Geography. Козлова Е.П. - 83 стр.

Cook discovered the cast coast of Australia. In 1788, the first English settlement was
established at Port Jackson, the site of the present city of Sydney.

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      The brown-skinned Aborigines of Australia, of whom about 50,000 pure-
blooded representatives and about 150,000 mixed bloods, are an ancient people with
a rich cultural inheritance. This race has existed for 25,000 years. During this time the
Aborigines established a life style that is very different from European culture. The
Aboriginal people did not practise agriculture or keep domestic animals other than
the dog. Natives supported themselves by hunting, gathering and fishing. When
European settlers arrived and started grabbing lands from them, the Aborigines were
doomed to starvation. Like the American Indians, Australia’s Aborigines are
strangers in their own land.
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      Australia ranks among the world’s top ten gold producers. The continent has
very large iron deposits. Steel mills in Japan and South Korea depend on Australian
mines for iron ore. Australia also leads the world in mining bauxite, while Australian
oil fields produce only about two-thirds of what the country needs. The rest is
imported. Today, manufactured goods account for 25 per cent of Australia’s gross
national exports. The largest manufacturing industries are those that make steel,
automobiles, machinery, chemicals, and electronic equipment.

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     Ecologists call the Great Barrier Reef one of the seven natural wonders of the
world. Biologists classify it as the largest living organism on earth. Geographers
describe it as the largest coral reef in the world. This vast coral reef forms an almost
continuous wall off the eastern shore of Australia, from the Torres Strait to the Tropic
of Capricon. The reef received the name “barrier reef” because it forms a barrier
between the water of the open ocean and the water near the shore. The multi-hued
structure is made of billions and billions of coral polyps, tiny animals that live in
warm tropical water. The underwater world of coral provides shelter for an
unbelievable diversity of marine life, including starfish, sea urchins, lobsters, and
millions of fish.

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     Speaking of Australia and neighboring islands don’t forget than the seasons are
the opposite way round in that part of the world. December to February is summer;
March to May, autumn; June to August, winter, and September to November, spring.
Due to the general changeableness of the weather at all times and the predominance
in almost any landscape of ever-green trees and bush, you will find the change of
seasons far less noticeable than in Britain. And when it is midnight in Britain, it will
be exactly midday of the following day.


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