The United States of America
Science and the Library of Congress.
There is one more well-known building in Washington – Pentagon, the
residence of the US Military department. It is situated in the suburbs to
the south of the Potomac.
places of sightseeing
The Pentagon is a building in Arlington, Virginia, near Washington,
D.C. It has the offices of the U.S. Department of Defense. The Department
of Defense includes the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard.
The word pentagon comes from the Greek penta, which means “five”. A
pentagon is a figure with five sides. The Pentagon has five rings. The
rings are inside each other. Each ring has five sides. How tall do you
think the Pentagon is? The answer is easy. Each ring is five stories tall.
The Pentagon is the largest office building in the world. It has
seventeen miles of halls. People can get lost in the Pentagon. So the walls
on each floor are a different color (brown, green, red, gray, and blue).
This helps people to know where they are. There are also many maps in the
halls.
The Pentagon is so big that it is like a city. Almost 30,000 people
work there. The Pentagon has its own doctors, dentists, and nurses. It has
its own banks and stores. It has a post office, a fire department, and a
police department. It also has an important center for communications. This
center guards the country. It is hundreds of feet under the ground. The
Pentagon even has its own radio and TV stations.
New York
New York is one of the largest cities in the world and the biggest
seaport. It's the financial capital of the country. It’s the business
centre of the United States. The city is situated in New York State, at the
mouth of the Hudson river. It’s population is over eight million. In early
times the New York area was populated by Indians. It is here in Wall street
many business offices, banks and world famous New York stock exchange are
situated.
New York is an industrial and cultural centre of the country. The most
important branches of industry are those producing vehicles, glass,
chemicals. New York is also a great cultural centre. It has many museums,
art galleries, theatres, ballet. There are two world-famous streets in New
York – Broadway and Fifth Avenue. Broadway is the centre of the theatres
and night life. Fifth Avenue is the great shopping, hotel and club avenue.
The Empire State Building is at Fifth Avenue. It's a 102-storeyed
building, was built in 1931. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is at Fifth
Avenue. It includes hundreds of world famous masterpieces and attracts many
visitors.
The Statue of Liberty is the symbol of American democracy. It stands
on Liberty Island in New York port. Liberty.
Today New York City is informally called “The Big Apple”, The origin
of this name is unknown , but it is popular all over the world.
BEVERLY HILLS
Most visitors to Los Angeles, California want to go and see Beverly
Hills. This is where you find the homes of the movie stars. But Beverly
Hills is not Los Angeles. It is h small city next to Los Angeles.
All kinds of celebrities live in Beverly Hills. These celebrities may
be movie stars, television stars, sports stars, or other people in the
news. Tourists can buy special maps for the homes of the stars. These homes
are very beautiful. They usually have swimming pools and tennis courts. But
some times you cannot see very much. The homes have high wall or trees
around them.
Beverly Hills is also famous for Rodeo Drive. This is one of the most
expensive shopping streets in the United States. Rodeo Drive started to be
an elegant street in the 1960s. Many famous stores were opened on the
street. People liked all the new styles and fashions they could buy. Today,
you can find the most expensive and unusual clothing, jewelry, and
furniture in the world on Rodeo Drive. Rodeo Drive is a very special
street. When you want to park your car in public parking, an attendant will
come and park your car for you.
Beverly Hills is really a small city. Only about 35,000 people live
there. But during the day more than 200,000 people come to Beverly Hills to
work or to shop.
Holidays in the USA
There are no national holidays in the United States. Each of the 50
states has jurisdiction over its holidays. In practice, however, most
states observe the federal (“legal”) public holidays, even though the
President and Congress can legally designate holidays only for federal
government employees.
Ten holidays per year are proclaimed by the federal government. They
are as follows:
New Year's Day (January 1)
Martin Luther King Day (third Monday in January)
George Washington’s Birthday (third Monday in February)
Memorial Day (last Monday in May)
Independence Day (July 4)
Labour Day (first Monday in September)
Columbus Day (second Monday in October)
Veteran's Day (November 11)
Thanksgiving Day (fourth Thursday in November)
Christmas (December 25).
There is no many traditional holidays, observed by a large number of
Americans, which are neither legal nor official. Among these are
Valentine’s Day, St. Patric’s Day, Mother’s Day and Halloween (the last day
of October).
Valentine’s Day has had a long and romantic history. February 14 was
the Roman date of the festival, where were games and dancing and then each
young man drew from an urn the name of the girl who would be his sweetheart
for the coming year. In the seventh century the festival began to be called
St. Valentine’s Day.
Valentine’s Day is the sweet-hearts holiday when people in love
express affection for each other in different ways. The young people can do
it though a small gift or a card.
HALLOWEEN
On October 31, Americans celebrate Halloween. Halloween means "holy"
(hallow) “evening” (een). This is the evening before the Christian holiday
– All Saints Day. On All Saints Day, Christians remember the saints. But
Halloween is even older than Christianity.
Before Christianity, people in Europe believed that on October 31
ghosts of dead people came back. To scare the ghosts, people dressed like
devils and were very noisy. They also made big fires to keep the ghosts
away. Later, people did not believe in ghosts, but they kept the day of
Halloween for fun.
Immigrants came from Europe to America and brought with them the
custom of Halloween. Halloween has some strange symbols. One symbol is the
jack-o'-lantern in the window. The jack-o’-lantern is to scare the ghosts.
People cut the pumpkin, throw away all of the inside, and cut a face in it.
Then they put a candle inside of it. Jack-o’-lanterns usually look scary,
too.
Today, in the United States, Halloween is very popular with children.
They wear masks and special costumes. They want to look like skeletons and
ghosts. Then they go from house to house and say, “Trick or treat!” People
give them candies, cookies, or fruit. When people give nothing, the
children sometimes play tricks on them.
Independence Day
On July 4 the Americans celebrate their national holiday –
Independence Day. The United States gained independence as a result of
gradual and painful process. By the mid 1700’s,it became difficult for
thirteen British colonies in the New World to be ruled by a king 3.000
miles across the ocean. The British empire imposed high taxes upon the
colonies.
In 1774, the First Continental Congress drew up a list of grievances
against the British crown. This document was the first draft of the
document that would formally separate colonies from England. In 1775, the
Revolutionary War began July 2,1776, the Second Continental Congress
presented a second draft of the list of grievances. On July 4 the
Continental Congress approved the Declaration of independence. But the
War of independence lasted until 1783. After the war Independence Day
became an official holiday.
On July 4, Americans have holiday from work. People have day-long
picnics with favorite foods like hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad, baked
beans. Lively music is heard everywhere. People play baseball or compete at
three-legged races. or pie-eating or water-melon-eating contests. Some
cities have parades with people dressed as the original founding fathers
who march to the music of high school bands. In the evening people gather
