Фавна (Learning_English) все записи автора

 Oчень нужен небольшой топик на эту тему... Желательно попроще ибо мой английский оставляет желать лучшего. Нужен до завтрашнего утра,чт о бы смогла выучить и рассказать)

never_givin_up (Learning_English) все записи автора

 Hyde Park (together with Kensington Gardens, whose land was originally part of the park) was bought by King Henry VIII in 1536 and covers an area of 250 hectares. The park and gardens are popular with Londoners and tourists alike, who love the wide open spaces and atmosphere of the countryside very near some of the city's most famous shopping areas.
The park's recreation facilities include bowling greens, tennis courts, a children's playground and cycle paths. The Serpentine, an 11-hectare lake, offers rowing, canoeing, swimming and fishing. Rotten Row, a wide track still used for horse-riding, is over 500 years old and was the first road in Britain to have street lights at night. At Speakers' Corner, crowds gather to listen to people giving speeches about all sorts of (often eccentric) subjects.
Kensington Gardens, with its quiet gardens and two playgrounds, is a popular place to take children, who can also sail model boats on the Round Pond and watch puppet shows in the summer.

Fevinn (Learning_English) все записи автора

During the first World War, troops from Winnipeg (Manitoba, Canada) were being transported to eastern Canada, on their way to Europe, where they were to join the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade. When the train stopped at White River, Ontario, a lieutenant called Harry Colebourn bought a small female black bear cub for $20 from a hunter who had killed its mother. He named her 'Winnipeg', after his hometown of Winnipeg, or 'Winnie' for short.
Winnie became the mascot of the Brigade and went to Britain with the unit. When the Brigade was posted to the battlefields of France, Colebourn, now a Captain, took Winnie to the London Zoo for a long loan. He formally presented the London Zoo with Winnie in December 1919 where he became a popular attraction and lived until 1934.
The bear was also very popular with Christopher Robin, son of author A.A. Milne. It was his favourite animal at the Zoo, and he often spent time inside the cage with it. The bear was Christopher Robin's inspiration for calling his own teddy bear Winnie.....Winnie the Pooh (this teddy bear started out with the name of Edward Bear). The name Pooh originally belonged to a swan, as can be seen in the introduction of Milne's 'When We Were Very Young'.
 

A.A. Milne started to write a series of books about Winnie the Pooh, his son Christopher Robin, and their friends in the 100-Acre-Wood. These other characters, such as Eeyore, Piglet, Tigger, Kanga and Roo were also based on stuffed animals belonging to Christopher Robin. The characters, Rabbit and Owl, were based on animals that lived, like the swan Pooh, in the surrounding area of Milne's country home, Cotchford Farm in Ashdown Forest, Sussex. It is this area on which the 100-Acre-Wood was based.
'Winnie-the-Pooh' was published by Methuen on October 14th, 1926, the verses 'Now We are Six' in 1927, and 'The House at Pooh Corner' in1928. All these books were illustrated in a beautiful way by E.H. Shepard, which made the books even more magical. The Pooh-books became firm favorites with old and young alike and have been translated into almost every known language. A conservative figure for the total sales of the four Methuen editions (including When We Were Very Young) up to the end of 1996 would be over 20 million copies. These figures do not include sales of the four books published by Dutton in Canada and the States, nor the foreign-language editions printed in more than 25 languages the world over!

The Pooh-books had also been favourites of Walt Disney's daughters and it inspired Disney to bring Pooh to film in 1966. In 1977 'the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh', the first feature-length animated film of Pooh was released. In 1993, the Walt Disney Company acknowledged that Pooh Bear is second only to Mickey Mouse in their portfolio of the most-loved and trusted characters known to millions of people all over the world. By 1996, after the second release of 'the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh', the Bear of Very Little Brain had proven to be more popular than any other Disney character. In 1997, twenty years after the release of the first feature-length animated film, Disney released 'Pooh's Grand Adventure', picking up where Disney's 22nd Masterpiece left off. In February 2000 Disney released the third Winnie the Pooh movie called 'The Tigger Movie', this time with the leading part for Tigger.

never_givin_up (Learning_English) все записи автора

The Everglades are a huge wetlands area covering about 10,000 square kilometres in south Florida. More than half of the area is part of the Everglades National Park. The Native American name for the Everglades is Pa-May-Okee, which means "Grassy Water".
The Everglades were created about 10,000 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age. Melting ice raised the sea level and caused flooding which in turn produced gigantic marshes and swamps.
The Everglades are home to many species of wetland birds, such as herons and pelicans, as well as alligators, crocodiles and snakes.

by Express Publishing

never_givin_up (Learning_English) все записи автора

Geographically, English is the most widespread language on earth. It is widely spoken on six continents, and is the official language, or one of the official languages, in 55 countries.
400-500 million people speak it as their native language (second only to Mandarin Chinese, which has about 700 million native speakers). In addition, roughly the same number speak English as their second language, or use it in their daily lives for business, study and so on.
In other words, one in every 6-7 people on our planet regularly uses some sort of English - and the percentage is growing all the time.
The following are a few of the many reasons why English is so widely spoken.
* English is the official language in many of Britain's former colonies, such as America, Australia and New Zealand.
* The economic power of Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries, and of the US in the 20th century, helped to make English the language of world trade.
* Entertainment has helped to spread the use of English, because of the worldwide popularity of English-language films, TV programmes and pop music.

never_givin_up (Learning_English) все записи автора

New York City isn't a city that can easily be ignored even by the most demanding visitor. Located on the east coast of the United States with a population of over ten million people, it is the destination of thousands of visitors who come every year to experience the excitement of one of the busiest cities in the world.
The streets of New York are incredibly noisy, with the sounds of car horns beeping, people shouting and police car sirens wailing. Amazingly tall skyscrapers rise up everywhere.
The most exciting thing about New York is how much there is to see and do there. For sightseers there is the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge and Central Park, while lovers of culture can visit the theatres of Broadway or some of the city's hundreds of art galleries. Alternatively, if you are a sports fan you can even catch a game of baseball at Yankee Stadium. The night life in New York is equally brilliant, with a wide variety of restaurants, bars and nightclubs to choose from.
New York is a lively and exciting city to visit with something for everyone, and is recommended to anyone seeking fun, variety and adventure. 

never_givin_up (Learning_English) все записи автора

With well over 600,000 words, English has a larger vocabulary than any other language – but many of these words have been 'borrowed' from other languages.
English has German and French roots, so a lot of its vocabulary is similar to words in these language. Many words have been formed from Latin and ancient Greek, especially for new inventions, such as television and helicopter.
Words from hundreds of other languages have been taken into English, too, often with slight changes in their spelling and pronunciation. Of course, other languages sometimes borrow English words in return.
The following is just a small selection of 'English' words and the languages they came from:
 - tea (Chinese)                  - coffee (Turkish, from Arabic)
- pizza (Italian)                   - potato (native American)
- robot (Czech)                  - rodeo (Spanish)
- caravan (Persian)            - commando (Afrikaans)
- kayak (Eskimo)                - boomerang (Aus. Aborigine).

Клаудия-не-Шифер (Learning_English) все записи автора

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The wearing of a wedding ring is one of the oldest and most universal customs of mankind. The tradition goes back so far that no one can really tell how it first began.
The fact that the ring is a circle may be one reason why it began to be used. The circle is a symbol of completeness. In connection with marriage, it represents the rounding out of the life of a person. We can see how a man without a wife, or a woman without a husband, could have been considered incomplete people. When they are married they make a complete unit, which the circle of the ring symbolizes.
Some people believe the wedding ring really started as a bracelet that was placed on woman who were captured in primitive times. Gradually the circular bracelet on the arm or leg, which indicated that she was the property of one man in the tribe, was changed to a ring on the finger.
We know also that primitive man believed in magic. He used to weave a cord and tie it around the waist of the woman he wanted. He believed that with this ceremony her spirit entered his body and she was his forever. The wedding ring may have started this way.
 Why is the ring worn on the fourth finger? The ancient Greeks believed that a certain vein passed from this finger directly to the heart. But probably the real reason is that we use this finger least of all the fingers, so it’s more convenient to wear an ornament on it!

Vocabulary

Japanese-Girl (Learning_English) все записи автора

The city has also rediscovered its river. The area between the South Bank Arts Centre, which includes the National Theatre, and Tower Bridge, has been brought back to life and the city has found a new heart along the forgotten riverside. As you walk eastwards along the river from Westminster, you will discover that old ware-houses have been transformed into galleries, shops and clubs.
Across the river from London Bridge is ‘’The City of London’’, the financial district of the capital. The City has its own historic delights such as the 15th century Guildhall and churches designed by Sir Christopher Wren. The best way to explore the City is on foot. For instance, you can "walk through the ages", starting from Fournier Street and ending at the modern Lloyd's building on Lime Street. Remember, however, that in London you are never far away from the past; the old-fashioned red telephone boxes are becoming popular again and many London pubs - where a visitor might ask for a pint of bitter - have been restored to their original Victorian beauty.
But the capital is not a historical theme park. It is a lively and exciting metropolis which is well-known for its popular culture, music, clubs, street fashion, and visual arts. Today, many of its wide variety of restaurants claim to be as good as in any other European capitals.
Much of London's energy and originality is now centred in Soho, the city's liveliest and most bohemian area, squeezed in between the department stores of Oxford Street and the bookshops of Charing Cross Road. Soho, once considered one of the dirtiest and most dangerous parts of London, was cleaned up in the early 1980's. Today, with its gurgling cappuccino machines and pavement cafes, it has become a meeting place for all kinds of people from all over the world, whatever the hour of day or night.
So, even if you are new to the city, you don't have to try hard in order to experience the real London. Despite its heavy traffic and shaking underground railway, it is still one of the world's greatest and most cosmopolitan cities.