XII. Fill in the blanks with prepositions if necessary, then read and translate the text:

Leningrad is one ... the world’s most beautiful cities. Unlike other great European cities Leningrad is only 280 years old. Founded ... Peter I ... the early 18th century, St. Petersburg (as the city was called ... 1914) grew so rapidly that ... the end ... the century it came to be referred to as the Palmyra ... the North. Travellers were impressed ... the unique and charming beauty ... the city. Leningrad is especially attractive ... the white nights.

Many people find parts ... Leningrad which remind them ... their own cities seeing Paris ... its embankments, Venice ... the canals and bridges, Prague ... the shady parks and magnificent palaces. But this is but a first impression, for Leningrad is a unique city ... cities.

Leningrad is known to the world as the cradle ... the Great October Socialist Revolution, as the city which endured the 900-day fascist blockade and survived victorious. It is a great political, economic and cultural centre ... the Soviet Union, a Hero-city.

Leningrad is closely connected ... the life and work ... Lenin. Here ... the turn ... the century, Lenin began his revolutionary career and laid the foundation ... the Communist Party. ... the city’s working class districts Lenin held Marxist groups and trained professional revolutionaries … … the workers. And it was ... this city ... the Neva River that Lenin made his historical pronouncement: the Socialist Revolution had triumphed, and the world’s first workers-peasants’ state had been borne.

One can truly call Leningrad the Rome ... the Russian culture, for here Pushkin, Tchaikovsky, Dostoevsky, Rastrelli, Gogol, Tolstoy, Repin lived and worked.

One can wander ... the streets, squares and museums ... Leningrad, admiring the work ... world-famous architects, painters and sculptors, coming ... contact ... the history ... this wonderful city and meeting ... its hospitable and friendly people.

XIII. Combine the following words into sentences:

1. Tallin, of Soviet Estonia, the most charming city, the capital, in the USSR, is. 2. many, and, there are, Leningrad, palaces, magnificent, bridges, in. 3. impressed, were, by, the beauty, travellers, the city, of. 4. capital, the USSR, cultural, of, centre, economic, administrative, political, and, its, is, Moscow. 5. founded, one, years, was, Kiev, of, ago, cities, 1,500, the most ancient. 6. Soviet, cherish, population, the, country, of, multinational, history, the, its. 7. is, in, history, annals, the, first, Moscow, 1147, mentioned, in.

XIV. Make up situations using the following words and phrases:

1. European cities, one of the most beautiful, is founded by. 2. bridges, palaces, architectural monuments, to attract tourists. 3. greenery, shady parks, lakes, banks, the Moskva River, city within a park. 4. places of interest, to recommend to visit, to be impressed by.

XV. Here are the impressions of Moscow, written by an English student. Read and say what you think about them:

I first came to Moscow two years ago, in the dead of winter. A blanket of snow lay draped across the city, and huge pointed icicles dangled from every roof and tree. In delight I explored the city, went from one golden cupolar church to another, in my imagination I could hear the silvery tinkle of troika bells in the distance. It seemed almost that I had stepped into a fairy tale.

Fairy tales, however, reach an end. The Moscow of spring 1980 breeded no such fantasy; I found a city of realities rather than of dreams. The tinkle of troika bells gave way to clatter of workmen preparing for Moscow Olympic Games. And yet, once in a while, I found myself projected back into a dream-land. One late afternoon I went for a walk over Izmailovsky park. It was a beautiful day — one of those rare bursts of spring between snow-storms! Streams and rivulets gushed where thick snow had lain two days before. Birds sang in the birch-trees, an artist sat silently at his easel. The world seemed fresh and new-born.

I have alas barely touched on my impressions of Moscow. I would like to describe the sense of freedom I experienced from the absence of advertisements, which in England assault my brain. Wherever I turn, the pleasure I gain just from entering a metro station, which has all the splendour and majesty of a stately home! I would like to tell you my impressions of the educational system here, so different in many respects from our own and, of course, of the overwhelming hospitality which I have found to be such a strong feature of the Muscovites. To describe all this in detail, however, I would need to write a book, not merely an essay. I hope nonetheless, that you have gained from these few words an idea of my impressions of Moscow.