Sumy was founded on the 25th of June, 1655. The founder of the town was the Ukrainian cossack Gerasim Kondratyev. When the Ukrainians struggled against the Polish landowners they had to leave their villages in the West and asked the Russian tsar to allow them to live and build the new villages on the left bank of the river Dnieper. At that very time Kondratyev headed 100 Ukrainian families. They came to the bank of the river Psel and built a settlement which they called “the Soumin town”.
Now Sumy is an administrative, economic, cultural and industrial center of the Sumy region. There are many places of interest here. In my town we have some museums: the museum of the local history, of fine arts, Chekhov’s museum and the museum of applied arts. In front of the museum of the local history there is a summer-house which was built without nails about 100 years ago by an unknown craftsman. It was the place where the musicians played music and ladies with gentlemen walked listening to it. In winter there was a skating-rink there. Now it is the landmark of our town and one of the most favourite meeting places of its inhabitants. To the left of the summer-house the museum of fine arts is situated. There are about 15000 exhibits there. You can admire the beauty of the paintings by Repin, Shyshkin, Levitan, etc. There were 12 churches in Sumy but now we have only 6. There are two theatres in our city: Shchepkin Drama and Musical Comedy Theatre and the Theatre for Young Spectators.
Sumy is a highly-developed industrial town. There are many enterprises in our town. They are: the machine building plant, the chemical plant, the pump plant, the tube plant, the steel plant, the porcelain factory, the microscope plant and some food enterprises.
Sumy is also an educational centre. It is the city of secondary comprehensive schools, grammar schools, colleges and vocational schools. There is also Musical College, Medical College, College training educators in culture. Sumy is also the city of higher education. There are 5 higher educational institutions in Sumy: Sumy National Agrarian University, Sumy State University, Sumy State Pedagogical University, Military Institute of Artillery, the Academy of Banking.
I love my town very much and consider it to be the most beautiful town in the world.
3.Answer the questions:
1.When and by whom was Sumy founded?
2.On the bank of what river did the Ukrainians from the West build Sumy settlement?
3.How many museums are there in Sumy? What are they?
4.What is situated in front of the museum of the local history?
5.What attracts visitors in the museum of fine arts?
6.What industrial enterprises are there in Sumy?
7.What can be said about Sumy as an educational centre?
8.What do you like/dislike about Sumy? What would you change in it?
9.Do you have any favourite places in Sumy? What do you like about them?
4.Find English equivalents to the following words. Find sentences with these words in the text and translate them. Write your own sentences with these words.
боротися проти, землевласник, дозволити, просити, берег, очолити, поселення, фортеця, визначні місця, краєзнавчий музей, художній музей, альтанка, ремісник (майстер), цвях, каток, милуватися, експонат, високорозвинений, підприємство, фарфоровий завод, гімназія, професійно-технічне училище, музичне училище, медичне училище, освіта, вищий навчальний заклад.
5.Rearrange the following lines into the right order to read about the Ukrainian city of Sumy. Three sentences have been done for you.