Some interesting and exciting days

Every year on a Saturday morning in June, 'foot guards' and 'horse guards' have a parade for the Queen. This is called 'Trooping the Colour'. The 'colour' is the flag that the soldiers carry. Thousands of people stand in the Mall to see the Queen and the soldiers go past.

The exciting Notting Hill Carnival is on the last Sunday and Monday in August. There are two wonderful parades to watch, one on Sunday and one on Monday, and you can see them going through the streets near Portobello Road and Ladbroke Grove.

On the second Saturday in November, Londoners can see their new Lord Mayor in the Lord Mayor's Show – a parade from Mansion house, the Lord Mayor's home, to the Strand. The Lord Mayor is the most important person in thr City after the Queen. The first Mayor of London was Henry Fiztailwin, in 1189. They were not called Lord Mayors until the time of King Henry the Eighth.

Big red buses… London policemen… Buckingham Palace … Speaker's Corner… Big Ben … Notting Hill Carnival – these are some of the things you can find in London.

But there are many, many more.

Come and see!

Exercise 1Say if the following statements are true or false. Correct the false ones.

1.Every year approximately 5 million tourists, mainly from the USA, come to visit London.

2.London was founded by the Romans and its history has been tumultuous.

3.The buildings erected after the Great fire of 1666, which was an arson, were made of low quality material as compared to the original one.

4.Over the last decades people tend to move out of the centre of London into the green belt around it.

5.There's a wide choice of transport in London ranging from the Tube, the famous red double-decker and black cabs to the boat which takes visitors on organised excursions.

6.The Queen's home in London is Hampton Court.

7.The Queens residence is not open to tourists.

8.It is strictly prohibited to the Yeoman Warders of the Tower to speak to the visitors.

9.Wobbly Bridge is situated next to the Tower.

10.Sir Christopher Wren built more than fifty London churches including one of its most renowned landmarks St. Paul's Cathedral.

11.Westminster Abbey is a famous London church as well as the coronation place and the burial ground of the royals.

12.10Downing Street is the home of the British Government.

13.The world-famous clock tower Big Ben is a part of Westminster Palace.

14.You may mount an improvised rostrum and make a speech in Hyde Park.

15.Parks and gardens in London are scarce and far between.

16.Knightsbridge is the street in the West End not far from Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park known for Harrods, allegedly the world's most famous shop.

17.Oxford street hosts several well-known chain stores.

18. There's little entertainment on offer in London.

19.All the museums in London charge an exorbitant fee.

20.The London Dungeon is not the place for the faint-hearted.

21.The City is a relatively new district and at weekends you have to elbow your way through crowds of people there.

22.The Bank of England, known also as the old lady of Thread-and -Needle Street, is in the City.

23.The Monument designed by Christopher Wren stands in the place where the Great Fire of London is known to have started.

24.Thousands of people stand in the Strand to see "Trooping the Colour" whereas the colour is the standard the "foot guards» and "horse guards" carry.

25.Prince of Wales is the most important person in the city

Exercise 2 Answer the questions. Use the map to illustrate you answers.

1.How many tourist come to visit London annually?

2.What do you know about the tumultuous history of the British capital?

3.What transport is available to the visitors in London? Which means of travelling around the city would you prefer and why?

4.What major tourists attractions are there in London? What do you know about them?

5.When is the best time to go to London if you fancy a visit to the Queen's London residence?

5.What well-known buildings is Westminster home to?

6.What parks and gardens can one visit when in London?

7.Is London "a shopper's paradise? Do the shops and markets cater to all tastes and means?

8.What theatres does London host?

9.Does London have a wide choice of museums? Which of them would you like to visit and why?

10.What is the oldest part of the city famous for? How does the number of people there vary throughout the week and why?

11.Why is "Trooping the colour" a spectacular ceremony ?

12.When and where does Notting Hill Festival take place?

13.What is The Lord Mayor's Show like?

Exercise 3 Put the correct compound adjectives that are missing from the text into the grid to learn the name of the one of the most famous exhibits in the British museum. Study the information. find the museum on the map and tell your partner what you know about it.

The British Museum is the oldest museum in the world and it covers two thousand years of world history and culture. Its (1).................. collection of statues, carvings, mummies, jewels and coins makes it number one attraction for tourists. It has taken scholars many years to decipher the (2)....... hieroglyphics (pictures and symbols) on the Egyptian tombs. Amongst the British exhibits from the first century A. D. is Lindow Man, the (3)....... body of a man which was found in a bog. Lindow man was poor, unlike the Egyptian mummies which are (4)......... and surrounded by expensive possessions. From Roman Britain there is a wonderful (5)....... mosaic floor; from the twelfth century, the Lewis chess men are probably the museum's (6).............. items; they are on lots of postcards and you can buy copies of them in the museum shop. In the African galleries you can see a beautiful (7).............. Nigerain head of a woman. but most people's favourite items are the mummies. The Egyptian Queens have (8)................. names such as Seshepenmehit. Their bodies were found in ornate (9).............. coffins deep inside the Pyramids which were built by thousands of (10) .............. slaves. The most famous Egyptian in the British Museum is nicknamed 'Ginger' because you can still see the original skin and hair on this 5,000-year-old (11)................. farmer whose body was found in the sand along with his burial goods. If you don't like dead bodies, you can visit the Reading Room where some of the world's most (12) ...... thinkers, writers and philosophers such as Karl Marx, Ghandi and Dickens used to sit and study.

Exercise 4.Complete the multi-word verbs in the text with the words given in the box to learn more about one of the oldest buildings in London, the Palace of Westminster, as it used to be called.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 1614