7. Population.

Australia is the least populated continent. Over 19 million 400 thousand people live here. The average density of population is a little over one person to the square km. the greater part of the inhabitants live in the east, south-east and south-west of the continent. All large cities are situated here. North and west are almost unpopulated. There is only one country on the continent. Its official name is the Commonwealth of Australia. Its capital is Canberra. The biggest cities are Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Hobart, Perth, Adelaide and others.

Answer the questions:

1. In what hemisphere does Australia lie?

2. What oceans is Australia washed by?

3. Can you name the extreme points of the continent?

4. Do you know the islands which lie near the continent?

5. Are the coastlines broken or unbroken and smooth?

6. Who discovered Australia?

7. Are there rivers and lakes on the continent? Name them.

8. What rivers flow into the Indian Ocean?

9. What is the population in Australia?

10. What are the peculiarities of vegetable and animal life in Australia?

Antarctica.

1.Geographical Position. Discovery.

Antarctica lies wholly within the Antarctic Polar Circle. It is the only continent in the Earth covered with ice all over. The total area of the continent is 14 million sq km. The average height over the sea level is 580 m. The length of the coastlines is 30 thousand km. Antarctica is the most isolated continent surrounded by the oceanic water on all sides. The Atlantic, the Pacific and the Indian Oceans wash Antarctica. The seas around Antarctica are: the Weddell Sea, the Bellingshausen Sea, the Amundsen Sea and the Ross Sea. The nearest continent is South America.

Antarctica was discovered only at the beginning of the 19^th century. The honour of discovery fell on a Russian expedition under the command of Fadei Bellingshausen (1778 – 1852) and Michael Lazarev (1788-1851). During a voyage lasting from 1819 to 1821 they rounded the continent on two vessels and several times approached the shore. They also discovered some islands gave them Russian names.

The South Pole was reached in 1911 by the Norwegian explorer Rual Amundsen (1872 - 1928) and by the English explorer Robert Scott (1868-1912) a month later. The expedition under the command of Amundsen was well - prepared. Their trip lasted 99 days. They used dogs as a kind of transportation and returned to Norway safe and sound. As for Scott, he and his people decided to use another road. They went to the pole using ponies, but the animals couldn’t stand the severe frost of the continent and died. Because of that, people had to pull 300-kilo sledges themselves and were late for a month. They were exhausted, had almost nothing to eat and died on the way back.

There are some lands discovered and named by different people. They are Land Victoria, the Wilkes Land, the Mary Berd Land, the Ellsworth Land, the Alexander I Land, the Queen of Fashion Land, the Antarctic Peninsula and the Southern Polar Plato.

John Weddell (1787-1834) was an English explorer, who went along the coastlines of Antarctica and discovered the sea in 1823. Later it was given his name. Another English explorer was James Ross (1800-1862). In 1840 he discovered a new see, which was called after him. He also explained the existence of the ice range on the continent.

Among the American explorers of Antarctica, we can mention Charles Wilkes (1798-1877). He explored the coasts of the continent and discovered a new land called after him. Lincoln Ellsworth (1880-1951) was an American engineer and a pilot. He flew over Antarctica in 1935 and discovered a lot of unknown lands. One of them was called after him.

Antarctica doesn’t belong to any state. On October 15, 1959, 12 countries signed an agreement, which made Antarctica neutral territory designed for scientific research only. Nowadays 38 countries are committed to this agreement. There are 140 stations here, 20 of which are Russian. It is interesting to mention that Russian stations are situated in the most severe parts of the continent.

Name of the explorer	Life years	Country	Contribution to the exploration of the continent
Fadei Bellingshausen
Michael Lazarev
Rual Amundsen
Robert Scott
John Weddell
James Ross
Charles Wilkes
Lincoln Ellsworth

2. Climate.

Antarctica is the coldest continent in the world. It is the kingdom of permanent frost. The climate here is very severe. The t^o in winter is -70^oC, in summer -30^oC. The high atmospheric pressure belt forms the antarctic air masses, which are very cold and dry. The antarctic climatic belt is situated here. On the coastlines and near-by islands the t^o in summer is 0^o + 10^oC, in winter -16^o-32^oC. They lie in the antarctic climatic belt.

3.Natural Resources.

Antarctica is situated in the antarctic desert zone. The vegetation and the animal life are poor here. Life exists mainly on the coasts and islands. In summer, there are seaweeds, moss and lichen. The seas are rich in plankton and fish. Seals, sea elephants, fur seals and whales live there. The birds as gulls, cormorants, petrels and albatrosses make their nests on the rocks in summer. There are also 17 kinds of penguins in Antarctica. Antarctic Penguins, Subantarctic Penguins, Adele Penguins and King Penguins are among them.

In the water of the oceans and seas around Antarctica life exists too. Here you can find red, brown and green seaweeds. They grow rapidly in spring and summer, when water gets a little warmer and the sunbeams can reach the bottom. A lot of sea animals eating seaweeds live there. They are small fish, different crabs and starfish, bath-sponges and others. The water around Antarctica is also rich in plankton.

Home task: make a short

report on some interesting

facts about Antarctica.

Answer the questions:

1.Where does Antarctica lie?

2. Who discovered Antarctica?

3. What can you say about the climate of Antarctica ?

4 .Why the vegetation and the animal life is poor?

South America.

1.Geographical Position.

America consists of two continents South America and North America. These two continents are separated from each other by the Panama Canal. The total area of South America is about 18 (17.8) million sq km. The continent is crossed by the equator in the north. It is washed by the Caribbean Sea in the north, by the Atlantic Ocean in the east and by the Pacific Ocean in the west. The extreme points of the continent are:

North – cape Gallinas;

South – cape Froward;

East – cape Kabu-Branku;

West – cape Parinas.

South America has a form of triangle. The coastlines are unbroken, because there is not a single large peninsula or deep bay. The length of it without islands is 26 thousand km. In the south -east there is the La Plata Bay. The Strait of Magellan separates the island Tierra del Fuego from the continent.

2. The Discovery of South America.

America remained unknown to Europe until the end of the 15-th century. Of great importance at that time was trade with India and China. Some people thought that they could reach India by travelling west across the Atlantic Ocean. Christopher Columbus (1451 – 1506) was an experienced Spanish sailor, who asked the king of Spain to give him ships. He wanted to look for a new route to India. In 1492 he sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. They had been sailing for more than two months. At last they saw land which proved to be part of the Greater Antilles. He thought that it was India, so he called the native people of the islands Indians. He also discovered the Sargasso Sea and the Lesser Antilles.

A lot of expeditions visited the New World later. But it was called America only when another explorer from Spain Amerigo Vespucci (1454 – 1512) described it as a new part of the world. He was the first to think about it and to prove it, exploring the land.

After that a lot of people went to America to live there and explore the continent. They were mostly from Europe. One of them was Alexander Humboldt (1769 – 1859) a German sailor, who explored the northern coastline of South America. Together with the French biologist Emi Bonplan he went deep into the continent. There they discovered the Orinoco River.

At the beginning of the 19-th century the German sailor Gregory Langsdorf (1774 – 1852) became a leader of the Russian expedition to America. He studied nature and native people of the continent. During his travelling he made a lot of discoveries at the Brazilian Highlands.

Task: Complete the table.

Name of the explorer	Life years	Country	Contribution to the exploration of the continent
Christopher Columbus
Amerigo Vespucci
Alexander Humboldt
Gregory Langsdorf

3.Relief.

South America lies on the South American platform, that is why it is rather a low continent. The average height over the sea level is 580 m. There are many plains on the continent. The largest plain in the world – the Amazon Lowland – is situated in the north of the continent close to the equator. To the north from it, there is the Orinoco Lowland, to the south – the La Plata Lowland.

In the eastern part of the continent, there are the Brazilian Highlands. Further north are the Guiana Highlands. Along the western coast a large mountain range called the Andes lies. The volcanic activity goes on in the Andes today. The highest volcanoes are Chimborazo (6 310 m) and Cotopaxi (5 896 m). The highest mountain of the Andes is Aconcagua (6 960 m).

South America is rich in copper, tin, lead, zinc, precious stones, iron ore, uranium, gold, aluminum.

4.Climate.

South America is crossed by the equator in the north and lies in the equatorial, subequatorial, tropical, subtropical and temperate climatic belts. The continent is not as dry as Australia and not so hot as Africa. It is influenced by the trade winds from the Atlantic Ocean. These winds usually bring heavy rains. Along the western coasts runs the cold Peruvian current, which cools the air and prevents the rains. The east coast is sheltered from the western winds by the Andes and is dry. The temperate continental clime is formed here. Warm summer, cold winter and a little sum of rains (200-300 mm a year) are often here.

In the mountains the climate is cooler the in the plain.

The Andes have an alpine climate which changes with the altitude and is very varied near the equator. At the foot the Andes the climate is wet and warm. The equatorial climatic belt is situated here, but the top of Cotopaxi is covered with snow all year round.

Climatic Belts.

(Laboratory Work).

Climatic belt	Geographical position. Relief.	Rainfalls	Winds	Winter t^o	Summer t^o
Equatorial
Subequatorial
Tropical
Subtropical
Temperate

5. Inland Waters.

There are many big rivers in South America. Wet and warm climate, heavy rains and vast plains make the rivers full of water. They are mainly rain-fed.

The greatest river is the Amazon (6 400 km). It rises in the Andes, flows across the Amazon Lowland into the Atlantic Ocean. It has 500 tributaries. Among them, we can find the Madeira, the Riu-Negru, the Maranion, the Jurua, the Purus.

The second largest river is the Parana (4 700 km). It rises in the Brazilian Highlands, flows across the La Plata Lowland into the Atlantic Ocean. It has some tributaries: the Paraguay, the Uruguay, the Iguassu (the Iguassu Waterfalls).

Across the north of the continent flows the Orinoco (2 740 km). It rises in the Guiana Highlands and flows into the Atlantic Ocean. It has a lot of rapids and high waterfalls. The Anhel Waterfalls are also here. The tributaries of the river are the Caroni, the Meta, the Apure and others.

The lakes of South America are not numerous. The deepest lake is Titicaca (304 m deep). It lies in the middle part of the Andes. In the north of the continent, there is another big lake – Lake Maracaibo (250 m deep).