Exercise 5. Match the word with its definition
1.relationship (n)
2.accommodation (n)
3.bustle (n)
4.variety (n)
5.crowd (n)
6.sincerity (n)
7.profit (n)
8.reliable (adj)
9.significant (adj)
10.appealing (adj)
11.expensive (adj)
12.sincere (adj)
13.social (adj)
A.costing a lot of money
B.the quality when someone is sincere and really means what they are saying
C.the quality when someone or something can be trusted or depended on
D.attractive or interesting
E.when smth. is sincere, honest, true, and based on what you really feel and believe
F.place for someone to stay, live, or work
G.busy and usually noisy activity
H.a large group of people who have gathered together to do something.
I.relating to human society and its organization, or the quality of people's lives
J.the way in which two people or two groups feel about each other and behave towards each other
K.a lot of things of the same type that are different from each other in some way
L.money that you gain by selling things or doing business, after your costs have been paid
M. having an important effect or influence, especially on what will happen in the future
UNIT 2. MOSCOW: THE LORD OF THE RINGS
For his epic fantasy Ronald Tolkien borrowed magic rings from ancient
myths and historical legends. As for Moscow, it had its own rings from the very beginning. In fact, it came into being as a city of rings. Like many ancient cities it
was founded as a fortress. When first mentioned in the chronicles in 1147, it was a wooden fortress on a high hill at the confluence of two rivers, the Moskva and the Neglinnaya. In the latter part of the 4th century Prince Dmitry Donskoy replaced the oak walls with white stone, and later Italian architects replaced them with the red brick walls that we admire today.
Moscow's second ring, what is called Kitay-Gorod, has practically disappeared. Nothing is left but a fragment of the wall behind the Metropol Hotel and another fragment in Kitaygorodsky Passage near the Rossia Hotel. But if you descend into the underground crossing on Slavyanskaya Square, you will see a section of the bulky white-stone foundation of Kitay-Gorod's biggest tower, the Varvarskaya (of St. Barbara). Kitay-Gorod was not a complete ring. Its walls, which embraced a neighborhood of wealthy merchants, adjoined the Kremlin on the side of Red Square. The fortress was built in 1536—1538 by Petrok Maly (Pietro the Minor), an Italian architect.
Moscow periodicals of the 1830s wrote: "Laying out boulevards is a happy invention. It has made our old capital incredibly beautiful."
The Boulevard Ring, Moscow's third ring, also began as a fortress, White City. It embraced settlements north of the Kremlin all the way down to the Moskva River.
White City was built under the eagle eye of the monarch's expert, Fyodor Kon, in 1586—1593. Its size and beauty earned it the name of Czar's City. This largest stone fortress in Moscow was over nine kilometers long and had twenty-seven towers, ten of which served as gates. Today, on the site of these ten gate towers are the ten squares of the Boulevard Ring. On the site of the most beautiful tower of the fortress, the Tower of Seven Peaks, now stands the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
Moscow's longest and shortest-lived fortress, the Skorodom ("very quickly built"), was erected of logs in 1592. Two decades later it burned down during the Polish invasion. Instead of rebuilding it, Moscow erected a huge earthen wall on the site.
Two centuries have passed since the earthen walls were demolished, and a wide road appeared in their place. People who wished to build a house along the road were asked to lay out lawns and gardens before their homes. So the road came to be known as the Garden Ring. The lawns and gardens disappeared long ago. Today the avenue is lined with 20th-century buildings in the Russian Art Nouveau style and creations of Stalin's style.
Moscow's fifth and last defense line, the Kamer-Kollezhsky Rampart (from the Camera Collegium, the Ministry for Taxes and Fees), was built during the reign of Peter the Great in the early 18th century. It served as the city's customs boundary, protecting it from smuggling. Only few streets have survived from the rampart and they are not connected.
Like every megalopolis, Moscow is having traffic problems which can be solved only by creating more transport rings. The map of Moscow may be compared to the cross section of a tree trunk with a series of successive growth rings, but Moscow's rings are secular rather than annual.
In the past Moscow reduced all its medieval fortresses to ring roads. Today it continues to add ring after ring. Its administrative border is marked by the largest ring, the Moscow Outer Automobile Ring Road (MKAD), built in the 1960s. This is a 109-km highway with circular traffic.
The Third Transport Ring Road is one of the largest-scale projects of recent years. Its length is 36 kilometers; 12 kilometers represent tunnels, bridges and overpasses. The Lefortovo tunnels alone are 4.5 km long and lie deep under a historical neighborhood. The capital's two other rings, serving as a surface railroad and an underground metro line, bring the total number of Moscow's rings to nine. Devotees of Tolkien's epic with its nine magic rings might have stopped at this. But Moscow keeps moving on. Now it is preparing for a fourth transport ring, for motor vehicles.
EXERCISES
Exercise 1.
A. Find the Russian equivalent for:
the Neglinnaya river, the Garden Ring, the Boulevard Ring, Kitay-Gorod, Metropol Hotel, Rossia Hotel, Kitaygorodsky Passage, Slavyanskaya Square, Red Square, Kremlin, White City, Tower of Seven Peaks, Cathedral of Christ the Savior, Skorodom, Kamer-Kollezhsky Rampart
B. Where are they located?