世界风景名胜英语介绍.doc

a brief history of no_10 downing street 英国唐令街10号The first domestic house known to have been built on the site of Number 10 was a large dwelling leased to Sir Thomas Knyvet, a Parliamentarian and Justice of the Peace. It was Knyvet who arrested Guy Fawkes for the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. After his death the house passed to his niece, Mrs. Hampden, the aunt of Oliver Cromwell. The front part of the house we see today, and the adjoining house at Number Eleven, were built by a Harvard graduate and property speculator called George Downing. He acquired rights to the site during the brief period of Parliamentary rule in the 17th Century. A portrait of the man, who was widely regarded as a profiteering rogue, now hangs in the Entrance Hall. The very ordinary address and the modest terraced face are deceptive, giving little clue to the real size and grandeur within. Number Ten in fact consists of two houses. The house which faces Downing Street is a typical late 17th century town house. But it conceals a complicated building which was refronted in the 18th C and enlarged in the 20th C. A corridor joins this house to what was once a mansion in its own right, with a walled garden and a view across Horse Guards Parade. The two houses were joined in 1732 when the property became an official government residence. Sir Robert Walpole moved in in 1735, replacing the last tenant, Mr Chicken.At the time Walpole was First Lord of the Treasury and was informally seen as the first British Prime Minister. Walpole secured the property as a residence for all future First Lords of the Treasury. Today the Prime Minister still resides at Downing Street by right as First Lord of the Treasury, and accordingly his title adrorns the letter-box on the famous black front door. The house has seen much restoration, alteration and tinkering over the years. It has changed to accommodate new functions for the building, the fashions of the times, the tastes of its occupants and sometimes even urgent need to shore up the very structure of the house itself. Prime Ministers have overseen great changes both within and without the house. This has given the house a different atmosphere almost every generation. Viscount Goderich ordered the creation of a large dining room at No.10 in the 1820s. The houses on the South side of the street were pulled down in the 1860s to be replaced by the great buildings of state which now overshadow the modest terrace. Electricity replaced gas and candlelight in 1894, and telephones arrived soon after this. In the early 1960s major restructuring work was carried out in order to save the building from collapse and to create a better working environment for staff. In 1988-89 the architect Quinlan Terry was brought in to enrich the decoration of the drawing rooms. And in 1993-95 computer cabling, which has greatly changed the way No.10 staff perform their day-to-day duties, was installed. Number 10 Downing Street stands close to the site of what was once the palace of Whitehall. This was an enormous rambling collection of buildings and gardens confiscated from Cardinal Wolsey by Henry VIII. It served as the official residence of the Monarch until it was destroyed by fire in 1698. The only part of the palace of Whitehall that remains is the Banqueting House, a spectacular building that can be visited and is almost opposite Downing Street on Whitehall. arlington national cemetery 美国阿灵顿国家公墓Across the Potomac River in Arlington, Virginia; closest Metro Arlington Cemetery. AprilCSept daily 8amC7pm; rest of year daily 8amC5pm. A poignant contrast to the grand monuments of the capital is provided by the vast sea of identical white headstones on the hillsides of Arlington National Cemetery. The countrys most honoured final resting place was first used during the Civil War, when the grand mansion at the top of the hill, and all the surrounding land, belonged to Confederate leader Robert E Lee. Nearly 200,000 US war dead lie here, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier remembers thousands more whose bodies were never recovered or identified. An eternal flame marks the grave of President John F Kennedy, near his brother Robert and, as of 1994, next to his widow, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Among other well-known names is Pierre LEnfant, whose grave site offers a superb view over the Mall and the District he designed; while the new Women in Military Service Memorial, by the main gate, is just one of several high-profile memorials to celebrated personnel, like the doomed crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger.Unless you have strong legs and lots of time, the best way to see the vast cemetery is by Tourmobile, which leaves from the visitor center at the entrance. You can also walk here from the Lincoln Memorial across the Arlington Bridge.Buckingham Palace 英国白金汉宫 The graceless colossus of Buckingham Palace, popularly known as Buck House, has served as the monarchs permanent London residence only since the accession of Victoria. Bought by George III in 1762, the building was overhauled by Nash in the late 1820s, and again by Aston Webb in time for George Vs coronation in 1913, producing a palace thats about as bland as its possible to be.For two months of the year, the hallowed portals are grudgingly nudged open; timed tickets are sold from the tent-like box office in Green Park at the western end of The Mall. The interior, however, is a bit of an anticlimax: of the palaces 660 rooms youre permitted to see just 18, and theres little sign of life, as the Queen decamps to Scotland every summer. For the other ten months of the year theres little to do here, since the palace is closed to visitors C not that this deters the crowds who mill around the railings, and gather in some force to watch the Changing of the Guard, in which a detachment of the Queens Foot Guards marches to appropriate martial music from St Jamess Palace (unless it rains, that is).You can view a small selection of the Royal Collection C which is more than three times larger than the National Gallerys C at the Queens Picture Gallery (daily 9.30amC4.30pm; 4), round the south side of the palace on Buckingham Palace Road. The exhibitions usually include some works by Reynolds, Gainsborough, Vermeer, Rubens, Rembrandt and Canaletto, which make up the bulk of the collection.Theres more pageantry on show at the Nash-built Royal Mews (AprilCSept TuesCThurs noonC4pm; OctCDec Wed only; 3.50), further along Buckingham Palace Road. The royal carriages, lined up under a glass canopy in the courtyard, are the main attraction, in particular the Gold Carriage, made for George III in 1762, smothered in 22-carat gilding and weighing four tons, its axles supporting four life-size figures.Experiencing Scotland 感受美丽独特苏格兰Scotland is a unique and austere place, laden with history, where you can find aristocratic palaces and castles, as well as the traditional parades in national costumes. It has some of the most beautiful cities in Europe, a living testimony of a proud and splendid past. In order to see and discover the true soul of Scotland today, what forged the character of this splendid region, we have to go towards the northern regions, to the Grampian Mountains. Beautiful and unspoiled, it was difficult to farm. The Scots subdued the environment with simple spades and strong arms. The history of this ancient struggle, and its peoples ancient love affair with the hard land, is enclosed within the walls of the Angus Folk Museum. You are able to get a feel of the typical rural atmosphere of times past from the everyday artifacts displayed here. From coastal Aberdeen in towards the interior of the Grampian Mountains there runs the Castle Trail, a road that touches on many fortresses, which are witnesses of continual revolts against the dominion of neighboring England in Scottish history. Perhaps the most uplifting moment for Scottish autonomy is the one experienced inside this ancient abbey of Arbroath, where, in 1320; the Declaration of Independence was celebrated, at the instigation of King Robert the Bruce. He carried out the plan for autonomy drawn up by the great popular hero William Wallace, to whom cinema has dedicated the wonderful film Braveheart, the winner of five Oscars.( to be continued)中文：苏格兰是一个独特的地方，历史的厚重感随处可见。豪门望族的府第与城堡历历在目，以及穿着传统服装的仪仗队。这些全欧洲最美丽的城市，诉说着苏格兰昔日的荣耀与光芒。 想体验和发现真正今日的苏格兰，追寻这里民族精神的源泉，就得去北部的格兰扁山区。格兰扁山区景色怡人，决无污染，曾一度不适合耕作，苏格兰人硬是凭着简单的锄头、铁锹和他们的双手征服了生存环境。 苏格兰先民的艰苦劳作史以及他们自古对这片贫瘠土地的眷恋，在安格斯民俗博物馆里一览无余。从这里展出的平常物品中，你能够感受到那种典型的往日乡间气氛。 有一条古堡之路从沿海的阿伯丁一直蜿蜒到格兰扁山区深处。沿途很多昔日的要塞，都是苏格兰在历史上不断反抗英格兰统治的见证。 苏格兰争取自治的过程中最大快人心的时刻莫过于1320年，在古老的阿布罗斯修道院，在罗伯特布鲁斯国王的鼓动下庆贺独立宣言的签订。布鲁斯采纳了传奇英雄威廉华莱士所献的计策，完成了自治大业，这个故事后来被改编成精彩的电影勇敢的心，并获五项奥斯卡大奖。（待续） Forbidden City (Zijincheng) The Forbidden City is located at the center of the city of Beijing. First built in 1406 and completed in 1420, the city served as the royal palace in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. During the Ming and the Qing Dynasties, 24 emperors lived here. Apart from the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the Hall of Complete Harmony, the Hall of Preserving Harmony, and the East and West Inner Palaces, tourists can also pay a visit to the Exhibition Hall of Historical Relics, the Hall of Treasure, the Hall of Paintings, the Hall of Arts and Crafts, the Hall of Ceramics, the Hall of Bronze Ware, and the Hall of Clocks. Forbidden City , The Gugong, or Imperial Palace, is much better known by its unofficial title, the Forbidden City, a reference to its exclusivity. Indeed, for the five centuries of its operation, through the reigns of 24 emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties, ordinary Chinese were forbidden from even approaching the walls of the palace.Today the complex is open to visitors daily 8.30amC4.30pm, with last admission at 3.30pm (55, students 20). You have the freedom of most of the hundred-hectare site, though not all of the buildings, which are labelled in English. If you want detailed explanation of everything you see, you can tag on to one of the numerous tour groups or buy one of the many specialist books on sale. The audio tour (25), available by the south gate, is also worth considering. Youre provided with a cassette player and headphones and suavely talked through the complex by Roger Moore C though if you do this, its worth retracing your steps fterwards for an untutored view. Useful bus routes serving the Forbidden City are #5 from Qianmen, and #54 from Beijing Zhan, or you could use #1, which passes the complex on its journey along Changan Jie. Golden Gate Bridge 旧金山金门大桥Bridge C probably the most beautiful, certainly the most photographed bridge in the world C are visible from almost every point of elevation in San Francisco. The only cleft in Northern Californias 600-mile continental wall, for years this mile-wide strait was considered unbridgeable. As much an architectural as an engineering feat, the Golden Gate took only 52 months to design and build, and was opened in 1937. Designed by Joseph Strauss, it was the first really massive suspension bridge, with a span of 4200ft, and until 1959 ranked as the worlds longest. It connects the city at its northwesterly point on the peninsula to Marin County and Northern California, rendering the hitherto essential ferry crossing redundant, and was designed to withstand winds of up to a hundred miles an hour and to swing as much as 27ft. Handsome on a clear day, the bridge takes on an eerie quality when the thick white fogs pour in and hide it almost completely.You can either drive or walk across. The drive is the more thrilling of the two options as you race under the bridges towers, but the half-hour walk across it really gives you time to take in its enormous size and absorb the views of the city behind you and the headlands of Northern California straight ahead. Pause at the midway point and consider the seven or so suicides a month who choose this spot, 260ft up, as their jumping-off spot. Monitors of such events speculate that victims always face the city before they leap. In 1995, when the suicide toll from the bridge had reached almost 1000, police kept the figures quiet to avoid a rush of would-be suicides going for the dubious distinction of being the thousandth person to leap.Perhaps the best-loved symbol of San Francisco, in 1987 the Golden Gate proved an auspicious place for a sunrise party when crowds gathered to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. Some quarter of a million people turned up (a third of the citys entire population); the winds were strong and the huge numbers caused the bridge to buckle, but fortunately not to break. Grand Canyon 科罗拉多大峡谷Although three million people come to see the GRAND CANYON OF THE COLORADO every year, it remains beyond the grasp of the human imagination. No photograph, no set of statistics, can prepare you for such vastness. At more than one mile deep, its an inconceivable abyss; at between four and eighteen miles wide its an endless expanse of bewildering shapes and colors, glaring desert brightness and impenetrable shadow, stark promontories and soaring, never-to-be-climbed sandstone pinnacles. Somehow its so impassive, so remote C you could never call it a disappointment, but at the same time many visitors are left feeling peculiarly lat. In a sense, none of the available activities can quite live up to that first stunning sight of the chasm. The overlooks along the rim all offer views that shift and change unceasingly from dawn to sunset; you can hike down into the depths on foot or by mule, hover above in a helicopter or raft through the whitewater rapids of the river itself; you can spend a night at Phantom Ranch on the canyon floor, or swim in the waterfalls of the idyllic Havasupai Reservation. And yet that distance always remains C the Grand Canyon stands apart. Until the 1920s, the average visitor would stay for two or three weeks. These days its more like two or three hours C of which forty minutes are spent actually looking at the canyon. The vast majority come to the South Rim C its much easier to get to, there are far more facilities (mainly at Grand Canyon Village), and its open all year round. There is another lodge and campground at the North Rim, which by virtue of its isolation can be a lot more evocative, but at one thousand feet higher it is usually closed by snow from mid-October until May. Few people visit both rims; to get from one to the other demands either a two-day hike down one side of the canyon and up the other, or a 215-mile drive by road.Finally, theres a definite risk that on the day you come the Grand Canyon will be invisible beneath a layer of fog, thanks to the 250 tons of sulphurous emissions pumped out every day by the Navajo Generating Station, seventy miles upriver at Page.Admission to the park, valid for seven days on either rim, is $20 per vehicle or $10 for pedestrians and cyclists.HARVARD 哈佛大学校园游(Let a student show you Harvard . . .on a free walking tour) Take an engaging look at Harvard during an hour-long free tour. You and your family, school, or organization are invited to tour Harvard Yard with a student guide. You will see Harvards rich sampling of American history and architecture from the Colonial period to the present; buildings designed by Charles Bulfinch to Le Corbusier are represented. You will also learn about the Universitys libraries and diverse museums. Schedule of Tours Tours leave the Harvard Events & Information Center in Holyoke Center, 1350 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge. During the academic year, 45-minute tours are offered free of charge Monday through Friday at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., and on Saturday at 2 p.m. From June through August, tours leave at 10 and 11:15 a.m., and at 2 and 3:15 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and at 1:30 and 3 p.m. on Sunday. Tours are suspended during academic exam periods in addition to spring break. Please call ahead to confirm. Reservations for groups of 20 or more may be made by calling the Events & Information Center at (617) 495-1573. Prospective students may take tours originating at the Harvard/Radcliffe Admissions Office, Byerly Hall, 8 Garden St., Cambridge. From April through August, the Admissions staff conducts an information session at 10 a.m., followed by an 11 a.m. tour, Monday through Friday (and Saturday minus the information session); another session is held year round at 2 p.m., followed by a 3 p.m. tour. No tours are offered during winter recess. Hawaii 夏威夷火山The islands of HAWAII, with their volcanoes, palm-fringed beaches, verdant valleys, glorious rainbows and awesome cliffs, hold some of the most spectacularly beautiful scenery on earth. However, despite their isolation, two thousand miles out in the Pacific, they belong very definitely to the United States. If you expect your South Seas idyll to be completely unspoiled, forget it; the fantasy of a dream holiday in Paradise remains firmly rooted in the creature comforts of home. With six million tourists per year, including honeymooners from all over the world, frequent fliers cashing in their mileage and more than a million Japanese, the islands can seem like a gigantic theme park. Worldwide recession, and the sobering impact of Hurricane Iniki on Kauai in September 1992, may have combined to slow resort evelopment, but you cant help but be aware of how much of what was unique has gone.Honolulu, by far the largest city of the fiftieth state, and with its resort annex of Waikiki also the main tourist center, is on Oahu. The biggest island, Hawaii itself, is known as the Big Island in a vain attempt to avoid confusion. Maui and Kauai also attract mass tourism, wh