Washington, d.C.

The capital of the United States of America is Washington. It was named after the first President of the United States – George Washington. It is situated on the Potomac River in the District of Columbia. The district is a piece of land, which does not belong to any one state but to all the states. The district is named in honour of Christopher Columbus, the discoverer of America.

Washington was founded in 1791 as the capital. Washington is not a very large city, but it is very important. The population of the city is nearly one million people.

Washington has one major business and that business is government. Washington has many historical places. The White House, the official residence of the President of the United States is the oldest public structure in the capital. It was built in 1799. There are more than hundred rooms in the White House. The largest room in this building is the East Room, the scene of state receptions. On the second floor, one can find the Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, which gave freedom to black slaves in the States.

In the centre of the city, on the Capitol Hill, the highest point of the city there is the Capitol, the home of American Congress. It is the largest and tallest building with white marble columns. There is a law in Washington against building structures higher than the Capitol. George Washington laid the corner stone of the Capitol on September 18, 1793. Not far from the Capitol there is the Library of Congress, which holds five million books.

Other landmarks of Washington are memorials, dedicated to three American Presidents. They are the Washington Memorial, built in honour of the first American President, the Lincoln Memorial, which is devoted to the memory of the sixteenth President of the USA, the author of the Emancipation Proclamation, which gave freedom to Negro slaves in the US, and the Jefferson Memorial, built in the memory of the third President of the USA, who was the author of the Declaration of Independence.

Many people consider Washington to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world. There are many parks, wide streets and impressive buildings. The capital has world-known art galleries, museums and monuments.

WRITING TASK

Write a description of one of the places of interest in Washington. What museum

would you like to visit?

TRANSLATION

New York

New York is one of the largest cities in the World. The population of the city is 12 million people. It is the capital of New York State. New York is situated on the Hudson River.

Some call New York a poem in stone and steel, others a soulless monster. It is unlike any other city in the world.

The centre of New York is Manhattan Island. In 1609 the English explorer Henry Hudson entered the river which now bears his name and there in the mouth of this river lay an island the Indians called Manhattan. Hudson’s sponsors, the Dutch, arrived there in 1624 and purchased the island from the Indians for the equivalent of twenty four dollars. That transaction remains the most famous deal of all time. Over the next fifty years ownership of the property would change hands several times between the Dutch – who called it New Amsterdam – and the British who named it New York, after the Duke of York, brother of then King Charles II.

New York quickly became one of the largest ports in the world.

New York attracts people from all over the world. Hundreds of thousands of them settled down in that city. Emigrants from seventy countries and all the continents of the world, all speaking their own languages, make up this «Modern Babylon».

New York is the world’s centre of trade, finance, the arts, publishing, entertainment, sports and tourism. Twenty-three million visitors explore the city each year. In numbers and variety the museums of New York seem to overpower the imaginations of the millions who visit them each year. There are four hundred art galleries and the largest is the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York’s theatres are for every taste and pocketbook. The prestigious is the Metropolitan Opera House.

New York is a city of skyscrapers. The highest skyscraper is the Empire State Building, completed in 1931. It has 102 storeys and its height is 380 metres.

Wall Street is the financial heart of the USA. The National Bank is situated there. Broadway is the longest street in the city, 29 kilometres long. Broadway is the street of the best known theatres and cinemas.

WRITING TASK

Write about the «Modern Babylon». What are advantages and disadvantages of living in such big cities?

Unit 4