Parks of london

(A) There — more than eighty parks in London. The best known parks near the centre of London — Hyde Park, Regent's Park and St. James's Park. Hyde Park ___ a large park of three hundred and forty acres. At the time of King Henry VIII there — wild animals in the park. Today people walk in the park or sit on the grass. The Serpentine — a lake in the middle of Hyde Park. In summer you can swim in the Serpentine or go out in a boat.

Regent's Park — larger than Hyde Park. The London Zoo — in Regent's Park. There — more than six thousand animals and birds in the Zoo. You can visit the Zoo by boat. The boat goes along the Regent's Canal. There — also an open air theatre in Regent’s Park. You can see Shakespeare’s plays there in summer.

St. James’s Park the oldest and the smallest of these three parks. It — very near Buckingham Palace. The lake and gardens in St. James’s Park — very beautiful.

(B) In A. D. 61, in the times of the Romans, London (it — Londinium in those days) — a walled city. But there __ probably a small settlement even before that time. The first settlements ___on two hills on the north bank of the Thames. These places today are Westminster and St. Paul’s. In the city walls there ____ “gates”. Now there ____ still several: Bishopsgate and Ludgate ___ two of them.

Exercise 42, p.22-23: Read the text, timing yourself. Make up questions covering the contents. Retell the text.

IONA

The island of Iona is situated to the West of Scotland. Iona is a very small island. In fact it is one of the smallest islands in the Atlantic.

The population of the island is not large. There are not very many people there. Life on the island is very different from life in town; there are no big shops or blocks of flats or busy roads. There is only one car on the island, but every family has a boat. There is lots of fish and crabs in the sea.

The houses have no modern conveniences. There is no electricity for electric lights and no running water. So in the summer people are up with the sun and in bed with the sun, too. In the winter they have oil lamps or candles in their cottages.

Iona is a wonderful place for a holiday. It is very quiet there. There are hundreds of holiday-makers there every summer. There are beautiful long beaches where the sand is very, very white, and most of the time the sea is very clear. In fact Iona is famous for its beaches.

The island also has its historical place of interest – the ancient Abbey, which is on a small hill in the middle of the island. In fact there is very little of the old Abbey today, only the walls and the old stone church.

After a holiday on Iona life in a big city with its noise, tall houses, big shops and heavy traffic is a great contrast.

Degrees of Comparison of Adjectives

Exercise 33 p. 20: Study the following chart.

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
small	smaller	smallest
hot	hotter	hottest
easy narrow	easier narrower	easiest narrowest
old	older elder	oldest eldest
comfortable	more comfortable	most comfortable
good bad	Better worse	best worst
little	less	least
Much many far	more farther \further	most farthest \furthest

Exercise 34, p.20: Compare the following according to the model.

Model: the Don, the Dnieper, the Volga: long, short

1. The Don, the Dnieper and the Volga are long rivers.

2. The Dnieper is longer than the Don but shorter than the Volga.

3. The Volga is the longest of the three, and the Don is the shortest.

1. the Urals, the Pennines, the Alps: high, low; old, young, 2. the climate of Karelia, the Central Asia Republics, Siberia: damp, dry; cold, hot. 3. the Azov Sea, the White Sea, the Caspian Sea: deep, shallow; cold, warm. 4. the Behring Strait, the English Channel, the Gibraltar Strait: narrow, wide. 5. the four seasons of the year: spring, summer, autumn, winter; cold, warm; beautiful.

Exercise 35, p. 20: Use the following patterns in sentences of your own.

1. The weather today is better (worse) than it was yesterday.

2. This book is as interesting as that one.

3. The Thames is not so (as) long as the Dnieper.

4. He is twice as old as I am.

5. His library is much richer than mine.

6. She is two years younger than I (am).

Exercise 36, p. 21: Translate the following sentences.

1. Какой из шести континентов самый большой? 2. Какой самый короткий месяц в году? 3. Днем на улицах города гораздо больше транспорта, чем вечером. 4. Новые здания гостиниц более современные и они гораздо выше, чем старые. 5. Моя библиотека не столь интересна и богата, как библиотека моего друга. 6. Николай самый молодой из моих друзей. Ему столько же лет, сколько и моей младшей сестре. 7. Кто у них в семье самый старший из детей? 8. Летом у нас больше свободного времени, чем зимой. 9. В конце года у них в отделе вдвое больше работы, чем обычно. 10. Мой брат на три с половиной года старше меня.

Exercise 37, p. 21: Fill in the blanks with the correct form of the adjective given in the brackets. Use the article where necessary.

1. Moscow, the capital of Russia, is one of its — towns (old). It is — than St. Petersburg. (old). 2. Red Square is — place in Moscow (beautiful). In old days it was — place in Moscow (busy). 3. The Hermitage in St. Petersburg is one of — of the world's art museums (fine). There are — than two and a half million works of art of different ages, countries and peoples (many). 4. St. Petersburg, like Moscow, is one of — industrial centres in our country (important). 5. The British Museum in London is famous for its library, which has one of — collections of books in the world (rich). 6. The English Channel, at its — part, the Strait of Dover, is 32 kilometres wide (narrow). 7. Among the world's — countries are the Vatican, in Rome, and Monaco, which is situated in the South of France (small). 8. The Sears Tower in Chicago is the world's — all-electric building (tall).

Exercise 45, p.68: Study the following chart.

Positive degree	Comparative degree	Superlative degree
late	later	latest
early	earlier	earliest
exactly beautifully	more exactly more beautifully	most exactly most beautifully
often	Oftener/more often	Oftenest/most often
quickly	quicker/more quickly	quickest/most quickly
Slowly	Slower/ more slowly	Slowest/ most slowly
well badly much11	Better worse more	Best worst most
little	less	least

Exercise 46, p.69: Make up sentences, using the adverbs given in the chart according to the following model.

Model: Nick speaks French well, Ann speaks French better than Nick, and Peter speaks French best (of all).

Exercise 47, p. 69: Translate the following sentences, using 'much', 'far', 'a great deal', 'still' with the adverbs in comparative degree.

1. Мой брат говорит по-французски намного лучше, чем по-английски. 2. Некоторым людям гораздо больше нравится путешествовать зимой, чем летом. 3. По воскресеньям я встаю намного позднее обычного. 4. Перед экзаменами студенты, как правило, значительно больше и усерднее занимаются. 5. Моя сестра гораздо чаще меня хо­дит в театр. 6. Вчера наши спортсмены играли еще быстрее. 7. Со словарем Вы переведете статью намного точнее. 8. Сегодня солнце светит гораздо ярче, чем вчера.