IV. Answer the following questions.

1. What words of Japanese origin can you meet in the text? What do they mean? 2. What are the most striking features of the country? 3. Where is Japan situated? 4. What are the main four islands of Japan? 5. What can you say about the territory of the country? 6. Is it a plain or mountainous country? 7. Why does the country suffer of frequent earthquakes? 8. What can you say about the rivers of the country? 9. What types of climate are there in Japan? 10. What can you say about flora of Japan? 11. Is fauna of the country rich or not? 12. Why Japan has remained practically mononational? 13. What national holidays of Japan can you name? 14. Do Japanese keep to their traditions, customs and habits? 15. What can you say about art of the country?

V. Match the words in the left-hand column with their definitions in the right-hand column.

1. kimono	a. a Japanese kind of a cherry tree
2. hokku	b. a part of the sea or a large lake enclosed by the wide curve of the shore
3. turtle	c. the ejection of molten rock, as from a volcano; the ejection of water as from a geyser
4. bay	d. an area of land that is almost surrounded by water but is joined to a larger piece of land
5. eruption	e. a large reptile with a hard round shell, that lives in the sea
6. dormant	f. a poem of three lines
7. sakura	g. a sudden, violent shaking of the earth’s surface
8. inlet	h. a traditional Japanese dress worn both men and women
9. peninsula	i. not active or growing now but able to become active or to grow in the future
10. earthquake	j. a narrow strip of water that stretches from the sea or a lake, or between islands

VI. Read this text and retell it. What else can you add to it? Look up all unknown words in the dictionary and learn them. Our Native Country

Part I. The Geography of the Country.

Our country is called the Republic of the Russian Federation or Russia. It is the largest country of the world. Russia is situated in the eastern part of Europe and in the northern part of Asia. Its total area is over seventeen million square kilometers. Russia was one of the republics of the former USSR (the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics). Now our country is an independent state.

The country is washed by 14 seas of three oceans: the Pacific, the Atlantic and the Arctic. The Russian Federation borders on many countries on land: Norway, Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Byelorussia, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia and Northern Korea.

There are many plains in our country. Among them there are the Great Russian Plain and the West Siberian Plain. The great part of the West Siberian Plain is occupied with swamps. There are also many mountains and mountain chains, the biggest of which are the Urals, which separate Europe from Asia, and the Altai. Some mountains are very high. The highest tops of Russia are Elbrus in the Caucasus and Kluchevskaya Sopka in the Kamchatka Peninsula. Also there we can find 150 volcanoes, 30 of which are active.

There are over two million rivers in Russia, and twenty-two of them are more than one thousand kilometers long. We all know such rivers as the Volga, the Don, the Dnieper, and the Dvina in the European part of the country, the Ob, the Yenissei, the Lena in Siberia and the Amur in the Far East. They are the greatest. We have about 2,5 million lakes in our country. The largest of them are the Caspian Sea, the Aral Sea, the Ladozhskoye Lake, and the deepest lake is the Baikal Lake. The waters of this lake are the purest in the world.

Part II. Climate, mineral resources, wildlife.

The climate of our country varies greatly from one part to another. One can find Arctic zones of tundra in the region of Far North, great taiga forests in Siberia, steppes and semi-deserts in the South, subtropical jungles of the Far East and along the Black Sea Coast. The eastern part of the country is warmer in summer than the western part, but the winter is much colder in the East. In the Far North there is the polar night that lasts half a year, the other part of the year is the polar day. In the Urals winters are long and cold but summers are hot and short.

Our country has many time zones. When the sun rises in the east of our country, in Chukotka, there is still night in the west of it, in Kaliningradsky region.

The Russian Federation is very rich in mineral resources. It has huge (great) deposits of oil and natural gas, ferrous and non-ferrous ores (iron ores, copper, nickel, zinc, silver, and gold), diamonds and almost all other minerals.

The world of animals and plants is very rich too, because of many types of climate. In the North of Russia we can find the walrus, seal, white bear, polar fox, and reindeer. In the forest zone live the bear, wolf, fox, lynx, sable, ermine, elk, and wild boar and in the Far East we can see the tiger and leopard.

Among the trees growing in the European part of our country are birch, pine, oak, maple; in Siberia - cedar, larch, fir trees; in the Far East - iron trees and cork trees, lotus, ginseng and lianas.

Part III. Political and Administrative System of Our Country.

Our country is formed by 16 autonomous republics, 5 autonomous regions and other territorial units. The population of the country is 143 million people. 83 per cent of them are Russians. But our country is multinational and equal rights are given to each nation and nationality. There are over 130 of them and some of these nationalities are less than 1000 people. More than one hundred languages are spoken in our country.

The Russian Federation is a democratic republic. At the head of the country there is a president elected for a period of four years. The Federal Assembly has two houses, the 176-seat Federation Council and 450 -seat State Duma. The members of Duma are elected for four years too. The heads of all territorial units are the members of the Federation Council. The Constitutional Court is the highest in the country. Russia's voting age is 18. The Government is headed by the Prime Minister.

Now the political situation is very difficult. There is no the USSR already. Each of 15 former republics of the country is independent now, but 11 of them have formed the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The heads of the republics meet regularly to discuss their problems. The relations among the nations and nationalities in Russia are difficult too. We still have national and religious conflicts.

The national flag has three horizontal stripes of white, blue and red colours.

The national coat-of-arms consists of a two-headed eagle on the red shield. There is victorious George on a white horse with a spear in his hand on the background of the eagle.

The national anthem was created by Mikhalkov (text) and Aleksandrov (music).

We celebrate the Day of Independence on the 12^th of June and the Day of National Flag on the 21^st of August. The Constitution Day is on the 12^th of December.

Part IY. National economy.

The Russian Federation is a large industrial country. We have a highly developed industry and great mineral resources. Goods we produce are used not only in our country, but in other countries too. Our national economy has good heavy industry, machine-building, chemical & construction industries. The centres of aircraft industry are in Saratov & Samara. Shipbuilding is developed in our ports: Kaliningrad, Vladivostok, Murmansk, Novorossiysk, and Saint Petersburg. Coal-mining industry is developed in Kuzbass, in the Urals, in Vorkuta. Our light industry produces textile, clothes, leather and footwear. In all large cities are factories of food industry. As our country has many rivers, there are a lot of hydroelectric stations. Russia also produces electronics, radio and TV sets, cars and lorries, carriages and space rockets.

Our agriculture is also developed. Farmers grow wheat, rye, barley, oats, buckwheat, and flax. Vegetable growing and gardening is developed all over the country. There are poultry farming and cattle-farming near every large city.

Part Y. Our culture.

Russia has a great culture. Since the very beginning of our state our country had been known as the country with rich cultural traditions, just remember the fact that the level of literacy was much higher in ancient Russia than in the Western Europe. Our literature is one of the richest in the world. Almost everybody knows our music, ballet, and opera. One can make up a very long list of outstanding Russian scientists, writers, poets, composers, painters, singers and ballet dancers. There are a lot of museums, libraries, theatres and art galleries all over the country.

But now let’s speak about folk-crafts, folk-art and some habits and traditions of our country. One can see that every region has its own folk-craft. The Far North is famous for its bone-carving. Beautiful laces are made in Vologda and Eletz. Everybody knows Khokhloma and Gorodetz tableware, trays form Zhestovo and Nyzhny Tagil, Bogorodsky wooden carved toys, Dymka clay toys and Gzhel faience, pained boxes of Palekh. Log houses, usually decorated with wood carving, are typical for Russian villages. As our country is a multinational one, the variety of models in clothes strikes everybody visiting our country. And it is usually richly decorated with embroidery and laces.

As it has already been told there are rich cultural traditions. Not long ago people in Russian villages performed traditional khorovods (a kind of round dance) and chastushki (folk chanted rhymes) and rode in troikas. There are still a lot of people who like to play the accordion and balalaika and other folk musical instruments. The orchestras of folk instruments and ensembles of folk songs are popular in our country. There are many folk holidays in our country.

Can you make up your own list of 100 the most outstanding people of our country - political leaders, Statesmen, generals and admirals, scientists, public men, poets and writers, singers and ballet dancers? What are these people famous for?

TOPIC 'Meals"