New York
New York is one of the largest cities in the world. Its population is over 11 million people. New York is an industrial and cultural centre of the country. Most business is centred in Manhattan Island. The whole area is very small, that's why the sky-scrapers were invented in New York and, especially, in Wall Street. Wall Street is a narrow street with big houses, but it is well known all over the world as the busiest street in the USA. People do business there. There are two more world-famous streets — Broadway and Fifth Avenue. Broadway is the centre of the theatres and night life. It is known as “The Great White Way” because of the electric signs which turn night into day. It is the city that never goes to sleep. Buses and sub-way run all night. There are many drugstores and restaurants which never close their doors. There are cinemas with films that start at midnight. Fifth Avenue is the great shopping, hotel, and club avenue.
New York City consists of five boroughs[’bаrəz] – Manhattan, Bronx on the mainland, Brooklyn and Queens on Long Island, and Richmond on Staten Island. As Manhattan, the centre of the city, is an island, very many people either have to cross a bridge, travel through a tunnel, or take a ferry-boat to get to work.
New York is the largest port in America. More than half the trade of the United States goes through this city.
There are many places of interest in New York. They are: the Statue of Liberty, Columbia University, City Hall, New York Public Library and others. When you come to New York you see lots of cars, big and small, black and yellow, old and modem; you do not see any trees or flowers in the streets, but only cars. You'll see and hear advertisements everywhere. There is no getting away from them. Advertisements fill the newspapers and cover the walls, they are on menu-cards and match-boxes, they are shouted through loud speakers and shown in the cinemas.
New York has had a colourful history. The first European to sight this place was an Italian navigator when, in 1524, he was exploring the North American coast. But in 1609 Henry Hudson, the English navigator, sailed into the bay through the mouth of the river which now bear his name. In 1625, a Dutchman 'bought' Manhattan Island from the Indians. Originally New York was called New Amsterdam, and a Dutch engineer was sent from Holland to plan the city. He was asked to build a town and a fort for the Dutch West India Company. It consisted of thirty houses and a mill, and a five-bastioned fort (a fort with five bastions) which was never finished. A small fort, however, was built in 1628.
Some of the houses were there before the engineer came, for Dutch explorers, traders and a garrison had lived on Manhattan since 1613, but it was some years later before a permanent settlement was founded, before streets were built and farms established. In 1664 the English seized the settlement and renamed it New York after Britain's Duke of York. A war broke out again between Britain and Holland and in 1673 a Dutch fleet returned to New York and captured it. The Dutch changed its name again. At the end of the war, in 1674, when Holland was finally defeated, the town was relinquished to Britain.
During the American War of Independence (1775–1783), New York remained for some time in British hands. But on the 30th of April, 1787, George Washington was inaugurated in New York as the first president of the United States.
Today life in it is not easy there for those who are not rich. Unless you are wealthy, you cannot live on the expensive West Side of Manhattan. The unfashionable East Side is cheaper, but you would still need a good income if you wanted a comfortable life. People with lower incomes have to live in one of the thousands of slum apartments (flats) with paper-thin walls in Queens or Brooklyn, where in the summer it is very hot, and in the icy winter you can freeze to death. In Harlem, where mostly black Americans live, the houses are very old, dirty and overcrowded. The streets are narrow and full of playing children.
New York is a centre of the movement against race discrimination, for it has a population of many different races and nationalities. The students' progressive movement and the Peace Movement are also well organized and developed. The headquarters of the United Nations Organization and those of a number of other international organizations are situated in New York
Exercise 6. Find English equivalents:
небоскребы, изобретать, особенно, узкий, электрические вывески, метро, аптеки, полночь, район, паром, Статуя свободы, реклама, спичечный коробок, кричать, яркая история, присмотреть, побережье, залив, устье, голландский, крепость, военный гарнизон, герцог, захватить, одержать победу над кем-либо, уступать, вводить в должность, богатый, дорогой, дешевле, низкий доход, трущобы, ледяной, замерзать, грязный, пренаселенный, штаб, ООН.
Exercise 7. Confirm or deny the following sentences using “I agree with it” and “I don’t agree with it”.
In New York most business is centred in Queens.
The whole area is very small, that's why the sky-scrapers were invented in New York.
Wall Street is a large street with big houses, people do business there.
There are one more world-famous street — Broadway.
Broadway is the centre of the theatres and night life.
Fifth Avenue is the great shopping, hotel, and club avenue.
There are many places of interest in New York. They are: the Statue of Liberty, Columbia University, City Hall, New York Public Library and others.
You'll see and hear advertisements somewhere.
In 1625, a Dutchman 'bought' Manhattan Island from the Indians.
Originally New York was called New Amsterdam.
In 1664 the English seized the settlement and renamed it New York.
During the American War of Independence (1775–1783), New York remained for some time in Dutch hands.
In 1787 George Washington was inaugurated in New York as the first president of the United States.
Today unless you are wealthy, you cannot live on the expensive East Side of Manhattan.
The unfashionable West Side is cheaper, but you would still need a good income if you wanted a comfortable life.
New York is a centre of the movement against race discrimination, for it has a population of many different races and nationalities.
Exercise 8. Make a computer presentation about your native town.
Exercise 9. Make a computer presentation about one of the attractive cities in the world.
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