Task 1. Imagine that you are preparing a project with your friend. You havefound some interesting material for the presentation and you want to read thistext to your friend. You have 1.5 minutes to read the text silently, then beready to read it out aloud. You will not have more than 1.5 minutes to read it.
The first maps were drawn by explorers to help them find their way home and
show people where they had been. The maps showed the shape of the land,
distances between places and special features such as caves and old trees.
Nowadays, maps show the towns and villages, and the roads, railways, rivers and
mountains. Symbols are used to show all the different things on a map and there is
a key to explain what the symbols stand for.
Over the centuries, people explored most of the Earth and put together the map of
the world we use today. Maps of the world or large areas are often either
“political” or “physical”. The political map shows territorial borders. The purpose
of the physical map is to show features of geography such as mountains, soil type
or land use including roads, railroads and buildings.