OPEN DOORS 4 страница

As well as costing jobs and wrecking local lifestyles, the countryside crisis affects the environment. In Britain – where in 1997 farmers' incomes fell 46%largely due to BSE, or "mad cow" disease, plus a strong pound – there is growing alarm over the damaging results of the intensive farming methods the CAP has encouraged. The BSE-causing practice of giving cattle feed containing animal remains – now banned – was one outcome of this type of farming, For maximum yields – in produce and in subsidies – marginal land has been cultivated and grazed, and fertilizer and pesticide use increased, destroying habitat and forcing water companies to spend millions on attempts to remove excess nitrates.

British journalist Graham Harvey, in his book The Killing of the Countryside, suggests that eliminating subsidies would be one way back to more environment- friendly farming. To illustrate the damage wrought by intensive agricultural practices in Britain he cites studies showing that the number of skylarks and other birds has declined dramatically over the past 25 years.

Not to save skylarks, but to placate the World Trade Organization and stop the spread of handouts to new member countries, Agriculture Commissioner Fischler is determined to rein in the CAP. He proposes cutting support prices – the guaranteed figures at which the European Commission agrees to buy unsold farm produce – by 30%for beef, 20%for cereals and 15%for milk over a three-year period starting in 2000. The theory is that this will bring prices down nearer to world market levels. Also in theory, lowering subsidies will eventually reduce E.U. food prices slightly. The European Consumers' Organization estimates that the average E.U. house- hold's weekly food bill is $32 higher than its U.S. counterpart's because of minimum guaranteed prices for farm products.

To ease the pain, Fischler is promising compensation checks to farmers, which will initially increase the present farm budget by more than $4 billion. While he argues that the CAP has been "leeching away the entrepreneurship of farming," E.U. farming groups are frightened and angered by his proposals. German farmers say his plans will cost 30,000 farm jobs in Bavaria; the Spanish say up to 700,000 hectares of olive groves will be destroyed or abandoned and seasonal pickers will lose millions of workdays. Fischler counters that it will be "an absolute disaster" if E.U. national governments fail to reach agreement on reforming the CAP before the next WTO talks in late 1999.

Whether those governments will take the bull by the horns remains to be seen. If they do, how many small farms will survive the shake-out? If they don't, how long can the unreal world of unfarming continue without breaking the Brussels bank? The farmer's plight is captured by British author Joanna Trollope in her best-seller, Next of Kin: "The land seemed... defenceless, no longer a source of security and livelihood but a capricious, helpless thing, governed by arbitrary forces far away and no longer by the men who farmed it." Sadly, her novel is more fact than fiction.

(Rod Usher, Time)

I. Find English equivalent for the following:

- за свой собственный счет;

- не потерять вторую работу;

- иметь экономический смысл;

- естественная среда;

- официальное заявление;

- cтоимость еженедельной продуктовой потребительской корзины;

- взять быка за рога;

- уменьшить боль.

II. Answer the questions:

1. Why do people return back to rural areas?

2. What kind of initiative have farmers shown?

3. What flair have the Irish demonstrated?

4. Does the countryside crisis affect the environment? In what way?

5. What are the proposals of Agriculture Commissioner Fischler?

6. How will his plan affect the E.U. farmers?

7. How does Joanna Trollope describe the farmer’s plight?

III. Say what is true and what is false. Correct the false sentences:

1.Farmers refused to show initiative of their own.

2. Urban crowding and high cost of living are causing a return flow in many places.

3. There are now an estimated 900 ghost towns and villages scattered across Spain.

4. And the relative boom in the high tech, construction and engineering sectors has been mostly in remote districts.

5. As well as coasting jobs and wrecking local lifestyle? The countryside crisis affects the environment.

6. The number of skylarks and other birds has increased over the past 25 years.

7. Fischler proposes cutting support prices.

8. It will be «an absolute disaster» if E.U. national governments fail to reach agreement on reforming the CAP.

IY. Find a word or phrase in the text which is similar in meaning to the following:

- the job or other source of income which gives you the money to buy things that you need in your daily life;

- to be greater in number than the other group;

- in succession;

- to combine things together to make one whole thing;

- to do something unwillingly and hesitate before doing it;

- to state officially that it must not be done;

- the result of an action or process;

- a larger amount that is actually needed;

- a situation that is distressing and full of problems.

Y. Express the meaning of the following words and phrases:

- set-period;

- to make ends meet;

- yield;

- marginal land;

- fertilizer;

- handout;

- jaded economy.

YI. Demonstrate the meaning of the following words and expressions in sentences of your own:

- to deteriorate;

- flair;

- to merge;

- to hold on a job;

- to make ends meet;

- outcome;

- to eliminate;

- to placate;

- to rein;

- to leech;

- plight.

YII. Topics for discussion:

1. The future of agriculture in Russia and other countries.

2. Agricultural practices in different countries.

UNIT14

JUVENILE LEADS

The surroundings are more reminiscent of holidays than punishment, but the high security is grimly evident inside, and it becomes clear this isn't somewhere any 16 year old would ever choose to be. Portland young offenders institution (YOI), a 200-year-old cluster of buildings where convicts bound for Australia once earned their fares breaking rocks, sits right on the Dorset coast near Weymputh.

It is home to about 550 young offenders aged 15 to 21 – around 200 are under 18 – and also a new National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (Nacro) pilot project, where they have installed paid mentors inside the prison to befriend juveniles (15 to 17s) and help them to lead useful lives on release.

Prisoner mentoring until now has been delivered on a voluntary basis, by those with good intentions and sufficient free time on their hands to become prison visitors. But the Portland project, which is being funded by the Monument Trust for three years and began in January, is the first time paid mentors have been used.

Richie Dell, one of two mentors at Portland, works with 15 juveniles at a time. He was formerly a prison officer at Portland, disillusioned by the lack of sufficient resources to rehabilitate young inmates.

Sporting a 1950s quiff, brothel creepers and a permanent Woodbine, Dell has the respect of the inmates he helps, but his previous experience within the prison means he's no walkover. He says: "Some are 15, still children, with no hair on their faces and unbroken voices. They seem so innocent, and then you learn they've been terrorising entire neighbourhoods."

Dell chats informally on a constant basis with the offenders, in his once, their cells or in the pool table area, rather than having "sessions". He earns their trust and gets them talking about their various histories, problems and feelings. "It's only when you know about their pasts that you can continue to work on their futures," he explains. He and his colleague, Roy Koerner, a former youth worker, help with practical things like job and training applications and housing, but they work on mental processes too, such as victim empathy. One youth blinded someone in a knife attack and Dell- encouraged him to keep his hand over his eye to develop empathy for his victim. "Never mind that you feel silly," he was told. "Imagine how your victim feels."

They also try to involve families in the process and inevitably find themselves helping to resolve conflicts. Dell says: "One lad, David, had an unhealthy respect for a law-breaking stepbrother, and we worked on that, slowly taking apart his suitability as a role model." With Dell's help, he has applied for a place at catering college on release, and is due out of Portland in two weeks.

David says: "At first, I didn't know what Richie's job entailed, so I gave him s bit of attitude. Then I heard he only accepted 50% of the inmates who apply to be helped, and I got interested. Now, I speak to him as freely as I do my social worker, bat I only see her twice a month."

Most juveniles are under the social services remit rather than probation, hut visits from either are infrequent due to travel costs and time pressures.

Dell arranged a drug awareness programme for David, who has been drug-free for several months and he says the help he's receive has made him more open-minded and outgoing. He adds: "I want to be friends with the kind of people outside who just like a beer at weekends, and I want to make my family proud of me again." He will be encouraged to keep in contact with Dell when he's released, and every effort will be made to find a mentor in his community.

A staggering 80 of all young offenders under 16 commit further offences within two years. Portland is one of just four YOIs in the country holding so many juveniles, and its inmates have more acute problems than most others – the majority have been excluded from school 90% abuse alcohol or drugs, and 30% have been some form of institutional care. One of the scheme's architects, Dennis Valentine, says: "Juveniles have different needs because they are so vulnerable, compliant and easily influenced. We'd like to see juveniles moved right, out of the prison system because they need more support than it can offer."

Justin, 17, is serving three years for armed robbery, although he was hiding in a field when the robbery took place. The gun belonged to his ex-army brother. With Koeraer's help, Justin is applying for a place on a carpentry and joinery course. "I've built a relationship with Roy now," he says, "They work on making a bond with their clients, and you can confide in them. He's more experienced in life than I am, whereas a probation officer just checks up on you."

(Lynne Wallis, Guardian)

I. Find English equivalent for the following:

- учреждение для малолетних преступников;

- направляться в Австралию;

- после освобождения;

- на произвольной основе;

- одновременно;

- завоевать доверие;

- опека;

- условное освобождение.

II. Answer the questions:

1. What are the aims of mentors?

2. What is new about the Portland project?

3. What are the Dell’s methods of working with offenders?

4. What does David think about his future?

5. What are the acute problems of the Portland inmates?

III. Say what is true and what is false. Correct the false sentences:

1.The surroundings are more reminiscent of holidays than punishment, but the high security is grimly evident inside.

2. It is a home to about 750 adult offenders aged 25 to 65 - around 500 are under 40.

3. Prisoner mentoring until now has been delivered on a special basis.

4. They have given up to involve families in the process and inevitably find themselves not helping to resolve conflicts.

5. Most of the juveniles are under the social services remit rather than probation, but visits from either are infrequent due to travel coasts and time pressures.

6. The majority of inmates have been excluded from school, 90% abuse alcohol or drags.

7. Juveniles have the same needs because they are so strong, rigorous and severe.

IY. Find a word or phrase in the text which is similar in the meaning to the following:

- a person who has committed a crime;

- to give someone a job or position officially;

- to be disappointed;

- one of the people living in a prison;

- the ability to share another person’s feelings and emotions as if they were your own;

- to be willingly ready to do what someone asks to do.

Y. Express the meaning of the following words and phrases:

- pilot project;

- walkover;

- step-brother;

- catering college;

- time pressure;

- open-minded;

- outgoing.

YI. Demonstrate the meaning of the words an expressions in sentences of your own:

- reminiscent;

- to disillusion;

- walkover;

- to resolve conflicts;

- to entail;

- time pressure;

- institutional care;

- compliant;

- to confide in smb.

YII. Topics for discussion:

1. Young offenders institutions in Russia.

2. The reasons of juvenile delinquency.

UNIT 15

TAX HAVENS’ PLAN TO REBUILD CITIES

Britain’s in her cities and run-down suburbs will become "tax havens" under plans to revive derelict urban areas drawn up for the government by Lord Rogers, one of the country's best-known architects.

The urban taskforce, set up last year to rejuvenate Britain's cities, is to recommend that such areas be given a new and lower band of council tax to encourage a new breed of "urban pioneers" to move in.

The report, to be published later this month, also proposes the creation of suburban wardens to help foster better relations in fragmented communities.

"Our cities and towns have become run-down and will get worse unless we do something to halt the decline," said Alan Cherry, chairmen of Countryside Properties and a member of the taskforce. "This is our opportunity to make them mote attractive places to live."

The taskforce was set up by John Prescott, secretary of state for the environment, transport and the regions, to find ways of reversing the years of neglect that have blighted many city areas and to try to emulate the success of many continental cities such as Barcelona. A crucial aim was to reverse the flow of people moving from the towns to the county – currently running at about 1,700 a week.

Prescott has promised to reverse this flow but is likely to be embarrassed by the 14-strong panel's conclusion that, so far, he has failed. It will say his flagship policy of building 60% of new homes or recycled land is under threat because local authorities are surrendering too many prime greenfield sites to developers. The government has said that more than 3.8m new houses are needed by, 2016.

The panel also highlights the lack of suitable sites for Such development. A, study published last month showed there is only enough "brownfield" land for 712,000 homes. The government, however, needs to build 2.2m homes on cycled land by 2016.

"This simply proves what developer shave been saying all along," said Marc Cranfield-Adams, of the House Builders Federation. "There simply aren't enough brownfield sites which are ready to build on in the southeast where housing need is at its greatest."

Among the 100 recommendations in the faskforce report is a package of measures aimed at shoring up the government's brownfield policy. It recommends that local authorities are forced to carry out more detailed audits to find suitable, sites and that more effective and faster compulsory purchase orders are introduced.

Rogers, architect of the Millennium Dome, the Lloyd's building in the City and the Pompidou Centre in Paris, also wants a new tax regime to encourage people to live in inner-city areas and the suburbs. The report will recommend tax breaks, probably through lower council tax band.

It also suggests that the government should cut the Vat charged to builders who restore old buildings and create financial incentives to build within urban areas. This could include imposing taxes on homes build on green field sites.

"These policies will, put urban regeneration at the heat of Labour's agenda," said Tony Burton, assistant director of the Council for the Protectio of Rural England, who is a member of the urban taskforce. «It will coats money but will save thousands of acres of this country 's green belt.»

The report also highlights the seed to invest in suburbia.. It recommends the creation of development trusts for managing suburban communities and the appointment of caretakers on estates.

It emphasises, however, that the government will have to force the education, transport and 1eisure departments of local authorities to work together if people are to be convinced that city life is preferable to the countryside. Schools, transport and leisure amenities will all need to be improved.

In an interim report published in January, the panel said: "Despite a century of urban decline, a desire for urban living has been rekindled in the hearts of many British people. Many people have returned to urban areas over the last 10 years and our work suggests there are many who could be persuaded to do so – but an urban renaissance is not going to come cheaply or easily."

The taskforce’s aim is to help residents like those who used to live in Dr Hery Russell Court, a former development in Newcastle upon Tyne. The 50-flat complex was' heralded as a showpiece development but was demolished recently, just three years after completes, because nobody wanted to live in the troubled area.

Many of the proposals in the taskforce report are expected to be adopted in the government's urban white paper, due to be published later this year.

(Jon Ungoed-Thomas, Sundaytimes)

I. Find English equivalent for the following:

- налоговый рай;

- заброшенные урбанизированные территории;

- новое поколение;

- муниципальный налог;

- остановить спад;

- основная цель;

- тщательная проверка;

- зеленый пояс страны;

- промежуточный доклад.

II. Answer the questions:

1.What does the new plan drown up by Lord Rogers propose?

2. What are the aims of the taskforce?

3. What has Prescott promised?

4. Why is his policy under threat?

5. What are the taskforce report’s recommendations?

6. What desire has been rekindled in the hearts of many British people?

III. Say what is true and what is false. Correct the false sentences:

1.Britain’s inner cities and run-down suburbs will become «tax havens» under plans to revive derelict urban areas.

2. Our cities and towns have become run-down and will get worse unless we do something to halt the decline.

3. A crucial aim was to reverse the flow of people moving from the country to the towns - currently running at about 1,700 a week.

4. The panel also highlights the lack of suitable sites for such development.

5. Among the 100 recommendations in the taskforce report is a package of measures aimed at the shoring up the construction homes on greenfield sites.

6. The government should cut the VAT charged to builders who restore old buildings and create financial incentives to build within urban areas.

7. Schools, transport and leisure amenities will all need to be improved.

IY. Find a word or phrase in the text which in similar in meaning to the following:

- a place or building that is empty and in bad state of repair because it has not been used or lived in for a long time;

- to make a system more lively and more efficient;

- to help an activity or idea to develop or grow by encouraging people to do or think it;

- something that encourages you to do something;

- a strong feeling that you want to do something or to get something;

- people who live in a country, area or house;

- to knock something down or destroy it completely.

Y. Express the meaning of the following words and phrases:

- taskforce;

- breed;

- fragmented communities;

- to highlight;

- «brownfield» land;

- suburbia;

YI. Demonstrate the meaning of the following words and expressions in sentences of your own:

- to foster;

- neglect;

- to blight;

- to emulate;

- to surrender;

- leisure amenities;

- to herald;

-completion.

YII. Topics for discussion:

1. The advantages and disadvantages of big cities.

2. Where would you prefer to live? Why?

UNIT 16

SCHOOLS, CHILDREN AND DRUGS

There is a consensus in schools that moralizing about drugs is counterproductive. As Mike Russell, deputy head of King Edward VI Camp Hill Boys', Birmingham, puts it: "The surest way to make an adolescent do something is to tell them not to."

There, though, agreement ends. Schools have a plethora of policies, both on drugs education and on what to do about those who are caught breaking the rules.

"We need to develop a more systematic approach," insists Keith Hellawell, the Government's anti-drugs coordinator. "It's not enough that teachers, parents and children like a particular drugs programme. We need to know what effect it's having on young people's drug use."

Similarly, schools have to stop pretending that they can get away with ignoring the pupils who take drugs beyond their gates or, at the other extreme, simply expelling any who offend – without examining mitigating circumstances or the relative mildness or severity of the incident.

Until recently, independent schools were particularly prone to the head-in-the-sand approach. "They didn't want to admit they had a drug problem," says Caroline Noortman, whose sons are at Eton. "They tried to pretend.it didn't exist because they didn't want to scare off prospective parents. But, in the past 18 months, I've noticed a change. They seem to be less frightened of being open."

Mrs Noortman has helped hasten the change by organizing a series of public meetings for parents to be addressed by scientists expert on the effects of individual drugs. One such meeting, at Westiniaster School, attracted an audience of 500 helped many in the independent sector to understand that parents are not only hungry for information but prepared to be realistic about the issue

Another breakthrough was, the recent publication of a report by the Headmasters' and

Headmistresses' Conference (HMC), which represents nearly 250 top schools. It admitted that illegal drug taking was part of the culture of teenagers from which the independent sector was not immune, and emphasised that the so-called "zero option" of instantly expelling pupils caught taking drugs was no solution.

"Many schools are choosing to modify the policy,» the report said. «While continuing to make it clear that any use of illegal drugs is totally unacceptable, they are considering a variety of responses depending on the circumstances."

The response gaining the a most ground is the introduction of random testing after a first offence, accompanied by compulsory counselling and the knowledge that further offending will lead to expulsion.

"In any case," the HMC report added, "we would argue that policies of prohibition and deterrence should be augmented by a programme of education which does not 'preach' but which, is balanced and informative t and relies upon young people to make responsible decisions about their own lives."

Mrs Noortman agrees, but argues that the approach starts too late. "We want make an impact on teenage attitudes until prep schools, and state primary schools provide the right kind of drugs education from an early age," she says. "What so easily happens is that fresh-faced boys arrive in senior schools and suddenly find they're with young men. They look up to them and, if the older boys are using drugs, the younger ones are terribly vulnerable. We need to teach them much earlier how to say no."

The evidence from America, where drug-taking among children has been halved over the past 10 years, shows how effective such an all-embracing approach can be. Michael Roberts, national director of Life Education Centres, a charity that runs programmes for both primary and secondary schools, says: "We start with nursery-age children.

"The idea is to emphasise to children that they are unique, to encourage them to respect others and to respect themselves, and to arm them with the social skills to be able to say no. We will never stop them trying things, but what we can do is delay the onset of use and point out the consequences of it."

Most drugs education lessons fall into one of three categories: the factual approach, which can help teenagers appear knowledgeable about, the science and health risk of substances but, when offered drugs at a party, lack the sepal skills to resist; the anecdotal, story-led programmes in which reformed addicts or former prisoners ate brought into school to tell it like it is; and the peer-led approach that makes youngsters responsible for passing on the message.

A pioneer of the last is Wymondham College, a state boarding school in Norfolk. Its peer-led drugs education programme, which is run by Chris Sayer, has recently won a national award.

«If an adult - teacher or parent - tells teenagers something about drugs,. they're not really going to listen," Mr Sayer says. "But if we inform a volunteer group of teenagers and they pass the message on, it's much more effective."

Zoe Burton, 15, who has been on the course for a year and has become impressively knowledgeable, says: "Adults just don't realize how strong the peer pressure is to take drugs. The Government seems to suggest that all young people who take drugs are bad people. I don’t think it understands that drugs are being offered to all of us, and it can be very hard to say no."

Owain Powell, 15, another pupil on the course, adds; "People are very persuasive. They say things like, ‘ it won’t harm you'. Before I joined the group, I wouldn't have been able to challenge that. Now, I feel confident enough to explain how it does harm you and to stand my ground and refuse. I can make the decision for myself."

As part of their course all Wymondham volunteers visit the drug rehab unit at Wayland Prison, Norfolk. It has an immediate and lasting effect. «We were told by every single one of the prisoners that they started out smoking cannabis and then went on to other drugs,» say Grant Calder, 14. «They just told us not to do it. They said a little spliff might not seem like much, but it can lead to other things.»

Zoe says:«When we first volunteered, the other kids took the mickey, but now we’ve got respect. They come and ask us what we think about this or that drug. They want to join the course, and now we are the ones with street cred.»

At Bolton Boys’ an independent day school that takes drugs education seriously, Alan Wright, the head, says: «Although I wasn’t having a problem in the school, I was aware that the lads were likely to get up to all sorts of things at the weekends. They’d come back on Monday and would have damaged their bodies quite considerably with what they were getting up to on Friday and Saturday nights.

«Our policy is to bring in external people, because boys tend not to believe what we say but will believe what others tell them. It works particularly well when someone talks to there informally in the sixth form common room and we’re not there.»

Dr Rosemary Masters, head of drugs education at Stowe, one of the schools featured in yesterday's "testimony" articles, says: "There's go easy answer. You have to give the pupils as many skills as you can and arm them with the facts, so that, in the' end, they can eke responsible decisions.

"They are going to be offered drugs, and you can't be with them all the time."

(Sandra Laville, Daily Telegraph)

I. Find English equivalent for the following:

- приносить противоположный результат;

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