Hello, friends!
Here we are, starting a new academic course- COUNTRY STUY- KUZBASS
Please, read the introductory story and get ready to discuss it in class.
Lots of love, NA
Kuzbass
Kuzbass, which is formally known as the Kuznetsk Coal Basin (the Kuznetsk), lies in the south of Western Siberia, namely in the Kemerovo region. It covers the area of 100,000 square kilometers. It borders on the Altai territory in the south- west, on the Novosibirsk region in the west, on the Tomsk region in the north, on the Krasnoyarsk territory in the east
Kuzbass is one of the oldest and largest industrial complexes in Siberia. Kuzbass occupies the territory of the Kuznetskaya Lowland. It is surrounded by mountain chains in the west, in the east and in the south. These mountain chains, like walls, defend our region from dry, southwestern winds. They influence the weather of this territory. The climate in Kuzbass is sharply continental. There are four seasons of the year, but winter lasts 5 months here, it begins in November and ends in March. Summer is short and rather hot. July is the hottest month of the year. The temperature is sometimes 25°-35° above zero. It's a big contrast to low winter temperatures, which are sometimes 30-40' below zero. This contrast influences the people's health greatly.
There is hardly a territory in Siberia where such amazing mountainous arrangement can be found. It is united with the West Siberian Lowland just only in the north. Its total area is about 30.000 square kilometers.
The biggest river on the territory is the Tom. It flows into the Ob. Its length is over 839 kilometers. The Tom and its tributaries supply fresh water practically to every city in Kuzbass. There are also some other big and small rivers in Kuzbass , for example , the Kondoma, the Mrasu, the Kia, the Aba but most of them are polluted because Kuzbass is an industrial zone and the ecological situation is not safe.
Metallurgical, coal - mining, machine - building industries are highly - developed here. There are many forests in Kuzbass. 1/7 of wood in Russia is produced here in Kuzbass. There are a lot of kinds of trees. The forests are concentrated in Gornaya Shoria, Kuznetsky Alatau and Salair. Foliage trees are concentrated in the lowlands. Coniferous forests are situated in the highlands. Pine-trees, fir-trees can be found there, too. A lot of animals such as bears, wolves, foxes, elks inhabit them.
Now Kuzbass is one of the largest highly developed industrial regions. It is known as one of the Russian and (in some branches) world's largest producers and exporters of coal, steel, iron ore and other mineral resources. No wonder, there are a lot of plants, factories and mines. That's why Kuzbass is said to be a region of coal miners and metal workers. The largest city with the population of 600,000 people is Novokuznetsk. Kemerovo is less than Novokuznetsk but it's the regional center. Mezhdurechensk is situated in the most beautiful place of Kuzbass. It’s a small town but famous for its coalmines. Tashtagol is the capital of Gornaya Shoria where the aborigines of Kuzbass live. One should also mention the towns like Kiselevsk, Belovo, Leninsk-Kuznetsky.
Unfortunately, the ecological situation in Kuzbass is rather unfavourable. In fact, Kuzbass is often mentioned as «the zone of ecological disasters». It is an industrial region and its enterprises throw thousands of tons of different wastes. The air, water, and soil of the region is seriously polluted. Still we hope that Kuzbass with its great potential and resources stays one of the richest and best regions in Russia.
Learn the new words:
Coal-basin - угольный бассейн pine-tree - сосна
Mountain chains - цепи гор fir-tree - ель
То defend - защищать elk - лось
Influence - влияние coal - уголь
Arrangement - расположение steel - сталь
Tributaries - притоки iron - железо
То pollute - загрязнять to degrade - деградировать
Foliage - листва disaster - бедствие
Coniferous – хвойный
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