§2. The Russian Federation

24. What do you think is the best way to discover your home country? Prove your point of you.

25. Study the Vocabulary, get ready to read and translate the texts

Vocabulary

transportation route natural resources a yoke a troop to vary

to connect (with) to mention to lead to rebuild to join to date

Proper Names

Russia Europe Asia Siberia the Great Russian Plain the West Siberian Plain the Caspian Sea

the Volga River the Urals the Baikal the Tatars the Kremlin the Red Square Armory

Novodevichy Convent St. Basil Cathedral the Tretyakov Gallery the Bolshoi Theatre Pushkin Museum of Arts

The Russian Federation (Part 1)

Russia is the largest country in the world. It lies in the Eastern part of Europe and in the Northern part of Asia. The vast territory of Russia occupies 1/7 of the of the earth’s surface. Russia is washed by twelve seas and three oceans. The land of Russia varies a lot. Russia is located on two plains. They are: the Great Russian Plain and the West Siberian Plain. There are three main mountain chains in Russia. The Urals separates Europe from Asia. There are various types of climate on the territory of Russia. In the South Russia borders on China, Mongolia, Korea, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Azerbaijan. In the West it borders on Norway, Finland, the Baltic States, Byelorussia, Ukraine. It also has a sea-border with the USA.

Russia is a land of long rivers and deep lakes. The broad Volga River system is of great historic, economic and cultural importance to Russia. Numerous canals join all the rivers in the European part of Russia making it the largest inland water transportation route in Europe. The Volga River flows in the Caspian Sea. The Baikal is the deepest lake in the world.

On the vast territory of the country there are various types of climate. It’s continental in central European part, subtropical in the South. The coldest areas are in the extreme North and in the northern part of Siberia it’s arctic climate.

The European part of Russia is densely populated. There are a lot of cities, towns and villages in Russia. The great majority of the peoples are Russians, but there also are some 70 smaller national groups living within its borders. The correlation between males and females is 47,0% by 53,0% respectively, urban and rural population – 73,3% by 26,7%.

The Russian Federation is rich in natural resources such as oil, coal, natural gas, iron ore, copper, gold, platinum, nickel. It has one-sixth of the world’s forests. Also it is rich in natural resources

Agriculture in Russia suffered a severe transition decline in the early 1990s as it struggled to transform from a command economy to a market-oriented system. After nearly ten years of decline, Russian agriculture has begun to show signs of modest improvement. Nowadays the principal crops include sunflower seed, vegetable, potatoes and sugar beets. The country also ranks high worldwide in the production of wheat.

26. Find English equivalents to the words and word combinations in the text: горные цепи, длинные реки и глубокие озера, в европейской части России, природные ресурсы, Каспийское море, густо населенный, крайний Север, жители сельской местности, соотношение между, занимает высокое место, производство пшеницы.

26. Finish up the sentences according to the model.

Russians live	in Russia,	they speak Russian
…	in China,	…
…	in Mongolia,	…
…	in Korea,	…
…	in Kazakhstan,	…
…	in Azerbaijan,	…
…	in Georgia,	…
…	in Scotland,	…
…	in Ireland,	…
…	in America,	…
…	in Norway,	…
…	in Spain,	…
…	in Wales,	…
	in Australia,

27. What interesting facts do you know about the history of the Russian Federation? What do these dates refer to?

1147, 1237, 1380, 1812, 862.

Read the text and check if you were right.