EXERCISES. I. Study Text A and explain the meaning of the words and phrases listed below:

I. Study Text A and explain the meaning of the words and phrases listed below:

mansion, to live from hand to mouth, miserable houses, to line the streets, dome, slums, to come first, the Crown Jewels, huge, statesman, across the road, the seat (of the government), at the cost of somebody's life, to face smth., shady avenues.

II. Learn the words of the texts and a) copy and transcribe these words:

mansion, restaurant, jewel, guard, halt, column, ton, sovereign, national, float, sculpture, swan, weigh, conqueror, specimen.

b) Translate into English and mark the stresses:

отель, церемония, Возрождение, Трафальгарская площадь, рукопись, проспект, архитектор, Елизавета, сенат.

c) Form derivatives of these verbs by adding the prefix re- (meaning "do smth. again"):

Example: build — rebuild

write, tell, construct, arm, elect, produce.

III. Answer the questions:

1. How do the two parts of London differ from each other? 2. Why is it better to start sightseeing from the Tower of London? 3. Who founded the Tower and when was it rebuilt? 4. What was the Tower of London used for? 5. What is the City? 6. What does the phrase "a place of interest" mean? 7. What do you know about St. Paul's Cathedral? 8. What is Whitehall and in which part of London is it situated? 9. What does the Ceremony of the Keys consist of? 10. What do you call the building in which the Houses of Parliament are situated? It is one building, why then do we say "The Houses of Parliament"? 11. What is Big Ben? 12. What kind of museum is the British Museum? 13. What do you know about Hyde Park?

IV. Read the text and show all the places of interest mentioned there on the map:

Trafalgar Square is the natural centre of London. Could we but stand 168 feet (about 50 metres) above the traffic, beside the figure of the Admiral, we really could see all the great landmarks of London. Whitehall, which leads out of the square to the south, is the site of many Government offices including the Prime Minister's residence, Foreign Office, War Office; at the far end of Whitehall stand, beside the Thames, the Houses of Parliament with the Big Clock Tower, and Westminster Abbey; to the left Covent Garden fruit market and Covent Garden Opera House, and beyond the Bank of England; another slight turn left would enable your eye to fall on the British Museum; further left still we should see theatreland around Piccadilly Circus (it is not at all a circus but an open space of a circular form) and those expensive shopping promenades — Regent Street, Oxford Street, Bond Street; a little further, and into view would come Hyde Park in the distance, with, nearer, Buckingham Palace, and Royal Drive known as the Mall, which leads into Trafalgar Square.