The Use of Articles with Geographic Names

Exercise 1. Insert articles where necessary.

1. ____ Volga is the longest river in ____ Europe; it flows from ____ Valdai Hills to ____ Caspian Sea.

2. ____ Rivera in ____Caucasus is the most popular place in summer.

3. ____ lake Baikal is the deepest lake in the world.

4. ____ Elbrus is the highest peak in ____ Europe.

5. ____ Hague, a city in ____ Western Netherlands near ____ North sea, is the seat of the Dutch government.

6. ____ Sahara is a great desert in ____ North Africa, extending from ____ Atlantic Ocean to ____ Nile.

7. ____ Philippines is an archipelago which consists of thousands of islands.

8. ____ West Indies is a chain of islands between ____ North and ____ South America.

9. The turquoise surface of ____ Mediterranean is never so blue as that of ____ Adriatic.

10. The travelers stared hard at the distant and blue masses of ____ Pyreness.

Exercise 2. Insert articles where necessary.

1. Dusk was already falling on ____ noble curve of _____ Thames. (Bennett)

2. I hear he’s off to ____ Central Africa. (Bennett)

3. In Ivanhoe Walter Scott describes ____ England of ____ Middle Ages.

4. ____ Capetown is in ____ South Africa.

5. In ____ heart of ____ Central Asia lies ____ Khoresm, _____ small fertile area in ____sea of ____ sand.

6. ____ prospect ends … in little hills that come nearly to ____ sea; rudiments, these, of ____ Atlas Mountains. (Shaw)

7. “We’ve been touring ____ world … We tried ____ South America … We lasted three days in ___ Australia …” “Have you ever been to ____ States?” (Amis)

8. Michael looked quizzically at his parent. Did he quite understand ____ England of to-day? (Galsworthy)

Exercise 3. Supply the required articles for nouns in the following sentences, paying special attention to geographic names.

1. He had ____ pronounced views on what ____ United States was doing for ____ world.

2. ____ weather over ____ Baltic was said to be worsening every hour.

3. His ship nearly sank in ____ Pacific.

4. He told me how he had discovered ____ statue, five hundred feet tall, buried in ____ sand of ____ Sahara.

5. She showed me ____ pictures taken in ____ Swiss Alps.

6. He said it is ____ story of ____writer who goes on ____ voyage to ____ South Seas.

7. You oughtn’t to spend ____ winter in ____ London with that cough and your chest. I’ll give up my work if you’ll come for ____ month with me to some small place on ____ Riviera.

8. They stood for some time, talking in quiet tones, comparing ____ Thames with ____ Seine.

9. This was not ____ Paris that he had accepted thirty years ago as his spiritual home.

10. He was ____ well-known mountaineer scaling ____ Andes.

11. There aren’t many sharks in ____ Mediterranean. It is down ____ Red Sea that you get them in numbers.

12. He retired to his hotel and sat in his shirt sleeves looking at ____ Grand Canal.

13. ____ Asia Minor is ____ part of ____ Asia between ____ Black Sea and ____ Mediterranean Sea.

14. They stayed in ____ Venice for ____ fortnight.

15. She was going on ____ cruise down ____ Adriatic.

16. You haven’t come back to ____ very cheery England.

17. He was staring out across ____ Nile at ____ distant hills.

18. And several hours later he stepped out upon ____ soil of ____ Newfoundland.

19. The firm made ____ loans to ____ Argentine and Brazil.

Exercise 4. Translate into English.

1. Москва наших дней – это не Москва XIX века.

2. Крым м Кавказ – лучшие здравницы нашей страны.

3. Теперь Москва является портом пяти морей: Белого, Балтийского, Каспийского, Черного и Азовского.

4. Мы провели лето на Днепре.

5. Аргентина и Бразилия – наиболее крупные государства. Южной Америки.

6. Кордильеры находятся в Северной Америке.

7. Берега Рейна очень живописны.

8. Эльбрус – очень красивая гора.

9. «Пиковая дама» была написана Чайковским во Флоренции в 1890 г.

10. Средиземное море находится между Европой, Азией и Африкой.

11. Венеция расположена на берегу Адриатического моря.

12. Ливингстон погиб в Центральной Африке.