Topical Vocabulary

to be founded	быть основанным
a fortress	крепость
grain-trading centre	центр торговли зерном
secondary capital	запасная столица
confectionary	кондитерский
launch vehicles	космические ракеты
the Local History museum	Краеведческий музей
applied art	Великая Отечественная Война
the Eternal Flame	Вечный огонь
embankment	набережная

I. Answer the questions:

1. What is your native city (town, village)?

2. When was it founded?

3. Are there any places of interest in your city (town, village)? What are they?

4. How many schools, colleges, universities are there in your city (town, village)?

5. Are there any plants or factories in your city (town, village)? What are they?

6. What interesting facts do you know about your city (town, city)?

II. Someone is coming to stay in your city for six months. What advice can you give? Think about money, documents, clothes, health, accommodation and food.

III. A friend of yours asks you to show him about Samara. Think of a possible route. You have got three days and your friend is interested in art (sport, photography, history).

Spoken Etiquette

Asking the Way

Use the phrases below to fill in the gaps in the dialogues, and then practise them with a partner.

I’ve lost my way; turn to the right; could you help me; can you tell me the way to…; I’m a stranger here; Over there near the music shop there is a bus-stop.

1. Excuse me, ….., please?

Yes.

Where is the swimming pool?

Oh, sorry. I don’t know. …..

2. Excuse me, where is the Local History Museum, please? I think …..

The Local History Museum? It is not far from here.

What is the shortest way there?

You can go there on foot. It’s just a ten minutes’ walk from here.

Where do I go?

Go along this street as far as the flower shop, at the corner of the grey building …. and you will see the museum on your right.

Thank you very much.

3. Excuse me, ….. the Hermitage?

You’d better go by bus.

What number?

….. Take number 7 bus.

Where do I get off?

The stop is called Palace Square. It’s three stops from here.

Thank you ever so much.

Not at all.

What would you say?

• A foreigner stops you in Samarskaya Square and asks you the way to McDonald’s.

• Explain to a foreigner how to get to the Opera House from the place where you live.

• Explain to a foreign student how to get from the hostel in Antonov-Ovsenko Street to the main building of the University in Gorky Street.

Washington, dc

Washington, DCis the capital of the USA. Itis situated onthe Potomac River. In 1791 George Washington, the first American president, chose the place for a capital city. He thought it was a good place because the Potomac River was deep enough for ships to come to the city.

Washington is not a typical American city. It has no skyscrapers and nobody will build a house higher than the Capitol. It is a nice thing not to have stone jungles in the city. There are a lot of large public gardens, parks where you can sit in the sun, and wide streets like Pennsylvania Avenue, which runs to the foot of Capitol Hill. Every four years it plays the role of a ceremonial way for a president, connecting the White House and the Capitol.

Like any other capital, Washington, DC meets millions of tourists from different countries and all parts of the USA. They come to see the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, the White House and the Capitol, The Library of Congress and Jefferson Memorial, Kennedy Center, art treasures and monuments to those who struggled in the past to make an English colony a free country. Washington, DC is not only the city where the President lives and works. It’s the city where you think about the glorious history of the USA.