To curb nuclear proliferation

С.А.АБДРАМАНОВА

READING NEWSPAPERS

АЛМАТЫ 2005

 

Данное учебное пособие предназначено для студентов бакалавриата, магистрантов и аспирантов, специализирующихся по международным отношениям и международному праву, а также для всех желающих научиться использовать газетный материал для получения информации. Целью данного учебного пособия является развитие навыков чтения и понимания газетных статей на английском языке, говорения на заданную тему, оперирования современной общественно-политической терминологией.

В пособии разработаны следующие темы: Мировой порядок, Международные организации, Горячие точки, Терроризм, Глобальные проблемы, Выборы, Права человека, Дипломатия. Пособие состоит из восьми разделов, каждый из которых представлен текстом на заданную тематику. Тексты пособия построены на материале статей из газеты New York Times (США), критерием их отбора текстов послужили актуальность темы и присутствие лексики по заданной тематике.

Каждая тема начинается с лексического минимума, предназначенного для самостоятельного изучения - учащимся предлагается подобрать эквиваленты слов и словосочетаний на их родном языке. На усмотрение преподавателя студентам может предложена письменная работа изложить свое видение и понимание темы с использованием лексического минимума. Работа над каждым разделом предполагает три этапа: дотекстовой - упражнения на выявление уровня информированности учащихся по рассматриваемому вопросу и развития навыков распознавания содержания текста по его заглавию, текстовой и послетекстовой этапы. Тексты сопровождаются упражнениями, предназначенными для проверки понимания их содержания и развития лексических навыков, а также для закрепления навыков реферирования газетных статей и передачи их содержания. Послетекстовой этап представлен рядом тем для развития разговорных навыков. Предлагаемые темы для обсуждения требуют предварительной подготовки учащихся и предусматривают два этапа работы: 1) парное или групповое обсуждение и 2) презентация перед аудиторией.

Данное пособие может быть использовано как в аудитории, так и для самостоятельной работы студентов.

Unit 1. World Order

Key vocabulary

Give equivalents in your mothertongue to the following English words and phrases:

Aid package

Ban on

To cancel debts owed by

To cement one's control

To conduct a neclear test

To curb nuclear proliferation

Dismantling of military bases

Donor nations

To double aid from current levels

To endorse

Foe

To be hit hard by job losses

To impose the new duties; to impose sanctions on

To keep pledges

Lifting of sanctions

To lodge complaint

To manage the influx of money

Political pendulum

Pre-emptive action

To recoup losses

To seize power in a coup

To set curfews

Stalemate

A state of economic collapse

Strategy of pre-emption

To suffer economic recession

Take-it-or-leave-it policies

Turmoil

Vulnerable

Warmonger

Wealth gap between

Ex. 1. Speak on the following:

1. Independent sovereign states: the main actors in the international system.

2. The best methods of maintaining order: balance of power, diplomacy, and the formation of alliances.

3. The role of international institutions in the international system.

 

Ex. 2. Before reading the newspaper article below discuss in pairs what you think

It is about. Read the article and see if your ideas were correct.

At Forum, Leaders Confront Annual Enigma of China

By MARK LANDLER

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan. 29 - In almost every panel discussion at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum here, there comes a moment when somebody mentions China.

A hush typically ensues, as panelists draw their breath, gather their thoughts and struggle to put the bewildering vastness of the topic into a few words.

"China is going to be the change agent for the next 20 years," said Bill Gates, the chairman of Microsoft, when asked about the country's future by the television interview host Charlie Rose.

China's staggering potential, coupled with the steep language barrier and cultural discomfort of many Chinese who come to this conference, has made it Davos's annual enigma.

After three days of outsiders' dissecting its motives and prospects, China finally took the stage on Saturday, with a speech by its executive vice prime minister, Huang Ju.

"China's development will by no means pose a threat to other countries," Mr. Huang declared cheerfully, as if to soothe people here who spent the week fretting about China's lengthening shadow.

Mr. Huang, however, said little on the two issues of overriding importance to the investors and business people here: whether China would allow its currency to rise against the dollar, and whether the Chinese would crack down on the rampant theft of intellectual property.

"We have to maintain the exchange rate at a reasonable level," said Mr. Huang, who directs China's finance policy and was billed by the organizers as Beijing's chief operating officer.

Some here interpreted that comment as a signal that China would not allow its currency, the yuan, to rise against the dollar this year, as some Europeans and Americans have demanded. But Michael S. Dell, the chairman of Dell Inc., who had breakfast with Mr. Huang, said he did not draw any conclusions.

Mr. Huang also did little to ease investors' concerns about China's regard for intellectual property rights, saying only that through new laws and tougher enforcement, China was trying to achieve in a dozen years what it had taken the Western world a century to do.

At a dinner with the theme of investing in China, several foreign executives said they discerned little progress on the issue. The only way to avoid having their proprietary technology pilfered by Chinese competitors, they said, was to keep most research and development activities at home, and to use China for simple manufacturing.

For the Chinese who trek to this Alpine ski resort, the problem is less one of legal tradition than cultural disconnect. Except for a handful of fluent English speakers with long experience with foreigners, most keep to themselves - shying away from the high-octane networking that is the fuel of Davos.

"Davos's history is as a European and American conference," said Chen Feng, the chairman of Hainan Airlines Company. "People come here to relax and ski. China's culture is not about skiing."

Mr. Chen, an irrepressible entrepreneur who worked the hallways like a Davos regular, is one of only four chief executives of major Chinese companies at this year's conference. He said more of his peers had come to previous meetings, but had found the experience uncomfortable.

Zhao Jianfei, an editor at The Observer, a Shanghai-based magazine, said, "In China, the basic idea is to watch Davos, not take part in it." People have other theories for why the Chinese do not turn out in droves. "China is not exactly soliciting investment," said Stephan F. Newhouse, the president of Morgan Stanley. "They're turning it away."

Mr. Huang dramatized China's potential with forecasts. Its economic output will grow to $4 trillion by 2020, from $1.6 trillion today, he said, and its output per capita - a more accurate measure of wealth - will triple to $3,000 per person.

For its part, the World Economic Forum says the Chinese turnout this year has been noteworthy, mostly because of the attendance of Mr. Huang, a member of the Politburo's powerful standing committee. The deputy governor of the People's Bank of China also came.

The conference organizers have gone to considerable lengths to make this a congenial place for China. There are no sessions on Taiwan - a topic sure to drive away Chinese officials. Mr. Huang did not take questions from the audience.

"It's understood that some things about China don't come up in polite conversation at Davos," said Orville Schell, the dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley.

Politesse did break down occasionally. At a lunch held by Mr. Schell, several non-Chinese participants confronted the handful of Chinese guests about how Beijing could justify not allowing the Taiwanese people to vote on whether they wanted to be an independent nation.

After an awkward silence, a few Chinese spoke about the passionate feelings in China regarding Taiwan's status. Yuan Ming, the director of the Institute of American Studies at Beijing University, alluded to the frustration that outsiders might have in seeking to understand China.

"The world needs China to play some roles," Ms. Yuan said in a polite yet weary tone. "But it's too early to rank ourselves among world nations. We do need some time to develop ourselves."

(Source: New York Times, 2005)

Ex. 3. Read the article again and answer the following questions:

1. Why is China an enigma to Western states?

2. What issues are of overriding importance to investors?

3. What strategy do foreign executives find to be appropriate for their activities in

China?

4. Why do Chinese entrepreneurs feel uncomfortable at Davos meeting?

 

5. What do organizers of the meeting undertake to make the place more comfortable to

the Chenese?

6. How is economic potential of China estimated by Europeans and Chinese

themselves?

7. How are results of the meeting evaluated: in progress or at stalemate?

Key vocabulary

Give equivalents in your mothertongue to the following English words and phrases:

To alleviate poverty

Blue-helmeted peacekeepers

To contribute troops

Debt relief

To gain entry

To have observer status

To hold sb accountable for

To hold courts-martial

Memorandum of understanding

Monitoring panel

Oil-for-food program

To raise money

To settle trade disputes

On the shopping list

to be subject to the approval of подлежать одобрению

To write off debts

Ex. 1. Speak on the following:

1. International organizations, their functions and role: UNO, OECD, G7.

2. International financial organizations: WB, IMF.

3. International trade organizations: WTO, OPEC.

 

By WARREN HOGE

UNITED NATIONS. Secretary General Kofi Annan proposed sweeping changes to the United Nations today that would expand the Security Council to reflect modern realities of global power, restructure the discredited Human Rights Commission to keep rights violators from becoming members and redefine terrorism to end any justifications of its use for national resistance.

Mr. Annan made the recommendations in a speech to the General Assembly aimed at restoring confidence in the United Nations that lapsed after bitter divisions over the war in Iraq, charges of mismanagement and corruption in the oil-for-food program, and revelations of sexual misconduct by blue-helmeted peacekeepers.

"I make no apology for the detailed, matter-of-fact nature of this presentation," he declared, saying his proposals were a package that had to be accepted in total, not something from which nations could pick and choose.

"This hall has heard enough high-sounding declarations to last us for some decades to come," he added. "We know what the problems are, and we all know what we have promised to achieve.

"What is needed now is not more declarations, but action to fulfill the promises already made."

His proposals, drawn from conclusions of an independent panel in November, will be the subject of a gathering of heads of government in September that hopes to reinvigorate the United Nations at a time when its value is being widely questioned.

The speech, while making the case for the relevance of a revised United Nations, will also be seen as a bid by Mr. Annan to shore up his stewardship. While he has maintained much of his once-vaunted reputation abroad, he has come under pointed criticism in Washington, where some members of Congress have called on him to resign before completing his term in office at the end of 2006.

"If any report has Kofi Annan's name all over it, it is this one," said Mark Malloch Brown, Mr. Annan's outspoken new chief of staff.

The measures were outlined in a 63-page report from Mr. Annan titled "In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights for All." The report was released Sunday after details from drafts emerged in The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post.

Mr. Annan said the Human Rights Commission had been undermined by allowing participation by countries whose purpose was "not to strengthen human rights but to protect themselves against criticism or to criticize others." In recent years, the commission's members have included Cuba, Libya and Sudan.

"As a result," he said, "a credibility deficit has developed, which casts a shadow on the reputation of the United Nations system as a whole."

He recommended replacing the 53-nation Human Rights Commission with a smaller council, whose members would be chosen by a two-thirds vote of the 191-nation General Assembly, rather than by regional groups. "Those elected," he said, "should undertake to abide by the highest human rights standards."

Mr. Annan called for a definition of terrorism as any act "intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or noncombatants" aimed at intimidating governments, populations or international organizations. "We must convince all those who may be tempted to support terrorism that it is neither an acceptable nor an effective way to advance their cause," he said.

Regarding the Security Council, Mr. Annan left it up to the General Assembly to decide between basic ideas proposed in November, but he urged the body to reach a decision before the September meeting.

The council now has 5 veto-bearing members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - and 10 members elected to two-year terms. One alternative would add 6 permanent members - likely candidates are Brazil, Germany, India, Japan, Egypt and either Nigeria or South Africa - as well as 3 two-year term members. The other would create a new tier of 8 semipermanent members chosen for renewable four-year terms and one additional two-year seat to the existing 10.

Veto power is coveted by nations seeking permanent status; they are likely to continue to press for it even though both recommendations, as now written, limit the veto to the five original permanent members.

The report also reinforces a policy of "zero tolerance" for sexual exploitation by peacekeepers. Mr. Annan urged countries furnishing troops to prosecute wrongdoers in the absence of United Nations authority to do so.

In what appeared to be a reference to the Bush administration's bent for taking aggressive action to project and protect American interests, Mr. Annan said, "In today's world, no state, however powerful, can protect itself on its own."

The spokesman for the United States mission, Richard A. Grenell, said that it was too early to give a full reaction but that "we have been eager to receive the secretary general's reform ideas and are now giving his new report every consideration."

Mr. Malloch Brown said he thought Washington would welcome Mr. Annan's human rights proposal - which he described as "more ambitious than anyone had contemplated or expected" - and his endorsement of a nonproliferation system that Robert C. Orr, the assistant secretary general for policy coordination and strategic planning, noted had been championed by the nominee to be the new United States ambassador, John R. Bolton.

But Mr. Malloch Brown said Washington would probably not be happy with Mr. Annan's insistence that developed nations set aside 0.7 percent of their gross national incomes for aid to developing countries - the United Nations estimates the United States' level at 0.15 percent - or with his reliance on the Security Council to codify rules on using military force and pre-emptive action.

On the dispute between the United States and the United Nations over the use of force, Mr. Orr said: "Certainly Washington has expressed concerns about this, but in fact the discussion has been very constructive. There is not universal agreement on this, but like many parts of the package, we are not starting with agreement; we hope to end with agreement. What you can say is that the U.S. has engaged very sincerely on these discussions, and that's very encouraging."

(Source: New York Times, 2005)

Ex.1. Read the article and answer the following questions:

1. What are the changes aimed at?

2. What was Kofi Annan criticized for?

3. What changes are to be introduced to the Security Council?

4. Why did a credibility deficit to the Human Rights Commission develop?

5. What changes did he recommend to the Human Rights Commission?

6. What is the essence of the definition of "terrorism" given by K.Annan?

7. What was the reaction of the officials to Mr. Annan's recommendations?

The other groups.

1. The UN: tools of peacekeeping.

2. The role of the UN and other international organizations in the settlement of disputes.

3. Kazakhstan as an agent of the international community.

4. WTO: advantages and disadvantages of the membership.

5. Kazakhstan: efforts to join the WTO, perspectives for economy.

 

Unit 3. Hot Spots

Key vocabulary

Give equivalents in your mothertongue to the following English words and phrases:

Abduct, abductor

Artillery shell

To call for an end

To carry out an incursion

Clashes, street clashes

to combat force; combatants

contingency plan By last fall, the Pentagon had drafted contingency plans to begin reducing the American presence in Iraq as early as July 2005.

To defuse the tension

To disperse a crowd

Explosive device

to fire teargas at; to fire water laced with chemicals

Guerrilla attacks

To hold captive

insurgency; insurgents

Intifada

Invasion of

To limit the rocket fire

mass killings; indiscriminate killing of civilians

Military base

Military offensive

Mortar

To mount counterattacks

Paramilitary troops

To patrol on a hair trigger

pullout; to pull back forces

To quell the unrest

To reach out to

To redeploy troops

Refugee camp

Riot

rocket; rocket fire

To rout insurgents from

To scale back an operation

To secede from

Skirmish

Strife

Target list

By MARC LACEY

NAIROBI, Kenya, Dec. 31 - The government of Sudan signed a preliminary peace accord on Friday night with a rebel group from the country's impoverished south that could end one of Africa's longest-running civil wars, even as the conflict in the western Darfur region continued.

Representatives for the two sides met at a resort on Lake Naivasha, in Kenya, and signed a power-sharing agreement that is intended to become a permanent cease-fire.

The war in Sudan's western Darfur region involves different rebels, however, and peace talks aimed at quelling that conflict have faltered.

Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, Sudan's president, was on hand for Friday's signing ceremony, as was John Garang, the head of the Sudan People's Liberation Army. Under the agreement, he will soon become one of Mr. Bashir's vice presidents.

Also in attendance was President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, who committed assistance from his country and from the African Union to try to make the deal stick. "Africa begins the year 2005 on avery good footing, " Mr. Mbeki said, adding, "Let's party!"

American officials said that bringing the southern rebels into the government could make it easier for Sudan to reach out to other rebel movements in the western part of the country.

Despite the grisly nature of the civil conflict in southern Sudan, which has taken two million lives through disease and starvation as well as violence, the more recent war in Darfur has come to overshadow it.

In Darfur, more than a million people have been driven from their homes over the last two years in what the American government has labeled genocide. The violence in Darfur began in early 2003 when two other rebel movements took up arms against the Sudan government.

Mr. Bashir's administration responded fiercely, unleashingArab militias known as janjaweed on the region. Caught up in the conflict were black civilians, many of whom were driven from their land, raped, beaten or killed in the process.

"The tragedy in Darfur casts a shadow on this event, but that doesn't mean this agreement isn't a significant step forward," said Mark Bellemy, the American ambassador to Kenya. "This could help bring peace to other parts of the country."

The signing of a final agreement was put off until early January to resolve some remaining issues. But diplomats close to the talks said that major sticking points had been worked out and that Friday's signing ceremony was held because the government and the rebels wanted to honor the pledge they had made to the United Nations Security Council to end the war by year's end.

In talks that have stretched on for more than two years, the government and the southern rebels agreed to share political power and the region's oil wealth, merge their armies and hold a referendum in six years to give southerners, who are predominantly Christian, the right to decide to whether they wish to secede from the rest of Sudan, which is mainly Muslim.

Religion has been one of the driving forces of the war, though not the only one. Christians in the south first took up arms after the government in Khartoum, the Sudan capital, imposed Shariah, or strict Islamic law, on southerners.

The plight of Sudan's Christians has resonated in some American churches, where evangelical Christians have drawn attention to Sudan's war from their pulpits and kept pressure on President Bush since his first days in office.

Oil has also fueled the fighting. Sudan, which became independent on Jan. 1, 1956, has experienced only a decade of peace, from 1972 to 1983. It was during that period that Chevron discovered oil in the area straddling the country's north and south. Southern rebels took up arms in 1983, saying oil revenue was benefiting only the north.

American officials said the ending of one war would increase the chance of resolving the continuing war in Darfur, as well as other skirmishes involving armed groups elsewhere in Sudan.

A peace accord is really just the first step in bringing normal life back to southern Sudan, a region that has been devoid of virtually any development for a generation. It is an area awashin guns but without paved roads. Diseases that have been wiped out elsewhere in the world continue to fester in the remote villages of the south.

Even before Friday night's signing, news services reported that hundreds of southerners living in Khartoum were celebrating in the streets of the capital, unveiling rebel flags and shouting, "Welcome to the new Sudan."

(Source: New York Times, 2004)

Ex.3. Read the article and answer the following questions:

1. What could end the longest running civil wars?

2. Who contributed to the signing of an agreement?

3. What may be the prerequisite for a complete ending of the war?

4. What were the driving forces of the war?

5. What decisions were reached according to the agreement?

6. How did the population and the officilas react to the event?

7. What problems are to be settled in the country by the joint government?

Ex. 4. Read the article and explain the following phrases:

Africa begins the year 2005 on a very good footing, tragedy in Darfur casts a shadow on this event, to honor the pledge they had made to the United Nations Security Council, plight of Sudan's Christians has resonated in some American churches, a region that has been devoid of virtually any development for a generation.

 

Ex. 5. Choose the best definition for the word in italics in the sentences from the article:

1. Lt. Gen. Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, Sudan's president, was on hand for Friday's signing ceremony, as was John Garang, the head of the Sudan People's Liberation Army.

a available b close c impossible

2. American officials said that bringing the southern rebels into the government could make it easier for Sudan to reachout to other rebel movements in the western part of the country.

a arrive b achieve c stretch out

3. Caught up in the conflict were black civilians, many of whom were driven from their land, raped, beaten or killed in the process.

a reached b involved c found

4. The signing of a final agreement was put off until early January to resolve some remaining issues.

a agreed b cancelled c accepted

5. But diplomats close to the talks said that major sticking points had been worked out and that Friday's signing ceremony was held.

a developed b calculated c discussed

6. In talks that have stretched on for more than two years, the government and the southern rebels agreed to share political power and the region's oil wealth, merge their armies and hold a referendum.

a happened b carried out c continued

7. Christians in the south first took up arms after the government in Khartoum, the Sudan capital, imposed Shariah, or strict Islamic law, on southerners.

A began to fight b gained control c started to employ

 

Ex. 6. Match the words from the article with their corresponding definitions:

1. Falter a a small platform in a church where a priest stands to speak to

people

2. Stick b having sth in large quantities

3. Unleash c to be weaker or less effective

4. Pulpit d a formal agrreement between two orgnizations, countries, etc.

5. Accord e to become accepted

6. Awash f to let a strong force have an effect

Unit 4. Terrorism

Key vocabulary

Give equivalents in your mothertongue to the following English words and phrases:

To act against terrorism

Ambush

To assassinate

Assaults

To behead a hostage

Bomb-laden suicide vest

Captive

Carnage

Combatants

Cover

To curb

To detain Syn.: to capture

To detonate a bomb

To dismantle the network

Fatalities

To fight Islamic extremism

To fight terrorism

To foil an attack

A fuel-truck bomb

Hijacker

Informant

Intercepted communications

Interim government

Laundering money illegally

Militant

To plant a bomb

Police crackdown

To smuggle weapons

To be taken hostage

To slay (slew, slain)

By NEIL MacFARQUHAR

CAIRO, Dec. 29 - Militants apparently linked to Al Qaeda turned two neighborhoods of Riyadh, the Saudi capital, into battle zones late Wednesday, with booby-trapped cars exploding outside the landmark Interior Ministry and a training center for Emergency Forces.

Seven militants responsible for the car bombings were gunneddown in a police ambush of a house, according to a statement read on state television, but the final toll from all the attacks remained unclear.

The initial toll elsewhere included 2 suicide bombers killed and 20 people wounded, including police officers who suffered light injuries, mostly from flying glass, according to a statement from the Interior Ministry and various officials.

Brig. Gen. Mansour Turki, the spokesman for the ministry, could not confirm the number of wounded but said all the injuries were minor. He said the only fatalities were militants.

Prince Ahmed Abdel Aziz, the longtime deputy interior minister, went on Saudi television to denounce the attackers as criminals who were heedless about risking Muslim lives.

The effect of the attacks was more psychological than physical, however.

They showed that the militants are still capable of striking in the very heart of the capital despite an 19-month, nationwide police crackdown that, the police say, has killed or captured three-quarters of the most wanted terrorists inspired by Al Qaeda and dismantled much of their network. Hundreds of suspected sympathizers have been detained.

General Turki described the attacks as the actions of increasingly desperate militants.

"When you get closer and closer and closer to them, they react to show that they are still there," he said. "This building is the symbol of the forces that are attacking them, confronting them," he said of the Interior Ministry.

But the fact that the latest attacks did so little damage - especially compared to earlier assaults against residential compounds that killed nearly 100 people, many of them foreigners - is a sign that the police are curbing the militants' ability to act, the general said. "We can read their weakness through the results of their work," he said.

The bombings were the second such brazen attack in December after a relatively quiet period following the beheading of an American hostagein June. On Dec. 6, attackers stormed the heavily guarded United States Consulate in Jidda, killing five local employees before four of the five gunman were shot dead.

In a tape-recorded message 10 days later, Osama bin Laden praised the Jidda attack and threatened attacks against Saudi oil facilities.

Previous attacks by the group, including a bombing of a police headquarters in Riyadh last April, sharply reduced public support for the idea that Al Qaeda was engaged in a religiously sanctioned holy war to drive all non-Muslims from Islam's holy land.

Despite the relative puniness of the attacks, oil markets quickly reacted to the violence with a jittery bump up in prices, with key prices in the United States rising $1.87 a barrel, to $43.64.

The first explosion outside the ministry could be felt across the capital around 9 p.m., with a plume of smoke visible from the diplomatic quarter several miles away, a Western diplomat said.

The bomb erupted at the beginning of a traffic underpass along a major road that leads past the ministry, twisting open a portion of the high metal fence around the fortresslike structure and tearing some letters off the facade of a guard house. The explosion shook buildings all around the area, including the InterContinental Hotel, which sits within a sprawling compound right across the street.

Television pictures showed a bloody and battered taxi that apparently absorbed some of the explosion, jackknifed across the road leading down into the underpass.

In the second attack, police officers opened fire at a car trying to ram its way into a training center of the Emergency Forces, which concentrate on antiterrorism recently. The car exploded 350 yards away, the official statement read on Saudi television said.

Exactly how the ensuing car chase was related remained murky, but local news reports and officials said the police surrounded the occupants of the car in a house in a residential area toward the airport, killing all seven of them. The statement said they were responsible for the two earlier attacks.

The attacks followed skirmishes earlier in the week that left one militant dead, two injured and several more arrested.

(Source: New York Times, 2004)

Ex. 3. Read the article again and decide if the following statements are true or false:

1. The latest terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia seem to have psycholodical effect.

2. They were denounced because of numerous fatalities.

3. Terorist attacks don't damage heavily in Saudi Arabia because it is a Muslim state.

4. The public support for Al Qaeda reduced because police had detained hundreds of sympathizers.

5. The police demonstrate efficient results in fighting terrorism.

 

Ex. 4. Read the article and explain the following phrases:

Seven militants responsible for the car bombings were gunned down, with booby-trapped cars exploding outside; heedlessabout risking Muslim lives; oil markets quickly reacted to the violence with a jittery bump up in prices; taxi that apparently absorbed some of the explosion, jackknifed across the road; exactly how the ensuing car chase was related remained murky.

 

Ex. 5. Find words in the article which correspond to the following defintions:

1. a surprise attack from a place of hiding (para 2)

2. to strongly criticize sb/sth that you think is wrong, illegal, etc. (para 5)

3. severe action taken to restrict the activities of criminals or opposition (para 7)

4. to end an organization or system gradually in an organized way (para 7)

5. the act of attacking a building, an area, etc. in order to take control of it (para 10)

6. to control or limit sth, especially sth bad (para 10)

7. a person captured and held prisoner by a person or group, till the other side do what they demand (para 11)

8. weak or slight quality or condition (para 14)

9. to explode and pour out fire (para 16)

 

Unit 5. Global Issues

Key vocabulary

Give equivalents in your mothertongue to the following English words and phrases:

Acid rain

Burning of fossil fuels

calamity Syn.: disaster; on a calamitous scale

To chlorinate wells

Climate change

Devastation

Emergency response team

To enforce the peace

Global catastrophe

Nuclear nonproliferation

Outbreaks of cholera

Relief agencies

Sewage

Waste

By CRAIG S. SMITH

PARIS, Dec. 28 - The tsunami that struck over the weekend spread a ring of destruction through nearly a dozen countries. Those are the places most directly affected, and on a calamitous scale. But the disaster has rippled far beyond South Asia, making it truly a tragedy felt across the globe.

Among the tens of thousands of people missing or dead, thousands are believed to have come from outside the region, including many who were spending their holidays at Thai, Malaysian and Indonesian beach resorts.

Reported deaths now cover at least 40 nationalities, reaching from South Africa to South Korea, with surprising concentrations of people still unaccounted for from European countries.

Those still missing include 1,500 from Sweden and 700 to 800 from Norway, 300 from New Zealand, more than 200 each from Denmark and the Czech Republic, 100 from Germany, 100 from Italy and 188 Israelis.

The disaster's reach is an unsettling reminder that globalization has brought the world closer together in unexpected ways so that people now share the pain as well as profit from far-flung places. Even for people who have never left home, otherwise abstract calamities in distant lands now frequently have a familiar face.

Only a hundred Europeans have been confirmed dead so far, leaving anxious relatives and friends to await word from distant lands where often-sketchycommunications were either overloaded or knocked out altogether after the devastation struck.

There is little way to know for now whether many of those missing have been killed or are merely cutoff. Meanwhile, stories of desperate searches and unlikely reunions have begun to trickle in from abroad.

Vacationing children who lost their families in the disaster are slowly being identified.

Winter-fleeing visitors from across Europe and northern Asia book rooms in the region's beachside hotels for the high season in December and January. Many of the best resorts operate at total occupancy during the year-end holidays.

Premiums paid for proximity to the sea meant that some of the region's wealthiest tourists were the most vulnerable.

At the Sofitel Magic Lagoon resort in Khao Lak, one of the worst-hit areas on the Andaman Sea coast, the three-story bungalows closest to the water were entirely gutted.

The resort's French operator, Accor, said Tuesday that 35 bodies had been recovered from the ruins and that more than 200 of the hotel's 415 guests were still missing. A hotel spokesman said that the hotel did not know the nationalities of the dead or missing, but that more than two thirds of the guests were German.

The Thai deputy interior minister, Sutham Sangprathum, said Tuesday that more than 700 foreign tourists had been identified among the dead in southern Thailand.

The French Foreign Ministry confirmed the deaths of 10 citizens and reported 18 missing and presumed dead because they were seen being swept away. Britain listed 18 deaths and the United States 11.

The dead included relatives of the well known and the unknown.

The British actor Richard Attenborough lost two members of his immediate family in Thailand, including a 14-year-old granddaughter, who was found dead, and her mother, Mr. Attenborough's daughter, who is missing. The mother-in-law of Mr. Attenborough's daughter is also missing, according to a statement released by a family friend.

The former German chancellor Helmut Kohl was evacuated Tuesday by helicopter from a hotel in Sri Lanka.

The fashion photographer Simon Atlee was swept away in the Thai resort of Phuket while his companion, Petra Nemcova, a Czech model who appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue last year, survived after clinging to a tree.

(Source: New York Times, 2004)

Ex. 3. Read the article and answer the following questions:

1. Why does the author say that the disaster was "a tragedy felt across the globe"?

2. What country suffered the most victims?

3. Why did the wealthiest tourists become the most vulnerable?

4. What makes the identification and number of victims difficult for stating?

5. Could such kind of calamities be prevented?

6. What are the consequencies of the tsunami for the countries struck by it?

 

Ex. 4. Read the article and explain the following phrases:

People now share the pain as well as profit from far-flung places, globalization has brought the world closer together, people now share the pain as well as profit from far-flung places, relatives and friends to await word from distant lands, abstract calamities in distant lands now frequently have a familiar face, resorts operate at total occupancy.

Ex. 5. Find words in the article which have the opposite meaning to the words below:

Found (para 3); happy, pleasant, nerveless (para 5); awaited (para 5); probable (para 7); delayed (para 16)

Ex. 6. Find words in the article which correspond to the following defintions:

1. causing great harm or damage (para 1)

2. to move or to make sth move in very small waves (para 1)

3. the state of being near sb/sth in distance or time (para 10)

4. weak and easily hurt physically or emotionally (para 10)

5. to destroy the inside or contents of a building or room (para 11)

6. next to or very close to a particular place or time (para 16)

Ex. 7. Replace the words in italics with a verb from A and a particle from B in the correct way:

A cut knock trickle sweep unaccounted	B away for in off out

a Ourteam was made to dismiss in the first part of the competition.

b Atleast 300 civilians are not found after the bombing raids.

c News is starting to spread slowly and gradually.

d Hefelt relaxed since he got rid of any doubts.

e The army was prevented from communicating with its base.

 

Unit 6. Elections

Key vocabulary

Give equivalents in your mothertongue to the following English words and phrases:

Absentee ballots; be listed on ballots; to cast ballots; to fill out ballots in favor of; to punch ballots with a hole-puncher

To appear on the air

To boycott the elections

To capture a clear majority

Two consecutive terms

To form a unity government

Full suffrage

To monitor the voting

To have a low profile

electoral fraud; widespread fraud; to deter fraud; ballot-box fraud; falsified ballots

An incumbent president

Indelible ink

Intimidation

Irregularities

To lose by a landslide

To overturn the results

Polls; call-in poll

Popular uprisings

Spokesman for campaign

To succeed

Surveys of voters

Turnout

Unit 7. Human Rights

Key vocabulary

Give equivalents in your mothertongue to the following English words and phrases:

Affirmative action program

Allegations of atrocities

Eligible to

Employment opportunities

To fall into poverty

To have health benefits

Human rights groups

Illegal assembly

Massacres, mass killings

Medical costs

To be a migrant worker

To release prisoners

Social safety net

United Nations peacekeepers

Unit 8. Diplomacy

Key vocabulary

Give equivalents in your mothertongue to the following English words and phrases:

To accept full sovereignty

Ambassador at large

To call in an envoy

The chief of mission

To circulate a letter

To commemorate the victims

To denounce

To face possible war

To foreshadow in public

To grant smb a visa

To lift the arms embargo on

To offer reassurances to

Ousting of the government

To release a statement

To seek asylum

To sour the relationship

To sow discord between

Stalled talks

The state of emergency

To supplant one's influence

To tell a news conference

Ex. 1. Speak on the following:

1. Independent sovereign states: the main actors in the international system.

2. The best methods of maintaining order: balance of power, diplomacy, and the formation of alliances.

3. The role of international institutions in the world.

 

By TODD S. PURDUM

WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 - Her confirmation as the 66th secretary of state is a foregone conclusion, and the White House plans to swear her in on Inauguration Day. But starting Tuesday morning, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will beginwhat could stretch to two full days of questioning Condoleezza Rice about almost every aspect of her past performance and future plans.

No question looms larger than just what kind of secretary of state Ms. Rice will be. She declined to be interviewed for this article, but her associates and even some of her rivals say she shows every sign of setting a course aimed at putting diplomacy at the top of the Bush administration's foreign policy agenda after a period dominated by military action in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ms. Rice's goals vary from restoring America's reputation in the capitals of Europe through a vigorous campaign of public diplomacy to actively promoting free institutions throughout the Middle East and renewing involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, and include a heightened focus on free trade and economic issues, associates say.

In campaign speeches for President Bush last fall, Ms. Rice likened the current world climate, including the daunting insurgency in Iraq, to the period of skirmishing that followed World War II, when the United States took the lead in establishing international institutions and the policy of containing the Soviet Union that rebuilt Europe and Asia and won the cold war.

"Europe and Asia are safer as a result," Ms. Rice said in October in Cleveland. "And so it shall be in the Middle East."

To put it mildly, that is an ambitious goal. Whether Ms. Rice can begin to achieve it may depend on how well she adapts to a markedly new role, and surmounts problems that have dogged her as national security adviser for the past four years.

Her critics have faulted her handling of terrorist warnings before Sept. 11 and her management of fractious internal disputes and flawed intelligence reports in advance of the war with Iraq and the military occupation that followed. They have also faulted her response to the threat of nuclear proliferation in Iran and North Korea and her overall role in a foreign policy that has strained the United States' relationswith longtime allies and perhaps spawnednew enemies around the world.

Her success or failure may also depend on how she fares with two strong-willed and more seasoned players, Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, both of whom view foreign affairs as a major part of their own portfolios and with whom Ms. Rice has not always seen eye to eye. Her champions say that Ms. Rice is well aware of how her job will change, and that she is prepared for the switch.

"Her role will be different institutionally, as well as practically," said the White House chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr. No longer will she be expected to summarize the views of others, but to state her own, saying, as Mr. Card explained it: "This is what I think. This is what the State Department strongly recommends."

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell seldom hesitated to tell the president that while Mr. Rumsfeld or Mr. Cheney might have a certain view, he had another. Will Ms. Rice be equally vocal?"Yes," Mr. Card said with a hearty laugh, "because she knows that Don and Dick will say the same thing." And, Mr. Card noted with another laugh, "She'll have great empathyfor Steve Hadley," her deputy and designated successor as national security adviser. "I'm not sure she'll have sympathy."

(Source: New York Times, 2005)

Ex.3. Read the article and answer the following questions:

1. What stress is Rice going to put on in her activity?

2. Why is it important for the US to shift from force to diplomacy in its forign policy?

3. What part is assigned to the US in the post-World War period?

4. What is she faulted of?

5. What does Rice's success or failure depend on?

6. How is her current role different from the previous position's function?

7. What is Mr. Card's opinion on the ability of Rice to articulate herself distinctly and strongly?

Ex. 4. Read the article and explain the following phrases:

Her confirmation as the 66th secretary of state is a foregone conclusion; putting diplomacy at the top of the Bush administration's foreign policy agenda; when the United States took the lead in establishing international institutions; more seasoned players, Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld; with whom Ms. Rice has not always seen eye to eye; Will Ms. Rice be equally vocal?

Ex. 5. Find words in the article which correspond to the following defintions:

1. very active, determined or full of energy (para 3)

2. to make sb feel nervous and less confident about doing sth (para 4)

3. to take part in a short fight or argument (para 4)

4. to cause sb problem for a long time (para 6)

5. cause sth to develop or be pooduced (para 7)

6. to be un/successful in a particular situation (para 8)

7. the ability to understand another person's feelings, experience (para 10)

 

Содержание

Unit 1. Word Order. ______________________________________3

Unit 2. International Organizations __________________________ 9

Unit 3. Hot Spots. _______________________________________15

Unit 4. Terrorism. _______________________________________ 21

Unit 5. Global Issues. ____________________________________ 26

Unit 6. Elections. ________________________________________31

Unit 7. Human Rights. ____________________________________37

Unit 8. Diplomacy _______________________________________43

С.А.АБДРАМАНОВА

READING NEWSPAPERS

АЛМАТЫ 2005

 

Данное учебное пособие предназначено для студентов бакалавриата, магистрантов и аспирантов, специализирующихся по международным отношениям и международному праву, а также для всех желающих научиться использовать газетный материал для получения информации. Целью данного учебного пособия является развитие навыков чтения и понимания газетных статей на английском языке, говорения на заданную тему, оперирования современной общественно-политической терминологией.

В пособии разработаны следующие темы: Мировой порядок, Международные организации, Горячие точки, Терроризм, Глобальные проблемы, Выборы, Права человека, Дипломатия. Пособие состоит из восьми разделов, каждый из которых представлен текстом на заданную тематику. Тексты пособия построены на материале статей из газеты New York Times (США), критерием их отбора текстов послужили актуальность темы и присутствие лексики по заданной тематике.

Каждая тема начинается с лексического минимума, предназначенного для самостоятельного изучения - учащимся предлагается подобрать эквиваленты слов и словосочетаний на их родном языке. На усмотрение преподавателя студентам может предложена письменная работа изложить свое видение и понимание темы с использованием лексического минимума. Работа над каждым разделом предполагает три этапа: дотекстовой - упражнения на выявление уровня информированности учащихся по рассматриваемому вопросу и развития навыков распознавания содержания текста по его заглавию, текстовой и послетекстовой этапы. Тексты сопровождаются упражнениями, предназначенными для проверки понимания их содержания и развития лексических навыков, а также для закрепления навыков реферирования газетных статей и передачи их содержания. Послетекстовой этап представлен рядом тем для развития разговорных навыков. Предлагаемые темы для обсуждения требуют предварительной подготовки учащихся и предусматривают два этапа работы: 1) парное или групповое обсуждение и 2) презентация перед аудиторией.

Данное пособие может быть использовано как в аудитории, так и для самостоятельной работы студентов.

Unit 1. World Order

Key vocabulary

Give equivalents in your mothertongue to the following English words and phrases:

Aid package

Ban on

To cancel debts owed by

To cement one's control

To conduct a neclear test

to curb nuclear proliferation