ASTRAKHAN (part 2)

Well, to continue, our town is an educational centre of our Region. There are some higher educational establishments here. They are State University, Technical University of Fishing Industry and Economy, Medical State Academy, Conservatory, Engineer Building Institute and some other higher educational establishments. There are a lot of secondary schools, sport schools. By this we have Astrakhan State Reservation located in the Volga Delta where wide scientific-research work is being carried out, concerning many birds and rare plants, lotus included. It is a rare flower which can be found only here and that’s why “Lotus and Fish” is the emblem of our town.

The cultural life of our town is rich and many-aspected. Moscow is not the only city to boast of Kremlin (built 1552). There are a lot of interesting collections in the Kremlin and many tourists come to see them. Nowadays it has become a great church again.

Some other museums play a significant role in the life of any nation. One can learn many interesting facts in our museums about history, traditions and customs of different people. There one can also find documents, photographs, books, works of art and other things. These museums are: Museum of Local Lore, Museum of Military Glory, Museum of Chernyshevsky, Picture Gallery named after Kustodiyev, Museum of Customs and traditions of old Astrakhan.

Books play a great role in our life. Reading makes a man clever and wise. Many people have good libraries at home. Besides there are many libraries of all kinds in our town. Children’s library, Library named after Krupskaya are among them.

Recreation is not a big affair in our town. It includes concerts, theatre, swimming in summer, fishing all year round, hunting in spring, autumn, and winter: different sport competitions are popular among our people. As for the theatres we can’t but mention Drama Theatre, Theatre of Young Spectator, Summer Touring Theatre, Musical Comedy Theatre, Puppet Theatre, Tatar National Theatre, Theatre-Studio “White Town”. Speaking about our Drama Theatre we have to stress that it is the oldest one where a lot of famous actors and actresses, including Shalyapin, Barsova, Maxakova, Milashkina and others, performed. Its building itself is very beautiful.

We are proud of our cinema “October” with its hall of exotic trees.

As the climate in our Region is continental and summer are extremely hot people like to bathe in the sun on our sand beach on both banks of the Volga. Very often we go to the Swan Lake and feed swans sailing there.

I’m fond of my town though it is not so rich and clean as some other towns and cities, but it is my native town, and I don’t want to change it to lose my friends.

Exercise 2. Vocabulary. Learn by heart the following words.

establishment учреждение

significant значительный

custom обычай

hunting охота

competition соревнование

stress подчеркивать

be proud гордиться

SwanLake Лебединое озеро

feed кормить

sail плавать

rich богатый

change менять

Exercise 3. Choose the right variant and put it instead of drops:

1. Astrakhan is … town.

(modern, ancient, new)

2. The pride of Astrakhan is ….

(the Locomotive Repair Plant, the Concert Hall, the Picture Theatre “October”, the Kremlin).

3. Astrakhan is … centre.

(agricultural, industrial, cultural).

4. There are many industrial enterprises in Astrakhan. The biggest of them are the following:

(the Fish Cannery Refrigeration Combine, the Glass Fibre Plant, the Plant “ Polimermash“, the Airplane Building Plant, the Cellulose Cardboard Combine, the Ship Building Yard and many others).

5. There are four theatres in Astrakhan

(the Drama Theatre, the Bolshoi Theatre, the Puppet Theatre, the Young Spectator Theatre, Tatar national theatre).

Exercise 4. You are a guide. Tell the tourists who are making a tour, what sight seeings are there in Astrakhan.

DISCUSSION

Discuss the topic “My Native Town (City)” with your partner using such words as

native(s), citizen, inhabitant, city council, settlement, a fast-growing town, an advantage of living, to be situated (located), to stretch, to be surrounded by, an ancient city, a relatively young town, a monument to, to be connected to, to be divided into…districts, to be noted for, places of interest, a convenient geographical position, a Hero City, to be named after, to be proud of, to grow up around…, to dominate, to be the center of, to have one`s own infrastructure, sister city, ect.

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