New York

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

2. At the beginning of the 17th century, only the wigwams of the Iroquois stood where the skyscrapers of New York now reach to the clouds. In 1626 the Dutch bought the island from the natives for the ridiculously low price of 24 dollars worth of beads and trinkets.

3. Later the Indians named the island “Manhatta” which in Iroquois means: “They cheated us”. Present-day Manhattan is the main borough of New York.

4. New York has two natural advantages: it is located at the mouth of the Hudson River, and it is well located for travel and trade between the United States and Europe.

5. At the turn of the present century millions of people driven by poverty emigrated to the United States from various countries of Europe. They entered the New World through New York, the “Gateway of America”. Hundreds of thousands of them settled down in that city. That is what makes people call it the “Modern Babylon”.

6. Near the southern end of Manhattan Island is a smaller island called Liberty Island. On it stands one of the most beloved statues in the country, the Statue of Liberty. To many people who have come to the USA from foreign lands this statue has given the first welcoming greeting from free people of America.

7. New York attracts people from all over. If you get on subway in New York and look at the newspapers that people are reading you can see them in Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, Russian, Italian, Yiddish and French.

8. While New York is composed of five boroughs, joined in 1898, the place most people come to visit is Manhattan. Here at the lower end is a financial district with its stockbrokers, investment banks, and headquarters of many large corporations.

9. A few miles uptown are Greenwich Village and the East Village; both have always been at the centre of New York’s excitement. Both have an active nightlife with plenty of bars, restaurants, and clubs.

10. In midtown, one finds the most familiar sites – Rockefeller Centre, Radio Music City Hall, The Museum of Modern Art, and Carnegie Hall. On the East side stands the United Nations complex. Times Square is the heart of theatre district – the area where Broadway plays are performed.

11. New York is, in many ways, America’s premier city. It’s the nation’s financial, communications, and cultural centre. Above all, an international city, it houses the General Assembly and the Security Council.

12. The streets themselves are symbolic: Madison Avenue for advertising, Wall Street for finance, Broadway for theatre, Seventh Avenue for fashion, and Fifth Avenue for elegant shopping. Unlike Tokyo or London, Paris or Beijing (Peking), New York is a 24 hours city, a place where buses and subways operate round the clock.

13. New York is a city of extremes. Its hotels, apartment houses, restaurants, and shops rank with the most exclusive and expensive anywhere. In contrast, the city also has more of the homeless and addicted.

12. Read Text 10C and answer the following questions.

1. What do people call New York?

2. What is the historical background of New York?

3. What are the advantages of New York?

4. What makes people call New York the “Modern Babylon”?

5. Where does the Statue of Liberty stand?

6. Is New York a multinational city?

7. What is Manhattan like?

8. What are Greenwich Village and the East Village famous for?

9. Why is New York so important for Americans?

10. Why is New York a city of contrasts?

Дата добавления: 2015-08-17