21. Kyiv

Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The name Kiev is derived from the name of Kiy, one of four legendary founders of the city.

By the ancient legend Kiev was founded by three brothers Kiy, Schek, Khoriv and their sister Lybid. They were surprised by the beauty of Dnieper’s hills, stopped to settle here and called the town in honour of the eldest brother-Kiev. A monument to the founders was erected at the Dnieper embankment in our days. The town’s place was chosen succesfully, the high Dnieper’s slopes were perfect protection against the raids of nomad tribes.

Kiev stretches for the space of more than 20 km along the picturesque banks of the biggest Ukrainian river — Dnieper. Its square consists 827 sq.km. The population of Kiev is about 3 millions people.

Kiev is one of the oldest Slavic centres, “Mother of Russian touns” so it was called in olden times, its age is more than 1500 years. The first settlements on the territory of modern Kiev appeared from 15000 till 20000 year ago.

During the time of Vladimir the Great (980-1015) government our city begins to develop especially rapidly. In order to consolidate Kiev Russ and to increase its international influence the prince Vladimir baptised the Russ in 988. Christianity and became that impulse for further development of written language and culture.

Today Kiev is an important industrial, scientific, educational and cultural centre of Eastern Europe. It is home to many high-tech industries, higher education institutions and world-famous historical landmarks. The city has an extensive infrastructure and highly developed system of public transport, including the Kiev Metro.

The capital of Ukraine has got great cultural potential. There are more that 30 museums, about 200 unique architectural monuments, 33 theatres, enormouse quantity of constant active art exhibitions. Kiev is one of the greenest cities of the world, it has more that 60 parks. In spring and summer the city resembles one huge park.

There are many historical places in Kiev. For example, St Sophia Cathedral, which was built in the 11th century, Kievo-Pecherskaya Lavra that was founded in the 11th century, St Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery, which was ruined and recently completely restored, St. Andrew’s chirch in baroque style?

The monument to Taras Shevchenko, the great Ukrainian poet, is in front of the University, named after him. The monument to Bohdan Khmelnitsky, famous hetman of Ukraine, stands in the square opposite to St Sophia Cathedral.

Kiev is the centre of cultural life of Ukraine. Fans of theatre, cinema, music, painting and other arts can find there many interesting for themselves. There are lots of museums in Kiev: the Museum of Ukrainian Arts, the Historic Museum, the Taras Shevchenko Museum, the Lesya Ukrainka Museum, the museum of M. Bulgakov and others.

22. Great britain

Learning English naturally leads to learning facts about the country it is spoken in, or better to say, it was born in. I am greatly interested in everything connected with Great Britain. So here are some basic facts about this country.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is situated on the British Isles. The British Isles consist of two large islands, Great Britain and Ireland, and about five thousand small islands. The total area of the islands is over 224’000 square kilometers.

The UK is made up of four countries: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Their capitals are London, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast respectively. Great Britain consists of England, Scotland and Wales and doesn’t include Northern Ireland. But in everyday speech “Great Britain” is used to mean the UK.

The capital of the UK is London. It stands on the River Thames. The British Isles are separated from the European Continent by the North Sea and the English Channel. The western coast of Great Britain is washed by the Atlantic Ocean and the Irish Sea. The surface of the British Isles varies very much. The north of Scotland is mountainous and is called the Highlands; while the south, which has beautiful valleys and plains, is called the Lowlands. The north and the west of England are mountainous, but all the rest-east, center and southeast - is a vast plain. Mountains are not very high. Ben Nevis in Scotland is the highest mountain (1343 meters over the sea level).

There are a lot of rivers in Great Britain, but they are not long. The Severn is the longest river, while the Thames is the deepest and the most important one.

The mountains, the Atlantic Ocean and the warm waters of Gulf Stream influenced the climate of the British Isles. It is mild all over the year round.

The UK is a highly developed industrial country. It’s known as one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of machinery, electronics, textile, aircraft and navigation equipment. One of the chief industries of the country is shipbuilding. The main industrial centers and at the same time the largest cities of the country are London, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Glasgow.

The UK is a constitutional monarchy. The Head of the state is the Queen or the King. In practice, the monarch reigns but doesn’t rule. Elected Government with the Prime Minister at the head rules the country. The British Parliament consists of two chambers: the House of Lords and the House of Common. There are three main political parties in Great Britain: the Labour, the Conservative and the Liberal Parties.

Two characteristic of the British Constitution confuse most foreigners: there is no written constitution; it is not contained in any single document.

Some of the British national traits are resulting from the British way of life. The British are known as a people self-assured, absolutely confident in their national sense of superiority. Deep down the British still fell pretty satisfied with themselves.

The history of the UK is in its museums. There are about 2000 museums and galleries in Britain, which include the chief national collections, and a great variety of independently or privately, owned institutions. But some of the most comprehensive collections of objects of artistic, archaeological, scientific, historical and general interest are contained in the national museums and galleries in London. Among them are the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum, the National Gallery, the Tate Gallery, the Natural History Museum, Madame Tussaud’s, the Tower of London and many other treasure institutions. There are also national museums and art galleries in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Most cities and towns have museums and other treasures devoted to arts, archeology and natural history.