Exercise 3. Complete the sentences from the text

1. The other river…

2. Its population had become…

3. But today Ulyanovsk is…

4. Since its foundation the city…

5. The city has many…

6. By the end of the…

7. Among them are…

Exercise 4. Make up your own questions.

1. Simbirsk was one of the richest grain markets on the Volga.

2. Sixteen churches and monasteries had been built by 18^th century.

3. The Sviyaga also runs through the city.

4. Today Ulyanovsk is a great industrial, cultural and educational centre of the Volga area.

5. There are two theatres in Ulyanovsk.

Exercise 5. Translate into Russian.

1. It is a big river port on the Volga.

2. Ulyanovsk is visited by tourists, both from Russia and foreign countries.

3. Ulyanovsk is a beautiful green city.

4. There are many parks where people like to walk.

5. Ulyanovsk is not only a historical and cultural centre, it`s one of the largest industrial cities of Russia too.

Exercise 6. Translate into English.,

1. Ульяновск гордится своим драматическим театром.

2. В Ульяновске много церквей и соборов.

3. Мы можем видеть памятники древней русской архитектуры в Ульяновске.

4. В Ульяновске есть несколько университетов.

5. Я люблю мой родной город.

Text B

MY NATIVE COUNTRY (VILLAGE)

I live in the country. It is my native village. I was born there and have lived all my life in it. My country is situated near Ulyanovsk. It is an old Russian country. It is about 1000 years old. It is beautiful and green. We are proud of the old church in the centre of the village. We have a school and a museum.

There is a forest near my country where people like to walk, to pick flowers or mushrooms. But people have many cows, sheep and pigs. So every day all the year round the people have to spend much time looking after their animals. They also have poultry and must look after the poultry giving them food and water and collecting the eggs. The people have all sorts of fruit and vegetables and have also to do some work in the kitchen, garden and take care of the fruit trees.

But the country air and plenty of exercise make the young people stronger and better fit for their work at the Institute. I like my country very much. During the week-end the people like to go to our club and amuse themselves, dancing and singing till late at night or looking films.

Vocabulary

To be proud of - гордиться

To be situated - быть расположенным

To amuse - развлекать, веселить

A church - церковь

An animal - животное

A mushroom - гриб

Poultry - домашняя птица

Exercise 1. Answer the questions:

1. What is your native country?

2. Where is it situated?

3. How do people usually amuse themselves?

4. What are you proud of?

Exercise 2. Are these statements true or false?

1. We are proud of the old church in the centre of the country.

2. So every day all the year round the people amuse themselves dancing and singing.

3. The people have a lot of all sorts of fruit and vegetables.

4. It is a beautiful green city.

5. But people don`t have many cows, sheep and pigs.

Exercise 3. Complete the sentences from the text.

1. My country is situated…

2. There is a …

3. We have a …

4. They also have …

5. But the country air …

Exercise 4. Make up your own questions:

1. It is an old Russian country.

2. My country is situated near Ulyanovsk.

3. The people have to do same work in the kitchen garden.

4. We have a school and a museum in my country.

5. There is a forest near my country.

Exercise 5. Translate into Russian.

1. People must look after the poultry.

2. There is a lake near my country.

3. We like to take a boat, row up and down the river and have a pleasant time.

4. If the weather is fine the young people get together in the open air.

5. They can go to the woods to pick flowers or mushrooms.

Exercise 6. Translate into English.

1. Моя родная деревня расположена недалеко от Ульяновска.

2. У нас есть небольшой стадион в деревнею.

3. Я помогала маме ухаживать за домашней птицей.

4. Я люблю работать в огороде.

5. Я часто ходила в лес за грибами.

Text C

A BRIEF HISTORICAL SKETCH

Ulyanovsk (until 1924 Simbirsk) was founded in 1648 by the okolnichy Bogdan Khitrovo and the dyak Grigory Kunakov by order of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. They came to the mid-Volga with a detachment of soldiers to build new cities and fortresses to protect the Muscovite state from raids by nomadic steppe tribes. The new city was constructed like a fortress, according to the rules of the military art of the time. A rectangular timber Kremlin was erected at the highest point, with towers at the corners and a moat ringing the fortress walls.

Military, administrative, and ecclesiastical power was concentrated within the Kremlin, in the center of which a cathedral stood. To the north, there were rows of shops, grain stores, barracks, and a powder-keg. All this was called the city, while outside the walls was the trading quarter or posad where carpenters, blacksmiths, potters, fishermen and the like lived, and the sloboda, that is, the settlement of free men. Actually, the posad was also enclosed by a wall and surrounded by a rampart with a moat, and was inhabited mostly by defenders of the city. This, strictly speaking, was all of Simbirsk at that time.

Already in the eighteenth century travelers correctly noted the advantageous location of the city: it was situated on a high, steep bank, protected east and west by water boundaries, which at that time were of considerable importance for the defense of the city. The peak of the Venets offers an excellent view, with the Volga, its banks, and the surrounding areas visible for tens of kilometers. Long ago, when unhurried sailing ships traveled on the river, Volga natives used to say that during their trips Simbirsk stayed in sight for seven days.

The founders of the city were probably guided by aesthetic as well as practical considerations. The famous Russian historian of the past century, Nikolai Karamzin, noted that for the beauty of its view, Simbirsk has few rivals in Europe.

There are several explanations for the name of the city. Some scholars conjecture that it comes from the Chuvash word meaning dwelling place or habitation, while others trace it to the Mordvinian words syuyun bir (green mountains), or to the name of the Bulgarian Prince Sinbir who, in the fourteenth century, controlled a large fortified town 20 kilometers down the Volga from present day Ulyanovsk.

Occupying a favorable strategic position and situated on a lively trade route-many merchant convoys sailed from Moscow to Asia and back along the Volga-Simbirsk began to develop quickly. Artisans and traders settled here, and a wide variety of trades and workshops appeared. By the beginning of the eighteenth century, Simbirsk was famous throughout Russia as one of the richest grain markets on the Volga and as a supplier of fish, caviar, wool, hides, and cloth.

Time passed and the image of the city changed. By the end of the eighteenth century all that remained of the timber Kremlin were ruins of the wooden towers and, here and there, traces of the moat. The city had already lost its defensive military significance. Its population was over ten thousand, and it had sixteen churches and two monasteries.

In 1780, the first town-planning project was approved. The majority of the buildings were wooden and, unfortunately, they have not been preserved.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, on the site of the old Kremlin a square was laid, which became the center of the city. Stone houses were built around it: the Governor's house, an office building, the noblemen's assembly, and others. For the most part, however, the city remained wooden. The strict fire prevention regulations stated "that all wooden structures without stone cellars and without stone foundations be no higher than six arshins, no closer together than five sazhens, no wooden building be longer than twelve sazhens, and that there be no wooden structures of two storeys". But, alas, such instructions did not prevent fires, which were a frequent occurrence old Simbirsk. In 1864 a terrible fire raged for nine days, destroying three quarters of the city. Many residential houses burnt down, as well as twelve churches, the Spassky Monastery, the stone shopping arcade; an immense amount of archival documents were also destroyed.

And so two hundred years after its founding, everything had to start anew: building houses, laying streets and squares. There have been some vivid pages of national significance in Simbirsk's history. In September 1670, i.e., twenty-two years after its founding, formations of rebelling peasants under the leadership of Stepan Razin approached the city from the lower reaches of the Volga. They besieged the Kremlin, where the town nobility had taken cover from the rage of the people. The rebels, however, were crushed by well-armed tsarist troops, and Stepan Razin was wounded in a battle near Simbirsk. He was later captured and, after severe torture, was executed in Moscow. In memory of this popular leader, one of the streets leading to the Volga is called Razin Street.

The peasant war of 1670 and the personality of Razin engendered many legends, tales, and songs, which to this day live on among the people. For example, in the nineteenth century the famous folk song about Stepan Razin, "From beyond the island to the mainstream", was given polished form by a native of the Simbirsk province, the poet Dmitri Sadovnikov. Many other poems have also been written about Razin. A hundred years later, in 1773, Simbirsk was again at the very center of a popular rebellion, this time led by Emelyan Pugachey. The rebellion was cruelly crushed. Many popular legends acclaim the valor and bravery of this peasant hero.

The history of Simbirsk has still other memorable pages. The ideas of the Decembrists-Russian aristocratic revolutionaries who in December 1825 raised arms against the tsarist autocracy-had active support here among the best representatives of the nobility, for example, Vassili Ivashov and Nikolai Turgenev.

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, Simbirsk was swept by a new revolutionary wave, this time the appeal for social reconstruction by the revolutionary democrats. In particular, Nikolai Ogarev, friend and comrade-in-arms of Alexander Herzen, was a propagandist for progressive ideas in the province.

Simbirsk is the native city of such famous contributors to Russian culture and science as the writers Ivan Goncharov, Dmitri Grigorovich, the poets Nikolai Yazykov, Dmitri Sadovnikov, and Dmitri Minayev, the physicist Nikolai Umov, and others.

The works of the writers Sergei Aksakov, Vladimir Sollogub, Pyotr Annenkov, Stepan Skitalets, and others are associated with the city. In the 1880s, Sergei Buturlin, later an important biologist, and the oculist Academician Vladimir Filatov studied in the local secondary school.

For many years Simbirsk was a quiet, cozy town. The best part of town-the top of Simbirsk Hill-belonged to the nobility. Here the provincial administrative offices, educational institutions, a club, theater, and hotel were also located.

Before the Revolution there was no large-scale industry, no large factorial and plants here, since the city was removed from traditional coal, iron, and oil extracting regions and, moreover, had no railway communication with other cities.

Industrial development picked up noticeably before the First World War, when construction of a railway bridge began (completed in 1917). With the growth of Industry the working class also grew and matured. In 1904, a group of the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) was formed here, in which Dmitri Ulyanov, Lenin's younger brother, worked actively.

In December 1917, Soviet power was established in Simbirsk, and throughout the province an active restructuring of life on new principles began. Many enterprises were nationalized, an eight-hour work day was instituted, hundreds of workers' families were moved from basements and barracks to the well-built houses of the nobility and bourgeoisie. Schools, clubs, libraries, hospitals were opened for the people. The principles and laws of the Soviet government were put into practice.

However, the start of the Civil War and foreign intervention interrupted this constructive work. In the spring of 1918, multinational imperialist forces joined counter-revolutionaries to unleash a bitter war against the Soviet republic. The Volga region became a front zone, and battles were fought near Simbirsk. Here the first regular units of the Red Army were formed and gained strength, and many eminent Soviet military leaders and party activists fought for the victory of the October Revolution. Thousands of workers and Communists were sent from the central regions of the country (Moscow, Petrograd, Ivanovo, Tula) to the Volga. Workers' detachments from Simbirsk also joined the struggle against the counter-revolution.

The situation in Simbirsk was complicated considerably by the fact that the commander of the Eastern front, the left Socialist Revolutionary and former officer of the tsarist army Muravyev, betrayed the revolutionary cause and organized an anti-Soviet rebellion. The rebels succeeded in seizing the post office, telegraph and telephone offices, and surrounding with armored cars and troops the former military school building, where Soviet and party organs and the editorial office of the newspaper Izvestia Simbirskogo Soveta (Simbirsk City Soviet Herald) were located.

The Simbirsk Communists, however, acted quickly and decisively. On the night of July 10, 1918, they were able to amass armed forces loyal to the Soviets and crush the rebellion.

Taking advantage of the momentary confusion in the Red Army detachments caused by the rebellion, disorganization in command, and the absence of communication with Moscow, the White Guard struck a sudden blow and, on July 22, 1918, took control of Simbirsk. White terror began in the city. Punitive forces raged, and hundreds of workers, Communists, and common people were shot. In less than two months-on September 12, 1918-the city once again became Soviet, liberated by the Simbirsk Iron Division under the command of the famous military leader Gaya Gay. In the name of the revolutionary fighting men, a telegram was sent to Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, who not long before had been seriously wounded by counterrevolutionaries:

"Dear Vladimir Ilyich, as a response for one of your wounds, we have captured your native city; for the second, we'll take Samara!" Lenin answered: "The capture of Simbirsk, my native city, is the most effective bandage for my wounds. I feel an unprecedented surge of courage and strength. I also congratulate the Red Army men in the name of all laboring people and thank them for their sacrifices."

The workers of Simbirsk and the peasants of the province made a worthy contribution to the victory over the interventionists and White Guards. Simbirsk sent arms and ammunition, equipment, uniforms, and food supplies to the front. The railway workers formed armored trains, and river transport workers equipped ships for the Volga Military Flotilla. Hundreds of inhabitants of Simbirsk gave their lives for the triumph of Soviet power in the Volga area. The transition from war to peace proved to be very difficult. In 1921, there was a bad harvest and a terrible famine resulted In Simbirsk and the province. The Soviet government helped the starving, although food was in short supply throughout the country. The following year brought a good harvest, and joy came to the tormented land.

In Simbirsk, as everywhere in the young Soviet republic, intensive economic and cultural development began. Workers, soldiers and peasants, who had defended Soviet power in embittered battles, now were enthusiastically engaged in peaceful occupations. They had to be interrupted, however, when in June 1941, nazi Germany treacherously attacked the Soviet Union.

People from Ulyanovsk, as the city is now called, fought valiantly: over a hundred of them were granted the highest military honor-the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. While it was not on the front-battles raged far from its borders - the city helped as best it could. At enterprises, the men who had gone to war were replaced by women, aged people, and adolescents, who worked for several shifts without a break. Production was quickly under way at Industrial enterprises which were evacuated here from western parts of the country. Like all Soviet people, those in Ulyanovsk helped to forge the victory over German fascism.

«Учебно-познавательная сфера общения»

Тема 4: Образование в России и за рубежом

Text A

EDUCATION IN RUSSIA

Citizens of Russia have the right to education which is guaranteed by the Constitution. The public educational system in this country incorporates pre-school, secondary school, specialized secondary and higher education.

Pre-school consists of kindergartens and crèches. Children there learn reading, writing and arithmetic. But pre-school education isn't compulsory, children can get it at home.

Compulsory education is for children from 6(7) to 17 years of age.

The main link in the system of education is the secondary school which prepares the younger generation for life and work in modern production. There are various types of schools: general secondary schools, schools specializing in a certain subject, lyceums and so on. Tuition in most of them is free of charge, but some new types of schools are fee-paying. There have appeared many private schools in Russia. Parents pay for these schools and fees are rather high.

The term of study in a secondary school is 11 years and consists of primary, middle and upper stages. The school year extends from September 1 to the end of May and is divided into four terms. Study program in schools is fixed but in the nearest future schoolchildren or their parents will have a choice of study subjects.

Children are accepted to the first grade at the age of 6 or 7, depending on individual development of each child. Students of elementary classes are normally separated from other classes within their own floor of a school building. They are taught by a single teacher through all four elementary grades except for physical training and foreign languages.

At the middle stage of a secondary school the students learn the basic laws of nature and society at the lessons of history, algebra, literature, physics and many others. After 9^th grade students have to sit for examinations. Also they have a choice between entering the 10th grade of a secondary school and enrolling in a specialized secondary or vocational school to get some profession. Russia is on the stage of bringing new technologies in education. In almost every school there are new models of computers and almost every school has a direct connect to the Internet. The Internet gives an opportunity for remote education with the help of e-mail, special forums and teleconferences.

The Ministry of Education launched the Unified State Examination (USE) program. The set of standardized tests for high school graduates, issued uniformly throughout the country and it has replaced entrance exams to state universities. Thus, the reformers reasoned, the USE will empower talented graduates from remote locations to compete for admissions at the universities of their choice.

Higher education in Russia is undergoing great changes. Russia is in the process of migrating from its traditional education model to a modernized degree structure in a line with Bologna Process model. Russia co-signed the Bologna Declaration in 2003. Russia enacted a law that replaces the traditional five-year model of education with a two-tiered approach: a four-year Bachelor’s degree followed by a two-year Master's degree.

Vocabulary

To guarantee – гарантировать

To incorporate – включать

To regulate – регулировать

To be free of charge – быть бесплатным

To extend – продолжаться, распространяться

To separate – разделять

To enroll – зачислять

To launch – запускать, начинать

To enact the law – учредить закон

To undergo great changes – претерпевать большие изменения

To replace – заменять