Text-study

1. Learn the following words

qualms – беспокойство, тревожное состояние ;

merger – слияние (двух компаний);

to haggle – торговаться, спорить (о цене товара);

umpteen – бесчисленный, многочисленный, множественный;

constraint – принуждение; давление.

II. Answer the following questions

1. What factors allow the author to call Switzerland a paradox?

2. Why were the government and most politicians against a referendum calling for an immediate start to negotiations on EU membership?

3. What does the author say about the relations between Switzerland and the EU countries?

4. What is, in the author's view, the main reason for the Swiss to reject the EU membership?

5. What does the author mean when he says that the story does not stop at Switzerland?

3. Complete the sentences with suitable words from the box

marginal economic arguments; a cross-border merger; the far more restrictive bonds of the UN; dedicated Swiss Europhiles; they have no voice in Brussels; tribalism; paradox

1. In rejecting membership of the European Union, the Swiss have shown that political qualms can count for more than … .

2. Switzerland is a … .

3. It lives off cross-border commerce, selling chemicals, machinery and precision instruments to the world, welcoming tourists and bank depositors from it. Swiss companies include such giant multinationals as Nestle, Ciba-Geigy and ABB, itself born of a big ….

4. As for the far more …. it’s a question of debate.

5. The call for a vote at all came only from … .

6. They … , but they reckon they have not suffered unduly by bargaining from the outside.

7. It is no good denouncing national feelings as mere … .

3. Fill in the blanks with the articles if needed

In any event, today's Swiss reckon that … economic case is less than compelling. They need … free trade, but they can get it without being members of the EU, as … past 45 prosperous years have shown. They have no voice in Brussels, but they reckon they have not suffered unduly by bargaining from … outside. As for the euro, of course it is convenient to share … currency with your customers, but … Swiss have traded in umpteen foreign currencies since … gold standard. They can survive next-door to but outside … euro-zone, with no voice in its central bank and with no voice in Germany’s Bundesbank: under … pressure from a mighty currency, but still with some freedom to manage their own. In sum, they have most of … economic benefits of the EU membership already, but none of … formal political constraints. The economic gains of joining would, at best, be modest; the psychological loss could be great.

3. Fill in the blanks with suitable prepositions

The story does not stop at Switzerland. Canada has lived for 160 years next to a far larger economy, with a different currency. Possibly Canadians would be richer if they were all Americans. Certainly they would carry more weight in Washington: think, … comparison, of California. Yet they prefer to be what they are, just as Irish republicans chose to cut loose … Britain in the 1920s, or as Norwegians voted against the EU membership in 1994. And as most Britons, for similar reasons, would vote … euro membership today. The risks for Britain may be greater: it depends more than Switzerland does … foreign investors, and they might prefer to set up inside the euro-zone. But it is no good denouncing national feelings as mere tribalism. Such feelings may seem old-fashioned to some. But if people or nations feel that way, so be it. There is little evidence that most of them suffer thereby.