1. Vocabulary notes:

to mount an operation – организовать операцию

insurgent – повстанец

condolence – соболезнование, сочувствие

civilian death toll – жертвы среди гражданского населения

rocket-propelled grenades – гранатомет

senior intelligence official – старший офицер разведки

shoulder-mounted Javelin rocket – противотанковая ракета «Джавелин»

refuge – убежище

divergence – несоответствие, расхождение

armored vehicle – бронированный автомобиль

2. Answer the following questions.

1) Why did international forces mount an operation in Nangarhar Province?

2) What were the outcomes of the operation?

3) The author talks of some divergence in accounts. Explain what divergence is meant?

4) Can you explain the author’s intention to put last two passages at the end of the article?

3. Make a summary of the article.

4. Render the article.

Text 4

Pollution in China

Raising a stink

Efforts to improve China’s environment are having far too little effect

Aug 5th 2010 | TAI LAKE

AN OILY green algal film slops on the shore of Tai Lake, China’s third-largest freshwater body. Its foul odour drifts over nearby villages. By the water’s edge it is hard not to retch. Fishermen complain of dizziness. A clean-up campaign launched by the government three years ago has made little progress.

A similar outbreak in the torrid summer heat of 2007 became a national scandal. Drinking-water supplies for hundreds of thousands of people nearby were suspended for several days while the authorities tried to scoop up the gloop. Shamed by damage to a renowned beauty spot, the government spent hundreds of millions of dollars on sewage works and other measures. Hundreds of nearby factories were closed in an effort to reduce the effluent that causes algae to grow.

This year’s problem smells rather like that of 2007, but comparisons are tricky. The lake is vast and few data are available, so independent monitors rely on anecdotal evidence. Some fishermen on the northern shore say the outbreak this year is just as bad. Others see an improvement. If so, it is hard to say what has helped: anti-pollution measures, algae barriers in the water or the deployment of algae-scooping teams. Residents say algae-eating silver carp introduced with great fanfare this year have died.

Even with the most dedicated effort, it would be a struggle to keep the lake clean. Its basin is one of the most highly developed areas in the country, producing over 10% of China’s GDP. Ma Jun of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, a Beijing-based NGO, says official efforts have slowed the deterioration of water quality. But a “large volume” of pollutants enters through 200 streams and rivers.

Efforts to stimulate the economy have not helped. Spending on green technologies rose, but less care was taken over environmental protection. Local officials grew fixated on the need to boost GDP, helped by often indiscriminate lending by state-owned banks. Funds poured into new infrastructure and buildings, boosting some of the most polluting industries.

Hints of environmental backsliding have appeared in the government’s own ropy data. The Ministry of Environmental Protection released figures on July 26th that showed 43.2% of state-monitored rivers were classified as grade 4 or worse in the first half of the year, meaning their water was unsuitable for human contact. Last year, as a whole, it was 42.7%.

Residents of Beijing, who hoped the clear skies they enjoyed during the 2008 Olympic Games would persist, have also resumed their grumbling. Smog is back with a vengeance. A stimulus-encouraged car-buying spree has further clogged city streets. Provinces around Beijing account for much of China’s recent record levels of (air-fouling) steel and coke production.

Official data show a diminishing share of grade 1 (“excellent”) air-quality days since the games. And the situation may be worse than these suggest. The American embassy in Beijing, to the annoyance of local officials, issues frequent air-quality readings for its part of the city. These, based on the presence of fine particulates, mostly ranged from “moderate” to “unhealthy” in the 24 hours after midday on July 31st. But the government called that period grade 2, or “good”. Incredibly, to anyone familiar with China’s perennially grey urban landscapes, fully 91% of days in 113 big cities in the first half of this year were described as “blue sky”. But this was 0.3% below last year’s figure for the same period, the first fall since 2005.

There is a ray of hope. In 2006 China set a target of a 20% cut by 2010 of its energy intensity (the amount of energy consumed per unit of GDP). As some 70% of China’s energy comes from coal, efforts to achieve this have been closely watched. After successive years of improvement, the first quarter of this year saw a big reversal, with energy intensity increasing by 3.2%. But on August 3rd new data showed that in the first half of the year, energy intensity nudged up by a mere 0.09% compared with the same period a year ago. This implied a huge recent improvement. China’s energy-intensity data are as wobbly as other indicators. Perhaps, however, a warning in May by the prime minister, Wen Jiabao, that an “iron hand” would be used to meet the target, has had some effect.

Revising the figures certainly has. In July new energy-intensity numbers were produced for the past four years that put China closer to its target. The change suggested that energy intensity had improved by 15.6% from 2006. Arthur Kroeber of GaveKal-Dragonomics, a consultancy, thinks China will get within a “reasonable range” of its 20% goal.

Officials fret about being accused of failing on pollution. At Tai Lake, a veteran activist, Wu Lihong, was freed from prison in April after serving three years on what he says were trumped-up charges. He believes his term was retribution for his campaigning. Now, he says, local journalists tell him that the government is trying to suppress news about the latest algae outbreak. And contradicting their own rhetoric, the authorities have been switching to other supplies instead of lake water.