Ex.8 Contextualize the following vocabulary:

1. to sow the seeds

2. to reap the harvest

3. to break away

4. to disband

5. to sign up (to a treaty)

6. to step down

The Soviet Union is entering its final days

The Baltic states - the first to have sown the seeds of independence - have been the first to reap the harvest. Moscow officially recognized their status as sovereign states on 6 September 1991.

Other republics have already begun moves to break away, or start them now. Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia and Moldova are among the first in the queue.

But the Soviet Union is dealt its fatal blow as the leaders of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus meet secretly to plan a new union. The three men agree on 8 December, at Belovezh Forest near Minsk, to disband the Soviet Union and form the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Most of the other republics soon sign up for the new union.

On 25 December, Gorbachev goes on television to announce he is stepping down as Soviet president. The Soviet flag is lowered from the Kremlin for the last time, and the white, blue and red tricolor of the Russian Federation flies in its place. The USSR is no more.

Ex.9 Read the following text and make the summary of each paragraph in your own words.

What the un does for peace?

Preserving world peace is a central purpose of the United Nations. Under the Charter, Member States agree to settle disputes by peaceful means and refrain from threatening or using force against other States.

Over the years, the UN has played a major role in helping defuse international crises and in resolving protracted conflicts. It has undertaken complex operations involving peacemaking, peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance. It has worked to prevent conflicts from breaking out. And after a conflict, it has increasingly undertaken action to address the root causes of war and lay the foundation for durable peace.

UN efforts have produced dramatic results. The UN helped defuse the Cuban missile crisis in 1962 and the Middle East crisis in 1973. In 1988, a UN-sponsored peace settlement ended the Iran-Iraq war, and the following year UN-sponsored negotiations led to the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. In the 1990s, the UN was instrumental in restoring sovereignty to Kuwait and played a major role in ending civil wars in Cambodia, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mozambique, restoring the democratically elected government in Haiti, and resolving or containing conflict in various other countries.

When, in September 1999, a campaign of violence forced some 200,000 East Timorese to flee their homes following a vote on self-determination, the UN authorized the dispatch of an international security force, which helped restore order. In October, the Council established a UN Transitional Administration which, with the protection of the multinational force, began overseeing the territory’s transition to independence. And when terrorists attacked the United States on 11 September 2001, the Security Council acted quickly – adopting a wide-ranging resolution which obligates States to ensure that any person who participates in financing, planning, preparing, perpetrating or supporting terrorist acts is brought to justice, as well as to establish such acts as serious criminal offences under domestic law.