I. The geography of the russian far east

Ex. 1. Read the following words:

expanse, shrub, variety, to include, illiteracy, resources, coal, oil, consciousness, strait, deposit, to divide, to mingle, to be wiped, tapped, endangered species, coniferous, broadleaf, peculiar, rare, valuable, fur-bearing, indigenous, fowl, relict, inhabit, fauna.

Ex. 2. Learn the pronunciation:

yew [ ] marten [ ]

cedar [ ] weasel [ ]

birch [ ] beaver [ ]

spruce [ ] lynx [ ]

ash [ ] roe-deer [ ]

oak [ ] elk [ ]

larch [ ] boar [ ]

maple [ ] whale [ ]

invertebrate [ ] walrus [ ]

otter [ ] scallop [ ]

mussel [ ] stork [ ]

grouse [ ] oyster [ ]

hawk [ ] erne [ ]

heron [ ] algae [ ]

alga [ ] cormorant [ ]

zinc [ ] pheasant [ ]

lead [ ] salmon [ ]

ermine [ ] bream [ ]

sable [ ] sturgeon [ ]

prawn [ ] wolverine [ ]

Ex. 3. Read and translate the texts:

The geography of the Russian Far East

The Russian Far East lies wholly within the Russian Federation and is its eastern most part. The huge expanse of land generally known as Siberia lies east of the Urals. Most people are not exactly sure what territory it includes. Geographers divide Asian Russia into Western Siberia, (from the Ural mountains to the Yenisey river), Eastern Siberia (from the Yenisey river to the coastal foothills), and the Russian Far East (the Pacific coastal region from the Bering Strait to the Primorye). Politicians divide Russia into Federal Okrugs. The largest Federal Okrug is the Far-Eastern Federal Okrug with the capital city of Khabarovsk.

Economists divide Russia into several economic regions. One of them is the Far-Eastern economic region. It includes the Khabarovsky Krai, Primorsky Krai, Republic of Sakha (Yakutya), Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Kamchatsky Krai, including Koryaksky Autonomous Territory (Okrug), Chukotsky Autonomous Territory (Okrug), Magadanskaya, Sakhalinskaya and Amurskaya Oblasts. The Far-Eastern region covers almost 40 per cent of the land mass of the Russian Federation and stretches from the Arctic Ocean to the sea of Japan and from the border with China and Mongolia to the Aleutian Islands and the border with the United States.

Mountains cover more than three quarters of the Far East territory, however, their height doesn’t usually exceed more than 1,000 meters above sea level. This is the only place in Russia with active volcanoes. Kluchevskaya Hill, which is located in Kamchatka, is one of the highest active volcanoes in the world.

The Russian Far East has a great variety of climatic conditions. The northern part lies beyond the Arctic Circle. A natural phenomenon of exceptionally rare beauty, the Northern lights, can be observed on the shore of the Arctic Ocean during the polar night. Further south, the tundra gradually becomes the forest tundra and then the taiga, at first coniferous and then mixed and broadleaf forests. The sharply continental climate is changed by a softer monsoon climate. In winter seasonal winds are blowing from the mainland and in summer – from the Pacific.