Los Angeles

The City of Los Angeles, also known simply as L.A. or informally as the City of Angels, is the second-largest city in the United States in terms of population, as well as one of the most important cultural, economic, scientific and entertainment centers in the world. It was incorporated as a city in California on April 4, 1850, five months before California achieved statehood, and is the county seat and the largest city in Los Angeles County.

As of the 2000 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 3.69 million, though a July 1, 2004 estimate placed the city’s population at 3.85 million, out of 10 million residents in the county.

Los Angeles serves as the core and most important city of the sprawling Southern California urban area which counts nearly 18 million residents. The city is also large by geographic standards since it sprawls over more than 465 square miles (1,200 square kilometers), making it larger than either New York City or Chicago in area.

Los Angeles is also one of the most cosmopolitan places in the world, as well as a vanguard of creativity and innovation, since it is home to individuals from virtually every nation on Earth. In addition, Los Angeles has hosted two Olympic Games, in 1932 and 1984, and is home to world-renowned scientific and cultural institutions. People have always been attracted to the world-class city for its balmy weather, unique and vibrant lifestyle, high-velocity energy, Pacific Rim Gateway status, and the opportunity to realize the «American Dream».

Text 9

Boston

Boston is the largest city and unofficial capital of the region known as New England. Boston is one of the oldest, wealthiest, and most culturally significant large cities in the United States. Its economy is based on education, health care, finance, and technology.

Boston has many nicknames. The City on a Hill came from original Massachusetts Bay Colony’s governor John Winthrop’s goal to create the biblical «City on a Hill.» It also refers to the original three hills of Boston. Beantown refers to early Bostonian merchants' habit for making baked beans with imported molasses.

The Hub* is a shortened form of writer Oliver Wendell Holmes’ phrase The Hub of the Solar System, now more commonly The Hub of the Universe. William Tudor, co-founder of the North American Review, christened the city The Athens of America for its great cultural and intellectual influence. The city lies at the center of the Boston CMSA (Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area), the seventh largest in the United States. The area encompasses parts of the states of New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.

Boston was founded on September 17, 1630, by Puritan colonists from England, on a peninsula called Shawmut by its original Native American inhabitants. The peninsula was connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus, and surrounded by the waters of Massachusetts Bay and the marshes at the mouth of the Charles River. Boston's early European settlers first called the area Trimountaine. They later renamed the town for Boston, England, in Lincolnshire, from which several prominent «pilgrims» colonists emigrated.

A majority of Boston’s early citizens were Puritans. Puritan ethics molded an extremely stable and well-structured society in Boston. For example, shortly after Boston’s settlement, Puritans founded America's first school, Boston Latin School (1635), and America’s first college, Harvard College (1636). Hard work, moral uprightness, and an emphasis on education remain part of Boston's culture. Over the past several decades, Boston has experienced a dramatic loss of regional institutions and traditions, which once gave it a very distinct social character. Boston has begun to resemble other parts of the continuous string of Northeast seaboard cities dubbed the BosWash megalopolis*.

*the Hub (амер.) — шутливое прозвище Бостона

*агломерация крупных городов, мегалополис