24. Work together with your desk - mate.

25. Complete the following sentences.

1. The new Constitution of Russia was adopted … .

2. The Russian Federation is structured as … .

3. The federal government is composed of … .

4. Legislative branch is … .

5. Executive branch … .

6. Judiciary branch includes … .

7. The president is elected by … .

8. Ministries of the government are composed … .

26. Give the answers to the questions below.

1. Why is Russia a semi-presidential republic?

2. What are the branches the federal government is composed of?

3. What is the president’s power?

4. What is the Federal Assembly responsible for?

5. What does judiciary branch include?

Speech Practice

27. Work in groups of three of four. Compose a conversation about modern Russia.

Supplementary Reading

28. Read this text about Russian language trying to guess the meaning of unknown words.

Countries where the Russian language is spoken

Russia's 160 ethnic groups speak some 100 languages. According to the 2002 census, 142.6 million people speak Russian, followed by Tatar with about 5 million and German with almost 3 million speakers. Russian is the only official state language, but the Constitution gives the individual republics the right to make their native language co-official next to Russian. Despite its wide dispersal, the Russian language is homogeneous throughout Russia. Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken Slavic language. Russian belongs to the Indo-European language family and is one of the living members of the East Slavic languages. The others are Belarusian and Ukrainian (and possibly Rusyn).

Over a quarter of the world's scientific literature is published in Russian. Russian is also applied as a means of coding and storage of universal knowledge: 60–70% of all world information is published in the English and Russian languages. The language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations.

29. Work in groups of three or four.

Speech Practice

30. Make groups of three or four and prepare a multimedia presentation on the topic “The Russian Federation – the past and the present”.

Check list to module V

1. When did the East Slavs emerge?

2. What was the first East Slavic state?

3. Who were the founders of Kievan Rus'?

4. What was the source of Russian Christianity?

5. What was the result of Kievan Rus' disintegration?

6. By what time has Russia become the Russian Empire?

7. Who proclaimed the Russian Empire?

8. What way did Russia get access to the sea?

9. What is Catherine the Great famous for?

10. What were the reasons that brought the Russian monarchy to its downfall?

11. Why is Russia a semi-presidential republic?

12. What are the branches the federal government is composed of?

13. What is the president’s power?

14. What is the Federal Assembly responsible for?

15. What does judiciary branch include?

Module VI

Omsk – our native city

Vocabulary training

1. Read and translate the words and word expressions below

southwest Siberia, beyond the Urals, the Russian Empire, the seat of, the Governor General of Western Siberia

2. Classify the words into subject groups

Imperia, distance, capital, center, kilometres, southwest, imam, bishop

3. Remember the words and word combinations given below.

Proclaim - провозглашать

see of the bishop – епархия митрополита (епископа)

gold reserves – золотой запас

4. Read this text quickly and define the main idea of this text.

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Omsk is a city in southwest Siberia in Russia, the administrative center of Omsk Oblast. It is the second-largest city in Russia beyond the Urals. The distance from Omsk to Moscow is 2,700 kilometres.

In the Russian Empire, it was the seat of the Governor General of Western Siberia. For a brief period during the Russian Civil War in 1918–1920, it was proclaimed the Capital of Russia, and held the imperial gold reserves.

Omsk is the administrative centre of Siberian Cossacks, the see of the bishop (metropolitan) of Omsk and Tara, and the imam of Siberia.