英语国家社会与文化简明教程
A Concise Course on the Society and Culture of Major English-Speaking Countries
Part Two The United States of America
The biggest city in the USA is New York City, New York, which has over 8 million people. The A is Los Angeles, California, which has almost 4 million people. The third-biggest city in the USA is Chicago, Illinois, which has nearly 3 million people.
Today Los Angeles has a population of about 4 million inhabitants. 18.5 million live in the Greater Los Angeles Area (in 2015), Greater Los Angeles is the second-largest urban region in the United States. Within the Los Angeles–Long Beach–Anaheim MSA area are about 50 cities and towns, the largest are Long Beach, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Irvine, Glendale, and Huntington Beach.
Hollywood, a district in the central LA, is known as the original movie mecca, the majority of US movie studios are headquartered in Los Angeles.
Hollywood Boulevard, with the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame, more than 2,500 stars bearing the biggest names in the entertainment industry on its sidewalks. Disneyland, the "original", now named Disneyland Park, a must for Disney aficionados. La Brea Tar Pits and Hancock Park, titans of the ice age, fossil excavation site with an adjacent museum and a recreated prehistoric garden.
Los Angeles is home to renowned museums, unique hotels, diverse experiences and 75 miles of sunny coastline.
The city started as a settlement in September 1781 with a population of 44. The town was named "El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula", this name was just too long to memorize, and so it was soon shortened to Los Angeles. 100 years later after the completion of the Southern Pacific Railroad line to Los Angeles in 1876 the population has grown to more than 10,000 people.
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (4.5 billion years of history); Hollywood Bowl (live music); Universal Studios Hollywood (film studio and moviethemed amusement park); Getty Center and J. Paul Getty Museum (fine arts); Museum of Contemporary Art (fine contemporary art);
Griffith Park (urban park) with the Griffith Observatory (observatory, exhibit hall, and planetarium); Muscle Beach, Santa Monica (birthplace of the physical fitness boom in the US).
The city is home to the Kodak Theatre, today known as Dolby Theatre, located close to Hollywood Boulevard in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. The theater is home of the annual Academy Awards Ceremonies (The Oscars), which were first held there in March 2002, it is the first permanent home for the awards.