Текст 3. At the foot of the Bell Tower is the Tsar Bell

At the foot of the Bell Tower is the Tsar Bell. At 201,900kg it is the world's largest bell (in comparison, London's Big Ben weighs 13,700 kg). On the bell which measures 6.15 m in height and 6.6 m in diameter, are portrayed Tsar Aleksey Mik-haylovich and Empress Anna Ivanovna.

The first, 130,000 kg version was created in 1665, during Aleksey's reign; accord­ing to some sources, part of metal used came from Novgorod Vechi Bell. The great bell was actually rung, although it took 19 years from the time it was cast to dis­cover a means of raising it to its special belfry and then in the fire of 1701 it tell to earth and shattered. Thirty years later Empress Anna decided to use the remains for a new and much larger bell. This was completed in 1735, the work of masters Ivan and Mikhail Motorin. A new bell tower would have been required (as the bell was too large tor the existing belfry) and the raising of the bell would have presented enor­mous engineering problems, but in tact a century was to pass before the Tsar Bell left the pit in which it had been cast. In 1737 fire again swept the Kremlin, and when water was poured on the still hot bell it cracked and an 11,500 kg piece broke oft.

It was finally unearthed in 1836, at the instigation of the French architect Monferrand (who designed St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg), mounted on a granite pedestal and has been on display ever since.

The Tsar Cannon which also stands near the Bell Tower of Ivan the Great is older than the Tsar Bell, being cast in 1586 by Andrey Chokhov. On the barrel is a portrait of reigning Tsar Feodor. son of Ivan IV One of the largest cannons ever made, it weighs some 39,000 kg and has a barrel 5.3 m long and a bore of 890m. The cannon balk lying near the cannon are purely decorative and were made in the 19C The Tsar Cannon was designed to be part of the Kremlin Defenses and to tire grape shot and not cannon balls. The Tsar Cannon has probably never been fired (grape shot - крупная картечь).

Упражнение IV. Прочтите слова и выражения вслух, затемдайте их рус-ские эквиваленты.

A. At the foot of, weigh a ton, cast a bell, pit, raise a bell to a belfry, mount a bell on a pedestal, cast a cannon, granite pedestal, play chimes, bell chimes, a cross, damage blow up. lofty, shatter, strike a bell, crack (v., n.)

A hard nut to crack.

Б. Величественный, расколоться, у подножия, взорвать звонницу, ударять в колокол, весить тонну, колокольный перезвон, крест, поставить на гранитный пьедестал, поднять колокол, треснуть, литейная яма, отлить пушку, трещина