Text 48. BIRMINGHAM

Long famous as an international business centre, Birmingham has developed into a modern and exciting city whose buildings and shops are second to none.

Birmingham is at the heart of Britain’s motorway system. The superbly designed inner ring road is easily identified by its red surface and gives easy access to the city centre.

Massive post-war development schemes have meant exciting new buildings. But the best of the old has been preserved.

The city’s museum and art gallery has some of the finest examples of pre-Raphaelite painting, with works by Burne-Jones and William Morris. The Science Museum houses the earliest English locomotive actually built (1784).

Birmingham’s ultra-modern library is one of the largest and best stocked in Europe and includes the Shakespeare Memorial Library with 40,000 books in 90 languages.

The city possesses several interesting churches and two cathedrals.

Shopping facilities in Birmingham are a magnet for thou­sands; there is a wealth of variety few places in Britain can ri­val. The multilevel Bull Ring Shopping Centre¹ is completely traffic free and linked by subways with the major shopping streets of the city. It includes most kinds of retail shops, open-air and covered markets, banks, restaurants arid offices. Equally impressive is the air-conditioned New Street Shopping Centre².

Birmingham has more canals than Venice. Some canal basins have been developed as recreational centers, with walks, pubs, restored buildings and boat trips from Gas Street Basin³ and Cambrian Wharf⁴.

The city has excellent facilities for all kinds of sport. It boasts twenty swimming pools and eight municipal golf courses, as well as many private clubs. Edgbaston Reservoir⁵ is a 60-acre lake for sailing, rowing and fishing, and the Wyndley Leisure Centre at Sutton Coldfield⁶ provides facilities for indoor sports, Test⁷ and County cricket⁸ is played at Edgbaston; Aston Villa, Birmingham City and West Bromwich Albion are the local football teams.

Notes:

1. the Bull Ring Shopping Centre – центр магазинов Булл Ринг;

2. the New Street Shopping Centre – центр магазинов на Нью Стрит;

3. Gas Street Basin – Бассейн на Гас Стрит;

4. Cambrian Wharf – пристань Кембриан;

5. Edgbaston Reservoir – Бассейн Эджбастон;

6. the Wyndley Leisure Centre at Sutton Coldfield – центр досуга в Уиндли в Саттон Колдфилд;

7. Test (matches) – международные (соревнования);

8. County cricket – крикет графства.

Answer the following questions:

1. Where is Birmingham situated?

2. What works does the city’s museum and art gallery have?

3. Is Birmingham’s library old or modern?

4. Why are shopping facilities in Birmingham a magnet for thousands?

5. What is a peculiar feature of Birmingham’s canals?

6. What sport facilities does the city have?