16 A2 what makes a place special

CHAPTER 1 City, Country, Continent LET'S THINK ABOUT NEW YORK CITY. LET'S FIND THREE THINGS THAT SAY "NEW YORK!" Think about a park, a food, and a way to travel around the city. Then answer the questions. 1 This park in New York is famous. You can see it in many movies. What's its name? A Central Park B Manhattan Park C Brooklyn Park 2 Many people eat this type of bread for breakfast in New York. Sometimes they put meat or cheese on it. What is it? A eggs B bagel C Cake 3 In London, taxis are usually black. But New York taxis are a different color. What color are they? A red B blue C yellow

Now let's think about the country of Italy. What do you think of? buildings— maybe the Colosseum in Rome, or the Vatican? Food pizza, pasta, ice cream? Other things— soccer, opera singing, the boats in Venice? Which three things would you choose to describe Italy? Now let's look at continents. How many continents are there in the world? Most people say seven. How good are you at geography? 1 Which continent has no countries? 2 It is the second largest continent. Which is it? 3 Three things: the Andes, Machu Picchu, soccer. Which continent are you thinking about? In this book we're going to look at a city, Moscow; a country, Egypt; and a continent, Australia. For each of them, we're going to look at three things. These might be buildings, animals, people, types of food, or something else that people connect with that place.

CHAPTER 2 Moscow THE LARGEST CITY IN EUROPE, ONE OF THE OLDEST AND NOW ONE OF THE MOST EXPENSIVE, MOSCOW IS RUSSIA'S CAPITAL. OVER 11 MILLION PEOPLE LIVE HERE, AND THE CITY IS STILL GROWING -THIS NUMBER MIGHT DOUBLE IN THE NEXT 20 YEARS! You can see lots of onion domes on old buildings in Moscow and in other parts of Russia. You can also see them in other countries, like in the south of Germany, Austria, the Middle East, and India. Many people think the idea for onion domes came from the East. Others say they are a Russian idea and a smart one, because snow falls off them. This is important in a country with very cold winters.

This is Red Square, in the center of Moscow. On the right is St Basil's Cathedral with its onion domes. On the left is the Kremlin. In Russian, kremlin means "fortress." Hundreds of years ago people hid in the Kremlin in times of danger. But today, visitors come to see its palaces, its museums, and its four cathedrals. In Moscow there are many old buildings, but there are many new buildings, too. It's a fast-growing city. People say that there are too many cars and it's very expensive to live there. But many people like living in Moscow because of the interesting shops and the nightlife.

In November 1939, the Soviet Union went to war with Finland. The war went on until the following March, so it's called the Winter War. Because their clothes weren't warm enough, many Soviet soldiers died from the cold. After the Winter War they got new winter clothes, and a special hat— the ushanka. Soviet soldiers wore these warm fur hats through the Second World War, or World War II. After World War II ended in 1945, people in other countries started to wear ushankas because they're comfortable and warm, and they look good. They became popular in some northern European countries, and in Canada and the United States. The police and soldiers often wear them and in the United States so do the people who bring the mail. Many years ago people made ushankas from animal fur. Now they make the "fur" in factories. This is cheaper and stronger. Also, many people today don't want to kill animals to make hats.

Think of food in Russia. Think of something really expensive maybe $10,000 a kilogram! At that price, you don't get much caviar for $40. In the past, most caviar came from the rivers of Russia. Today, most caviar comes from the Caspian Sea, and most of that comes from Iran, not Russia. However, caviar also comes from the United States, Canada, and Saudi Arabia. In 2012 there was a caviar-eating competition in a Moscow restaurant. The winner, Alexander Valov, ate $5,000 of caviar in less than a minute and a half. He won $340 and some more caviar to take home.