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Philadelphia.

One of the main cities of the United States of America is Philadelphia. It is situated in the east of the USA.

Now Washington is the capital of the USA, but Philadelphia was the first capital of the United States of America from 1790 till 1800. Many people consider that Philadelphia is an important political centre of the USA, because the USA constitution was the first written constitution in the world adopted in this city in 1787.

Philadelphia is a seaport and a shipping centre of the country, too. It is an important manufacturing centre. Some branches of industry are developed in the city.

There are many sights in Philadelphia, for example, the Independence National Historical Park. You can see many monuments in it. If you want to learn the history of America you have to learn something about the Liberty Bell. Now the Liberty Bell is a symbol of freedom. The sound of this Bell told the people about the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence. It was in July, 1776.

Philadelphia is one of the cultural centers of the country. The Parkway is the cultural centre of Philadelphia. You can see the Philadelphia Museum of Art, College of art, Academy of Sciences and Academy of Fine Arts there.

There are many hotels, theatres, shops and museums in Philadelphia.

There is the Pennsylvania University in Philadelphia. This University has got an interesting and big library.

Philadelphia is a beautiful city with many skyscrapers in it.

Questions.

1.Where is Philadelphia situated?

2.What sights do you know in Philadelphia?

3.What is the symbol of freedom in Philadelphia?

Los Angeles.

Los Angeles or the City of Angels is famous worldwide for its many sandy beaches with surfers, volleyball players, and people getting tan. The Los Angeles area is also the center of the movie industry and home to many movie stars- the Beverly Hills neighborhood is famous for its mansions and high- priced shops.

But what Los Angeles seems not to have is a city, actually, there is a downtown area, but since the 1950s Los Angeles has grown greatly- and it’s not grown upward, but outward.

As distances have increased in Los Angeles, so has the importance of the car. It has often been said that Angelinos have a love affair with the car. Recently, however, that love is mixed with a little hate. Some days, “rush hour” continues almost unbroken from 7:00 a. m. to 7:00 p. m.

Los Angeles faces some serious problems. With so much traffic Los Angeles has the dirtiest air in the United States; and the sunshine is often hidden by smog. Crime and violence are also major problems. Police say there are at least 500 gangs in Los Angeles. Experts stress that the problems must be solved if Los Angeles is to maintain the Southern Californian lifestyle for which it’s so famous.

Questions.

1.What state is Los Angeles in?

2.What is Los Angeles famous for?

3.What major problems does it face now?

San Francisco.

News of discovery of gold in California made San Francisco- a small fortress- a metropolis overnight. In 1848 San Francisco was a settlement of 200 people. Eight years later it was a city of 50000.

San Francisco is surrounded on three sides by water. It is famous for its bridges, fog, foghorns. San Francisco has 40 hills and it famous for its cable cars, which climb these hills, and for its bright houses that stand along steep and narrow streets.

San Francisco’s visiting card is the Golden Gate Bridge. This beautiful orange suspension structure was opened in 1937 connected San Francisco and Marin County in the north.

The bridge was first proposed in 1869 by “Emperor” Norton, a forty-niner, who had lost his money and mind and declared himself emperor of the United States. Norton’s ideas about an empire may have been crazy, but his idea about a suspension bridge for San Francisco was just ahead of time. It took twentieth- century technology and the engineering genius of a man named Joseph Strauss to bring the Golden Gate Bridge into existence.

To the south of San Francisco lies Santa Clara Valley. In 1939, two young engineers went to the valley to work in a garage.

Today Santa Clara is the most important center of America’s computer and electronics industry, and Hewlett-Packard is one of its major firms.

Questions.

1.In what state is San Francisco?

2.What is San Francisco famous for these days?

3.Who was the first to propose the idea of a suspension bridge?

Detroit

Detroit started as a little frontier fortress. It was founded in 1701 by Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac.

Detroit became a famous city in 1896 when in workshop Henry Ford built a vehicle he called it a Quadricycle. With this, Detroit was on its way to becoming Motor City- the city that is home to the American automobile industry. Ford’s dream was to build an affordable car. And he realized his dream through the Model T Ford by means of introducing standardization, or the idea of making all cars alike, and the assembly line, which brought the cars parts to the worker.

Like other American cities Detroit has had its ups and downs. The Big Three of the U.S. automobile industry- Ford, Chrysler, and General Motors- are important employers in Detroit. Together, they employ 1 in 10 of the city’s workers. As the automobile industry has its ups and downs, so does the city of Detroit.

The Depression of the 1930s, the early 1970s, when oil prices rose, and the early 1980s, when many people bought small- high- quality imported cars, brought hard times to Detroit. In general, when national economy does poorly, Detroit is one of the first cities to feel it.

Questions.

1.Why and when the city begin to grow rapidly?

2.Why has Detroit had ups and downs more than other cities?  

Las Vegas.

Las Vegas, Nevada, is a gambling center in America. For this reason, some say the name Las Vegas comes from a mispronunciation of the phrase “lost wages”. In fact, “Las Vegas” is the Spanish for “the meadows”. Early settlers were impressed by the fact that Las Vegas was an oasis of green grass in the middle of a desert.

Today Las Vegas is still an oasis- not of grass, but of neon lights. Las Vegas’s hotels and casinos use so mush neon that Las Vegas has been nicknamed the City of Lights.

Las Vegas’s growth began in 1931, when the state of Nevada, in need of money, decided to allow gambling and to make divorce easy. Getting married is also easy in Nevada. Las Vegas has wedding chapels that are open 24 hours a day. In fact, all of Las Vegas is basically open 24 hours a day. Its many admirers and critics agree that Las Vegas is an “adult Disneyland”, a fantasy oasis in the Nevada desert.

Questions.

1.What is Las Vegas’s nickname?

2.When did Las Vegas’s growth begin? Why?

New Orleans.

As an American city, New Orleans is unusual. It’s a city whose business is pleasure.

It was founded by the French in 1718 and did not become part of the United States until 1803, when the United States received it by purchase from Napoleon. And for years New Orleans was more like a city of the French Caribbean than of North America.

The French Quarter was the original city of New Orleans. The beautiful homes of the Quarter- with their courtyard and patios, their high ceilings and large windows- were designed for comfort in a hot climate.

New Orleans is where jazz and blues, invented by American Negroes or African Americans, really got started. There are still many jazz clubs there. In spring you can go to the New Orleans Jazz. When you get hungry, you can treat yourself to local specialties- alligator soup and crawfish pie.

 Mardi Gras is the city’s most famous festival. It takes place the week before Lent, which is the period of fasting before Easter. There are many parades, organized by special groups. Even spectators dress in elaborate costumes. There have always been balls during Mardi Gras, and in recent years there is a costume contest, too.

Questions.

1.What is New Orleans famous for?

2.Who founded New Orleans?

3.How and when did it become an American city?

Washington.

     A visitor to Washington D. C. is impressed by the straight three-lined avenues of the capital city and grand houses in neo-classical style.

     Washington D. C. is situated on the Potomac River. The author of the design for the capital city was the French engineer Pierre Charles L’Enfant. His design is based on Versaillies, a palace near Paris. The capital city is criss-crossed by broad avenues, which meet in spacious squares and circles.

     The central place of the city is the Mall, a large open space, a kind of park, stretching from the building of the Capitol to Lincoln Memorial, with Washington Memorial in the middle. The Mall in often used by people for public meetings, picnics, games, concerts.

     On both sides of the Mall are the numerous buildings of the Smithsonian Institution – a group of museums, scientific buildings and collections, James Smithson was an English scientists of the 19th century, who left his entire fortune to the United States, asking to use it in order to found “an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge”. The Smithsonian Institution was founded in 1846, and it includes now 13 museums.

     There is not only one business in Washington, and this business is government. The executive departments are located in Washington. Most of the people who live in Washington work for the federal government.

     When you are in Washington, you can visit the White House. You won’t see the President at work, because the offices and the living quarters of the White House are closed to the public. But you can visit Capitol Hill, and there you will be able to see the work of the other two branches of the government: the Senate, the House of Representatives and the Supreme Court have public galleries.

Questions:

1. What is the first impression of a visitor to Washington?
2. Who designed the plan of Washington? What was the design based on?
3. What is the central part of the capital city?
4. What memorials are situated in or near the Mall?
5. What is the Smithsonian Institution? How and when was it founded?