Places of interest in great britain

Britain is rich in its historic places which link the present with the past.

The oldest part of London is Lud Hill, where the city is originated. About a mile west of it there is Westminster Palace, where the king lived and the Parliament met, and there is also Westminster Abbey, the coronation church.

Liverpool, the "city of ships", is England's second greatest port, ranking after London. The most interesting sight in the Liverpool is the docks. They occupy a river frontage of seven miles. The University of Liverpool, established in 1903, is noted for its School of Tropical Medicine. And in the music world Liverpool is a well-known name, for it's the home town of "The Beatles".

Stratford-on-Avon lies 93 miles north-west of London. Shakespeare was born here in 1564 and here he died in 1616.

Cambridge and Oxford Universities are famous centres of learning.

Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument, presumably built by Druids, members of an order of priests in ancient Britain. Tintagel Castle is King Arthur's reputed birthplace. Canterbury Cathedral is the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Church of England.

The British Museum is the largest and richest museum in the world. It was founded in 1753 and contains one of the world's richest collections of antiquities. The Egyptian Galleries contain human and animal mummies. Some parts of Athens' Parthenon are in the Greek section.

Madam Tussaud's Museum is an exhibition of hundreds of life-size wax models of famous people of yesterday and today. The collection was started by Madam Tussaud, a French modeller in wax, in the 18th century. Here you can meet Marilyn Monroe, Elton John, Picasso, the Royal Family, the Beatles and many others: writers, movie stars, singers, politicians, sportsmen, etc.

QUESTIONS:

1. What is the oldest part of London?
2. What is Westminster Palace?
3. What is called "city of ships"?
4. Why is Stratford-on-Avon famous?
5. What are the famous centres of learning?
6. What is Stonehenge?
7. Who is the head of Church of England? What is his seat?
8. What is the largest and the richest museum in the world? What unique collections does it contain?
9. What can one see in Madam Tussaud's Museum?
VOCABULARY:

Lud Hill — Лад Хилл
church — церковь
frontage — фасад
prehistoric — доисторический
order — орден
priest — священник
Tintagel — Тинтайджэл
Canterbury Cathedral Archbishop — архиепископ Кентерберийский
antiquity — антиквариат; древность
mummies — мумии
wax — воск

LESSON 12

Ex.1:Read and translate the text into Russian:

COMPUTERS

Computer is an electronic device that can receive a set of instructions called program and then carry out them. The modern world of high technology could not be possible without computers. Different types and sizes of computers find uses throughout our society. They are used for the storage and handling of data, secret governmental files, information about banking transactions and so on. Computers have opened up a new era in manufacturing and they have enhanced modern communication systems. They are essential tools in almost every field of research, from constructing models of the universe to producing tomorrow’s weather reports. Using of different databases and computer networks make available a great variety of information sources.

There are two main types of computers, analog and digital, although the term computer is often used to mean only the digital type, because this type of computer is widely used today.

That is why I am going to tell you about digital computers.

Everything that a digital computer does is based on one operation: the ability to determine: on or off, high voltage or low voltage or — in the case of numbers — 0 or 1 or do-called binary code. The speed at which the computer performs this simple act is called computer speed. Computer speeds are measured in Hertz or cycles per second. A computer with a «clock speed» of 2000 MHz is a fairly representative microcomputer today. It is capable of executing 2000 million discrete operations per second. Nowadays microcomputers can perform from 800 to over 3000 million operations per second and supercomputers used in research and defense applications attain speeds of many billions of cycles per second.

Digital computer speed and calculating power are further enhanced by the amount of data handled during each cycle.

Except two main types of computers, analog and digital there are eight generations of digital computers or processing units. Thefirst generation was representedby processing unit Intel 8086. The second generation central processing unit was represented by processing unit Intel 80286, used in IBM PC AT 286. The third generation is Intel 80386, used in IBM PC AT 386. The microprocessors of the fourth generation were used in computers IBM PC AT 486. There are also central processing units of the fifth generation, used in Intel Pentium 60 and Intel Pentium 66, central processing units of the sixth generation, used in computers Intel Pentium 75, 90,100 and 133. Few years ago appeared central processing units of seventh and eighth generations. They are much more powerful and can perform from 2000 to over 3000 million operations per second.

QUESTIONS:

1. What is computer?

2. What is the main purpose of all computers?

3. Where are computers used?

4. What is the index of computer speed?

5. What speeds do modern computers have?

6. How many generations of digital computer are there?

7. What is the first generation processing unit?

VOCABULARY:

electronic device — электронное устройство

to receive — получать, принимать

set ofi nstructions — набор / свод инструкций