Welcome to London
Would you like to visit London some day?
Level B1
Read the text and speak about the capital of the UK.
Everybody kmows that London is the capital of Great Britain. Besides, it’s a leading cultural, education and financial centre of the United Kindom. London is one of the most visited cities in the world, and its Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and Heathrow Airport are known everywhere. London is also famous for its unpredictable and changeable weather. So if you are going to visit this wonderfull city – don’t forget to take an umbrella!
London is unlike any other city in the world. The city has never been planned and it has many parts which are different from each other. Modern London is really three cities: the City of London, a commercial and trade centre, the City of Westminster (the West End) that can be called the historical centre of London with lots of historical places and famous parks, and the City of Southwark (the East End), an industrial part of the capital.
London stands on the deep river Thames, which runs into the North Sea, so all kinds of ships can come into the port of London.
There is so much to see in London that even Londoners can always find new places of interest. They like to say, “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.”
There are lots of places of interest that are worth seeing in London. They range from magnificent National Gallery to Old St. Thomas’ Operating Theatre, and from ancient Charterhouse to modern Canary Wharf. When you visit London for the first time you should start with such tourist attractions as St. Paul’s Cathedral, Buckingham Palace, the British Museum, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, Madame Tussaud’s and the National Gallery.
The oldest part of London is Lud Hill, where the city 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 royal church. The British Museum is one of the largest and the richest museums 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. Madam Tussaud’s Museum is an exhibition of hundreds of life-size wax models of famous people of yesterday and today. Here you can meet Marilyn Monroe, Elton John, Picasso, the Royal Family, the Beatles and many others.
London is a mix of different nationalities and cultures. Many languages are spoken here. But the official, typical London accent is called Cockney. It can be quite uneasy to understand, but anyway it’s not common.
There are three main types of public transport in London – buses, cabs and the underground, which is the oldest in the world. It has been operating without a break since 1863 and is also known as the Tube. The red double-decker buses have become the national symbol of Great Britain and London as well.
One of my dreams is to visit London one day. There are lots of places to visit, but The London Eye is in top of my list. At 135m, The London Eye is the world’s largest cantilevered observation wheel. It was conceived and designed by Marks Barfield Architects and was launched in 2000. A ride on the London Eye takes 30 minutes, and it travels at a speed of about 0.6 miles per hour. With more than 3.5 million people checking out the Eye every year, it’s now the most popular paid tourist attraction in the U.K. I want to visit it because I enjoy picturesque views from height. I wish my dream comes true.