Переведите тексты письменно. Text 1. The Washington Monument

Text 1. The Washington Monument

There are many statues of George Washington in Washington, D. C. However, the principal monument honoring the nation’s first president is a simple obelisk, 170 meters high, built on a slight rise in the center of the city’s federal area. Begun in 1848, it was not completed until 1885 because of funding problems and the Civil War. Visitors can see a distinct break in the color of the stone of the monument one quarter of the way up, marking the pause in its construction.

This national landmark stands in everlasting memory of the gentleman farmer/surveyor who was pressed into service as general of the revolutionary armies and afterward served two four-year terms as the first president of the fledgling republic. “First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen, ” Washington provided outstanding leadership for the new republic and then, like Cincinnatus of ancient Rome, he returned to private life to oversee the operation of his farm in nearby Mount Vernon, Virginia. Father of the country, Washington, in his farewell address, gave good advice to those who would follow him in leading the country:

“Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all... The nation which indulges toward another an habitual hatred or an habitual fondness is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest.”

Text 2. Washington D.C.: A planned city

Washington, D.C. is not only the nation's capital but perhaps the most interestingly designed and most beautiful city in the United States. It was not the first capital of the country. The capital had been located earlier in New York City and then in Philadelphia. When the 1^st Congress agreed to build a capital on the banks of the Potomac, land was ceded to the federal government by two states, Maryland and Virginia. Later, it was felt that less land would be required; so the portion south-west of the river (which now forms the boundary between Virginia and Washington, D.C.) was returned to Virginia, reducing the city from 100 square miles to its present area of 69square miles (179 km²).

The city of Washington is coextensive with the federal district (District of Columbia). The grand plan of the city was created by French architect Pierre Charles L’Enfant (1753–1825). He had volunteered to fight in the American Revolution and remained in the country following the end of the war. Having served under General Washington in New Jersey, he was recognized both for his bravery and his work as an artist and engineer. Impressed with L’Enfant’s talents over the years, George Washington solicited and ultimately approved L’Enfant’s proposal to survey and draw up a plan for the new capital. While the site selected was a semi-wilderness, L’Enfant looked beyond the swampland and visualized a great capital. A wooded rise called Jenkins Hill was to be the site of the U.S. Capitol, and to the north-west on another rise of land, L'Enfant envisioned the President’s House, the two connected by a grand boulevard which was to become Pennsylvania Avenue. Though L’Enfant was dismissed from the commission overseeing the construction of the new city (because of disagreements with Congress and Thomas Jefferson), the city was developed along the lines that he had set down.

The city is divided into four quadrants – designated Northwest, Northeast, Southwest, and Southeast – with the Capitol building as the center. Thus nearly every Washington address includes the abbreviations NW, NE, SW, or SE following the house or building number and the street name. These designations are essential because the majority of the street names are the same in the four quadrants. Starting from the Capitol, the streets that run from north to south bear the numbers 1, 2, 3, etc.; and the east-west streets are named А, В, С, etc., to the end of the alphabet. The numbers can, of course, be extended indefinitely, and in actual fact go as high as 63 before the boundary of the city is reached. But since the alphabet contains only 26 letters (and only 22 are actually used – the letters J, X, Y, and Z are omitted), those streets that follow the first alphabetical cycle are two-syllable names alphabetically spreading outward (Ashby, Beecher, Calvert, Davis, etc.). After the two-syllable alphabet has been exhausted, the streets have names of three syllables extending away from the Capitol in the same alphabetic order (Albemarle, Brandywine, Chesapeake, Davenport, etc.) until the boundary is reached. (For various reasons, including the configuration of rivers and streams, and the fact that the axes that form the quadrants meet at a point slightly southeast of the geographical center, the two south quadrants have fewer streets than the two north quadrants of the city.)

The regularity of the numbered and lettered streets makes it easier for visitors to find their way around the city. However, the convenience of this order is offset by the fact that the major avenues of the city, each named for one of the 50 states, radiate out like spokes from a hub, cutting diagonally across the numbered and lettered streets. Where two or more of these main avenues cross, there is frequently a parklike circle, named for a prominent historical personage who is usually represented in the middle of the circle by a bronze equestrian statue. In spring these circles, like the many other parks that dot the downtown portion of the city, are aflame with tulips and other flowers.

But the unique character of Washington, D.C. comes from an elegant expanse of public space called the National Mall. From any point on the Mall, one can glimpse the symbols of the nation – the Capitol, the White House, and the presidential monuments. L’Enfant had envisioned the Mall as the site of a statue of George Washington, completing a large triangle with the Capitol and the President's House. Since much of this land was swampy, little permanent construction took place except for the original Smithsonian Institution Building (in 1855). Instead of a statue of George Washington, the famous obelisk was built.

At the turn of the twentieth century, the United States Congress produced the McMillan plan which laid out broad plans for the Mall as we know it today. Several agencies of the federal government are responsible for safeguarding the character of the National Mall. No structures higher than 12 stories are allowed because they may reduce the prominence of the national buildings and monuments.

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