Text 4 Azov

Azov is a port on the Don River delta near the Sea of Azov. It is a rail junction, a light industrial and fishing centre. Founded as the Greek colony of Tanais (3d cent. B.C.), it was a trading centre and fortress.

The Don Cossacks held the city (1637-1642), but were driven out by the Turks. Peter the Great won the city in 1696 and thus opened southern routes for Russia; he was forced to cede it back to Turkey in 1711.

Task 5. Speak on the new things you learned about Azov.

Task 6. Read Text 5 to answer the questions.

1. How do the houses look in winter?

2. What are houses like? How does the author describe them?

3. Houses look different, don’t they?

4. What kinds of houses does the author describe?

5. How does the author describe houses that he calls dark; proud; whispering?

6. What kind of secrets is hidden behind the walls of houses?

7. Do you like to walk in the streets alone?

8. Do you like to walk in the centre where the houses are old?

9. Do you also think that houses have faces?

10. Do the houses look the same in new districts?

11. Do you think that every town and city has its own character?

12. Are there houses past which you want to hurry?

13. Do you think that in small towns houses are like people?

Text 5 Winter Day in Town

Architecture is not only steel and bricks. Houses are like people. The houses have faces. The windows are eyes. Some houses smile at you, others frown.

There are some houses that are always dark. People in them go early to bed. You hear no laughter from such houses, no one sings.

Other houses are proud. They are well kept. As you pass they seem to look at you with a sort of “keep off the grass” expression. You hurry past such houses.

I know houses that always seem to be whispering to me. There are secrets hidden in such houses. They ask you not to disturb them. Odd things happen to people behind the walls of houses. Many people are one thing inside their houses and another on the street. Sometimes the secrets, hidden away behind the walls of houses, are simply sad but sometimes they are exciting too.

There are evenings when I walk thus and see houses that all seem to be whispering to me. They are trying to tell me what I cannot understand.

I go past a dozen houses, two dozen. They are the glad houses, the gay ones, the ones where all the doors seem ready to burst open. Some houses shout at me. “Come in,” they cry.

(After Sherwood Anderson)

Part 3

The Russian Federation

Text 1

Geography and Climate

The Russian Federation, or Russia, is the largest country in the world. Its total area is over 17 million square kilometres. It occupies most of Eastern Europe, Northern and Central Asia. Russia stretches from the Baltic Sea in the West to the Pacific Ocean in the East and from the Arctic Ocean in the North to the Black Sea and the Caucasus in the South.

It is borders on Norway and Finland in the north-west, Estonia, Latvia, Belarus and the Ukraine in the West, Georgia and Azerbaijan in the south-west, and Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China along the southern border.

The land of Russia varies from thick forests to barren deserts, from high peaked mountains to deep valleys. The Russian Federation is located on two plains, Great Russian Plain and West Siberian Lowland. The longest mountain chains are the Urals, separating Europe from Asia, the Caucasus, and the Altai. Russia’s most important rivers are the Volga, Europe’s biggest river, flowing into the Caspian Sea; the main Siberian rivers (the Ob, the Yenisei and the Lena), and the Amur in the Far East, flowing into the Pacific Ocean. The total number of rivers in Russia is over two thousand. The world’s deepest lake – Lake Baikal, with the depth of 1600 metres, is situated in Russia, too.

The climate in Russia varies from arctic in the north to continental in the central part of the country and subtropical in the south.

The current population of Russia is about 142 million people. It is a multinational state and comprises many national districts, several autonomous republics and regions.

Russia’s vast mineral resources include oil and natural gas, coal, iron, zinc, lead, nickel aluminum, gold and other non-ferrous metals. Russia has the world’s largest oil and natural gas resources. Three-quarters of the republic’s mineral wealth is concentrated in Siberia and the Far East.

The capital of the Russian Federation is Moscow, with the population of about 11 million people. It’s the largest political, scientific, cultural and industrial centre of the country. Russian is the official language of the state.

Russia is a presidential republic. It is headed by the President. The country government consists of three branches: legislative, executive and judicial.