Speaking comprehension skills

4.1. Complete the sentences according to the text choosing the right variant:

1. Tyumen was established as…

a) Tobolsk province.

b) a fortress on the Tura river

c) a trans-shipping point from the Urals to Siberia

2. Tyumen covers the area…

a) more than 86 square kilometres

b) about 86 square kilometres

c) less than 68square kilometres

3. Nowadays Tyumen is…

a) only an oil town

b) the industrial town

c) the cultural, industrial and educational center of Western Siberia.

4. Research and design institutes work on problems connected with…

a) oil and gas deposits

b) higher education in the town

c) agriculture

5. the improving image of the ancient town is decorated by…

a) factories and plants

b) large buildings and shops

c) parks, squares and historical memorials

6. Oil pipelines pump Siberian oil to…

a) power stations of our country

b) refineries in the east and west of our country and abroad.

c) different plants in Tyumen

Decide whether the statements are true or false. Use the following expressions of

Agreement or Disagreement

It’s true. It’s false.

That’s right. It’s not right.

I agree with you. I don’t agree with you.

That goes without saying. On the contrary.

I think so. I don’t think so.

Looks like that. Far from it.

Most likely. Most unlikely.

1. Tyumen, the oldest Siberian town, was founded in 1585.

2. For four centuries oil and gas region was Tobolsk province.

3. Tyumen was established as a fortress on the place of the ancient Tatar town called Chingi-Tura.

4.Tyumen is only an oil town.

5. Oil and gas region is less smaller than France and Italy taken together.

6.Tyumen was born anew when the first oil was found near a little forest village called Shayom.

6. Only in the 19^th century the first road was built and Tyumen became a trans-shipping point from the Urals to Siberia.

7. Tyumen was the first station of Trans-Siberian Railway and the place where Siberian shipbuilding originated.

4.3.Check up your memory:

1. Where is Tyumen situated?

2. When was Chingi-Tura founded?

3. What happened to Tyumen at the end of 18^th century?

4. What is the area and the population of Tyumen?

5. What educational establishments do you know in Tyumen?

6. How did Tyumen become an industrial centre of the region?

7. What places of interest are there in Tyumen?

8. What was the first stone building in the town?

9. What church was built in 1800?

10. What traditions do a lot of wooden houses have?

11. Where can people entertain themselves in Tyumen? What is your favourite place?

12. What great people were born in Tyumen region?

Additional materials

Text 2

6.1. Read about the history of Tyumen and ask each other about the most important events. Start so: Did you know that…? Pay attention to the words after the text:

The first explorers of Siberia were the merchants of Novgorod. The movements of Russians to the east was stopped by the Tatar-Mongolian invasion of Russia. The people of Siberia became dependent on the Mongolian Khans. In the 16^th century the Cossack ataman Yermak began his marches to Siberia. He captured Chingi-Tura, the former capital of Tyumen Khanate. But he was wounded in the battle with Kuchum-Khan. Yermak tried to swim across Vagai river but drowned because of heavy armour he had on.

The Tsar Ivan IV was not going to pay attention to Yermak’s victories. Only in 1586, after Yermak’s death, Boris Godunov understood what Siberia meant for Moscow. In the summer of 1586 Moscow voivodes Vasily Sukin and Ivan Myasnoy with a detachment of streletses and Cossacks marched into Siberia. On July 29, 1586 they laid the foundation of Tyumen. It was the first Russian stronghold on the most ancient traderoute which connected Western Europe with the countries of the East. The town was set up on the site of the de stroyed Tatar town Chingi-Tura. The location of the town was chosen properly – on the steep, right-hand bank of the Tura river where the Tyumenka ran into the Tura. Their deep, difficult to pass ravines served as natural fortifications. Only the eastern side of the town had to be fortified with the moat and the rampart.

Later on the town was enclosed with wooden wall about 4.26 meters high with 6 sentry towers and two gates. The construction was carried out in haste that was why many buildings went to ruin quickly, the banks crumbled and the fortress had to be built anew. During the following two decades all other parts typical for the Russian town – a fort, a settlement, a monastery were formed around the fortress. Three churches served for the needs of the population of fort: military men and peasants. The considerable part of the male population were coachmen.

With the increase of the population a settlement appeared outside the eastern wall where merchants and handicraftsmen lived. Across the Tyumenka there was the third part of the town. It was a coachmen settlement. All in all there were a little over 300 houses, 5 churches, 2 monasteries, 37 shops and a prison. By the end of the 17^th century the population reached 500 people.

Due to its advantageous geographic location Tyumen developed rather quickly. By the turn of 18^th century the fortified settlement and fortresses drew the borders far to the south and east from Tyumen. The number of military men decreased but the town population, trade and handicraft population increased.

Later on for centuries the town served as a place of exile and it was only due to the exiled revolutionaries and a few progressive-minded merchants that the cultural life of the town sprang up. The industrial development of Tyumen began with a construction of the Transsiberian railway that connected the town with the European part of Russia.

The Soviet power was established in 1918. During the years of the Soviet power Tyumen has become a large industrial and cultural center of Western Siberia. Nowadays it is a modern city, the center of the oil- and- gas- bearing region. Sometimes it is called the “oil capital of Siberia”. That is the history of Tyumen in brief.