It was constructed between 1792 and 1829. The White House has 132 rooms, among them the Oval Office
where the President works. White House is open for tours.
One can hardly find a park a square or an open area in Washington without a monument or a memorial. The Jefferson Memorial was built in honour of Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration
of Independence and the third president of the USA. Inside his statue and his writings are inscribed on the walls.
The Lincoln Memorial reminds everybody of Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the USA, who wrote the Emancipation Proclamation whi
ch freed the blacks in the South from slavery. There is a huge statue of Abraham Lincoln inside the Memorial.
At the National Air and Space Museum visitors can see the history of flight from the first airplane flown by the Wright brothers to the Apollo spaceship.

The National Gallery of Art, a large museum of painting, sculpture and other arts is also situated in the capital. It is supported by the US government.

There are 5 universities in Washington. There are no skyscrapers in Washington, becau
se they would hide the city's many monuments from view. No building in the city may be more than 40 metres tall.
In Washington buses and trams run along numbered streets Ч First Street, Second Street, Third Street… The streets running east and west from the centre are lettered Ч A Street,
В Street and so on.
Thousands of tourists visit Washington every day. People from all parts of the United States come to see their capital.

5. Выдающиеся люди Великобритании


William Shakespeare (1564-1616) Уильям Шекспир

William Shakespeare
, the greatest dramatist and writer, was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564. His father was a glover and his mother was the daughter of a famous farmer. Shakespeare
went to grammar school, but he never entered any university. He is famous for his great tragedies including Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth and the best known love story in the world Romeo and Juliet.

Many well-known sayings come from his works, and Shakespeare
also had a great influence on English literature and the language. His plays are studied by British schoolchildren as part of their school programme.
Shakespeare's works are known for their beautiful language and for the understanding of how people think and feel.
William Shakespeare also wrote poetry, includi
ng the sonnets. He worked as an actor and a playwright at the Globe Theatre in London, which has recently been rebuilt as a copy of the original theatre.
Shakespeare married once and had three children. After his death in 1616 his house in Stratford be
came a museum and now it is a popular place with tourists. Shakespeare's
plays were staged in many theatres and translated into numerous languages. They are still read and loved by many people.

Alexander Bell (1847-1922) Александр Бэлл

Alexander Graham Bell was the inventor of the telephone. He was born in Scotland in 1874.
Bell entered the University of Edinburgh and became a teacher. Later he decided to become a doctor and he entered the medical department at the University of London.

Then Bell
left for the USA and studied sounds there. An idea of inventing a special machine for deaf people occurred to him. Working on this machine he invented the telephone in 1876. At first the telephone was not popular with the pub
lic, but after a big campaign it became famous in America. Bell started the Bell Telephone Company to produce telephones.

Alexander Bell also improved the telegraph which could send more than one message at a time. Later he gave up his business and spen
t his money on other scientific research. He also founded the National Geographic Society in 1888.
Bell died in 1922 in Canada respected both in Britain and the USA.

Robert Burns (1759-1796) Роберт Бернс

Robert Burns , a well-known Scottish poet, wa
s born in 1759 into a poor family of a farmer. He was the eldest child of the seven in the family. Robert's mother knew a lot of folk tales and she used to tell them to the children. At the age of six Burns went to school because his father wanted him to
be an educated person. The boy liked reading and read a lot. William Shakespeare was his favourite writer. When Robert was fifteen he started writing poems about common people and things around him.
Later he organized a society for young people where the
y could discuss different problems. After his father's death, Robert had to work a small farm, but then he sold it and became an officer. At the age of twenty-seven Burns published his book of poems called Poems.

He also wrote the words of the song Auld
Lang Syne, the song which the Scots sing on New Year's Day. Robert Bums died in 1796 in poverty, but people all over the world know and love his poetry. Scottish people all over the world celebrate his birthday on January 25, called Burns Night.


Charles Dickens (1812-1870) Чарльз Диккенс

Charles Dickens
, a famous English writer, was born in 1812 into a poor family in London. When Charles was ten his father was taken to prison and the boy stopped going to school. Dickens
had to work hard to earn money for his family. Later he described this period of life in his book David Copperfield. This novel is a biographical one. At the age of 12 he started going to school again.

In 1829 Dickens became a reporter, and in 1830 he met and fell in love with Maria
Beadnell, the daughter of a banker. In 1833 their relationship ended because Maria's parents did not think Dickens
a suitable man for their daughter.
When Dickens
was twenty-five he became one of the best newspaper reporters in London. He liked the ob
a lot. In 1838 he published his novel Oliver Twist which had a great success. His books show how hard life was in Victorian England, especially for poor people and children. Dickens's
father was taken to prison again and Charles had to pay to help him. Later the family asked Dickens
to give them money again and again. In 1835 Charles met and became engaged to Catherine Hogarth.
Charles Dickens spent much of his adult life abroad traveling with his family in France, Spain, Switzerland, but died suddenly
at Gadshill near Rochester in 1870. His novels are still popular and people read them with Pleasure. Some of his works are: Little Dorrit, A Tale of Two Expectations and other wonderful novels.

Princess Diana (1961-1997) Принцесса Диана

Diana Frances Spencer was born in Sandringham, Norfolk on the 1-th of July in 1961. She was the youngest daughter of Viscount Althorp.
Diana had two elder sisters, Jane and Sarah, and a younger brother, Charles.
Diana was only six years old when her parents separated: her mother, Frances, left to join a wealthy businessman.
Diana and her brother, Charles, spent much of their childhood moving from one parent to the other.

When Diana
was twelve she attended West Heath School in Kent. She left at the age of sixteen and spent a few years In Switzerland.
In 1979 Diana
worked as a nanny and as an assistant at the Young England kindergarten. At that time she got acquainted with Prince Charles and they started seeing each other.
On the 29-th of July, 1981, about 600,000 people filled the streets of London on Prince Charles and Lady Diana
Spencer's wedding day. They married at St Paul's Cathedral. In less than a year Charles and Diana
had their first child, William, on the 21-th of June, 1982. A second son, Prince Harry, was born on the 15-th of September, 1984.
Princess Diana
appeared a glamorous Princess who won the hearts of the nation, as well as international acclaim. She did a lot of charitable work and in 1989 she opened the Landmark AIDS Centre.
However things were not well with her relationship with her husband and his family, partly because of Prince CharlesТ
long-running relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles. Because of this the couple separated in 1992 and divorced in August, 1996.
Princess Diana continued her charitable work and became a campaigner against landmines making trips to Angola and Bosnia.

Diana
died in a car crash on the 31-th of August, 1997. Her lover, Dodi Al Fayed and the driver, Henri Paul, were also killed in the accident in a tunnel under the Place de lТ Alma in Paris after the group were being chased by paparazzi.

Still Princess Diana
remains the Princess of the hearts and millions of people remember her.

6. Выдающиеся люди Америки


Albert Einstein (1879-1955) Альберт Эйнштейн

Albert Einstein
, one of the most famous scientists in the world, was born in Germany. When he was fifteen his family moved to Switzerland because of money difficulties. There Albert
graduated from the Polytechnic Academy of Zurich where he had got scientific education. After that he worked at a patent office. Albert spent his free time studying philosophy, mathematics and science. In 1914 he returned to Germany and worked as a profes
sor of Berlin University.
Einstein's discoveries began in 1905 when he formulated the Theory of Relativity which was published in 1915.
Einstein also proved that every planet has a gravitational field similar to the magnetic field around a magnet.
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