Упражнения
Упражнение I. Текст для перевода с листа с предварительным чтением каждого абзаца вслух:
Powers of Congress
The United State of America is a Federal union of 50 states. Its basic law in the Constitution of 1787 to which 27 amendments have been made since. The first ten amendments to the US Constitution are called collectively the "Bill of Rights".
One of the features of the US politics is the so-called bipartisan system, i.e. the ruling of the two principal parties - the Democratic and the Republican - in the political life of the country.
The Democratic Party is the older of the two, tracing its history back to 1822. The Republican Party was founded in 1856, primarily as antislavery party. Its founder is Abraham Lincoln. The Emblem of the Republican Party is elephant (strength), and that of the Democratic Party is donkey (wisdom).
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Both parties are entirely free of party discipline: it is not necessary to make an application to join the party, there are no membership dues.
A clear cut difference between the two parties has not existed for more than half a century.
Donations of monopoly capital to both parties to keep them "healthy" have become public knowledge.
Under the constitution the government of the nation is vested
in three branches: the legislative (Congress), the executive (the President and his Administration) and the judicial (the Supreme Court).
The Congress of the USA is composed of two houses: the Senate and the House of Representatives. The main function of both houses is legislation, i.e. making new laws or changing the old ones.
Other functions of Congress are to finance the operation of the President and his Administration and to approve The Federal budget.
Besides, Congress is entitled to determine taxes, to regulate foreign and interstate commerce, to raise and maintain the armed forces and to declare war.
Упражнение II. Переведите устно со зрительной опорой краткие информационные сообщения "In Brief". Определите контекстуальное значение незнакомых вам слов и проверьте себя по словарю:
1. Colin Powell, America's Secretary of State, visited Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia to promote the road map - the plan for a Middle Eastern peace agreement.
Substantive progress will have to wait until Areal Sharon, Israel's prime minister, visits America's President next week. (2003).
Commentary: road map "дорожная карта". It is a phased proposal offered by the United States for ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by 2005.
South Korea's President has long hoped that he could melt the ice between North and South Korea by offering the North dollops of aid and other goodies while keeping silent about the poor human rights record, its illicit weapons programmes and the vast conventional forces dug in just across his boarder (The Economist, 2003).
France's President seeking re-election played the crime-card: more power for police, more power for courts and anti-crime ministry.
"The street can give its views, but the street doesn't govern," said France's prime minister just before huge demonstrations on May 13th against his plans for Pension reform brought France almost to a halt (2003).
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America's health secretary used religious language in calling for a ban on cloning. "Live is a creation, not a commodity", he said.
America's interior minister imposed a ban on the import of wildlife products from Taiwan because it said Taiwan had failed to do anything about the trade in tiger
bones and rhino horn.
In a new outbreak of kidnapping in the Philippines, a South Korean and a Filipino businessman were seized by gunmen in the southern island of Mindanao. Police, helped by American special forces, continued to hunt for an American missionary couple and a Filipina nurse held on Basilan island.
For the moment, Blair's name is greeted here with the kind of acclaim accorded to no British leader since Winston Churchill (and easily surpassing Margaret Thatcher's 80s vogue). Conservatives in the Senate and House of Representatives have nominated him for the congressional gold medal, the nation's highest mark of national appreciation, which was first awarded to George Washington by the Continental Congress in 1776. The previous recipients include Pope John Paul II, Mother Teresa, Colin Powell and Churchill. Sponsored in the Senate by Elizabeth
. Dole - North Carolina Republican, the medal resolution is likely to draw little opposition, if any, from either side of the aisle. (The Guardian, October 10, 2003).
9. Colin Powell, America's secretary of state, announced plans to visit Berlin: a step towards re-establishing Iraq-torn relations with Gerhard Schroder's government. But the Pentagon, by asking Poland to play a prominent peacekeeping role in Iraq, seemed keener on strengthening ties with the "new Europeans".
10. Several days of fighting between Yorubas and Hausas in Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital, led to about 100 deaths. Tony Blair, Britain's prime minister, arrived in Nigeria at the start of a four-nation West African tour that also takes in Ghana, Senegal and Sierra Leone.
An Egyptian court sentenced two Islamic militants to death for trying to murder Naguib Mahfouz, a Nobel-prize-winning novelist.
Somalia's transitional government, which has little or no control over the warring country it is supposed to rule, was shut out of its parliament building for non payment of rent.
To test corruption in the police force, the interior minister sent a lorry full of spirits on a 700-kilometre journey through the country. The police stopped it 24 times. They asked for bribes 22 times.
Nicolau dos Santos, a former judge who had become Brazil's most-wanted fugitive, surrendered to police after spending some eight months in hiding. He is accused of embezzling 169m reals ($86m) from a court-house construction project.
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* * *
- Why did you steal $ 1, 500 000? -1 was hungry, sir.
Упражнение III. Прочтите вслух географические названия стран из упражнений урока 6:
Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, Taiwan, Israel, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, Poland, North and South Korea, Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Brazil, Sierra Leone, Jerusalem, Gaza, Delhi, Islamabad.
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To fiddle while Rome burns (proverb)
Упражнение IV. Переведите текст письменно (Контрольная работа к уроку 6): Doubt cast on the Premier
Prime Minister Tony Blair conceded privately that Iraq did not have quickly deployable weapons of mass destruction as the British government was, claiming as justification for war, Robin Cook, the former foreign secretary, said Sunday.
Cook said that the prime minister also made it clear to him in a conversation two weeks before combat operations began that he did not believe Saddam Hussein's weapons posed a "real and present danger" to Britain.
"I am certain." Cook writes, "the real reason he went to war was that he found it easier to resist the public opinion of Britain than the request of the president of the
United States."
Mr. Blair was so close to Mr. Bush that the other presidents and prime ministers of Europe beat a path to Downing Street to be briefed on what America was really thinking. It made Mr. Blair a disproportionately honoured guest in Jerusalem, Gaza, Delhi, Riyadh, Islamabad - you name it. But this particular party is now over. One thing that has ended it is the changing mood in Britain. Voters - or, at least, the editorialists who claim to speak for voters - say that it is time for Mr Blair to stay home a while and concentrate on his day job.
The Times October 8, 2003
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