Учебное пособие по профессионально-ориентированному чтению для студентов I-II курсов по специальности «Социально-культурный сервис и туризм»

Read the text and speak about Moscow’s higher educational establishments

There are 1696 high schools in Moscow, as well as 91 colleges. Besides these, there are 222 institutions offering higher education in Moscow, including 60 state universities and the Lomonosov Moscow State University, which was founded in 1755. The university main building located in Vorobyovy Gory (Sparrow Hills) is 240 meters (787 ft) tall and when completed, was the tallest building outside the United States. The university has over 30,000 undergraduate and 7,000 postgraduate students, who have a choice of twenty-nine faculties and 450 departments for study. Additionally, approximately 10,000 high school students take courses at the university, while over two thousand researchers work. The Moscow State University library contains over nine million books, making it one of the largest libraries in all of Russia. Its acclaim throughout the international academic community has meant that over 11,000 international students have graduated from the university, with many coming to Moscow to learn the Russian language.

Moscow State Institute of International Relations, founded in 1944, remains Russia's best known school of international relations and diplomacy, with six different schools focused on international relations. Approximately 4,500 students make up the university's student body and over 700,000 Russian and foreign-language books – of which 20,000 are considered rare – can be found in the library of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.

Although Moscow has a number of famous Soviet-era higher educational institutions, most of which are more oriented towards engineering or the fundamental science, in recent years Moscow has seen a significant growth in the number of commercial and private institutions that offer classes in business and management. Many state institutions have expanded their education scope and increased their student enrollments. Institutions in Moscow, as well as the rest of post-Soviet Russia, have begun to offer new international certificates and postgraduate degrees, including the Master of Business Administration. Student exchange programs with different (especially, European) countries also have become widespread in Moscow's universities, while many schools within the Russian capital will also offer seminars, lectures, and courses for corporate employees and businessmen.

Moscow is known as one of the most important science centres in Russia. The headquarters of the Russian Academy of Sciences are located in Moscow as well as numerous research and applied science institutions.

There are 452 libraries in the city, including 168 for children. The Russian State Library, founded in 1862 is the national library of Russia. The Russian State Library is home to over 275 kilometres of shelves and forty-two million items, including over seventeen million books and serial volumes, thirteen million journals, 350,000 music scores and sound records, and 150,000 maps, making it the largest library in Russia and one of the largest in the world. Items in 247 different languages comprise approximately twenty-nine percent of the collection.

The State Public Historical Library, founded in 1863, is the largest library, specialising in Russian history. Its collection contains four million items in 112 languages (including 47 languages of the former USSR), mostly on Russian and world history, heraldry, numismatics, and the history of science.
I Answer the questions:

1 Is it true that Moscow is the largest city in Europe?

2 How does Kremlin serve?

3 Are there any scientific or educational institutions in here?

4 What year was the Moscow fortress built?

5 Who were the enemies of the medieval Moscow?

6 What was the original name of the Red Square?

7 Who captured Moscow in 1571?

8 Who was the author of the defense walls build between 1584 and 1591?
II Find the English equivalents:

булыжная мостовая, мутный, сжечь, княжество, процветающий, дань, нетронутый, решающий, соединять, восстание, чума, перестать быть, завоевать, приближаться, отступать, истреблять, добровольцы, требования, пригород, осада, укомплектованный, взрыв, розничный., следы, штаб-квартира, военный округ.

III Find the Russian equivalents:

market economy, explosion, retailing, attributes, host, embassy, represent, multitude, include, numerous, to be located, entire, fluctuation, boundary, coats of arms, to elect, All-Russian exhibition centre, recent, drop, approximately, precipitation, tend, span , roughly, outwards, to intersect, sequence.

IV Finish the sentences:

1 Moscow also hosted … .

2 For a long time … .

3 The Sukharev Tower… .

4 Ostankino Tower … .

5 As much as a historic … .

6 Critics also … .

7 One of the most … .

8 The old Tretiakov … .

9 Another art … .

10 However, it also hosts … .

11 Its collection contains … .

12 There are ninety-three theatres … .

13 There are 96 parks … .

14 Moscow is a very green … .

15 Moscow possesses … .

VI Give summary of the texts
Vladimir: the Crown of the Golden Ring
I Read the text and give its summary

Considering Moscow as Russia’s main tourist hub, Vladimir could be ranked as the nation’s ideal tourist destination: ancient architectural artifacts along with attractive provincial vitality are as easy to access as 3 hours by train or car, no turns. In fact, Vladimir is among the most visited places in Russia in terms of the flow of tourists. Besides, one cannot help visiting Vladimir as he or she travels from Moscow to Nizhniy Novgorod, or Kazan, or Suzdal – the town has always been an important transportation hub. To top it off, Vladimir is the best provincial town in Russia for a spontaneous visit without preparation – just don’t forget your passport and some money.

The name of the town is of ancient Slavic origin, and stands for either “The Master of the world” or ‘Master reasonably’. Whichever of these versions is true, both are applicable, since Vladimir was an ancient capital of a large country, but it never looked too immodest (an illness too familiar to Moscow). Great rampart walls with four large stone gates served for proper fortification, while churches of the town served as dungeons and shelters.

The cathedrals themselves do not look too heavyweight or dull, despite their considerable size. Green hills and deep ravines make the town’s scenery vivid and picturesque, unlike the stone and asphalt jungles of Moscow.

The Golden Gate, named after the once famous gate of Constantinople, is the first thing a visitor will see on is or her approach to the town. Although the borders of the town stretch far beyond the gate, it still separates the modern town from the ancient, creating a marvelous quality. Several churches surround the gate, e.g. the Trinity Church and the Church of St. Nicholas of the Gallei. On the whole, the beautiful ensemble of the gate inspired numerous architects to create replicas like the building of the State Bank in Nizhniy Novgorod or the current Embassy of France in Moscow.

The antiques and relics of the past, sometimes unique and unprecedented, stand along the main street of the town, i.e. the road from Moscow to Nizhniy Novgorod.

About 900 years ago this place was a key fortress on the river Klyazma, and was once the easiest way of communication in the large areas between Moscow, Yaroslavl and Suzdal. Unlike ancient Russian trade towns like Yaroslavl, Vladimir was founded as a fortress and an official residence of the country’s ruler, Andrei Bogolyubsky, the prince that first moved here from Rostov. He opted for a place free from old intriguing nobles and the turbulence of the old Russian towns like Rostov and Novgorod. Prince Andrei also commanded the building of walls (10 m high) and gates as well as the building of the two most famous cathedrals of Vladimir: the Assumption Cathedral and the St. Demetrius one. Yet, Vladimir didn’t prove safe enough for Andrei, for later he founded another, more intimate, residence in Bogolyubovo (1km from Vladimir). Some decades later, in 1238, troops of Tartars invaded Russia and Vladimir failed to withstand the attack. Walls were seized, and after they had fallen, Tartars entered the town and destroyed everything in sight, killing everybody they could find. The town was reconstructed only after two decades elapsed. Fortunately, the cathedrals and the Golden Gate were not destroyed.

After the capital of Russia had moved to Moscow, Vladimir lost its power and became an ordinary provincial town. Nevertheless, the town’s aura influenced the aesthetics of the new Moscow – for example, the Assumption Cathedral became a model for building Moscow’s Assumption Cathedral (Aristotle Fioravanti et al).

Meanwhile, Vladimir evolved into a town specialized in agriculture and local trade – until the very end of the 19^th century. For the past hundred years, several industrial companies have been established here, like the tractor plant. The latter company, luckily, has been preserved safe and sound until now: as the MN reported in February, the tractor marathon journey, sponsored by the plant, took place in 2005.

Vladimir’s modern life is quite usual for Central Russia: the town’s economy is tightly connected with the capital of the Vladimir region and possessing plenty of cultural and historic treasures; the town cannot but meet all challenges and costs of being a high-profile tourist spot.

The vulnerability of historic places against the impact of heavy tourism, widely known in some other points of the Golden Ring, seems to be carefully taken into account by the authorities, though museums and hospitality services form a large part of the region’s income, this is certainly not all Vladimir is fed by. Consequently, Vladimir inhabitants are not completely occupied by milking tourists, thus preserving the natural beauty of the region – and, more importantly, the mysterious Russian soul.

Along with some other towns, Vladimir is likely to be an integral part of the Moscow agglomeration during the next decades. Still, today the town is yet a universe of its own and an obvious must-see for those interested in Russian culture. Fortunately, Vladimir is very easy to access.

Vocabulary__rank'>Vocabulary

rank – оценивать

vitality – энергия, живучесть

opt – выбирать

rampart – крепостной вал

dungeon – подземная тюрьма

fortification – укрепление

ravines – ущелье, овраг

replicas – репродукция

elapse – пролетать

evolve – развиваться

vulnerability – уязвимость, ранимость
II Give English equivalents to the Russian words:

экспонат, разумно, нескромный, старинная вещь, беспрецедентный, интригующий, беспокойство, дворянин, противостоять, эстетика, скопление, душа, власти, сокровища, гостеприимство, собор принимать в расчет.

III Give Russian equivalents to the English words and make up your own sentences with these words:

to the top off, unlike, yet, fortunately, nevertheless, meanwhile, consequently, still.

IV Answer the questions:

1 How could Vladimir be ranked?

2 Do you need any preparation to visit Vladimir?

3 What’s the origin of the name Vladimir?

4 What’s the first thing to see in the town?

5 Who was the ruler of the country 900 years ago?

6 What are the main cathedrals of Vladimir and churches?

7 Did the town aura influence the new Moscow? In what way?

8 Is tourism a main point of income in Vladimir nowadays?
Suzdal: Pearl of the Golden Ring
I Read the text and speak about Suzdal’s architecture

If you have never been to Suzdal, don’t miss the opportunity to visit this city, which is rightly held to be the pearl of the Golden Ring. Suzdal appeared in Russian annals in 1024, and marked a whole period in the development of Russian national statehood and culture.

In the 11 century, Suzdal – a major city in the northeast of the mighty Kievan Rus – reached its heyday, becoming the capital of the Rostov – Suzdal principality and a major trade and industrial center.

Those were the times of the princedom of Vladimir Monomakh’s son, Yury Dolgoruky, who became the first independent prince of Suzdal. In 1152, in the village of Kideksha on the bank of the Nerlya, Yury Dolgoruky built the Boris and Gleb Church, which laid the foundation for whitestone architecture in the northeast Rus.

Under the rule of Doldoruky’s son, Andrei Bogolyubsky, the princedom capital was moved to Vladimir. During the Mongol-Tatar invasion of that region, Suzdal was burnt and plundered, and a large section of its inhabitants was taken prisoner.

After several unsuccessful attempts made in the 14^th century to regain its past importance and political independence, Suzdal became part of the Moscow principality towards the 15^th century. After losing its role as a political center, throughout the Middle Ages, the city remained the notable religious, trade, and cultural center of Rus.

Suzdal saw intensive constructions in the 16^th–17^th centuries, when all the now existing architectural ensembles were built. The finest of them are the ensembles of the ancient Kremlin, and of the Pokrovsky and Spasso-Yevfimiyev monasteries.

In the 18^th century, Suzdal conducted active construction of the churches on the Posad. Towards the early 19^th century, its urban ensemble took its final shape.

Russian history bestowed a happy and remarkable fate on Suzdal. Although over the centuries the city was destroyed more than once and suffered fires and epidemics, it came to life again and again. Suzdal or its inhabitants participated in every major even in Russian history. Among the historic names associated with the ancient land of Suzdal are Yury Dolgoruky, Alexander Nevsky, Alexander Suvorov, Dmitry Pozharsky, Dmitry Vinogradov and others.

Although in the 18^th–19^th century Suzdal became an ordinary provincial town, it acquired second wind in the 1970s, but only as a major tourist center. It came to be called a “museum city”- an attribute first given to it in 1923. After inspecting the city in that year, the Provincial Commission for the Preservation of Monuments or Art and Antiquity drew this conclusion:”…The whole of Suzdal is one great museum. The inviolability of all its relics of civilization is dictated by the interest of art and science.”

Suzdal is unequalled in abundance of monuments and in the integrity of its original profile. In an area of nine square km., there are more than 200 monuments of religious and civil architecture of the 12^th to 19^th centuries. Suzdal has succeeded in preserving its ancient topography, the unique colour of an ancient town, an the amazing harmony of its ancient Russian architecture and its natural environment.

The most ancient part of Suzdal is its Kremlin, those compositional center is the 12^th century Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin. Its southern and western gates, executed by the technique of fire gilding, are a unique relic of the decorative art of ancient Russia.

The Kremlin ensemble also includes the Bishops’ Chambers of the 15^th–17^th centuries. The most ancient monuments of Suzdal civil architecture is a 1635 belfry, notable for its chiming clock.

Currently, the Kremlin is hosting an exhibition of the Vladimir-Suzdal Museum Preserve; on the ground floor of the Bishops’ Chambers there is a Russian cuisine restaurant called Trapeznaya.

To the west of the Kremlin, on the opposite bank of the Kamenka River, stands a Museum of Wooden Architecture and Peasant Life. Here, in the place of the ancient Dmitriev Monastery, which has not survived, the more interesting wooden structure of the 18^th–19^th centuries were brought from the villages in the Vladimir Region. Thus, there came into being an open-air museum – a “village” complete with the Church of the Trasfiguration and the Church of the Resurrection, peasant huts, barns, drying houses, a well, and windmills.

In 1353, Prince Boris Konstantinovich of Suzdal and Nizhny Novgorod founded the Spassky Monastery, later renamed Spasso-Yevfimiyev. In the 16^th century, wooden monasteries were replaced with stone ones.

In 1642, on the altar of the cathedral with its own ancestral burial vault, Russia’s national hero Dmitry Pozharsky was buried.

On the cathedral square of the Spasso-Yevfimiyev monastery, stands the hipped-roof Church of the Assumption (1525), the quarters of the archimandrite (17^th century), and the monastery belfry (16^th–17^th centuries), where concerts of church bells are held. To the east of the cathedral, there stand hospital wards, the Nikolskaya Church (17^th century), and two-storied private quarters of the monks. The monastery’s compound is surrounded by fortress walls with 12 towers.

Currently, Suzdal is a major tourist center that attracts numerous Russian and foreign tourists. The city has all the necessities for rest and recreation in a place that also plays an educative role. There are exciting exhibitions at the Vladimir-Suzdal Museum Preserve, comfortable hotels, Russian cuisine restaurants, and splendid natural surroundings of Central Russia. Welcome to Suzdal.
Vocabulary

annals – летописи

heyday – расцвет

principality – княжество

plunder – разграблять

bestow – даровать

inviolability – нерушимость

unequalled – непревзойденный

abundance – богатство

chiming – перезвон

ancestral burial vault – родовой склеп

hipped-roof – шатровая крыша

quarter – жилище

belfry – колокольня

wards – палаты

II Give Russian equivalents to some architectural names:

Блаженная Дева, церковь Преображения, церковь Воскресения, церковь Успения, палаты епископов, Владимиро-Суздальский музей-заповедник, Спассо-Ефимиевский монастырь, Кремль.

III Answer the questions:

1 What is the main architectural ensemble of Suzdal?

2 What does the Kremlin include?

3 What was the status of Suzdal in the 11^th century?

4 What names was the history of Suzdal connected with?

5 When did Suzdal see intensive construction?

6 Did Russian history bestow a happy fate on Suzdal? Prove it.

7 What can you say about Vladimir-Suzdal Museum Preserve?

Plyos
I Read and translate the text. Use dictionary if necessary

Plyos has been based in 1410 by prince Vasily I as military strengthening on the Volga, protecting approaches to Moscow. However the city history has begun long before this time. The national legend says that in the beginning on this place there was an ancient city of Chuvil. Numerous excavations in vicinities of a modern Plyos has found out civilization remains: ashes, coal, pottery crocks, iron axes, knives, sickles, various ornaments. These finds carry to the period IX–XIII centuries, the ability to live of Old Russian and Slavic tribes. It is supposed that Chuvil has been destroyed by hordes of Batyja in XIII century and later other attacks. Plyos is successfully strategically located. The Volga here does not wind that allows seeing the opponent from the big distance. The city was under construction on high to the river bank, surrounded with two parties high breakages. The wooden fortress has been in addition protected by ditches and earthen shaft. Plyos for an appreciable length of time was in the centre of military events. It has ceased to be the strengthened point. The burnt wooden fortresses were not restored any more. O n this place in 1699 the stone cathedral, two stone cases for offices have been constructed. The convenient economic arrangement of Plyos has led to active trade and manufacture. In 1778 the city became the district centre. In Plyos there was the linen factory, two breweries, a state hydrochloric warehouse, 10 smithies, some trading benches with silk, paper, linen and woolen products. From here fish to an imperial table was delivered. Men of settlement fished, were employed to drive wood. Maids and women spun and weaved. At intensive development of the industry in Ivanovo-Shuisky area up to construction in 1871 of the railway of Ivanovo-Kineshma Plyos was the basic port on Volga for all textile edge. However, later the trading life of a city ceases, transforming this picturesque edge into favourite vacation spot of well-founded misters. Navigation development has involved here many tourists from bourgeois circles of Moscow. Many known artists came here on etudes: I.E. Repin, V.V. Vereschagin, I.L. Levitan. About the last it was said that “Plyos has glorified Levitan. Levitan has glorified Plyos”.

The city has healthy climate, pure fresh air. Beautiful high coast of the Volga, an abundance of fresh products and a cultural life of small town have made it favourite place of many people, especially Muscovites. Today Plyos is picturesque. The quay is covered by cafes with a view to the Volga. There are two boarding houses “Plyos " and "Russia” in the city. In general, Plyos is a fine vacation spot in a province.
I Answer the questions:

1. 
   Who founded Plyos?
   
2. 
   When was Plyos founded?
   
3. 
   Why was it based?
   
4. 
   Describe the legend connected with Chuvil.
   
5. 
   What was constructed in 1699?
   
6. 
   When did it become an administrative center?
   
7. 
   Describe the city in 1778.
   
8. 
   Why did Repin come to Plyos?
   
9. 
   What are boarding houses of Plyos?
   

II Find the Russian equivalents:

Ancient, excavations, vicinities, wind, ditches, cease, restore, cathedral, arrangement, linen factory, breweries, warehouse, smithies.

Kostroma. The Birthplace of the Romanov Dynasty
I Read the text

Kostroma is an historic city in central Russia, the administrative centre of Kostroma Oblast. A part of the Golden ring of the Russian towns, it is located at the confluence of the Volga and Kostroma Rivers. The city was first recorded in the chronicles for the year 1213, but historians believe it could have been founded by Yury Dolgoruky more than half a century earlier. Like other towns of the Eastern Rus, Kostroma was sacked by the Mongols in 1238. It then constituted a small principality, under leadership of Prince Vasily the Drunkard, a younger brother of the famous Alexander Nevsky. Upon inheriting the grand ducal title in 1271, Vasily didn't leave the town for Vladimir, and his descendants ruled Kostroma for another half a century, until the town was bought by Ivan I of Moscow.

As one of the northernmost towns of Muscovy, Kostroma served for grand dukes as a place of retreat when enemies besieged Moscow in 1382, 1408, and 1433. In 1375, the town was looted by Novgorod pirates ("ushkuiniki"). The spectacular growth of the city in the 16th century may be attributed to the establishment of trade connections with English and Dutch merchants (Muscovy Company) through the northern port of Archangel. Boris Godunov had the Ipatievsky and Epiphany monasteries rebuilt in stone. The construction works were finished just in time for the city to witness some of the most dramatic events of the Time of Troubles.

Kostroma was twice ravaged by the Poles; it took a 6-month siege to expel them from the Ipatievsky monastery. The heroic peasant Ivan Susanin became a symbol of the city's resistance to foreign invaders; several monuments to him may be seen in Kostroma. The future tsar, Michael Romanov, also lived at the monastery. It was here that an embassy from Moscow offered him the Russian crown in 1612.

It is understandable why the Romanov tsars regarded Kostroma as their special protectorate. The Ipatievsky monastery was visited by many of them, including Nicholas II, the last Russian tsar. The monastery had been founded in the early 14th century by a Tatar prince, ancestor of the Godunov family. The Romanov tsars had the magnificent Trinity Cathedral rebuilt in 1652; its frescoes and iconostasis are a thing of beauty. A wooden house of Mikhail Romanov is still preserved in the monastery. There are also several old wooden structures transported to the monastery walls from distant districts of the Kostroma Oblast.

In 1773, Kostroma was devastated by a great fire. Afterwards the city was rebuilt with streets radiating from a single focal point near the river. They say that Empress Catherine dropped her fan on the city map, and told the architects to follow her design. One of the best preserved examples of the 18th century town planning, Kostroma retains some elegant structures in a "provincial neoclassical" style. These include a governor's palace, a fire tower, a rotunda on the Volga embankment, and an arcaded central market with a merchant church in the center.

Built in 1559–1565, the five-domed Epiphany Cathedral was the first stone edifice in the city; its medieval frescoes perished during a fire several years ago. The minster houses the city's most precious relic, a 10^th-century Byzantine icon called Our Lady of St. Theodore (Russian: Федоровская Богоматерь). It was with this icon that Mikhail Romanov was blessed by his mother when he left for Moscow to claim the Russian throne. They say that just before the Revolution the icon blackened so badly that the image was hardly visible; it was interpreted as a bad sign for the Romanov dynasty.

The Ipatievsky monastery survives mostly intact, with its 16^th-century walls, towers, belfry, and the 17^th-century cathedral.

Apart from the monasteries, most of the city churches were either rebuilt or demolished during the Soviet years. The only city church that survives from the 17^th-century "golden age" is of the gold. He resolved that the unearned gold was the devil's gift and decided to spend it on building a church, beautiful within and without. Two other 17^th-century temples, of rather conventional architecture, may be seen on the opposite side of the Volga.

Among the vestiges of Godunov rule, a fine tent-like church in the village Krasnoe-on-the Volga (formerly an estate of Boris Godunov's brother) may be recommended.