Yesterday it was Sunday, that’s why my last day off was not long ago and I remember it quite well. I always try to do my best to make my holidays really exciting, because we have only few days in a week for relaxation and rest.
Yesterday my friends and I agreed to meet at my place. First we watched a very interesting TV show "What? Where? When?". Then we went took a videocassette and watched an outstanding movie "The Independence Day". This is a story about strangers from the other planets that were trying to conquer the whole Earth and about the struggle against them. The movie is full of visual effects and computer graphics that takes your breath and makes you admire the modern technologies in the cinema. I wish our studios and directors made such movies. "The Independence Day" can be added to the genius pieces of modern art – that is my opinion.
Having watched the film, we decided that it was a time to go outside. The first place we went to was the sports ground. Though it was rather cold, we put on warm clothes and had fun. Almost all day long we played soccer and basketball.
As for me, I like weekends and holidays, as the majority of other people. And I like telling about my holidays. It’s dull to listen about the ordinary working day, how do you think? Every working day looks like another, but every weekend is different from the other. During the weekend we have an opportunity of enjoying the life and having rest.
Торонто City Center
Toronto’s City Hall
The two towers, rising 20 and 27 storeys, are located in the city center in Nathan Phillips Square. A reflecting pool under the arches is used as an ice-skating rink in the winter.
Toronto is the center of most populous area in Canada and the capital of province of Ontario. Toronto is located on the north shore of Lake Ontario in Canada. The region is known as the "Golden Horseshoe" and is
rich in agriculture and industry. It is well placed to trade with all of Canada, the United States, and the world.
Known in the past by such names as "Little York", "Hogtown", and "The City You Love to Hate", Toronto has been portrayed in more flattering terms. The National Geographic declared Toronto "worldly, wealthy, personable, and relatively problem free". Art Gallery called the city "possibly the most civilized metropolis in the Western Hemisphere".
Shoppers can browse through shops on Queen Street West, admire the best of designer fashions in the renovated district of Yorkville, or visit Eaton Center, a four – level $25-millions retail complex. For people watching and plenty of culinary delights, there’s Kensington Market, which features fresh produce, fish, and plenty of friendly conversation.
The city was designed and renovated to make the most of its settings on the store of Lake Ontario. The best view is from the CN Tower, a 553-metre spire that is considered the world’s tallest free-standing structure. Much of the appeal of Toronto lies in its sense of history, which dates back to 1749 when French fur traders established a ford on the site.
Toronto boats a vast multicultural mix, with large groups of Italians, Germans, Portuguese, Ukrainians, Asians, and West Indians. Toronto is a cultural center, with the ultra -modern O’Keefe Center, which is home to the Canadian Opera Company and the National Ballet of Canada; the Art Gallery of Ontario, with more than 15,000 works – from Old Masters to contemporary art – in its permanent collection; and the Royal Ontario Museum with its vast array of art and artefacts from cultures the world over. Business and finance are another important element of the city, and Toronto’s skyline is dominated by the high – rise towers of financial institutions. Among the most famous is the Royal Bank Tower with gold-embedded window panels.
The CN Tower
You can see the CN Tower on the first page of the paper.
The CN Tower is a key element in Canada’s telecommunications network, provides space for microwave transmission of voice, telex, computer data, facsimile, television, and radio.
At 553.33 meters the CN Tower is considered the world’s tallest free-standing structure. Construction took 40 months, cost $57 millions, employed 1573 workers, and was completed in June 1976. A slender column resembling a giant needle, it weight 132080 metric tons – the equivalent of 23214 large elephants.
Visitors can step inside one of four glass-faced elevators and be whisked to the Skypod Observation level in under a minute. There are three observation decks, at 342,346, and 447 meters aboveground, the world’s highest public observation gallery. Each of these offers panoramic views of Toronto, the Toronto Islands, and, on a clear day, Niagara Falls. Spectacular views are also to be had from Top Of Toronto, a restaurant at the 350-metre level that makes A full revolution once every 72 minutes. Those who prefer to dine on the ground level can enjoy a snack in the family – style restaurant.
The CN Tower has the longest metal staircase in the world (2570 steps), which is made available to the public each year for a charity stair climb. Dar Robinson has jumped from the top of the tower twice – once with a parachute for the filming of the movie "Highpoint" (1979) and once using a wire cable for the TV show "That’s Incredible". On the tower’s tenth anniversary, "Spider Man" Goodwin completed two free – style climbs outside the glass elevator-shaft window.
Sky Dome
Sky Dome is the world’s greatest entertainment center. It’s a host to wide variety of sporting spectaculars, concerts, family shows and consumers shows.
How big is Toronto’s Sky Dome? Well, you could put eight Boeing 747s on the playing field. Or all of Eaton Center. Or a 32-home subdivision. Or the Roman Coliseum. Even with the retractable roof closed, a 31-storey buildings could fit inside the structure.
The $500-millions buildings opened on June 3,1989, after 32 months of construction. On that day, inclement weather forced the developers to prove that the panelled roof could be closed in 20 minutes. The roof runs on a series of steel track and bogies, weighs 11000 tons and is made up of steel tresses covered by steel cladding.
The eight-acre stadium offers sports fans five levels of seating and the world’s largest video replay screen. More than 50000 people at a time can watch a football or a baseball game, and there is also a 350-room hotel built into the north end of building, with 70 rooms offering a view of the playing field.
But the building is much more than a place to watch sporting events under an open roof. There are 23 fast-food stands, 48 beverage outlets, a 430-seat restaurant for quick-service dining, a 300-foot-long bar overlooking the field, the largest McDonnell’s in North America, the Hard Rock Cafe, and a 120-seat movie theater where tours of the building begin.
The Royal Ontario Museum
The Royal Ontario Museum is Canada’s Largest Public Museum, made grander by a recent $55 millions renovation and expansion project. Opened in 1914 the Museum today attracts more than one million visitors a year. Among its impressive holdings, which number more than six million objects and specimens, are a Roman gallery, housing the country’s most extensive collection of antiquities; the famous dinosaur gallery, with a mastodon, stegosaurus, and other prehistoric creatures in jungle settings; a textile collection with costumes and richly patterned fabrics; the Chinese collection, with 800 pieces displayed in traditional room settings and special gallery areas. Of particular note are the giant stone camels and guardian figures of the Ming Tomb, the only Chinese tomb in the Western world. There are also galleries devoted to artefacts of Ontario and Canada.
Next door is the McLaughlin Planetarium where the Theater of the Stars uses 85 slide and video projectors to create planets, exploding stars, and other galactic phenomena.
The Sigmund Samuel Building, a few blocks south of the main Museum building, focuses on Canada’s rich cultural heritage with displays of antique toys, cooking utensils, oil paintings, pottery and sculpture. The George R. Gardener Museum of Ceramic Art, the only museum specializing in ceramic in North America.
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