Cites of the USA

Amounts large and famous American cites are Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. Washington is the capital of the USA. It is situated on the Potomac River in the District of Columbia. D. Washington chose the place. The city was founded in 1791 and named after the first president. Now Washington is the residents of the president and the congress. The center of the city is on Capital Hill. This building houses both the senate and a House of Representatives. The White House is one of the oldest buildings in the city. It is the president’s residents. Washington is a large scientific and cultural center. There are five universities in the city. The national academy of sciences and the library of congress are in Washington too. The national museum, the old and new national galleries of art, Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln memorials are among the city sites.

John Cabot, an Italian sea captain in the pay of the British, discovered Canada in 1497, five years after Columbus discovered America. He planted a huge cross on the shore and sailed home, with the news that he had reached north east China , the land of the Great Khan , and that the sea was full of fish.

In 1534 , the French explorer, Jacques Cartier, sailed right down the St.Lawrence River until he could go no further. Among the great forests along the shore he met Indians who welcomed him, but in return he kidnapped some of their chiefs . He was the first European to treat the Indians with cruelty and treachery. It was almost another hundred years before French colonists settled on the banks of the St Lawrence and founded Quebec. They were sent there to give food and shelter to the French fur traders, who were carrying on a profitable trade with the Indians.

By the middle of the 18th century, the French in North America realized that they could not avoid a fight to the death with the British and their American colonists, but back in France the French king , Louis XV , was too busy with his wars with Prussia to bother much about what was going on in the ‘ Land of Ice and Snow’. So the French troops in Canada did not receive the supplies they needed so badly, and the few ships that did try to get through  were usually captured by British warships.

British Royal ceremonies. Introduction.

         British people are proud of pageants and ceremonies of the national capital – London. Many of them are world famous and attract numerous tourists from all over the world. They include daily ceremonies and annuals. Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace at 11.30 a. m., Ceremony of the Keys at 10 p. m. in the Tower, Mounting the Guard at the Horse Guards square are most popular daily ceremonies. Of those which are held annually  the oldest are the most cherished are: the glorious pageantry of Trooping the Color, which marks the official birthday of the Queen (the second Saturday in June); Firing the Royal Salute to mark anniversaries of the Queen’s Accession on February 6 and her birthday on April 21; opening of the Courts marking the start of the Legal Year in October; and Lord Mayor’s Show on the second Saturday in November, when the newly elected Lord Mayor is driven in the beautiful guilded coach pulled by six white horses to take the Royal Court of Justice where he takes his oath of office and becomes second in importance in the City only to the Sovereign (Queen).

British Parliament.

Great Britain is a constitutional monarchy. This means that it has a monarch as its Head of the State. The monarch reigns with the support of Parliament. The powers of the monarch are not defined precisely. Everything today is done in the Queen’s name. It is her government, her armed forces, her law courts and so on. She appoints all the Ministers, including the Prime Minister. Everything is done however on the advice of the elected Government, and the monarch takes no part in the decision-making process.

Once the British Empire included a large number of countries all over the world ruled by Britain. The process of decolonisation began in 1947 with the independence of India, Pakistan and Ceylon. Now there is no Empire and only few small islands belong to Britain. In 1997 the last colony, Hong Kong, was given to China. But the British ruling classes tried not to lose influence over the former colonies of the British Empire. An association of former members of the British Empire and Britain was founded in 1949. It is called the Commonwealth. It includes many countries such as Ireland, Burma, the Sudan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and others. The Queen of Great Britain is also a Head of the Commonwealth, and also the Queen of Canada, Australia, New Zealand...

INTRODUCTION

We may have the great honour to be present at the decline of printing as such. The books as the mass pastime have been ousted from our lives for several decades already. Modern electronic mass media (radio, television) are ousting books more and more; the bookshelves in people’s homes are getting sparse. However, several hundreds years ago the invention of printing was the initial factor that at once changed all conditions of the intellectual life of Western Europe.

The present paper is an attempt at seeing connections between the invention of printing and one of the most significant events in the life of mediaeval Europe – the Reformation. The fighting of the Catholic church against books and the creation of the powerful institution of censorship will be viewed. There will also be an attempt to view how printing stimulated the growth of national conscience and the forming of literary language. Besides that, the development of political science in the 16^th century and the formation of the bases of the future middle class and the basic political parties will be touched upon.

The  Beatles

The English ROCK MUSIC group The Beatles gave the 1960s its characteristic musical flavor and had a profound influence on the course of popular music, equaled by few performers.  The guitarists John Winston Lennon, Oct.  9, 1940;  James Paul McCartney, June 18, 1942;  and George Harrison, Feb. 25, 1943;  and the drummer Ringo Starr, Richard Starkey, July 7, 1940, were all born and raised in Liverpool.  Lennon and McCartney had played together in a group called The Quarrymen.  With Harrison, they formed their own group, The Silver Beatles, in 1959, and Starr joined them in 1962.  As The Beatles, they developed a local following in Liverpool clubs, and their first recordings, "Love Me Do" (1962) and "Please Please Me" (1963), quickly made them Britain's top rock group. Their early music was influenced by the American rock singers Chuck BERRY and Elvis PRESLEY, but they infused a hackneyed musical form with freshness, vitality, and wit.

Art in Moscow

     Speaking about art gallereys of Moscow we must  mention  the

most famous gallereys.

     The State Tretyakov gallery is one of the best known picture

gallereys in  Russia.  It takes it's name from it's founder Pavel

Tretyakov, a Moscow mercant. In the 19'th century Tretyakov began

to collect  russian paintings.  He visitet all the exibitions and

art studios and  bought  the  best  pictures.  Little  by  little

Tretyakov extended  his  interests  and  began to collect earlier

Russian paintings.  In 1881 Tretyakov opened in St.  Peterburg to

the public,  11  years later he donated it to the city of Moscow.

Since then the gallerey has received hundred paintings from  oter

museums and private collections.  The Tretyakov gallerey reflects

the whole history of Russian paintings from 11'th century to  the

present day.

AUSTRALIA.

  1. The Commonweaith of Austrelia is a self govering federal state. It is situated in the south-west of the Pasific ocean, ocuping the continent of Australia and a great number of islands of which Tasmania is the most important. Australia is a continent-island washed by the Indian and the Pasific Oceans.

  2. The country consists of 6 (six) states and 2 (two) territories. 16 million people live in Australia. The capital is Canberra. The offical language is English.

AMERICAN CHARACTER

American society seems to be much more informal than the British and, in some ways, is characterized by less social distinction. Students do not rise when a teacher enters the room. One does not always address a person by his title, such as "Major" or "General" or "Doctor" in the case of a holder of a Doctor of Philosophy degree. The re­spectful "Sir" is not always used in the northern and western parts of the country.

However, it is best to use a person's title when first meeting him/her, and then allow the person to tell you how he/she wishes to be called.

They use first names when calling each other, slap on the back, joke and are much freer in their speech, which is more  slangy than the conventional British English. You will often hear the word "Hi" (a form of greeting among friends) used instead of the usual "Hello," and "Howdy" instead of "How do you do?"

FROM THE LAND CALLED BERINGIA

Origins of Alaska’s Native Groups

No one knows exactly when people first found the land that would be called Alaska.

Some anthropologists believe that people migrated from Asia to North America as long as 40,000 years ago. Others argue it was as recent as 15,000 years ago.

Whenever, the consensus is that they came from Asia by way of a northern land bridge that once connected Siberia and Alaska.

That land bridge, now recalled as Beringia, was the first gateway to Alaska. But these first visitors were hardly tourists intent on exploring new worlds. Rather they were simply pursuing their subsistence way of life as they followed great herds of grazing mammals across the grassy tundra and gentle steppes of Beringia.

They came sporadically through many millennia.. in waves of different ethnic backgrounds/generations of people and animals..hunters and hunted. As the Ice Age drew to an end and the seas claimed the land, these people moved to higher and drier places--the land that, as the continents drifted apart, would become Alaska.