What do children do when they are free?

§2

1. Word study. Read the following words and phrases, which will help you while listening to the text.

various = different outdoor activities

authorities = officials stamp collecting

affair = something to be done social activities

attend = to take part in listen to broadcasts

attract = get attention of travel to Bermuda

hunt and fish professional baseball

2. Listen to the text and find answers to the following questions

a. What do children do when they are free?

b. How many people attend sport events?

FREE TIME

Young people in the United States, both boys and girls play many of the same games. They swim, play baseball and basketball, go boating and camping, and have fun in many kinds of sports and outdoor activities.

Secondary schools offer students various kinds of activities to develop talents and skills. There are clubs for photography, music, theatre, art, stamp collecting, natural science, and so on. Other hobbies include painting, sculpture, wood and metalworking.

Each year over 200 millions visit the 42 national parks. In addition, there are nearly 31000 state parks and other areas.

Tourists visit Washington D.C., to see the White House,

the Lincoln Memorial,

The Lincoln Memorial is an American national monument built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln. It is located on the western end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., across from the Washington Monument. The architect was Henry Bacon; the designer of the primary statue – Abraham Lincoln, 

the Washington Monument, The Washington Monument is an obelisk on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate George Washington, once commander-in-chief of the Continental Army and the first President of the United States. Located almost due east of the Reflecting Pool and the Lincoln Memorial, the monument, made of marble, granite, and bluestone gneiss,^[3] is both the world's tallest stone structure and the world's tallest obelisk, standing 554 feet 7 ¹¹⁄₃₂ inches (169.046 m) tall according to the National Geodetic Survey (measured 2013–14) or 555 feet 5 ¹⁄₈ inches (169.294 m) tall according to the National Park Service (measured 1884). It is the tallest monumental column in the world if all are measured above their pedestrian entrances. It was the tallest structure in the world from 1884 to 1889.

Construction of the monument began in 1848, and was halted from 1854 to 1877 due to a lack of funds, a struggle for control over the Washington National Monument Society, and the intervention of the American Civil War. 

the Capitol Building, and so on.

The United States Capitol, often called the Capitol Building, is the home of the United States Congress, and the seat of the legislative branch of the U.S. federal government. It sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Though not at the geographic center of the Federal District, the Capitol forms the origin point for the District's street-numbering system and the District's four quadrants.

The original building was completed in 1800 and was subsequently expanded, particularly with the addition of the massive dome, and expanded chambers for the bicameral legislature, the House of Representatives in the south wing and the Senate in the north wing. Like the principal buildings of the executive and judicial branches, the Capitol is built in a distinctive neoclassical style and has a white exterior. Both its east and west elevations are formally referred to as fronts, though only the east front was intended for the reception of visitors and dignitaries.

But Americans like to see other countries as well as their own. Each year more than four million go to Europe and nearly half a million travels to Bermuda. Countries in Asia, Africa and the Near East are also attracting more American tourists each year.