V. Speaking and Mastering Professional Skills

 

Task 22. Complete the following sentences:

1. The customs formalities include...

2. To declare an item is to …

3. The points of the declaration must be answered...

4. The passenger is to fill in...

5. The passenger must also declare...

6. Personal belongings are brought in and...

7. If the passenger understates the value of the article...

8. Undeclared foreign currency in cash found...

9. The customs officer may ask the passenger to open...

10. The owner of the baggage must answer...

11. The declaration must be kept...

Task 23. Make up short dialogues between a customs officer and a passenger discussing the following points:

-the formalities through which incoming/outgoing passengers must pass;

-the main points of the declaration;

-the way the declaration should be filled in;

-prohibited, restricted and dutiable articles.

Task 24. Get ready to speak on the topic. Use the vocabulary of the unit.

Task 25. What questions would you ask passengers on arrival?

 

-Where have you arrived from?

-What time is it by your watch?

-What’s the purpose of your visit?

-Are you travelling alone?

-Do you use any drugs?

- Where did you buy your ticket?

- What type of business are you involved in?

- What is your wife’s name?

- Is this all your baggage?

- What is your occupation?

-What is your home address?

-Is it a real turquoise in your ring?

 

Task 26. Make up short dialogues discussing the following points:

1) the formalities through which incoming/outgoing passengers must pass;

2) the main points of the declaration;

3) dutiable, prohibited and restricted articles.

 

Task 27.

All passages in the text are mixed up. Put them in the right order and read the text. Summarize it giving your opinion on the idea of the text.

 

NOT EVEN ASTRONAUTS CAN ESCAPE THE LONG ARM OF CUSTOMS!

    Many remember the first landing on the Moon, when Apollo 11 touched down on its surface on 20 July 1969 and Neil Armstrong, one of its astronauts and the first man to walk on the Moon, uttered his now famous phrase: “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”. People were either glued to the television or hunched around the radio as the world witnessed this historic event. But little did the astronauts know that when they returned to earth, a duty-conscious Customs officer would stop them and ask the most famous words associated with Customs services across the globe: ”Do you have anything to declare?”

    M.V.N.Rao a former Chairman of the Indian Central Board of Excise and Customs shares an interesting true story with us, which he calls “The Ubiquitous and Duty-Conscious Customs”.

    In 1954, as a “probationer” in the service, I had to spend a few days away at Santa Cruz Airport in Bombay to learn the intricacies and nuances of clearing aeroplanes, passengers and cargo arriving from and departing to foreign countries by air.

    During the course, one of the Inspectors was explaining, pompously, how “powerful” Customs is and how no aircraft can arrive or depart without obtaining an inward/outward clearance from Customs.

    Those were the days, when the air was abuzz with reports of US and USSR attempts to launch satellites and humans into space, as well as landing men on the Moon. I casually mentioned to the Inspector that the day was not far off when Customs officers would be granting port clearance to spacecraft travelling to and from the Moon. Thereafter, I forgot all about the matter.

    Thirty years later, in 1984, during a visit to the US Customs Service, an officer of the Department was explaining prevailing procedures at international airports in New York. I recollected and mentioned to him what I had said as a probationer at Santa Cruz Airport.

    On hearing that, he said “wait a minute”, went to the Department’s archives and brought me a very precious document. It was a “General Declaration for Agriculture, Customs, Immigration and Public Health” taken by a Customs Inspector when Apollo 11 landed at Honolulu Airport in Hawaii, on its return from the Moon odyssey on 24 July 1969.

    The Declaration was taken from and signed by the crew consisting of Commander Neil A. Armstrong, Colonel Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. and Lt. Colonel Michael Collins. Inward entry had been granted by a Customs Inspector, and the cargo declared as “Moon rock and Moon dust samples” with the flight routing indicated as Cape Kennedy, Moon, Honolulu.

    What a precious and invaluable cargo indeed! We are all used to dealing with terrestrial objects and products. But how do we classify extra- terrestrial objects? What will be the valuation? Can one dare to treat them as samples of “no commercial value”? All this is food for thought!

    Apart from the personal satisfaction of having been so futuristic, I have always wondered how, in an atmosphere surcharged with excitement and emotion, the Customs officer in charge was so thoughtful, so duty-conscious and had such a keen presence of mind that he asked for and taken a Declaration from such an exalted and august crew about the cargo on board, for purposes of granting a formal inward entry.

    This historic Declaration serves as a standing tribute to this duty-conscious US Customs officer and is in a way applicable to the Customs fraternity all over the world. Indeed, as the late US President John F. Kennedy is reported to have observed about Customs: “Their successes are never sung but their failures are heralded”.

 

Task 27. The class is to be divided into four or five groups. The teacher will give you an article about the Customs. The article is divided into a similar number of parts. Each group will receive one part of the article and try to estimate the position of their part in the article as a whole (whether it is likely to be from the beginning middle or end). The class negotiates the reassembling of the article. The group believing themselves to have the first part of the article retells it for the rest of the class to record the essential points. The group believing themselves to have the second piece follows and so on. The class then goes on to discuss whether or not the correct order has been established. When an agreement is reached, each student should attempt to write the summary of the article in full and discuss the possible contents of the article.

 

 

VOCABULARY

form	бланк, типовая форма
incoming / outgoing passenger	прибывающий/ убывающий пассажир
entry / exit declaration form	въездная / выездная декларация
point (n)	пункт
in full words	полными словами
in block letters	печатными буквами
Full name	полное имя
citizenship	гражданство
residence / resident	проживание / житель
country of destination	страна назначения
in figures and in words	цифрами и прописью
personal belongings	личные вещи
to bring in / bringing in	ввозить / ввоз
to take out / taking out	вывозить / вывоз
to state/ understate value	заявлять, указывать / занижать стоимость
to misrepresent an article	недостоверно декларировать вещь
to detain	изымать, задерживать
to confiscate	конфисковать
to doubt / doubt	сомневаться / сомнение
to assist / assistance	помогать / помощь
in cash	наличными
to comply (with)	соблюдать, исполнять, подчиняться
regulations	правила, порядок, инструкция
to own / owner	владеть / владелец
responsibility	ответственность
to pack/unpack/repack	упаковать/ распаковать/переупаковать
to keep	хранить, сохранять
for the duration of the stay	во время пребывания
to stay / stay	оставаться, пребывать / пребывание
to renew	восстанавливать, возобновлять
in case of loss	в случае утери

 

UNIT 8