1 Answer the following questions:

1. What is your favourite season in Rostov? Describe it.

2. What is called «Indian summer»? When does it come to Rostov?

3. What birds and animals have you seen in the Rostov Region ?

4. What do you do when you go for a picnic?

5. Why is our region famous for its fishery?

6. What role does the Don play in the life of people?

7. What songs, novels and films are connected with the Don?

8. What are your favourite flowers? Can they be found in the fields ?

TEXT 19

The Don Cossacks Defend the Environment

Throughout Russia’s long history the Don Cossacks defended their Motherland from the enemies. Now the Cossacks are fighting on a new front: protecting the environment. The «Quiet Flows the Don» ecological organization, named for M.A. Sholokhov’s famous novel about the Cossacks, has been working for the past five years toward a cleaner and healthier environment in Southern Russia.

One of the group’s main tasks is to analyze the state of environment and to inform the public about the urgent measures. Besides the group participates in actions to make our land healthier. Last year they reforested 25 hectares of land on the left bank of the river Don. At the group’s initiative, representatives of over 40 nations have lent a hand in the planting of trees on the left bank, in the area now known as the International Park of Friendship. The site is being transformed from a stripped and barren field into an area of lush greenery. The representatives from the American Peace Corps also contributed into this noble activity. The Cossack group plans to clean up polluted rivers in the region and has enlisted the help of Peace Corps volunteers to identify potential allies in Russia and abroad.

At the same time, the Cossacks are reviving their traditions and they are proud that their culture finds respect and support in the hearts of many people. For example, numerous papers and documents of Cossack culture now housed in the U. S. Library of Congress.

(Текст печатается по материалам статьи Питера

Брауна в журнале Connections, January 1997).

Text 20 Two Stories about the Famous People of Rostov Kh. K. Gusikyants

Khachatur Kirilovitch Gusikyants (or Gusikov a Russian vatiant of his surname) was born in 1840. He studied in the gymnasium of the Institute of the Eastern Languages in Moscow and then in 1859 he entered the Academy of Fine Arts in St.Petersburg. At first he was interested in sculpture but then he decided to become an artist. He was not a regular student but an attending one, so he could alternate studying and practical work, that is why he had been learning for many years. In 1874 he was awarded with the silver medal for his design of a theatre. He took part in many exhibitions but only in 1891 he got a certificate which enabled him to teach drawing. Gusikov worked as a teacher in Nakhichevan-on-Don in the Ekaterinenskaya women’s gymnasium and seminary.

Gusikov had a very specific manner of drawing. For example, he sent a portrait to Leo Tolstoy for his 80-th anniversary which was made of thousands of tiny letters. But these were not simply different letters. Gusikov rewrote the whole story «God sees the truth, but won’t say soon» by L.Tolstoy and some of the letters, which he had made more prominent than the others, composed the portrait of the famous Russian writer.

Leo Tolstoy liked this portrait very much. Unfortunately, the portrait disappeared but there is its reproduction in the newspaper «Priazovsky Kray» dated 1910.

Gusikyants was a cheerful, kind and sociable man. He organized many charity actions in Nakhichevan. He died on the 2-nd of September 1910, but his countrymen still remember him well.