The
business of Washington is government. Unlike other great capitals of the world,
Washington isn’t the financial nor the cultural, nor the commercial centre of
its nation. It was designed and built for the sole purpose of being the seat of
the Federal Government.
George
Washington himself chose the site, and both Maryland and Virginia gave land to
establish the District of Columbia.
Washington
D.C., in fact, doesn’t belong to any particular state, but to all of them.
The Capitol
is the centre of the city. It’s in this building that the Congress of the
United States meets to make the laws that govern the country.
Each of the
United States is self-governing in local matters and has its own constitution
and governor, but gives the Federal Government of Washington the control of
foreign affairs and if the military forces.
The
Congress is composed of two Houses: the Senate with two members for each state
of the Union, and the House of Representatives. The Representatives are members
of the two big political parties, the Democrats and the Republicans, and are
proportional to the population of the respective states.
The White
House has been the home of the President of the United States for more than a
century and a half. It’s in the offices of the White House that the President
discharges his duty of Chief Executive, meets with his Cabinet, and signs or
vetoes the legislation passed by Congress.
Source: R.
Colle – I. Vay, L’esame di inglese, Lattes, an old Italian book 1974.
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