The Far East: people and culture

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easily bred in captivity and live there much longer. But there are less than a hundred of them left wild in the area. Normally tigers do not attack people. If you meet a tiger, never make sharp movements and step back slowly, but never turn your back to a tiger.

The Khabarovsk Territory is washed by the Sea of Okhotsk, one of the coldest and shallowest seas in Russia. Despite this fact, the flora and fauna of this area is varied. Aquatic mammals of the Sea of Okhotsk are represented by fur-seals, common seals, walruses, sea lions and sivutchies. They are graceful and powerful animals and feed on fish and other marine life. On land they are slow and clumsy. Female sea lions can be captured young and trained for circus performances because they are very intelligent and have a fine sense of balance.

Many beautiful fairy-tales and legends try to explain the uniqueness of Far Eastern natural environment. One of them says:

“After the creation of the world God began to sow it with vegetation. He sowed the North with stunted and frost-resistant plants and settled animals of great endurance there. Moving to the South, the Creator sowed heat-loving plants and settled warm-blooded animals. Soon he felt tired and decided to have a nap but an hour later angels broke his sleep as they found the Creator‟s mistake – there was nothing sowed in the very far East of the earth. As the seeds left were for both, for the South and the North, the Creator decided to use them all for the barren area. That particular area was our homeland – the Far East of

Russia.”

This legend fully describes the very unusual combination of the plants in the Far Eastern taiga where one can find tundra underbrush and light conifers side by side; a walnut growing near a cedar, a birch-tree beside a bamboo.

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Assignments from the text “The natural resources of the Khabarovsk Territory”

VOCABULARY ON THE TOPIC “ NATURE “ (from the text)

NOW LET‟S PRACTISE THE VOCABULARY

I.Complete the sentences with the right word or phrase from the

vocabulary lists.

1.In the South the Khabarovsk Territory ... on the Maritime Territory and China.

2.A ... climate is characterized by cold winters and hot and humid summers.

3.The Khabarovsk Territory is ... ... mineral resources.

4.In the territory northern and southern nature ... .

5.The gin-seng is a ... plant.

6.The Ussuri tiger is an ... species. There are less than 100 of them left.

7.Tigers mainly ... on hoofed animals.

8.Aquatic mammals ... on marine life.

9.Wild life of the area is ... ... a great variety of animals.

10.Endangered species of animals must not ... ... .

II. Find the synonyms for the following ( in the vocabulary lists ).

III. Find the opposite for the following ( in the vocabulary lists ).

IV. Match the definitions to the right words in the following list and give the definitions to the rest: conifer, flora, copper, to feed on, paradise, camouflage, litter, fauna, panacea, to prey on, lynx, to mature, stunted, to be hunted.

1.A red-brown metal used especially for making wire or pipes.

2.A type of tree that produces cones containing its seeds, has long thin leaves called needles, and stays green all year round.

3.A wild cat that has a short tail, long hair on the ends of its ears, and dark spots.

4.The colour or shape of an animal that makes it difficult to see because it looks similar to what is around it.

5.To hunt another creature in order to eat it.

6.A group of baby cats, dogs or other animals that are born at the same time.

7.To look for food and eat it.

V. Give the English equivalents for the following.

GRAMMAR STRUCTURE

I. Note the following grammatical pattern and its translation into Russian.

Its long warm coat and a layer of fat protect the tiger from the cold. Nor does it fear heat. – Его длинная тѐплая шуба и слой жира защищают тигра от холода. Не боится он и жары.

II. Translate the following sentences.

1.I don‟t remember her address nor do I remember her telephone number.

2.He didn‟t read the book nor did he see the film made after it.

3.He doesn‟t know where she lives nor does he remember her name.

4.People don‟t like when it is boiling nor do they like when it is freezing.

5.They didn‟t go to the seaside for a holiday nor did they stay in town.

III. Combine each pair of sentences into one sentence.

1. He didn‟t find necessary evidence in the first book. He didn‟t have better luck with the other three books either.

2.I will never forget how he was staring at me. I can never forget the peculiar thrill that went through me either.

3.Martin did not laugh. He didn‟t grit his teeth in anger either.

4.I don‟t remember that Mr Murdstone complained about all this. I don‟t remember that he laughed at it either.

5.She didn‟t tell him to go away. She didn‟t let him come into the hotel with her either.

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IV. Translate the following sentences.

1.Я не могу никому рассказать об этом, но и вынести это в одиночку я тоже не могу.

2.Она не разговаривала на уроке, но и не утруждала себя ( give oneself the trouble) работой.

3.Дети не хотели возвращаться домой, не скучали они и по своей няне.

4.Какая отвратительная сегодня погода ! Не изменится к лучшему она и завтра.

5.Исчезающие животные не защищены как положено от браконьерства, не сохраняются и леса.

COMPREHENSION TASKS

I. Express the following quantities in meters and degrees Celsius and remember what these figures say about in the text.

20 – 25 inches

10 feet

To what do the following numbers refer in the text? 13 200 110 50% 100

II. Answer the questions.

1.What is the geographical location of the Khabarovsk Territory?

2.What is the landscape of the territory?

3.What is the climate like?

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4.What kind of mineral resources is the territory rich in?

5.What kind of plants is the flora of the territory represented by?

6.What variety of wild life does the fauna display?

7.The Ussuri tiger is an endangered species, isn‟t it? How did it become endangered?

8.What kind of animals is the marine life of the territory represented by?

9.What is peculiar about Far Eastern nature? How does the author explain this

peculiarity?

III. Divide the text into logical parts. Give a name to each part. Make up an outline of the text.

IV. Make up a list of key words of each part. V. Retell the text.

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TEXT 6.

THE AMUR RIVER

The Amur River is one of the greatest rivers in the world. It is the 9th in size of river basin and the 8th longest. The Amur is the second longest river in Russia. This river originates in Siberia, east of lake Baikal, and empties into the Tatar Straight of the Okhotsk Sea which is the north-west extremity of the

Pacific Ocean.

The Amur River runs through 3 different regions: the Chital, Amur and Khabarovsk Territories. As one of the greatest rivers of the country, the Amur is divided into three parts: the upper, the middle and the lower Amur. The total length of the Amur is 2,700 miles. The distance from Khabarovsk to the Pacific Ocean is 600 miles and it takes 44 hours to reach its estuary by ship.

There are several versions of the origin of the word “Amur”. Since ancient times the valley of the Amur River was populated by aboriginal and orientallooking people: Nanai, Nivkhi, Udege and Ulchi, as well as Chinese. All of them called this river, which fed and watered them, by different names. Some names sounded similar, some not. Nivkhi, for example, used to call it “the Yamur” which means “big water”. The Tunguss word “Amur” means “good world”. The indigenous people used to greet the first Russian explorers with this word.

The Amur River historically provided the main link between the small settlements along the river and the more sophisticated, well-connected city of Khabarovsk. Archeologists all over the world know a small village not far from Khavarovsk called Sikachi-Alayan. It is a national Nanai village. The language and culture of the Nanai is very similar to the Manzhurian people. The petroglyphs, various pictures carved on the rocks of Sikachi-Alyan, are reminders of many centuries ago. Most of the petroglyphs depict animals, masks and snakes. They were first discovered in Russia in 1894 and in 1895.

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These images of the ancient cultural heritage of the local ethnic group are now protected and preserved by the regional government.

New excavations are organized annually in the basin of the Amur to help to expand our knowledge of this region. And it was discovered that the Amur River used to be one of the routes from Asia to America as well as a route to the world-famous Silk Road. Archeological finds at the former sites of aboriginal camps prove the historical and cultural links to local ethnic groups with the peoples of central Asia and Polynesia.

Russian people began to explore and populate these so-called “no-man‟s lands” from the 17th century onwards. Fertile soil in the valley of the Amur River promised good harvests. Vast coniferous forests known as taiga boasted superb hunting grounds. Fishing in the Amur was legendary too. Russians had good reason to call it “Little Father Amur”, second only in favour to “Little Mother Volga” which runs in European Russia. In those days the Amur River would have been the most convenient and safest way to the ocean. But unfortunately at that time people did not know that it had an outlet to the sea. It was only in 1849 that a Russian naval officer, Nevelskoy, proved that Sakhalin was an island, not a peninsula, and that sea-going vessels could enter the estuary of the Amur. In 1858 the Russian-Chinese Treaty regarding borders was signed and Trans-Amur Territories discovered and populated by Russians were annexed to Russia. Navigation on the Amur River was opened the same year, 1858. The growth of the population in the territory resulted in the intensive development of the Amur fleet. There are many forms of transportation on the Amur River: barges, ferries and refrigerator ships, passenger ships and hydrofoils. There are also special freight boats of the sea-river type which go up the river to its estuary and then by sea carry cargo to Sakhalin, Kamchatka and Japan.

The climate of the Amur valley is mainly monsoonal, which changes according to the seasons. 70-80 % of annual precipitation falls during two

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months. The Amur is known for its treacherous flooding. Flooding typically occurs in August and September. Thus the river differs from other rivers of Russia which flood in spring time. When winter comes, the Amur River becomes frozen solid but looks glamorous. The earliest the river freezes is midOctober; the latest is the beginning of May. The longest period the Amur has been free from ice was 200 days and the shortest was 175 days.

The ichtyofauna of the Amur is varied too. It is distinguished from the ichtyofauna of other rivers for its peculiar combination of the Siberian turbot and white fish coexisting with Chinese and Japanese fauna, specifically the white Amur fish, silver carp and Chinese perch. The Amur River has such exotic fauna as snakehead, which comes from the still more distant Indian fauna. Both China and Russia possess the wealth of the Amur River and are striving to preserve it. All in all there are over 100 varieties of fish in the Amur River and its tributaries. The endemic species are the Amur pike and kaluga – the biggest from the sturgeon family. An average kaluga weighs up to 600 pounds. Each spring from some of the most biologically productive waters on the planet comes a migration – the pacific salmon by the hundreds of millions begin their return to the streams of their birth – to the waters of the Amur River to complete their life cycle. The salmon family here has 13 species. The carp family has 51 allied species; the white and the black Amur fish are among them.

Throughout the ages the Amur River was the main source of living for the aboriginal people. They were good at fishing, especially the Nanai people who developed their fishing skills to perfection. Nowadays fishing is the most popular sport and hobby of the city inhabitants. Every day, regardless of the season, one can see many anglers on the river embankment waiting for their

„luck‟. Anglers can also go to fishing grounds outside the city where they can stay at lodges which provide boats and fishing gear.

The river banks also offer good land for development of gardening in this area. Gardening has become very popular with the city residents though the