Text 8.

Exercise 1. What capitals of republics do you know on the territory of Russia?

Exercise 2. Look through the text and find the information a) what heroic people lived in Ufa;

b) what famous people visited Kazan;

c) what new information have you found in this text;

Russia is a multinational state. The capitals of republics are worth visiting.

One of them is Ufa. It is the capital of Bashkortastan. This republic is the birthplace of many famous people. One of them is Salavat Yulayev who took active part in the uprising headed by Pugachov. There is a monument to him in Ufa. The next monument is devoted to another hero Alexander Matrosov whose heroic deed was an example of counrage for all Soviet soldiers during the Great Patriotic War.

The next city is Kazan. It is the capital of Tatarstan. It is situated on the banks of the Volga. The centre of the city is the Kremlin built in the XVI century by Pskov masters. Nowadays we can see 13 survived towers. Many famous people visited this city. Among them there are the writers Fatykh Amirkhan, Lev Tolstoy, Musa Dzhalil, Maxim.Gorky. We can see monuments to them in the streets of Kazan.

It’s interesting to mention that one of the municipal districts in Kazan is called Kaluga.

Exercise 3. Can you guess why Pskov masters built the Kremlin and not the Tatars?

Text 9 Asian part.

Exercise 1. Read the next text and get ready to answer the questions which are given after the text.

There are a lot of famous and interesting cities in Asian part of Russia. Among them we can mention such cities as Vladivostok, a great port, Khabarovsk, Komsomolsk-on-the-Amur, which was built by young people in 1930s, Chita and a lot of others.

Irkutsk region is famous for Lake Baikal. Irkutsk is situated on the bank of the Angara. In 1652 there appeared the Cossack settlement but already in 1686 it became the trading and administrative one. This region was the place of the exile of the Decembrists. Here also Yaroslav Gashek worked .

The next city of this region is Khaita. It is the place of famous porcelain workers.

Angarsk is a young industrial city. It was built only in 1946 in the valley of the young pine wood.

Usolye Sibirskoye was first a settlement, appeared in the XVII century. The inhabitants of it were occupied in the salt mining.

Ust-Kuda is famous as the example of natural landscape called Kamchatnik.

In Urik there is the tomb of the Decembrist Muravyov.

In Olonky the Decembrist Rayevsky is buried.

Listvyanka is one of the most picturesque places on the shores of the Baikal. Chekhov compared this landscape with the scenery of Yalta.

Bratsk is a very interesting city. It consists of several municipal districts which are situated in distance of tens of kilometers from each other.

In one word Irkutsk region is a good place for tourism.

Exercise 2. Answer the questions:

1) What famous cities and towns do you know in Asian part of Russia? Can you remember some others which are not mentioned in the text and what are they famous for?

2) What places in Irkutsk region: a) are famous for their special occupations?

b) are connected with the names of the Decembrists?

c) have unique landscape?