Match the synonyms in the right- and left-hands columns. Make up sentences with them.

1. lowland to originate

2. area skill

3. originator ancient

4. to set up incredible

5. castle magnificent

6. age-old prosperous

7. to begin diversified

8. unbelievable to establish

9. swamp medieval

10. various plain

11. wonderful fortress

12. mastery province

13. to carry founder

14. successful marsh

15. of the Middle Ages to bear

 

Read and translate the text.

TYUMEN

 

1. The Tyumen region is located on the West-Siberian Plain. On the western district of it there is Tyumen, the capital of oil and gas region which is as large as France, Italy, Spain and Austria taken together. The name of this town is known all over the world. Tyumen, the first Russian town of Siberia – “the mother of Siberian towns”, “the gate to Siberia” - was an ordinary town of Tobolsk province and only in 1944 it became the centre of the largest in the country Tyumen region.

2. The founders of the town chose a wonderful place for it. Its history goes back to 1586. Tyumen was established as a fortress on the Tura River on the place of Tatar town, called Chingi-Tura. Chingi-Tura was founded in the 14^th century and was unyoked by Yermak from Tatar-Mongol in 1581.

3. In the early 17^th century the first road was built and in the end of the 18^th century Tyumen became a trans-shipping point from the Urals to Siberia. Tyumen was also the first station of Trans-Siberian Railway built in the late 19^th century and the place where Siberian shipbuilding originated. At that time Tyumen was a little dirty town with wooden houses.

4. But it was born anew on June 21, 1960, the day when the oil was found near a little forest village Shayom. Further discoveries showed that the northern part of Western Siberia possessed incredible quantities of oil and natural gas. A fine modern town with wide streets, high-rise blocks and lots of greenery has risen on the wastelands and marshes.

5. Nowadays Tyumen is not only an oil town; it is a cultural, industrial and educational center of Western Siberia with a highly developed and quite diversified industry. Its plants are well-known in Russia and abroad. Among them there are machine-building, electronics-engineering, medical equipment, motor-building plants.

6. Tyumen is also a scientific and educational centre. It has three Universities, Agricultural, Medical, Academies, International Institute of Economy and Law, Institute of Culture and Arts. There is a great number of secondary schools, lyceums, colleges and gymnasia.

7. There are more than 40 research and design institutes mostly working on problems connected with the development of the gas and oil deposits. Due to their work 323 deposits had been discovered of which Samotlor (oil) and Urengoy (gas) are the largest in the world. Some pipelines pump Siberian oil to refineries in the east and west of our country and abroad.

8. Since the discovery of oil and gas deposits Tyumen has considerably grown. Now it covers the area more than 86 square kilometers and the multinational population of Tyumen is about a million people. Many beautiful parks, squares and historical memorials decorate the improving image of the ancient town.

9. Some museums, libraries, 5 magnificent Houses of Culture, the Puppet and Drama theatres, the Concert Hall, the Picture gallery make Tyumen a cultural center. Permanent exhibitions of Siberian national art and skills attract tourists’ attention. There are many places of entertainment in Tyumen. Different cafes, bars, cinemas such as “Cinema Park”, “Dom Kino”, “” are often attended by people. The town also has a range of night clubs such as “Manhattan”, “Giraffe”, “Hollywood”, “Gorkii”, “Piramida” which are popular with people of different ages.

10. Tyumen is famous for its places of interest: numerous monuments, architectural ensembles, historical places, medieval churches are mostly situated in the old part of town. Znamenskaya Church built in 1800, the Trinity Monastery, the first stone building in the town, Peter and Paul’s Church, Blagoveshchenskaya Church are very attractive. The marvelous building of the Museum of History and Ethnography and a lot of wooden houses, bearing the Siberian architecture traditions, decorate our town.

11. Tyumenians like their town. They are proud of its history and people.Tyumen region is a birthplace of Mendeleyev, a Great Russian chemist, Alyabjev, a composer, Ershov, a fairy-tale teller. Thousands of people work hard to make their region prosperous.