Занятие IV

Задание 1. Проверьте чтение друг друга по следующим критериям:

а) темп;

б) мелодика;

в) фонетика.

Задание 2. Сравните информацию географического характера:

1. The territory of America is 9.4 mln. sq. km. And that of Russia?

2. The population of New Zealand is about 4 million people. What about the Russian Federation?

3. Commonwealth of Australia occupies the continent of Australia and a number of islands. And our country?

4. Canada is washed by three oceans: the Atlantic, the Arctic and the Pacific. And what about Russia?

5. The Appalachians and the Rocky Mountains are the highest moun­tains in the USA. And in Russia?

6. The largest river in Great Britain is the Thames and the deepest river is the Severn. What about Russian rivers?

7. An Englishman's idea of a good meal is the following: porridge with milk, bacon, eggs, flab, toasts, and tea with milk. And Russian's?

8. Most people in Britain live in houses rather than flats. What about our people?

Задание З. Скажите, в связи с чем употребляются следующие слова:

1) the largest; 2) the main; 3) more than; 4) most peopled; 5) more than; 6) the longest; 7) the deepest; 8) high; 9) the purest.

Задание 4. Прочтите текст, поймите его содержание. Разделите

текст на части.

The Land of White Nights

Anyone who visits Karelia will always be tempted to come back. Karelia is a country of one thousand lakes, and more than 23 thou­sand rivers. Almost all of them are less than 10 km. long. About half of Karelia's territory is covered with woods, mostly pine and fir. The famous islands with the charming nature of the northern land are Kizhy and the island of Valaam.

Kizhy is a small island (7 km. long and one and a half km. wide) on the lake Onega, Europe's second largest lake. The Kizhy is called “Russian Wonder”.

The most precious thing in Kizhy is 22-cupola Cathedral of the Transfiguration built in 1714. Its walls, ceilings and roof were made of pine trees without any nails, using only an axe. There is a legend on Kizhy that this church was created by Master Nestor. Having built it, he threw his axe into the lake Onega with the words: “There has never been, there isn't and there will never be anything like it”.

The island Valaam is the biggest on the Ladoga. There is a monastery. People have been living there for over 1000 years. The monastery was founded by Novgorod towns folk and stood to defend Russian land borders, and many times repelled Swedish attacks. It was destroyed many times, but always rebuilt. The monks were very peaceful people who loved God, nature, mankind. Whenever the island was invaded the monks refused to fight and kill. The primary pur­pose of the monastery was to be a spiritual center of Russian Orthodoxy.

The magnificent nature of these parts has inspired many Russian painters: Shishkin, Vasilyev, Kuindzhi.

to tempt ['tempt] - искушать

pine ['pain] - соснa

precious ['pre∫әs] -драгоценный

ceiling ['si:liη] - потолок

nail ['neil] - гвоздь

axe ['æks] - топор

threw ['θru:] – зд. выбросил

repel [ri'pel] - отражать

monk ['m ηk] - монах

to invade [in'veid] - вторгаться

spiritual [s'piritjuәl] - духовный

orthodoxy [' :θәd ksi] - православие

to inspire [in'spaiә] - вдохновлять

Задания к тексту:

а) запишите пункты плана и выпишите ключевые слова к ним. У Вас получится письменная основа для передачи содержания;

б) расскажите, что нового Вы узнали.