Post-reading tasks

1. Identify: France, Hoverla, the Carpathians, the Dnipro, the Crimea, the Polissia, Austria, the Prypiat’.

2. Which countries were mentioned in the text? In what connection? Name their names, capitals, languages spoken there.

3. Define: populous state, neighbours, river basin, marshy meadows, catastrophe, picturesque, fertile steppes, drought, irrigation.

4. Find the synonyms to the following words in the text: astonished, situation, comprise (v), conquest, region, quick.

5. Find the antonyms to the following words in the text: slow, deep, upper, flat (adj), draining.

6. Which words are associated with the Polissia district and the Carpathians? Choose from the list and match: the highest elevation, catastrophe, range, area of mixed forests, greatly beloved, extremely picturesque, northwestern part, grassy pasture, contaminated, rocky banks, suffered greatly, forested lower slopes, swift, clear rivers, steep, a land of fens and marshy meadows, peak.

7. Make analogies. Choose information from the text and continue the logical rows: 1) basin, flow, river, …

2) range, peak, slope, …

TEXT 2

Pre-reading tasks.

1. Brainstorm natural resources you can find on the territory of Ukraine.

2. Study the definitions of the following words.

Deposit – a layer of a mineral, metal etc that is left in soil or rocks through a natural process.

Ore – rock or earth from which metal can be obtained.

Sufficient – means as much as needed for a particular purpose.

Titanium –a strong light silver-white metal that is used to make aircraft and spacecraft, and is often combined with other metals.

Mercury – a heavy silver-white poisonous metal that is liquid at ordinary temperatures and is used in thermometers.

Magnesium – a common silver-white metal that burns with a bright white flame.

Coal – a hard black mineral which is dug out of the ground and burnt to produce heat.

Potential – the possibility that something will develop in a particular way or have a particular effect.

Arable land – land that is suitable for growing crops.

Ukraine comprises 0.45% of the globe’s dry land. And it has about 5% of the world mineral resources. Ukraine has the richest in the world deposits of iron and manganese ores. It is rich in coal, titanium, mercury, magnesium and other various metals. These are found in quantities sufficient not only for the needs of Ukrainian homes and industries, but also for export. Ukraine’s iron reserves make up 13.6% of the total world reserves. Some 25-30% of total world reserves of manganese ore, 8% of mercury, 2.5% of petroleum and considerable deposits of other minerals are found in Ukraine. Chemical minerals and construction materials are also in sufficient supply. The state also has oil and gas deposits but they are insufficient for the country’s needs and Ukraine imports them in large quantities. This makes the country dependent on the imported raw materials. On the whole, about 80 sorts of mineral resources are produced from 8 thousand deposits in Ukraine.

Production potential. The main branches of industry of Ukraine are: ferrous metallurgy (21.9% from the whole volume of industry), mechanical engineering and metalworking (14.7%), power industry (12.7%) and food industry (16.1%).

Centres of the ferrous metallurgy are Zaporizhzhia, Mariupol’, Dnipropetrovsk, Donets’k, Kryvyi Rih; mechanical engineering: Kharkiv, Donets’k, Lugans’k, Odessa, L’viv, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia; chemical industry: Lysychans’k, Cherkassy, Odessa.

Agriculture plays an important role in the economy of Ukraine. The area of arable lands equals to 41.8 million hectars, including 32.2 million hectars of tillage. Rich fertile black earth called “chornozem” in the form of wide belt crossing central and eastern regions of the state makes up nearly 60% of all arable lands.