Vocabulary:

to found — основывать, учреждать

yoke — иго

principality — княжество

Grand Prince — Великий князь

to force — заставлять, принуждать

to declare — объявлять

the Third Rome — Третий Рим

heir — наслідник

to crown — короновать

target — цель, мишень

to destroy — разрушать

to restore — восстанавливать

unique — уникальный

to include — включать

Lesson 3

Ex.1: Read and translate the text into Russian:

Russian agriculture

The agriculture has been and remains a very important sector of Russian economy. Many our agriculture products are well known in other countries. Russia can cultivate practically all known farm crops due to various climatic parameters on its large territory. Our country cultivates different kinds of cereals (rye, oats, wheat, barley, maize, etc.), vegetables (potatoes, beets, carrots, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, cabbage, etc.), fruits (apples, pears, plums, peaches, etc.) and very many kinds of berries.

Animal breeding is a very important field of our agriculture. Cattle farming and poultry farming give us various kinds of meat (beef, lamb, pork, turkey, etc.), eggs and milk.

There are many big agricultural enterprises and many small private farms in Russia. The number of these private farms tends to increase.

The modern agriculture in Russia has many critical problems. The deficit of agricultural machinery belongs to the most difficult problems. The condition of agricultural machinery in Russia is very poor and the high cost makes the rate of its replacement week and slow. But the citizens of Russia believe that the Russian agriculture will solve all existing problems in the future.

Lesson 4

Ex.1: Read and translate the text into Russian:

Belgorod

  Belgorod is one of the oldest cities in Russia. It has a long and exciting history which dates back to the ancient times. People settled on the Seversky Donets river in the Stone and Bronze Ages. Belgorod is first mentioned in the annals of history in the 10th century. In 1996 Belgorod celebrated its 1000th anniversary jubilee. Originally it was a very small settlement of Slavs atop the chalky hill over looking the Seversly Donets river which was then a deep and navigable river. The White Hill gave its name to the future fortress town into which the little settlement had grown up by the 16th century.

The people of Whitetown were occupied with fishing and hunting wild deer, brown bears and wild goats.

After the Polish and Lithuanian invasion which took place at the beginning of the 17^th century Belgorod was destroyed. As a result all its wooden buildings were burnt. In 1626 the new fortress of Belgorod was built on the left bank if the Seversky Donets river, opposite the old site.

The Kremlin, with its 8 towers, made of oak, was built at a distance of 622 meters from the river. It was fortified by an oak fence with 15 towers which had three gates: the Vozhesky Gate in the North, the Donetsky Gate in the South and Rasuminsky Gate in the East. The area of 400 meters wide formed a defence against the raiding enemy. But the new site of the fortress was rather inconvenient: it was low and swampy. In spring the fortress was overflown and the wooden buildings became rotten.

A new site for the third fortress of Belgorod was found on the right bank of the Seversky Donets river. The wooden fortification was 1,298 meters in circumference with 10 towers and a fosse in front. Later on a bridge of 365 sagenes long (a sagene is equal to 2,13 meters) was erected across the Seversky Donets river.

At the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th century Belgorod had a monastery of Snt. Nicolas founded by order of Boris Godunov, 9 churches and 353 houses. Gradually Belgorod grew stronger and stronger and in 1727 it became the chief administrative center of the region comprising the Belgorod, the Oryol and the Kursk provinces with their 33 towns and cities and a population of 1,146 thousand inhabitants.