Text 4. London

My family

I think that a family is the most important thing for every person. Family are the people that always love you, support you and help you. For me it is impossible to live without my family. My family is rather large. There are: my parents, brother, sister and grandparents.

My father is a plastic surgeon; he helps people become more beautiful. He is a professional. My father does his work very well and gets a very good salary. My mother is a housewife. She looks after the house and us, the kids. Mother makes very tasty breakfasts and dinners. Our mother is very kind, but strict to us. She always checks how we do our homework. Mother arranges our free time, so that we cannot just fool around.

My elder brother, Jason, is a student of the medical faculty. He wants to become a good surgeon, like our father. Besides he is also a member of the local theatre club. He plays main parts in several plays.

My sister, Jenny, is finishing school this year. But she has not yet made up her mind about her future profession. On one hand she loves animals and can become a vet, on the other hand she is very good at mathematics and knows some complex computer programs. Maybe she will have a year off to think over her future possibilities.

As for me, I have always loved music. I can play the guitar and piano very well. I love all kinds of music, but mostly I prefer rock. After school I am planning to enter the music college, because I want to become a professional musician. Parallel with that I want to have my own rock band.

Our grand parents are scientists. Grandfather is a historian and grandmother is a linguist. They give lectures in different universities and write serious books. We all get on with each other very well.

Every one in our family is rather busy, but we always look forward to a possibility to spend some time together. My family means a lot to me.

Text 4. London

London is the capital of Great Britain, its political, economic and commercial centre. It is one of the biggest and busiest ports of Great Britain. It is situated on both sides of the Thames, which is navigable, all the years round.

London is a very old city. It is more than twenty centuries old. London consists of many parts and they are very different from each other. They seem to belong to different towns and epochs.

The West End is a symbol of wealth and luxury. The best and the most expensive hotels, restaurants, clubs, theatres, cinemas, and the richest shops are there. There are beautiful houses and lovely gardens there belonging to wealthy people.

Trafalgar Square is in the geographical centre of London. It was so named to commemorate Admiral Nelson’s victory at the Battle of Trafalgar. The monument in the centre of the square is surmounted with a statue of Nelson. Its pedestal is decorated with bas-reliefs of famous naval battles. At the base of Nelson’s column are four great lions. The large platform at the foot is often used by the orators when there are large meetings and demonstrations.

On the north side of Trafalgar Square is the National Gallery, an art gallery housing the national collection of pictures, and the National Portrait Gallery housing the national collection of portraits, a great number of them being rather of historical interest than of genuine artistic value.

Whitehall, which leads out of the Square to the South, is the site of many Government offices, the Foreign Office, the War Office, and the Treasury.

A small, rather dull-looking street with ordinary houses branches of Whitehall. It is Downing Street where for the last 200 years at Number 10 each Prime Minister has lived.

At the end of Whitehall is Parliament Square with the Houses of Parliament on the left and Westminster Abbey half right (on the right).

Big Ben is the name given to the clock and bell of the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament.

Westminster Abbey is famous for its architecture, for its historic associations. Westminster Abbey has its world famous Poet’s Corner where many of the greatest English Writers are buried: Chaucer, Charles Dickens, Tennyson, Thomas Hardy and Rudyard Kipling. Here, too, are memorials to Shakespeare,

Burns, Byron, Walter Scott, and Thackeray and to the great American poet Longfellow.

The City is the oldest part of London. It covers only about a square mile and few people live there, but over a million people enter the City in the day-time to work.

At the end of the day the businessmen, clerks and secretaries go home and the City becomes silent and empty. The City is the financial and business part of London. Numerous banks, officers and trusts are concentrated in this part. There are some famous ancient buildings with in the City, such as St. Paul’s Cathedral, Wren’s masterpiece, and the Tower of London which was built nine centuries ago and used as a royal place, a fortress and a political prison. Now it is a museum.

The East End is the poorest district of London. There are many factories, workshops and docks there. The streets are narrow, the houses are poor. It is a densely populated district where working-class families live.

London is the centre of Britain’s cultural life. There are many museums and art galleries in London: The National Gallery, the Portrait Gallery, the Tate Gallery, the Natural History Museum and many others. The British Museum is well-known as one of the largest museums in the world. It is really a history museum in the world. It is really a history museum. One can see there Egyptian statues, sphinxes, mummies, Roman sculpture, drawings and paintings. The museum has a rich library with copies of rare manuscripts.

Near the British Museum you can see the tall, handsome building of the University of London. It is the main building of the University. London University is divided into a number of colleges and schools scattered about in different parts of London. London University is the principal centre of post-graduate studies and research work.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16