Architecture in britain

Artistic and cultural life in Britain is rather rich. It passed several main stages in its development. The Saxon King Alfred encouraged the arts and culture. The chief debt owed to him by English literature is for his translations of and commentaries on Latin works. Art, culture and literature flowered during the Elizabethan age, during the reign of Elizabeth I; it was the pe-riod of English domination of the oceans. It was at this time that William Shakespeare lived. The empire, which was very powerful under Queen Victoria, saw another cultural and artistic' hey-day as a result of industrialization and the expansion of interna-tional trade. But German air raids caused much damage in the First World War and then during the Second World War. The madness of the wars briefly interrupted the development of culture.

Immigrants who have arrived from all parts of the Commonwealth since 1945 have not only created a mix-ture of nations, but have also brought their cultures and habits with them.

Monuments and traces of past greatness are everywhere. There are buildings of all styles and periods. A great num-ber of museums and galleries display precious and interest-ing finds from all parts of the world and from all stages in the development of nature, man and art.

London is one of the leading world centers for music, drama, opera and dance. Festivals held in towns and cities throughout the country attract much interest. Many British playwrights, composers, sculptors, painters, writers, actors, singers and dancers are known all over the world.

The British Council promotes knowledge of British cul-ture and literature overseas. It organizes British participa-tion in international exhibitions and encourages professional interchange in all cultural fields between Britain and other countries.

Inigo Jones was the first man to bring the Italian Re-naissance style to Great Britain. He had studied in Italy for some years, and in 1615 became Surveyor-General of the works.

The style he built in was pure Italian with as few modi-fications as possible. His buildings were very un-English in character, with regularly spaced columns along the front.

His two most revolutionary designs were the Banqueting House in Whitehall and the Queen's House at Greenwich. The plan of the latter, completely symmetrical, with its strict classical details and the principal rooms on the first floor, influenced architecture in Britain. But not during the life-time of Inigo Jones. All those who followed him had to adapt this new foreign building technique to English ways and English climate, English building materials and English craftsmen.

Christopher Wren was the man who did it. He was a mathe-matician, an astronomer and, above all, an inventor. He in-vented new ways of using traditional English building materi-als, brick and ordinary roofing tiles, to keep within the limits of classical design. He, like Inigo Jones, was appointed Sur-veyor-General to the Crown when he was about thirty years old, and almost immediately he started rebuilding the churches of London, burnt down in the Great Fire of 1666. Wren's churches are chiefly known by their beautiful spires which show in their structure the greatest engineering cunning. But Ch. Wren also influenced the design of houses, both in town and in the country. The best-known buildings designed by Ch. Wren are St. Paul's Cathedral in London and the Sheldonion Theatre in Oxford. The period of the Industrial Revolution had no natural style of its own. Businessmen wanted art for their money. The architect was to provide a facade in the Gothic style, or he was to turn the building into something like a Norman castle, or a Renaissance palace, or even an Oriental mosque. For theatres and opera houses the theatrical Baroque style was often most suitable. Churches were more often than not built in the Gothic style. The twentieth century has seen great changes in Britain's architecture.

MUSEUMS AND ART GALLERIES

It is safe to say that the three most famous buildings in England are the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral.

The Tower of London on the north bank of the Thames is one of the most ancient buildings of London. It was founded in the 11^th century by William the Conqueror. But each monarch left some kind of personal mark on it. For many centuries the Tower has been a fortress, a pal-ace, a prison and royal treasury. It is now a museum of arms and amour, and as one of the strongest fortresses in Britain, it has the Crown Jewels. The grey stones of the Tower could tell terrible stories of violence and injustice. Many sad and cruel events took place within the walls of the Tower. It was here that Thomas More, the great humanist, was falsely accused and executed. Among famous prisoners executed at the Tower were Henry VIII's wives Ann Boleyn and Catherine Howard. When Queen Elizabeth was a prin-cess, she was sent to the Tower by Mary Tudor (Bloody Mary) and kept prisoner for some time. The ravens whose forefathers used to find food in the Tower still live here as part of its history. There is a legend that if the ravens dis-appear the Tower will fall. That is why the birds are care-fully guarded. The White Tower was built by William the Conqueror to protect and control the City of London. It is the oldest and the most important building, surrounded by other tow-ers, which all have different names. The Tower is guarded by the Yeomen Warders, popu-larly called 'Beefeaters'. There are two letters, E. R., on the front of their tunics. They stand for the Queen's name Eliza-beth Regina. The uniform is as it used to be in Tudor times.

Their everyday uniform is black and red, but on state occasions they wear a ceremonial dress: fine red state uni-forms with the golden and black stripes and the wide lace-collar, which were in fashion in the 16th century.

Every night at 10 p.m. at the Tower of London the Cer-emony of the Keys or locking up of the Tower for the night takes place. It goes back to the Middle Ages. Five minutes before the hour the Headwarder comes out with a bunch of keys and an old lantern. He goes to the guardhouse and cries: 'Escort for the keys'. Then he closes the three gates and goes to the sentry, who calls: 'Halt, who comes there?' The Headwarder replies: 'The Keys'. 'Whose Keys?' demands the sentry. 'Queen Elizabeth's Keys', comes the answer. 'Ad-vance Queen Elizabeth's Keys. All's well'. The keys are fi-nally carried to the Queen's House where they are safe for the night. After the ceremony everyone who approaches the gate must give the password or turn away.

Westminster Abbey is a fine Gothic building, which stands opposite the Houses of Parliament. It is the work of many hands and different ages. The oldest part of the build-ing dates from the eighth century. It was a monastery—the West Minster. In the 11th century Edward the Confessor after years spent in France founded a great Norman Abbey. In 200 years Henry IIP decided to pull down the Norman Abbey and build a more beautiful one after the style then prevailing in France. Since then the Abbey remains the most French of all English Gothic churches, higher than any other English church (103 feet) and much narrower. The towers were built in 1735—1740. One of the greater glories of the Abbey is the Chapel of Henry VII, with its delicate fan-vaulting.

The Chapel is of stone and glass, so wonderfully cut and sculptured that it seems unreal. It contains an interesting collection of swords and standards of the 'Knights of the Bath'. The Abbey is famous for its stained glass.

Since the far-off time of William the Conqueror Westminster Abbey has been the crowning place of the kings and queens of England. The Abbey is sometimes compared with a mausoleum, because there are tombs and memorials of almost all English monarchs, many statesmen, famous scientists, writers and musicians.

If you go past the magnificent tombstones of kings and queens, some made of gold and precious stones, past the gold-and-silver banners of the Order of the Garter, which are hanging from the ceiling, you will come to Poets' Corner. There many of the greatest writers are buried: Geoffrey Chaucer, Samuel Johnson, Charles Dickens, Alfred Tennyson, Tho-mas Hardy and Rudyard Kipling. Here too, though these writers are not buried in Westminster Abbey, are memorials to William Shakespeare and John Milton, Burns and Byron, Walter Scott, William Makepeace Thackeray and the great American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

St. Paul’s Cathedral is the work of the famous architect Sir Christopher Wren. It is said to be one of the finest pieces of architecture in Europe. Work on Wren’s masterpiece began in 1675 after a Norman church, old St. Paul’s, was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. For 35 years the building of St. Paul’s Cathedral went on, and Wren was an old man before it was finished.

From far away you can see the huge dome with a golden ball and cross on the top. The interior of the cathedral is very beautiful. It is full of monuments. The most important, perhaps, is the one dedicated to the Duke of Wellington. After looking round you can climb 263 steps to the Whispering Gallery, which runs round the dome. It is called so, because if someone whispers close to the wall on one side, a person with his ear close to the wall on the other side can hear what is said. But if you want to reach the foot of the ball, you have to climb 637 steps.

As for Christopher Wren, who is now known as “the architect of London“, he found his fame only after his death. He was buried in the Cathedral. Buried here are Nelson, Wellington and Sir Joshua Reynolds.

Those who are interested in English architecture can study all the architectural styles of the past 500 or 600 years in Cambridge. The Chapel of King’s College is the most beautiful building in Cambridge and one of the greatest Gothic building in Europe. It is built in the Perpendicular style. Its foundation stone was laid in 1446, but it was completed69 years late. The interior of the Chapel is a single lofty aisle and the stonework of the walls is like lace. The Chapel has a wonderful fan-vaulting which is typical of the churches of that time. We admire the skill of the architects and craftsmen who created all these wonderful buildings.

British’s Theatres. Britain is now one of the world's major theatre centers. Many British actors and actresses are known all over the world. They are Dame Peggy Ashcroft, Glenda Jackson, Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud and others. Drama is so popular with people of all ages that there are several thousand amateur dramatic societies.

Now Britain has about 300 professional theatres. Some of them are privately owned. The tickets are not hard to get but they are very expensive. Regular seasons of opera and ballet are given at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London. The National Theatre stages modern and classi-cal plays, the Royal Shakespeare Company produces plays mainly by Shakespeare and his contemporaries when it per-forms in Stratford-on-Avon, and modern plays in its two auditoria in the City's Barbican Centre. Shakespeare's Globe Playhouse, about which you have probably read, was reconstructed on its original site. Many other cities and large towns have at least one theatre. There are many theatres and theatre companies for young people: the National Youth Theatre and the Young Vic Company in London, the Scottish Youth Theatre in Edinburgh. The National Youth Theatre, which stages classical plays mainly by Shake-speare and modern plays about youth, was on tour in Russian in 1989. The theatre-goers warmly re-ceived the production of Thomas Stearns Eliot's play 'Murder in the Cathedral'. Many famous English actors started their careers in the National Youth Theatre. Among them Timothy Dalton, the actor who did the part of Rochester in 'Jane Eyre' shown on TV in our country.

HOLIDAYS AND CUSTOMS

New Year	January, 1
Christmas	December,25
ST. Valentine’s Day	February 14th
Pancake Day	February
Mothers’ Day	March
Easter	April
April Fools’ Day	April, 1
May Spring Festival	May, 1
Late Summer Bank Holiday	August / September
Hallowe’en	October, 31
Guy Fawkes’ Night (Bonfire Night)	November, 5
Remembrance Day	November, 11
Boxing Day	December, 26

New Year is not such an important holiday in England as Christmas. Some people don’t celebrate it at all.

Many people have New Year parties. A party usually begins at about eight o’clock and goes on until early in the morning. At midnight they listen to the chimes of Big Ben, drink a toast to the New Year.

Christmas

If you try to catch a train on 24th of December you may have difficulty in finding a seat. This is the day when many people are traveling home to be with their families on Christmas Day, 25th December. For most British families, this is the most im-portant festival of the year, it combines the Christian celebration of the birth of Christ with the traditional festivities of winter.

On the Sunday before Christmas many churches hold a carol¹ service where special hymns are sung. Sometimes carol-singers can be heard on the streets as they collect money for charity². People are reminded of Charles Dickens' story 'Christmas Carol'. Most families decorate their houses with brightly-colored paper or holly³, and they usually have a Christmas tree⁴ in the corner of the front room, glittering with colored lights and decorations.

There are a lot of traditions connected with Christmas but perhaps the most important one is the giving of presents. Family members wrap up their gifts and leave them at the bottom of the Christmas tree to be found on Christmas morning. Children leave a long sock or stocking at the end of their beds on Christmas Eve, 24th December, hoping that Father Christmas⁵ will come down the chimney during the night and bring them small presents, fruit and nuts. They are usually not disappointed! At some time on Christmas Day the family will sit down to a big turkey dinner followed by Christmas pudding⁶. They will probably pull a cracker⁷ with another member of the family. It will make a loud crack and a coloured hat, small toy and joke will fall out!

Later in the afternoon they may watch the Queen on television as she delivers her traditional Christmas message to the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. If they have room for even more food they may enjoy a piece of Christ-mas cake or eat a hot mince pie⁸. 26th December is also a public holiday, Boxing Day, and this is the time to visit friends and relatives or watch football.

ST. Valentine’s Day is considered a friend and patron of lovers. For centuries St. Valentine’s Day, February 14^th , has been a day for choosing sweethearts and exchanging Valentine cards.

Ghosts and Witches Hallowe'en means 'holy evening', and takes place, on 31st October. Although it is a much more important festival* in the United States than Britain, it is celebrated by many! people in the UK. It is particularly connected with witches^ and ghosts.

At parties people dress up in strange costumes and pre-tend they are witches. They cut horrible faces in potatoes and other vegetables and put a candle inside, which shines through the eyes. People may play difficult games such as trying to eat an apple from a bucket of water without using their hands..

In recent years children dressed in white sheets knock on doors at Hallowe'en and ask if you would like a 'trick' or a 'treat'². If you give them something nice, a 'treat', they go away. How-ever, if you don't, they play a 'trick' on you, such as making a lot of noise or spilling flour on your front doorstep!

Guy Fawkes' Night. In 1605 King James I was on the throne. As a Protestant, he was very unpopular with Roman Catholics. Some of them planned to blow up the Houses of Parliament on 5th No-vember of that year, when the King was going to open Par-liament. Under the House of Lords they stored thirty-six barrels of gunpowder, which were to be exploded by a man called Guy Fawkes. However, one of the plotters spoke about these plans and Fawkes was discovered, arrested and later hanged. Since that day the English traditionally celebrate 5th November by burning a dummy, made of straw and old clothes, on a bonfire, at the same time letting off fireworks.

This dummy is called a 'guy' (like Guy Fawkes) and children can often be seen on the pavements before 5th November saying, 'Penny for the guy'. If they collect enough money they can buy some fireworks.

MASS MEDIA

Newspapers. In Britain there are 11 national daily newspapers most people read one of them every day. Daily newspapers are published on every day of the week except Sunday. Sunday newspapers are larger than daily newspapers. All the Sunday newspapers are national. Most national newspapers in Britain express a political opinion, most of them right-wing, and people choose the newspaper that they read according to their own political beliefs.

Fleet Street in London used to be the home of most national daily and Sunday newspapers and that is why people often say 'Fleet Street' to mean 'the press’ even now.

British newspapers can be divided into two groups: quality and popular. Quality newspapers are more serious and cover home and foreign news while popular newspapers like shocking, personal stories. These two groups of papers can be distinguished easily because the quality newspapers are twice the size of the popular newspapers. The quality daily papers are 'The Times', 'The Guardian', 'Daily Telegraph' and 'The Financial Times'. 'The Times', founded in 1785, is considered to be the most authoritative newspaper voice in the country and is said to be the paper of the Establishment. The ‘Guardian' appeals to well-educated readers interested in intellectual and social affairs. The 'Daily Telegraph’ is bought by educated upper middle and middle-class readers. 'The Financial Times', printed on pink papers, is read by businessmen. The 'popular' press consists of the 'Daily Mail’, the 'Daily Express', the 'Daily Star^’ and the 'Sun'. In all newspapers there is a desperate fight to maintain or improve their circulations but it is worst among the 'popular’ papers whose main weapons are sex, scandal and sport. Apart from London-based papers, there are many local newspapers. Most of these are evening papers (there is only one London evening paper) and many appear weekly.

Newspapers

Title and foundation date:

National dailies 'Popular' Daily Express (1900) Daily Mail (1896) Daily Minor (1903) Daily Star (1966) The Sun (1964) Today (1986) 'Qualities' Financial Times (1886) The Daily Telegraph (1885) The Guardian (1821) The Independent (1986) The Times (1785)

National Sundays 'Popular' News of the World (1843) Sunday Express (1918) Sunday Minor (1963) Sunday Sport (1986) The Mail of Sunday (1982) The People (1881) 'Qualities' Sunday Telegraph (1961) The Observer (1791) The Sunday Times (1822) The Sunday Correspondent (1989)

TV and Radio. Broadcasting in the United Kingdom is controlled by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and the Independent Television Commission (ITС). The BBC receives its income from the government, but the private companies are controlled by the ITС which replaced in 1991 the IBA.

National radio is controlled by the BBC, and listeners can choose between four stations. Radio 1 is a pop-music station with news and magazine-style programmes. Radio 2 plays light music and reports on sport. Radio 3 plays classical music, and Radio 4 has news programmes, drama and general interest programmes. There are many local stations, some private and some run by the BBC. Their programmes consist mainly of music and local news.

The BBC has two TV channels. BBC 2 has more serious programmes and news features. There is a break for advertisements about every 15—20 minutes. The IBA is responsible for looking after the regional independent TV companies who broadcast their own programmes and those they have bought from other regions. The most recent independent channel is Channel 4, and it has more specialized programmes than the main channels. In general, people think the programmes offered on British television are of a very high standard. Some people, however, are becoming worried about the amount of violence on TV, and the effect this may have on young people.

TV and radio are also two of the main teaching channels used by the Open University. This ‘university of the air’ allows many thousands of students to study at home for degrees they never would have obtained in the main educational system. They also have to do without sleep as most of their programmes are broadcast early in the morning or late at night.

‘Top of the Pops' is a programme that has been shown every week on BBC TV for many years. Each week computers in a number of record-shops throughout the United Kingdom show how many copies of a record have been sold that week. The new chart, issued each Tuesday evening, shows which singles have sold the most copies during the previous week. With this information, the show's producers decide which songs will be played. Usually it will be those moving up the charts, or the new releases which the disc jockeys (usually called DJs) think win be ‘hits’. Of соurse, each week the show finishes with the number one single. Bands either appear to live in the studio, or in a video recording made especially to sell the record. These videos have become so important in the last few years that they can help to make a record a hit.

SPORTS AND LEISURE

Football has been called the most popular game in the world, and it certainly has a great many fans in Britain. Association football (or soccer) is the game that is played in nearly all countries. A team is composed of a goalkeeper, two backs, three half-backs and five forwards. There is another game called rugby football, so called because it originated at Rugby, a well-known English public school. In this game the Players may carry the ball. There is also an American kind of football, different from the other two. The captain of the team is usually the oldest or best player. Association football, or soccer, remains one of the most popular games played in the British Isles. Every Saturday from late August until me beginning of May, large crowds of support their sides in football grounds up and down the country, while an almost equally large number of people play the game in club teams of every imaginable variety and level of skill. Over the last 20 years though, the attendance at football matches has fallen away sharply. This is because of changing lifestyles and football hooligans. As violence at and near the football grounds increased, there was an ever-increasing tendency for people to stay away, leaving the grounds to football fans.

Today, many people are interested in football because of the pools and the chances of winning a lot of money. The English have never been against a gamble though most of them know where to draw the line and wisely re-frain from betting too often. Since the war the most popular form of gambling is no doubt that of staking a small sum on the football pools. (The word 'pool' is connected with the picture of streams of money pouring into a common fund, or 'pool' from which the winners are paid after the firm has taken its expense and profit).

The Cup Final at Wembley remains an event of national importance. The final of the football competition takes place every May at the famous Wembley stadium in London. Some of the best known clubs in England are Manchester United, Liverpool and the Arsenal. In Scotland either Rangers, Celtic or Aberdeen usually win the cup or the championship.

Cricket. People who live in England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa or the West Indies learn how to play cricket at school. English people love cricket. Summer isn't summer without it. Even if you do not understand the rules, it is attractive to watch the players dressed in white playing on the beautiful green cricket fields. Every Sunday morning from May to the end of September many Englishmen get up very early, and take a lot of sandwiches with them. It is necessary because the games are very long. Games be-tween two village teams last for only one afternoon. Games between counties last for three days, with б ho-urs play on each day. When En-gland plays with one or other cri-cketing countries such as Australia and New Zealand it is called a test match and lasts for five days. Cricket is played in schools, colleges and universities and in most towns and villages by teams which play weekly games. Test matches with other cricketing countries are held annually.

Cricket is also played by women and girls. The govern-ing body is Women's Cricket Association, founded in1926. Women's cricket clubs have regular weekend games. Test matches and other international matches take place. The women's World Cup is held every four years.

Cricket is played by two teams of 11 each. One team must bat and the other team must field. When the first team fin-ished batting, the second team must begin. The batsman must all the time guard his 'wicket’, three rather ridiculous pieces of wood which are pushed into the ground. The game is very slow.

In many ways this is the most English of all sports. It is a game for a hot June day with a slight breeze and the feel-ing that there is no hurry in the world.

RELIGION

Barely 16 percent of the adult population of Britain belongs to one of the Christain Churches. And this proportion continues to decline . Yet the regional variation is revealing. In England only 12 percent of the adult population are members of a church. The further one travels from London, however the greater the attendance: in Wales 22 percent and in Northern Ireland no fewer than 75 percent .

Today there is complete freedom of practice, regardless of religion or sect. However, until the mid-nineteenth century, those who did not belonged to the Church of England, the official “established” or state church, were barred from some public offices. The established church still plays a powerful role in national life, in spite of the relatively few people who are active members of it.

There are two established or state churches in Britain: the church of England , or Anglican Church as it is also called, and the Church of Scotland.

As Head of the Church of England , the monarch appoints the archbishops, bishops and deans of the Church, on the recommendation of the Prime Minister, who might well not be an Anglican. The Prime Minister makes a recommendation from two nominee candidates, put forward by a special Crown Appointments Commission ( composed by bishops, clergy and lay members of the Church ).

The most senior spiritual leaders of the Church of England are the Archbishop of Canterbury, who is “Primate of all England”, and the Archbishop of York, who is “Primate of England”. They are head of the two ecclesiastical provinces of England, Canterbury and York.

Control questions:

1. Social and private life.

2. National traditions and customs of Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

3. Mass media: TV and radio agencies, “serious” and “popular” press.

4. Painting (Sir Joshua Reynolds, John Constable).

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

6- Lecture. Theme: Geographical Survey. Economy.

Plan: 1. Geographical Position (Territory and structure. Relief, mountains. Climate).

2. The largest rivers, lakes.

3. Mineral resources and their deposits.

4. Economic peculiarities of the regions; characteristics of the greatest cities. Chief industries.

The aim of the lecture: To get acquainted with the geographical position, climate, inland waters and natural conditions. Economy.

The content of the lecture:

The United States owes much of its national character -- and its wealth -- to its good fortune in having such a large and varied landmass to inhabit and cultivate. Yet the country still exhibits marks of regional identity, and one way Americans cope with the size of their country is to think of themselves as linked geographically by certain traits, such as New England self-reliance, southern hospitality, Midwestern wholesomeness, western mellowness.

This lecture examines American geography through the filters of six main regions:

• New England, made up of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.

• The Middle Atlantic, comprising New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland.

• The South, which runs from Virginia south to Florida and west as far as central Texas. This region also includes West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, and parts of Missouri and Oklahoma.

• The Midwest, a broad collection of states sweeping westward from Ohio to Nebraska and including Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, parts of Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, and eastern Colorado.

• The Southwest, made up of western Texas, portions of Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and the southern interior part of California.

• The West, comprising Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, California, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii.

Note that there is nothing official about these regions; many other lineups are possible. These groupings are offered simply as a way to begin the otherwise daunting task of getting acquainted with the United States.

NEW ENGLAND

The smallest region, New England has not been blessed with large expanses of rich farmland or a mild climate. Yet it played a dominant role in American development. From the 17th century until well into the 19th, New England was the country's cultural and economic center. The earliest European settlers of New England were English Protestants of firm and settled doctrine. Many of them came in search of religious liberty. They gave the region its distinctive political format -- the town meeting (an outgrowth of meetings held by church elders) in which citizens gathered to discuss issues of the day. Only men of property could vote. Nonetheless, town meetings afforded New Englanders an unusually high level of participation in government. Such meetings still function in many New England communities today. New Englanders found it difficult to farm the land in large lots, as was common in the South. By 1750, many settlers had turned to other pursuits. The mainstays of the region became shipbuilding, fishing, and trade. In their business dealings, New Englanders gained a reputation for hard work, shrewdness, thrift, and ingenuity. New England also supported a vibrant cultural life. The critic Van Wyck Brooks called the creation of a distinctive American literature in the first half of the 19th century "the flowering of New England." Education is another of the region's strongest legacies. Its cluster of top-ranking universities and colleges -- including Harvard, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, Wellesley, Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Williams, Amherst, and Wesleyan -- is unequaled by any other region.

MIDDLE ATLANTIC

The Middle Atlantic region was settled by a wider range of people than New England. Dutch immigrants moved into the lower Hudson River Valley in what is now New York State. Swedes went to Delaware. English Catholics founded Maryland, and an English Protestant sect, the Friends (Quakers), settled Pennsylvania. In time, all these settlements fell under English control, but the region continued to be a magnet for people of diverse nationalities. Early settlers were mostly farmers and traders, and the region served as a bridge between North and South. Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania, midway between the northern and southern colonies, was home to the Continental Congress, the convention of delegates from the original colonies that organized the American Revolution. The same city was the birthplace of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the U.S. Constitution in 1787.As heavy industry spread throughout the region, rivers such as the Hudson and Delaware were transformed into vital shipping lanes. Cities on waterways -- New York on the Hudson, Philadelphia on the Delaware, Baltimore on Chesapeake Bay -- grew dramatically. New York is still the nation's largest city, its financial hub, and its cultural center. Like New England, the Middle Atlantic region has seen much of its heavy industry relocate elsewhere. Other industries, such as drug manufacturing and communications, have taken up the slack.

THE SOUTH

The South is perhaps the most distinctive and colorful American region. The American Civil War (1861-65) devastated the South socially and economically. Nevertheless, it retained its unmistakable identity. Like New England, the South was first settled by English Protestants. But whereas New Englanders tended to stress their differences from the old country, Southerners tended to emulate the English. Even so, Southerners were prominent among the leaders of the American Revolution, and four of America's first five presidents were Virginians. After 1800, however, the interests of the manufacturing North and the agrarian South began to diverge. Especially in coastal areas, southern settlers grew wealthy by raising and selling cotton and tobacco. The most economical way to raise these crops was on large farms, called plantations, which required the work of many laborers. To supply this need, plantation owners relied on slaves brought from Africa, and slavery spread throughout the South. It took a long, concerted effort by African Americans and their supporters to end segregation. In the meantime, however, the South could point with pride to a 20th-century regional outpouring of literature by, among others, William Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe, Robert Penn Warren, Katherine Anne Porter, Tennessee Williams, Eudora Welty, and Flannery O'Connor.

THE MIDWEST

The Midwest is a cultural crossroads. Starting in the early 1800s easterners moved there in search of better farmland, and soon Europeans bypassed the East Coast to migrate directly to the interior: Germans to eastern Missouri, Swedes and Norwegians to Wisconsin and Minnesota. The region's fertile soil made it possible for farmers to produce abundant harvests of cereal crops such as wheat, oats, and corn. The region was soon known as the nation's "breadbasket." Most of the Midwest is flat. The Mississippi River has acted as a regional lifeline, moving settlers to new homes and foodstuffs to market. The river inspired two classic American books, both written by a native Missourian, Samuel Clemens, who took the pseudonym Mark Twain: Life on the Mississippi and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The region's hub is Chicago, Illinois, the nation's third largest city. This major Great Lakes port is a connecting point for rail lines and air traffic to far-flung parts of the nation and the world. At its heart stands the Sears Tower, at 447 meters, the world's tallest building.

THE SOUTHWEST

The Southwest differs from the adjoining Midwest in weather (drier), population (less dense), and ethnicity (strong Spanish-American and Native-American components). Outside the cities, the region is a land of open spaces, much of which is desert. The magnificent Grand Canyon is located in this region, as is Monument Valley, the starkly beautiful backdrop for many western movies. Monument Valley is within the Navajo Reservation, home of the most populous American Indian tribe. To the south and east lie dozens of other Indian reservations, including those of the Hopi, Zuni, and Apache tribes.

THE WEST

The West is a region of scenic beauty on a grand scale. All of its 11 states are partly mountainous, and the ranges are the sources of startling contrasts. To the west of the peaks, winds from the Pacific Ocean carry enough moisture to keep the land well-watered. To the east, however, the land is very dry. Parts of western Washington State, for example, receive 20 times the amount of rain that falls on the eastern side of the state's Cascade Range. In much of the West the population is sparse, and the federal government owns and manages millions of hectares of undeveloped land. Americans use these areas for recreational and commercial activities, such as fishing, camping, hiking, boating, grazing, lumbering, and mining. Alaska, the northernmost state in the Union, is a vast land of few, but hardy, people and great stretches of wilderness, protected in national parks and wildlife refuges. Hawaii is the only state in the union in which Asian Americans outnumber residents of European stock. Beginning in the 1980s large numbers of Asians have also settled in California, mainly around Los Angeles.

Los Angeles -- and Southern California as a whole - bears the stamp of its large Mexican-American population. Now the second largest city in the nation, Los Angeles is best known as the home of the Hollywood film industry. The western economy is varied. California, for example, is both an agricultural state and a high-technology manufacturing state.

RELIEF AND MOUNTAINS

About half the USA territory is covered by plateaus and mountains. The eastern part of the country is occupied by the Appalachian Mountains, which in the north come close to the Atlantic coast and in the south are separated from it by the Atlantic Lowland. West of the Appalachians stretch the Central Plains, the Great Plains, and the Mexican Lowland. The Central Plains are 500-400 m high and have a hilly moraine relief in the north and a more gentle erosional relief in the middle and southern parts. The Great Plains are a deeply cut plateau with the heights of 500m in the east to 1600m at the Cordillera foothills. The flat Mexican Lowland, with the height of up to 150m, is swampy along the Gulf coast and fringed by a strip of marshes. The Cordilleras consist of rows of mountains ranges with the heights of up to 3000-5000m and a broad strip of inter mountain tablelands and plateaus. In Alaska the mountain ranges stretch in the west-east direction and include the Brooks Range, the Yukon Tableland, the Aleutian Range with Mount McKinley, 6193m –the highest peak of the USA and the whole of North America. Rocky Mountains, this system of parallel mountain ranges stretches down the western side of North America from to New Mexico. For long the Rockies cut off the Pacific seaboard of Canada and the United States from the rest of the North America. In the early 19th century they were visited only by bear puma deer, and other fur - bearing animals. Within the Rocky Mountains there are many national parks were trees plants animals and birds are protected. The largest of these is the Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming with its great Geysers, its herds of bison, deer, and antelope. Among all the wonders and curiosities of the Rockies, two perhaps deserve mention. One is the grizzly bear, now a rather rare inhabitant, whose fierceness and shyness great size and extreme deftness in moving have made him almost a legendary animal. The other is the great redwood tree with its amazingly tall, straight trunk, branchless for hundreds of feet from the ground. Several great rivers rise in the Rocky Mountains including the Colorado the Columbia the Rio Grande, and several of the Great summit areas and the rainfall on the windward eastern slopes of the mountains supply these rivers abundantly with water.

CLIMATE

North America’s climate is changeable. There are places that are warm all the year round and there are places covered with ice and snow where summer never comes.

The United States occupies a large area in the central part of the North American Continent. Winters in the northern part of the country are long and cold. In the South winters are much shorter. Average temperature in January is mild. As the northern part of the country has such long winters the growing season is quite short.

In the South the growing season is much longer. In fact in some of the states it is nine month long . The climate of these places is affected by other things besides the distance from the Equator. Landforms also affect climate. For example a great belt of mountainous land stretches along the western edge of north America from Alaska south to Panama. Some of these mountains are so high that snow can be seen on their peaks even in summer. Summer days are often bright and warm in the mountains but the nights are cold. The growing season is far shorter than in the lowlands .

Oceans also affect climate Winters are colder in the interior than along the coasts and summers are warmer. Parts of the Pacific Coast are very wet. The high mountains of this region are responsible for all this rain. They catch the moist air that blows in from the Pacific Ocean.

To the east beyond the mountains there is a vast dry region. This dry land extends from Canada Mexico. But still farther east in the Southeastern United States you can find another wet region. Here warm moist air blows inland from the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. This all brings plenty of rain to the Southeastern States. The Northern States east of the Mississippi also receive ample moisture.