ASTRAKHAN (part 2)

Exercise 1. Read and translate the text.

Exercise 5. Answer the following questions

Exercise 2. Vocabulary. Learn by heart the following words.

native resident коренной житель

native town родной город

attract привлекать

besituated находиться

emerge появляться, возникать

island остров

settlement поселение, колония

appear появляться, возникать

nomadictribe кочевое племя

battle битва

be closely connected быть тесно связанным

suitable подходящий

cover покрывать

absorb поглощать, всасывать

influence влиять

border граница

frankly speaking откровенно говоря

developed industrial city развитый промышленный город

environment окружающая среда

protection защита

pollute загрязнять

service обслуживание

1. What new information have you known from this text?

2. Where is Astrakhan situated?

3. When was Astrakhan founded?

4. What can you say about history of Astrakhan?

5. Where is the Kremlin situated?

6. What can you say about Astrakhan borders with other regions.

7. What do you know about industry in Astrakhan?

8. What is environmental situation in our region?

Well, to continue, our town is an educational centre of our Region. There are some higher educational establishments here. They are State University, Technical University of Fishing Industry and Economy, Medical State Academy, Conservatory, Engineer Building Institute and some other higher educational establishments. There are a lot of secondary schools, sport schools. By this we have Astrakhan State Reservation located in the Volga Delta where wide scientific-research work is being carried out, concerning many birds and rare plants, lotus included. It is a rare flower which can be found only here and that’s why “Lotus and Fish” is the emblem of our town.

The cultural life of our town is rich and many-aspected. Moscow is not the only city to boast of Kremlin (built 1552). There are a lot of interesting collections in the Kremlin and many tourists come to see them. Nowadays it has become a great church again.

Some other museums play a significant role in the life of any nation. One can learn many interesting facts in our museums about history, traditions and customs of different people. There one can also find documents, photographs, books, works of art and other things. These museums are: Museum of Local Lore, Museum of Military Glory, Museum of Chernyshevsky, Picture Gallery named after Kustodiyev, Museum of Customs and traditions of old Astrakhan.

Books play a great role in our life. Reading makes a man clever and wise. Many people have good libraries at home. Besides there are many libraries of all kinds in our town. Children’s library, Library named after Krupskaya are among them.

Recreation is not a big affair in our town. It includes concerts, theatre, swimming in summer, fishing all year round, hunting in spring, autumn, and winter: different sport competitions are popular among our people. As for the theatres we can’t but mention Drama Theatre, Theatre of Young Spectator, Summer Touring Theatre, Musical Comedy Theatre, Puppet Theatre, Tatar National Theatre, Theatre-Studio “White Town”. Speaking about our Drama Theatre we have to stress that it is the oldest one where a lot of famous actors and actresses, including Shalyapin, Barsova, Maxakova, Milashkina and others, performed. Its building itself is very beautiful.

We are proud of our cinema “October” with its hall of exotic trees.

As the climate in our Region is continental and summer are extremely hot people like to bathe in the sun on our sand beach on both banks of the Volga. Very often we go to the Swan Lake and feed swans sailing there.

I’m fond of my town though it is not so rich and clean as some other towns and cities, but it is my native town, and I don’t want to change it to lose my friends.

 

Exercise 2. Vocabulary. Learn by heart the following words.

establishment учреждение

significant значительный

custom обычай

hunting охота

competition соревнование

stress подчеркивать

be proud гордиться

SwanLake Лебединое озеро

feed кормить

sail плавать

rich богатый

change менять

 

Exercise 3. Choose the right variant and put it instead of drops:

1. Astrakhan is … town.

(modern, ancient, new)

2. The pride of Astrakhan is … .

(the Locomotive Repair Plant, the Concert Hall, the Picture Theatre “October”, the Kremlin).

3. Astrakhan is … centre.

(agricultural, industrial, cultural).

4. There are many industrial enterprises in Astrakhan. The biggest of them are the following:

(the Fish Cannery Refrigeration Combine, the Glass Fibre Plant, the Plant “ Polimermash“, the Airplane Building Plant, the Cellulose Cardboard Combine, the Ship Building Yard and many others).

5. There are four theatres in Astrakhan

(the Drama Theatre, the Bolshoi Theatre, the Puppet Theatre, the Young Spectator Theatre, Tatar national theatre).

 

Exercise 4. You are a guide. Tell the tourists who are making a tour, what sight seeings are there in Astrakhan.

DISCUSSION

Discuss the topic “My Native Town (City)” with your partner using such words as

native(s), citizen, inhabitant, city council, settlement, a fast-growing town, an advantage of living, to be situated (located), to stretch, to be surrounded by, an ancient city, a relatively young town, a monument to, to be connected to, to be divided into…districts, to be noted for, places of interest, a convenient geographical position, a Hero City, to be named after, to be proud of, to grow up around…, to dominate, to be the center of, to have one`s own infrastructure, sister city, ect.

 

Exercise 5. Retell the text.

GRAMMAR

Основные типы вопросов в английском языке

1. Общий вопрос (General question).

Общий вопрос относится ко всему предложению в целом, и ответом на него будут слова yes или no:

Do you like ice-cream? – Yes, I do.

Can you speak English? – Yes, I can.

Are you a schoolboy? – No, I am not.

Have you bought a text book? – Yes, I have.

 

Порядок слов в общем вопросе.

1)вспомогательный (модальный, глагол-связка) глагол,

2)подлежащее (существительное или местоимение),

3)смысловой глагол (или дополнение).

 

2.Специальный вопрос (Special question).

Специальный вопрос относится к какому-нибудь члену предложения или их группе и требует конкретного ответа:

What is your name? – My name is Peter.

Where do you live? – I live in Rostov.

Специальный вопрос всегда начинается со специального вопросительного слова:

Who (кто) where (где)

Whom (кого) why (почему)

What (что) how long (как долго)

Which (который) how many (сколько)

Whose (чей) how much (сколько)

When (когда) how (как)

 

Порядок слов в специальном вопросе.

1) вопросительное слово (what, where, who, when, и т. д.)

2) вспомогательный (модальный, глагол-связка) глагол.

3) подлежащее,

4) смысловой глагол,

5) дополнения,

6) обстоятельства (места, времени, образа действия и т. д.)

В специальных вопросах, обращенных к подлежащему в формах Present и Past Simple, не употребляется вспомогательный глагол todo (did) и сохраняется прямой порядок слов:

Who wants to go to the cinema?

Whose pen is it?

Who lives here?

 

3.Альтернативный вопрос (Alternative question).

Альтернативный вопрос предполагает выбор из двух возможностей:

Do you like coffee or tea? – Вы любите кофе или чай?

Альтернативный вопрос начинается как общий вопрос, затем следует разделительный союз or и вторая часть вопроса.

Have you been studing English for two hours or three hours?

 

4. Разделительный вопрос (Disjunctive question).

Разделительный вопрос состоит из двух частей. Первая часть – это повествовательное предложение (утвердительное или отрицательное), вторая, отделенная запятой от первой, - краткий вопрос, который на русский переводится не правда ли? не так ли?

You are an engineer, aren`t you? –Вы инженер, не правда ли?

You aren`t an engineer, are you? – Вы не инженер, не так ли?

В кратком вопросе повторяется вспомогательный, модальный или связочный глагол предложения, содержащего заявление. Если сказуемое предложения выраженного глаголами to be или to have, то повторяются эти глаголы.

He is reading, isn`t he? Он читает не так ли? (Повторяется вспомогательный глагол.)

He can read, can`t he? Он умеет читать, не так ли? (Повторяется модальный глагол can.)

He is a good specialist, isn`t he? Он хороший специалист, не так ли? (Повторяется связочный глагол to be.)

He has a book, hasn`t he? У него есть книга, не так ли? (Повторяется глагол to have, употребляемый как смысловой глагол.)

Если в повествовательной части разделительного вопроса содержится утверждение, то во второй – отрицание.

Если в повествовательной части – отрицание, то во второй части, как правило, - утверждение:

He is there, isn`t he? Он там, не так ли?

He isn`t there, is he? Он не там, не так ли?