Geographical names and place names without article.

· Names of continents: Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, South America, North America.

No article is used either when names of continents are modified by such attributes as northern, southern, western, eastern, central, minor, south-west, south-east, Latin, e.g. Northern Europe, North America, Cen­tral Africa, Asia Minor, South-East Asia, Latin America, etc.

But we say the African continent, the Arctic and the Antarctic (regions) meaning the sea and the land round the North and South poles.

· Names of countries: France, Great Britain, China, Brazil.

No article is used either, when these nouns have such attributes as north(ern), south(ern), east(ern), west(ern), ancient, old, new, central, Soviet: West Germany, Old England, Ancient Greece, Southern France.

But names of countries that contain common nouns have the definite article: the USSR, the USA, the UK (the United Kingdom).

Plurals also have the definite article: the Netherlands, the Philippines.

With the names of countries that have developed from geographical regions there are often two possibilities, with and without definite article: Sudan or the Sudan, Yemen or the Yemen, Cameroon or the Cameroons. The tendency is to use the form without the definite article.

· Names of cities, towns and villages: Moscow, Rome, Brighton, Hastings, Grasmere.

Note. the Hague.

· Political and administrative regions of countries (states or provinces): California, Kashmir, Brittany.

He was at his home in Kent.

· Names of bays: Hudson Bay, Baffin Bay.

He worked as a tugboat man on Sun Francisco Bay.

· Names of peninsulas have no article if the proper name is used alone: Indo-China, Labrador, Scandinavia.

Note. We find the definite article if the noun peninsula is mentioned: the Balkan Peninsula, the Kola Peninsula.

· Names of separate mountain peaks: Elbrus, Mont Blanc, Everest, Vesuvius;

Some names of foreign mountains keep the definite article: the Matterhorn.

· Names of separate islands: Cuba, Haiti, Cyprus, Madagascar, Newfoundland.

· Names of falls and mountain passes: the Niagara Falls, the Swallow Falls; the Saint Gotthard Pass.

Note. The definite article is always used with the pattern: the common noun + of + a proper name: the City of New York, the village of Grasmere, the Cape of Good Hope, the Gulf of Mexico, the Straits of Gibraltar, the Straits of Malacca, the Straits of Dover, the Bay of Biscay, the Bay of Bengal, the Gulf of Finland, the Lake of Geneva, the Island of Majorca.

Note. Geographic names that generally take no article may be occa­sionally found with the definite or the indefinite articles. This occurs in the following cases.

· The definite article is found when there is a particularizing attribute:

In Ivanhoe Walter Scott described the England of the Middle Ages.

This isn’t the London I used to know.

· The indefinite article is found when a geographic name is modified by a descriptive attribute which brings out a special aspect:

The flier went оn to say: "There will be a different Germany after the war."

It was a new Russia that he found on his return.

Practice

Exercise 1. Read the following description of Canada. Underline all geographical names. Then list the geographical names that don’t take article on the left and geographical names that do take article on the right. The first one has been done for you as an example.

Canada.

Canada is the northernmost country in North America. Canada is bordered by the United States on the south, the Arctic Ocean on the north, the Atlantic Ocean on the east, and the Pacific Ocean and Alaska on the west. Canada is divided into 10 provinces: Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, and two territories: Yukon Territory and Northwest Territories. The two highest mountains in Canada are Mount Logan at 19,850 feet above sea level and Mount St. Elias at 18,008 feet above sea level. Canada’s largest lakes are Lake Huron, Great Bear Lake, Lake Superior, and Great Slave Lake.

No Articles	Articles
1. Canada	1.
2.	2.
3.	3.

Exercise 2. Write a paragraph about the geography of Ukraine. Use the encyclopedia to help with specific facts, if necessary.

Exercise 3. Supply “the” with place names wherever necessary. Be careful not to capitalize “the”, but note that words like Republic, Gulf, Mountains are capitalized.

­­1._____ United States is bordered on _____ east by _____ Canada, and on _____ south by _____ Mexico and _____ Gulf of Mexico. 2. _____ Netherlands is another name for _____ Holland. 3. _____ Mount Vesuvius is still an active volcano. 4. _____ North Pole and _____ South Pole are on either extremity of the earth’s axis. 5. _____ Pyrenees are situated between _____ France and _____Spain. 6. _____ Ivory Coast, now an independent country, was once part of _____ French West Africa. 7. _____ Mount Everest has the highest elevation in the world. 8. _____ Himalayas have been referred to as “the roof of the world”. 9. _____ Philippines, like other islands in _____ Malay Archipelago, are the tops of drowned mountains protruding from the sea. (Use the with archipelago (a sea with many islands)). 10. _____ earth is divided by _____ equator into _____ Northern Hemisphere and _____ Southern Hemisphere. 11. _____ Persia is now called _____ Iran. 12. _____ Dominican Republic is located in _____ Central America. 13. One slope of _____ Mt. Blanc is in _____ France, another in _____ Italy. 14. _____ Cuba and _____ Puerto Rico are in _____ West Indies. 15. _____ Great Lakes consist of five lakes in _____ Western Hemisphere.

Exercise 4. Supply “the” where needed.

1. _____ Amazon is the largest river system in the world, but _____ Nile is the longest river. 2. _____ North America is bounded on _____ east by _____ Atlantic Ocean and on _____ west by _____ Pacific Ocean. 3. A few seas have the names of colours: _____ Black Sea, _____Red Sea, _____ Yellow Sea. 4. _____ Suez Canal is in _____ Middle East. 5. On a plateau bordering ____ Peru and ____ Bolivia ____ is ____ Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world. 6. ____ Allegheny Mountains are in the eastern part of ____ North America. 7. ____ Leningrad is now called ____ St. Petersburg. 8. ____ Far East, or ____ Orient, refers to the area of ____ Asia where ____ China and ____ Japan are located. 9. He used to live ____ South, but then he moved to ____ California. 10. ____ Balkan Peninsula is surrounded by ____ Black Sea and ____Adriatic, Ionian, and Aegean Seas of ____ Mediterranean. 11. ____ Russia and ____ Alaska almost meet at ____ Bering Strait. 12. ____ Norway and ____ Sweden occupy ____ Scandinavian Peninsular; ____ Portugal and ____ Spain comprise ____ Iberian Peninsular. 13. ____ Strait of Gibraltar separates ____ Europe from ____ Africa. 14. Tea is grown in many parts of ____ southern Asia, especially in ____ India and ____ Ceylon. 15. In Ivanhoe Walter Scott describes ____ England of ____ Middle Ages. 16. Michael looked quizzically at his parent. Did he quite understand ____ England of to-day? 17. In ____ heart of ____ Central Asia lies ____ Khoresm, ____ small fertile area in ____ sea of ____ sand. 18. ____ Hague, a city in ____ Western Netherlands near ____ North Sea, is the seat of the Dutch government. 19. There is ____ new London which is just as interesting to its new citizens as ____ old London was to myself. 20. ____ Lake Baikal is the deepest lake in ____ world.

Exercise 5. Insert the right article.

1. ____Grand Canyon is in ____ Arizona. 2. He visited ____ Pyramids while he was in ____ Egypt. 3. She lives in ____ castle near ____ River Rhine. 4. ____ Morpeth is ____ town in ____ north of ____ England. 5. Anna comes from ____ Netherlands but she lives in ____ USA now. 6. ____ Malta is in ____ Mediterranean. 7. Sean was brought up in ____ Republic of Ireland, not in ____ Scotland. 8. I've never been to ____ Tahiti but I've been to ____ Hawaiian Islands. 9. He's travelled all over ____ British Isles, ____ France and ____ Netherlands. 10. They lived in ____ north of Canada for two years and then moved to ____ Washington D.C. 11. ____ Yangtze Kiang river flows through ____China to ____ East China Sea. 12. The hunters got lost in ____ Rocky Mountains. 13. The six island countries of ____ West Indies are ____ Bahamas, ____ Barbados, ____ Cuba, ____ Dominican Republic, ____ Haiti and ____ Jamaica. 14. ____ Berlin she had been born in, and where she had grown up, no longer existed. 15. ____ Low Countries include ____ Netherlands, ____ Belgium, and ____ Luxembourg. 16. ____ Colorado River flows through ____ Grand Canyon. 17. Chaucer would have had difficulty in recognizing ____ London of Queen Elizabeth, just as Shakespeare would have been lost in ____ brick-and-stone London of D.R. Johnson, while Dickens, well as he knew ____ London, would have been bewildered by ____ steel and concrete London of today.

Exercise 6. Answer the questions given below.

1. Is Africa larger than Europe? 2. Everest was first climbed in 1953, wasn't it? 3. Is the Ruhr in Germany? 4. China and India are great Asian countries, aren't they? 5. Belgium is not a republic, is it? 6. Is the Mississippi an American or an African river? 7. The Lebanon is in Asia, isn't it? 8. What countries are situated in the Middle East? 9. Is the Amazon the longest river in the world? 10. What is the capital of Poland? 11. Is Canberra or Melbourne the capital of Australia? 12. The Panama Canal joins the At­lantic and Pacific oceans, doesn't it? 13. The Caucasus isn't in the north of Russia, is it? 14. The United King­dom is a monarchy, isn't it? 15. Sheffield is in England, isn't it? 16. Is the Congo in Asia or in Africa?

Exercise 7. Fill in the blanks with articles wherever necessary paying particular attention to the use of articles before geographic names. Retell the text.

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