The lake receives over 330 fast running streams, but gives rise to only one, the famous Angara. The water of Lake Baikal is fresh and there are more days of sunshine than at 6 of the most famous Black Sea health resorts. Its waters are rich in valuable fish such as omul, sig and others.

The flora and fauna of Lake Baikal are specific. There are about 600 species of plants and more than 1200 species of animals, among them the seal and the famous bargusinsky sable. There one can find some very strange organisms found nowhere else n the world.

The taiga surrounding the lake is rich in mineral wealth. Mica, marble, gold and other minerals have been prospected there. The temperature in winter is between -5 and -70C and in summer 4-50C. Lake Baikal is frozen in January and by May the ice has completely melted. Baikal is especially beautiful in summer when it is sunny and all the plants are in bloom.

The Angara begins at Chersky peak, beside Listvyanka. The river carries a tremendous volume of water, it is powerful and deep and also has a very strong current, much stronger than that of the Volga. That is why the Angara freezes later than Lake Baikal. The Angara has great potential for hydroelectric energy, more than any other Siberian river. Our people used this swift river and built great hydroelectric stations on it. Baikal is a unique natural scientific laboratory. The area is especially famous for its limnological institute. It has a gigantic laboratory, the only in the world, where different studies are being carried out.

The beauty of Baikal attracts everybody, so a lot of tourists from different parts of our country and abroad come to see the ‘pearl of Siberia’. The lake has had various names, such as “Sacred Sea”, “Sacred Lake” and “Sacred water” since time immemorial. These names were given by indigenous people, by Russians who came to these shores in 17th century, and by foreign travellers who admired the lake’s majestic unearthly beauty.

7.3 Angara – The Daughter of Baikal

Almost in the middle of Asia, among the wild forested mountains there stretches the largest fresh-water lake of the world - Lake Baikal. Here begins one of the greatest and most wonderful rivers of East Siberia – The River Angara. The territory of The River Angara’s watershed is divided between Irkutsk Region (64%), Krasnoyarsk Territory (30 %) and Bouryatia (6%).

It is the 7th largest river in Russia after Yenisei, Lena, Ob’, Amur, Volga and Aldan. But no river can compare with Angara in purity and unique transparence of water, determined by the powerful influence of Lake Baikal, especially in its upper reaches down to the city of Irkutsk.

As a rule, any river begins from a little stream. In the whole of Asia, Angara is the only river to come out of a major lake in the form of a powerful current. Its capacity is 60 square km of purest water annually. The Angara rushes towards the River Yenisei making 1779 km away.

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At the confluence of the two great rivers, the Angara not only exceeds the River Yenisei by about one third in volume, but it is also twice as wide. It is interesting to note, that for a long way downstream the blue water of the River Angara does not mix with the brownish current of the River Yenisei.

The River Angara is exceptionally useful for hydro-electric power generation, aquatic transportation, water supply, etc. Stability and strength of current, great altitudinal differential (378m) from the upper reaches to the estuary determined its capacity for producing electricity, making it the third large hydroelectric power resource in the country after the rivers Yenisei and Lena. Currently the combined production of electric power of The River Angara chain of power plants (which is more than 48 billion kWt/h) exceeds that of both Yenisei and Volga chains.

However, the construction of the hydro-electric plants brought fundamental changes into the natural and economic conditions and resulted in serious negative effects on the environment. Firstly, it dramatically influenced the hydrobiological regime of The River Angara, blocking natural communication between the river and Lake Baikal and leading to a considerable change in its animal and plant life. Secondly, the most fertile riverside farmlands (about 10% of the total area) were flooded by the reservoirs which resulted, in particular, in acute food supply problem in Irkutsk. Thirdly, a great amount of timber (more than 35 cubic m) along with with the villages, cemeteries and unique rock paintings (106 images of primitive man) was flooded.

On the other hand, the chain of artificial reservoirs has eliminated floods on the River Angara, known as “ice-jams”, which used to occur in wintertime before the construction of the dam. These unique natural phenomena were caused by the powerful influx of the deep, comparatively warm water from Lake Baikal into the river. During freezing which occurred here unusually late in the year (December through February), the “ice-jams” used to take place where the river banks bottle-necked, blocking the current with broken ice and causing the river level to increase dramatically (by several metres). Irkutsk, being the closest to Lake Baikal, suffered most from the damage, when the water flooded its downtown section at -30-40oC.

The treasures of the Angara Riverside have attracted man since times immemorial. Now about 95 % of the urban population and industries are located along the banks of the River Angara and its major tributaries. Its basin is the richest accumulation of various natural resources in the country. A favourable combination of fuel and energy, minerals, timber, land, aquatic and recreational resources is to be found there. The Angara Riverside region holds countless riches in its land, where iron ore, rock salt, lead, zinc, black and brown coal, gold, phosphates, etc. lie in stock.

A characteristic feature of the economy of the Riverside is the fact that the level of industrial concentration by far exceeds the average for Russia: a lot of industrial installations there being the largest either in Siberia, or in the country,

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or even in the world (Angarsk Petrochemical Industries Amalgamated “Angarsknefteorgsintez”, Usol’ye-Sibirskoyoe Chemical Industries “Khimprom”, Bratsk and Ust’-Ilimsk Amalgamated Timber Works, Bratsk and Irkutsk Aluminium Plants, etc.).

	Words and Expressions
watershed	водосбор
purity	чистота
transparence	прозрачность
influence	влияние
current	поток
capacity	мощность
annually	ежегодно
confluence	слияние
to exceed	превышать
exceptionally	исключительно
altitudinal differential	перепад воды
estuary	устье
сurrently	в настоящее время
environment	окружающая среда
fertile	плодородный
acute	острый
timber	строительный лес
cemeterу	кладбище
ice-jam	зажор, ледяной затор
used to occur	бывало происходил
dam	плотина
freezing	замерзание, ледостав
to suffer	страдать
damage	урон, ущерб
treasure	сокровище
to attract	привлекать
immemorial	незапамятный
tributary	приток
iron ore	железная руда
lead	свинец
stock	запас
average	средний
installation	предприятие
Amalgamated	объединенный

73

ГРАММАТИКА. СХЕМЫ И ТАБЛИЦЫ

Четыре формы глагола

I

II

III

IV

Infinitive

Past Indefinite

Participle II

Participle I

Стандарт-

to ask

asked

asked

asking

ный глагол

спрашивать

спрашивал

спрашиваемый,

спрашивающий,

спрошенный

спрашивая

Нестан-

to send

sent

sent

sending

дартный

посылать

посылал

посылаемый,

посылающий,

глагол

посланный

посылая

to take

took

taken

taking

to cut

cut

cut

cutting

TO BE

Present Simple

Past Simple

Present Simple

Past Simple

I

am

We

was

You

are

were

He, she, it

is

They

			TO HAVE
Present Simple			Present Simple	Past Simple
I	have	We
		You	have	had
He, she, it	has	They

Степени сравнения прилагательных и наречий

	Положительная	Сравнительная	Превосходная
I	cold холодный	colder холоднее	(the)coldest самый холод-
	early рано	earlier раньше	ный
			earliest раньше всего
II	difficult трудный	more difficult более трудный	(the) most difficult
			cамый трудный

73

III	good хороший	better лучше	(the)best самый лучший
	bad плохой	worse хуже	(the) worst самый плохой
	little маленький	less меньше	(the) least наименьший
	much, many много	more больше	(the) most наибольший.
	far далекий	farther/ further дальше	(the) farthest/ furthest

Таблица 1. Видо-временные формы глагола (формулы)

Active Voice

Aspect		Simple/		Progressive/	Perfect	Perfect		Pro-
Вид		Indefinite		Continuous	Совершен-	gressive
		Простое		Продолженное	ное	Совершенное
Tense						Продолженное
		take		be + -ing	have + V3	have been		+ -
Время						ing
Present		V1	I take	I am taking	I have taken	I	have	been
Настоящее		do	(lessons)	he is taking	He has taken	taking
		does He takes
Past		V2	I took	I was taking	I had taken	I had been tak-
Прошедшее		did	I liked	You were …		ing
Future		I shall take		I will be taking	I will have	I will have been
Будущее		he will take			taken	taking
		(I’ll take)
Future	in	I said (that)		I would be tak-	I would have	I	would	have
the Past		I should take		ing	taken	been taking
Будущее	в	he would take
прошедшем		(I’d take)

Passive Voice

Aspect	Simple/	Progressive/		Perfect
	Indefinite	Continuous		Совершенное
Вид	Простое	Продолженное
	be taken	be being taken		have been taken
Tense
Время
Present	I am taken (home)	I am being taken		I have been taken
Настоящее	He is taken
Past	I was taken	I was being		I had been taken
Прошедшее		taken

74

Future

I’ll be taken

I’ll

have

been

Будущее

–

taken

Future-in-

I’d be taken

I’d

have

been

the Past

–

taken

Будущее в

прошедшем

Таблица 2. Видо-временные формы глагола (значения)

Active Voice

Simple

Continuous

Perfect

Perfect Continuous

Констатация

Процесс

Завершенность

Процесс в течение

факта

некоторого перио-

да времени

P

Am \

Have \

/ V-ed

have \

r

Is - V-ing

been V-ing

e

V, Vs

Are /

Has /

\ P II

has

/

s

I write

I am writing

I have written

I have been writing

e

Я пишу (сейчас)

(уже, только что)

Я пишу (уже, с 2-х

n

Я пишу (часто)

часов)

t

P

V-ed (PII)

Was \

/ V-ed

a

-V-ing

had

had been V-ing

s

I wrote

Were /

\ P II

t

Я писал (вчера;

I was writing

I had written

два дня тому

Я писал (вчера в два

Я написал

I had been writing

назад_

часа; когда он вошел)

(уже, только что)

Я писал (уже два часа,

когда он пришел)

F

shall \

shall \

/ V-ed

Will have been

u

V

be V-ing

Will have

V-ing

t

will /

will /

\ P II

I will have been

u

I will write

I will be writing

I will have written

writing

r

Я буду писать

Я буду писать

Я напишу (завтра к

Я буду писать (завтра в

e

(завтра)

(завтра в три часа)

трем часам)

три часа, когда он при-

дет)

Passive Voice

Simple

Continuous

Perfect

Perfect

Continuous

P

Am \

/ V-ed

Am \

/ V-ed

Have \

/ V-ed

r

Is

-

Is - being

been

e

Are /

\ P II

Are /

\ P II

Has /

\ P II

s

I am invited

I am being invited

I have been invited

Вместо

e

Меня приглашают

Меня приглашают

Меня пригласили

отсутствующих

n

(каждый год)

(сейчас)

(уже, только что)

форм

t

P

Was \

/ V-ed

/ V-ed

Perfect Continuous

a

Was

\

/ V-ed

Being

had been

употребляются

s

Were /

\ P II

\ P II

формы

t

I was invited

Were /

\ P II

I had been invited

Perfect

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