The Republic of Kazakhstan.

The Republic of Kazakhstan is a sovereign, independent, democratic, secular, legal and social state. Its total area is 2.7 million square kilometers. Kazakhstan borders on Russia in the North, China in the East, the Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan in the South, and the Caspian Sea in the West. The climate of the Republic of Kazakhstan varies widely throughout the country. The landscape of Kazakhstan is diverse. There are vast lowlands and high mountains, but steppes and semi deserts predominate on the largest part of the country. There are a lot of rivers in the Republic. The main rivers are the Irtysh, the Ural, the Chu, and the Syrdarya. There are some natural reservations, e.g.: Barsakelmes, Aksu-Dzhabagly.

The official language of the country is Kazakh; Russian is the language of interethnic communication, because more than 100 nationalities live in Kazakhstan. According to the most recent data, the population of the Republic is about 17 million.

Kazakhstan is a democratic Republic with the presidential form of government. The main law of the state is the Constitution. The highest representative body is the Parliament, which consists of two chambers: the Senate and the Mazhilis.  

Kazakhstan is very rich in mineral resources. There are big deposits of oil, gas, gold, coal, copper, iron ore and others. Industry is presented by mining and processing activities. Manufacturing is also an important industrial branch in Kazakhstan. Manufacture includes iron, steel, mineral fertilizer, and textiles.

National currency is tenge which was issued in November 1993. The Republic celebrates its Independence Day on 16 December.

Now Kazakhstan has a new capital city - Astana. Astana is the center of the Republic. There are a lot of construction projects and Astana is going to be the most beautiful and modern city of Kazakhstan.

Act of travelling

The act of travelling can be described by a number of synonyms which differ by various implications. They all describe the act of going from one place to another, but differ by the length of time taken by that act, by its purpose, destination or by the method of travelling.

travel: the act of travelling, esp. a long one in distant or foreign places, either for the purpose of discovering something new or in search of pleasure and adventure; e. g. He is writing a book about his travels in Africa.

journey: the act of going from one place to another, usually taking a rather long time; e. g. It’s a three days’ journey by train.

voyage: a rather long journey, esp. by water or air; e. g. The idea of an Atlantic voyage terrified her: she was sure to be seasick, all the time.

trip: a journey, an excursion, freq. a brief one, made by land or water; e. g. Did you enjoy your week-end trip to the seaside?                     

tour: a journey in which a short stay is made at a num­ber of places (usu. with the view of sightseeing), the travel­ler finally returning to the place from which he had started; e. g. On our Southern-England tour we visited Windsor, Ox­ford, Cambridge, Stratford-on-Avon and then came back to London.

cruise: a sea voyage from port to port, esp. a plea­sure trip; e. g. The Mediterranean cruise promised many in­teresting impressions.                                        

hitch-hiking: travelling by getting free rides in passing automobiles and walking between rides; e. g. Hitch-hiking is a comparatively new way of travelling which gives one a chance to see much without spending anything.

Travelling by railway

There are different kinds of trains: passenger trains, mail trains and goods trains. Mail trains carry mail, or post, that is letters, newspapers, magazines. Goods trains carry goods. Passenger trains carry passengers. Mail trains and passenger trains are usually combined: they have carriages for passengers and a special carriage or two for mail.

Passenger trains can be slow or fast. Slow trains stop at every station. Fast trains have few stops: they stop only at very large stations. So we can call these trains respectively stopping trains and non-stopping trains.

There are local trains and long-distance trains. Local trains connect points situated not far away from each other, say, a hundred or two-three hundred kilometers. By long-distance trains you can travel very far – for thousands of kilometers. If you live in a large city, like St. Petersburg or Moscow or Kiev, you can go to the suburbs of the city by a suburban train.

Sometimes, when travelling a long distance, you have to change trains (or make a changing), that is get off one train and board another, if there is no through train to the place of your destination.

When you are travelling a long distance, it is very convenient to go by an overnight train. Overnight trains have sleeping accommodation: they usually have “corridor cars” (carriages with separate compartments, they are called sleeping cars or sleepers). In each compartment there are two lower and two upper berths, on which you can sleep like in bed. Trains which run by day are called day coaches. You cannot sleep in these trains: they have only sitting accommodation: very comfortable soft armchairs.