The City.Manhattan is full of parallel rows of buildings, those running

The City.

Manhattan is full of parallel rows of buildings, those running from north to south being called avenues while those running from east to west are called streets.

The avenues and streets have only numbers instead of names. On the Continent streets are usually named after historic figures and politicians. Every twenty- five years there is a revolution and a change of regime and then all the streets are re- christened and very often it is a criminal offence to call them by their former names. Sometimes even the postmen have no idea what the various streets in their district are called and occasionally people are not quite sure about the current names of the very streets they live in. These pleasures can never mean anything to the American. Regimes may come and go, the Republicans may take over from the Democrats and vice versa , new parties may gain or lose power, but 21st Street will keep its name under the most conservative or most revolutionary regime alike.

This is not the only disadvantage of the system. In London it may fall to your lot to find Alma Square N. W. 8. You have a vague idea where it may be and ask seventy- eight different persons and nobody knows exactly where Alma Square is. Bus- men who have driven past in its immediate neighbourhood for twenty- eight years have never heard of it. People who was pass through it twice a day only know that it is somewhere near, either in front of you or behind you, either to the left or maybe to the right. How nice it is to discover after two hours research, just when you are about to give the whole thing up, that you have passed through Alma Square ten times during your tour.

You feel a sense of triumph and superiority after finding Alma Square; but who on earth will feel a sense of triumph in New York on finding 79th Street between 78th and 80th Streets? Let the British build a town with numbered streets and then try to find 79th Street in it!



b) Письменно ответьте на вопросы к тексту:



1. How do people call parallel rows of buildings those running from East to West?

2. Do avenues run from North to South or from East to West?

3. What do avenues and streets have instead of names

4. Why are many streets on the Continent often re- christened?

5. Is it difficult or easy to find any streets or squares in London?