Sheraton-damascus

You can find Sheraton hotels on all the continents of the world. They are famous for their good food and services. The Sheraton-Damascus in Syria was built to satisfy the growing need for hotel living both for individual guests and those traveling in groups. The hotel is situated near the commercial centre of the capital and is an ideal place for conferences, shows and exhibitions.

The Sheraton-Damascus is a first-class hotel and can accommo­date up to 800 guests in its rooms and suites. All the rooms have private bathrooms and an automatic telephone system. The hotel is air-conditioned to provide maximum comfort for its guests. The Sheraton-Damascus offers a lot of facilities, such as 24 hours daily room service, a coffee bar for quick meals and grill-rooms, a beauty parlour, a barber's shop, shoe-repair shop, dry cleaning, etc. For conferences or banquets the hotel can accommodate up to 1,000 guests and there are smaller rooms for seminars and individual par­ties.

Among other facilities, there is a swimming-pool, a sauna and a garage. The hotel can organize car hire and sightseeing tours.

to accommodate размещать к гостинице, принимать в гостинице; suite номер-люкс; grill-room гриль-бар; among среди; beauty parlour) салон красоты, женская парикмахерская; barber's (shop) мужская парикмахерская; parking area стоянка; shoe-repair shop мастерская по ремонту обуви; dry cleaning химчистка; car hire прокат машин

IV семестр

1. Ural Has It All!

Ural riches at your disposal!

The Ural area is one of the richest regions in Russia It possesses wonderful minerals and stones, various natural resources, rich flora and fauna, ages long historical and cultural tradi­tions, kind and open-hearted people.

Unique natural phenomena: The Kungur Ice Cave and The Kungur Forest and Stepp Territory, as well as the open-air etnographic museum of wooden Ural architecture in Khohlovka, the abnormal zone Molebka, an attraction of the UFO fans are waiting for you.

If you like boating and rafting down the rapid Ural rivers the Sylva, the Chusovaya, the Vishera, if you are fond of hunting in a winter Ural forest or like hiking and mountain climbing, then you are welcome to the Urals.

The striking beauty of the northern Urals will amaze you!

Do you know where the border between Europe and Asia is si­tuated? If «no»,then visit us and you'll see the border column on the mountain top and take wonderful pictures there.

Ural's riches await you!

Capture them in your hearts for a moment and they will rema­in with you for ever!

Perm.

Perm today is rather a large regional center. It occupies the territory of about 721 km. So it is the second largest city in Russia after Moscow concerning its territory.

Perm is inhabited by 1000000 people of more than 70 nationalities. In 2008 we will celebrate its 285-th anniversary. In 1723 a big copper smelting plant was set up on the Egoshiha river which gave birth to the city itself. The Perm historians suppose that Perm got its name from the Komi word 'perema' which means 'a hill covered with forest'. And you can see that the territory of Perm is really hilly and there were times when the territory was covered with forests. The Komies were the native people of our lands.

For a long time, beginning with the Egoshiha copper smelting works, Perm developed as an industrial place. Now it is a large industrial center, having about 120 enterprises which employ more than half of its population. They produce a lot of goods, the most famous are jet-engines, cables, bicycles, telephones etc. Perm is a city of science and students as well. There are more than 40 scientific research institutions in it, the Ural branch of the Academy of Sciences, 10 higher schools, the Perm University being the oldest one.

Perm has old cultural traditions. The names of Popov, Sviyasev, Dyagilev, Mamin-Sibiryk, Bahzov and others were connected with our city.

Now we have some professional theatres, a ballet company «Experiment», some theatre studios, a philarmonic society, a museum of local lore, a picture gallery, famous for its unique collection of wooden sculpture and icon collection of the Stroganovs school of icon painting.

Looking to the past of Perm we can see that Perm developed as a large transport center. Now we have a large airport, a transcontinental mainline and an important water artery - the Kama river.

3. Moscow. (Бурова З.И. p. 343-345.)

MOSCOW

Moscow is the capital of Russia. It was founded by Prince Yury Dolgoruky in 1147. Its eight hundred and sixtieth anniver­sary was widely celebrated in 2007. There is a monument to Y. Dolgoruky in the very center of Moscow. It has been erected just opposite the building of the Moscow Government.

During the whole history of Russia Moscow played the leading part in its cultural and political life. In 1918 Moscow became the capital of Russia again, though for two centuries before it, the capital of Russia had been St. Petersburg. Moscow is the seat of the Government and President of Russia. The center of Moscow is Red Square. Manifestations and parades take place in this square during the holidays. Moscow is always beautifully decorated and illuminated during the holidays. Many important events in the history of Russia have been connected with the name of Moscow.

Now Moscow is a big industrial, cultural and political centre of the country. Its numerous plants and factories produce vari­ous machines for all branches of national economy and different consumer goods for the population.

Moscow is a large educational and scientific centre. There is a great number of various educational establishments and research institutes here and the oldest one is Moscow University. It was founded by M. Lomonosov in the 18th century and now it bears his name. The building of Moscow University is so high that one can see it from different parts of the city. It is one of the highest buildings in Moscow. Moscow is also the seat of the Academy of Sciences of Russia with its numerous institutes, laboratories and research institutes.

Moscow is beautiful. We admire its fine buildings, magnif­icent palaces, architectural monuments, beautiful green parks and squares. Those who have not been to Moscow for a long time are deeply impressed by the changes that have taken place in the general appearance of the city. Its size has been greatly in­creased. A great deal of quite new districts have appeared in it lately. The planning of these districts meets the requirements of a new modern town — long straight streets, blocks of flats of modern design with all necessary modern conveniences and much greenery in the streets and around the houses. Thousands of new blocks of flats in various parts of Moscow have already been built and great construction work is still going on.

The Moscow Government does its best to improve the traffic system. It is being improved from year to year. The Moscow un­derground is no doubt the best in the world. It connects the cen­tre of the city with almost all districts and suburbs of Moscow. The underground is the quickest and most convenient means of transport.

The Moscow Kremlin is one of the world's largest collections of historical and art treasures. The cultural life of the capital is very rich. There are plenty of cinemas, theatres, museums and art exhibitions here. Special exhibitions demonstrating the largest achievements of world and Russian industry, high tech­nology, agriculture and culture are often held in Moscow.

A wonderful collection of world famous pictures by Kramskoy, Polenov, Surikov and other Russian and contemporary artists is being exhibited in the Tretyakov Gallery. The Pushkin Art Museum possesses art works by foreign masters. In the world famous Bolshoi Theatre one can see the best ballet performances and hear Russian and foreign operas. Moscow is also famous for one of the largest libraries in the world — The Russian State Library where one can find all conveniences for work and study.

4. London. (Любимцева С.Н. p. 238-239.)

LONDON

London is situated on the Thames River. The Thames is very beautiful. It plays an important role in the country's life.

When a person comes to London for the first time in his life he will get different impressions of the city. He will believe that the city is too noisy, too large and overcrowded. But of course he will like it.

Everybody enjoys London's places of interest: museums, world famous galleries, theatres, Hyde Park, the City, Big Ben, the Tower of London and others.

The Tower of London is a very old building. It is more than 900 years old. English kings lived in it many years ago, but now it is a museum. People who come to London like to go to the Tower.

Most Londoners do not work on Sundays, they are fond of going to different parks in London, to the seaside. One of the finest and the most beautiful parks in London is Hyde Park. People have their meetings in Hyde Park and Trafalgar Square.

Trafalgar Square is the geographical centre of London. In the north of Trafalgar Square is the National Gallery, an art gallery in which there are many wonderful pictures of English artists.

There are many old buildings in London. The. City is the business centre of London. There are a lot of offices and banks in the City. It is a very busy place in daytime but when the office-hours are over, almost all the people, about a million, who come to work in the City, leave for home.

5. St. Petersburg.