Task VI. Translate the following text into Russian.

Revenue collection and protection of economic interests have always been the principal function of Customs.

Customs duty is a tariff or tax on the import or export of goods. Every country has its own Customs regulations, which stipulate what articles are liable to duty and what are duty-free.

Sometimes an article which falls under Customs restrictions and is liable to duty is allowed in duty-free, if the traveler does not exceed a certain fixed quota. Customs restrictions also include a prohibited list of items which may not be brought into a country or taken out of it.

If the traveler has any item which comes under Customs restrictions, he is asked to declare it. That is, he is asked to name the item, stating its value and other particulars. The declaration is made either orally or in writing on a special form.

The practice seems to vary in different countries. Upon payment of duty the traveler is given a receipt. As a rule personal effects are duty-free. Customs payments are generally paid before or when submitting Customs declarations to Customs.

 

ВАРИАНТ 11

Task I. Read the following text and answer some questions in writing:

1. What possibilities for drug barons does the development of technology have?

2. Why are submarines used for drug trafficking?

3. What do drug barons use to revive their business?

Text

Advanced Drug Smuggling Methods

It’s not a problem to make a jacket or a suit out of cocaine with the development of the chemical industry and the fantasy of drug barons who, according to Interpol, are getting more and more profits. It seems that the transportation of heavy drugs in briquettes from Latin America is an outdated technology.

A new technology makes it possible to make a product from cocaine for any department of a supermarket, including paper, clothes or plastic. The culprits have learned to process cocaine powder so that it cannot be detected and hide it in the most secret corners of a postal parcel and large consignments of food. The development of technology has presented new possibilities.

Drug barons invest some of their income from the illegal business in storing and transporting drugs. This money is sufficient to buy, for example, submarines to store a consignment of cocaine. Several years ago, two submarines that were used to transport cocaine to the U.S. were discovered in Colombia.

In fact, no matter that drug barons use advanced technology for their revival, law is one for all, and they are severely punished for violating it. In short, the Nobel Prize will not be awarded for inventing a cocaine suit, but jail terms including life sentence are guaranteed.

Task II. Find the words synonymous to:

Sufficient, illegal, consignment, revival, possibility, punishment, violation, culprit, transportation, severely, invention, profit, destructive, trafficking, dangerous, freight.

Task III. Translate the sentences from English into Russian.

1. Customs services have found that drugs are most often smuggled in suitcases and bags with false bottoms.

2. Drugs are often transported inside various household items, vehicles or freight containers.

3. Chemicals used in drug production are transported in boxes of fruit, vegetables and other essential items.

4. Drug smugglers in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean fasten metal drug containers to the bottom of cruise ships, where they are retrieved by scuba divers when the ships drop anchor at U.S. ports.

5. Criminologists distinguish between personal and impersonal drug smuggling methods. In the first case, smugglers personally transport drugs across the border.

6. When drug couriers are not directly involved in transporting the drugs across the border, it is considered impersonal smuggling.