The Moscow Kremlin. The Moscow Kremlin is one of the most famous landmarks of Russia and the symbol of former Soviet authority. It is a long red brick wall with 20 towers, which were built at the end of the 15th century on the order of Ivan the Great. The most renowned and important tower is the Spasskaya Tower, which leads to Red Square. The tower was put up in 1491 by an Italian architect Pietro Solario. It has a belfry, a ruby star and the chimes, which are broadcast by radio as a time signal to the whole nation. Other famous towers are the Nikolskaya, Troitskaya, Kutafya and Borovitskaya. The name Kremlin means “fortress”. This historic fortified complex is situated at the heart of Moscow and overlooks the Moskva River and Red Square. It is the best known kremlin of Russia. Apart from the walls and towers it includes five strikingly beautiful palaces and four cathedrals. All of them are open to public. The heart of the Kremlin is the Cathedral Square with the main church of Moscow – the Cathedral of Dormition, where all the tsars were once crowned. The church has a massive limestone facade and five golden domes. Other notable structures include two domestic churches and the Bell Tower of Ivan the Great. The largest bell in the world is also situated here. It’s called the Tsar Bell. The oldest structure within the Kremlin walls is the Palace of Facets, which holds the imperial thrones. The other old building is the house of the royal family – the Terem Palace. Both these palaces are linked by the Grand Kremlin Palace. There are also several interesting museums inside the Kremlin walls. For example, the Arsenal, which was originally built for Peter the Great, and the Armoury building, which houses Russian state regalia and Diamond fund. At the moment, the complex of Kremlin serves as the official residence of the President of the Russian Federation.
Exercise 4. Remember the meaning of the terms that you will find in the text. 1. Spread sheet package - a kind of computer programs that you calculate data on sale, taxis, profits and so on. 2. Floppy disk - a disk made of plastic material upon which data are stored on magnetic tracks. 3. Compatible - it is usually said about two computers when their programs can be run on both of them. 4. Peripheral devices, or peripherals are units connected to the central processing units (CPU); they are input devices, output devices and storage devices. 5. Input is the process of transferring data or program instruction into the computer. 6. Output is the result produced by a computer. 7. Storage is the process of keeping information in a special device in computer. 8. Software may be denoted as a set of programs or instructions executed by the computer. 9. Hardware is a computer machinery and equipment. 10. Digital computer is a type of computer that uses a binary system. 11 11. Chip is a tiny piece of silicon containing a complex electronic circuits. Before reading the passage " The Rise of the Personal Computer" find in the text "The Rise of IBM" the chronological information on the models of computers produced by this company. Was the policy of IBM successful in the 1960s? THE RISE OF THE PERSONAL COMPUTER The first personal computer, the Altair, was announced in Popular Electronics in its January 1975 issue. The Altair was also the first example of new computer hardware. It caused a sensation in the computer industry: those who wanted could have their own computers to play with at home, and a mighty computer industry soon began to grow. A young computer hacker from Seattle by the name of William Gates, then a freshman at Harvard, sold the Altair developers a computer language that would run on their machine and that made it possible to program many advanced functions. Emboldened by their success with Altair, Gates and his friend founded Microsoft Corporation, which has become the world's largest person
the color of the wallpaper?
Какая кровать? Одноместная или двухместная?
Which bed? Single or double?
Большая комната или нет?
Large room or not?
Есть в ней компьютер и телевизор?
Is it the computer and the TV?
Много ли там вещей?
How many things there?