The presentation of completed student Physics-Mathematical optional group OS-17 Bagautdinova Dina Australia yesterday and today

The word Australia came from the Latin language and meant southern. Australia is the only country in the world which is also a continent. It consists of the mainland and numerous smaller islands lying between the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world´s largest island and smallest continent. With more than 7.6 million sq km, it's bigger than the USA, excluding Alaska and Hawaii. Nevertheless, Australia has a population of only 16 million people.

Almost half of the continent is occupied by deserts and semi- deserts. For a long time people thought these lands are useless, until they understood that there is a lot of coal, iron, lead, uranium, and other resources.

Most of the territory of Australia is located in a tropical continental climate zone, dry or very dry. Location of Australia in the southern hemisphere determines the distribution of the different seasons of the year than in the northern hemisphere. January is the warmest month of the year, while July has the lowest average temperatures.

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History Matteo Ricci

Australia prior to the arrival of Europeans (up to 1606) Australian Aboriginal ancestors appeared in Australia thousand years ago (according to other sources - about 70 thousand years ago). People arrived in Australia by sea, in a time when New Guinea and Tasmania were part of the continent, making them the earliest sea travelers in the world. Check continent thousand people began years ago. The earliest human remains found at Lake Mungo, Dry Lake in the south- east of New South Wales. These are the remains of one of the oldest examples found on Earth cremation, which indicates the existence of an early religious rites among the Australian aborigines.

Aboriginal art Aboriginal art is considered to be the oldest continuing tradition of art in the world. Its age is estimated at years and it can be found across Australia (in particular, Uluru and Kakadu National Park ). In terms of age and abundance of drawings, rock art in Australia is comparable to the caves of Lascaux and Altamira in Europe.

Study of Australia and the colonial period ( ) The continent was first discovered by Dutch explorers in the 17 th century. Later, its eastern half was occupied by British colonists. In the 18 th century the population of the island steadily grew. The first explorers came in In 1788, Captain Cook landed on the eastern coast and claimed the land for England. The first English settlers were prisoners because the English prisons were overcrowded. V.Yanszon

The beginning of the 20 th century was marked by the foundation of the Commonwealth of Australia. Its six colonies formed a federation, which maintained a parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy political system. At the moment the federation consists of six states and several territories. Queen Elizabeth II

The Australian people Most, if not all, Australians are immigrants or the descendants of immigrants. Just one in a hundred people are Aborigines. For the first 150 years, nearly all immigrants were British or Irish. Even people who had never seen England and whose parents came from the UK spoke of Britain as their home. That changed after the Second World War. Australians think of themselves as strong, silent, but friendly people. For them it is very important to help each other and to have good friendships with other Australian people. That is because they think of themselves as stockmen and farmers and they have to help each other in the bush, batting the fires and other dangers.

Cities For example, Sydney is a very fast and expensive, but exciting city with many beaches and much sun, which is highly influenced by the USA.

Melbourne is very quiet and British, even though so many Greek people are living there. It's a city full of parks and gardens.

Darwin, for example, still has the atmosphere of a frontier town. So each city has its own character. Australians have made it their aim to own their houses and gardens and so cities in Australia are widespread and the largest of the world.

Australians start going to school at the age of six. The following six years they are in primary school, which is run by the state or in a private school which is almost always run by a church. The schooldays is from 9.00 am to 3.30 pm. After primary school there is secondary school which takes another six years. School is mandatory until the age of fifteen. Most children leave school at this age. For students who live far outside a city, there is an institution called School on the Air. This school is conducted over the two- way radios.

Because of the warm climate, the Australian people can spend a lot of their free time outdoors. But televised sports are also extremely popular. They like to play cricket and they are known as a tennis-nation. The Australian Open is the fourth of the Grand Slam Tournaments. But they also like to go to the beach for sailing, surfing, swimming or just laying in the sun. Skiing is very popular in the winter season. But football is the most popular sport played in Australia. By the way, the national hobby is fishing.

Religions, festivals, holidays There are people of many different religions, like Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Sikhs and Jews as well as Buddhists. Most of the Australian are Christians. They celebrate Christ and Easter, but in December it is summertime in Australia, so many people go swimming on Christ day. But they also celebrate other days, like in Melbourne. The Melbourne Cup, a famous horse race, is celebrated as well. There is also a day of called Anzac day, when they remember their first lost battle in Turkey. They like to celebrate.

Transport There are many forms of transport in Australia. The nation is highly dependent on road transport. Australia is the second country in the world in the number of cars per capita. There are more than 300 airports with paved runways. An extensive rail network for passengers connects many rural areas to major metropolitan centers. The mining sector is reliant on rail to transport its product to Australia's ports for export.

References * «Understanding of Australia» Electronic resource: and Training resource: encyclopedia География Издательство «Аванта+» * «History: from the Aborigines to the European settlement» Electronic resource: * «The Commonwealth of Australia» Electronic resource: * «The Australian people» Training resource: encyclopedia «Я ПОЗНАЮ МИР Страны и Народы» * «Cities» Electronic resource: * «Education» Electronic resource: * «Sport and leisure» Electronic resource: * «Religions, festivals, holidays» Electronic resource: * «Transport» Electronic resource:

Thank you for your attention!