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Canada, geographical position
I. Before reading. Remember what facts you know about Canada and try to answer the
following questions:
1) What is the capital of Canada?
2) What oceans is it washed by?
3) What water sight can be found in Canada?
4) What nationalities live in Canada and how they call themselves?
5) What are the national plant and animal symbols of Canada?
CANADA
Canada has an area of 9,970,610 square km – it’s the world’s second largest country after Russia, and it
covers two-fifths in area in North America. Its western coast is washed by the Pacific Ocean, its eastern coast
by the Atlantic Ocean and its northern coast by the Arctic Ocean and Hudson Bay which is called ‘the icebox’ of Northern America. There are many islands in the north of Canada.
Canada is a country of lakes. Besides the Great Lakes – Lake Superior, Huron, Erie and Ontario (the
fifth Great Lake, Michigan, lies in the USA), there are many other very large lakes, for example, Great Bear
Lake, Great Slave Lake and Lake Winnipeg. Canada has also large rivers: the Mackenzie flows from the
Rocky Mountains into the Arctic Ocean, the Yukon rises in Canada and flows into the Pacific, the St.
Lawrence River flows into the Atlantic Ocean. The Niagara Falls are one of the most splendid sights in the
world. Since the building of the St. Lawrence Seaway the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River form a
great water-way from the Atlantic to the heart of the country.
Canada has mountains, high plains and low plains. The Rocky Mountains run parallel to the Pacific
coast. Canada’s highest mountain, Mt Logan at 5951 meters, is found in the south-west Yukon. East of these
mountains are the high plains. The low plains lie in the region of the Great Lakes and the St Lawrence River.
There are also mountains which run parallel to Canada’s east coast, in Labrador and Baffin Island. Due to the
vast mountainous ranges: the Appalachians in the south-east, the Rocky Mountains in the Cordillera Chain in
the west and the Innuitians, extensive ice-shields in the north, which protect the large inland region, Canada is
not generally considered as a maritime country.
Canada has several climatic regions. Lack of east to west mountains leads to huge exchange of air
masses between north and south. Storms and blizzards are rather dangerous with wind speed up to 80 kph, air
temperature -35ºC, and snow cover of 35 cm. Hurricanes and tornadoes are not often, about 5 per year. Polar
light, red, greenish, bluish, white, can often be seen in winter. Permafrost floor covers about 4 mln square
kilometers that influences human life in many ways: road, transport and building problems (houses on pillars),
constant need in energy, difficulties in mining, etc. Winter in Canada lasts from four to five months with
heavy snowfalls. There is much rain in the east and west, but less in the centre. The north of the country near
the Arctic is tundra with great forests to the south. About 25 per cent of the country is covered in forests. The
central plains form the prairies.
There are 6 time zones with between 3.5 and 8 hours difference from Greenwich Mean Time.
Some species from Canadian flora and fauna have become the symbols associated with this northern
country: the sugar maple whose leaf appear on the flag, the grizzly and the polar bears, the beavers and
buffalo (bison).
The population of Canada is over 27 million people. The density of the population is about two people
per square kilometer. The most part of the whole population (80%) is concentrated in the 500-km-wide stripe
along the border with the USA, the warmest and the most hospitable area. The four-fifths of the total area are
uninhabited. In the country there are 330,000 Indians and 27,000 Eskimos (or Inuits, which means ‘person’,
it’s discriminatory to use the word ‘Eskimo’ which means ‘eater of raw meat’) who live mostly in the North.
Today more than 40 per cent of the people of Canada came originally from Britain, about 30 per cent from
France and 20 per cent from other countries.
The capital of Canada is Ottawa. Toronto is the largest city, then comes Montreal. Other large
important towns are Vancouver, Edmonton, Hamilton, Winnipeg and Quebec.
Canada consists of ten provinces (Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick,
Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia) and two territories (Yukon and the
North-West Territories). Each province has its own government. Canada’s flag was proclaimed in 1965. In the
centre of the flag there is a red sugar maple leaf, Canada’s best known symbol. Before the new flag, between
1924 and 1965, the national flag was the Union Jack.
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Canada, geographical position
II. Read the text and check your guesses.
III. Match two columns:
1. This country which covers two-fifths in area in North
America
a. three vertical stripes with red maple leaf in
the middle.
2. On the national flag of Canada there are
b. the four-fifths of the total area are uninhabited.
c. is the world’s second largest country after
Russia.
3. As Canada has several climatic regions and is situated
close to the North Pole
4. The Great Lakes (Superior, Huron, Erie and Ontario)
and the St. Lawrence River
5. Two great mountainous systems (The Appalachian
and the Cordillera)
6. Because of the fact that the most population is
concentrated along the border with the USA,
d. run parallel to Canada’s western and
eastern coasts.
e. one can observe here different natural
phenomena such as storms and blizzards, polar
light and permafrost floor.
f. form a great water-way from the Atlantic
Ocean to the heart of the country.
IV. Think of the best heading to each paragraph of the text.
V. Retell the text using the plan.
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