Text II. alcoholism, economic weakness, weak property rights, bureaucracy, corruption, weakness of the technical intelligentsia

■ Skimming

Ex. 1.

alcoholism, economic weakness, weak property rights, bureaucracy, corruption, weakness of the technical intelligentsia, declining population, crumbling infrastructure, deteriorating education

■ Scanning

Ex. 2.

1) The ultimate goal is to make Russia a world leader.

2) Critics argue that a country with weak property rights and a corrupt bureaucracy can invent new ways of extracting bribes and robbing businesses, but not of creating intellectual wealth.

3) The experience of Mr. Gorbachev’s perestroika − which started with talk of technological renewal but ended in the collapse of the Soviet system − has persuaded the Kremlin to define modernization strictly within technological boundaries.

4) In Russian history, it is Peter the Great and Stalin who are considered the great modernizers.

5) They created an educated class capable of generating, or at least replicating, the best Western innovation.

6) In the 1930s leading Soviet engineers arrested by Stalin labored in special prison laboratories within the gulag.

7) According to Mikhail Khodorkovsky, what is needed is “a whole social stratum − a fully fledged modernizing class...”

8) The business elite is increasingly discontent with the present political system.

9) Learning to live according to its means, rather than its ambitions, and learning to show more care for human life and dignity, are more important to Russia’s renewal than winning a geopolitical race.

Ex. 3.

1) array, alcoholism, nuclear-powered

2) rights, bureaucracy, bribes, businesses, wealth

3) renewal, collapse, define, boundaries

4) warning, rush

5) bureaus, institutes, set up

6) manifesto, vital, modernization, carry out

7) destined, resources, modernize

8) declining, rate, crumbling, deteriorating, taxpayers

■ Vocabulary Study

Ex. 5.

1) – g); 2) – b); 3) – f); 4) – a); 5) – c); 6) – e); 7) – d)

Ex. 6.

1) – d); 2) – c); 3) – a); 4) – b)

Ex. 7.

to compete, survival, decision, to define, fulfillment, to bribe, revelation, renewal, deterioration

Ex. 8.

1) a large increase or change

2) a short phrase that is easy to remember and is used in advertisements, or by politicians, organizations, etc

3) a group of people or things, especially one that is large or impressive

4) favourable to progress or reform, as in political or religious affairs

5) money or a gift that you illegally give someone to persuade them to do something for you

6) occurring or coming later or after

7) the limit of what is acceptable or thought to be possible

8) extremely important and necessary for something to succeed or exist

9) ideas and activities relating to the way that a country’s position, population etc affect its political development and its relationship with other countries, or the study of this

10) the basic systems and structures that a country or organization needs in order to work properly, for example roads, railways, banks etc

Ex. 9.

1) – f); 2) – e); 3) – d); 4) – b); 5) – a); 6) – c)

Unit V