Russia Backs Pact to Save Wild Tigers

Russia and 13 Asian nations vowed to double the number of wild tigers by 2022, crack down on poaching that has devastated the big cats and prohibit the building of roads and bridges that could harm their habitats.

Tiger numbers in recent decades have plummeted because of human encroachment – with the loss of more than nine – tenths of their habitat – and poaching to supply a vibrant trade in tiger parts. From an estimated 100,000 at the beginning of the 20^th century, the number of tigers today is less than 3,500. Along with a target for doubling tiger population, governments committed to reduce poaching through beefed – up law enforcement. Countries also agreed to protect core tiger habitats as well as buffer zones and corridors that connect key sanctuaries and national parks.

Task 15. Translate these two newspaper articles from Russian into English.

a) Житель Украины пытался вывезти из России попугая на поезде “Москва - Симферополь”. Таможенники обнаружили птицу на верхней полке, где находились две гитары, заявленные в таможенной декларации. Птица не была внесена в таможенную декларацию, никаких разрешительных документов на ее вывоз у хозяина не было. Птица была изъята и помещена в Белгородский зоопарк, где было установлено, что она относится к редким видам, находящимся под угрозой исчезновения.

b) В аэропорту “Домодедово” задержаны двое сирийцев, перевозивших 14 кречетов. Их сняли с рейса на Доху (Катар). По мнению специалистов, птиц везли с Камчатки, где подобный бизнес переживает расцвет. Спрос на кречетов высок в арабских странах, где их используют для соколиной охоты. Возбуждено уголовное дело, злоумышленникам грозит до 12 лет лишения свободы.

Task 16. Summarize the given information and perform analysis of the current situation with endangered species.

Text VII

Pre-reading

Task 1. Translate the following words.

English Russian

trafficker …

… глотать

… спрос

drug …

… граница

money laundering …

anti – graft …

… правоохранительные органы

Task 2. Look up the pronunciation of the following words in the dictionary:

victim, coup, tiny, hub, scourge, junior.

Task 3. Translate the following international words (find a proper Russian variant!).

typical, intense, civil, scandal, business, export, office, import, agency, organized criminals, groups.

Task 4. Use a dictionary and complete the word family including the word “drug”.

Trafficking drugs into Europe

A fairly typical recent morning at Murtala Mohammed, Lagos’s main airport, saw four traffickers carrying cocaine, heroin or marijuana caught, arrested and x-rayed before noon. All but one of them lived abroad, in Belgium, India and Spain. Stuck without money or just looking for more, they had agreed to swallow the stuff or slip it into their luggage.

West Africa is the newest centre for trafficking drugs into Europe. European demand for cocaine and heroin is rising fast and dealers, faced with intense scrutiny on familiar import routes, have been obliged to find new ones. Cocaine from the Andes is arriving at West Africa’s ports, airports and border crossings. Heroin from Afghanistan is coming in too.

Nigeria is not the only victim of the growing trade. Guinea-Bissau, a small country emerging from civil war and a string of coups, has seen its tiny export economy overrun by illegal drugs. But as the economic hub of west Africa, Nigeria has, inevitably, also become its drug-trafficking hub. Drugs have been trickling across Nigeria’s borders since the 1980s, but over the past few years the trickle has become a torrent.

Nigeria’s history of fighting the scourge is not the sort to discourage dealers. Its drug agency, founded in 1990, was immediately immersed in scandal when its own top people were themselves found to be involved in trafficking.

Organized criminals have also got into the business. The country’s anti-graft body, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, says it often stumbles upon drugs during money-laundering raids. The most powerful crime syndicates are involved, says Lamorde Ibrahim, the commission’s director of operations in Lagos. A six-person group from his office and the drug-enforcement agency work incognito, unknown even to colleagues.

The network of gangs and dealers means that drugs are increasingly available on Nigeria’s streets. At the Lagos State Rehab and Vocational Training Centre former junkies tell stories of taking to drugs while at university, or jobless, or under pressure from the city’s notorious gangs of “area boys”. Enough cannabis to roll one cigarette can be found on the streets for as little as 20 naira (about 15 cents).

Reform of the drug agency may have begun to be serious. Traffickers are often confused by their arrest, having been promised safe passage through the airport by junior officers, who can now no longer sneak them through. The intentions may be better, but the agency still complains of its lack of equipment and manpower.

Nigeria is the only West African country on America’s list of major drug-producing and transit countries. It is concerned enough to have sent Tom Schweich, the State Department’s international drugs man, to Nigeria. He promised to supply the latest body-cavity x-ray machines to four of Nigeria’s international airports. New technology like this will be installed first at the airports and then, more slowly, at ports and land borders. Not too slowly, Nigerians hope. Their country is already notorious for corruption and financial crime; the last thing it needs is narcotics too.

Jogging your memory: the use of article with geographic names.

We use no article:

- with names of continents, countries, states, provinces, cities, towns, villages: Europe, England, Moscow, Brighton etc.

But we use the definite article:

- with names of some countries: the USA, the Netherlands;

- with names of some provinces: the Crimea, the Rurh;

- with the city: the Hague.

Names of oceans, seas, straits, channels, rivers, lakes usually take the definite article: the Atlantic Ocean, the Baltic Sea, the Bering Strait, the English Channel, the Thames, the Baikal (but: Lake Baikal).

Working on the text

Task 5. Write out all geographical names and explain the use of articles, if any.

Task 6. Write out the names of all drugs mentioned in the text.

Task 7. How are drugs usually carried? Why?

Task 8. The noun “traffic” is polysemantic. Dictionaries provide several meanings of this word in various context. Here they are:

a) the vehicles moving along a road or street: (We were stuck in heavy traffic);

b) the movement of aircraft, ships, or trains from one place to another (air traffic control, the problems of air traffic congestion in Europe);

c) the secret buying and selling of illegal goods (drugs traffic, traffic in firearms);

d) the movement of people or goods by aircraft, ships, or trains (Most long – distance traffic of heavy goods is done by ships.).

Translate all illustrative examples and choose the meaning of the word used in the text.

Task 9. Match the words in the left column with the proper definition in the right column.

1. trafficker a) someone who takes dangerous drugs and is dependent on them

2. dealer b) something that causes a lot of suffering

3. scrutiny c) when people are made to obey a rule, law

4. coup d) dishonest, illegal behavior, especially from someone with power

5. hub e) someone who buys and sells a particular product

6. scourge f) careful and thorough examination

7. graft (Am.E.) g) someone who buys and sells illegal goods, especially drugs

8. enforcement h) the central and most important part of an area, system, activity

9. junky (junkie) i) the practice of obtaining money by the dishonest use of power

10. corruption j) a sudden and sometimes violent attempt by citizens or the army to take control of the government

Task 10. We can use several verbs when describing the function of Customs officers to control passengers and their luggage.

They are: to control, to examine, …

Continue the line with the verbs you already know.

Task 11. Translate the definition of “money laundering” into Russian.

Money laundering is a process of putting money which has been obtained illegally into legal business and bank accounts in order to hide where it was obtained.

Task 12. Which one is not the same?

a) a passenger, a dealer, a trafficker, an airport;

b) Africa, Europe, America, Commission;

c) Belgium, Spain, India, European;

d) export, import, trade, illegal;

e) trafficking, carrying, emerging, newest;

f) inevitably, economic, typical, powerful.

Task.13 Use a dictionary to find out the difference in the meaning of the two words: “famous” and “notorions”.

Task 14. Answer the following questions.

1) Why were four passengers caught and arrested?

2) Why had they agreed to swallow the drugs?

3) Why is West Africa the newest centre for trafficking drugs into Europe?

4) What countries involved in the illegal trade are mentioned in the text?

5) Since when have the drugs been trickling across Nigeria’s border?

6) When was the drug agency founded in Nigeria?

7) What scandal was it immersed in?

8) What does the country lack?

9) Where will new technology be installed?

10) What is the country already notorious for?

Task 15. Translate the following newspaper article into Russian.