Geography. Козлова Е.П. - 52 стр.

10.9 Text for written translation

      Despite large expanses of mountainous, Arctic and desert wastelands, more than
15 percent of Asia’s land area is arable. At least three fourths of this is developed to
basic cereal and tuber crops (rise, wheat). About 1 percent of the continent is pasture
of rangeland, supporting nearly a third of the world’s cattle. Asia is well endowed
with nearly every mineral resources required by modern industrial society: antimony,
magnesium, tin, iron, bismuth, titanium, manganese, nickel, two third of the global
reserves of both petroleum and natural gas.
      Asia is marked by great disparities in wealth between different countries and
within those countries. A few parts of the continent, notably Japan, Singapore, and
the oil-rich nations of Arabia, have achieved very high standards of living, and such
East Asian countries as South Korea and Taiwan are industrializing rapidly. Other
parts of Asia, however, such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar (Burma)
have very low standards of living. Between these two extremes lie Russia and some
of the Central Asian nations that once formed part of the USSR. The economies of
most Asian countries are not fully industrialized. The economies of most Southwest
Asia countries are based largely on traditional agriculture and the production and
export of petroleum; the manufacturing sector is limited in large part to traditional
artisanship and petrochemical industries. Southwest Asia exports rice and cash crops
such as rubber, copra, and kapok; most manufacturing industries centre on processing
domestic raw materials and assembling consumer goods.

10.10 Make up all possible types of questions to the text 10.9

10.11 Speak on:

1. geographical position of Asia
2. its flora and fauna
3. population
4. agriculture and industry

10.12 Get ready to speak about any Asian country you like. Make use the following:

1. Geographical position (be located, lie off, longitude, latitude, size, be separated
from, be washed by, etc.)
2. Climate and relief (damp, humid, mild, continental, temperature, volcano, plateau,
mountain, etc.)
3. Economy (branches of industry, produce, manufacturing, be rich in, agriculture,
etc.)
4. State system (constitutional monarchy, empire, parliament, federation, election,
consist of, etc.)


                                                                                      53