Aleutian islands national Wildlife Refuge — alaska

The islands constitute an immense reservoir of wildlife, un­doubtedly the most numerous on the continent. The only tinge of regret would be that so few of us will ever be privileged to see them at first hand, these fog-shrouded, forbidding but altogether fascinating islands. Alaska is definitely not "just around the cor­ner" for most of us!

The Aleutian Islands Refuge is the largest, in a continental sense, such area supervised by the Fish & Wildlife Service. It comprises some fifty islands, large and small, reaching from the mainland to Attu, 4,250 square miles. Stormy and formidable as the region is, a series of rock cliffs rising abruptly from the sea and without vegetation other than grass, shrubs and wild flowers, mosses and lichens, it supports an unbelievable multitude of avian and mammal life.

While both ducks and geese occur as well as many shorebirds, it is the vast concentration of seabirds that give the island their living crown. Predominant are the Alcids or Diving Birds, auks, puffins which constitute a veritable natural wonder.

Mammals too, those of both land and sea. Probably the sea-otter is the most important. Almost wiped out years ago for its fur, it is staging a very decided "comeback" and, on the Aleutians finds a secure haven, the refuge being largely responsible for saving it. Blue foxes, the now rare wolverine and brown bear, as well as lemmings and hares are land animals, while seals and killer whales are common.

 

Vocabulary

 

 

odor (амер.)=odour– запах, аромат

game animals =wild animals – дикие животные

favored (амер.)=favoured – благодатный

Troy fell – Троя была взята около 1260 г. до н. э.

redwood – калифорнийское мамонтовое дерево

Sherman, William (1820–1891) – видный американский полководец времен Гражданской войны

gnarled – искривленный

moss – мох

lichen – лишайник

avian (научн.) – птичий

mammal – млекопитающее

Alcids от лат. Alcidae – сем. Чистиковые

auk – гагарка

puffin – тупик

sea-otter – калан (морская выдра)

wolverine – росомаха

seal – тюлень

killer whale – касатка

 

UNIT 2

THE USA

THE RIVERS

The Mississippi is one of the world's great continental rivers. The waters of the Mississippi are gathered from two-thirds of the United States. Together with the Missouri River (its chief west­ern branch), the Mississippi flows some 4,000 miles (6,400 kilo­meters) from its northern sources in the Rocky Mountains to the Gulf of Mexico. This is one of the longest water courses known. The Mississippi has been called the "father of waters". Through all its lower course, it wanders along, appearing lazy and harm­less. But people who know the Mississippi are not deceived by its lazy appearance. Americans have had many bitter struggles with Mississippi floods. Finally Americans had to learn that nothing can be gained by fighting against the rages of the mighty river. To live in peace with the river, people have had to accept some of the river's own terms. They have had to work patiently at saving, and rebuilding soil, grasslands, and forests, far back to where the waters begin to gather. Without such work, there could be no hope of taming the Mississippi.

Where the still untamed Missouri River pours into the Missis­sippi, from the west, it colours the river deep brown with small pieces of soil. Farther down the stream, the waters of the Ohio River join the Mississippi. (The Ohio is the Mississippi's principal eastern tributary). Where the two rivers join, evidence of the difference between the dry west and rainy east is already appar­ent. Then for miles the waters of the two streams flow on side by side, without mixing. Those from the west are brown; they have robbed the soil in areas where few plants grow. The waters from the east are clear and blue; they come from hills and valleys where plentiful forest and plant cover has kept the soil from be­ing washed away.

Like the Mississippi, all the waters east of the Rockies finally reach the Atlantic; all the waters to the west of the Rockies fi­nally arrive at the Pacific. For this reason the Rocky Mountains are known as the Continental Divide. There are many places in the Rockies where a visitor may throw two snowballs in opposite directions and know that each will feed a different ocean.

The two great rivers of the Pacific side are the Colorado and the Columbia. The Colorado is in the south; the Columbia rises in Canada and drains the north. In the dry western country, both rivers are important and necessary sources of life, but they are very different. The Columbia was wild in pre-historic times, cut­ting and shaping the land. Now, however, it flows with quiet dig­nity. But the Colorado is still a river of enormous fury — wild, restless, and angry. It races and plunges, cutting deeply into the desert rocks. For hundreds of miles, it resists any attempt to cross it. But with all its fury the Colorado has been dammed and put to work. All the farms and cities of the south-western corner of the country depend on its waters.

The Rio Grande, nearly 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) long, is the foremost river of the Southwest. It forms a natural boundary between Mexico and the United States; together, the two govern­ments have built irrigation and flood control projects of mutual benefit.

NIAGARA FALLS

Niagara Falls is the most widely known natural wonder in Amer­ica. It has been visited by a greater number of people from home and abroad than any other place on the continent. It is a familiar word the world over, and the place above all places in the United States that every visitor from foreign shores does want to see.

Niagara Falls is situated directly on the New York Central Lines, midway between New York and Chicago. It is reached from all directions by the through cars of the great railroad system.

Niagara is an Indian word which means "roaring waters". In­deed, the roar of the falling water can be heard within a distance of 25 km. Imagine a mass of water flowing over a cliff 90 feet high and you will get an idea of that terrible noise. And what tremendous power Niagara has! It can move big rocks about and throws them into the boiling waters below.

Niagara Falls is almost beyond description. Its beauty, majesty and power impress each beholder differently. The great features of Niagara are the same, again and again, but their individual expression is constantly changing. With every season, every sun­beam, every shadow, Niagara Falls takes on a different appear­ance, inspires a fresher interest, and compels new admiration years after years, generation after generation.

Only occasionally some great writer or thinker has caught the message of this mighty cataract and passed it down to us. Charles Dickens wrote of Niagara: "The first effect — the most enduring one — of the tremendous spectacle of Niagara Falls was peace. Peace of mind, tranquillity, great thoughts of eternal rest; noth­ing of gloom or terror. Niagara at once stamped upon my heart an image of beauty, to remain there changeless until its pulses cease to beat forever... "

Abraham Lincoln, the great martyr President of the United States, said of Niagara: "It calls up the indefinite past. When Columbus first sought this continent Niagara was roaring here. The eyes of species of extinct giants whose bones fill the mounds of America have been gazing on Niagara as ours do now. Niagara is as strong and fresh today as ten thousand years ago. The mammoths so long dead that fragments of their monstrous bone alone testify that they did live have been gazing on Niagara — in that long time never still for a single moment."

Aside from the scenic beauty of the Falls, the industrial devel­opment on both sides of the river will interest many tourists.

The development of electrical power has brought with it manu­facturing processes that were unknown a century ago. More than a million horse-power is being developed now at Niagara, both for local use and transmission to cities and towns in New York State and the Province of Ontario within a radius of 200 miles.

 

A RIVER THAT FLOWS BACKWARD

Have you ever heard of a river that flows backward? You'll find it — as you will many other strange things — in America.

Years ago the Chicago river flowed north and emptied itself into Lake Michigan. But when Chicago began to expand and more drinking water was needed for its inhabitants, engineers got to work and deliberately altered the whole structure of the river, so that fresh water would then flow from the lake into the river!

The result is that nowadays, instead of flowing north, the Chi­cago river flows south towards the Gulf of Mexico.