5.An electronic device can record the absence or ... of any person at the office.
6. The public transport available in Baltimore is very poor, while in Sidney it is ...
Lesson15
The Statue of Liberty
Grammar: Perfect Passive
