V. Fill in the blanks with prepositions if needed

They also provide the most obvious sign ... the benefits Spain has de­rived ... the inflow ... funds ... the years ... EU membership.

The country still needs heavy spending ... infrastructure to enable it to compete ... the single currency zone, and the southern regions of Andalucia and Extremadura make up the EU's biggest unemployment blackspot, ... an official rate close ... 30 per cent.

Spain's worries focus ... the treatment ... Mediterranean agricultural products, tighter conditions ... aid, and the overall budget ceiling ... 1.27 per cent ... gross domestic product, which it argues should not be set ... stone.

But the idea ... switching ... a system ... aid per tree is anathema ... Spanish producers, whose arguments are backed ... regional and central government authorities.

About 140,000 people are reckoned to work ... least part ... the year ... the business ... Andalucia alone, and ... many areas olives are the only vi­able crop.

VI. Explain the italicized grammar constructions in the following sentences

People will remember driving around Spain before it joined the European Union, if for no other reason than the time it took.

Spain's exports to the EU partners, which in the early years of membership ran at around 75 per cent of what it imported from them, have progressively been gaining ground, to over 90 per cent last year.

"I see Spain as being capable of fighting very hard for some of its national interests," commented one veteran EU diplomat.

They say the existing system has enabled them to modernise and improve quality, and that huge swathes of olive groves would simply be abandoned if production aid were dropped.

After vigorously rejecting German arguments that countries in the euro zone should no longer be entitled to special aid, Spain is fighting proposals to peg the funds to strict fulfilment of economic "stability plan" objectives.

Officials say they accept that Spain's net receipts will fall, but argue that this should come from higher Spanish contributions rather than reduced en­titlements.

With that out of the way, they believe a deal could be made next spring.

VII. Translate from English into Russian in writing

1. Spain currently leads the EU's list of net recipients, and by all accounts has made good use of the money.

2. Olive oil is a Mediterranean product par excellence; Spain is the world's biggest producer of it; and it is the single sector that has gained most from membership so far.

3. From a European Commission viewpoint, the current leans of support, a complex set of aids including payment according to output, is too complex, invites fraud and encourages growers to keep producing more and more.

4. But the question for Spain is not so much whether the funds will run out, as when.

5. Now, dramatically improved roads and the high-speed railway connecting Madrid with the south have broken down the physical barriers isolating whole regions.

6. For Spanish industry and agriculture the impact of membership has been so deep and diverse as to make it hard to draw up a balance of gains and losses, but the country has kept its head above water better than many feared in the run-up to accession.

7. Spain's receipts of structural grants are also in question.

8. Making clear its firm political commitment to the EU's eastwards en­largement, the Spanish government has taken the position that it is ready to "pay its share" but not foot the bill by giving up its own claims to financial support.