Сборник рассказов на английском языке для чтения и обсуждения. М. М. Битюкова

River Seine is in Paris. There is a famous tower called the Eiffel Tower. A big street called ‘Champs-Élysées’ is near the Eiffel Tower.

      There are some beautiful clothes shops in the city. Some are expensive and some are cheap. There are a lot of art galleries and a famous one called Le Louvre. Paris is a beautiful city.

      Edinburgh

      Edinburgh is a city in Scotland in the UK. It is often cold and wet in winter. Edinburgh is a very old city with a population of approximately half a million. There is a big castle on a hill in the city. There is a big street called ‘The Royal Mile’. There are some beautiful old houses in Edinburgh.

      The city is famous for the Edinburgh festival every year in August. There are lots of theatre performances at the festival.

      The Highlands of Scotland are north of Edinburgh.

      Practice

      A. Choose the correct answer.

      B. Complete the table with the information about Paris and Edinburgh.

      Story Six

      Great lakes of the world

      The oldest lake in the world

      Lake Baikal is 25-30 million years old – the oldest lake in the world. It holds 20 percent of the planet’s surface freshwater. It is 650km long and nearly 2km deep.

      Lake Baikal is in eastern Siberia where the winters are very cold. Temperatures average minus 20 degrees. The lake freezes for five months or more of the year. The ice is 1.2m thick, and trucks drive across the lake when it freezes.

      The lake has more than 1 200 species of animals and 1 000 species of plants. It is home to the world’s only freshwater seal, the nerpa. There are approximately 50 000 nerpa in the lake. Nerpas can dive down 300m to catch fish!

      Giant lakes

      The world’s largest lake is the Caspian Sea in south-west Asia. It is 370 000 sq km. It is salt water and not freshwater. The world’s largest freshwater lake is Lake Superior, one of the Great Lakes of North America. These lakes are the biggest mass of freshwater in the world.

      Stories about lakes

      Scotland’s Loch Ness is famous for its ‘monster’, and is only 230m deep. But Lake Nicaragua in Central America is home to the dangerous bull shark, which is more than 3m long. The sharks swim up and down the San Juan River into the Caribbean Sea.

      Practice

      A. Read the text and complete the information in the table.

      B. Answer the questions.

      1. How old is Lake Baikal?

      2. How long is Lake Baikal?

      3. What happens to Lake Baikal in the winter?

      4. What is the name of the seal that lives in Lake Baikal?