Australia.

Australia is an English-speaking country. It is on the other side of the world. The Commonwealth of Australia includes continent of Australia, the island of Tasmania and a number of smaller islands. It has an area of about eight million square kilometres.

The continent of Australia is mostly a great plain with mountains in the east and southeast. The western part of the continent forms a plateau, which occupies half of the continent. The central Lowlands, a great part of which is very dry. lie between the Western Australian plateau and the Eastern Highlands. Through the eastern part of these Central Lowlands run Australia's greatest rivers, the Murray and the Darling. A number of short rivers flow from the Australian Alps and the Blue Mountains into the Pacific Ocean. What will you find if you go to Australia? It will seem to you an upside-down world. New Year is in the middle of summer, the middle of winter is in June, and the winter months are never cold. Hot winds blow

from the north, cold winds blow from the south. The native trees such as the eucalyptus, the bottle tree, look very strange, and they never lose their leaves in winter.

Australia is a land of birds and wild animals, which cannot be found in other parts of the world. They are lie emu, the kangaroo, the koala, the echidna the dingo and many others.

What about the climate? The sun shines brightly in winter and it is very hot in summer. There is not much rain in many parts of the country.

Today there are more than 15 million people in Australia; most of them are of British origin. There are five big cities in Australia: Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane. Each city is the japital of the state in which it is situated. They are also the main ports, fiotor-car, machine-building, clothing and food industries are highly developed. Agriculture is the main occupation in Australia: wheat growing, fruit-growing and sheep-farming. The Commonwealth of Australia is a self-governing federal state and a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. Formally the head of the state is the King or the Queen of England represented by the Governor-General.

The Commonwealth of Australia consists of six states and two territories: New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, the Federal Capital Territory and the Northern Territory. The Capital Territory is the land around the Federal Capital, Canberra.

The states run such things as education, police, health, railway and roads; the Commonwealth looks after [he army, posts and telegraph, relations with other countries.

Australia has a parliament in each state and the Federal Parliament of the Commonwealth at Canberra. The Federal Parliament consists of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Prime Minister, usually the leader of the party, which has the majority in the House of Representatives, heads the federal government of the country. The political parties represented in the parliament are the Australian Labour Party, the Liberal Party of Australia and the National Agrarian Party.

Questions

1. What can you say about the landscape of Australia? 2, Why is it called an upside-down world? 3. What tare animals and birds can be found only in Australia? 4. What is the capital of Australia? 5. What branches of industry are developed in Australia? 6. What kind of state is Australia?

Контрольная работа № 2 Вариант № 1

I. Переведите предложения с модальными глаголами и их заменителями.

I.You may sit down. 2. She can run quickly. 3. He must do homework every day. 4. He will have to do Ithis work. 5. They will be able to read English books in a month. 6. He couldn't understand a word.

II. Составьте рекомендации по технике безопасности. Употребите глаголы в повелительном

наклонении:

to be attentive, to put on protective clothing, to safeguard eyes, to keep power source outside the welding area, to use metal coating, to remove all combustible materials

III. Перепишите и переведите письменно предложения и словосочетания, обратите внимание

на многозначность предлогов.

1. Jim always asks after your health. 2. They have never asked out to dinner with them. 3.1 was born in a small town in the north of_England. 4. There is a big castle (замок) in the center of town and a few fine churches. 5. There are some pictures on the wall 6. There are a lot of cars on the road.

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