14. Find the examples of Passive Voice in the text:

Part A “Novopolotsk”

Part B “Polotsk” and translate these sentences.

15. Read and translate the text. Part a Novopolotsk

Novopolotsk is a small town situated in the north of the republic of Belarus. It has a population of about 100.000 people. Novopolotsk was founded in 1958.

Novopolotsk came into existence as a town of chemistry. There are four large industrial enterprises here: the Chemical Works «Polymir», the Protein Vitamin Works, the Measuring Devices Plant and the Refinery Plant «Naftan».

Every third out of 100,000 inhabitants studies. Here there are vocational schools, the Oil-Training college and Polotsk State University.

Newly-built micro-districts, light streets with beautiful multi-storey buildings rising like towers on woody islands if to look at from afar – such is the face of Novopolotsk. It offers a wide range of social, cultural and leisure facilities such as cinema houses, cafes, restaurants, sport centers, consumer service establishments, palaces of culture and shopping.

In the centre of the town there is a central square – the Square of Builders. In the square there is a house where local authorities sit. Political meetings and demonstrations are held in the square. This is the venue of different folk festivals and holidays.

The town is quite modern with its five and nine-storey buildings. There are a number of libraries, a local museum, an art gallery where different exhibitions are held. One of its best known features is the town park which stretches along the bank of the Dvina River.

There are several fountains in our town. I think the most attractive one is near the musical school in the main Molodezhnaya street. It has a lovely sculpture of a boy sitting on a large ball. Everybody jokes that Novopolotsk consists of one long street (the street without the end). There is even the feature film with this very title about Novopolotsk and its builders.

In the close proximity to the town there is an ancient city Polotsk. It is famous for its history and places of interest.

I think Novopolotsk is an easy town to live in – not too big and not too small. It is a student town and a perfect place to live and study.

Part b Polotsk

A small town of Polotsk was founded by the Krivichi tribe on the Polota and its name is associated with the name of the river. It is a historical cradle of the Republic of Belarus. For the first time Polotsk was mentioned in the chronicles in 862.

There were many attempts to conquer Polotsk during its long and glorious history. For example crusaders tried to capture the town 12 times but failed.

During Vseslav’s ruling Polotsk developed politically. But in the second half of the 13th century Polotsk turned to the Great Duchy of Lithuania for help and lost its independence.

But Polotsk was situated on the trade ways and gradually it became the richest town and got Magdeburg rights.

In the 16th century in Polotsk Francisk Skorina was born. He was the first to print books in Slavonic languages, to translate the Bible into Byelorussian. Polotsk Pedagogical College, a street and a square are named after him.

In 1563 Polotsk was conquered by Ivan the Terrible and joined to Russia for 16 years.

In 1579 Stephan Batoriy conquered Polotsk and it became a part of Rzecz Pospo1ita for 2 centuries.

After the Great October Revolution Polotsk was a provincial town. And in 1940 it had only 33,000 people.

During the Great Patriotic War Polotsk was occupied by fascists and suffered destruction and famine. It was destroyed completely.

But nevertheless it survived and was rebuilt anew and now it has the population of 100,000 people. Nowadays Polotsk is a tourist and cultural centre of our Republic. It has a lot of places of interest the most famous of which are Sophia Cathedral, St. Eufrosinia Church, the monument to Scarina and Peter the First House. The town has a lot of museums such as the Region Musium, the Museum of the Belarusian book-printing, Nature and Ecology Museum and many others. Besides Polotsk has 20 industrial enterprises such as glass fiber plant “Steclovolokno”, furniture, bread, milk, meat factories, etc. 16 schools, 3 technical colleges, 2 sports schools, a musical school and an art school, 54 libraries and a cadet corps where two faculties of Polotsk State University are situated.