The Tower is famous for its il¬
lustrious prisoners, such as Sir Thomas More and Guy Fawkes. Many notable people lost their heads on the executioner's block. The Tower is guarded by the Yeoman Warders popularly known as Beefeaters.


Westminster is the historic center of government. Until the 11th century it was a sacred place. King Edward the Confessor decided to build a great abbey church here. It was consecrated in 1065, but a week l
ater the King died and was buried in the abbey. His tomb became a popular place of pilgrimage. It can still be found at the heart of the present Westminster Abbey. William the Conqueror was crowned in the Abbey and since then all the Coronations have take
n place here. The Abbey contains many royal tombs, memorials to eminent men and women. But the most popular ones are those to writers, actors and musicians in Poet's corner.
Alongside the Abbey Edward the Confessor had a palace built The Palace of Westmi
nster was the royal residence and also the country's main court of law. Parliament met here from the 16th century until the 19th century. The present Houses of Parliament were built after the old palace was burnt down in 1834. The building contains the Ho
use of Commons and the House of Lords, the two chambers where parliamentary business is debated. On the corner next to Westminster Bridge stands Clock Tower, which houses the famous bell Big Ben.
Buckingham Place is the QueenТ s official London residence.
Built in 1702-1705 for the Duke of Buckingham, it was sold in 1761 to George III. The Palace was little used by royalty until Victoria's accession to the throne in 1837. Lon¬
don's most popular spectacle is Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. It takes place in the forecourt and lasts about 30 minutes.

The West End is the richest and most beautiful part of London. It is the symbol of wealth and luxury. The best hotels, shops, restaurants, clubs and theatres are situated there. There are splendid h
ouses and lovely gardens belonging to wealthy people. Oxford Street is an endless shopping area which attracts visitors from all over in the world.
Going down Oxford Street you come to Trafalgar Square which is yet another symbol of London. This square
received its name from Trafalgar, the cape off which Lord Nelson defeated a Franco-Spanish fleet in 1805. Admiral Nelson, cast in bronze, stands on top of a tall column in the middle of the square.
On the north side of Trafalgar Square is the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. Not far away is the British Museum Ч
the biggest museum in London. It contains a priceless collection of ancient manuscripts, coins, sculptures etc., and is famous for its library.
The East End is the poorest di
strict of London. There are a lot of factories, workshops and docks here. The streets are narrow, the buildings are unimpressive. The East End is densely populated by working class families.

The Weather in UK ( Погода в Великобритании)

It is never too ho
t or too cold in Great Britain. This is because of the sea, which keeps the island warm in winter and makes the air cool in summer. The winds are also very often in Great Britain. They blow from the southwest two days out of every three. But the warm wind
s
from the Atlantic are very wet. They also bring a lot of rain to the island. The east or northeast winds are cold and dry. The weather very often changes in Great Britain. You can never have the same kind of weather for a long time. In spring, for exampl
e
, sunshine and showers follow each other so often during the day that an umbrella or a rain-coat is really necessary in Great Britain. The weather in spring is generally mild, but sometimes the days are really cold. The summer is not so hot as on the cont
i
nent, and warm days in autumn are beautiful. In winter they have all sorts of weather. Sometimes it rains and sometimes it snows. Still, in Great Britain it is never so cold in winter as in our country and they do not get so much snow there as we get here

in Russia. The rivers and lakes are seldom covered with ice. As the ice, if there is any, is not thick enough, they seldom go skating on the rivers in Great Britain. But the worst thing about the climate in Great Britain is the thick fog they so often hav
e in autumn and in winter. In London it often mixes with the smoke of plants and factories and they call it the «smog». It is sometimes so thick that cars may run into one another.

Some Outstanding Places of Great Britain
(Достопримечательности Великобрита
нии)


It has become a tradition to start sightseeing of some country from its capital. London is an ancient city with rich cultural achievements. Such sights as the Tower, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster, Trafalgar
Square and Piccadilly circus are well known in the world. Besides these you are sure to have heard about the British Museum and the National Gallery in which the collections of genuine works of art are exhibited. Besides the capital of the country there
are many other places and regions which are worth speaking about and seeing. One of them is the most beautiful part of G.B. Ч
Wales, which is famous for its mountains and valleys. It's an ideal place for spending your vacations. Some people choose Snowdonia
, a national park around Snowdon, the highest peak of the Welsh Mountains. Wales has often been called the Land of Songs. One of the Welsh traditions is festivals. The Welsh sing their songs, wear their traditional clothes in their capital Cardiff as well

as in the other parts of the country. They say if you visit Great Britain you must visit the City of Bath, the splendid monument to the elegance and good taste of the 18-th century. The city took its name from the Roman bath, which can be seen in the hear
t
of the city. I don't think there is a person in the world who hasn't heard about Oxford and Cambridge, known as the most ambitious university cites They consist of a number of colleges which are autonomous parts of the University. They have their own pre
s
s centers, which impress everyone who has a chance of seeing them. To visit the country without visiting Stratford-on-Avon is unimaginable. The things that attract people's attention are the places connected with the name of William Shakespeare: the house

where he was born, the Grammar School where he studied, the little cottage near Stratford where his wife, Anne Hathaway lived as girl. But to my mind the biggest attraction is the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. One of the most beautiful and interesting part o
f Great Britain is Scotland; especially the region usually called Highlands. The tourists go to Scotland to see its beautiful lakes (called «lochs»
). Loch Lomond one of the largest, the most beautiful Scottish lakes is situated near the West Coast. Edinburg
h, the capital of Scotland, is the beautiful and the old city. The first thing you see in it is the Rock, a very large hill in the middle of the city. The Edinburgh Castle stands on it. The Castle looks like a castle from a fairy-tale and parts of it are
more than a thousand years old. Scottish national and musical festivals are held there.

English Schools ( Школы Великобритании)



English children must go to school when they are five. First they go to infant schools, where they learn the first steps in reading, writing and using numbers. When children leave the infant school, at the age of seven, they go to
junior schools until they are about eleven years of age. Their school subjects are English, arithmetic, history, geography, nature study, swimming, music, art, religious instruction and organized games. Towards the end of their fourth year in the junior s
c
hool English schoolchildren have to write their Eleven-plus Examinations, on the result of which they will go the following September to a secondary school of a certain type. About 40% of elementary school leavers in Britain go to secondary modern schools
.
Modern schools are the most popular secondary schools, but they do not provide complete secondary education, because study programs are rather limited in comparison with other secondary schools. The secondary technical school, in spite of its name, is no
t a specialized school. It teaches many general subjects. The grammar school is a secondary school, which offers a full theoretical se¬
condary education, including foreign languages, and students can choose which subjects and languages they wish to study. T
hey leave the school after taking a five-year course. Then they may take the General Certificate of Education at the ordinary level. The others continue their studies for another two or three years to obtain the General Certificate of Education at the adv
a
nced level, which allows them to enter university. The comprehensive school combines in one school the courses of all types of secondary schools. There are many schools in Britain, which are not controlled financially by the state. They are private school
s
, separate for boys and girls, and the biggest and the most important of them are public schools. They charge high fees and train young people for political, diplomatic, military and religious service. Other non-tate schools, which chargelfees, are indepe
ndent and preparatory schools. Many of the independent schools belong to the churches. Schools of this type prepare their pupils for public schools.

American School ( Школы в Америке)


The American system of school education differs from the system in some countries. There are state-supported public schools, private elementary schools, and private secondary schools. Public schools are free and private schools are feep
aying. Each individual state has its own system of public schools. Elementary education begins at the age of six with the first grade and continues up to the eighth grade. The elementary school is followed by four years of the secondary school or high as
i
t is called. In some states the last two years of the elementary and the first years of the secondary school are combined into a junior high school. Besides giving general education, some high schools teach subjects useful to those who hope to find jobs i
n industry and agriculture. Some give preparatory education to those planning to enter colleges and universities.

The United States of America (1)
(Соедененные Штаты
Америки )

The United States of America is situated in the southern half of North America
. The area of the U.S.A. is 7,839,000 square km without Alaska. The area of the United States is much larger than that of 11 West Europe. The population of the USA is over 260 million people. The U.S.A. consists, of 50 states. The capital of ! the U.S.A.
i
s the city of Washington in the District of Columbia. Stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, the U.S.A. borders with Canada in the north and with Mexico in the south. The territory of the United States may be divided into three main part
s: the Appalachian Mountain system Ч in the east; the Cordilleras system Ч in the west; and the Central Plain Ч
between them. The Great Lakes, situated on the U.S. - Canada border, are the world's largest fresh water basin; these lakes constitute a whole in
land sea occupying an area of 245,000 square km. They are five in number, namely: Lake Superior, Lake Michi-gan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario. The biggest river of the United States is the Mississippi with its tributaries Ч
the Ohio, the Missour
i, and S the Arkansas Rivers. The territory of the United States is rich in natural resources. The reserves of coal are estimated at 3,200 billion tons. The reserves of oil and of metals in the U.S.A. are also very large. The main iron ore deposits are co
n
centrated near Lake Superior. The main cities of the United States are: New York, which together with its suburbs has a population of 12 million people, Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Detroit. The supreme state power in the U.S.A is represented by
the president, a two-chamber congress (the House of Representatives and the Senate) and the Supreme Court.

The United States of America (2)

The United States of America is the fourth largest country in the world after Russia, Canada and China. It occupi
es the southern part of North America and stretches from the Atlantic seaboard, across the central plains, over the Rocky Mountains to the densely populated West Coast and then to the island state of Hawaii. The USA also includes Alaska in the north of th
e continent. The total area of the country I about nine and a half million square kilometres. The USAborders on Canada in the north and on Mexico in the south; It also has a sea-border with Russia.
The USA is made up of 50 states and the District of Colu
mbia, a special federal area where the capital of the country, Washington, is situated. The population of the COUNTry is about 239 million. The USA is called the "nation of immigrants". The country was settled, built and developed by generations of immigr
ants and their children. Many different cultural traditions, ethnic sympathies, racial groups and reli¬gious affiliations make up the people of the USA.
If we look at the map of the USA, we can see lowlands and mountains. The highest mountains are the Ro
cky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. The highest peak is Mount McKinley which is located in Alaska. It is 6193 metres high.
The United States is a land of rivers and lakes. The northern state of Minnesota is known as the land of 10 000 lakes. The larges
t and deepest lakes in USA are the five Great Lakes on the border with Canada. America's largest rivers are the Mississippi, the Missouri, the Rio Grande and the Columbia. The Mississippi is the world's third longest river after the Nile and the Amazon. T
h
e climate of the country varies greatly. The coldest regions are in the north. The climate of Alaska is arctic. The climate of the central part is continental. The south has a subtropical climate. Hot winds blowing from the Gulf of Mexico often bring typh
oons. The climate along the Pacific coast is much warmer than that of the Atlantic coast.
The history of this land is long. In prehistoric times hunters crossed from Siberia to Alaska by land.
Gradually they moved southwards and settled all over North and South America. Each tribe developed its own language and customs.
In 1492 Christopher Columbus sailed from Spain across the Atlantic Ocean. Instead of reaching India as he had expected he landed on an island off a continent unknown to Europeans. Th
inking that he was in India, Columbus called the people he met there Indians.
Other explorers arrived from Europe. Spanish troops con¬quered vast parts of Central and South America which are now called Latin America. The French founded settlements in th
e north. In 1620 the first English party left England for America. They were Puritans, religious people, driven out of the official Church. The newcomers settled at Plymouth Bay. Some of them died of cold and hunger during the first winter in America. The
Indians showed the white settlers how to fish and plant crops. Some settlers traded with the local population and some regarded them as enemies.
In 1783 independence from Britain was gained by 13 North American colonies. They formed the United States o
f America. In 1789 George Washington was elected the first president of the USA. New states joined the Union and the country grew westwards. Gold and silver were discovered on the Pacific coast and thousands of people rushed there across the continent. Ne
w towns sprang up and quickly grew.

In the southern states white farmers used black slaves to work on their huge plantations. When slavery was abolished in the North the southern states left the Union and formed the Confederacy. Civil war between the Nor
th and South broke out. In 1865 the Union won and slavery was abolished all over the USA.
Nowadays, the USA is a highly developed industrial coun¬try. It is the world's leading producer of copper and oil and the world's second producer of iron ore and
coal. Among the most important manufacturing industries are aircraft, cars, textiles, radio and television sets, armaments, furniture and paper.
American farmers plant spring wheat in the western plains. They raise corn, wheat and beef cattle in the Mid
west. Florida and California are famous for their vegetables and fruit production, and the northwestern states are known for apples, pears, berries and vegetables.
There are many important cities in the USA, for example New York, one of the largest citi
es in the world, a great seaport and financial centre, Chicago near the Great Lakes, one of the biggest industrial cities in the USA, and the second largest after New York. Boston is one of the first cities which were built on the Atlantic coast of Americ
a. Now it is a big cultural centre with three universities. Los Angeles in Califor¬nia is a centre of modern industries and show business. Other big cities in the USA are Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, Washington, Detroit etc.

The USA as an independent state was set up by the Constitution in 1787. Under the Constitution the federal govern¬
ment is divided into three branches. The legislative branch is exercised by the Congress. The Congress consists of two houses: the Senate and the House of Represen
tatives. There are 100 senators and 435 members in the House of Representatives. The executive branch is headed by the President chosen in nation-wide elections every four years together with the Vice-President. The judicial branch is made up of Federal D
istrict Courts, 11 Federal Courts and the Supreme Court. Federal judges are appointed by the President for life. There are two main political parties in the USA: the Republicans and the Democratics.
From the beginning of the twentieth century the USA became the world's leading country.

Washington. D. С . ( Вашингтон)



Washington is the capital of the United States of America. It is situated in the District of Columbia and is like no other city of the USA. It's the world's largest one-industry city. And that industry is government. The White House, wher
e the US President lives and works, the Capital, the home of the US Congress, and the Supreme Court, are all in Washington. The population of the city is over 3.4 million. Most of the permanent population consist of government employees.

The city was so
named in memory of George Washington, the first president of the USA. George Washington was born in 1732. He distinguished himself as a soldier in campaigns against the French and the Indians. He strongly opposed the policy of the British government and
when the war with Britain began he was chosen Commander-in-Chief of the American army. After the war he entered politics and was elected President in 1789.
There are 50 states in the United States, but the city of Washington is not in any of them. A special district was created for the American capital Ч
the District of Columbia (D. C). The city was laid out according to a uniform plan made by a French officer in the Engineer Pierre L'Enfant. Founded in 1790, it became the federal capital in 1800. In 1814 it was burnt by the British.

Washington is one of the most beautiful and unusual cities in the United States. In the very centre of it rises the huge dome of the Capitol Ч
a big white dome standing in a circle of pillars. The 535 members of the Congress meet here to discuss the nation's affairs. It's easy to get lost in this huge building, full of paintings and statues.

Not far from the Capitol is the Library of Congress, the largest library in the States. It contains more than 13 million books, mor
e than 19 million manuscripts, including the personal papers of the US presidents.
The official residence of the president of the USA is the White House. It was constructed between 1792 and 1829. The White House has 132 rooms, among them the Oval Office
where the President works. White House is open for tours.
One can hardly find a park a square or an open area in Washington without a monument or a memorial. The Jefferson Memorial was built in honour of Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration
of Independence and the third president of the USA. Inside his statue and his writings are inscribed on the walls.
The Lincoln Memorial reminds everybody of Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the USA, who wrote the Emancipation Proclamation whi
ch freed the blacks in the South from slavery. There is a huge statue of Abraham Lincoln inside the Memorial.
At the National Air and Space Museum visitors can see the history of flight from the first airplane flown by the Wright brothers to the Apollo spaceship.

The National Gallery of Art, a large museum of painting, sculpture and other arts is also situated in the capital. It is supported by the US government.

There are 5 universities in Washington. There are no skyscrapers in Washington, becau
se they would hide the city's many monuments from view. No building in the city may be more than 40 metres tall.
In Washington buses and trams run along numbered streets Ч First Street, Second Street, Third Street… The streets running east and west from the centre are lettered Ч A Street,
В Street and so on.
Thousands of tourists visit Washington every day. People from all parts of the United States come to see their capital.

5. Выдающиеся люди Великобритании


William Shakespeare (1564-1616) Уильям Шекспир

William Shakespeare
, the greatest dramatist and writer, was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564. His father was a glover and his mother was the daughter of a famous farmer. Shakespeare
went to grammar school, but he never entered any university. He is famous for his great tragedies including Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth and the best known love story in the world Romeo and Juliet.

Many well-known sayings come from his works, and Shakespeare
also had a great influence on English literature and the language. His plays are studied by British schoolchildren as part of their school programme.
Shakespeare's works are known for their beautiful language and for the understanding of how people think and feel.
William Shakespeare also wrote poetry, includi
ng the sonnets. He worked as an actor and a playwright at the Globe Theatre in London, which has recently been rebuilt as a copy of the original theatre.
Shakespeare married once and had three children. After his death in 1616 his house in Stratford be
came a museum and now it is a popular place with tourists. Shakespeare's
plays were staged in many theatres and translated into numerous languages. They are still read and loved by many people.

Alexander Bell (1847-1922) Александр Бэлл

Alexander Graham Bell was the inventor of the telephone. He was born in Scotland in 1874.
Bell entered the University of Edinburgh and became a teacher. Later he decided to become a doctor and he entered the medical department at the University of London.

Then Bell
left for the USA and studied sounds there. An idea of inventing a special machine for deaf people occurred to him. Working on this machine he invented the telephone in 1876. At first the telephone was not popular with the pub
lic, but after a big campaign it became famous in America. Bell started the Bell Telephone Company to produce telephones.

Alexander Bell also improved the telegraph which could send more than one message at a time. Later he gave up his business and spen
t his money on other scientific research. He also founded the National Geographic Society in 1888.
Bell died in 1922 in Canada respected both in Britain and the USA.

Robert Burns (1759-1796) Роберт Бернс

Robert Burns , a well-known Scottish poet, wa
s born in 1759 into a poor family of a farmer.
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