Module III. Family in modern society Week IX . East or West, home is best

1. Text “My native town”.

2. Grammar: Future Simple Tense

3. Essay “To be proud of your place of birth”.

Text “My native town” (Read, translate and retell the text)

My name is Samat and I’m seventeen years old. Let me tell you a few words about my native town. I live in Uralsk. The capital of my native town is Astana, one of the biggest cities of our country. Uralsk is a city in northwestern Kazakhstan, at the confluence of the Ural and Chagan Rivers close to the Russian border. As it is located on the western side of the Ural River, it is considered geographically in Europe. It has a population of 300,000. It is the capital of the West Kazakhstan Province.

While the majority of the population is made up of ethnic Kazakhs, ethnic Russians also make up a large percent of the populations, and many other ethnic groups such as Tatars, Bashkirs are also represented. Because of its geographic proximity to Russia and its history, the city has been greatly influenced by Russian culture. Founded in 1584 by Cossacks, the city was originally part of the Russian Empire.

The Russian influence is still present to this day having strongly influenced the architecture and culture of the city and its people. The city played a small part in Russian history as the center of the Pugachev serf rebellion in the 18th century. The father of Russian Literature, Alexander Pushkin, visited the city with his friend Vladimir Dahl in September 1833 while doing research for his book The History of Pugachev and his novel The Captain's Daughter. Tolstoy has also visited.

Traditional Russian architecture dating back to the 17th century can be seen throughout the center of the city. The main pedestrian street of Teatralnaya is like a mini version of Moscow's Arbat. My town is rich in cultural places. I visited Kazakhstan's first drama theatre with my parents. The performance was very exciting and I was full of unforgettable impressions. Kazakhstan's first drama theatre, 150 years old, is located in this street. This theatre is now known as the Russian drama theatre. A larger, modern drama theatre, known as the Kazakh drama theatre, is located nearby on the main boulevard, Dostyk. Beautiful architecture, including two Russian Orthodox churches (one which is quite old), can also be found along Dostyk.

My town is very beautiful. All tourists of our town always want to visit Square after Abai Kunanbayev. There are a lot of museums in Uralsk. They are: Museum of Yemelyan Pugachev, Museum of Regional History, Nature and Environment Museum, Pushkin Museum, House Museum of Manshuk Mametova.

Near the river Ural, dominated by two massive concrete towers can be seen from far away. There are pictures of German bombers and Soviet victories. There is an eternal flame and thousands of names of people who died from the Uralsk area. Behind there are smaller memorials to those unnamed soldiers who died in the hospitals here from Stalingrad and to the people who died in the Gulags. There is also a memorial to the soldiers killed in Afghanistan with a Red Army helmet.

There are a lot of quiet parks and public gardens in it. One of them is Kirov Park, a large wooded area next to the river. Funfair in the summer including an antique ferries wheel, boats and peddles on the river, numerous shashlik stalls. In winter has skating on the river and skiing. A pleasant area to spend a weekend afternoon.

Near the Uralsk there is a lake Shalkar, my favorite place, nice day trip, no buildings but some yurts you can stay in in the summer. Salty lake with some beaches and with bird watching opportunities.

I love my native town very much because it is fine and majestic. I’m proud of my town, I’m glad that I live here and I’ll never change it for any other place.