Учитель: Майбога Наталья Владимировна, учитель английского языка МАОУ гимназии №93 г. Челябинска
ТЕМА УРОКА: МОЯ ПРЕКРАСНАЯ РОДИНА ЛЕСА РОДНОГО КРАЯ
THE URALS The Urals are the core of Russia, its spinal column, the support. Those who discover the Urals will discover Russia. The Urals are the cross-roads. They are of universal character, because they combine the past and the future, power and lyrics, mountains and steppes, technics and culture, inhabited and deserted places.
Woodlands Somewhere in the highlands near Ust- Katav there are pine-trees which probably appeared in the days of Pushkin, and they are the best we have. We also have fir-groves near Nyazepetrovsk, the Lime-tree Mountain near Asha, the Long Fir-Grove and elm-trees on the shores of the Zyuratkul, and the larches of the Arakul. It is a familiar sight: the trees climbing the slopes, keeping vertical. The mountains mean woods. The plains are poorer in this sense, but you will never find a village in the South Urals around which there are no birches. They are everywhere.
What is a real pine? Yes, this is a beautiful pine. It is the best in the pine-woods but there is something else. It’s an ideal and perfection. This might be a ripe pine-tree, but without any signs of age. It is not less than thirty metres high. Its crown is under the skies, much higher than anything else; the trunk is slender, smooth, flexible and resounding. It does not make a cone above, but withholds the thickness of the tree. Why is this pine better than any others? There are hundreds of them and everyone is a genetic wonder. You can see it; they are different from the others.
The Uryenga Mountain Ridge gives shelter to dwarf-pines; they are only as tall as a man. Sometimes they are even smaller and their year-rings are only visible under a microscope. One of the pines was calculated by I. Orlov, to be 226 years old, but at the same time it was only 4.5 cm thick and 1.4 m high. Even a pine can’t gain weight on stone, in the wind, living a hungry life. It is just the spirit and body for which the timber from such highland is valued. It is tough, strong and well- tempered. It can’t be compared to friable stacks of pines from the plains. They say the timber of the dry steppes is also strong; the suffering gives strength.
There are steppes, birch woods and suddenly you see an island of pines. They call such islands of pines “the belts” and they are scattered on the plains of the region.
If we follow the route to the south from Chelyabinsk, we shall see the Kichigin Pine-Forest, then the Sanar Pine-Forest, then Jabyk-Karagay Forest and still deep to the south we face the Bredy Pine-Forest. There are several pine forests on the way from Chebarkul to Verkhneuralsk, and the Varlamovo Pine-Forest is somewhere in between. This route will help the traveller to appreciate the contrast when passing from hot steppes and warm winds into the chilly darkness of pine-woods with their resin odours.
They are different these pine-woods. The Varlamovo Pine-Forest is surrounded by rivers and the Uvelka river flows through it. The Jabyk-Karagay Pine-Forest, however, is dry. A dozen rivers start on its edges and scatter around - there are even several dry rivers, which are shown by dots on the map – and only the Kartaly-Ayat has the courage to enter the depths of the pine-forest. The Varlamovo Pine Forest rests on a strong stone foundation; the Jabyk-Karagay Pine-Forest grows on stone plates. The island pine-forests prefer the granites or sand. The Khomutino Pine-Forest rest on sands.
The Zyuratkul National Park There is a barrier and a station near the Magnitka settlement. To the South there is the border, near Tyulyuk, and in between there is the Zyuratkul, the Zyuratkul Ridge, and the ridges of Nurgush and Moscal. There are other hills which form the Zyuratkul National Park. You cannot call it an inhabited place: people are rare, the beasts are many. They have calculated that there are 730 hares, 10 trots, 70 martens, 20 badgers, 100 minks, 25 foxes, 30 wild goats, 246 elks, and 24 bears in the territory of the Park. There are more than a dozen wolves, but they come and go.
Mushrooms Everybody has his own favourite mushroom fields. They say you can find boletus near the Argazi lake, white mushrooms in the Sanar Pine-Forest, honey agarics on the shores of the Shantrapai lake. There are mushroomy birch-groves near Plast, Chebarkul, Kasli. Many mushrooms are wasted in the mountains. There is not a place where you would fail to find mushrooms. Even in the draughty woods near Bredy, if the summer is rainy enough, you will find mushrooms aplenty.
And… The woods are always beautiful. These are the landscapes and compositions made by the Nature itself.