Teens and Internet

A glimpse of Great Britain.

X-RAY

Word origin

Read the article without a dictionary, try to retell it.

At leisure

Grammar exercises

VII. Translate the sentences. Practise the use and translation of
sentences taking into account Sequence of Tenses (§22).

1. He said that he was no longer interested in the discussion of this problem. 2. He asked me if I knew about the largest contracts concluded by the firm. 3. We didn’t know whether our plan would bring us success. 4. The engineer said that he didn’t think that the office works would be interesting for him. 5. He asked me whether I had known about the planning and fulfillment of his mission. 6. It was announced that the expedition had already left Moscow. 7. We were told that you were good at mathematics. 8. He reported that the firm was holding talks about a new bridge to be built here.

VIII. Supply the correct forms of the verbs (§ 11). Translate the
sentences.

1. Majority about 80% of the population in Russian empire (to be) serfs. 2. Serfs (to work) on land owned by the state or wealthy landlords.

3. Russia`s feudal economic system (to encourage) economic growth.

4. Russia (to make) rapid leap into a new XX century. 5. Serfs (to emancipate) in 1861. The Trans-Siberian railway, the largest in the world, (to build) thanks to rapid growth of the iron and steel industry. 7. People working in their own businesses (to calculate) the cost of their own time spent in running companies and firms. 8. Boom (to be)

a period of increased business activity when a rising demand for all goods (to result) in increased industrial production.

One day in the year 1895, the German physicist Wilhelm Konrad von Roentgen was exper imenting with the conduction of electrical charges through gases contained in a vacuum tube. Suddenly he found that the radiation was passing through objects that were opaque to ordinary light. The discovery was startling, and years after a curious friend asked the pro fessor: «What did you think, when this happened!» «I didn’t think,» he replied, «I experimented.» He named his discovery X-RAYS, the X signifying that the nature of the radiation was unknown.

2. Translate the proverbs, think of Russian equivalent, give
a situation using them.

— Wealth is nothing without health.

— To kill two birds with one stone.

Today`s young people feel themselves lost, helpless and alone without the Internet. They do not know how people survived without it!

The number of teenagers using the Internet is growing around the world. According to a recent study, teens are much brighter with computers than adults and use the Internet more often and for more varied reasons — to communicate with friends, to make new friends, to play games, download music, get news, shop, research homeworks and ask health questions.

Email is losing its privileged place among teens. It’s only used to communicate with ‘adults’, such as teachers. Young people prefer instant messaging (IM) and text messaging as ways to connect with their friends. IM is already hugely popular in Great Britain and its advantages are obvious.

Unit 19

Pre-text exercises

1. Find the transcription of new words in a dictionary:
contemporary, survey, expensive, heart, property, replace, figure,

improve, approach, severe, fiscal, exist, allow, enormous, crisis. Try to read them fluently.

2. Word-building
Compile and translate:
pain n. + -less →
to crumble υ. + -ing →
to depress υ. + -ion →

Read the text Contemporary Russia: the fall and rise of the market economy.

A recent survey compared the cost of living for expatriates in cities around the world. Not surprisingly, the top ten most expensive cities included Tokyo, London and New York. But more expensive than any of these was... Moscow! Less than two decades ago, Moscow was the heart of the world’s biggest planned economy. There was no property for sale back then. The state-run shops had few consumer goods. Shortages for simple things like shoes were common. Today, things could not be more different. Moscow is the centre of a free market with some of the highest property prices in the world. The state-run shops have been replaced by expensive shopping centers and designer stores. But the change has not been easy.

The figures for Russia’s real Gross domestic product since 1991, when the economic reforms began, show that the economy has been on quite a roller-coaster ride. In 1991 GDP was over $350 billion. That fell dramatically year after year until 1998, when GDP was just over $220 billion. However, the situation improved again from 1998. In fact, Russia’s GDP increased steadily year after year from 1999 until 2006 when it reached around $740 billion. What caused such a change of fortunes?

Changing over to a completely different economic system could never be painless. The Russian government of the early 1990s decided to use a shock therapy approach. They introduced severe fiscal and monetary policies. The government drastically reduced its spending. It cut subsidies to its crumbling state industries. Interest rates and taxes were raised. Government price controls on nearly all consumer goods were lifted. Only prices for staple goods like food and energy remained controlled by the government. New laws were introduced to allow private ownership and businesses to exist.

All of these measures were intended to create conditions for a market economy to grow. However, they also caused great hardship for ordinary people. Most workers at that time were on fixed incomes. The measures caused the cost of living to rise, but their salaries did not rise at the same rate.

However, from 1999, world oil prices began to rise again. Mostly with money earned from energy exports, Russia began to pay off its foreign debts. Inflation fell and the value of the ruble stabilized. The economy was recovering. GDP grew steadily year after year, and foreign investors began to show confidence in investing in the country. Moscow’s place at the top of the list of the world’s most expensive cities is not enviable. However, it is a clear sign that the Russian economy has survived a difficult time.

Words:

roller-coaster ride — головокру­жительная скачка shock therapy — шоковая те­рапия severe — жесткий fiscal policy — налого-бюджет-ная политика subsidy — субсидия to crumble — разрушать staple — основной продукт hardship — лишения

contemporary — современный to compare — сравнивать state-run — государственный shortage — недостаток to replace — заменять consumer goods — потребитель­ские товары

designer store — магазин дизай­нерских товаров

Gross domestic product — валовой внутренний продукт

Post-text exercises

Working on the text

I. Find answers in the text:

I. What are the top most expensive cities of today? 2. How do we call
the economic system of the former USSR? 3. Did we feel the shortage?
4. Why was it so? 5. By what have the state-run shops been replaced
recently? 6. When did the economic reforms begin? 7. Is the real GDP
of Russia increasing steadily in the XXIst century? 8. What is the
«shock therapy» that was used in our country? 9. Did it give the desired
effect? 10. Is the cost of living increasing in our days?

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