5. Translate the text. A trip to london

Alexander is a student from St. Petersburg. He studies at the University of this city. He is a third-year student and his future specialty is economics. Alexander is going to London for a year on a student-exchange. That is he is going to study at London University for a year, and a student from London will come to St. Petersburg University.

Yesterday for long hours Alexander was collecting the documents necessary for the trip. By 4 p.m. he had collected all of them. Now all of them are ready, but there is a lot of work to do at home before his departure. Now he and his friend are selecting the books and dictionaries that will be of much help for him in London. And his mother is ironing his shirts at the kitchen.

Tomorrow morning he will be packing his luggage. His parents and friends will go to the airport to see him off. They will be leaving home at 9 o’clock as his plane will take off at 12 sharp. It will take them nearly one hour to get to the airport, and they must be at the airport two hours before the take-off. This time tomorrow Alexander will be flying over Europe on his way to London. By 16.00 tomorrow he will have arrived at Heathrow, the main London airport. Then he will take a bus in order to go to the central London. From there he will take another bus and will go to London University.

Alexander has never been to London, so he will make use of every opportunity to see the main sights of central London as soon as possible. Later on he will visit places a bit farther out – Hampstead, Hampton Court and Greenwich – on a day or half-day trips by bus and underground.

Alexander is eager to go to London because he wants to get acquainted with the way of life in advanced industrial countries. He knows that there are a lot of people in Russia who are sure that the economy there is in good shape and makes people there more and more prosperous. But recently he came across an article in the London paper The Guardian related to a poll of the state of mind of the Europeans about their economy. To the question: Do you believe that the world will become more or less prosperous? 49% of people in the Western Europe answered “Less” and 22% answered “More”, while in the Eastern Europe the answer was: 16% -- “Less” and 49% -- “More”. That is unlike those who live in the Eastern Europe the Westerners have rather skeptical view of the state of the economy of their countries.

6. Answer the questions

1. Where does Alexander study?

2. What does he study?

3. Why is he going to London?

4. What was he doing yesterday?

5. Has he collected all the necessary documents?

6. What will he be doing this time tomorrow?

7. By what time will he have arrived to London?

8. What will he do after his arrival?

9. What kind of the city transport will he take to go to central London?

10. Has he ever been to London?

11. Does he read British newspapers?

12. What story has he come across recently?

13. What is it about?