2020-10-11
435
3 May. Bistritz. — Left Munich at 8:35 P. M., on 1st May, arriving at Vienna early next morning; should have arrived at 6:46, but train was an hour late. Buda-Pesth seems a wonderful place, from the glimpse which I got of it from the train and the little I could walk through the streets. I feared to go very far from the station, as we had arrived late and would start as near the correct time as possible. The impression I had was that we were leaving the West and entering the East; the most western of splendid bridges over the Danube, which is here of noble width and depth, took us among the traditions of Turkish rule.
We left in pretty good time, and came after nightfall to Klausenburgh. Here I stopped for the night at the Hotel Royale. I had for dinner, or rather supper, a chicken done up some way with red pepper, which was very good but thirsty. (Mem., get recipe for Mina.) I asked the waiter, and he said it was called “paprika hendl,” and that, as it was a national dish, I should be able to get it anywhere along the Carpathians. I found my smattering of German very useful here; indeed, I don’t know how I should be able to get on without it.
Having had some time at my disposal when in London, I had visited the British Museum, and made search among the books and maps in the library regarding Transylvania; it had struck me that some foreknowledge of the country could hardly fail to have some importance in dealing with a nobleman of that country. I find that the district he named is in the extreme east of the country, just on the borders of three states, Transylvania, Moldavia and Bukovina, in the midst of the Carpathian mountains; one of the wildest and least known portions of Europe. I was not able to light on any map or work giving the exact locality of the Castle Dracula, as there are no maps of this country as yet to compare with our own Ordnance Survey maps; but I found that Bistritz, the post town named by Count Dracula, is a fairly well-known place. I shall enter here some of my notes, as they may refresh my memory when I talk over my travels with Mina.
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[Dracula, by Bram Stoker]
EXERCISE 2. Explain the articles in the following sentences.
1. The Nile flows across the northeastern part of Africa to the Mediterranean Sea.
2. Africa is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast and the Atlantic Ocean to the west.
3. Geologically, Africa includes the Arabian Peninsula; the Zagros Mountains of Iran and the Anatolian Plateau of Turkey mark the place where the African Plate collided with Eurasia.
4. Countries where major human rights violations have been reported in recent times include the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Sudan.
5. The highest African mountain is Kilimanjaro, which has three peaks, named Kibo, Mawenzi and Shira, of which Kibo is the tallest.
6. The Sahara is the largest hot desert in the world, and the third largest desert overall after Antarctica and the Arctic.
7. Greek traders spread from the Mediterranean along the eastern coast of the Sahara, establishing trading colonies along the Red Sea.
8. David Livingstone was wrong about his theory that the Nile takes its source in Lake Malawi, as the Nile rises in the Great Lakes region of central Africa.
9. The Republic of Kenya is named after Mount Kenya. Kenya's capital and largest city is Nairobi.
10. The Serengeti National Park is a lovely national park that lies in northwestern Tanzania and borders on Kenya to the north.
EXERCISE 3. Fill in the gaps and explain your choice.
1. __Europe is a continent located entirely in ___ Northern Hemisphere and mostly in __ Eastern Hemisphere.
2. The continent is bordered by __ Arctic Ocean to ___ north, ___ Atlantic Ocean to ___ west, ____Asia to ___ east, and ____ Mediterranean Sea to ___ south.
3. The geographic border between ___ Europe and ___ Asia does not follow any state boundaries: ___Turkey, ___ Russian Federation, ___Azerbaijan, ___Georgia and ___ Republic of Kazakhstan are transcontinental countries.
4. The southern regions of ___Europe are mountainous, and moving north the terrain descends from ___Alps, __Pyrenees, and ___Carpathians into broad, low northern plains.
5. The extended lowland north of ___ Alps is known as ___ Great European Plain.
6. The climate of the continent is mild due to the influence of ____ Gulf Stream.
7. ____ Ruhr is an urban area in ___North Rhine-Westphalia, ___Germany. It is the largest urban area in ____ Federal Republic of Germany and the third-largest in ____ European Union.
8. ____ Rhine has its source in ____ Switzerland and flows north through ____Germany and ___ Netherlands into ____ North Sea.
9. Johann Strauss composed The Blue Danube waltz in 1866. ____ Danube flows through four capital cities (____Vienna, ____Bratislava, ____Budapest, and __Belgrade).
10. ___ Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of ___ancient Rome. It included large territories around ___Mediterranean sea in ___Europe, ____North Africa and ____West Asia.
