New York

New York is the largest city and port in the USA situated in the southern part of New York State at the mouth of the Hudson River. It is the financial, business, mass media and the world's biggest bank centre. Its nickname is the Big Apple. New York is quite young. It was founded in 1613 by Dutch settlers and named then New Amsterdam.

It is a city of islands connected by 60 bridges. The city consists of five parts called 'boroughs': Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, Manhattan and Richmond.

The centre of New York is Manhattan Island of granite. It is divided into the East Side and the West Side by Fifth Avenue. The longest and widest street in New York, Broadway, runs through the whole Manhattan. Broadway is the centre of the theatres and nightlife. Life there never stops. Wall Street is the site of the New York Stock Exchange, and with any banks and offices of large corporations, it is the centre of the world financial life. The Metropolitan Opera House, the Carnegie Hall, the city's most popular concert hall, are known worldwide. The Empire State Building, 102-storey skyscraper (448 metres), has become a symbol of New York. Times Square got its name from the New York Times, the most popular newspaper in America, which has its main office there. Central Park in the middle of Manhattan has a variety of attractions for visitors.

Theatres, museums, publishing houses, research institutes and famous universities including the University of Columbia, the New York University make New York one of the centres of scientific and cultural life in the country. The Metropolitan Museum and the Modern Arts Museum attract a lot of visitors. Rockfeller Centre consisting of 19 buildings is the world's largest privately owned business and entertainment centre.

Harlem. There are actually three Harlems: Spanish, Italian and Afro-American Harlems. Housing construction began in Harlem after 1900. Blacks were said to have better opportunities for life in Harlem. The 1920s were the time of Harlem's flourishing. Famous jazz musicians regularly performed in Harlem, Duke Ellington among them. The depression of the 1930s hit Harlem hard. It has never really recovered economically. Yet it has left its special atmosphere and remains a centre of Afro-American culture.

Coming up to New York harbour, you pass Liberty Island with bronze Statue of Liberty presented to the United States by France in 1886 to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of American independence. The Statue is about 50 metres high and stands on a pedestal of almost the same hight. The figure shows a young woman. She holds a torch in her right hand above her head and in her left hand is a tablet with the date " June 4th, 1776" on it, which symbolizes the Declaration of Independence.

This is what New York is like: a city of skyscrapers called modern Babylon' as people of almost all nationalities and races speak 75 different languages there.

1. What is the official residence of the American President?

2. What role does Manhattan play in the life of the USA?

3. Where is Central Park?

4. What US museums do you know?

5. What remarkable places are there in New York and Washington?

5.1 Match the places with what you associate with them. Make up sentences.

1 Carnegie Hall a a 102-storey building

2 Broadway b a present from France

3 Wall Street c the centre of New York

4 The Empire State Building d theatrical centre

5 Manhattan e world's great orchestras and

soloists

6 Times Square f The Big Apple

7 The Statue of Liberty g the financial centre of the city

and the world

5.2 Complete the sentences with the words given.

inhabited, designed, office, storeys, mansions, concentrated, symbol

1. Many of New York offices jobs are _____ in Midtown.

2. The first skyscraper in New York was built in 1902. It was twenty _____ high.

3. The Empire State Building has become a _____ of New York.

4. Times Square got its name from the New York Times which has its main _____ there.

5. Central Park was _____ in the 1850s by the landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.

6. Wealthy New Yorkers built _____ along Fifth Avenue on Central Park's eastern side.

7. Harlem became an area mostly _____ by black population.

5.3 Refer each item to Washington or New York. Make sentences.

1 The Potomac River; 2 The United Nations building; 3 skyscrapers; 4 The Capitol; 5 The Empire State building; 6 a capital city; 7 The Library of Congress; 8 Christopher Columbus; 9 Broadway; 10 The NASA Museum; 11 Manhattan; 12 'the world capital'; 13 George Washington; 14 The Big Apple; 15 tourism as the main industry; 16 The Hudson River; 17 islands and bridges; 18 Wall Street; 19 Pennsylvania Avenue; 20 The Statue of Liberty; 21 The White House; 22 Pentagon.