A letter from London
Anna and Robert are in England on a language course. They started their trip with a few days in London. Find out what they did by looking at the map and reading the letter that Robert wrote to his parents. Robert does not always explains things very clearly; so you must supply the information he leaves out by answering the questions.
Dear Mum and Dad,
I hope you are both well. I am very well and I have met a very nice girl called Anna. I am writing to you in English because it is good practice for me. We had a really busy time in London. Let me tell you all about it.
On the first day we wanted to see some of the famous “sights” of London. First of all we took the tube to Westminster. The tube station is right next to the river.
1. What is “the tube”? London_railways
2. What is the name of the river? London river.htm
Nearby there is a wonderful cathedral. All of the kings and queens of England were crowned there and many of them were buried there too. I saw the tomb of the king that had six wives and I read about the queen that ruled for 64 years and died in 1901. I also saw memorials to lots of famous people like sir Winston Churchill and Shakespeare.
3. What is the name of the cathedral? aLondoncathedral
4. Who was the king that had six wives? Akingwithsixwives
5. What was the queen that ruled for 64 years? an old queen
6. Who were Winston_Churchill and William_Shakespeare ?
In the same area is big Ben. Do you know, the minute hand of Big Ben is the size of a double decker
7. What is Big Ben? alondonclock
8. What is a Double-decker ?
Big Ben is part of the Houses of Parliament. There are two Houses. In one House, the House of Commons, the MPs sit (although there aren’t enough seats for all 635 to sit on!) Every year there is a special ceremony when the Queen opens Parliament, but she is not allowed to go into the Houses of Commons.
9. What are the two Houses of Parliament called?
10. What is the difference between them?
11. What do the letters MP stand for?
12. Do you know the names of any of the four main political parties?
Political_parties_in_the_United_Kingdom
13. Do you know who Guy_Fawkes was?
14. What happens on Guy_Fawkes_Night?
Next we walked up Whitehall. We stopped to join a crowd of tourists who were looking at a little street on the left. People were pointing at a house with the number 10 on it. There was a policeman outside.
15. Why were the tourists interested in the house 10_Downing_Street?
Then we went back to Whitehall and carried on walking until we came to big square. In the middle of the square was a very tall monument with a statue of a man on the top. There were lots of birds in the square so I bought some bread and fed them
16. Which square were Robert and Anne in? aboutbritain.com/
17. What is the monument called? themanontop
18. What was the man’s profession?
19. What kind of birds were they?’ Trafalgar_Square#
We went out of the square in a south-west direction, along a very impressive road. At the end of the road is a palace where the Royal Family lives. We got there at 11.30 a.m., which was very lucky because I saw “London’s most famous daily ceremony”
20. What is the name of the very impressive road? alongandwideroad
21. What kind of building is Buckingham ?
22. Can you name any members of the Royal Family?
23. What ceremony did Robert see? Click on this website and tell if the text below is true
“The Changing of the Guard takes place in the forecourt of Buckingham Palace at 11.30 every day in summer, every other day in winter, and lasts about 45 minutes. The New Guard marches to the Palace from Wellington Barracks with a Guards band, the Old Guard hands over in a ceremony during which the sentries are changed and then returns to barracks. The New Guard then marches to St James's Palace leaving the detachment at Buckingham Palace”.
When the ceremony was over, we walked westwards through Green Park until we came to Wellington Arch. Then we walked up Park Lane to the other famous arch, and the start of another park. I had lots of fun here because just inside the park was a man who was saying lots of crazy things in a loud voice. A crowd of people were listening to him and shouting back at him. I joined in, too.
24. What is the second arch called? anameforanarch
25. What is this part of the park known as? thenameofacorner
26. When and what do people go there for?
Our second day in London was very different from the first one. We decided to go shopping. We went to Oxford_Street, PetticoatLane., portobelloroad., Kings_Road Oxford Street, Petticoat Lane, Portobello Road and king’s Road. In one street we went to lots of antique shops, in another street we went a big department store, in another we went to lots of fashion shops; the other street has a street market but we went ton the wrong day
27. Which street was which?
In the evening we walked around in West_End_of_London to look at London’s night life. We saw some of London’s famous hotels, theatres, cinemas, and restaurant of every nationality.
Look at the map.
28. Which street would you go to for a good choice of theatres?
29. Why might you go to park Lane?
30. What can you find in Soho ?
On our last day in London we took a boat trip on the river, starting from Westminster Pier. We went under four bridges, past HMS Belfast and got off at Tower Bridge, the most famous bridge in London. Right next to the bridge is a very fine castle. The castle has been used for many strange things. It is best known as a prison for very important prisoners. Kings, queens and noblemen were imprisoned there and a lot of them lost their heads. At the last public execution in 1747, the stand holding spectators collapsed and 13 died instead of one! The royal animals were also kept there, including elephants, bears and lions! Today is a much more peaceful place, where you can see beefeaters and the royal treasure, called the Crown Jewels.
31. What is the castle called? acastleonthethamesbank
32. What are Beefeaters.htm ?
We then went westwards and walked around an area called the City. We saw a monument called the Monument! This is 202 feet high and is exactly 202 feet from where the Great Fire of London started. We then walked up to the Bank of England and the Stock Exchange.
33. What is the City_of_London known by?
34. What is 202 feet in metres? Try to find in Regents/math/meteng/LesEng.htm
35. What is the Stock Exchange called in your country? London_Stock_Exchange
Next we looked at the Old Bailey and then we went to another famous cathedral- the one Prince Charles was married in. It is a very beautiful cathedral with a huge dome. Inside there is the Whispering_gallery . If you whisper a word into the wall of the dome it can be clearly heard on the other side of the dome- 112 feet away
36. What is the oldbailey.?
37. Which cathedral did they visit?
38. Who was Prince Charles first married to?
We had time to visit just one more place. There were still many places we wanted to see, such as the National Gallery, the Tate Gallery and the British Museum. But we decided to go to Madame Tussaud’s, so we walked along Fleet St and caught a bus to Baker Street.
39. What are the National_Gallery,_London and the tate-modern.htm gallery?
40. What is Fleet_Street famous for?
41. Which fictional detective lived in Baker_Street ?
Madame_Tussauds is a waxworks. It is full of lifesize wax statues of famous people from all countries and all ages. I can’t remember all of their names but I saw politician, soldiers, sailors, writers, painters, pop singers, sportsmen, and lots more. Oh, and murderers, too! There were in the chamber of horror, which was the best of all.
42. Do you know the names of any British people of the professions that Robert mentions?
Well, that’s about all. I’m writing this letter on the train. The next one will all about the English seaside.
Lots of love, Robert