Сжать текст до 5-7 предложений не потеряв основную мысль Today twenty-eight countries belong to the European Union. More than 507
million Europeans have the right to live in, work in or travel to other EU
countries. Millions of people enjoy friendly contact with their neighbours
across borders. Governments across Europe pass the same laws about
employment, food, transport, health and the environment. The EU is also the
largest free market in the world. A typical European supermarket is full of
fresh fruit, vegetables, cheese and meat that come from all over Europe.
Twelve countries even use the same currency, the euro. In fact, the European
Union has a very big influence over our lives, but most of us don’t even
notice it. But if we look at Europe just three generations ago, we start to 942-Fu
understand that the story of the EU is even more surprising. In 1945, Europe
had just experienced the most terrible war in history. Many historians believe
that at least forty million people were killed, although such numbers are very
hard to calculate. At the end of the war millions were homeless and much of
Europe was in ruins. In fact, famine was a bigger problem in 1947 than it was
during the war years. Worst of all, many countries still didn’t trust each other.
It is perhaps a surprise to lear that the first politician to suggest “a United
Europe’ after the war was Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister
during the war years.
In September 1946, during a meeting in Swiertand, he said that Europeans
should come together to create a “United States of Europe’. However, most
people, especially in Britain, thought that Churchill’s ideas were shocking or
even absurd. Eight months later a huge conference was organised in the
Netherlands. Eight hundred important European academics and politicians
were invited. Pethaps the most powerful speech was made by Salvador de
Madariaga, a Spanish politician and writer:
This Europe must be born, And she will,
when Spaniards say ‘our Chartres’,
Englishmen say “our Cracow’, Italians ‘our
Copenhagen’ and Germans “our Bruges’
Then Europe will live.
But when de Madariaga spoke these words in 1947, it was already too late.
Despite the fine words and emotional speeches, the Netherlands conference
couldn’t save Europe - it was already divided in two, But the idea of “a,
United Europe’ didn’t die completely. A French politician, Robert Schuman,
believed that the only way that France and Germany could become good
neighbours again was by cooperating economically. In 1951 six countries
agreed to regulate trade, prices and production of coal and steel. The
experiment was a success, and in 1957 the six countries signed the Treaty of
Rome and created the European Economic Community (in 1993, the EEC
changed its name to the European Union). Nine more countries joined the
organisation between 1973 and 1992 and another ten countries became
‘members in 2004, followed by two more in 2007 and one more in 2013
Perhaps de Madariaga’s dream will come true one day afterall
1. We had been sleeping for 12 hours when he woke us up.
2. They had been waiting at the station for 90 minutes when the train finally arrived.
3. We had been looking for her ring for two hours and then we found it in the bathroom.
4. I hadn`t been walking for a long time, when it suddenly began to rain.
5. How long had she been learning English before she went to London?
6. He had been driving less than an hour when he ran out of petrol.
7. They were very tired in the evening because they had been helping on the farm all day.
8. I hadn`t been working all day; so I wasn't tired and went to the disco at night.
Kamchatka is a peninsula with area of 104,200 sq mi (269,878 sq km) located on Russian Far East which separates the Sea of Okhotsk in the west from the Bering Sea and the Pacific Ocean in the east. It extends from lat. 51°N to lat. 61°N, it is 750 mi (1,207 km) long and terminates in the south in Cape Lopatka, beyond which lie the Kuril Islands. Petropavlovsk is the chief city. There are many rivers and lakes, and the eastern shore is deeply indented by gulfs and bays. The peninsula's central valley, drained by the Kamchatka River, is enclosed by two parallel volcanic ranges that extend north-south; there are about 120 volcanoes. The highest point is Klyuchevskaya Sopka (15,600 ft/4,755 m), itself an active volcano. Kamchatka is covered with mountain vegetation, except in the central valley and on the west coast, which has peat marshes and tundra moss. The climate is cold and humid. There are numerous forests, mineral springs, and geysers. Kamchatka's mineral resources include coal, gold, mica, pyrites, sulfur, and tufa. Fishing, sealing, hunting, and lumbering are the main occupations. The seas surrounding the peninsula are a rich Russian fishing area (notably for crabs, which are exported worldwide), and fur trapping on the peninsula yields most of the furs of the Russian Far East. Some cattle raising is carried on in the south and farming (rye, oats, potatoes, vegetables) in the Kamchatka valley and around Petropavlovsk. Reindeer are also raised on the peninsula. Industries include fish processing, shipbuilding, and woodworking. Russia's only geothermal power station is on the peninsula. There is some tourism, particularly in the Kronotsky Nature Reserve, noted for its geysers.
The majority of the population is Russian, with large minorities of Koryak peoples. The northern part of the peninsula is administered as the Koryak Autonomous Area. Its capital is Palana.
The Russian explorer Atlasov visited Kamchatka in 1697. The region's exploration and development continued in the early 18th cent. under Czar Peter I, and Russian conquest was complete by 1732. Heavy Russian colonization occurred in the early 19th cent. From 1926 to 1938, Kamchatka formed part of the Far Eastern Territory. The peninsula is now part of the larger Kamchatka oblast [region], which includes offshore islands and areas of the mainland bordering the peninsula. Petropavlovsk is the oblast's capital.