Russia Backs Pact to Save Wild Tigers
Russia and 13 Asian nations vowed to double the number of wild tigers by 2022, crack down on poaching that has devastated the big cats and prohibit the building of roads and bridges that could harm their habitats.
Tiger numbers in recent decades have plummeted because of human encroachment – with the loss of more than nine – tenths of their habitat – and poaching to supply a vibrant trade in tiger parts. From an estimated 100,000 at the beginning of the 20th century, the number of tigers today is less than 3,500. Along with a target for doubling tiger population, governments committed to reduce poaching through beefed – up law enforcement. Countries also agreed to protect core tiger habitats as well as buffer zones and corridors that connect key sanctuaries and national parks.
Task 15. Translate these two newspaper articles from Russian into English.
a) Житель Украины пытался вывезти из России попугая на поезде “Москва - Симферополь”. Таможенники обнаружили птицу на верхней полке, где находились две гитары, заявленные в таможенной декларации. Птица не была внесена в таможенную декларацию, никаких разрешительных документов на ее вывоз у хозяина не было. Птица была изъята и помещена в Белгородский зоопарк, где было установлено, что она относится к редким видам, находящимся под угрозой исчезновения.
b) В аэропорту “Домодедово” задержаны двое сирийцев, перевозивших 14 кречетов. Их сняли с рейса на Доху (Катар). По мнению специалистов, птиц везли с Камчатки, где подобный бизнес переживает расцвет. Спрос на кречетов высок в арабских странах, где их используют для соколиной охоты. Возбуждено уголовное дело, злоумышленникам грозит до 12 лет лишения свободы.
Task 16. Summarize the given information and perform analysis of the current situation with endangered species.
Text VII
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Pre-reading
Task 1. Translate the following words.
English Russian
trafficker …
… глотать
… спрос
drug …
… граница
money laundering …
anti – graft …
… правоохранительные органы
Task 2. Look up the pronunciation of the following words in the dictionary:
victim, coup, tiny, hub, scourge, junior.
Task 3. Translate the following international words (find a proper Russian variant!).
typical, intense, civil, scandal, business, export, office, import, agency, organized criminals, groups.
Task 4. Use a dictionary and complete the word family including the word “drug”.
Trafficking drugs into Europe
A fairly typical recent morning at Murtala Mohammed, Lagos’s main airport, saw four traffickers carrying cocaine, heroin or marijuana caught, arrested and x-rayed before noon. All but one of them lived abroad, in Belgium, India and Spain. Stuck without money or just looking for more, they had agreed to swallow the stuff or slip it into their luggage.
West Africa is the newest centre for trafficking drugs into Europe. European demand for cocaine and heroin is rising fast and dealers, faced with intense scrutiny on familiar import routes, have been obliged to find new ones. Cocaine from the Andes is arriving at West Africa’s ports, airports and border crossings. Heroin from Afghanistan is coming in too.
Nigeria is not the only victim of the growing trade. Guinea-Bissau, a small country emerging from civil war and a string of coups, has seen its tiny export economy overrun by illegal drugs. But as the economic hub of west Africa, Nigeria has, inevitably, also become its drug-trafficking hub. Drugs have been trickling across Nigeria’s borders since the 1980s, but over the past few years the trickle has become a torrent.
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Nigeria’s history of fighting the scourge is not the sort to discourage dealers. Its drug agency, founded in 1990, was immediately immersed in scandal when its own top people were themselves found to be involved in trafficking.
Organized criminals have also got into the business. The country’s anti-graft body, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, says it often stumbles upon drugs during money-laundering raids. The most powerful crime syndicates are involved, says Lamorde Ibrahim, the commission’s director of operations in Lagos. A six-person group from his office and the drug-enforcement agency work incognito, unknown even to colleagues.
The network of gangs and dealers means that drugs are increasingly available on Nigeria’s streets. At the Lagos State Rehab and Vocational Training Centre former junkies tell stories of taking to drugs while at university, or jobless, or under pressure from the city’s notorious gangs of “area boys”. Enough cannabis to roll one cigarette can be found on the streets for as little as 20 naira (about 15 cents).
Reform of the drug agency may have begun to be serious. Traffickers are often confused by their arrest, having been promised safe passage through the airport by junior officers, who can now no longer sneak them through. The intentions may be better, but the agency still complains of its lack of equipment and manpower.
Nigeria is the only West African country on America’s list of major drug-producing and transit countries. It is concerned enough to have sent Tom Schweich, the State Department’s international drugs man, to Nigeria. He promised to supply the latest body-cavity x-ray machines to four of Nigeria’s international airports. New technology like this will be installed first at the airports and then, more slowly, at ports and land borders. Not too slowly, Nigerians hope. Their country is already notorious for corruption and financial crime; the last thing it needs is narcotics too.
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Jogging your memory: the use of article with geographic names.
We use no article:
- with names of continents, countries, states, provinces, cities, towns, villages: Europe, England, Moscow, Brighton etc.
But we use the definite article:
- with names of some countries: the USA, the Netherlands;
- with names of some provinces: the Crimea, the Rurh;
- with the city: the Hague.
Names of oceans, seas, straits, channels, rivers, lakes usually take the definite article: the Atlantic Ocean, the Baltic Sea, the Bering Strait, the English Channel, the Thames, the Baikal (but: Lake Baikal).
Working on the text
Task 5. Write out all geographical names and explain the use of articles, if any.
Task 6. Write out the names of all drugs mentioned in the text.
Task 7. How are drugs usually carried? Why?
Task 8. The noun “traffic” is polysemantic. Dictionaries provide several meanings of this word in various context. Here they are:
a) the vehicles moving along a road or street: (We were stuck in heavy traffic);
b) the movement of aircraft, ships, or trains from one place to another (air traffic control, the problems of air traffic congestion in Europe);
c) the secret buying and selling of illegal goods (drugs traffic, traffic in firearms);
d) the movement of people or goods by aircraft, ships, or trains (Most long – distance traffic of heavy goods is done by ships.).
Translate all illustrative examples and choose the meaning of the word used in the text.
Task 9. Match the words in the left column with the proper definition in the right column.
1. trafficker a) someone who takes dangerous drugs and is dependent on them
2. dealer b) something that causes a lot of suffering
3. scrutiny c) when people are made to obey a rule, law
4. coup d) dishonest, illegal behavior, especially from someone with power
5. hub e) someone who buys and sells a particular product
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6. scourge f) careful and thorough examination
7. graft (Am.E.) g) someone who buys and sells illegal goods, especially drugs
8. enforcement h) the central and most important part of an area, system, activity
9. junky (junkie) i) the practice of obtaining money by the dishonest use of power
10. corruption j) a sudden and sometimes violent attempt by citizens or the army to take control of the government
Task 10. We can use several verbs when describing the function of Customs officers to control passengers and their luggage.
They are: to control, to examine, …
Continue the line with the verbs you already know.
Task 11. Translate the definition of “money laundering” into Russian.
Money laundering is a process of putting money which has been obtained illegally into legal business and bank accounts in order to hide where it was obtained.
Task 12. Which one is not the same?
a) a passenger, a dealer, a trafficker, an airport;
b) Africa, Europe, America, Commission;
c) Belgium, Spain, India, European;
d) export, import, trade, illegal;
e) trafficking, carrying, emerging, newest;
f) inevitably, economic, typical, powerful.
Task.13 Use a dictionary to find out the difference in the meaning of the two words: “famous” and “notorions”.
Task 14. Answer the following questions.
1) Why were four passengers caught and arrested?
2) Why had they agreed to swallow the drugs?
3) Why is West Africa the newest centre for trafficking drugs into Europe?
4) What countries involved in the illegal trade are mentioned in the text?
5) Since when have the drugs been trickling across Nigeria’s border?
6) When was the drug agency founded in Nigeria?
7) What scandal was it immersed in?
8) What does the country lack?
9) Where will new technology be installed?
10) What is the country already notorious for?
Task 15. Translate the following newspaper article into Russian.
The cocaine business
Outgunned, the sailors raised their hands. About 300 km off the west coast of Ireland, the yacht “Dances with waves” was within hours of delivering a half-billion-euro payload of cocaine to Cork in time for Christmas. The vessel had been under surveillance since setting off from Trinidad and Tobago a month earlier. Inside, Irish police found almost 19 tonnes of cocaine. Three British men are now awaiting trial.
Task 16. Prepare a short talk about one of the areas below.
1. Today no nation is immune to drug problems.
2. The problem of corrupted civil servants.
3. Crime doesn’t pay. (Proverb)
Text VIII
Pre-reading
Task 1. Translate the following words.
English Russian
… сеть
consumption …
… разумный
parcel post …
human mules …
… оптовик
employee …
retailer …
Task 2. You are given two English words: staff and stuff. Do you know the difference in their meaning? Consult a dictionary.
Task 3. Look up the pronunciation of the following words in the dictionary:
legitimate, trafficker, fee, wholesaler, sniffable, employee, purity.
Sniffy customers
Drug-traffickers are expanding their operations in Europe, despite the best efforts of the police.
Europe’s cocaine market is served by an evolving network of trade routes. Shipments commonly head for the Iberian Peninsula, either hidden in legitimate container vessels or on board creaking old “motherships”, which loiter out at sea while nimbler craft bring the packages onshore. The traditional hotspot is the north Atlantic coast of Spain, though in recent years traffickers have also targeted Barcelona and Valencia to stay ahead of the police. Some three-quarters of European seizures take place in Spain and Portugal, which also have some of the highest rates of consumption on the continent.
Like any sensible business, drug-traffickers spread their risk: large shipments are complemented with little-and-often supply lines, including parcel post and human mules. That particular ruse has been upset by an advertising campaign run by the police, warning potential mules of the severity of trafficking sentences. Some still risk it, but they now command a fee of around $6,000, compared with the $2,000 they used to do it for. That is enough to make the route unprofitable, police reckon.
But as one route closes, another opens up. In the past four years customs officers have spotted a sharp rise in the amount of cocaine being smuggled into Europe via West Africa. Britain and America have beefed up their presence in the region, but the traffickers may already have planned their next move: a new supply route was emerging in the Balkans.
In Britain, Europe’s biggest consumer of narcotics, the Home Office reckons that drugs are brought in by about 300 major importers, who pass them to 30,000 wholesalers and then to 70,000 street dealers. Cocaine, meaning both the sniffable powder and smokable “rocks” of crack cocaine (which can be made using a simple microwave), accounts for about half the value of this industry, being less widely taken than cannabis but much pricier.
Some rare light was shed on the business by a Home Office study in which 222 drug-dealers were interviewed in prison by analyst from Matrix Knowledge Group, a consultancy, and the London School of Economics. One dealing partnership, based in London and Spain, bought cocaine from a Colombian importer in 10 kg bundles, which they sold to retailers using an employee whom they paid £500 ($700) per transaction.
A second employee, paid £250 a day, would collect money from the buyers and pass it to a third member of staff, who would count it (processing up to £220,000 each day). Other employees would pay the Colombians and smuggle the rest of the cash, on their bodies, back to Spain.
Most drug businesses are forced to stay small and simple to evade the police. Only one dealer claimed to be part of an organization of more than 100 people, and a fifth were classified by researchers as sole traders. Fear of being uncovered also hampers recruitment: most dealers stuck to family and friends, and people from the same ethnic group, when hiring associates.
Times may at last be getting harder for cocaine-dealers. Shortly before Christmas, the wholesale price in Britain shot up to £40,000 per kilo, the highest in years. Better policing was one cause; another was the slump of sterling. European retailers’ margins have been chipped away. To protect their profits, dealers are diluting what they sell. A decade ago, average street-level purity was about 60%; police say it is now nearer 30%. People think there is a lot of cocaine around, but two thirds of it isn’t cocaine at all.
That would be fine if the remainder were talcum powder. But in the past few years dealers have turned to pharmaceutical cutting agents such as benzocaine, a topical anesthetic, which mimic the effects of cocaine and may be more harmful. Dealers call such agents “magic” because of their effects on profits. “Grey traders”, who knowingly sell such chemicals to dealers, are starting to be convicted.
Educating drug-takers about what is getting up their noses may lower demand.
By far the best way of reducing the harm that drugs can do is to convince people not to take them. Spraying crops, seizing shipments and arresting dealers can drive up prices and create temporary shortages. But it does not stop drug use. Addicts simply pay more for crummier product or switch to other, often more harmful, substances. Cocaine-takers may move to powder amphetamine or crystal meth; heroin addicts experiment with oxycodone.
Most attempts to reduce drug demand are aimed at 11- to 14-year-olds. The principle is that children should be reached while they are still fairly pliable and before they begin to take drugs-not just the hard stuff but alcohol, marijuana and tobacco. The hope is that they will develop a broad aversion to harmful substances that will stay with them through their late teens and early 20s, when drug use peaks.
Notes: Phrasal verb is a group of words that is used like a verb and consists of a verb with an adverb or preposition after it.
Phrasal verbs are a common and important part of English. They are not difficult to learn and use, but you cannot always guess the meaning of a phrasal verb from its verb and particle (i.e. an adverb or a preposition). In addition, it is necessary to be aware that the same phrasal verb can have more than one meaning. The verb “take off”, for example, has several meanings: you can take off (remove) your coat; you can take off (imitate) a person; and a plane can take off (leave the ground).
“Britain and America have beefed up their presence in the region, but the traffickers may already have planned their next move.”
to beef up = to improve something, to make something more important, stronger
Working on the text
Task 4. Look through the text and write out all drugs mentioned.
Task 5. Find the words in the text which correspond to the given definitions.
1. seizure a) an amount of money paid to someone for the work done
2. human mule b) a person or a business that sells goods to customers
3. fee c) a situation in which there is not enough of something
4. wholesaler d) a business deal or action, such as buying or selling something
5. retailer e) strong dislike of something
6. transaction f) a sudden decrease in prices, sales, profits etc.
7. slump g) someone who brings illegal drugs into a country by hiding them on or in their body
8. margin h) the one who sells goods in large quantities to other businesses
9. shortage i) taking away illegal goods by police or customs officers
10. aversion j) the difference between what it costs to buy and what they sell it for
Task 6. Give Russian equivalents to the following word combinations.
1. trade routes
2. container vessel
3. supply lines
4. parcel post
5. advertising campaign
6. drug businesses
7. sole traders
8. street – level purity
9. grey traders
10. drug use
Task 7. Here are some more phrasal verbs. Use the dictionary to translate them and make sentences of your own.
to get behind to take back
to leak out to take out
to let off to tip off
Task 8. The word “sentence” has several meanings. Choose the one you need to understand the text.
1. a group of words that usually has a subject and a verb, and expresses a complete idea
2. a punishment that a judge gives to someone who is guilty of a crime
Task 9. Look through the text and find the figures characterizing the network of cocaine distribution in Britain.
Task 10. Give synonyms to the following words.
1. legitimate
2. traditional
3. drugs
4. trafficker
5. slump
6. profits
Task 11. Answer the following questions.
1. What do shipments commonly head for?
2. How many seizures usually take place in Spain and Portugal?
3. How do drug-traffickers spread their risk?
4. How much money do human mules command as a fee for their dangerous route?
5. What new supply route is emerging?
6. What is a usual structure of a drug business?
7. Why are most drug businesses forced to stay small?
8. Why are dealers diluting what they sell?
9. What can lower demand?
10. Who are most attempts to reduce drug demand aimed at? Why is it so?
Task 12. Translate the article into English.
Сотрудники отдела по борьбе с контрабандой наркотиков Внуковской таможни задержали наркокурьера-глотателя, который провозил в собственном желудке 96 контейнеров с героином общим весом около 1,5 кг. Один из пакетиков разорвался, и наркокурьер скончался в аэропорту “Внуково”. Несмотря на экстренную помощь врачей, спасти его не удалось.
Task 13. Which one logically doesn’t fit the group?
1. to increase 2. drug addicts
to double traffickers
to change smugglers
to triple drug-dealers
3. to seize
to confiscate
to obtain
to intercept
Task 14. Note 3 things in the text which were new to you.
Task 15. Discuss the following “why” – questions in “buzz groups”.
1. Why is sniffing illegal?
2. Why is the problem of drug abuse an international one?
3. Why do people throughout the world abuse drugs?
Task 16. Write an essay (12-14 sentences) on the question: Which way to choose in the fight against drugs – drug prohibition or drug education?
Text IX
Pre-reading
Task 1. Translate the following words.
English Russian
… товары
authorities …
… граница
differences …
nomenclature …
… единый
… сырьевые товары
statistics …
Task 2. Look up the pronunciation of the following words in the dictionary:
authorities, nomenclature, heading, produce, standardization, amendment, shortcoming, harmonized, preparatory.
Task 3. Constitute the word family including the word “produce”.
Task 4. Give synonyms to the word “goods”. Consult a dictionary.
Classification of goods
From the earliest times, there has existed an interest in classifying goods. The interest usually arose from a desire on the part of authorities to impose taxes on goods when they cross their boundaries. Later, with the development of the economy, it became important to know the level of such trade.
The first “goods classification systems” were very simple in nature, i.e. an alphabetic list of goods to which a particular tax was applied or which were exempt from such duties.
Later a new classification system was developed. Within this classification system particular products were identified for differential tax on the basis of their nature.
At the same time, as the level and importance of international trade increased, the traders became aware of the difficulties caused by differences in national customs tariffs.
Much was done to produce a common world nomenclature.
In 1831 Belgium presented its foreign trade statistics under three general headings: raw materials, produce and manufactured articles. However the first uniform statistical nomenclature was adopted at the Second International Conference on commercial statistics in 1913 (Brussels).
The idea of a common customs nomenclature was put forward at the World Economic Conference in 1927 and a draft customs nomenclature was prepared (the first version was completed in 1931). The nomenclature, known as “The Geneva nomenclature”, comprised 991 headings, arranged in 86 chapters.
The drive for economic reconstruction and the desire for greater freedom of trade which characterized the post-war period created favorable conditions for further standardization of customs tariffs.
Considerable amendments were made to the Geneva text, partly to reflect technical progress and partly because of the revealed shortcomings. The re-arranged and simplified draft was incorporated into the Brussels Convention of 15 December 1950 on “Nomenclature for the classification of Goods in Customs Tariffs”. In 1974 the “Brussels Nomenclature” was renamed the “Customs Co-operation Council nomenclature”.
In the late 1960s there was a growing awareness amongst all concerned with the international trade of the need to rationalize and harmonize trade documentation data and, in particular, to harmonize the designation and coding of countries, modes of transport and, not least, commodities. The studies and preparatory work resulted in the completion of the “Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System” and the establishment of a new international convention for its implementation (1983).
Essential words and phrases:
goods classification system – система классификации товаров
world nomenclature – международная номенклатура
draft customs nomenclature – проект таможенной номенклатуры
common framework for customs tariffs
– общая структура для таможенных тарифов
amendments – поправки
Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS)
– Гармонизированная система описания и кодирования товаров (ГС)
TASKS
Task 5. Stress and translate the following words.
apply classify fabricate characterize
deny identify facilitate harmonize
reply simplify incorporate rationalize
supply verify innovate standardize
Task 6. Define from what verbs these words are derived.
classification establishment
development amendment
reconstruction designation
product completion
Task 7. Match the words from the text with their corresponding definitions.
1. levy a) the basic structure, arrangement
2. framework b) any article of commerce
3. amendment c) a correction, revision or change
4. draft d) collecting of a tax
5. commodity e) to vote to accept
6. adopt f) preliminary plan or sketch of writing
Task 8. Arrange the letters in brackets into terms wotching the given definitions.
1) to make two or more sets of rules, taxes etc. the same (i e a m h z n o r)
2) to make all the things of one particular type the same as each other
(e z t r a i a n d d s)
3) to decide what group something belongs to (a i l f s c y s)
4) to take action or make changes that you have officially decided should happen (e e m m i l t p n)
Task 9. Use a dictionary and give the definitions to the following words
1. authorities
2. tax
3. boundary
4. economy
5. trade
6. tariff
7. nomenclature
8. convention
Task 10. The prefix “mis-” is used to refer to an opposite or the lack of something. It can have the meaning bad or badly, wrong or wrongly. Use a dictionary and translate the following words with the prefix “mis-” into Russian.
classification misclassification
calculation miscalculation
deed misdeed
fortune misfortune
information misinformation
to behave to misbehave
to interpret to misinterpret
to understand to misunderstand
Task 11. Give the degrees of comparison of the adjectives.
new, important, late, simple, usual, early, common, favorable, far, great, old.
Task 12. Cross out the odd word.
1. clearly, gradually, recently, firstly, likely;
2. quicker, better, sooner, worse, rather;
3. develop, adopt, production, implement.
Task 13. Match the nouns to the verbs with which they are used in the text.
1. to impose a) conditions
2. to adopt b) taxes
3. to create c) amendments
4. to harmonize d) the nomenclature
5. to make e) the completion
6. to result f) documentation data
Task 14. Make sentences, putting the words in correct order.
1. Important, of, it, to know, trade, such, the, later, became, level.
2. tax, within, for, the, on, of, this, nature, particular, were, differential, classification, basis, system, products, identified, their.
3. nomenclature, was, a, world, done, much, to produce.
4. economic, favorable, the, customs, drive, standardization, tariffs, the, reconstruction, created, for, of, for, conditions.
5. need, there, trade, a, data, to harmonize, was, awareness, the, of, documentation, growing.
6. work, and, completion, the “HS”, studies, resulted, work, in, preparatory, the, of.
Task 15. Translate the following questions into English and answer then.
1. Почему возникла необходимость в классификации товаров?
2. Что из себя представляли первые системы классификации товаров?
3. Когда были представлены первые статистические данные по внешней торговле?
4. Что стали называть “Женевской номенклатурой”?
5. Почему в текст Женевской номенклатуры были внесены значительные поправки?
6. Чем закончились исследования и подготовительная работа?
Task 16. Translate the article from the “Customs Code of the Customs Union” into English.
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