A (Very) Brief History of the English Language
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US CongressThe United States of America is a federal republic consisting of 50 states. Each of them has its own goverment ("state goverment"). In some ways the United States are like 50 small countries. Each state has its own governor, its own police and its own laws. The present constitution was proclaimed in 1787 in Philadelphia, the President is the head of the whole country and the goverment and commander-in-chief of the armed forces. He makes the most important decisions and chooses the ministers, the members of his cabinet. But the President cannot do what he wants. The Congress must agree with it first. Americans choose a new president every four years. The residence of the President is the White House in Washington, the capital city. The goverment of the whole country (the Federal goverment) works from Washington, this is where the Congress is based. The Capitol is the seat of the US Congress. Congress is the American parliament which consists of 2 chambers: the Senate and the House of Representatives. The first Congress met in 1789 in New York city. The membership then consisted of 22 senators and 59 representatives. Today the House of Representatives has 435 members. Elections of the house take place every 2 years. There are 100 senators (2 from each state), they are elected to serve for a period of six years, but every two years elections of the senate take place when one third of its members must be changed or re-elected. Election day is always in the month of November, on the first Tuesday, after the first Monday. Americans who aren't yet 25 years old have no right to be elected to the House of Representatives. Those, who are under 30, can't be elected in the Senate. The main political parties in the United States of America are the Democratic Party and the Republlican Party. WalesWales is a country of lakes and mountains. Its about the half the size of Switzerland, and it has a population of two and three quarter million. On the north of Wales is located one of the most beautiful sceneries on the British islands, the Snowdon mountain. Snowdon is Britain’s second highest mountain. Wales is not an independent nation. In 1292, the English king, Edward, invaded Wales and built fourteen huge castles to control the Welsh people. His son, Edward, became the first prince of Wales, since then all the kings and queens of England have given their eldest sons the title, Prince of Wales. Prince Charles became the twenty-first Prince of Wales. Although the English have ruled Wales for many centuries, Wales still has its own flag, culture, and, above all, its own language. In the towns and villages of North Wales, many people speak English only as a second language. Their first language is Welsh. In Llanberis, a small town at the foot of Snowdon, eighty-six per cent people speak Welsh as their first language. At the local primary school children have nearly all their lessons in Welsh. The children should be bilingual by the time that they are eleven years old. It is not a problem for children to learn two languages at the same time. Children have insight into two cultures, so have all the folk tales of two languages. Children like Welsh because in Welsh you spell things just how you say them, in English there are more silent letters. Welsh is one of the oldest languages in Europe. Its a Celtic language, like Breton in France, Gaelic in Ireland, or Gaelic in Scotland. Two and a half thousand years before these languages were spoken in many parts of Europe. They died out when the Romans invaded these areas, but some of them survived in the northwest corner of Europe. But over the last hundred years the number of Welsh-speakers has fallen very quickly. Now only twenty per cent of Welsh people speak Welsh. Here are some of the reasons for the decline. In the nineteenth century people thought that Welsh an uncivilized language. If you wanted to be successful in life you had to learn English, the language of the British Empire. So in many schools children were forbidden to speak Welsh. At the beginning of the twentieth century many English and Irish people moved to South Wales to work in the coal mines and steel works. They did not learn Welsh. People, especially young people, moved away from the Welsh-speaking villages and farms of north and west Wales to look for work in the big towns and cities, so the Welsh-speaking communities became much smaller. In the 1960s and 1970s many English people bought holiday cottages in villages in Wales. Most of them did not learn Welsh. This also pushed up the price of houses so that local Welsh-speaking people cold not afford them. English comes into every Welsh home trough the television, the radio, newspapers, books, etc. There are Welsh-language TV and radio stations, but far fever than English ones. And now there is cable and satellite TV, too-in English, of course! The decline has now stopped, because a lot has been done. Road signs, bilingual documentation, and there is a Welsh language act. The future of Welsh is uncertain. The problem is that Welsh has to survive next door to English, and, as we all know, English is a very successful language. WashingtonWashington is the capital city of the United States. It is located on the north bank of the Potomac River. George Washington, the first President of the USA, after whom the city was named, selected an area for the capital. A hundred square miles were taken from states of Maryland and Virginia. It was called the District of Columbia. The city is divided into four sections: NW, NE, SW, and SE. Numbered streets run north and south: First Street, Second Street … Lettered streets such as A-street, B-street run east and west. Bear in mind that every section has an independent street system. If you’re looking for Third Street, you need to know what section of the city it is in. Washington is one of the most beautiful and unusual cities in the United States. It has little industry, and only one million people. One reason Washington looks different from other cities is that no building in the city may be more than 40 metres tall. There are no skyscrapers, because they would hide the city’s many monuments from view. One can easily find a park, a square or an open area there. The most impressive and the best-known ones are the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. The heart of Washington is the Capitol, which is connected with the White House by Pennsylvania Avenue. It dominates the city of Washington. All the tourists begin sightseeing from the Capitol and see the Senate Chamber, the Hall of Representatives, the Statuary Hall and some others. Thousands of tourists visit Washington every day. People from all parts of the United States come to see their capital and the monuments to those who in past centuries struggled for the independence of their country. The Washington Monument, the tallest stone structure in the USA, is in the Potomac River. It was opened to the public in 1888. It is 555 feet tall, is called the “Pencil” because of its shape. It is three blocks south of the White House. There is an elevator, which will carry you to 500-foot level observation windows. The Lincoln Memorial is in the west of the Washington Monument. It is designed like a Greek temple. The dominant figure is the realistic figure of Abraham Lincoln seated in the centre of the open temple. The Jefferson Memorial is worth seen, too. It is situated south of the Washington monument near the Potomac River. The Library of Congress contains millions of books and manuscripts. People are also interested in churches and cathedrals. The Washington Cathedral is on Massachusetts Avenue, and the Arlington National Cemetery is outside the city limits just across the Potomac River near the Pentagon in Virginia. The famous Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is visited by millions of people every year. Washington is the place where mass demonstrations take place against unemployment and racism, for democracy and civil rights. Directory: ebook -> umm ebook -> "That was our view and I believe it right." ebook -> Computer Science Conference Ranking ebook -> Problem a arbitrage ebook -> Problem a addition Chains ebook -> "Race and the Making of the Nation: Blacks in Modern France" ebook -> The Teachings of Don Juan ebook -> I’ve got it let’s invade Iraq! ebook -> Appendix 9c sa army unit histories1 Infantry umm -> Corpora in the classroom without scaring the students Download 0.58 Mb. Share with your friends:
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