At an American home / В американском доме

 

The lives of most Americans spin around their homes. The number of Americans who own their houses is the highest among western nations. Most Americans live in "single-family-dwellings", They are houses with front and backyard.

There are four seasons almost everywhere in America. The rhythm of life around an American home tends to follow the seasons pattern. Spring means that the storm windows must be taken down, in those areas where it gets cold in winter. The screen windows, the ones that keep the American home from insects and mosquitoes, need to be cleaned or painted or put up in their places. After winter, the garden needs a lot of work, in summer, the lawn must be mown every week or so. It’s a good time to scrape and paint whatever is wood in the house. As soon as autumn leaves begin to fall, they must be raked, and the storm windows need to be ready and put up again. What an American wants to do — put in a new patio, or build on a new room, or finish the attic — will have to wait until next summer

There is always something that needs to be done at home. The majority of American home-owners do everything around their homes themselves.

 

Словарь

to spin around smth — вращаться вокруг чего-либо

a single-family-dwelling — жилье, жилище для одной семьи

to tend to follow smth — быть склонным следовать чему-либо

insects and mosquitoes — насекомые и комары

to mow the lawn — (to mow — mowed — mown) — косить газон

to rake the autumn leaves — сгребать граблями осенние листья

a new patio — новое патио, новый дворик

to finish the attic — закончить чердак или мансарду

 

 

Big cities of the USA: New York / Большие города США: Нью-Йорк

New York is the biggest city in the USA. The number of inhabitants is about 18 million. It belongs to the largest cities in the world. It is sometimes called "The Big Apple". New York has five major parts: Manhattan, Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island (Richmond) and Brooklyn. The black quarter — Harlem — is in northern part or Manhattan.

The city was built on a modern plan of streets and avenues, which are numbered. Streets run east-west and avenues north-south. Only a few of them have their names, e.g. Wall Street and Broadway. Broadway is the centre of cultural life. There is concentrated most of entertainment (e.g. Metropolitan Opera or Carnage Hall). The island is washed by the Hudson River and the East River. East Village is a center of many ethnic restaurants, boutiques and jazz clubs. Greenwich Village is the home of artists and writers.

New York is famous for its Manhattan skyline — a large number of skyscrapers on a small area. They started to build skyscrapers here because the price of land on the island was very high. The first skyscraper was built in 1903. Today they are built with the help of computers. In fact, the skyscrapers are small towns. We can find here residential quarters, offices, parking lots, restaurants, shops, fitness centers, swimming pools, etc. Living here is very expensive.

There are many attractive places where visitors like to go in New York. The most known bridge is the Brooklyn Bridge. There are many islands in this area — Roosevelt Island, Coney Island and Liberty Island with the Statue of Liberty. It’s a copy of a small statue given to the USA by France as the symbol of the friendship between these two nations. And it is a symbol of freedom. The only quiet place is Central Park where famous rock concerts take place. You can go there to relax by walking or jogging.

 

Словарь

the number of inhabitants — численность населения

ethnic restaurants — рестораны этнической кухни

a skyline — горизонт; силуэт

residential quarters — жилые кварталы

a parking lot (s) — место для парковки машин

the Statue of Liberty — статуя Свободы

Education in the USA / Образование в США

American public education is operated by state and local governments, regulated by the United States Department of Education through restrictions on federal grants. Children are required in most states to attend school from the age of six or seven (generally, kindergarten or first grade) until they turn eighteen (generally bringing them through 12th grade, the end of high school). Some states allow students to leave school at sixteen or seventeen.

About 12 % of children are enrolled in parochial or non-sectarian private schools. Just over 2 % of children are homeschooled. The United States has many competitive private and public institutions of higher education, as well as local community colleges of varying quality with open admission policies. Americans of twenty-five and older, 84.6% graduated from high school. 52.6 % attended some college, 27.2 % earned a bachelor’s degree, and 9.6 % earned graduate degrees. The basic literacy rate is approximately 99 %. The United Nations assigns the United States an Education Index of 0.97, tying it for twelfth-best in the world.

The most notable characteristic of the American education system is the large number of people it serves. In 1995, 87 percent of Americans between age 25 and 29 graduated from high school. Among those who completed high school, 62 percent completed at least some college, and 28 percent earned at least a bachelor’s degree.

Expanding access to college education is an important priority for the U.S. government. In his 1997 State of the Union address U.S. president Bill Clinton called for the creation of new public policy to enable virtually every night school graduate to receive some form of college education.

 

Словарь

to be operated by smb/smth — управляемый кем-либо

a kindergarten — детский сад

to be enrolled in a school — быть зачисленным в школу

parochial — приходский

a non-sectarian private school — межконфессиональная частная школа

admission policies — правила поступления; правила приема абитуриентов

to graduate from high school — выпуститься или закончить среднеобразовательную школу (в амер. англ.)

the basic literacy rate — общий уровень грамотности

a bachelor’s degree — степень бакалавра

to expand access to college education — расширить доступ к образованию в колледже