Text 2. FROM THE HISTORY OF NEW YORK

1. In 1605 the first Europeans came to Manhattan from Holland. Captain Henry Hudson, searching for the famous Northwest Passage, discovered the land and reached a river to which he gave his name.

2. Later a Dutchman, Peter Minuit, bought Manhattan Island from the Indians for a barrel of rum and a few glass necklaces, worth about $26. The Americans say that this was the best business deal ever made in New York. In 1613 the Dutch founded a city there and.gave it the name ''New Amsterdam".

3. After the English had taken over the city in 1626 it was renamed New York after the Duke of York who was the commander of the English army.

During the War of Independence New York was an important political centre, and for five years from 1785 till 1790, the capital of the USA

4. Since the end of the 19th century the city began to develop at breakneck speed. In 1888 the first skyscraper was put up. It had only 13 storeys, but the next had twenty-two, the Empire State building- 102.

5. New York is carefully planned. The city has been built rectangularly. All the streets, except Broadway, run either north and south, or east and west. Only Broadway runs diagonally across the city..

6. The Americans have not given the New York streets names of their famous men, but have called them by ordinal numbers or letters of the alphabet, e.g. Sec­ond Street, First Avenue, Avenue A, Avenue B, etc.

Подберите абзацы, содержащие ответы на следующие вопросы:

1. How are the New York streets called? ¨

2. What did Captain Hudson search for? ¨

3. Why was the city renamed and when was it the America's capital? ¨

4. What was the best New York business deal? ¨

5. How is New York planned? ¨

6. How many storeys do the first and the next skyscrapers have? ¨

Text 3. RECREATION

Baseball, basketball, American football, and ice hockey are the most popular spectator and participation sports, but Americans enjoy an enormous range of activities, including soccer, cycling, racket-ball (a hybrid of squash and handball), tennis, swimming, skin diving, golf, bowling, martial arts, walking, jogging, and aerobic exercise. Schools, cities, and other organizations sponsor team sports for the young, and professional sports are an important part of the culture.

Sports and games in the United States take both forms: amateur and profes­sional. Professional sport is big business. The players and athletes are paid much money, and they are bought and sold between clubs.

BASEBALL is the most popular summer sport in the United States. It is played by schools, colleges and professional teams. Baseball is a game between two teams and is played on a field with a bat and a small white ball. Each team consists of nine players. The first American baseball match was in 1839 in New York, but some people think that baseball comes from a much older game called "rounders", played in Europe for many years..

BASKETBALL is played on a court with a large orange ball. There are only five players on each team. The players try to shoot the ball into the basket, or hoop. As a rule, the players are very tall.

FOOTBALL is a field game between two teams ·of eleven players each. But American football rules differ from those of the ordinary football. The field looks different and Americans play with an oval-shaped ball. The players can run with the ball, touch and push each other. So the players are often hurt in American foot­ball. The teams wear special clothes and helmets as in hockey because the game can be dangerous.

SOCCER is the American name for the ordinary European football. It is one of the most popular international sports in the United States as well as tennis, wres­tling, boxing, horse-racing and others.

In general, most Americans spend a large amount of their leisure time social­izing or watching television. Other leisure activities include going to the cinema or concerts, picnicking, and travelling. Many Americans enjoy volunteering for a wide range of causes: from raising funds to help those who are less fortunate to tu­toring, students, or leading Scout troops or youth sports. Even city dwellers enjoy spending time in the "great outdoors", camping. hiking or hunting.

Отметьте данные ниже предложения как соответствующие (T) или несоответствующие (F) информации текста:

1. There are spectator and participation sports. ¨
2. Different organizations sponsor team sport for disabled.¨
3. There are only professional sport and games in the US. ¨
4. Baseball is the most popular sport through the year.¨
5. Baseball comes from an old European game.¨
6. Basketball players are not very tall. ¨
7. American football does not differ from soccer. ¨
8. American football is as dangerous as hockey. ¨
9. Tennis, boxing and wrestling are as popular international sports in the USA as soccer. ¨
10. Americans do not like to watch TV. ¨
11. Americans enjoy helping less fortunate people. ¨
12. Camping, hiking and hunting are not for city dwellers. ¨

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