Features:
A land of mainly subdued relief, Australia has vast areas of gently sloping plateaus and plains dissected only at their edges.
Australia’s main regions are: (1) the ancient western plateau, which covers more than half the continent; (2) the central plains; (3) the Great Dividing Range in the east, which rises to 7,310 ft (2,228 metres) – Mount Kosciuszko (the highest mountain on the Australian mainland, in south-eastern New South Wales); (4) the Eastern coastal plain, where most of the large towns are; (5) the tropical northeast coast, which is protected by the Great Barrier Reef.
Australian landscapes have a deep richness of colour: bronze, yellow and olive green are the dominant tones. By far the largest part of Australia is desert or semi-arid. Australia is the flattest continent, with the oldest and least fertile soils, and is the driest inhabited continent.
The weather: Only the south-east and south-west corners of the continent have a temperate climate. The landscapes of the northern part of the country, with a tropical climate, consist of rainforest, woodland, grassland, mangrove swamps, and desert. The climate is significantly influenced by ocean currents, including the EL Nino southern oscillation, which is correlated with periodic drought, and the seasonal tropical low pressure system that produces cyclones in northern Australia. The continent extends over more than 30 parallels of latitude, from northern tropics to southern cool temperatures and alpine regions. About 40% of the continent is in the tropics. The climate is tropical in the north, with heavy rain in summer (December to February); the southeast coast and the southwest area of Queensland have a Mediterranean climate, with moderate rain. The rest of the continent is dry. Much of the west is semi-desert or desert.
The wildlife: Australia as a land mass has been isolated from the rest of the world for 50 million years and has animals and plants found nowhere else. Because of the continent’s great age (and consequent low levels of fertility), its extremely variable weather patterns, and its long-term geographic isolation, much of Australia’s biota is unique and diverse. About 85% of flowering plants, 84% of mammals, more than 45% of birds, and 89% of in-shore, temperate-zone fish are endemic.
In the arid interior are sparse desert grasses and scrub, including the saltbush. With increasing rainfall the plant cover ranges from scrub forests, savannah, and woodlands to the cooler rain forests of the east coast and Tasmania with beech, conifers, and tree ferns. Acacias and eucalypts, known respectively as wattles and gums, are the predominant scrub and forest types; both are represented by hundreds of species, nearly all of which are peculiar to Australia. Most Australian woody plant species are evergreen and many are adapted to fire and drought (including many eucalypts and acacias). Australia has a rich variety of endemic legume species that thrive in nutrient-poor soils because of their symbiosis with Rhizobia bacteria and mycorrhizal fungi.
Australia has 70% of the world’s marsupials; all of the world’s monotremes; a small percentage of the world’s placentals; an enormous diversity of parrots and other birds; a fascinating range of reptiles, amphibians and fish; many unusual invertebrates.
The native animals of Australia include some of the strangest mammals on earth– marsupials, or pouched mammals, such as the kangaroo, wallaby, koala, wombat, possum, carnivorous marsupials – numbat, mole, native cat; they are remarkable for their method of reproduction, such as the production of very tiny young which complete their development in a pouch; monotremes – the platypus and echidna, which lay soft-shelled eggs, but suckle their young; placentals – whale, dolphin, native rats and mice, bats, dingo, seal. The dingo, or wild dog, is the main representative of the more familiar order of mammals and is a serious menace to sheep. There are also reptiles - barking and frilled lizards, the saltwater and freshwater crocodiles. Australia is home to the largest number of venomous snakes in the world. Tasmania has many unique mammals found nowhere else in the world. Some, like the Tasmanian devil, and Tasmanian tiger are well-known. Others, such as the eastern quoll, pademelon and bettong are less well-known, but equally fascinating.
The koala and eucalyptus form an iconic Australian pair.
Australia must also be the bird lover’s paradise. Bird life includes a great variety of parrots, cockatoos, the unmistakable kookaburra, or laughing jackass, the emu, the black swan. The lyrebird, with its unusual plumage, and the brush turkey, which incubates its eggs in mounds of decaying vegetation, are other interesting species.
Many of Australia’s ecoregions, and the species within those regions, are threatened by human activities and introduced plant and animal species.
Of the animals introduced into Australia, the fox and the rabbit became serious pests. Long fences were built in attempts to control the spread of rabbits, but they continued to invade most of the grazing-lands of the continent. Some measure of control has been achieved by closer fencing, poisoning, trapping and the introduction of the virus disease myxomatosis.
The federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 is a legal framework for the protection of threatened species. Numerous protected areas have been created under the national Biodiversity Action Plan to protect and preserve unique ecosystems; 64 wetlands are registered under the Ramsar Convention, and 16 World Heritage Sites have been established. Australia was ranked 13th in the world on the 2005 Environmental Sustainability Index.
Location – Vocabulary:
p. 1
counterbalance – противовес ; уравновешивать
equator [i' kweitə]
waltz [wo:ls] – вальсировать
kangaroo [ ,kængə'ru:]
shield [∫i:ld] – щит
wattle ['wotl] –австрал. акация или мимоза
badge – эмблема, значок
fauna ['fo:nə]
emu ['i:mju:]
Australian Capital Territory –территория Австралийской столицы (адм.единица Австралии)
Adelaide ['ædleid]
Вrisbane ['brizbən]
Canberra ['kænbərə] – Kанберра
Melbourne ['melbən]
Perth[pə:ө]
Sydney ['sidni]
р. 2
crest – гребень; геральд. – украшение наверху гербового щита
wreath [ri:ө] – венок, гирлянда
plateau ['plætou] – плато
to slope – клониться, иметь наклон
to dissect – разрезать
The Arafura sea [a:ra:'fu:ra] –Арафурское море
The Coral Bea ['korəl] – Коралловое море
Hobart ['houba:t]
Mount Kosciuskо [,kozi' Λskоu] – Косцюшко
New Caledonia [kæli'douniə] Papua New Guinea [pæpuə nju: gini]