The Secrets of Nature - Уральский государственный

ГОУ ВПО «Уральский государственный педагогический
университет»
Институт иностранных языков
Кафедра английского языка
С.О. Макеева, Н.А. Постоловская
READ, ANSWER, DISCUSS
Методическое пособие по дисциплине
“Практический курс иностранного языка"
(ОЗО, 4 курс)
Екатеринбург 2008
Методическое пособие по дисциплине "Практический курс
иностранного языка" (ОЗО, 4 курс) для практических занятий по
специальности «Иностранные языки» / Урал. гос. пед. ун-т.
Составители: Постоловская Н. А., Макеева С. О.
Разработка может быть использована на аудиторных занятиях и при
самостоятельной подготовке студентов.
Методическое пособие обсуждено на заседании кафедры английского
языка
Протокол № 5 от 14 декабря 2007 г.
Зав. кафедрой
С. О. Макеева
Рецензенты:
канд. филол наук Ю. В. Вронская
канд. пед. наук О. П. Казакова
Макет: Ю. В. Муханова
Подписано в печать
Формат 60х84/16. Бумага для
множительных аппаратов. Печать на ризографе. Уср. печ. л. 5,3
Уч.-изд. л.
Тираж
экз.
Заказ
Отпечатано в отделе множительной техники
Уральского государственного педагогического университета.
620219, Екатеринбург, ГСП-135, просп. Космонавтов, 26
2
Пояснительная записка
Настоящее пособие предназначено для студентов 3-4 курсов
заочной формы обучения и, в первую очередь, для лиц, получающих
второе высшее образование. Трёхгодичная модель обучения
предполагает сохранение общего объёма программного материала,
исключая цикличный способ прохождения ряда гуманитарных
областей (Education, Painting).
Методическое пособие построено таким образом, чтобы:
1) ввести студентов в круг проблем ряда предметных областей
(см. Contents) с учётом сохранения равновесия предметной и
языковой составляющих;
2) обеспечить контроль и самоконтроль предметной и языковой
составляющих за счёт тестов (quiz'ов), выполняемых как
домашнее задание;
3) создать коммуникативную потребность в привлечении
студентами ряда дополнительных материалов по обсуждаемой
тематике.
Тематический
план,
включённый
в
пособие,
поможет
оптимизировать организацию лабораторных занятий IX семестра.
Пособие включает ряд видеоматериалов с упражнениями,
обязательных для использования на уроке. При работе с
упражнениями пособия преподавателям рекомендуется обращать
внимание на задания, содержащие элементы профессионализации.
3
Сontents
Economy: contemporary issues……………………………………………………………4
Environmental issues………………………………………………………………………..33
Education and PR……………………………………………………………………………..66
Theatre Life………………………………………………………………………………………71
Test tasks and quizzes for self assessment……………………………………………81
I. Economy: contemporary issues
When countries go bust.
Finance and economics
The Economist December 8th 2001
What do Kenneth Lay, chairman of Enron, and Domingo Cavallo, Argentina’s economy minister, have in common? Both were once lionised on
Wall Street. And both now see their respective charges collapse, because
when creditors have lost confidence, countries can declare bankruptcy and
seek protection from its creditors. If the International Monetary Fund has
its way, that could change. Anne Krueger, number two at the Fund, recently
suggested that a country whose debts were “truly unsustainable” should
have a mechanism for restructuring them, in rather the same way that
companies can file for bankruptcy.
The idea is that a troubled country would get temporary legal protection when it suspended payments on its debt, in return for promising to
negotiate with its creditors in good faith and, meanwhile, to follow sound
economic policies. During the “standstill” period, exchange controls could
be introduced to reassure creditors that money was not fleeing the country.
Lenders would get an incentive to provide new “working capital” by giving
new debts seniority over old. And minority creditors would be bound to go
along, once enough creditors had agreed.
The notion of such a sovereign bankruptcy procedure is not new. This is
the first time, though, that it has been advocated so openly by the IMF top
brass. Crucially, America, along with Canada and Britain, is also interested.
There is little argument that the present system for dealing with troubled debtors is inadequate. In the debt crisis of the 1980s, when the governments of developing countries owed debts mainly to banks, creditors
were corralled around a table by the IMF and cajoled into accepting rollovers and, eventually, debt reduction. But the growth of private capital
flows during the 1990s has made such an informal approach unworkable.
Creditors have grown in number, largely because of an increase in the use
of bond finance. Debtors have grown, too, as private companies in emerg-
4
ing economies have joined governments in borrowing abroad. And debt
instruments have become vastly more complex.
Recent crises have produced a welter of responses. In cases where bank
debt is the chief concern (e. g., South Korea in 1997), creditors have been
pushed into providing more cash, with the same sort of arm-twisting as in
the 1980s. Where bonds are the problem, unilateral default has been one
outcome: Russia, famously, shook financial markets when it defaulted on
its domestic debt in 1998. Ecuador’s similar default in 1999 did not rock the
world, but it did cause economic pain at home. Another outcome of bondbased crises has been a rise in the scale of IMF lending, as the Fund has
tried to provide cash to shore up confidence in troubled economies and to
stop default. Mexico’s rescue in 1995 worked; Argentina’s bail-out this year
has not.
The appeal of sovereign bankruptcy is that it may eliminate the need for
huge IMF bail-outs, with their attendant risk of inciting reckless lending,
and at the same time avoid the legal morass of unilateral default. In theory,
both creditors and debtors would benefit from clear rules about the procedure for debt restructuring - so long as the rules strike a balance between
the rights of debtors and creditors. A bankruptcy regime that is too lenient
is sure to dry up inflows to emerging markets.
Putting all this into practice is hard. Many proposals on sovereign
bankruptcy have gone nowhere, partly because the details are devilishly
tricky to work out. Simple parallels with domestic bankruptcy soon fall
apart. Who, for instance, is the impartial adjudicator - the international
equivalent of a domestic judge? The IMF is presumably best-equipped to
decide whether a country’s economic policies make sense, so it should play
a central role. Yet the fund is also a creditor, and an organization with political masters. It will not be seen as impartial.
Another problem is how to ensure that a debtor country is negotiating
in food faith, and actually pursuing sensible economic policies. Unlike a
domestic bankruptcy judge, an international arbiter can hardly threaten to
strip a country of its assets or forcibly change its “management”. And, unlike a company, a country’s capacity to pay external creditors is often a matter of politics as much as economics.
Forgiving the debts that deeply impoverished countries owe to the
Fund and the World Bank, were long dismissed as unfeasible; yet eventually they happened. Ms Krueger is surely right to suggest that there are better
options than today’s stark choice between bail-outs and chaotic default.
I Explain the word/words, translate them into Russian:
to go bust
to restructure (debts)
suspended payments
lenders
roll-over
bond finance
welter
arm-twisting
5
inflows to markets
in good faith
international arbiter
assets
incentive
debt seniority
IMF
to shore up
to cajole
unilateral
domestic debt
bond-based crisis
to corral
to incite reckless lending
unfeasible
stark choice
top brass
to bail out
legal morass
II Ask 10 questions to the text
III Give the gist of the text.
IV Pick out cases of metaphors. What additional information do metaphors provide?
V What is the present day situation with Russia’s debts to IMF?
VI List arguments pro- and against sovereign bankruptcy regime; which
sound most feasible? Which side does the contributor tend to lean to?
VII Explain what is meant by “pursuing sensible economic policies…” Does
it mean the same for the IFM and the debtor-country?
Russia and the WTO
Shaping up for the club
The Economist November 24th 2001
Joining a health club can reflect a genuine interest in fitness - or just a
desire to keep up with the neighbors. Much the same applies to the World
Trade Organization (WTO), the body that sets the rules for international
trade, as Russia steps up the pressure for a speedy admission.
The question is how far Russia still sees its application as a political issue, rather than as part of the real task: cleaning up its ragged statute book
and murky bureaucracy to create a business-friendly environment. Talks
have dragged on for years. Once the Kremlin started focusing on the issue,
they speeded up a bit, but Russian negotiations stomped away from their
last big negotiations, in July. They complained that the proposed outside
scrutiny of draft laws was an intolerable imposition. There has been no
movement since then.
Since China and Taiwan joined this month, however, Russia is one of
only a handful of big countries outside the WTO, in the company of Saudi
Arabia and Ukraine. Non-membership is increasingly galling. And since
September 11th, the political climate has changed. America is now keen to
help.
Easing the entry terms for Russia would mean agreeing generous translation periods for the protection of Russia’s many uncompetitive industries,
as well as taking a softer approach to enforcement. Even where Russia has
6
the right laws, for example on intellectual property, they often fail to work
reliably in practice.
If America sees political reasons to help smooth Russia’s path, it will
still be tricky. Joining the WTO requires the agreement of all 144 member
countries. Many have years of experience trading with Russia, and clear
ideas about the changes they want to see. They include former Soviet captive countries such as the Baltic states, which strongly prefer clarity to fudge
when dealing with Russia. Added pressure from America might speed up
negotiations, but it cannot guarantee the outcome.
The next meeting of the working group on Russian membership, in
January, will show how far Russia is really prepared to adapt, and how
many concessions other countries are ready to make. Even if all goes well,
Russia’s aim of joining by the end of 2002 still looks very ambitious.
In any case, opinion is divided inside Russia about the merits of membership. The most important sectors of the economy are producers of raw
materials, which are not covered by WTO. There are powerful domestic
lobbies against. Only 7% of Russian exports will benefit, but outside competition will devastate much of the economy. Another big lobby against membership is the bureaucracy itself, addicted to arbitrary decision-making; the
idea of a rules-based system adjudicated by outsiders appalls it.
The strongest supporters are economic performers, along with nascent
producers of manufactured exports. Potentially competitive Russian products, such as steel have suffered badly from anti-dumping measures – notably in the United States, which argues that Russia’s low domestic energy
prices give it an unfair advantage.
Oddly, western companies actually inside Russia are in two minds as
well. Some, such as those involved with telecoms or business services, are
strongly in favour. Abolishing artificial restrictions will be good for their
expansion plans. But others - chiefly those producing fast-moving consumer goods - are strongly against. Having invested in schmoozing Russian decision-makers, the last thing they want is for their hard-won niches to be
blasted by free competition.
I Explain the word/words, translate the sentences in which they occur:
murky bureaucracy
business-friendly
imposition
to gall
to ease entry terms
uncompetitive industries
fudge
arbitrary decision making
to adjudicate
nascent
anti-dumping measures
WTO
II 1) What are the considerations for and against Russia’s joining WTO?
2) What is the present day situation?
7
3) Give an example of the law on intellectual property failing to work reliably.
4) What is your own, personal attitude to the problem in question? Be argumentative.
III Find an item/article on the Russia-WTO problem in any Russian periodical (2001-2004). Compare it/them with the item under discussion.
What is similar/different about treating the problem?
VI Make use of Economy dictionaries, www sources to ensure you have a
glossary of 10-15 economic terms – key to understanding the matters in
question.
The Slowdown in Nominal GDP Growth Is of More
Nominal Interest
The Economist November 3rd 2001
Real GDP is widely forecast to fall again in the fourth quarter, meeting
the popular definition of a recession. Less noticed, but perhaps more worrying, is the slump over the past year in America’s nominal GDP growth, the
dollar value of economic activity. As both output and inflation decline,
nominal GDP growth will slide further; it could even go negative. On current trends, 2001 and 2002 are likely to experience the slowest growth in
nominal GDP in any two consecutive years since the 1930s.
The reason why nominal GDP growth is so sluggish is that America entered this recession with inflation at a historically low level. The start of
every previous downturn in the past four decades has been marked by rising inflation. This promoted central banks to lift interest rates, leading to a
recession, even as inflation remained high for a while.
America’s current recession, however, has been caused largely by an investment boom that has turned to bust. Increased competition and ample
global capacity - along with (arguably) sound monetary policy - have held
down prices. Inflation is likely to fall further over the next few years as
global excess capacity weighs on prices. According to the University of
Michigan’s latest consumer survey, inflationary expectations have fallen to
their lowest for more than 40 years.
Inflation is declining everywhere; and nominal GDP is also falling in
several economies around the world. The most dismal case is Japan, where
deflation has helped nominal GDP to fall continuously since 1997. The Bank
of Japan forecast this week that it will continue to decline into 2003. Nominal GDP is also shrinking in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and
Argentina. For the world as a whole nominal GDP growth has fallen to
around zero, its lowest since the 1930s.
8
“So what?” you might ask. Real GDP growth is surely the best measure
of economic prosperity, and low inflation is a good thing. Yes, but profits
and wages cannot together outgrow nominal GDP. The unusually slow
growth in nominal GDP therefore has important implications in four main
ways:
 Profits. Slower nominal GDP growth implies slower growth in profits
than most company analysts are assuming in their forecast for share
prices. Indeed, if nominal GDP growth is static or falling, but labour
costs (two-thirds of total costs) continue to rise, profits will be even
smaller. This provides further evidence that, on the economic fundamentals, American shares remain, on average, significantly overvalued.
Also, if revenues do turn out to be flat, the only way to lift profits will be
to cut costs by firing workers or cutting wages, thereby risking a deepening of the recession.
 Wages. Fewer workers are likely to enjoy a pay rise next year. Annual
pay rounds are facing extinction. America’s National Association of
Business Economists’ latest survey found that in the third quarter only
17% of firms raised wages, and 6% cut them- the lowest net increase in
the 20-year history of the survey. True, small nominal pay rises will still
give a real pay increase if inflation is lower. The snag is that people suffer from “money illusion” – confusing nominal changes with real – and
so may feel worse off, saving more and spending less.
 Debts. In the recent boom, American households and firms went on a
borrowing binge. Debts (and in many cases interest payments) are fixed
in money terms, so the faster nominal incomes grow, the smaller the
burden of debt becomes. In Japan, in contrast, declining nominal; GDP
is swelling the debt-to-GDP ratio. The risk in America now is that slower nominal growth will force firms and individuals to improve their balance sheets by spending less or by selling assets, exacerbating deflationary pressures.
 Monetary policy. The good news is that low inflation gives central
banks less reason to resist cutting interest rates. After nine cuts this
year, American rates are already at their lowest in almost 40 years.
I Explain the word/words, translate them into Russian. Quote the sentence in which it /they occur.
GDP
recession
slump
downturn
investment boom
bust
ample global capacity
arguably
to weigh on
static
revenue
pay rounds
net increase
economic fundamentals
9
snag
nominal real pay increase
feel worse off
interest payments
exacerbating deflationary
pressures
nominal GDP growth
to go on … binge
II Compose 10 questions to the text.
III Give the gist of the article.
IV Can the situation described be in any way referred to the present –day
Russia? (Use the given-above vocabulary in your reasoning)
V Predict the influence of slower nominal GDP growth in:
 Education;
 Agriculture;
 Budget of pensioners;
 Budget of young families;
 Consumer goods production;
 High-Tec industries;
 Inflow of capital.
Taxes and Taxis. Can tax cuts save the global economy?
Ask a cab driver.
The Economist June 28th 2003
It is a fair bet that, on any given day, some politician somewhere is proposing a change in income-tax rates. In America, administration lobbying
plus economic nerves have pushed Congress onto voting for a tax-cut package: refund cheques will be in the post this summer. In Germany, where the
economy has been shrinking, there is talk of brining forward to 2004 tax
cuts planned for 2005. In Britain, a cabinet minister has been scolded for
suggesting that high earners might be happy to pay more tax so that those
lower down the scale could pay less.
As a vote-winning measure, tax cuts have obvious appeal: people usually prefer to spend their money themselves, rather than let the government
do it. But to economists, the question is a bit more complicated. Given that
governments must raise money through taxation, how can they do so at
least cost to the economy? By and large, economists prefer taxes that
change the relative prices of goods and services as little as possible, and so
cause the minimum distortion to people’s spending and investment decisions.
The precise relationship between income-tax rates, economic growth
and tax revenues depends on how changes in tax rates affect people’s behavior. On the one hand, lower marginal tax rates give people an incentive
to work more, because they can keep a larger share of every dollar they
earn. This “substitution“ effect means that people may work harder - so
much harder, indeed, that they might end up paying more tax. On the other
10
hand, a cut in the marginal income-tax rate usually means a lower average
tax rate too. So people will not have to work so hard to reach the same level
of income after a tax cut as they did before. If this “income” effect outweighs the substitution effect, people will work less hard and pay less tax.
They may be happier, but the treasury will be emptier.
Some evidence is supportive of Mr Reagan’s instinct that people tend to
work harder when tax rates fall. However, there is little evidence for the
belief that lower tax rates would encourage people to work so much harder,
or draw so many new people into the workforce, that the government ended
up with their higher revenues. Economists also agree that the labour supply
of families’ second earners-usually women - is more responsive to tax
changes than that of the main breadwinners, especially if (as in some countries) income tax is applied to the whole family, not to its individual members.
That said, the evidence is not clear-cut. One reason is that most people
have less flexible jobs than Mr Reagan did in his acting days. There is some
evidence that America’s tax cuts in 1986 did not cause high-wage men to
work any harder, perhaps because such people were already clocking up
around 3,000 hours a year at the office. Most workers on more modest pay
are in a set 35 or 40 hours a week, regardless of the marginal rate of income
tax. Higher taxes may dissuade them from seeking a more demanding job
at higher wages, but this effect is hard to measure.
Given the cloudiness of the macroeconomic evidence, some economists
have looked at the behavior of individual groups of workers especially those
able to choose how long they work. A few years ago, one study looked at
how New-York taxi drivers responded to increased wages-which ought to
have the same effect as a tax cut. Cabbies, reckoned the economists, have a
“target income”. Once they earn, say, $200, they go home, even if it is a
busy Saturday night and there is easy money to be made.
If target incomes were common, tax cuts would bring about less effort
rather than more, especially because flexible work has become more important in most rich countries. However, a new paper by Henry Farber, of
Princeton University, suggests that cabbies respond positively to the prospect of higher pay. Mr Farber - who not only analyzed taxi driver’s trip
sheets but also, unusually for an economist, spoke to his subjects argues
that cabbies put more hours when the pickings are rich, say, during a convention or a theatre season, and take more leisure when business is slow.
Studies of bicycle messengers and stadium food-vendors have reached a
similar conclusion. It seems that higher returns encourage more effort, not
more leisure, when people have some control over their work hours.
I. Paraphrase the following word/words, translate the clause they occur
in:
refund cheques;
11
given that, given the cloudiness;
tax revenues;
lower marginal tax;
incentive;
flexible job;
high-wage men;
clocking up;
target income.
II. Speak about the interdependence of taxes, amount of working hours,
people’s happiness, the state of the treasury.
III Make a list of group of workers in this country able to choose how long
they work. Do they have a target income? Find out by speaking to them
which of them are likely to react to lower marginal tax-rate by increasing
work hours. Choose alternative to lower taxation in filling the treasury:
 Higher wages;
 Lesser social expenditure;
 Inner borrowing (selling bonds, obligations, vouchers etc.);
 Increase of working hours;
 Suggest your own.
Review consequences of introducing this policy (on 2 pages).
The Devil’s Excrement.
The Economist May 24th 2003
Is oil wealth a blessing or a curse?
Three decades ago, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
(OPEC) sent oil prices rocketing. By 1980, a barrel cost $30, ten times the
price in 1970. Consumers suffered, whereas oil producers reaped an enormous windfall. Many assumed then that oil was a gift of God that would
transform poor countries into flourishing economies within a generation.
Yet even during those heady early days there were doubts. Juan Pablo Perez
Alfonso, a founder of OPEC, complained in 1975: “I call petroleum the devil’s excrement. It brings trouble… Look at this waste, corruption, consumption, our public services falling apart. And debt, debt we shall have for
years.”
Several new publications argue that history has proved him right. A
new book form the Open Society Institute, a foundation financed by George
Soros, points out that resource-poor countries grew two to three times faster than resource-rich countries between 1960 and 1990 - even after adjusting for differences in population, initial income per head and other varia-
12
bles). Revealingly, the resource-rich countries began to lag only after the
1970s – in other words, only after oil wealth started to pour in.
Two factors explain this. The main economic problem is known as
Dutch Disease, after the effects of the discovery of natural gas in the Netherlands in the 1960s. An oil bonanza causes a sudden rush of foreign earnings; that, in turn, makes domestically produced goods less competitive at
home and abroad. Over time, domestic manufacturing and agriculture fade
and growth suffers.
Tricky as this problem is, oil economies such as Norway and Alaska
have come up with a clever (through still imperfect) solution: they hive off
much of the oil income into “stabilization” funds, disbursing “dividends” to
citizens slowly - directly in Alaska, via social spending in Norway - so that
the economy does not overheat. Chile, one of the world’s more successful
developing countries, has a similar fund for its copper revenues.
Contrast this cautious approach with the recklessness of the OPEC
countries of the Middle East, which expand domestic spending by about
50% a year between 1974 and 1979. This enriched the elite, but spawned
white-elephant projects and fuelled inflation of more than 15% a year. Venezuela has earned over & 600 billion in oil money since the 1970s, but the
real income per head of its citizens fell by 15% between 1973 and 1985. It is
falling again today.
On top of these economic difficulties can come even worse political
problems. Because oil infrastructure can be controlled easily by a few, it
often leads to a concentration of political power. Michael Ross, of the University of California at Los Angeles, argues that oil worsens poverty by
stunting democratic development, among other things. It also tends to
cause, or at least aggravate, civil wars. A new report by Christian Aid, a
charity, says that oil economies are more likely than non-oil economies to
maintain large armies, and generally do worse on literacy, life expectancy
and other measures of human development. In addition, sudden oil wealth
affords ample opportunity for corrupting the politicians who award contracts to foreign oil firms.
These reports are troubling, but is there really any prospect of change?
Surprisingly, the answer may be yes. For some time now, Publish What You
Pay - a collection of activist groups - has been pestering Big Oil to reveal all
the payment it makes to governments, which usually insist that such details
be kept secret. Now some big investors are getting in on the act too.
A multilateral approach would certainly be more realistic than any national or unilateral steps. That is what BP discovered when it recently voluntary revealed the terms of its contracts in Angola. No other oil company
followed suit, and the local powers let it be known that they were displeased. A multilateral approach could involve the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which could push countries to publish the details of contracts and to set up resource funds. Some countries howl that
13
such initiatives violate their sovereignty, but that is a smokescreen: rulers
with nothing to hide would surely welcome transparency. Others, including
Abu Dhabi and Kazakhstan, boast that they already have such funds-but
these are weakened by a lack of proper oversight. In contrast, the American
proposal for dealing with Iraqi oil revenues could result in the creation of a
fund monitored by Kofi Annan.
Getting firms to “publish what you pay is an essential first step”, observed George Soros at the launch of the Open Society book, but the harder
step is to get governments to “publish what you receive… and then be accountable for what you receive”.
Explain the word/words, translate the sentences in which it/they occur.
windfall
heady early days
resource poor/rich countries
bonanza
to disburse
via social spending
to spawn
white-elephant project
to stunt
a charity
to pester
multi/uni/lateral
II Reproduce the text.
III Express your attitude to the proposed solution.
IV Can any fact reflected in the article be in any way applicable/ referring
to Russia?
Signifying nothing?
The Economist January 31st 2004
Figures lie, as everyone knows, and liars figure. That should make
economists especially suspect, since they are heavily on statistics to try and
resolve a wide range of controversies. For example, does a rise in the minimum wage put people out of work? Are stockman returns predictable? Do
taxes influence whether a company pays dividends? In recent years, helped
by cheaper, more powerful computers, and egged on by policymakers anxious for their views, economists have analyzed ream of statistics to answer
such questions. Unfortunately, their guidance may be deeply flawed.
Two economists, Deirdre McCloskey of the University of Illinois, and
Stephen Ziliak of Roosevelt University, think their colleagues do a lousy job
of making sense of figures, often falling prey to elementary errors. But their
biggest gripe is that, blinded by statistical wizardly, many economists fail to
think about the way in which the world really works.
14
To be fair, statistics can be deceptive, especially when explaining human behavior, which is necessarily complicated, and to which iron laws do
not apply.
Moreover, even if a relationship exists, the wrong conclusions can be
drawn. In medieval Holland, it was noted that there was a correlation between the number of storks living on the roof of a house and the number of
children born within it. The relationship was so striking that, according to
the rules of maths that govern such things, you could say with great confidence that the results were very unlikely to be merely random. Such a relationship is said to be “statistically significant”. But the Dutch folklore of the
time – that storks somehow increased human fertility - was clearly wrong.
Examples of similar errors abound. W. S. Jevons, an English economist
of the mid-19th century, thought that sunspots influenced crop yields. More
recently and tragically, British mothers have felt the harsh effects of statistical abuse. An expert witness frequently called to give evidence in the trials
of mothers accused of murdering their children argued that the odds of
more the one cot death in a family were statistically so slim that three such
deaths amounted to murder. On this erroneous evidence, hundreds of parents have been sent to prison.
A failure to separate statistical significance from plausible explanation
is all too common in economics, often with harmful consequences. In a past
paper Professors McCloskey and Ziliak attacked other economists overreliance on statistical rather than economic reasoning, and focused on one
case in particular.
In the 1980s, the American state of Illinois launched a programmed to
keep people off the dole. Economists asked whether its costs outweighed its
benefits. One study estimated that the programme produced benefits that
were more than four times as large as the costs. Although this seemed a
good deal for taxpayers - and others - tests seem to support this conclusion
– the authors of the study rejected such a finding because they found that
their estimate was not statistically significant. In other words, their results
fell just short of 90% certainty – the usual, though ad hoc, rule of thumb for
most economic work - of not being random.
I Explain the words, translate the sentences they occur in
to egg on
ream
flawed
gripe
cot death
to keep people off the dole
II Answer the questions of the first paragraph
III Comment on the deceptive statistics. Give any other example of the
same kind.
IV Comment on the title.
15
V Give the gist of the text
VI Suggest a statistical questionnaire to implement at school to study your
school-kids’ social/ economic standing.
The disappearing taxpayer.
The Economist May 31st 1997
“The art of taxation”? advised Louis XIV’s treasurer, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, “consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount of
feathers with the least possible amount of hissing.” His observation remains
true, except for one big change. Unlike geese, people in the 17 th century
didn’t know how to fly. Now they can.
In the coming decades electronic commerce - combined with the growing ease with which firms can shift their operations from one part of the
world to another – will make it ever easier for people to flee countries
where taxes are high, or to evade tax altogether by doing their business in
cyberspace. The hole this will leave behind is already worrying many governments. Some argue that it is “unfair” for others to lure their firms away
by levying lower taxes, and are pushing for the harmonization of taxes. Another new idea is to impose a tax on electronic transactions. But although
governments everywhere will have to start thinking – and soon – about
how to raise taxes in the newly weightless global economy, both remedies
are flawed.
Those who advocate harmonization say that the alternative is a “race to
the bottom”, as governments sacrifice social spending on the altar of competitiveness. A recent proposal from a panel of economists to make up for
the tax losses caused by electronic commerce by introducing a “bit tax” on
flows of electronic information is similarly defective. It is hard to see how a
single country or even a group might impose such a tax without simply forcing on-line transactions offshore. But in so far as it succeeded, such a tax
might just hamper the adoption of information technology, depriving people and businesses of its great productivity benefits.
So if neither of these ideas is any good, why not do nothing? It is true
that the full impact of electronic commerce and globalization on governments’ taxation powers is still someway off. The fact that tax levels vary
from 60% of GDP in Sweden to 32% in America suggests that even in a
globalizing economy governments are still able to make distinctive fiscal
choices. However, every so often a big Swedish company - Ericsson most
recently - threatens to decamp because egregious income taxes make it difficult to recruit skilled employees. America’s corporate taxes have withered
to insignificance because of the mobility of firms. At present these are
16
merely straws in the wind, and hardly new ones, but there is no doubt
which way the wind is blowing.
One day globalization and electronic commerce could make a sizeable
dent in a country’s total tax revenues. And these forces have already made a
big impact on the way the burden of taxes falls on a population. This is what
rules our the option of inaction.
Not all firms, workers and products are equally mobile. Enterpreneurs,
scientists, tennis players and film stars may be able to uproot themselves in
search of lower taxes, but the average worker is still unlikely to become a
tax refugee. Although this may reassure governments, it implies that governments will eventually have to cut taxes on the most mobile factors of
production, notably skilled workers, while taxes on less mobile unskilled
workers will have to rise. Over the past decade or so taxes on capital have
already fallen sharply while those on labour have risen. In future it will be
harder to tax firms or high-earners at high rates because they are the most
mobile. The implication is that unskilled labour will have to bear a greater
burden.
If they are to mitigate this change while maintaining their tax revenues,
governments need to speed up tax reforms that are needed anyway to improve economic efficiency. In most countries at present, exemptions and
loopholes distort the allocation of resources. Broadening the tax base by
scrapping exemptions such as mortgage interest relief and zero rates of
VAT on certain goods and services would allow a much lower rate of tax and
therefore reduce the incentive for both tax evasion and migration. Less
complex reporting requirements would reduce another incentive to hide
from the taxman.
A second needed change is to shift the tax base from income towards
consumption and property, which is both immobile and hard to hide. Even
consumption is becoming more mobile. But a consumption tax would both
remove the present disincentive to save and help to collect taxes from tax
dodgers. Even those whose income comes from invisible Internet sales have
to spend it. Having changed so much else in the world economy, globalization and information technology will inevitably undermine the way governments raise taxes. Reforming the tax system to plug the hole is going to
be hard. Not reforming it would be even worse.
The tap runs dry. The forces of globalization and new technology threaten to weaken the power of governments to tax
their citizens. Can governments plug the leak?
TWENTY-SIX tax collectors were killed in Russia last year and 74 were
injured in the course of their work; six were kidnapped, 41 had their homes
burnt down. Elsewhere in the world, being a taxman is merely an unpopu-
17
lar, rather than a dangerous, profession. But everywhere, people are finding
it easier to escape paying taxes. They will be helped by two big changes: the
gradual integration of economies and the growth of electronic commerce.
The first is more important at the moment. As the world becomes more
integrated, and as capital and labour can move more freely from high-tax
countries to low-tax ones, a nation's room to set tax rates higher than elsewhere is being constrained. At the same time, the expansion of business
conducted over the Internet will make it harder to track and hence tax
transactions.
In early May, for example, several large Swedish companies, including
Ericsson, a telecommunications giant, said that they were considering moving out of the country because of high taxes. They were not complaining
about high rates of corporation tax, which Sweden was forced to trim long
ago. This time, companies were complaining about high personal income
taxes, which make it difficult to recruit highly skilled employees. Including
local taxes, Sweden's top marginal rate of income tax is almost 60%, and
(worse still) becomes payable at an income of SKr209,200 ($28,000). In
contrast, America's top federal tax rate of 40% does not bite until over
$260,000. No wonder many talented scientists and engineers have been
leaving Sweden.
This is just one example of how individuals and firms have greater
choice today about where to work, where to locale production, where to
shop and where to save and invest. This article analyses the various pressures upon governments' capacity to raise revenue, considers how serious
those pressures might become, and ends by looking at how governments
could respond.
Modern tax systems were developed after the Second World War when
cross-border movements in goods, capital and labour were relatively small.
Now, firms and people are more mobile - and can exploit tax differences
between countries. This is the heart of the problem that governments face.
Globalization is a tax problem for three reasons. First, firms have more
freedom over where locate. Activities that require only a screen, a telephone
and a modem can be located anywhere. This will make it harder for a country to tax businesses much more heavily than its competitors. Corporate tax
rates still vary wide.
Second, globalization makes it hard to decide where a company should
pay tax, regardless of where it is based. Multinational firms design their
product in one country, manufacture in another, and sell in a third. So
globalization hampers the taxman’s ability to check the accuracy of profits
reported by firms. Of course, this is far from new, but the scale of the problem is growing. In 1970 a typical large American company earned 10-20%
of its income from abroad. Now many earn at least half their profits outside
the United States. The third reason why globalization is a problem is that,
as Swedish firms discovered, it nibbles away at the edges of taxes on indi-
18
viduals. It is harder to tax personal income because skilled professional
workers are more mobile than they were two decades ago. Even if they do
not become tax exiles, many earn a growing slice of their income from overseas, for consultancy work, for instance. Such income is relatively easy to
hide from the taxman. Taxing personal savings also becomes harder when
these can be zapped from one side of the globe to the other.
In the future, therefore, globalization - and, eventually, the Internet
mау drain governments' tax revenues either by making evasion easier or by
encouraging economic activity to shift to lower-tax countries
I.
Translate the underlined words (p.p. 18-19).
II. What taxes does an average firm pay?
III. Popular ways to avoid taxation.
IV. What unites the texts? Which points are better illustrated in the second
text?
V. Compose questions to every paragraph of the texts, turn it into an interview.
VI. Why do you think the information on Russian tax-collectors is put into
initial story position in the text?
Taxes slip through the Net
A FAMOUS cartoon had two dogs sitting in front of a computer. "On
the Internet," ran the caption, "nobody knows you're a dog." Such anonymity poses problems for taxmen. The Internet eliminates not just national
borders but also the identity of firms and individuals doing business. As a
result, the Net will open up opportunities both to exploit tax differences and
- which makes it even more of a headache than globalization - to dodge taxes altogether. Tax nets are already torn, so globalization and new technology are making worse a problem that already exists. Even in America, where
tax evasion is thought to be smaller than in Europe, a guessed-at 15% of
total personal taxable income is concealed from the taxman
A cynic might argue that there is little evidence that governments are
finding it hard to raise revenue. Total tax revenue OECD countries climbed
to a record 38% of GDP in 1996, up from 34% of GDP in 1980. And there is
no clear evidence that high-tax countries have seen smaller increase in their
tax burdens in recent years.
It is important to remember that globalization has begun to develop
fully only in the past decade; the Internet is younger still. Their impact on
taxes is unlikely to be measurable yet. And even if they eat away just 10% of
revenues one day, that would still have a huge impact in a high-tax country.
France, for example, collects 50% of GDP in taxes. If it loses 10% of that
19
amount - 5% of GDP - the budget deficit would more than double. Or, to
keep the deficit stable, public spending on health would have to be more
than halved. Imagine what French voters would make of that.
To understand the impact of globalization on taxes, though, you do not
have to use your imagination. You can see it in the way governments have
been forces to change the structure of taxation.
In theory, on-line retailers are subject to the same tax laws as other
businesses. But how these apply to electronic commerce is a grey area. Because the Internet has no single location, it is hard to say which state has
tax jurisdiction over it.
Suppose a customer in California downloads software bought from a
firm in Seattle. The company transmits it using the Internet from a computer in Texas. Which state should tax the profit? Or say a German consumer buys a software package from a local subsidiary of an American firm.
If he goes into a shop, the profit is taxed in Germany. But if he downloads
the software over the Internet, lower, American rates apply.
As yet, electronic commerce is modest among consumers. World online consumer sales are forecast to reach only $7 billion by 2000. That is
just 0.1% of American consumer spending. In 30 years' time, however, 30%
of consumer activity could be taking place on-line, says John Neilson of
Microsoft's interactive services division. If so, and if the juridical problems
remain unsolved, then the Net would make a big dent in sales taxes.
All this gives rise to slightly different concerns in America and Europe.
Under a quirk of American law, mail-order firms are usually exempt from
state sales taxes if the buyer is in a different state. If a New Yorker buys a
case of wine from a Californian firm, then no tax is payable. The Internet
will boost such business.
Europe's problem is how to charge VAT on electronic commerce. In the
Netherlands, for instance, many people buy CDS over the Internet from
small foreign firms. Since the firms do not charge VAT, the CDS are cheaper.
Last December, the Dutch government clamped down on this wheeze by
ordering the post office to open all suspicious packages. But customs officers can hardly start opening ail the post entering a country as sales over the
Net expand.
Goods delivered by mail pose problems enough. Policing products
downloaded electronically - music and videos - will be even trickier. Small
companies cannot be expected to collect VAT from customers and then remit
the revenues to all the relevant tax authorities in every country in the world.
And if as in Canada, customers are supposed to make their own assessment
of VAT payable с anything purchased over the Internet, there will be big
leaks.
Two particular features of producing delivered over telecommunication
works will make it hard for the taxman catch tax dodgers. The first is that
the original cost of such products is close to zero.
20
It requires no additional inputs to provide an extra viewer with satellite
television. This removes the standard zего check on a firm's tax return by
company purchases of inputs with claimed one. If a firm sells software on
floppy disks then the number of blank disks purchased can be used to verify
sales. But the software is sold electronically, there no corroborating evidence.
The Internet may also reduce the rate of traditional intermediaries,
such bankers and brokers, who report transitions to tax authorities. These
intermediaries help tax inspectors compare income declared by the individual with that paid out by banks. By cutting out middleman, the Internet
removes the source of cross-checking.
Lastly, electronic money is likely make tax evasion easier. At present,
tax inspectors can check reported income spending against bank accounts
or credit card statements. But electronic cash, paper cash, can be anonymous, untraceable - and a good deal more convenient for money launderers
than lugging a case stuffed with notes around the world.
The Second World War, America's federal corporation tax yielded onethird of total federal tax revenues, more than personal income tax. Now,
corporation tax accounts for only 12% of the total and barely a quarter as
much as personal tax. In the European Union the average rate of tax on income from capital and self-employed labour fell from almost 50% in 1981 to
35% in 1994; the average tax rate on wages rose from 35% to 41%. Everywhere there has been a shift from taxing capital towards taxing less mobile
factors of production, such as workers. Personal income taxes are by far the
most important source of government revenue in all rich economies.
Will international competition cause tax regimes to change further and
converge? The answer will depend on the sort of tax. For corporate taxes,
the answer is likely to be yes. Convergence is already happening here. There
are also limits on governments' freedom to set widely-different consumption taxes. The large numbers of Britons popping over to France to buy beer
and spirits have forced the British government to cap the excise duty on
booze, because of the loss of tax revenue. Attempts in Canada to raise
sharply the tax on cigarettes to discourage smoking had to be reversed in
1994 because of massive smuggling across the United States border.
But such "sin taxes" tend to be the exception. By and large, the scope
for intereased cross-bonder shopping via, say, mail-order over the Internet
is mainly limited to low volume, high-value products. Higher rates on luxury goods, such as cameras and watches, may have to be abandoned. In contrast, the opportunities for tax arbitrage on low-value, high-volume products, such as food, are limited. For these taxes, the answer to the question
"Will taxes converge?" is likely to be no. Differences will remain between
countries' general sales taxes, which now range from around 5% in the
United States and Japan to 25% in Sweden.
21
The answer may also be no for standard rates of income tax. There are
still big social and economic obstacles to the movement of individuals
across borders, so significant income-tax differentials are likely to persist.
Language, culture, visas and qualifications prevent over-taxed Europeans
flooding into America, for instance.
In short, economic integration does not necessarily make tax rates uniform. But it does tend to encourage some of them to converge. America illustrates the point. Though capital and labour are highly mobile, tax differences are still tolerated.
State sales taxes vary from zero in Alaska to 7% in Mississippi; personal
income-tax rates from zero in Alaska to 12% in Massachusetts; corporate
tax rates from zero in Texas to 12% in Pennsylvania. However, these differences are smaller than tax differences between countries. The top personal
income-tax rate ranges from 33% in New Zealand to 65% in Japan. That
suggests that competition in America has encouraged some convergence of
tax rates there. Indeed, the differences in effective tax rates between American states are smaller than the crude figures suggest because state income
tax is deductible from the federal income-tax bill.
Read my lips
How might governments react to the pressure that globalization and
electronic commerce puts on tax regimes?
Many European politicians support such a tax, partly because Europe
(with high rates of VAT) stands to lose the most from untaxed electronic
sales. In America, which does not have a federal sales tax, the idea has been
ridiculed. True, some states, including Texas, are trying to tax Internet service-providers and transactions. But the Clinton administration rejects the
idea of any new taxes on the Net. Last November America's Treasury published a discussion paper on the tax implications of electronic commerce. It
opposed any new taxes on Internet transactions but said existing tax rules
should be applied to Internet business exactly like other forms of commerce. Fine. But how on earth can that be done?
The basic problem with a bit tax is that it is indiscriminate: it taxes not
just on-line transactions but all digital communications. Hence it would
stunt the growth of that industry. Moreover, on-line transactions would
simply take place in a state or country where there is no such tax.
So what else might government do? The unpalatable fact is that, in
coming years, they will probably be forced to shift further their tax base
from footloose factors of production, such as profits and savings, towards
consumption and labour. And even here, it may become harder to tax the
income from, and the consumption of, goods and services sold over the Internet.
22
A disturbing consequence therefore is that in a world of mobile capital,
labour is likely to bear a growing share of the tax burden - especially unskilled workers who are least mobile. This will tend to exacerbate unemployment and blue-collar resentment. Add in the fact that the Internet will
affect sales of basic necessities less than sales of luxury goods—and the result will be a more regressive tax system. Опе solution would be to tax more
heavily spending with an unavoidable physical presence, namely property.
In days gone by, kings used to collect most of their revenue from land taxes.
As recently as 1913, 6o% of American taxes came from property, against
around 10% now. How ironic it would be if the computer age required the
post-industrial world to go back to a pre-industrial tax system.
I. 1. Write out all the synonyms of “electronic commerce”.
2. Write out all the derivatives, all word combinations with “Tax”.
3. Explain the difference between the following: a tax exile, a tax dodger, a
tax refugee (p.p. 19-27).
II. Explain the words/ word combinations, quote the sentences they are
used in, translate the sentences into Russian.
electronic commerce
to evade
doing business in cyberspace
to levy
to harmonize
to impose
weightless global economy
social spending
mortgage interest relief
VAT
consumption tax
Internet sales
Modem
to hamper
to nibble away
tax exiles
23
on-line transactions
offshore
fiscal
tax revenue
refugee
exemption
loophole
land taxes
blue-collar workers
consultancy work
to zap
to converge
excise duty
cross-border shopping
low/high- volume products
arbitrage
money launderer
III. Make up 10 questions to each text (p.p. 19-27).
IV. Speak about the present day tax policy in Russia. What changes would
you, personally, recommend?
V Make graphs (with words) to illustrate: 1) variability of taxation; 2)
change of tax revenue. Introduce them to your group-mates and explain
them.
VI. Speak about tax regime in Russia.
VII. Your attitude to “sin taxes”. Where are they applicable?
Безработица и переход к рыночной экономике.
Время от времени всем обществам с рыночной экономикой
приходится решать проблему безработицы, но проблема эта может
стать особенно острой в обществах, переживающих трудный
переходный период от централизованной, управляемой государством
экономики к системе свободного рынка. И хотя упразднение
государственного контроля над ценами позволяет предложению и
спросу - движущим силам любой рыночной экономики функционировать беспрепятственно, одновременно это может вызвать
краткосрочную потерю рабочих мест. С упразднением контроля над
ценами потребительский спрос, а не государственные нормы, диктует
разнообразие товаров, предлагаемых к продаже. Ветры конкуренции,
проносящиеся по экономической структуре, вынуждают бездоходные
предприятия закрываться или сокращать количество работников, если
они хотят выжить. Результатом становится рост безработицы, ибо
компании
борются
за
сдерживание
расходов.
Лишенные
государственных дотаций, многие бизнесы, включая крупные
государственные предприятия, на которых занято большое число
рабочих, просто не в состоянии выжить в новом экономическом
порядке. Но вместе с болезнью безработицы приходят блага
освобождения цен, а также утверждение частной собственности и
предпринимательства в качестве экономической основы общества.
24
Предприниматели, видящие новые коммерческие возможности,
нанимают рабочих и производят новые товары и услуги; внутренние и
иностранные бизнесы ищут возможности прибыльных инвестиций.
Возрастает не только число рабочих мест, но, с расцветом новых
предприятий, увеличивается их разнообразие, повышая гибкость
рынка рабочих мест и создавая возможности выбора для рабочих.
Во многих случаях различия между рабочим и предпринимателем
могут стираться, поскольку отдельные люди получают навыки,
работая в одной компании, а затем покидают ее, чтобы организовать
собственные компании и производить новые, лучшие или более
дешевые продукты в той же области. Коэффициент безработицы, как и
инфляции, постепенно падает с укреплением растущей, динамичной к
гибкой рыночной экономики.
Но безработица ни в коей мере не исчезает вовсе, даже в
процветающих, утвердившихся обществах с рыночной экономикой.
При рыночной экономике определенное число работающих постоянно
меняют место работы или, вступая на рынок рабочей силы, ждут
возможности найти первое место работы. Это явление называется
фрикционной безработицей и во многих аспектах просто является
отражением свободы и мобильности работников, позволяющей им
искать лучшие рабочие места с наилучшей оплатой и наиболее
удовлетворительными условиями.
Поскольку работники, временно являющиеся безработными,
обычно вскоре находят работу и поскольку их решение поменять
место работы является добровольным, фрикционная безработица в
общем и целом не считается серьезной проблемой рыночной
экономики. На практике определенный процент рабочей силы в
большинстве стран с мобильной рабочей силой в любое отдельно
взятое время будет временно безработным, и в целом экономисты
классифицируют такие типы экономики как экономику с полной
занятостью.
К сожалению, два других вида безработицы не столь безобидны:
это
циклическая,
«структурная»
безработица.
Циклическая
безработица возникает, когда уровень расходов и производства в
экономике уменьшается и страны вступают в период рецессий или
депрессии. Высокий уровень безработицы является, на самом деле,
ключевым показателем серьезности этих спадов. В момент самого
глубокого спада во время великой депрессии, например, 25 процентов
рабочей силы в Европе и в Соединенных Штатах были безработными.
Это именно тот вид безработицы, сражаться с которым призваны
денежно-кредитная и финансово-бюджетная политика страны
Структурная безработица затрагивает тех рабочих, которые не
имеют образования, квалификации или опыта работы, необходимых
для того, чтобы оставаться занятым в сегодняшней экономике.
25
Например, многие, рабочие места требуют высокой квалификации
или способности быстро обучаться новым процедурам и технике с
помощью технических руководств или коротких курсов подготовки.
Подобным же образом занятие вакансий в так называемый век
информации требует определенных уровней образования и знании, в
области средств коммуникаций, языков, естественных наук и
менеджмента.
Хотя структурная безработица отражается лишь на небольшом
проценте рабочих, в экономике в любое данное время, решение этой
проблемы может занять много времени и средств.
Общественные затраты на безработицу часто измеряются в
терминах объема товаров и услуг, которые не производятся, когда
некоторые работники не имеют работы. Это серьезные затраты,
потому что утраченное производство обычно утрачено навсегда и его
нельзя наверстать. Но личные затраты на безработицу могут быть еще
более серьезными и разорительными для работников и их семей:
потеря дохода и сбережений почти неизбежна, а в некоторых случаях
это еще потеря машины и дома, что вёдет к волнениям,
психологическим депрессиям, семейным конфликтам, а порой даже к
преступлениям. По этим причинам правительства почти во всех
странах с рыночной экономикой предоставляют пособия по
безработице работникам на разные периоды времени, а также много
различных программ подготовки.
Несмотря на все эти неоспоримо сложные проблемы, было бы
ошибкой полагать, что безработица - это то явление, которое должно
постоянно волновать работников в рыночной экономике. Начиная с
1930 года, например, почти каждый год большинство всех
безработных в таких странах, как США, были фрикционными
безработными, а не цикличными и не структурными. И в большинстве
случаев люди не остаются безработными длительное время.
В Соединенных Штатах Америки около 70 процентов случаев
сокращения производства затрагивают работников, которые уволены
только на время и возвращаются на работу к своим бывшим
работодателям. И примерно половина из этих безработных, не
имеющих работы в данный месяц, оказываются занятыми в
следующий. В конкурентных рынках рабочей силы рабочие,
уволенные
в
связи
с
сокращением
производства,
могут
воспользоваться другими вакансиями или получить дополнительную
квалификацию.
I. Render the text. Use the following:
Transition
market economy
managed economy
to create\offer job opportunities
unemployment rate
friction unemployment
26
offer\demand
advent of liberated prices
consumer goods
non\competitive
to restrict
expenditure
state subsidies
goods and services
foreign and domestic investments
flexibility
labour force market
mobile
zero-unemployment
cyclic
recession, downfall, depression,
crisis
structural
to update\upgrade one’s qualification
social expenditure
unemployment relief money(the
dole)
vacancies
II. Speak about the varieties of unemployment in Russia at present.
III. What can you say of women’s unemployment.
Иностранная иммиграция в Россию
Мировая экономика и международные отношения № 3, 2004
За годы реформ наша страна вошла в тройку ведущих мировых
центров иммиграции (после США и Германии). В среднем в 1992-2002
г.г. за год США «впитывали» 925 тыс. человек, Германия – 865 тыс.
Для России соответствующий показатель был на уровне 610 тыс.
Основными факторами развития такой тенденции являются:
- геополитическое переустройство постсоветского пространства,
изменение национально-политической ориентации в государствах
старого и нового зарубежья;
- развал в республиках бывшего СССР крупных промышленных
предприятий (особенно в высокотехнологичных отраслях), на
которых работало в основном русскоязычное население;
- более прочное экономическое положение и более высокий уровень
жизни в Росси по сравнению со странами СНГ, Азии, Африки,
Ближнего и Среднего Востока;
- развитие в результате экономических реформ на российском
рынке труда альтернативных форм занятости, связанных с
расширением частного сектора, индивидуальной трудовой

В 2002 г. среднемесячная заработная плата (при расчёте по обменным
курсам) в Азербайджане равнялась 64,8 долл., в Армении46,1, в Белоруссии
106,2, в Грузии 46,3, в Казахстане 132,8, в Киргизии 34,5, в Молдавии 50,2, в
Таджикистане 12,4, в Украине 70,5, в России 141,2 долл. (см.: Содружество
Независимых Государств в 2002 году. М., 2003. с. 134).
27
деятельности, смешанных форм собственности с участием
иностранного капитала.
Анализ официальных статистических данных об иммиграции в
Россию подводит к двум основным выводам.
1. Въезд в страну иммигрантов из дальнего и ближнего зарубежья в
1992-2002 г.г. характеризуется понижательной тенденцией с 1995
г.
2. Основной поток иммигрантов составляют жители бывших
союзных республик (стран СНГ и Балтии).
Обращает на себя внимание несовпадение географической
структуры иммиграции населения и структуры официально
регистрируемой иностранной рабочей силы. За годы реформ
совокупный поток иммигрирующего в Россию населения в
подавляющем объёме формировался за счёт республик СНГ и Балтии.
В структуре же используемой иностранной рабочей силы соотношение
по странам её происхождения совсем иное – в указанный период доля
стран Балтии и СНГ в среднем находилось на уровне 49%, дальнего
зарубежья – 51%. У этого явления две причины. Во-первых, в отличие
от приезжающих из стран дальнего зарубежья иммиграционный
поток из стран СНГ и Балтии включал не только трудовой контингент,
но и членов семей. Во-вторых, преобладающему числу иммигрантов
из государств СНГ гораздо легче удавалось (и удаётся) избегать
официальной регистрации при найме на работу, что, в прочем, не
снижает остроты проблемы нелегальной трудовой иммиграции из
стран дальнего зарубежья.
По официальным данным, в притоке иммигрантов в Россию из
стран СНГ в годы реформ преобладали в основном жители Казахстана,
Украины,
Узбекистана,
Киргизии,
Грузии,
Молдавии
и
Туркменистана, а из стран дальнего зарубежья – Китая, Турции, КНДР
и республик бывшей СФРЮ.
Как показывает мировая практика, для страны-реципиента рост
иммиграции имеет положительные и отрицательные стороны. Для
России положительным являлось то, что за счёт иностранных граждан
была в значительной мере решена проблема нехватки рабочей силы в
трудодефицитных отраслях экономики и регионах страны (нефте- и
газодобыча в Западной Сибири, содержание и развитие
инфраструктуры в городах-мегаполисах). Кроме того, миграционный
приток из-за рубежа позволил более чем наполовину компенсировать
естественную убыль населения России в 1992-2002 г.г.
Проблема нелегалов
Однако экономические и социальные издержки иммиграционной
политики, проводившейся в России в 90-е годы, оказались гораздо
28
весомее, чем приобретения. Это связано прежде всего с такой
типичной для всех стран, принимающих ресурсы из-за рубежа,
тенденцией, как нелегальная иммиграция. Её развитие, помимо
указанных выше общих факторов роста иммиграционных потоков, в
России стимулируется слабостью законодательства в отношении
въезда, пребывания и занятости иностранцев, отсутствием
эффективной системы иммиграционного контроля, прозрачностью
границ со странами СНГ, наличием влиятельных национальных
диаспор, связи которых с этнической родиной облегчают начальный
этап миграции и провоцируют её дальнейшее развитие;
географическим положением России, удобным для транзита из Азии в
Европу; высоким уровнем и быстрым ростом теневой экономики и
коррупцией части властного аппарата.
Нелегальная иммиграция по определению не может быть
количественно точно отражена на официальном уровне. По оценке
Федеральной миграционной службы МВД России, Госкомстата,
пограничной и налоговой служб, в стране нелегально проживает от 3
до 10 млн. граждан прежде всего из республик СНГ, Китая, Вьетнама,
КНДР, Афганистана, африканских государств.
Негативные стороны этого явления:
- утечка из России в масштабных объёмах финансовых, в том числе
валютных, средств за счёт ухода от уплаты налогов и приобретения
западной валюты с последующим её переводом на родину;
- формирование «иноземных» этнических анклавов в регионах
страны, не испытывающих недостатка в трудовых ресурсах. Из-за
наплыва иммигрантов там усложняется ситуация на рынке труда
(южные районы России – Краснодарский и Ставропольский края,
Ростовская область, нижнее и среднее Поволжье). Эти
расширяющиеся анклавы носят всё более закрытый характер,

По словам начальника Федеральной миграционной службы МВД России А.
Черненко, в 2002 г. в России было официально зарегестрировано300 тыс.
трудовых мигрантов, хотя их в стране порядка 4,5 млн. Заместитель
руководителя администрации президента В. Иванов приводит следующие
данные. Государство получает от одного среднестатистического иммигранта
всего около 20 руб. налоговых поступлений в год. Денежные суммы,
вывозимые из России мигрантами из некоторых республик СНГ, превышают
объёмы годовых инвестиций в их национальные экономики. Примечательно,
что до 76% иностранной рабочей силы (то есть во много раз больше, чем
отражается в официальной статистике) занято в сфере торговли и услуг.
Именно в этом секторе наиболее высока оборачиваемость капитала и
возможность ухода от уплаты налогов (см.: Экономика и жизнь. 2002. № 39;
Эксперт. 27.08.2002).
29
-
игнорируют российские законы и обычаи коренного населения,
что всё чаще приводит к межнациональным конфликтам;
растущие претензии нелегальных иммигрантов, включая их
многочисленных родственников, на пользование дефицитными
услугами
социальной
инфраструктуры
нашей
страны
(здравоохранение, образование), что усиливает негативное
отношение коренного населения к приезжим и утяжеляет
нагрузку на местные бюджеты. К тому же иммигранты, как
правило, обладают значительно большими финансовыми
средствами.
I. Render the texts; which points seem exaggerated? Unfeasible? Supply
your own examples to illustrate min points of the text
Как свести счёты с жизнью
Коммерсант, 2 августа 2004
На этой неделе Госдума примет во втором и третьем чтениях
правительственный законопроект о замене натуральных льгот
денежными компенсациями. Из 33 млн. российских льготников
больше всего от этого пострадают горожане, жители бедных
регионов и севера России.
Мировая практика
В развитых странах система социальной поддержки построена по
принципу адресности. То есть льготы достаются именно тем, кому они
действительно
необходимы.
К
примеру,
во
Франции
предоставление льготы на бесплатное приобретение лекарств зависит
не от возраста и социального положения гражданина, а от характера и
тяжести заболевания. Можно и в 20 лет пользоваться бесплатными
лекарствами, а можно и в 80 платить за них полную цену. Такой же
адресный подход используется при оплате жилищно-коммунальных
услуг – возможность получения льгот по ЖКХ зависит от уровня
доходов, а не от возраста или заслуг перед обществом. Впрочем, есть
во Франции и незначительное число социально-возрастных льгот. К
ним относится право посещать музеи и кинотеатры бесплатно либо по
сниженным тарифам, а также возможность приобретать со скидкой
железнодорожные и авиабилеты.
Второй особенностью системы соцподдержки в большинстве
европейских стран является весьма ограниченный набор льгот.
Минимален он в И т а л и и , где категорий льготников всего две –
парламентарии и инвалиды войны первой группы. «Обычные»
инвалиды каких-либо скидок по оплате жилья или других услуг не
получают – только пенсию по инвалидности. При этом до начала 90-х
30
льгот в Италии было несколько больше, например, у отдельных
категорий рабочих и служащих. В частности, железнодорожники и
члены их семей имели право на бесплатный проезд по железной
дороге. Однако в начале 1990-х в рамках операции по борьбе с
коррупцией «Чистые руки» все эти льготы были отменены без какихлибо денежных компенсаций.
Весьма немногочисленные льготы государство предоставляет в
В е л и к о б р и т а н и и . Основной из них считается оплата зимнего
топлива для тех домов, где оно используется. Семья, где есть 65-летние
пенсионеры, может претендовать на сумму в 200 фунтов, по
достижении пенсионером 70-летнего возраста - 300, а после 80 лет –
400 фунтов. Для пенсионеров существуют специальные льготные
тарифы на проезд в междугородних рейсах автобусов и поездов. Есть
для них скидки и на билеты на концерты, в оперу и на спортивные
состязания. При этом стоимость билетов на транспорт и зрелища
субсидируется из доходов частных компаний.
Зачастую основной набор льгот приходится на медобеспечение. К
примеру, в И с п а н и и самой существенной льготой является выдача
бесплатных лекарств пенсионерам. Для лиц, приближающихся к
пенсионному возрасту, действует 40-процентная скидка на
медикаменты. Перечень лекарств ограничен специальным списком
(при этом в Испании действует всеобщее бесплатное медицинское
обслуживание).
К системе здравоохранения относится и большинство льгот в
Г р е ц и и . В частности, застрахованный по достижении пенсионного
возраста
получает
медпомощь, предусмотренную
договором
страхования. По страховке получает он и лекарства. Кроме того,
существует программа, которая позволяет за счёт пенсионной
страховки бесплатно ездить в отпуск. О бесплатности этих услуг речь
не идёт, поскольку страховые взносы со своей зарплаты (порядка 20%)
будущий пенсионер выплачивает на протяжении всей трудовой
жизни.
Ничего подобного 600-страничному законопроекту о монетизации
льгот депутаты не принимали: одобренный документ вносит
изменения в 155 действующих законов, в которых так или иначе идёт
речь о льготах. Кроме того, он отменяет или приостанавливает
действие 41 закона, декларировавшего установление льгот, на
практике не финансировавшихся. Суть законопроекта известна –
льготы для 14 млн. российских инвалидов, ветеранов, чернобыльцев,
блокадников и доноров будут заменены на денежные выплаты из
федерального бюджета в размере от 500 до 2000 руб. в месяц. Заботу о
ещё 19 млн. льготников (ветераны труда, труженики тыла,
31
репрессированные) должны взять на себя регионы. Они сами должны
решить, проводить им монетизацию льгот или оставить всё как есть.
Кроме компенсации, льготникам будет предоставлен соцпакет. Это
минимальный набор из трёх льгот (проезд на электричке, карта на
получение бесплатных лекарств и санаторно-курортное лечение),
остающихся для гражданина фактически бесплатными. Точнее,
льготники будут получать этот набор после удержания из суммы
компенсации 450 руб. В 2005 году приобретение соцпакета для
льготника будет обязательным, а с 2006 года – добровольным.
Такова общая картина. Попробуем спрогнозировать, как
нововведения скажутся на жизни конкретных льготников. Это в
огромной степени будет зависеть от того. Где они живут – в городе или
в сельской местности, в богатом или бедном регионе, на севере или на
юге России.
Город и село
Если правительству удастся воплотить задуманное, очевидно, что
сельские жители после монетизации окажутся в более выгодном
положении, чем городские. Сельские инвалиды и ветераны (основная
часть федеральных льготников) в большинстве и так не пользовались
данными им привилегиями. Бесплатный проезд на городском
транспорте для них не актуален, право на бесплатные лекарства при
скудном ассортименте сельского аптечного пункта нереализуемо,
санаторно-курортное лечение по направлению врача – экзотика.
Разумеется, после монетизации доступнее эти услуги для селян не
станут – новых дорог, аптек и санаториев не появится. Однако взамен
бумажных льгот в следующем году они получат деньги.
А вот население крупных городов пользуется льготами более
активно. Помимо уже перечисленных лекарств, санаторного лечения
и проезда на общественном транспорте городской инвалид не вносить
абонентскую плату за пользование телефоном, может бесплатно
изготовить зубные протезы, и даже попробовать получить «Оку». С
нового года всё это для него станет платным. Вице-спикер Думы
Георгий Боос признаёт, что активно пользующиеся льготами
горожане от монетизации потеряют.
I.
Render the text, making your own position clear.
II. Environmental Issues
32
Environmental Science. Action for a Sustainable Future
Daniel D. Chiras, Colorado, 1992
Prologue
In an outlying village in Ethiopia, two children are lowered into a communal grave that houses the bodies of others who have died in recent days.
Villagers stare vacantly at the men who cover the bodies with dirt; to the
friends and relatives of these children who watch, death has lost much of its
significance. Against the constant hunger and death, few mourn another
child’s passing.
Worldwide, 700 people will die from starvation, extreme malnutrition,
or infectious disease stemming from food shortages in the half hour it takes
you to watch the evening news. This year alone, the death toll from hunger
and associated diseases is estimated to be 40 million people. This is the
equivalent of 300 jumbojets, each carrying 400 passengers, crashing with
no survivors every day of the year. Almost half of the victims are children.
Despite an outpouring of aid from the rich nations, hundreds of millions
will die in years to come.
A False Sense of Security?
For Africans of the southern Sahara, the future looks bleak. Long-term
drought, overpopulation, continued misuse of the land, and political struggles all create spreading deserts that swallow farmland at an alarming rate.
In this dilemma, nature dictates an extreme solution: people must die to
reestablish the balance.
But what about those of us in the wealthy nations of the world? Need
we worry? To many people, the answer is no. Resource shortages are a
thing of the past. Newspaper headlines assure us of an “oil glut” that has
forced the oil-producing countries to slash prices, a move that has helped
ensure economic stability in many countries. Some critics believe that our
sense of security is illusory. But why not feel secure; with an ally as powerful as technology, how could we not prosper?
Part of the answer may lie in the way we mistreat our soil, perhaps our
greatest resource of all. In the United States, for example, farmers currently
cultivate 170 million hectares (421 million acres) of land. According to estimates by the Department of Agriculture, nearly one half of the United
States’ farmland is eroding faster than it can be replaced by natural processes. Making matters worse, there is very little land in reserve to replace
the prime land now eroding away. Some experts believe that crop production could fall by 10% to 30% in the United States in the next 50 years if soil
erosion continues unchecked. Costs of food will rise as good farmland is
destroyed. The United States may lose its position as a leading food exporter. Grain shipments to hungry nations may be reduced as well, unless
something is done… quickly.
33
Consider also one of our most valuable resources, oil, thought by many
to be the lifeblood of industrial societies. Oil’s economic importance to developed nations became clear in the 1970s when per-barrel prices jumped
from $ 3.00 to over $ 35.
A whirlwind of inflation began, perilously gripping the industrial world,
nearly halting industrial production. The American economy was driven to
its knees. Millions of workers were laid off as inflation brought industrial
production to a near standstill.
Despite current, short-term gluts and falling prices, the long-range future of oil is dim. Estimated worldwide oil supplies will last only 65 more
years at current consumption. Should consumption rise, as expected, even
fewer oil years await us. Clearly, time is running out for oil.
Long before our wells run dry, however, the rich, oil dependent nations
could begin to flounder. By some estimates, somewhere around 2000 or
2010 global oil production will fall short of demand, sending prices sharply
upward. The inflation of the 1970s will seem like warm spring breezes compared to the hurricane winds of global inflation.
You and I, and millions of people like us, will very likely see the end of
oil within our lifetimes. The time is ripe for charting new paths, but this
nation and others are sitting back, doing very little to develop alternative
fuels and cut existing waste.
Declining resources are only part of the threat to modern society. Pollution and development also threaten to destroy the delicate web of life.
Foremost on the list of pollutants is acid rain and snow.
Today, over 245 ponds and lakes in the Adirondacks have lost their
aquatic life because of acids from industry and transportation. Deposited by
rain and snow, these acids kill fish, algae, and aquatic plants. In southern
Sweden 20000 lakes are without or soon to be without fish because of
widespread acid deposition. In Canada, 100 lakes have met a similar fate.
But the effect of acid rain is felt much wider. For instance, much of the
once-rich Black Forest in Germany has been poisoned by this toxic rain.
As these examples suggest, the environment is in trouble – and so are
we. Despite more than 20 years of effort and significant gains in environmental legislation, most of our environmental problems are growing worse.
Consider some examples:

Since 1970, world population has increased by 1.6 billion people,
climbing from 3.7 billion to 5.3 billion. Today, we’re adding nearly 90
million people to the world population each year.

Since 1970, the number of species on the official list of endangered
and threatened species has increased from 92 to 539 (in 1989).

Since 1970, annual global carbon dioxide emissions have increased
from 3.9 billion metric tons to over 5.2 billion tons.

Since 1970, the number of African elephants has declined from 4.5
million to only about 500000.
34
The past 20 years has seen America grow to be a world leader in waste
production. Today, Americans throw away 160 million tons of municipal
garbage each year.
That’s enough to fill the superdome two times a day, 365 days a year the equivalent of about 1300 pounds of trash for every man, woman and
child each year.
Each year, American industries produce an estimated 250-280 million
tons of hazardous wastes (over 2000 pounds of hazardous waste for every
man, woman, and child in this country).
Pollution is choking our cities. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 110 million Americans live in air considered hazardous to their
health. An estimated 50000 Americans die prematurely each year as a result of air pollution.
The long-term future of the world is in jeopardy. It is not just the poor
of Ethiopia or Chad or Sudan who stand to lose, but also the wealthy residents who make up one-fourth of the world’s population but consume 80%
of its resources. The rich and the poor are locked in a crisis created by overpopulation, vanishing resources, and excessive pollution.
Paul Valery once noted that the tragedy of our times is that the future is
not what it used to be. In reality, though, the future is rarely what we think
it will be. The tragedy of our times is that few people realize that the future
has changed. We are, as a whole, going about our daily lives as if nothing
has happened, lulled into complacency by old and fairly unrealistic dreams.
Oil gluts, falling gasoline prices, and economic stability have given us a false
sense of security at a time when we need, more than anything, three key
ingredients: foresight, planning, and action - both individually and collectively.
This book examines the crisis of population, resources, and pollution
that engulfs humankind. You will find it a hopeful book, filled with solutions. It views our dilemma in much the same way that the Chinese view
crises. Their word for crisis is wei-chi. The first part means “beware of danger”. The second part means “opportunity for change”.
In this spirit, I invite you to look at the critical paths we are now on.
You will see that the human race can survive and prosper. But changes
must be made - big changes in the way we think and the ways we act.
The Secrets of Nature
What alterations in our course are necessary? Experts disagree, but
many believe that the key to our long-term survival lies in the widely ignored lessons of nature.
Consider these facts: undisturbed ecosystems persist for decades, centuries, even millions of years.
The rate of extinction in such ecosystems is low. Human society, on the
other hand, now wipes out a vertebrate (backboned) species every nine
35
months and itself faces global extinction after only a relatively short stay on
earth.
Why is it that nature persists while we deplete and destroy? The secret
of nature is that survival hinges on a sustainable system - a system that
perpetuates itself without destroying the very things that permit life to continue.
Nature capitalizes on four major strategies to meet this end.
The first is recycling. The global ecosystem is a consummate recycler.
Water, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and all other substances are used over and
over. The long-term future of humankind depends on following a similar
direction.
Nature’s second secret is the use of renewable resources – resources
that renew themselves through natural biological or physical and chemical
processes.
Wood, water, and wind are examples. For millennia, humankind heated
its homes with wood, reaped the riches of the biological world for food, and
fashioned its goods from flax and other plant products. Only in the past 200
years has our allegiance to renewable resources wavered. Today, we depend
heavily on a variety of nonrenewable substances: fuel, plastics, and synthetic fabrics made from oil; metals; and so on. Our new dependency, many
think, is a dangerous trap. It cannot be sustained indefinitely. Our longterm future requires a greater dependency on resources in a from of selfcare.
Nature’s third secret is conservation. A flat wildebeest or an obese ostrich do not exist in nature. For the most part, organisms use what they
need - no more, no less. Modern industrial societies, on the other hand, are
often gluttonous, overeating, wastefully consuming and recklessly depleting. Ecologists warn us that we cannot do so forever with impunity.
The fourth secret of nature is population control. Through a variety of
ways, populations of living things are kept from living beyond their means.
Predators trim the prey populations. Diseases eliminate the weak and aged.
Environmental conditions keep populations from exploding. For humans,
technological advances, medicine and sanitation have removed many of the
natural barriers to human population explosion .The upshot of the rapid
human population expansion is often foul-smelling skies, filthy water and
landscapes devoid of vegetation and animal life. The ecosystem is sacrificed
to continue population growth. Most ecologists agree that we must learn to
control our numbers to preserve the global ecosystem.
Such are the secrets of nature: recycling, renewable resources, conservation and population control. It is ironic that today we must go back to
nature to relearn these forgotten lessons. If we are to survive for thousands
of years to come, we must build a sustainable society, a society that lives in
harmony with nature,
36
Not a society that seeks complete domination over all living things or
destroys its renewable resource base. Building a sustainable society does
not mean reverting to a primitive existence, it means using resources in a
pattern laid down by nature.
Frontiers
A great frontier lies ahead of us. It is not the great expanse of space or
the oceanic depths that we must conquer, but rather it is ourselves. Ahead
of us lies the greatest and sometimes most inaccessible frontier - that of
self-understanding and self-control. Before we race further into space to
satisfy our needs, we must learn to look deeper within ourselves and find
ways to build a sustainable society.
We can achieve such a society within our lifetimes, but each of us must
help.
Individuals must do more than pay lip service to recycling, conservation, renewable resources, and population control, and they must take action now.
This book looks at the problems and suggests ways to build a sustainable society.
It concerns itself more with the long-term future of humankind, recognizing fully that we must make changes now to transition smoothly into
sustainability. Some of you may wonder why we should worry about future
generations. Shouldn’t we let them fend for themselves? And why should
we change our ways now? Part of the answer is that we hold the future in
our hands. At no time in history has the present generation had such potential to shape the future. The decisions we make on nuclear energy, acid rain
and tropical rainforests will affect our sons and daughters and their children more profoundly than they will affect us. It is for this reason alone that
we must rethink the past and redefine the future.
A sustainable society will not be a radical departure from our current
way. In fact, many examples of sustainability are now commonplace, like
bottle bills, battery recycling, water conservation, and wilderness preservation. It takes only a small effort and a little wisdom to get back on track.
Abraham Lincoln said it best:
“As the times are new, so we must think and act anew.” Let this be our
challenge: to see that the future is no longer what it used to be and to build
an enduring future.
I Explain the meaning of these words/word combinations; Quote the sentence in which they occur; translate them into Russian.
Malnutrition
to stem from
to outpour
vertebrate species
to deplete
to hinge
37
upshot
sustainable society
to pay lip service
oil glut
to mistreat
allegiance
wildebeest
to trim
consummate
flax
algae
gluttonous
municipal garbage
to fend for oneself
to flounder
to lull
impunity
hazardous
II Ask 5 questions to the text.
III Give a summary of the text.
IV Comment on the Secrets of Nature.
V Choose 10 lines of the text for a pair dictation. Check the portion in class.
VI Give the gist of the text (p.p. …).
VII Look through 2 weeks’ – one month of any quality daily/weekly recent
issues (one country). What ecological issues are being raised? Are they
given due prominence-leader, accompanied by illustrations? Prepare a
cover up for the group. What makes the given text sound dramatic?
Comment on its stylistic peculiarities.
OZONE AND THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT.
"l сентября" — приложение к газете «Ecology»
There has been considerable interest in ozone and the greenhouse effect recently. They are issues which seem to be bothering many people. But
there is also a lot of confusion, particularly concerning the role, played by
gases such as ozone.
GROUND-LEVEL AND HIGH-LEVEL OZONE.
1. Most of the oxygen molecules in the earth's atmosphere contain two
oxygen atoms. This is known as diatomic oxygen and it makes up 20.95% of
our atmosphere. It is this type of oxygen that we need to breathe. However,
the two atoms can be split up by solar radiation and when each of these
then joins with diatomic oxygen, the result is a three-atom molecule of oxygen. This triatomic form of oxygen is called ozone. The earth's ozone is
found mainly in two areas: either at ground level or high above our heads.
The presence of ozone can be a good or a bad thing... it depends on where it
is.
2. Ozone is poisonous and damaging - this makes ground-level ozone a
problem. Although it does occur naturally, human activities are increasing
the amount of ozone that we breathe. Action is needed to reduce ozone on
the earth's surface.
About 90% of the ozone in the earth's atmosphere is located in the
stratosphere - a band 15-50 km above our heads. This fragile layer, known
38
as the ozone layer, is crucial to our life on the planet. It absorbs 99 per cent
of the ultraviolet (UV) radiation of the sun. Without the ozone layer, this
radiation would probably kill most of us. It is the damage being caused to
this layer that is worrying people. We need to take measures to protect it.
3. These two problems can't balance each other out. We need to find
different solutions for both issues.
Some human activities produce ozone and these levels can be high
enough to cause damage to our health, and to animals, trees, plants, crops
and everyday materials. Increasing levels of ground-level ozone also adds to
the acid rain and greenhouse effect problems.
Ozone does not come directly out of car exhausts or chimneys. It is
formed when other pollutants react in sunlight. The other pollutants need
to be present before ozone can be produced and, therefore, ozone is known
as a secondary pollutant (the others are called primary pollutants). The
main pollutants causing ozone are nitrogen oxides and unburned hydrocarbons. An important source of both pollutants is road traffic. Ozone isn't
formed straight away: there is usually a delay until the other pollutants
have reacted in sunlight - this may take several hours.
4. High concentrations of ozone form mainly during sunny days in or
near towns which have a lot of road traffic. One survey has shown that
towns with a population of 100000 or more can cause a build up of ozone in
neighbouring countryside. You are not safe if you live well away from a big
town. Ozone can be transported long distances - sometimes over 1000 km.
If there is a wind carrying the primary pollutants away from the town,
the highest levels of ozone may not occur until they have had time to react.
This may be a long way from the source of pollution. That's the trouble with
this type of pollution... it has no respect for neighbours' rights.
5. Increased amounts of ozone at ground level are usually caused by a
combination of pollutants and local weather. On days when there is a daytime temperature inversion they are stuck in a band of air close to the
ground. They can't escape and their levels can build up dangerously.
Southern California in the USA was the first area to experience severe
ground-level ozone pollution. People started complaining of eye and chest
irritation as far back as the 1940s; the problem is still there.
Ozone is poisonous and can damage people's health. Even at low concentration it can cause irritation of eyes, nose, throat and chest. Children
and the aged are most at risk, particularly if they already suffer from chest
complaints and blood diseases. Ozone alerts have been broadcast in many
countries - such as the United States, Japan and the UK - for several years.
Groups that are "at risk" are advised to go inside and avoid exercise when
there is an ozone alert.
6. Unfortunately, just because ozone levels don't remain high all the
time it doesn't mean that we are safe. Short bursts of breathing ozone are
just as damaging as prolonged exposure. Hiding indoors may not even be
39
enough... ozone can be produced by some electrical equipment. For example, badly maintained photocopiers can produce quite high levels of ozone,
particularly when they are put in small, poorly ventilated rooms.
7. Natural and man-made materials are also affected. Ozone can be an
important link in the build up of acid air pollution - a huge problem around
the world. It can also weaken textiles and cause paints and pigments to
fade. Many museums and art galleries have installed air-conditioning
equipment to prevent damage to paintings and valuables. Rubber is particularly prone to ozone damage which causes it to harden and crack. Many
car tyres and insulating materials are now treated with chemicals to prevent
attack by ozone. World-wide, up to 30% of air pollution damage to manmade materials could be caused by ozone.
8. Ground-level ozone damages plants - in certain conditions it may kill
them. It attacks cell membranes and internal structures of the leaf, affecting
photosynthesis and respiration of the plant. The first sign of visible damage
is that the plant's leaves start to go blotchy and eventually drop off. Ozonedamaged plants may be more sensitive to climatic change and attack be
pests and diseases.
9. In recent years forests throughout the world have been showing increasing signs of damage, and ozone is thought to be one of the main causes
in some areas - including Western Europe and North America. It is particularly damaging when combined with other air-borne pollutants - to make
the solid pollutant cocktail. Agricultural crops which can be damaged by
ozone include potatoes, tomatoes, soya bean and spinach. In the USA ozone
damage may cause a 20% reduction in crop yields.
I. Ask two questions to each subdivision of the text.
II. Make a semantic map/ collage of the text.
CARBON DIOXIDE AND THE "GREENHOUSE EFFECT"
A greenhouse, as you know, is a building whose sides and roof are made
of glass - so that the temperature inside is magnified. And it's used to grow
plants that need high temperatures. I mention this to illustrate an example
of how man could be causing changes to the climate. These changes result
from increasing the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, thus raising
the surface temperature of the Earth. And this could cause what is known as
the "Greenhouse Effect".
Let's start with carbon dioxide – CO2. CO2 is a normal component of the
atmosphere, and until recently has not been considered an air pollutant.
But average global CO2 concentrations have been increasing since 1860
with a particularly sharp increase since 1958. The main reason for this continuous increase in CO2 build-up is the burning of fossil fuels. In the past
40
100 years, the CO2 content of the atmosphere has already risen by about
15%.
How does an increased concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere influence the Earth's temperature? Well, the answer is that although the CO2
content in the atmosphere is only about 0,032%, it's a major factor in determining average global temperature, in what's known as the "Greenhouse
Effect". You see, incoming sunlight consists of many wavelengths, including
some very dangerous ones. But ozone in the upper atmosphere, and water
vapour and CO2 in the lower atmosphere filter out or destroy most of the
harmful wavelengths. So what reaches the Earth is mostly visible light. It's
absorbed by land, sea and cloud, and is reradiated into the atmosphere as
longer wavelength infrared (IR) radiation, or heat, as the Earth cools. Now
this is where we run across the "Greenhouse Effect". Much of this IR radiation is absorbed by CO2. The CO2 then radiates a portion of the absorbed
heat energy back to the Earth, to warm the atmosphere. Rather like the
glass in a greenhouse or a car window on a sunny day, we see that the CO 2
in the atmosphere acts as a one-way filter that allows visible light to enter
the Earth's atmosphere, but prevents longer wave-length heat radiation
from leaving. Assuming that energy is arriving from the sun at a constant
rate, then as the level of CO2 increases, the average surface temperature of
the Earth should rise.
This possible effect of CO2 on the Earth's climate was first mooted in
1863, but it was only taken up by scientists as a serious matter in 1956. It's
now held that a projected increase in CO2 concentration in the year 2000
could cause the average air temperature near the Earth to increase by about
0,5°C. A doubling of CO 2 levels - which with increasing fossil fuel consumption might occur by the year 2050 - could raise the average temperature by
about 2°C.
A 1 to 2°C change would significantly modify global climate. It could
trigger the relatively rapid melting of the floating Arctic ice pack. Eventually, even the land-based Antarctic ice might slowly melt. Once set in motion,
these changes would be irreversible, and would probably last for millions of
years.
And what would be the effects of all this? Gradual melting of the landbased Antarctic ice could eventually raise world sea levels by 70 to 100 metres. This would flood about 20% of the Earth's present land area, including
most of the major cities and the flood plains that produce most of our food.
This process, if it occurred, would probably take place very slowly over at
least 1000 years.
Melting of the Arctic ice cap and glaciers, however, would be much
more rapid. Since the Arctic ice pack is afloat, its melting would not raise
the water level in the oceans. But the absence of the Arctic ice pack would
change ocean currents, and undoubtedly would trigger major unpredictable
changes in climate. Subpolar regions would probably become warmer; and
41
the weather in many other parts of the world would become drier, thus affecting water supplies and food-growing capacity.
This is the hypothesis, then. But what's actually happening? According
to this "greenhouse model", the Earth's average temperature should have
increased by about 0,2°C between I860 and the present day because of the
increase in CO2. But the facts are puzzling. Between 1880 and 1940, the average global temperature rose about 0,6°C, but it has fallen about 0,3°C
since 1945 - the period of greatest expansion in the burning of fossil fuels.
This fall since 1945 certainly doesn't tie in with the "greenhouse model".
Nonetheless, there has still been a net rise of 0,3°C in the last 100 years.
And (as we have seen) even a small rise such as this could eventually have a
significant effect on the Earth's climate.
I. Explain the word/ words, quote the sentence it/ they occur in, translate
the sentence into Russian.
carbon dioxide
build up
fossil fuels
wavelength
IR
to moot
to trigger
ice pack
glacier
to tie in with
net rise
one-way filter
II. What is the role of one-way filter?
III. Speak of the hypothetic dangers of the “Greenhouse effect”.
IV. Make a semantic map of the text.
V. Study the map of Great Britain and America and say which territory is
likely to disappear under water and how it’s going to affect the country’s
economy.
SPACE-ACG cabs
The Economist, 1999
London taxis are best known for their distinctive black bodies and their
smelly, rattling diesel engines. But the rattle could be about to disappear,
for Zevco (the Zero Emission Vehicle Company), a small Anglo-Belgian
firm, has just launched the world's first taxi to be powered by smooth, silent
fuel cells.
Although it looks like the latest model of a conventional London cab,
Zevco's taxi is actually a hybrid electric vehicle. The cells that power it generate their electricity by reacting hydrogen and oxygen together in the presence of a catalyst. When the cab is moving, this electricity turns the motor.
When the cab is stationary, it is used to charge a battery that acts as a supplementary power source. And because the outcome of reacting hydrogen
42
with oxygen is water, the taxi is a "zero-emission" vehicle-hence the company's name.
Zevco is by no means the only firm trying to develop a fuel-cellpowered car. But while outfits such as Daimler-Benz, Toyota and Ford are
betting hundreds of millions of dollars on a form of fuel cell known as the
proton-exchange membrane (PEM), which uses relatively cheap materials,
Zevco is sticking with an adaptation of the original (and expensive) alkaline
fuel cell (AFC) technology used in spacecraft.
The virtues of AFC are its superior power-to-weight ratio and its relative simplicity (it needs fewer peripheral pumps and compressors than
PEM cells). But for mundane applications, it has always laboured under two
expensive disadvantages. The first is that, rather than drawing its oxygen
directly from the air, it needs bottled (and therefore expensive) pure oxygen. This is to prevent its electrodes being gummed up with the potassium
carbonate that would be formed by the reaction between the potassiumhydroxide electrolyte inside the cell and carbon dioxide from the air. The
second disadvantage is that the catalyst, which is used to plate the electrodes, has traditionally been platinum, one of the world's more costly metals.
I. Speak of the virtues and disadvantages of “Space-age” Cabs.
Автомобили устремляются по новой дороге
В соответствии с новой программой автомобили будущего будут
работать на более чистом горючем
Нормальный любовный роман со временем перерастает в нечто
более серьезное, в более устойчивые отношения. Именно такое
изменение предположительно внесет Закон о чистом воздухе в
пламенную страсть, которую испытывают американские водители в
отношении своих автомобилей.
Принятие Закона о чистом воздухе 1970 года привело к резкому
снижению объема выхлопных газов в Соединенных Штатах,
стимулировало широкое использование новых технических средств,
таких как каталитический преобразователь и электронный контроль
за работой двигателя.
Однако, хотя автомобили становятся «чище», их количество и
интенсивность использования выросли, что измеряется цифрой 2
биллиона дорожных миль в 1990 г. Это в два раза больше, чем
показатель 1970 г. На долю автомобилей приходится сейчас около
половины всех углеводородов и азотнокислых выбросов в атмосферу,
90% углекислого газа и около половины токсичных веществ.
Новый закон устанавливает более жесткие нормы выброса и
побуждает автомобильную промышленность к разработке новых
43
технологий,
включая
новые
диагностические
системы,
устанавливаемые на автомобили. Три крупнейшие автомобильные
компании США начали серьезную работу по серийному производству
коммерчески конкурентоспособных электромобилей, которые по
основным показателям могут конкурировать с бензиновыми
двигателями.
Это поможет им выполнить решение властей штата Калифорния о
том, чтобы уже к 1998 г. выпустить в продажу автомобили с нулевым
выбросом загрязнителей.
Закон о чистом воздухе формулирует требования к новому, более
чистому бензиновому двигателю. Агентство по охране окружающей
среды уже распорядилось о расширении зимней продажи
оксигенизированного бензина с пониженным выбросом углекислого
газа в районах наибольшего загрязнения. Предусматривается также
уменьшение содержания бензола, который считается канцерогеном, и
серы, присутствующей в дизельном топливе.
Определенные жертвы должны будут принести водители в
наиболее загрязнённых районах. Закон предусматривает более
строгие осмотры транспортных средств в некоторых городах и
предписывает некоторым наиболее крупным компаниям поощрять
своих работников пользоваться одним автомобилем на несколько
человек или общественным транспортом при поездке на работу.
I. Render the text; add facts on similar decisions taken in European
countries (e.g. France). Which is a more workable decision?
Renewable Energy
try.
(videoscript, abridged)
In Britain, as elsewhere, this is a challenging time for the energy indus-
Environmental concerns, in particular, cast a shadow over the electricity production. But it is a time for opportunities, as well as stress, and tribute to the privatization of the electricity industry, renewable energy is set to
boom. Indeed, it is estimated that up to the fifth of Britain’s electricity requirements could realistically be met from renewable sources by the year
2025.
The installation of a water turbine. Erection of a wind-farm. The construction of a waste-to-energy plant - all are the responses to the new opportunities for renewable energy in Britain today.
Currently, electricity generation in Britain is dominated by the use of
fossil fuels: oil, gas - which has become increasingly popular in recent times
– and particularly coal. About three quarters of British electricity is produces in coal-via-power stations.
44
The majority of the non-fossil-generated electricity supply to the grid
comes from the nuclear power. With renewable energy at present accounting for only a smaller part of the country’s electrical power, around 2% of
the total - most of it from hydropower. What is really giving a push to the
development of renewable energy and has enabled many projects to go
from drawing - board concepts to reality, was the privatization of the British electricity industry combined with the offering of commercial incentives.
The key factor in encouraging the development of renewable energy by
large and small companies alike was a Major (in 1989) Electricity Act,
known as the Non-Fossil Fuel Obligation. Under this scheme a guaranteed
initial market is provided for approved renewable projects to help them get
off the ground and become fully competitive. The privatized electricity industries together with the arrangements for subsidizing for the use of renewable energy are regulated by offer.
“The government wish is to encourage new renewable projects. It is
recognized that at the present stage they could well be more expensive to
run than traditional generation projects. So it’s needed to provide additional finance. It’s thought the best way of doing this was to put a levy on traditional fossil fuels - such as coal, oil and gas - so that a little extra revenue
could be raised on them to finance the new renewable projects”
“Wind Cluster was delighted when the government announced a new
subsidy scheme on Non-Fossil Fuel Obligation and without that assistance
wind energy development could not take off. And we are very pleased this
happened and we hope to see much more of it in the future”.
In planning future role in the electricity market-place for the renewables, environmental considerations play a significant part. As public concern grows over the damage being done to the environment by our industrial consumer society and in particular by the burning of fossil fuels in
power generation, the renewables are coming increasingly to be seen as a
desirable and environmentally-friendly option.
“Most methods of generating electricity involve some of defects, damages to the environment, and of course, in particular, we have in mind the
emission pollution that comes from fossil fuels - gas, coal and oil. Those
emissions take the form of sulphur doixide and magnesium dioxide, and
acid rains cocktail, and also the carbon-dioxide which is a major contributor to potential global warming. So there is a great interest in renewable
energies insofar as they avoid those environmental damages.”
Renewable energy, of course, is a traditional power source. It was only
in the last century that it was largely squeezed out by the use of fossil fuels,
and the wheels and sails stopped turning. Today, the growing awareness of
the environmental damage, caused by fossil fuels caused the resurgence of
renewable energy in new forms. It is increasingly seen as having a role to
play in a move towards sustainable future. “…All forms of fossil fuel - coal,
45
oil, gas and nuclear - all have one, and some of them many environmentally
similar problems… Renewables are…more benign, if not completely benign…” Although the scope for developing more of these large-scale
schemes in Britain is limited, because most of the suitable sites have already been exploited, there is, however, a potential for developing waterpower on a smaller scale. Such as here, for example, across Scotland where
local land-owners have joined together to install a small-scale hydroscheme on a local river. The work involves diverting river water through a
pipe down the cliff-face to drive the turbine below. When operational, this
scheme will deliver enough electricity to the grid to meet the need of 500
homes. At the mouth of the Severn is Britain’s most significant site for another possible source of water power: electricity from the tides. By placing
of a barrage across the estuary and building turbines into it, the rise and fall
of the tides can be harnessed and used to generate electrical power. There is
considerable potential for tidal energy along the western coasts of England
and Wales, and the barrages were built across all the practical estuaries.
This could meet a quarter of the country’s present electricity requirements.
This will provide considerable environmental benefits by saving on the use
of coal and therefore the emission of many millions of tons of carbondioxide and other pollutants into the atmosphere each year. There will also
be a notable impact on the local ecologies.
So, studies are continuing to examine further the environmental effects
together with the costs and technical performance.
A power of the sea is a tremendous force, and investigations are under
way to study how to harness the energy of the wave. Optional is very large,
the costs of converting it into the electricity extremely uncertain. Windpower is becoming an established option in the British energy equation
moving on from the research and development stage to the application on
the local scale, the harvesting of the wind for electricity generation is now
entering the mainstream. Wind Farms are springing up around the country
to capitalize on the opportunities, renewables have to offer.
Britain has the best wind resources in Europe, so there is plenty of opportunity for setting the generators and indeed avoiding areas of real environmental sensitivity.
The locating of Wind Farms does, of course, raise environmental issues
and debates on the scale of implementation. “Our philosophy is based on
that of Denmark, where wind technology first took off in Europe”.
Radiation from the sun is high in energy even in northern latitudes
such as Britain. With careful building design the sun’s heating and lighting
properties can be enhanced, so reducing the need for artificial heat and
light.
But also it is possible to convert the sun’s rays directly into electricity,
using what are known as photo-voltaic sells. The researchers are examining
46
whether this technology could compete effectively with other forms of electricity generation.
Investigations are also being conducted into geo-thermal power, the
drawing of heat from the hot rocks below the earth’s surface to generate
electricity. Geo-thermal energy is a major resource but it presents a formidable technological challenge, and the search continues in collaboration
with other countries to turn it into an economically viable proposition.
Of considerably more interest at present, however, is the generation of
electricity from a whole range of bio-fuels and wastes. Bacteria act on the
sewage in enclosed tanks, creating methane, which is a bio-gas. This gas is
fed into the power house where it is used to produce electricity for the national grid.
Methane is a powerful green-house gas and its consumption here for
the production of electricity creates notable environmental advantages.
“Electricity generation from sewage-gas is environmentally friendly for
2 reasons: firstly, by producing the electricity from this renewable source,
we are not burning fossil fuels; secondly by using methane in a powergeneration scheme, this gas will not be escaping into the atmosphere and
thereby will not contribute to the global warming effect.”
In Britain about 50 million tons of household and commercial wastes
are produced each year. And 90% of these are placed in land-fill sites. Here
again, the action of bacteria creates a methane-based bio-gas, which can be
extracted and used for the generating of electricity, at the same time preventing it from causing harm by escaping into the atmosphere.
A variety of interesting specialized schemes have been developed for reclaiming energy from waste. Tyres-to-electricity, for example. As the number of vehicles on the roads increases, so does the problem of disposing of
millions of scrap-tyres.
The tyres, in fact, have a higher calorific value than coal and work up a
significant energy potential. In Ire, in rural Suffolk, is another rather unexpected response to the new opportunities in the energy market place.
Opened in 1992, this is the world’s first electricity generating station fuelled
by chicken litter or manure. It generates enough electricity for 12500
homes. You can see the waste products of millions of hens in surrounding
poultry farms. The disposal of these wastes would normally present an environmental problem, and they would be spread on the land resulting in
releases of methane into the atmosphere and microbes into the water supply. Now, with their use in the power station, this pollution problem is removed, as well as electricity generated.
And in forestry the residue of the tree-tops and branches that are usually left on the forest floor when the trees are harvested, could form a valuable fuel. Trees and other plants absorb carbon-dioxide from the environment when they grow, so burning them doesn’t add in overall way to the
green-house effect. They are carbon-dioxide neutral. And when these bio-
47
power sources are used in power plants instead of fossil fuels, this leads to a
reduction of carbon-dioxide.
Renewable energy is now entering the mainstream of British technology and society.
“We now have over 200 schemes, a wide variety of schemes actively
under way, a 100 of them are already producing another hundred in course
of coming into production. The government has indicated an intention to
support more, and we have over a thousand enquiries from other generators, interested in getting into this area. I think renewable energy is on the
increase, a part of the energy of the future”.
48
I Explain the following in detail, quote the sentence in which the word\
words occur. Translate the word\ words.
renewable energy
a levy
scrap-tyres
resurgence
land-fill sites
wind-farm
waste-to energy plant sustainable future
economically viable
fossil fuels
estuary
sewage
the grid
energy equation
chicken litter
drawing-board pro-environmental
sensitivecommercial
incentive
ject
methane
concepts
geo-thermal power
residue
II Answer the following questions. Add whatever information you can
1. Why is the present a challenging time for energy industry?
2. What is the connection of environmental concerns and electricity production
3. What part of electricity requirements could be met from renewable
sources by 2025? (Britain)
4. How much electricity is at present produced in Britain in coal-via-power
stations?
5. How much electricity does Britain get from renewable sources at present?
6. What gives a real push to the development of renewable energy in Britain? What is the situation in Russia?
7. What are the ways of using the power of water to generate electricity in
Britain\ Russia?
8. In what region do geo-thermal power stations function in Russia?
9. What are gaseous forms of pollution?
10. What are the advantages of generating electricity from bio-fuels and
wastes?
11. What are the two ways of using the sun’s rays for producing electricity?
12. What wastes have a very high calorific value?
13. What fuel is carbon-dioxide neutral? Why?
III Reproduce the text.
IV. Make a cloze test on a part of the text and test your groupmates.
Taiga! taiga! burning bright
The Economist, 1998
All the reasons for preserving the world’s tropical rainforests also apply
to Russia’s endless conifers. So do most of the reasons for destroying them.
Many of those conifers, however, might yet be saved. Dense forests of pine,
49
spruce and birch alternative with bogs, rivers and lakes .Bears and wolves
lurk in the thickets and white-tailed eagles circle above the forest canopy.
Throughout much of the world, particularly in the tropics, such virginal
forests are in retreat. Yet, though many other aspects of Russia’s environmental record are abysmal, and its economy looks more third world than
first, the country has managed to hold on to more trees than anywhere else
on earth (see table). They stretch from the Finnish border all the way to
Sakhalin by land near Japan, and the area they cover has remained roughly
constant over the past decade.
Whether the next decade will see such a happy constancy remains unknown.
But it is just possible that Russia will not follow the profligate path taken by countries like Brazil, Indonesia and Thailand, and will treat its forests
as something to be conserved and harvested, rather than mined. If it does
so, the world may have much to thank it for.
Wooden heartlands
Total forest areas, km² m
0…1…2…3…4…5…6…7…8
Russia
Indonesia
Brazil
Peru
Canada
India
United States
Nordic countries
Congo
Australia
China
50
The tropics of the north
Russia’s forests are environmentally important for a number of familiar
reasons. Though the taiga, the endless vista of conifers as is known, is not
as rich in species as the average tropical forest, it is still an important reserve of biodiversity. Studies in north-west Russia, for example, show that
forests there harbour many more species of animal and plant than the heavily managed woodlands of nearby Scandinavia.
Besides, not all Russian forests are coniferous. The Amur-Sakhalin region of Russia’s Far East contains temperate, deciduous woodlands which
escaped glaciation during the last ice age. As a result they formed a refuge
for pre-ice-age wildlife, and they still contain a dazzling array of the sort of
animals, such as Siberian tigers and Amur leopards, that make naturalists
reach for their field glasses.
For those unconcerned with natural history, the taiga and its neighbouring board-leafed forests also have a more practical role. They help to
regulate the word’s climate by acting as “sinks” for carbon dioxide. As Russia’s trees grow, they store an estimated 500 m tones of carbon a year - 75%
of all the carbon locked up by the world’s coniferous forests. (The destruction of tropical forests, by contrast, releases 1.600 m tones of carbon into
the atmosphere each year.) If as is widely suspected carbon dioxide is the
chief culprit in global warming, cutting down the taiga would significantly
accelerate the process.
The taiga also displays another parallel with the tropical forests - people actually live there and had lived there for thousands of years before the
chaps with the chain-saws arrived. Some 190.000 “aboriginal” forest dwellers still hunt, fish, gather fruits and herd reindeer among Russia’s trees,
and these people do not necessarily want their homeland demolished
around them (particularly, as frequently happens elsewhere, with no compensation and a fair degree of violence).
That their homeland has survived so well over the past decade has been
due more to luck than good judgment. Partly it is because Russian forests,
unlike those in many tropical countries, are not being invaded by armies of
landless farmers. Even if Russian forest land were suitable for farming (and
much of it is not), one of the characteristics that Russia does not share with
developing tropical countries is a rapidly growing population looking for
somewhere to live.
What has really postponed the taiga’s destruction, though is the legacy
of Soviet central planning. The powers-that-were built most of the country’s
pulp and paper mills to the west of the Ural mountains that divide European Russia from Siberia even though 80% of the trees are to the east of them.
To overcome the discrepancy, the government then subsided the energy
and transport needed to haul logs from the latter to the former. When the
subsides collapsed along with the Soviet Union, so did the industry. Only
51
88.5m cubic meters of timber were sold last year - a quarter of the figure in
1988. The question to the now existing country’s fledgeling environmental
movement is whether the past decade’s postponement of deforestation can
be turned into a sensible management regime that will allow logging to be
carried out in a more eco-friendly way than has happened in the tropics.
A useful legacy from Soviet times is a better-than-average system of
forestry regulation. This system, which is mostly respected, limits the area
of land that forestry firms are allowed to clear-cut. Many Siberian forests,
for example, are completely protected by this system because they lie on
soils, known as permafrost that are frozen all year round. Felling trees
opens the permafrost to sunlight, melting it and creating swamps where
trees cannot regrow.
The Soviet Union with its love of science, also built up an internationally respected community of forest scientists. Some 30 forest-research institutes are spread across the country and though finance has dropped sharply
(by as much as 75% in many cases ), and a number of prominent researchers have left, hundreds of scientists still study everything from tree genetics
to resin tapping, providing an invaluable base for both the conservation and
the exploitation of the taiga.
I Explain the following. Quote the sentence in which the word/ word combination occurs. Ask a question with the word/words. Translate the
word/words into Russian.
conifer
spruce
bog
canopy
to be in retreat
abysmal
profligate path
to harvest
to mine
vista
resin tapping
biodiversity
heavily managed woodlands
deciduous
glaciation
broad-leafed forest
the power-that-were
pulp and paper mills
discrepancy
fledgling environmental movement
permafrost
II Answer the following questions.
1. What are the 2 reasons of a greater luck of Russian forests as compared
with tropical rainforests?
2. What are instances of a useful legacy from Soviet times in forestry?
3. How much carbon is stored in Russian forests a year?
4. How much is released through the destruction of tropical forests?
5. Why does felling trees on permafrost endanger the eco-system?
III Give the summary of the text.
52
The problem of waste disposal
Every society produces waste, doesn’t it? And that waste has to be disposed of somehow. In fact, societies right throughout history have had the
same problem and the same answer. Stone-Age man collected together his
broken pots, his animal bones and his stone chippings, and simply left them
in a pile. And today, modern societies do very much the same thing: we collect our waste together, transport it, and dump it (or burn some of it). Yet
things are beginning to change. We’re slowly getting the message that we
can’t go on indefinitely throwing our waste away – for two reasons. One is
that 20th century societies now produce so much waste that it simply
doesn’t make sense to deal with it in this way. And the other reason is that
most waste contains valuable materials that can be extracted and recycled.
Let’s firstly talk about where our waste comes from. Basically, there are
four sources of waste: it comes form mines and comprises 39% of the total,
and waste from agriculture comprises 53%. Domestic waste accounts for
6%, and industrial waste for 2%. And where does all this waste go? Well,
most of it goes to open dumps - 5% in fact; 23% is simply not collected and
not disposed of at all, but is left on the spot. 12% is buried in the ground by
the landfill method, and 9% is burnt. That leaves 1%, which is dumped at
sea.
From now on, let’s just consider domestic waste, shall we? – rubbish,
refuse, call it what you like. And let’s discuss in more detail what happens to
it, and how we’re improving our methods of dealing with it. Domestic rubbish is usually disposed of in one of three ways, all of which have their pros
and cons. Open dumps, for instance, have the advantages of being easy to
operate, and of being the cheapest of the three methods. However, their
disadvantages are that they are unsightly, they cause air pollution when
rubbish is burnt, they smell, materials are wasted - land so is land - and
they can contaminate ground water and nearby streams.
What about landfill? Landfill means putting domestic refuse in holes in
the ground – such as disused quarries, old mines, marshlands, etc., compacting it, and covering the compacted refuse with earth every 2 m or so.
Well, a landfill is cheap, there are no objectionable smells or pests; when
the landfill is completed, the site can often be more useful than it was before. (It can become a sports field or a park, for instance.) Nevertheless, a
landfill also wastes materials, and it uses a large area of land, which may
not be available near urban centres.
The third method of disposing of domestic waste is incineration, that is,
burning. On the credit side, incineration can handle about 80% of domestic
rubbish, and can reduce its volume by about 90%. Also, it requires very little land, and it produces income from the recovery of waste metal and glass.
But on the debit side, it’s expensive to build an incineration plant, and it
causes air pollution unless sophisticated pollution controls are installed.
53
This business of putting household waste in a bin outside the house,
and having the bin emptied each week into a lorry – it’s very unscientific for
the 20th century, isn’t it! Yes, there are better methods. Let’s look at this
one, as an example. This is a method that is becoming common when now
apartment blocks are built. Here’s the householder emptying his rubbish
down a chute. It goes into this separator, which separates out the glass and
metal contents – which are recycled. What’s left – mainly paper and burnable waste – then passes into this heating plant to be burnt. The heat produced in the heating plant is used in two ways. It heats the apartment
buildings by circulating hot water through a central heating system. And it
produces steam that generates electricity, which in turn provides energy for
the apartment block.
Finally, let’s look into the future, and see what a typical recovery centre
in each town might look like next century. Here’s the average domestic consumer – you and me – whose rubbish would be dropped direct into a pipeline, and pumped to the recovery centre. At the centre, the refuse would
first go through the shredder, where it would be broken up into small pieces. Then the separator would do its job. Powerful electromagnets would
extract the ferrous metals, and the non-ferrous metals would be in separate
chambers; glass would be extracted by fluid flotation; and grass, leaves and
food by centrifugal hurling. All these materials – ferrous and non-ferrous
metals, paper, plastic, and glass - would be recycled. The food, grass and
leaves would be converted into compost, which would be returned to the
earth as fertilizer, and what’s left would be buried by the landfill method.
Of course at present, centres like this are rare. But let’s hope this type of
resource centre is set up soon, because – as I said at the beginning – waste
contains many valuable materials that should be extracted and recycled.
I Speak about the following:
1) The sources of waste.
2) The existing ways of waste disposal. The advantages and disadvantages
of each of them.
3) Describe a future recovery center. What economic problems are overlooked here?
Beware Home Pollution
«Health and Fitness» Today 2001
Air pollution affects the entire planet. You can’t escape it anywhere not
even inside your home.
In fact, indoor air pollution can be up to five times worse than outdoor
air pollution. And much of it is related to products that we use every day.
54
Here are some common household products that foul our domestic atmospheres, along with suggestions for nontoxic replacements:
 Bleach and other chemical cleansers. Many cleansers contain environmental pollutants (despite their upbeat names and cute mascots). Try
to substitute natural cleansers whenever possible. You can find natural
cleaning products at health food stores, or make them yourself out of
non-toxic cleaning ingredients such as pine oil, baking soda, vinegar,
and lemon juice.
 Moth balls. Not only are they bad for moth, they are bad for you, Use
moth-repelling cedar chips instead.
 Cooking hardware. Gas stoves and appliances release fumes into the
air. If you insist on using gas as many people do make sure that rooms
containing gas appliances are well ventilated.
 Candles. Many candles release soot and other pollutants into the air.
Those made with metal wicks are especially toxic, since they release
lead into the air as well. Paraffin itself (a petroleum-based ingredient
used to make candles) is known to be a pollutant. If you are concerned
about air quality, try natural paraffin-free candles instead.
 Perfumes. They smell like flowers, but they breath like chemicals at
least the ones that are made with chemicals. Look for perfumes that use
only natural ingredients, or try creating your own scents from natural
oils instead.
 Incense. Smoke is an air pollutant, even when it smells sweet. You can
use dried-flower potpourri or other natural olfactory enhancers to get
the same effect.
 Dry cleaning. Many professional dry cleaners use a cancerogenic cleaning agent called “perc”. Hand-wash your delicate clothing with a gentle,
natural cleanser instead. If you must dry clean a piece or clothing, hang
it outside to fumigate before you wear it or store it in your closet.
 Décor. Think natural, avoid plastics and wall-to wall carpeting.
Note: to further increase your indoor air quality, open up windows and
doors for ventilation whenever safety and weather conditions permit. Also,
consider installing a high-efficiently particulate air (HEPA) filter in your
favorite room to create a pollution-free zone. This is especially important if
you live in a big city, where just isn’t as much fresh air to go around.
I Explain the word/words, translate them into Russian.
to beware
bleach
upbeat names
mascot
cute
cedar
increase
potpourri
olfactory
cancerogenic
to fumigate
wick
55
II What advice can you use? What recommendation does not concern you?
Why?
III Which advice can be added?
Забытый план преобразования природы
Природа и человек, № 5 2004
Его сдал в архив «творец оттепели» Н. С. Хрущёв, похоронив
развитие страны на долгие годы
Пришло время вспомнить один из забытых сегодня документов
прошлого – принятый в СССР сразу после окончания Великой
Отечественной войны так называемый «Сталинский план
преобразования природы», которым предусматривалось провести
лесозащитные мероприятия: строить водохранилища, улучшить среду
обитания человека. Если бы план был претворён в жизнь, дальнейшее
развитие страны могло быть менее трагичным, это явно упущенная
выгода. Из нынешнего поколения людей, живущих в России и на
постсоветском пространстве, его мало кто помнит и знает. Это было
одно из первых в мире решений, направленное на улучшение условий
обитания человека и позитивного влияния на окружающую среду
через лесоразведение.
Составной частью этого плана было проведение лесозащитных
мероприятий, внедрение травопольных севооборотов, развитие
оросительных систем, прудов и водоёмов. Принятием этого плана был
сделан важнейший шаг для победы над засухой – бичом российского
земледелия. Согласно названному Постановлению советского
правительства и Коммунистической партии должны были создать 8
государственных защитных лесных полос для преодоления
губительного влияния суховеев на урожай, предохранения почв от
выдувания, для улучшения водного режима и климатических условий
Поволжья, центрально-Чернозёмных областей, Южного Приуралья и
Северного Кавказа.
Эти лесозащитные полосы предполагалось разместить с севера на
юг: по обеим берегам Волги, Урала, Северного Донца, в водоразделах
рек Хопра и Медведицы, по берегам реки Дон. Общая длина – 5320
км, а площадь, занятая ими, 117,9 тыс. га. Протяжённость всех лесных
полос, в переводе на 20-метровую ширину, составила бы около 2 млн.
км. Площадь же всех лесных защитных насаждений, включая и
колхозные полосы, - 6 млн. га.
В основном защитные лесополосы должны были размещаться
вдоль русел рек и состоять из 3-4 полос шириной от 30 до 100 метров,
с промежутками между полосами 100-300 метров. Был определён и
породный состав лесополос. Для создания долговечных и устойчивых
56
защитных насаждений, дающих эффект с молодого возраста,
предполагалось сажать как долговечные, так и быстрорастущие
породы деревьев и кустарников, подбирать сочетание пород
применительно к местным условиям.
Преобразование природы на огромной площади степи и лесостепи
европейской части СССР должно осуществляться без сколько-нибудь
крупных инженерных сооружений. Ключом к преобразованию
природы выступили биологические факторы – лес и травы.
Лесонасаждения, поглощая поверхностный сток талых и
дождевых вод, препятствуют действию суховеев, мешают смыву почвы
по склонам и образованию оврагов, уменьшают испаряемость с полей,
снижают летние температуры и повышают относительную влажность
воздуха.
Для посадки лесополос были созданы сотни специальных
лесозащитных машинных станций. Кроме государственных защитных
лесополос, должны были осуществляться лесозащитные насаждения
совхозов и колхозов. Планом на 1945-1965 годы насаждения совхозов
и колхозов с помощью государства должны были составить 3592,5 тыс.
га лесов, из них в малолесных районах на землях гослесфонда 960 тыс.
га и на землях колхозов с трудовым участием колхозников 576 тыс. га.
В сухих степях и полупустынях Нижнего Поволжья и Прикаспия
должны были быть созданы дубравы посадок лесонасаждений, было
предусмотрено создание питомников по выращиванию саженцев
древесных, кустарниковых и плодовых пород.
В Постановлении советского правительства, кроме создания
лесных массивов и полос, было уделено внимание закреплению и
облесению песков и превращению их в полезную для государства
землю. В целях преграждения передвижения песков в степных и
полупустынных земля Поволжья, Северного Кавказа, ЦентральноЧернозёмных областей и Украинской ССР Министерству лесного
хозяйства СССР вменялось в обязанность произвести высадку
древесных и кустарниковых пород на площади 322 тыс. га. Было
предусмотрено внедрение и освоение травполотных севооборотов,
увеличение площади занятых паров в соответствии с рекомендациями
выдающихся почвоведов В. Р. Вильямса и Д. Н. Прянишникова.
После смерти И. Сталина пришедший к власти Н. Хрущёв,
выступая против культа личности И. Сталина, заодно «похерил» и
сталинский план преобразования природы. Вместо этого было решено
осваивать целинные и залежные земли, их было распахано свыше 40
млн. га.
I. Render the text; supply it with short accounts of other environmental
projects, that were/are politically biased.
57
***
Природа и человек, № 6, 2004
В строительстве новых дорог столица не знает равных. Вслед за
перестройкой МКАД последовало создание Третьего транспортного
кольца. Интенсивные работы по прокладке новых магистралей,
например, Краснопресненского шоссе, идут сейчас. Оно и понятно:
неудержимое развитие строительного комплекса столицы служит
основой хозяйственного могущества Ю. М. Лужкова. Однако сами же
сотрудники мэрии согласны с тем фактом, что «высокие уровни
загрязнения атмосферного воздуха особенно характерны для
примагистральных
территорий».
Главный
государственный
санитарный врач по г. Москве Н. Н. Филатов заявляет: у жителей этих
территорий респираторные заболевания встречаются в 1,5-2 раза
чаще, чем у остальных москвичей. Получается, строительство новых
дорог приводит к увеличению площади опасных для здоровья
примагистральных районов. Сколько москвичей обнаружило, что за
последние годы под их окнами вместо уютного скверика появилось
скоростное шоссе, или тихая улочка-ручеёк вдруг, в связи с
изменениями транспортной сети в районе, стала необычайно
популярной у водителей легковушек и даже грузовиков.
Согласно обещаниям московских властей в ближайшем будущем
нас ждёт следующая картина. Над основными транспортными
артериями города будут возвышаться мостики-переходы, выделят
особые полосы для приоритетного движения общественного
транспорта, наведут порядок с парковками. Наиболее выполнимым
кажется решение проблемы переходов с помощью строительства
эстакад. А вот реализация иных благих начинаний вызывает
серьёзные сомнения. Кто из нас не сталкивался с ситуацией, когда
трамвай подолгу стоит из-за того, что некий автовладелец решил
развернуться прямо на путях, а то просто «неудачно» припарковал
свой «джип». Разве само собой не разумеется, что трамвайные пути
уже давно эта самая «полоса приоритетного движения» для трамваев?
Сопротивление автомобилистов и отечественного автопрома
может вызвать и другая инициатива московских властей –
ужесточение требований к качеству двигателей, что должно
подвигнуть москвичей к быстрой замене устаревших моделей машин
на новые.
По экспертным оценкам, число автомобилей в Москве,
удовлетворяющих европейским требованиям по вредным выбросам
ЕВРО-1,2,3, составляет примерно 30 процентов от всего парка. Мэрия,
по её заявлениям, делает всё в пределах своей компетенции, чтобы
переломить ситуацию в лучшую сторону. Вновь закупаемые
муниципальные
автобусы
комплектуются
двигателями,
58
сертифицированными по нормативам ЕВРО-2. Кроме того,
переоборудовано 1400 единиц автотранспорта для работы на
газообразном топливе, отходы которого, как уже говорилось,
значительно меньше, чем бензина и солярки.
Но удастся ли пересадить частника с «коптилки» на новенькую
легковушку? В Европе этот процесс шёл десять лет. Им удалось
добиться высоких результатов. Теперь европейцы ездят на
автомобилях, дающих только 5% выбросов от уровня 1970-х годов. А
старые машины перекочевали в Россию и страны СНГ, пользуясь у
отечественных небогатых покупателей бешеной популярностью.
Скептики уверяют, что в нашей стране, даже в столице, повторить
западный опыт не удастся. Если в зажиточном зарубежье машины
эксплуатируются 8-10 лет, то у нас служат 20-30 лет. Даже начав
программу модернизации, мы обречены не дождаться её результатов.
Работа столичных энтузиастов-чиновников вызывает скепсис
прежде всего у федеральных коллег. Оно и понятно: решать проблемы
отечественного
автопрома
приходится
именно
федералам.
Модернизация производства по стандартам Евросоюза чревата
социальными эксцессами.
Московский мэр замахнулся на такой лакомый кусок для бизнеса,
как торговля топливом на АЗС. Ещё не отгремели отголоски боёв
столичных властей с «Сибнефтью» за городской ТЭК (были попытки
со
стороны
олигархов
приватизировать
Московский
нефтеперерабатывающий завод), как в бой ввели новый резерв –
экологические нормативы. Предполагается приблизить качество
продукции
Московского
нефтеперерабатывающего
завода
к
пресловутым евростандартам, планируется открыть производство
бензо-спиртовых композиций как альтернативы автомобильным
бензинам, что позволит снизить содержание вредных отходов
примерно на 10%. Кроме того, по городу уже бегают сотни грузовичков
на газе, напоминая своими красными резервуарами для топлива
бомбы на колёсиках. Тоже инициатива мэрии.
Похоже, центральные власти всё меньше готовы делиться
ответственностью и связанными с ней полномочиями. Полномочия
включают в себя надзор и право взимания экологических отчислений
и штрафов.
Возможно, именно по этой причине многие благие намерения
мэрии остаются на стадии бумажной работы. Пожалуй, наибольшим
достижением можно считать создание развитой системы мониторинга
качества атмосферного воздуха, действующей в Москве последние
годы.
Службам
МосЦГМС
остаётся
констатировать,
что
«интегральный показатель загрязнения атмосферы за последние 5 лет
хотя и продолжает оставаться высоким, но практически не
изменился». Вот что по этому поводу говорит известный эколог
59
Алексей Яблоков: «Основной тезис мэрии – стабилизация
экологической обстановки. А нас не удовлетворяет стабилизация. Этот
тезис не улучшает качество жизни москвичей, а стабилизирует то
качество жизни, которое не особенно приемлемо. Феодальные войны в
Государстве Российском продолжаются, и его гражданам от этого
дышится не легче.
I. Render the text; speak of similar problems, existing in your city.
«Апокалипсис»… в цифрах
Природа и человек, № 6, 2004
Бытует мнение, что суровость природных условий тормозит
экономическое развитие России. Некоторые называют тормозом
чрезмерно богатые природные ресурсы, огромные пространства,
менталитет населения и другие факторы. На самом деле все эти
высказывания не имеют научного обоснования. В конечном счёте
люди формируют общественные, в том числе и производственные
отношения, строят экономику, используя ресурсы или учитывая
условия. Если в Японии нет своих полезных ископаемых, развитие
идёт по одному направлению, в ряде арабских стран, богатых нефтью,
- по другому, в северных скандинавских странах (причём одна из них,
Финляндия, бывшая наша окраина, немногим уступает России по
степени суровости природных условий) – по третьему. Некоторые
бывшие наши союзники по социалистическому лагерю сделали
огромный рывок вперёд в экономическом развитии за последние
годы, например, Вьетнам, хотя стартовые позиции его были
существенно слабее.
В мае 2002 года в Лондоне прошла презентация Глобального
обзора состояния окружающей среды, подготовленного программой
ООН по окружающей среде (ЮНЕП). Доклад характеризует
современную ситуацию, изменения за прошедшие 30 лет, а также даёт
4 варианта прогнозов за последние 30 лет. Согласно докладу, к 2032
году 3% земной поверхности будет покрыто асфальтом и бетоном либо
застроено, 70% - испытывать воздействие промышленности,
транспортной инфраструктуры, последствий добычи полезных
ископаемых.
Драматические изменения произойдут в численности обитающих
на Земле видов живых организмов. В настоящее время полным ходом
идёт шестая волна их массового вымирания. Скорость исчезновения
видов вследствие разрушения человеком местообитаний животных в
1-10 тысяч раз превышает естественную, связанную с их
биологической эволюцией.
60
В отличие от предыдущих событий подобного рода, причиной
которых были резкие изменения погодных условий, движущей силой
нынешнего массового вымирания обитателей планеты является
деятельность одного из обитающих на ней видов живых существ –
Homo Sapiens (человек разумный). Природные ресурсы планеты с
каждым годом сокращаются. Каждый четвёртый из известных в
настоящее время видов млекопитающих с большой вероятностью
исчезнет из природных экосистем в ближайшие 30 лет. Такая же
судьба ожидает каждый восьмой вид птиц. Численность видов
растений, находящихся под угрозой исчезновения, оценивается в
несколько тысяч. И это только часть реальной картины, поскольку
достаточно подробная информация на эту тему имеется только для 4%
всех известных видов растений. Огромное число видов насекомых,
лишайников, грибов и других живых организмов исчезнет в
ближайшие 30 лет, так и оставшись неизвестными для науки.
Однако среди тех, кому суждено, скорее всего, исчезнуть из дикой
природы, есть и яркие, крупные виды – это амурский тигр и леопард,
гепард, носорог, азиатский слон, гориллы, китайский аллигатор и
многие другие.
Леса Африки уничтожаются со скоростью 5 млн га в год, что является
наиболее высоким показателем по сравнению с другими
континентами. 60% сведённых лесов было превращено в земли,
используемые для сельского хозяйства. Всё это ведёт к деградации
земель, ухудшению снабжения водой, потере биологического
разнообразия, усилению негативных последствий природных
катастроф. Около 25% земель в Африке подвержено водной, а 22% ветровой эрозии. Более 45% территории континента испытывает
влияние процесса опустынивания. Эрозия почв ведёт к заиливанию
водохранилищ. В Судане важнейшее из них, обеспечивающее 80%
потребностей страны в электроэнергии, за последние 30 лет потеряло
40% своего объёма.
Россия обладает наиболее мощным природно-ресурсным
потенциалом, который, естественно, при условии грамотного и
эффективного использования является залогом построения сильного
государства и процветающего общества. По расчётам академика Д. С.
Львова, природный капитал на душу населения в России почти в 9 раз
выше, чем в США и в 27 – чем в Западной Европе. Другой важнейший
ресурс – население, его высокий интеллектуальный уровень, трудовая
инициатива и исполнительность. Во многом благодаря сочетанию
этих факторов на протяжении всего лишь одного столетия после
практически полного разрушения экономики в результате
Гражданской и Великой Отечественной войн дважды страна
поднималась из руин своими силами. Однако последствия третьего за
столетие разрушения экономики уже в мирное время, в ходе реформ,
61
видимо, окажутся наиболее тяжёлыми, поскольку власть до сих пор не
может чётко определить цели развития общества и, следовательно,
организовать
соответствующую
эффективную
созидательную
деятельность во всех сферах, в том числе и в науке.
Среди основных тенденций современного развития природы
следует в первую очередь отметить её усиливающуюся деградацию,
являющуюся следствием развития мировой цивилизации по модели
общества потребления. Характерна она и для России, несмотря на
экономический спад (вследствие старения основных фондов,
оборудования, снижения энергоэффективности промышленного
производства и т.д.). В качестве некоторых проявлений деградации
можно выделить, во-первых, загрязнение всех природных сред.
Человеком синтезированы более 1,8 млн. веществ, на мировом рынке
оборачивается в заметных количествах до 200 тыс. веществ, а
воздействие на здоровье изучено не более чем для 10 тыс. веществ. В
тканях тела людей в США содержится до 2 тыс. загрязняющих
веществ. Практически теряет смысл такое понятие, как
возобновляемые ресурсы, поскольку, например, атмосферный воздух
и пресная вода уже не воспроизводятся в прежнем качестве, в них
появляются новые антропогенные компоненты. Второе важное
проявление деградации – уничтожение и трансформация природных
экосистем, исчерпание ресурсов, прежде всего биологических
(вырубка лесов, распространение городов и т.д.). В конце прошлого
столетия обострилась проблема плодородных земель, ресурсы
которых истощены. А население увеличивается на 90 млн. человек
ежегодно и требует освоения в год 40 млн. га новых земель. Ресурсы
продуктивности современного растениеводства также исчерпаны –
большинство нынешних поставщиков продовольствия достигли
пороговых уровней урожаев. Поэтому в 2005 году прогнозируется
обострение продовольственной проблемы, продовольствие становится
главным дефицитом мирового сообщества. Для России реально
увеличить производство продовольствия в 2-3 раза – и это
перспективное направление развития отечественного аграрного
сектора. Кроме того, у нас примерно 45% территории нетронуты
хозяйственной деятельностью. Потенциально это наиболее ценный
биосфернозначимый
ресурс
нашей
страны
в
ближайшем
историческом будущем, ценность его будет возрастать по мере
уменьшения площадей естественных экосистем. Суровость условий во
многом способствовала сохранению этих территорий в нетронутом
виде.
Наряду с социально-экономическими факторами естественные
изменения в природе также играют роль при определении подходов и
стратегических
направлений
природопользования.
XX
век
ознаменовался не только антропогенным воздействием на природу, но
62
и реальным изменением климата. На территории России преобладает
тенденция потепления, особенно в холодные месяцы года, усиление
засушливости (в южной части) и аномальности. В целом за
прошедшее столетие повышение средней годовой температуры
воздуха на территории, расположенной вне зоны вечной мерзлоты,
составило 0,9ºС (1,3ºС и 0,3ºС для холодного и тёплого сезонов
соответственно). Учитывая преобладающий у нас дефицит тепловых
ресурсов, подобные изменения должны быть благоприятны для
нашей страны. По некоторым прогнозам, атлантический сектор
Арктики может остаться без льдов, и тогда роль мирового резервата
арктического биоразнообразия перейдёт к Чукотке, где пока
тенденции
потепления
относительно
слабы.
Некоторые
природоохранные организации уже предлагают на ближайшие 50 лет
заморозить разработки нефтяных месторождений на шельфах
арктических морей в восточном секторе России. Естественно,
проблема сохранения арктического биоразнообразия касается не
только России, поэтому столь актуальным становится проблема
инвестирования в сохранение природы нашей страны. Следует
отметить, что причины потепления до конца не ясны, и дискуссия по
этому поводу продолжается. Но на международном уровне уже
зафиксирована
антропогенная
обусловленность
современных
изменений климата, в том числе и за счёт выбросов парниковых газов.
Считается, что эколого-экономическим механизмом регулирования
выбросов парниковых газов может стать реализация Киотского
протокола от 1998 года. И участие России в этом процессе может быть
весьма важно как биосфернозначимой и важнейшей экологической
державы. Ключевая роль России в процессе вступления в силу
Протокола (после выхода из него США) предопределяет возможность
повышения её авторитета на международной арене. Одним из
следствий потепления стало существенное изменение сезонной
ритмики экосистем, особенно в северных районах. По нашим
расчётам, за последние 35 лет сроки наступления весенних
фенологических фаз (время начала распускания листьев, набухания
почек и т.д.) у древесных пород на северо-западе европейской
территории Росси сместились на 8-12 дней в сторону более раннего
начала, а осенние стали наступать на 4-6 дней позже. Таким образом,
продолжительность
периода
вегетации
здесь
возросла
приблизительно на 2 недели. С возрастанием продолжительности
вегетационного
периода
увеличатся
прирост
биомассы
и
интенсивность ассимиляции углерода, сократится продолжительность
холодного сезона, улучшатся агроэкологические условия и структура
земельного фонда и т.д. В целом всё это благоприятствует
экономическому развитию России, повышению урожайности
сельскохозяйственных культур. Но наблюдаемые изменения в
63
природе и их потенциальные последствия не столь однозначны. Так,
современное потепление практически не отразилось на многолетних
тенденциях сроков прилёта многих видов птиц.
В результате смягчения (потепления) зим и возрастания
продолжительности теплового периода создались благоприятные
условия для развития и распространения на север беспозвоночных
организмов, из которых наибольшую угрозу представляют вредители
растений, переносчики инфекционных заболеваний и
т.д.
Повышается вероятность лесных пожаров (что и подтвердили жаркие
август-сентябрь 2002 года), неясны последствия таяния вечной
мерзлоты, особенно на южной границе её распространения
(например,
территории,
прилегающие
к
Байкало-Амурской
магистрали). Такие разнонаправленные тенденции в целом
характерны для состояния природы России последних десятилетий и
свидетельствуют о широком диапазоне адаптационных реакций
экосистем на изменения климата и хозяйственную деятельность
человека. В таких условиях природный эффект от реализации того
или иного решения может быть совершенно неожиданным. Поэтому
ответственность участников хозяйственной деятельности значительно
повышается и особенно усиливается роль научного обоснования
принимаемых решений. Итак, в природе нашей страны и планеты, в
мировой экономике происходят серьёзные изменения, связанные с
обострением дефицита природных ресурсов и экологизацией
мирового общественного сознания. Именно наша страна обеспечена
природными ресурсами лучше других, наша природа работает на весь
мир. Организовать грамотное и эффективное управление природными
ресурсами не в ущерб будущим поколениям – наиболее сложная
проблема, которая может быть решена только совместными усилиями
власти, бизнеса и науки.
I. Prepare an accurate rendering of the text and present it to the group
in form of a lecture: make about 3-5 open questions to stimulate the discussin of the issues raised.
Nature and Resources Genetically Modified Protests
The Ecologist, April 2004
…One of the most enduring of British opposition to GM has been the
small Devon town of Totnes. Not far outside Totnes is Riverford farm, one
of the country’s largest and most successful organic farms. In April 1998
local people were appalled to discover that the Cambridge-based research
centre the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) was running a
test site of genetically-engineered maize a mere 200 yards from the edge of
Riverford. There was a clear danger, reluctantly outlined to the organic cer-
64
tification body the Soil Association by Riverford’s owner Guy Watson, that
the farm would lose organic status for its sweetcorn because of the threat of
cross-pollination.
In Totnes resorting to the courts proved pointless. Farmers, it seemed,
had no rights when it came to contamination. Six hundred people marched
to the field in protest, and 20 of them – convinced that the only way they
could protest the organic crop was direct action – began to uproot the GM
crop. Two women were arrested, but charges were later dropped amid
scenes of jubilation outside Plymouth Crown Court. In the meantime,
3,000 local people signed a statement saying that they felt the action to remove the maize was in the public interest.
If the genie of GM pollution was now out of the bottle, so was the campaign to stop it.
One of the campaigners’ favourite tactics was to go to the supermarket,
fill a shopping trolley with food products, take it to the till and then refuse
to pay for any of it until the store manager gave a guarantee that all the
items were GM-free. Other activists stuck “biohazard” labels on everything
from biscuits to vegetarian sausages, all of which could contain GM soya or
its derivatives.
Night-time actions, particularly ones targeted at NIAB National Seed
Listing trials of GM crops, also intensified; the aim was to head off the
threat of full commercialization by preventing biotech companies meeting
their regulatory obligations. Night after night small groups of activists
armed with cutting tools, maps and and grid references (helpfully supplied
by government websites) would descend on fields throughout the UK to
remove crops. Genetically-modified oilseed rape, maize and sugar beet
trails were all targeted. In 2000, 19 test sites were completely “decontaminated”, while 13 farm-scale evaluations (much bigger government-run tests,
set up to examine the environmental effects of GM crops) were substantially damaged.
Not all actions took place covertly or at night. The Manchester-based
campaign Genetix Snowball made a point of taking action openly and accountably, even informing police of their intentions beforehand. Predictably enough, several participant quickly ended up in court, where they were
handed down injunctions instructing them to keep away from test sites. But
the actions went on, often with the GM crop being bagged up and delivered
to those responsible – be they corporate executives or government ministers.
Crucially, not a single activist has so far spent a day in prison as a result
of being found guilty of pulling up GM crops. In most cases charges have
been dropped either before or during trials. The few cases that have been
seen through to the end have all resulted in acquittals.
This direct action campaign, together with massive public opposition
throughout Europe, brought the biotech juggernaut to a shuddering halt.
65
The EU maintained its own blockade throughout, observing a five-year de
facto moratorium on new genetically-modified crop approvals. This raised
the ire of the US, which launched a World Trade Organization complaint
last year, raising the prospect of European consumers being forced to swallow GM products.
In the UK, meanwhile, the struggle continues. With a government announcement on the commercialization on GM crops expected as the Ecologist went to press, 3,000 people have now signed the “Green Gloves”
pledge to either peacefully pull up any such crops or support those doing so.
A few crop-trashing tips




Get together with a group of friends whom you know and trust.
Check out the site (inconspicuously) beforehand and plan a getaway
route.
The best time to trash crops is when they are young. Maize is springsown. Long winter nights are good time to damage crops; a frost the
next morning will make the damage even worse.
Decide on your goals before you start. Some people aim to completely
uproot entire fields. This is great with small-scale trails, but if GM gets
planted on a commercial scale, it will not really be practical unless you
are part of a very large group of people (see www.greengloves.org).
I.
Present the gist of the text.
II.
Which local issues should deserve a protest campaign? Work
out instructions for an organized protest campaign which
might just work.
III. Education and PR
The curse of nepotism. A helping hand for those who least
need it
The Economist January 10th 2004
America likes to think of itself as the very embodiment of the spirit of
meritocracy: a country where all people are judged on their individual abilities rather than their family connections. The American Revolution swept
away the flummery of feudal titles. Thomas Jefferson dreamed of creating a
“natural aristocracy”. Benjamin Franklin sniped that “a man who makes
boast of his ancestors doth but advertise his own insignificance”.
66
Today most Americans believe that their country has done a reasonable
job of getting rid of the most blatant forms of discrimination towards blacks
and women and building a ladder of educational opportunity. Americans
are far more confident than Europeans that people deserve what they get in
life.
But are they right? The more you look at modern America, the more
you are struck by how frequently it departs from the meritocratic ideal.
George Bush’s Washington is a study in family influence.
The biggest insult to meritocracy, however, is found in the country’s top
universities. These institutions, which control access to the country’s most
impressive jobs, consider themselves far above Washington and its grubby
spoils system. Yet they continue to operate a system of “legacy preferences”
– affirmative action for the children of alumni.
These preferences are surprisingly widespread. In most Ivy League institutions, “Legacies” make up between 10% and 15% of every freshman
class. At Notre Dame they make up 23%. They are also common in good
public universities such as the University of Virginia. Legatees are two to
four times more likely to be admitted to the best universities than nonlegatees.
America’s universities are probably the most politically correct places
on the planet. So what are they doing pandering to the (overwhelmingly
white) children of the overclass? University administrators offer two justifications. The first may be crudely characterized as fund-raising. Universities
are always asking their alumni for a helping hand and for money. The least
the alumni can expect in return is that the universities will take a careful
look at their college-age offspring.
But is it reasonable for universities to use their admissions system as
tools of alumni management – let alone fund-raising? Universities are supposed to be guardians of objective standards. They are also the recipients of
huge amounts of public money as well as private donations. In short, there
is no need to.
The second justification is that alumni preferences aren’t really preferences at all.
William Fitzsimmons, dean of admissions at Harvard College, admits
that 40% of the children of alumni get into Harvard compared with only
11% of ordinary applicants, but says that is mainly because of self-selection.
Successful legatees have almost the same test scores as successful nonlegates.
Given the secrecy of the admissions process, this argument is hard to
verify.
It is worrying that a department of Education report in 1990 concluded
that the average Harvard legacy student is “significantly less qualified” than
the average non-legacy student in every area except sports. But even if you
give Harvard the benefit of the doubt, the system is still a disgrace. This is a
67
university that has to turn down more than 2,000 high-school valedictorians every year. If you are going to offer a ‘slight tip ‘ to anyone, why offer it
to people who are already on the inside track - who not only come from
privileged homes, but also have an insider’s knowledge of how the admissions system works?
There are signs that patience with this practice is wearing thin. John
Edwards has made it a theme of his presidential campaign, denouncing it as
“a birthright out of 18th-century British aristocracy, not 21st-century American democracy”. Teddy Kennedy has drafted a bill that will force universities to publish data on the racial and socio-economic make-up of their legatees.
But there are two big obstacles to the Democrats rallying around the
banner of meritocracy. The first is that the left overwhelmingly supports
affirmative action for minorities, a policy far more acceptable than affirmative action for the rich, but which rests on the same belief the people should
be judged on something other than their individual abilities.
The second reason is that much of the Democratic establishment is also
riddled with nepotism. Howard Dean was a legatee at Yale University, just
like George Bush. The front runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008 is Hillary Clinton. Nancy Pelosi, the Democrats’ leader in
the House, is the daughter of a Five-term Maryland congressman turned
Baltimore mayor - and one of her chief challengers for the job was Harold
Ford, who succeeded his father in a Tennessee seat.
Perhaps an infusion of new blood will make American politics a little
less inbred. Perhaps an improvement in inner-city schools will mean that
no affirmative action can be allowed to wither on the vine. But none of this
seems very likely. For most of its life, America has usually been marching
towards the meritocratic ideal. Now it is getting harder to ignore the accusation that it is slouching in the opposite direction.
I Explain the word/words, read the sentence in which it /they is/are used
translate the sentence.
nepotism
meritocracy
flummery
to snipe
blatant
grubby
spoils system
legacy preferences
affirmative action
alumni
ivy league
legatee
to pander to
overclass
fund-raising
legacy student
to turn down
valedictorian
tip
front-runner
to inbreed
inner-city
to wither on the vine
to slouch
68
II 1) Ask three questions to the article that might serve the plan for a
summary.
2) Give the summary.
3) What can you say of “legacy preferences’ in Russia?
4) Is nepotism in the criminal code and your opinion a punishable felony?
Higher and Further Education.
(video script, abridged) 1995
The city of Oxford is famous for one of the oldest Universities in the
world. Tourists come here to marvel at the history and glamour of the university city that attracted scholars all over the world for more than 400
years.
Oxford University consists of 96 individual colleges made as monastic
communities where students and teachers still live and study in college together.
Once a university education was only for the privileged few mainly
young men from wealthy backgrounds, not exclusively dedicated to academic achievement.
50 years ago there were just 19 universities in Britain and most students were privately funded. The 1944 Education Act brought an access to
University by making grants more widely available to young men and women from every part of society, so that no one with ability would be denied
the right to higher education.
The 1960-ies was a period of wide expansion, and today there are 91
universities in Britain.
Practical vocation subjects are studied at colleges of further education.
But Britain’s education system is going through its most radical period
of change for half a century. This history city of Oxford can demonstrate
some of these changes and the range of learning choices for a new generation of students.
There are about 300 thousand full-time students at university in Britain studying for degrees in the arts and sciences. Over 95 thousand students
are studying for degrees in their own homes. This is distance learning
through Britain’s Open University.
Over 2 million adults enroll for further education colleges pursuing
mainly vocation non-degree study Around 130000 unemployed people are
learning new skills to help their job prospects and millions choose to learn
skills like this in their spare time for no other reason than the pure pleasure
of learning.
69
The Government wants to increase access to higher education. !3 years
ago only 1 in 8 school-leavers went on to college. Today it is 1 in 5 with a
predication of 1 in 3 by the year 2000.
“… Higher education will over next 20 or 30 years change out of all
recognition, that’s my view. There are 2 reasons: one is that the expansion
is enormous, it really is a revolution, is not evolution, it’s very, very rapid.
It’s from 20% of the age group getting higher education now to something
like one in 3 in 10-15-years time, so that’s bound to happen and affect the
type of students. And, secondary, formal institutions, they can’t all be the
same, they can’t all be FE colleges, can’t all be Oxford, so it’s going to be a
much more diverse system of higher education, far more differentiations
between institutions which I personally think is a good thing”
A few streets away from this college the New Oxford Brooks University
already illustrates a different style of education. This was once a polytechnic
college. Under new education law it’s now a University and the degrees it
awards reflect the old polytechnic traditions on a more practical, vocational
style of education.
“… I don’t know where it ends… they have different emphasis, and it
can mean that some will have far more science than others, set one kind of
emphases.
Some will go more for mature students than others and undoubtedly
1. Compose five questions that might serve a plan for the reproduction of
the text.
2. Reproduce the text.
3. Point out the main problems of the British higher education of today.
4. Say what you can of further education in Russia.
5. Speak about higher education in Russia using (or modifying) your plan
(№ 1)
6. Give your suggestions for perfecting Russian system of higher education supposing that funds are unlimited.
IV. Theatre Life.
70
From the History of English Theatre
In the XIXth century the influence of the French “ w e l l - m a d e ”
p l a y s o f S a r d o u and S r i b e had been felt in London, and for a time
dominated the work of English dramatists. Henry Arthur J o n e s and Arthur Wing P i n e r o were, however, opening windows on to modern life
and letting some much-needed fresh air into the run-of-the-mill playhouses. Jones was a serious dramatist and a conscious pioneer whose Saints and
Sinners (1884), in spite of some melodramatic features, introduced the Victorians to a naturalism they had not yet met in the theatre though they were
already familiar with it in prose fiction.
In contrast, Oscar W i l d e was writing brilliant artificial comedies of
which The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) in the most likely to survive.
New theatre sprang up all over London, and many new ones were also
built in the provinces, where the old s t o c k c o m p a n y and c i r c u i t
system were breaking down under the impact of t o u r i n g c o m p a n i e s .
These took advantage of the network of railways which soon spread across
the countryside to present replicas of London successes to provincial audiences. A new phenomenon which arose roughly in the 1850s was the m u sic-hall.
Soon every town had its own music-hall, the larger ones very often having local stars, some of whom went to London and returned on tour as nationally-known entertainers while others were content to remain at home
and build up a personal relationship with their faithful audiences. From
S c o t l a n d , which had struggled for many years to build up its own indigenous theatre, came a special brand of Scotish comedians, were also popular, and from America came the ministrel shows at first played by white
men with blackened faces but later by true Negroes. Their performances,
unlike those at the music-halls were intended for family entertainment.
Many of the new theatres built in London at the turn of the century
were controlled by a newcomer to the theatrical scene, the actor-manager
who starred in his own company in plays chosen and directed by himself,
usually spending the winter in London and the summer on tour.
By the end of the XIXth century the theatre in all its ramifications was
the main public amusement; but the glamour and scenic splendour of most
of the productions did not blind some people to the fact that there was little
serious drama, and what there was often lost, in the flood of meretricious
entertainment. In the 1890s some enthusiasts for the “theatre of ideas”
which was already making headway on the Continent, particularly with the
advent of such dramatists as I b s e n and S t r i n d b e r , stated a reaction
against what they regarded as the despotism of actor-managers, the policy
of the long run, the overpowering use of scenic spectacle, the escapism of
romantic melodrama, and the stereotyped form and conventional morality
71
of the “well-made”play. The modern movement may be said to have begaun
with S h a w , whose first play, Widowers’ Houses, was presented privately
by J . T . G r e i n ’ s Independent Theatre. As a result of their pioneer
work Grein and others were able to establish the s t a g e s o c i e t y , a private play-producing group which for the next 40 years arranged Sunday
performances of experimental and banned plays in West End theatres.
Among the writers of new drama Shaw stands somewhat apart. His
range of interest was wider than their, his plots enlivened by touches of the
fantastic and the absurd, and the characteristic incisiveness of his dialogue
is blended with the soaring but finely organized rhetoric of his long speeches. G a l s w o r t h y and other dramatists of the new age were more naturalistic. They appealed above all to the intellect, and were specially concerned
with the emancipation of women and the influence of money on moral
principles. An agreeable purveyor of comedies of manners well suited to the
Edwardian age was Somerset M a u g h a m in his early plays though he later became a penetrating satirist.
Major changes in the theatrical scene came with the outbreak of war in
1914. Although the actor-managers had been accused of giving little or no
encouragement to the new drama, they had maintained a certain continuity
of policy in their theatres and helped to buttress the drama proper against
the competition of the music-hall, m u s i c a l c o m e d y and r e v u e . During the First World War, however, theatre rents and the costs of production
quadrupled, and the actor-manager was ousted by financial combines
whose one idea was to make money by providing light entertainment for a
warweary audience swollen by the influx of overseas soldiers. Musical comedy, melodrama, and farce became the staple fare of most theatres, in London and in the provinces.
Between 1918 and 1939 the practice of subletting the principal London
theatres made productions more costly than even and, with a few honourable exceptions, managements preferred long runs of obvious appeal to serious but experimental plays.
The arrival of the films, and particularly talking films, caused many
theatres to be converted into cinemas. The staging of new plays became
more and more prerogative of a few small theatres, often clubs with a limited private membership.
With the disappearance of the actor-managers went also the flamboyant style of acting and the melodramatic type of play they had favoured. The
disillusioned and iconoclastic audience of the 1920s and 1930s preferred
adroit understatement and the critical realism of the problem play and the
drama of social purpose. Schooled by the cinema, it found no fault with the
episodic structure of Galsworthy’s last important play Escape (1927).
The conflict between the younger and the older generations was a favourite theme for problem plays.
72
Although n a t u r a l i s m was the prevailing dramatic technique of the
inter-war period, some playwrights searched for a method which would
permit a more imaginative presentation of life without a return to sentimental romanticism.
J . B . P r i e s t l e y moved from the efficient naturalism of Edem End
(1934) to the dramatization of new theories of the circularity of time in I
Have Been Here Before and Time and the Conways (both 1937).
In many respects the anti-naturalistic movement of the time reached its
climax in T . S . E l l i o t ’ s Murder in the Cathedral (1935).
The upheaval of the Second World War, which closed many theatres in
London and the larger provincial cities for lengthy periods between 1939
and 1942, nevertheless saw an important revival of dramatic art in Britain,
chiefly because for the first time the state began to subsidize it through the
creation of the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA), later the A r t s C o u n c i l . This resulted in the establishment of the
B r i s t o l O l d V i c , in the formation of several excellent touring companies, and in sponsored repertory seasons in London comparable to that given by the Old Vic company at the N e w T h e a t r e in London.
Peter U s t i n o v and Terence R a t t i g a n emerged as young dramatists of promise, while such pre-warwriters as Priestley continued their successful careers. Most of the outstanding players of the 1930s were still active, and were able to make transition from the classical and romantic repertory in which they had made their names to the more realistic atmosphere of the post-war theatre. This was made easier by the sudden and
somewhat unexpected interest aroused by the poetic plays of Christopher
F r y : Gielgud starred in The Lady’s Not for Burning (1949), Laurence O l i v e r in Venus Observed (1950). Alec G u i n n e s s appeared in T. S. Elliot’s The Cocktail Party (1949). All of them were also to be seen later in the
plays of the younger dramatists who came to the fore after interest suddenly shifted from the modern verse plays of Fry and Elliot to plays of protest
and satire which exaltd the nonconformist, the misfit, and the martyr, and
showed sympathy with and understanding of the frustrations and fears of
the common man. The new movement was sparked off by the violent reaction of young people against the stereotyping process of mass civilization,
the regimentation of the Welfare State, and the anxieties of the atomic age,
as well as by the feeling that contemporary democracy was only a façade
concealing an oligarchical “Establishment” associated with middle-class
morality, imperialism, the use of nuclear weapons, and capital punishment.
It exploded in John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger (1956), at the Royal
Court Theatre, the first of the naturalistic “kitchen-sink” dramas, in which
the hero is a provincial graduate turned street vendor who hurls invective at
class distinctions, Kiplingesque patriotism, suburban ennui, Sunday newspapers, and his mother-in-law, indiscriminately. Correspondingly, the older
73
generations of provincial families were criticized in Shelagh Delaney’s A
Taste of Honey (1958) and in W e s k e r ’s Roots (1959).
The influence of B r e c h t , whose plays were beginning to be seen in
translation on the English stage, showed itself in the episodic narrative
methods of Robert B o l t in A Man for All Seasons (1960), which starred
Paul Scofield, one of the best of the post-war actors: while that of the Theatre of the a b s u r d as developed in France by B e c k e t t and I o n e s c o ,
which had already reached London with the former’s Waiting for Godot
(1955). These plays, and many others, made clear the comic absurdity of
man, his imperfect powers of communication with his fellows, and his inevitable fears and loneliness. The new movement brought a refreshing variety
of contemporary idioms and dialects to the stage and made effective use of
functional and symbolic settings, breaking down the “fourth wall” convention. This was matched architecturally by new t h e a t r e b u i l d i n g s
derived from medieval, Elizabethian, and Greek models, which jettisoned
the proscenium arch in favour of a thrust stage that aimed to provide a
more intimate association between actor and audience than existing theatres allowed.
The British theatre was fortunate in the both the innovative and the
naturalistic spirit among dramatists, architects, and designers was found
also in the new generation if young players and directors, all eager to experiment with new ideas in varied combinations, among them Albert F i n n e y , Peter O ’ T o o l , and Tom C o u r t e n a y and, as directors, Joan L i t t l e w o o d with her T h e a t r e W o r k s h o p , Peter B r o o k with the
R o y a l S h a k e s p e a r e C o m p a n y , founded in 1961, and Tony
R i c h a r d s o n with the E n g l i s h S t a g e C o m p a n y , founded in
1956 at the Royal Court. As the new movement, typified by its youth, grew
in strength, it fuelled the rebellion against all forms of authority by directing attention to the taboos of sex and religion, and by channeling its energies into a co-ordinated battle for the freedom of the theatre.
In 1968 Parliament finally repealed the old Licensing Act and abolished
the Lord Chamberlain’s powers of censorship. The heady sense of freedom
that followed generated a brief wave of plays in the early 1970s that sought
to test public reaction to verbal obscenity and physical nudity and eventually to prove that playwrights, actors, and managers between them could be
trusted to know where artistic necessity ended and pornography began.
With censorship no longer an issue drama in the 1970s showed two main
trends, towards sardonic comedy and political polemic.
The opening of the N a t i o n a l T h e a t r e complex in 1976, together
with the continuing strength of the Royal Shakespeare Company and the
excellence of the new regional theatres, helped to emphasize the precarious
state of the commercial theatre, the West End theatre relied increasingly on
transfers from the subsidized sector, the F r i n g e , and theatres such as
those at G r e e n w i c h and H a m p s t e a d ; and subsidized productions
74
such as the R.S.C.’s adaptation of D i c k e n s ’ s Nicholas Nickleby and the
National Theatre’s production of Shaffer’s Amadeus have triumphed on
Broadway. It became accepted that the survival of the theatre – whether in
London or the provinces – at any but the most basic level entailed public
subsidy, especially in the severe economic climate of the 1980s.
Questions and Tasks:
1.
Find in the text, quote the sentence the unit is used, explain it:
run-off-the-mill
play- scenic spectacle incisive- iconoclastic;
houses
ness
adroit understatement;
naturalism
purveyor
circularity;
stock company
to buttress
misfit;
circuit system
the staple fare
functional and symbolic
replicas of London suc- obvious appeal
setting;
cesses
prerogative
to jettison;
meretricious
flamboyant style
to repeal;
to make headway
heady sense of freedom;
the long run
to entail
2. English theatre before Ibsen.
3. The theatre of the beginning of the century.
4. The period of 1918-1939.
5.
The changes of the War II.
6. The protesting ‘50ties on the stage.
7.
The situation of the ‘60ties, ‘70ties, ‘80ties.
Going to the theatre
London is very rich in theatres; there are over forty in the West End
alone – more than enough to ensure that there will always be at least two or
three shows running to suit every kind of taste, whether serious or frivolous.
Some of them are specialist theatres. The Royal Opera House, Covent
Garden, where the great opera singers of the world can be heard, is the
home of opera and The Royal Ballet. The London Coliseum now houses the
English National Opera Company, which encourages English singers in particular and performs most operas in English at popular prices.
Some theatres concentrate on the classics and serious drama, some on
light comedy and revue, some on musicals. Most theatres have a personality
of their own, from the old, such as the Theatre Royal (the “Haymarket”) in
the Haymarket, to the more modern such as the recently opened Barbarian
75
centre in the City. The National Theatre has three separate theatres in its
new building by Waterloo Bridge. At the new Barbarian centre the Royal
Shakespeare Company have their London home – their other theatre is at
Stratford-on-Avon.
Most of the older London theatres are concentrated in a very small area, within a stone’s throw of the Piccadilly and Leicester Square tube stations. As the evening performances normally begin either at seven-thirty or
eight p.m., there is a kind of minor rush-hour between seven-fifteen and
eight o’clock in this district. People stream out of the nearby tube stations,
the pavements are crowded, and taxis and private cars manoeuvre into position as they drop theatre-goers outside the entrance to each theatre. There
is another minor rush-hour when the performance finishes. The Theatre in
London is very popular and it is not always easy to get in to see a successful
play.
Before World War II theatre performances began later and a visit to the
theatre was a more formal occasion. Nowadays a few people “dress” for the
theatre (that is wear formal evening dress) except for first nights or an important “gala” performance. The times of performance were put forward
during the war and have not been put back. The existing times make the
question of eating a rather tricky problem: one has to have either early dinner or late supper. Many restaurants in “theatreland” ease the situation by
catering specially for early or late diners.
Television and the difficulty of financing plays have helped to close
many theatres. But it seems that the worst of the situation is now over and
that the theatre, after a period of decline, is about to pick up again. Although some quite large provincial towns do not have a professional theatre,
there are others, such as Nottingham, Hull, Coventry or Newcastle, which
have excellent repertory companies and where a series of plays are performed during one seasons by a resident group of actors. Some towns such
as Chichester or Edinburgh have theatres which give summer seasons. Even
in small towns a number of theatres have been built in the last few years to
cater for the local population.
Vocabulary
1. Explain, or give equivalents for, the following phrases:
There are many shows running at the present time, within a stone’s throw
of Piccadilly, people stream out of the nearby tube stations, a rather tricky
problem, the theatre is about to pick up again.
2. What is the collective noun for the people who watch a play?
What is a revue?
What are the classics?
What is a musical?
Questions on “Going to the theatre”:
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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
How many theatres are there in the West End of London?
What would you see on a visit to Covent Garden?
What is special about the National Theatre?
Where would you find many of London Theatres?
What would you notice about the streets in this area between seven-fifteen and eight p.m.?
6. What difference did the war make to theatre-going?
7. What two things have had a bad effect on the theatre in England?
8. What is the present situation in the theatre?
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Старое надоело, а нового нет
Театральная жизнь № 1, 2004
…Разве новая драма, о которой сегодня так много говорят, не
старается поднимать новые темы либо говорить об известном
как-то иначе?
Сегодня придумана и активно пропагандируется некая
молодёжная мода. На самом деле только кажется, что это новое. Разве
разврат – это новое? Разве в царстве ирода не было разврата? И кровь
лилась, и жена убивала своего мужа в «Орестее», и мать жила с сыном
в «Царе Эдипе». Всё это тысячу раз было. Здесь фокус в том, что кровь
в древнегреческом театре лилась, чтобы в конце был катарсис. А
сегодня на сцене – порок ради порока, и люди уже не знают, как
представить порок в его занимательном виде. То, что со сцены звучит
мат, разве это новое? В Америке всё это было ещё двадцать, тридцать
лет назад: Мэмет, Шеппард. На Западе это уже давно устарело.
В 50-60-е годы пришли «рассерженные – Олби и целое поколение
«сердитых». Это были «политически рассерженные» молодые люди,
они бунтовали против буржуазного образа жизни, буржуазного
мышления. Сегодняшних я называю «биологически рассерженными».
Они утверждают своё видение мира, узаконивают порок. Но обратите
внимание: на них ходят только свои, из своей «тусовки». Для тех, кому
интересен порок, наверное, тоже должен быть свой театр. Но основная
масса публики ходит всё-таки в другие театры.
Однако нельзя сказать, чтобы они были совсем уж
маргиналами: тема новой драмы звучит сегодня достаточно
громко.
Агрессия, с которой в театр врывается новая драма, понятна:
молодым всегда хочется, чтобы они пришли, а все остальные погибли.
Но проблема новой драмы – в её литературном бескультурье. Потому
что и Сартр, и Камю, и Беккет, и Ионеско когда-то бывшие «новой
драмой», - всё это мощная литература. Сегодня в новой драме я этого
не вижу. Я слышу отголоски Мэмета, Шеппарда, но не отголоски
Ионеско или Беккета. В этой драматургии нет философии.
Театр – это прежде всего высокая литература. Сегодня нет новых
пьес такого уровня, чтобы можно было сказать: «Второй Шекспир
явился! Как он отразил трагедию современного времени! Как он
пророчески объяснил, что со мной будет завтра, как ахнул зал от того,
что вдруг осознал самоё себя!» В этом смысле новой драмы сегодня
нет.
…И всё же можно ли сформулировать какие-то характерные
черты современной режиссуры, современного театра?
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После страшной Второй мировой войны, после всех её ужасов мир
очень изменился. Болевой порог стал иным. Человечество осознало,
что никакого милосердия и сострадания не существует, что человек –
абсолютное животное. А если Бога нет, то всё позволено. И тогда театр
сострадания, психологический театр был назван старомодным.
Взамен пришли технология, техника, мизантропия, царство порока.
До нас в силу известных причин это всё дошло только лет пятнадцать
назад. Это и называется сегодня современным театром.
Мы говорим: психологический театр устарел. Режиссёру не нужны
уже ни знания человеческой психики, ни человеческой души. Теперь
каждый дворник или эстрадная певица могут поставить спектакль.
Каждый сам себе Мейерхольд. Отметаются все традиции, весь опыт
предыдущих лет. Помните: «В Испании пропал король. Он нашёлся.
Этот король – я.» «Записки сумасшедшего» Гоголя.
Увлечение театром представления понятно. Долгое время мы
были закованы в рамки соцреализма, многое было нельзя, и мы
многое пропустили: театр абсурда, театр жестокости. А когда стало
можно, все ринулись осваивать новые территории. Так и надо было.
Однако любая режиссёрская конструкция, любая находка должна
иметь чёткое оправдание. И человек на сцене должен оставаться
человеком, а не превращаться в биологическую субстанцию.
Ведь в XX веке мы приобрели огромный опыт психологического
театра. В центре рассмотрения нашего театра всегда был человек, это
уже зафиксировано в кроветворении нашем. А на человека можно
посмотреть как на божественное создание, а можно – как на урода. И
будет два типа театра. Первый сегодня называют устаревшим, второй якобы современным. Но почему же уродство – это современные
тенденции в режиссуре? И в любом случае без сопереживания театр в
любых формах бессмысленен. Если нет сопереживания, это не театр.
Это холодное, мёртвое зрелище. Труп театра.
Тогда о чём, по-вашему, нужно говорить в театре?
О человеческой трагедии и о том, что с нами будет завтра. Театр
отражает те явления, которые происходят в обществе. А общество вялое. Люди прячутся в своей раковине и ничего не хотят знать о
завтрашнем дне. Многие режиссёры занимаются коммерцией.
Интеллигенция сама себя истребляет, поскольку хочет хорошо жить.
Поэтому и театр сегодня вялый, не имеющий ни программы, ни
перспективы. Точно такой же вялый и «альтернативный» театр.
Только внешне он такой двигательный, там гормоны играют. Нет
серьёзной драматургии. Старое надоело, а нового нет. Тогда мы
начинаем выкручивать руки Чехову, Гоголю, Шекспиру. Потому что
уже не знаем, куда двигаться.
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Сегодня мы ждём своего Островского. Мы хотим, чтобы
заговорили о морали. Чтобы молодые драматурги говорили о
духовном глобальном кризисе, чтобы они пытались хотя бы внутренне
этому противостоять. Пусть это будет комедия, сатира. Пусть скажут,
что Маммона – не главное. Что разврат, который мы назвали
сексуальной революцией – не главное. Что вседозволенность – не
главное. А что главное для человека? Созидание. Не разрушение.
Люди хотят подтверждения лучшего в себе, а не подтверждения
худшего. Они ждут этого. «Да, все погибли, правды не существует. Но
боже мой, как не хочется, чтобы погибал Гамлет».
Возвращаясь к европейскому театру…
В последнее время я вижу там две основные тенденции. Первая –
это такой театр потока сознания. Когда сюжет уничтожается, а идёт
материализованный поток сознания режиссёра: его впечатления от
прочитанной пьесы и соотношение этого с жизнью. Понял зритель
или нет, не важно. Такой театр есть везде, и мы к нему идём. Часто он
с элементами жестокости, садомазохизма – кошмарный поток
сознания испуганного человека, ставшего зверем в современном мире.
Вторая тенденция – тяга к высокому искусству, которое
рассматривает человека как божественное создание. Этот театр
говорит, что надо стремиться к лучшему, что от помысла мир
изменится. Увековечивать, а не уничтожать. Но такого театра гораздо
меньше. Две тенденции как борьба добра и зла. А отсюда и все формы.
Либо мы идём в полное самоистребление и разрушение. Либо
говорим: нет, есть выход, есть надежда.
Как вы считаете, в какой мере критика должна определять,
что есть современное и старомодное, и может ли она влиять на
эти процессы?
Я считаю, что может и должна. В своё время Наталья Крымова и
Инна Соловьёва были пророками театра. Они безошибочно указывали
на талантливого человека. Они говорили: «Это талантливо», - и вся
критика бежала туда. Я сама ещё помню время, когда тебя пестовали,
объясняли, кто ты есть, и говорили: или. Сегодня таких авторитетов
нет. И бедная молодёжь сбивается с ног, потому что не может понять,
что хорошо, а что плохо. А раз критерии размыты, получается «всем
сёстрам по серьгам». Надают всем премий, назовут гением, а потом
смотришь – и нет этих гениев. Как в своё время Аксаков «открыл»
Гоголя, как Крымова «открыла» Някрошюса, Женовача и многих
других, так сегодня очень нужны Стасовы, способные родить
«Могучую кучку».
Вообще, кто такие театральные критики сегодня? Папарацци?
Раньше был замечательный журнал «Театр», его читали все. Там были
не просто лицензии, там развивалось особое театральное мышление, в
80
котором театр являлся частью вселенной. Это была целая группа
людей, которые вместе осмысливали театр. Как-то Инна Натановна
Соловьёва сказала мне в сердцах о современных критиках: «Ты
знаешь, они не любят театр». А те – театр любили.
Что касается меня, то я больше полагаюсь на литературную
критику, на философских людей. На людей, занимающихся не
исключительно театром, а театром как частью всей культуры. А у нас
сегодня нос отделился от лица и пошёл гулять по Петербургу – это и
есть театральная критика.
I. Render the interview, dramatize it. How would you have answered
the same questions?
V. Test tasks and quizzes for self-assessment
Quiz № 1 (Economics )
I.
Translate into Russian the following:
to restructure (debts)
refund checks
IMF
to clock up
bond finance
target income
to adjudicate
bonanza
revenue
via social spending
interest payments
multi (uni) lateral
II.
Explain or give synonyms to:
to go bust
net increase
debt seniority
lower marginal tax
to bail out
windfall
nascent
resource-poor countries
nominal GDP growth
to disburse
III Questions and Tasks:
“When Countries Go Bust”
1) Pick out cases of metaphors. What additional information do they provide?
2) Explain what is meant by pursuing sensible economic policies”. Does it
mean the same for the IMF and the debtor-country?
“The Slowdown in Nominal DGP…”
1) Predict the influence of slower nominal GDP growth on:
education
consumer goods production
agriculture
high-tech industries
budget of pensioners
inflow of capital
81
budget of young families
“The Devil’s Excrement”:
1) Can any fact reflected in the article be in any way applicable or referring
to Russia?
Quiz № 2 (Economics )
I.
Translate into Russian:
to be on the dole
to mitigate
to keep off the dole
to levy
to do business in cyberspace
low|high volume products
II.
Explain the following or give synonyms to:
allocation of resources
advent of liberated prices
exemption
friction unemployment
blue|white|collar workers
cyclic|structural unemployment
VAT
the dole
Modem
III.
Questions and Tasks:
p.p.
: 1) Give a four-sentence gist of the text.
p.p.
: 1) What unites the first 2 texts? Which points are better illustrated in the second one?
2) Write out all the synonyms of “business in cyberspace”.
3) Explain the difference between the following:
- a tax exile;
- a tax refugee;
- a tax dodger.
p.p.
: 1) The varieties of unemployment in Russia at present.
Quiz III-a (Ecology)
I.
Translate into Russian:
malnutrition
Hazardous
vertebrate species
fossil fuels
to fend for oneself
IR
municipal garbage
II.
Explain the following or give synonyms to:
to deplete
Impunity
consummate (adj)
to moot
gluttonous
one-way filter
82
sustainable society
III.
Questions and Tasks:
: 1) Comment on the Secrets of Nature.
2) What makes the text sound dramatic? Speak about its stylistic peculiarities.
p.p.
: 1) The hypothetic danger of the Greenhouse Effect. Do we feel
any as yet?
2) Dangers caused by the ground ozone.
3) The hazardous role of cars. The possible ways of the problem solution. Your personal suggestions.
p.p.
Quiz III-b (Ecology)
I.
Translate into Russian:
the grid
pulp and paper mills
land-fill sites
permafrost
economically viable
to beware
resin tapping
a drawing-beard project
II.
Explain the following or give synonyms to:
resurgence
Biodiversity
a levy
bleach
commercial incentive
upbeat names
conifer
olfactory
deciduous
to fumigate
III.
Questions and Tasks:
p.p.
: 1) Innumerate all the possible (even hypothetical) ways of producing renewable energy. Which are economically viable in Britain|Russia?
p.p. 50-54: 1) What are the instances of a useful legacy from Soviet times in
forestry?
2) Why does felling trees on permafrost endanger the eco-system?
p.p.
: 1) The existing ways of waste disposal. The advantages and disadvantages of each of them. Can you suggest anything else?
3) A future recovery center. What problems are overlooked here?
4) What advice can you use? What advice can you add?
Quiz IV (Education)
I.
nepotism
meritocracy
blatant
Translate into Russian:
Legatee
to pander to
valedictorian
83
II.
Explain the following or give synonyms to:
flummery
Alumni
to snipe
ivy league
spoils system
to inbreed
legacy preferences
to wither on the vine
III.
Questions and Tasks:
p.p.
: 1) Ask three questions to the article that might serve the plan for a
summary.
2) Legacy preferences in Russia.
3) Is nepotism a punishable felony?
p.p.
: 1) Point out the main problems of higher education in Britain|Russia.
2) Make up a plan for the reproduction of the text.
3. Give your suggestions for perfecting the Russian system of higher
education supposing it is funded not on the residual principle.
84