Seconds.)

d) Find some key words to speak about Moscow nowadays.

A) Skim the text to understand what it is about. Time your reading. It is good if you can read it for 5 minutes (80 words per minute).

TEXT 6B NEW YORK

New York is a city where all the languages of the world are spoken and where people live on the ground, travel under the ground and work in the sky.

New York makes a great impression on all visitors because of its many high buildings, its theatres, museums and hotels, its beautiful bridges, and its expensive shops with their fabulous (баснословный) prices.

The first permanent white settlers (поселенцы) came to New York from Holland in 1626 These Dutch settlers bought all of Manhattan Island (остров) from the Indians for the equivalent of twenty-five dollars, while today some of this land costs a million dollars an acre. This island is the heart of the city.

It is on Manhattan Island that most of the skyscrapers are located. This island is connected by six long bridges, as well as by tunnels and ferries (паром), with the other four districts that constitute New York City.

New York is the largest city in the United States. Today there are more people living in the New York City than in Australia, Peru or Sweden

For transportation New York depends (зависеть) mainly on buses, the subway, taxis and ferries. The buses are slow because of the crowded streets, whereas the subway tram can go as fast as railroad trains, sometimes stopping only at the most important stations We may go all day by the subway for the same fare, if we only change trains but do not go out of the stations.

New York moves vertically as well as horizontally, taking its people by elevator to their offices on the fortieth, sixtieth, and eightieth floor.

New York is the richest and the poorest, the most modem and the most old-fashioned (старомодный) of cities It is the home of expensive hotels and cheap boarding houses, the home of symphonies and popular jazz, of cathedrals (собор) and night clubs; the home of the famous Metropolitan Opera and the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the home of most of the largest publishing houses (издательство) of the United States and the biggest newspapers. On the Fifth Avenue there are many expensive stores of international fame, but around the comer one may find little shops where imitation diamonds and cheap souvenirs are sold.