Text 2. Read the text and say what new things about Australia you have learned from it.

Even in medieval times there were stories about a large continent in the Southern hemisphere. Europeans wondered what it was like and whether it was inhabited. They called this land “Terra australis incognita” or “the unknown southern land”. Nowadays, when people speak of Australia they can mean three things: 1.) Australia as a continent, 2.) Australia as an island, and 3.)Australia as an independent country. Australia is the world largest island and its smallest continent. Asia is the continent nearest to Australia in the north. The icy shores of Antarctica lie to the south. New Zealand is to the East. To the west of Australia stretches the vast Indian Ocean. In the East the continent is washed by the Pacific Ocean.

Australia is a land of striking differences. In the centre and in the west more than 50% of the land is desert, dry and uninhabited: the Great Sandy Desert, the Great Victoria desert, and the Gibson Desert between them. Most of people live on narrow coasts of the east and south-east among tall office buildings, automobile plants and busy factories. In the north east tropical forests cover the coast. In the mountains of the south-east the snow lies for seven months of the year.

Australia is divided into six states and two territories.

New South Wales is Australia’s leading industrial state. Most people live in Sidney, the largest city in Australia.

In Victoria people live in the south. Melbourne is the capital of Victoria State. Sheep and wheat are the main products. Citrous fruit, grapes, peaches and apricots are grown along the Murray River

Queensland is a second largest state with long beautiful sandy beaches appealing to holidaymakers. The climate along the eats coast is hot and humid. It is the tropical corner of Australia. Some unproductive desert lands occupy the bigger part of the state.

The state of Western Australia is dry and inhospitable except the south-western corner. Nearly all of the state’s farms, sheep stations and fruit gardens are situated there. The rest of the state is dry desert land with very few towns or lonely cattle stations.

South Australia is the third largest state with Adelaide as the capital. Farming here very much depends on irrigation and underground water. Wheat, apricots, pears, peaches, nectarines and grapes are grown along the lower part of Murray River.

Tasmania – the island state - the apple isle because it produces most of Australia’s apples. Tasmania is one of the few places in Australia that have enough rain all year round. Tasmania is a leading producer of pears and berries of different kinds. Potatoes are also grown in some areas.

Northern Territory – is the least populated and the least developed part of Australia. Crocodiles still live in some of the swamp s along the coast. Darwin is its capital and the only large settlement in the north. Alice Springs, generally called Alice is the only town in the south.

The capital of Australia is Canberra. The city does not belong to any state. It is situated on the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) which occupies an area of 2, 432 square kilometers.

Text 3:

Sometimes Australia is called “the upside down world ” as it lies in the Southern Hemisphere where winter comes in July and summer begins in December. Though most of the territory is too dry, it has an extraordinary collection of birds and animals. Early explorers were so surprised by the emu and the kangaroo, that they described the continent as the land where birds “ran instead of flying and animals hopped instead of running”.

Australia is the home of two of the world’s most primitive mammals - the duckbill and the anteater.

They are the only mammals that lay eggs.

There are more than 40 different kinds of kangaroos in Australia in different colors and sizes. Koala that resembles a teddy-bear is well known for it spends most of its time in eucalyptus trees eating only the leaves.

Kookaburra or “LAUGHING JACKASS” is curious bird, so much loved by Australians, that they even made up a song about it:

Kookaburra sits on an old gum tree ( eucalyptus is the same )

Merry, merry king of the bush is he.

Laugh Kookaburra, laugh Kookaburra,

Happy your life must be.

Other Australian birds are graceful Lyrebirds, brilliantly colored budgerigars, parrots, bowerbirds, and the great white cockatoos.

Two animals were brought to the country by the Europeans and have become wild in Australia – buffalo (from India) and rabbit (from Europe). Buffalos were brought to the north coast as work animals early in the 19^th century, but escaped and multiplied. They now inhabit the swampy river valleys around Darwin. Rabbits were brought more than 100 years ago. There are now so many of them in Australia, that farmers have constant wars against them as they destroy much grass.

No matter how far from Europe Australia can be many people would like to visit this land because it is such an extraordinary place to explore!

Exercises:

1. Phrasal verbs. Read the sentences given below and translate the phrasal verbs into Russian, paying careful attention at the meaning of the verbs. a) “I’ve just made a new story up ”, b) “They made him up as an old man for the last act of the play”, c) “They kissed and made it up with each other”, d) “I can’t make out what he is saying”. e) “Where is Jack? He made off soon after dinner”.
2. Translate into English: а) Мы очень скоро помирились и отправились гулять вместе. б) Он сам сочиняет песни и исполняет их. в) Я не могу разобрать без очков, что здесь написано. г) Будет трудно загримировать ее под старуху. д) Ты удрал так быстро, что я не успел попрощаться с тобой. е) Что он сказал? Я ничего не понял.
3. Here is the list of birds and different animals. Which of them can be found in both countries – Ukraine and Australia?

A star-fish, a thrush, an anteater, a rat, a koala bear, a dingo, a laughing jackass, a lyrebird, a cockatoo, a buffalo, a rabbit, a kangaroo, a cuscus, a sugar glider (карликовая сумчатая летяга), an emu, a frilled lizard, a platypus, a duckbill, a Tasmanian devil, Regent bowerbird, a sparrow, a swallow, a rabbit, a duckbill.

1. Make up a list of things you would like to find out about Australia.
2. Choose one of the following cities given below and speak about it.