Upward Bound: First year. Воробьева М.Г - 131 стр.

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ВолГУ | Волгоград

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— 131 —
II
My native city
Ex. 1. Read the text.
Volgograd
1. Volgograd lies across the lower Volga and Don rivers. The
Volga is flanked on the west by the Volga Upland, which is continued
south of Volgograd as the Yergeni Upland. Between the uplands and
also east of the Volga are level plains. Most of the oblast lies in a dry
steppe zone. The bulk of the population today lives along the rivers
and in the northern lowland. The Volga flows from the Valdai Hills to
its mouth in Astrakhan.
2. Once an area inhabited by successive nomadic peoples (Bulgars,
Khazars, and Tatars), the region was settled by Russians from the
mid-16th century. The city was founded as the fortress of Tsaritsyn
in 1589 to protect newly acquired Russian territory along the Volga.
During the Russian Civil War (1918-20), Joseph Stalin organized
the defense of the city in a major battle against the White Russian
armies, and in 1925 the city was renamed in his honour.
One of the decisive battles of World War II took place there,
from August 1942 to February 1943. The German armies at the limit
of their advance attempted to capture Stalingrad. As a major industrial
centre, Stalingrad was an important prize in itself, and control of
the city would have cut Soviet transport links with southern Russia
via the Volga River. After bitter fighting a German army group of
some 300,000 men was annihilated. Official Russian military historians
estimate that 1,100,000 Soviet soldiers lost their lives in the campaign
to defend the city. The city was totally rebuilt after the war, and new
apartment buildings and factories extend for more than 40 miles (65
km) along the river. Its present name the city got in 1961.
3. Industry is concentrated largely in Volgograd, the
administrative centre; the other cities are concerned chiefly with
processing agricultural products. Petroleum is extracted in the north
around Zhirnovsk and natural gas near Kotovo and Frolovo.
Agriculture is of great importance, but it suffers severely from droughts
and soil erosion; irrigation is increasing steadily in many areas. The
main crops are wheat, millet, corn (maize), sunflowers, and mustard.
Along the Volga Upland, market gardening and dairying are well
developed. In the south cattle and sheep raising is important.

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