Text 2 Washington

Washington, the capital of the United States, was founded in 1791 in the District of Columbia. It was Washington who chose the place for the District.

Washington is not the largest city in the United States, it is not as large as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles. It has a population of 900,000 people.

Washington is like no other city of the USA. You know that the flag of the USA, the "stars and stripes" has 50 stars on a blue background. Each of these stars represents one of the fifty states. But the city of Washington is not in any of those states. It belongs to all of them.

Washington is the seat of government of the nation. New York is a centre of finance, of shipping; New Orleans deals in cotton. Washington's only industry is government. It does not produce anything except very much scrap paper. Every day twenty-five railway cars leave Washington loaded with scrap paper. There is a law in Washington against building structures higher than the Capitol; therefore, it presents a different appearance from New York with its sky-scrapes.

Washington has many historical places. The White House, where the US President lives and works, the Capitol, the home of the US Congress and the Supreme Court are all in Washington. The Capitol is very high and beautiful, with white marble columns. It is the very centre of the city. Not far from the Capitol is the Library of Congress. It holds five million books.

Today Washington is the city, which attracts a lot of tourists by its fashionable hotels, restaurants and sightseeing attractions such as the house of the first president George Washington, the Lincoln Memorial, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the White House and others.

The White House, the residence of the president, is the oldest public structure in the capital and one of the most beautiful. All American presidents except George Washington had lived in the White House.

Vocabulary

to deal in – торговать

scrap paper –макулатура

to load – загружать

railway cars – вагоны

building structures – здания

the Capitol – здание Конгресса

the Supreme Court – Верховный Суд

sky-scrapers – небоскребы

marble – мраморный

tomb – могила, склеп

shipping – грузоперевозка, судоходство

Speak about the capital of the United States.

1. Who chose the place for the District of Columbia?

2. What is the only industry in Washington?

3. Which American state does Washington belong to?

4. What historical places does Washington have?

5. Why does Washington attract many tourists today?

6. How many stars and stripes are there on the US flag?

Some more Texts for Reading

The famous people of Great Britain.

Text 1

Isaak Newton (1642-1727)

The great English scientist Isaak Newton was born on December 25, 1642.1n his early years young Isaak showed more as one who could made things with his hand then a scho­lar. He made various things -He made a clock that worked by water.

In June 1661 Newton entered the University of Cambridge where he studied mathematics. When Newton was twenty-two years old he began studying the theory of gravitation. In 1665, while he was on a visit in his native village, he saw an apple fall from a tree and began wondering what force made the apple fall.

At Cambridge Newton read with great interest the writings of Galileo, he knew the geometry of Descartes, and he worked out the methods of calculus. Newton performed many experiments with light and found that white light was made up of rays of different colors. He invented a reflecting telescope. Newton developed a mathematical method which is known as the Binomial Theorem and also differential and integral calculus.

In 1673 Newton gathered together all his earlier calculations and succeeded in completing his whole theory. He examined the attraction of one mass by another. He showed that a massive sphere here attracts another as if the whole mass were in the centre. This was of great importance. It enabled Newton to treat the problems of the sun, moon and earth like problems of geometry. He at last justified the method of treatment which he had first adopted for the problem of the earth and moon. The proof of his universe square law was not complete. He had demonstrated that the gravitation pull of the earth extends as far as the moon and keeps it in its orbit. He demonstrated that this pull is in accordance with the same law as that by which a stone falls to the ground, namely gravity. Newton's great work "Elements of Natural Philosophy" was published only in the middle of 1687.

Isaak Newton died in 1727 at the age of 85. He was buried with honors as a national hero.