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staggering blow to this anti-social network crippling the young generation is also one of the tasks for the local police to fulfill.

The main cause of the crime boom and, consequently, of the considerable increase in juvenile delinquency rate are the changes taking place in the societies of all former Soviet republics. The collapse of the socialistic system in the country resulted in the evanescence of the social and moral values, which has the integral part of general indoctrination of children from early childhood.

Social instability that ensued was the logical outcome of such an evanescence of values. It was logical because people had no more worthwhile values to strive to achieve except for money and no moral restrictions in accumulating as much wealth as possible.

The destruction of the former soviet economic system and its consequences (e.g. miserable living standards, staggering unemployment rate, etc.) are the superior factors to contribute to the augmentation in juvenile delinquency rate. Miserable salaries offered to the teenager employees resulted in the emergence of the belief among youngsters that the really big money can be made only in criminal world. Facing such a large-scale problem the society has to devise the appropriate ways of its solution, otherwise the very existence of it will be threatened.

The first and the most important condition to bring juvenile delinquency within certain limits is the development of the sound economy and the improvement of the life standard as the consequence. This is sure to enable the emergence of firm social values and the belief that big money can be earned without breaking the law.

The direct measures should also be taken to curb the alarming growth of juvenile delinquency rate. The law should be made as flexible as possible to be adjusted to every case, so that retribution is not regarded by a delinquent as something stupid and unjust. Besides, the court and jail system should be perfected so they would not turn a young offender into a professional and astute criminal.

Evidently, the problem of juvenile delinquency is one of the most topical for the Republic of Belarus of modern days. Its essence has deep social roots and that is why it hinges on every of us to change situation for the better. Hence, we are going to be responsible for both the successful solution of this problem and for the miserable failure of it. Overall, considering juvenile delinquency has both social and economic backgrounds, the key to diminishing its rate is a complex of measures that will be effective only if taken together.

The problem is scrutinized, the ways of its solutions are drafted, so let the every effort be done to raze this ugly and disgusting social phenomenon.

(By Maxim Kostyukovich from his article “Juvenile delinquency in Belarus: problems, causes, solutions” www. Belarustoday.com)

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Task 2. Scan the article above to complete the following statements.

The development of the sound economy is …

The law should be made so that …

The problem of juvenile delinquency consists of such “subproblems” as …

The collapse of the former soviet economic system resulted in…

Mafia recruts its members …

The court and the jail system should be perfected so …

Post-reading Activity

Task 1. a) Work in pairs. State the main themes of the article and their rhemes;

b) Write down the outline of the article in different forms (noun phrases, questions, statements).

Task 2. Agree or disagree with the following statements. (Give your reasons why.)

1.The police aren’t polite to young people.

2.We should have strong punishments.

3.Too many criminals are never caught.

4.Graffiti is often just the starting point for much more serious delinquent behaviour.

Task 3. a) Look at the list of “crimes”. Rate each one on a scale from 1 — 10. (1 is minor misdemeanour, 10 is a very serious crime.)

a)driving in excess of the speed limit;

b)drinking and driving;

c)common assault (e.g. fight in a discotheque);

d)malicious wounding (e.g. stabbing someone in a fight);

e)murdering;

f)smoking marijuana;

g)selling drugs (such as heroin);

h)stealing $ 1.000 from a bank by fraud;

i)stealing $ 1.000 worth of goods from someone’s home;

j)rape;

k)shoplifting;

l)possession of a gun without a license.

b) Work in pairs. Compare your results and explain your decision.

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Task 4. Prepare a short talk to express your idea on the ways to diminish the rate of juvenile delinquency in the country.

T E X T 4

Pre-reading Activity

Task 1. Before you read the text give your opinion on the following questions.

1.If you were to enumerate challenges facing human society now, would you include terrorism into your list? Give your reasons why.

2.What is terrorism?

3.Who are terrorists?

4.What is the main aim of terrorist activity?

5.Can we speak about the basic contours of a new world order that took shape in the struggle of the anti-terror coalition? Give your reasons why.

Task 2. Discuss your answers in pairs.

Reading Activity

(!) Read the text and

a)find the answers to the above questions;

b)state the topic of the text and its main idea;

c)name the key-words or phrases to support the main idea.

TERRORISM

Terrorism is the use of violence, or the threat of violence, to create a climate of fear in a given population. Terrorist violence targets ethnic of religious groups, governments, political parties, corporations, and media enterprises. Organizations that engage in acts of terror are almost always small in size and limited in resources compared to the populations and institutions they oppose. Through publicity and fear generated by their violence, they seek to magnify their influence and power to effect political change on either a local or an international scale.

The deliberate killing of civilians to intimidate the civilian population or government is one of the worst features of contemporary terrorism and can clearly be distinguished from the type of clandestine warfare waged by resistance groups or insurgency movements against official and military targets. By their actions the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Irish Republican Army (IRA) are terrorist organizations. But one would not use the

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term to describe the Polish and French underground resistance movements of World War II. Terrorism, as sociologists see it is a form of deviance that overlaps with regular military actions, and indeed different people will not necessarily agree as to whether any particular violent act is a case of terrorism or not. One person’s “terrorist” is another person’s “freedom fighter”. And many of the methods of terrorism have been adapted by armies for regular use; examples are “search and destroy missions” into enemy territory, as well as many guerrilla tactics. When governments engage in illegal and clandestine kidnapping and murder to intimidate their people — as in the case of the Nazis in Germany — the term “state terrorism” is appropriate.

One important characteristic of modern terrorism is its quest for spectacular horror effects in order to attract media coverage. Terrorist atrocities like the PLO’s midair destruction of civilian airliners and murder of helpless athletes at the 1972 Olympics and school children were perpetrated to publicize a cause. Most of the victims of the Italian Red&Brigades and the German Baader-Meinhog gang were selected for symbolic reasons. The choice of New-York City’s World Trade Center as the target of terrorists in 1993 and 2001 was presumed to have been made for similar reasons.

Another characteristic of modern terrorism is its international dimension — the ability of terrorists to slip across national frontiers, the support given to certain terrorist groups by a few countries and logistical ties that exist between terrorist groups of widely divergent ideologies and objectives. The 1985 hijacking by Palestinians of the Italian cruise ship Archille Lauro off Egypt, as well as the 1994 hijacking of the Russian cruise ship by Chechens, dramatized international ramification of terrorism.

The beginning of the 21 century has been the beginning of the international struggle against terrorism. The attacks of September 11, 2001 in New York and Washington brutally exposed how vulnerable open societies are. The extent of the violence, the perpetrators’ logistic back-up and their cross-border strategy make it necessary for international community to take legal instruments a stage further, to give top priority to the safety of all citizens and the defense of democratic values.

Guidelines for the future

Today there are many challenges to be faced: ethnic and religious rivalries, the decline of nation states, violation of human rights and terrorist attacks. All these new dangers force global society to adapt to new tasks.

In democracies, the need to protect civil liberties, the difficulty of proving conspiracy and the devastating nature of terrorist outrages have shifted the emphasis from deterrence to prevention. Today, by general consensus the most effective means of frustrating terrorist activity is through detailed intelligence

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obtained primarily by penetration of terrorist networks. Countries pledged themselves to take joint action against terrorism, they promised to deny terrorist suspects entry into their countries, to bring about close cooperation between the police and security forces in their countries and to cooperate in a number of other ways.

The one lesson to be learned from “Afghanistan” is that it would be criminal, indeed foolhardy, to ignore the fact that while Bin Laden manipulates the feelings of hundreds of millions of people for his own false ends, these feelings nevertheless do exist. There is a connection between the alienation of many Muslims and the unresolved Palestine issue in the same way as there is a connection between the misery of countless people and their readiness to pin the blame for their situation on the industrialized nations. Globalization improved many people’s prospects, whether in the North or the South. Yet many people couldn’t keep up and are now limping along, without hope, behind those who are storming ahead. There must be greater efforts to give them specific help.

Post-reading Activity

Task 1. Answer the questions.

1.What is the definition of terrorism?

2.What is terrorism as sociologists see it?

3.Can you explain the term “state terrorism”?

4.What are the characteristic features of modern terrorism?

5.What are the most notorious terrorist organizations?

6.What measures are being taken against the threat of terrorism by the international community?

7.What is the lesson to be learned from “Afganistan”?

8.In your opinion what specific help must be given to poor countries under development?

Task 2. Work in small groups. Consider the following topics for discussion and be ready to present your arguments afterwords.

1.Now when the threat of terrorism is omnipresent, many people realize that liberal western society has been too broadminded or too permissive with those Islamists who abuse the freedom of religion.

2.As long as many terrorist acts are perpetrated by Islamist fundamentalists, there is a very strong anti-Muslim sentiment in the West. Is this justifiable and why?

3.Some people maintain that we are entering into the age of terrorism where nations like America are extremely vulnerable to terrorist attacks.

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LISTENING PRACTICE

Pre-listening Activity

Answer the following questions.

1.What should we do if our lives are threatened?

2.Is saving lives more important than anything?

Listening Activity

Task 1. Listen to the story. Ali has taken Flight 144 many times. It was always long and boring. But this time, something has happened. Listen to his story and find out: What has happened on the flight?

Task 2. Read the following statements. What do you think is the best thing to do? Check the views you agree with.

à) The government should never give in. If they give in to the terrorists, more hijackings will occur in the future.

b)The plane should be allowed to fly to some other country whose government will talk to the terrorists.

c)The government should talk to the terrorists. The passengers’ lives are the most important thing.

d)Another organization, like the United Nations, should talk to the terrorists.

e)The police or army should secretly attack the plane and kill the terrorists.

Now exchange your ideas with a classmate.

Task 3. In our society there are many kinds of threats. What should we do? For each case, decide what to do.

1.You are the president of a large company. A man phones you and threatens you. He says if you don’t pay him $ 100,000 he will bomb the company building. What would you do?

a) pay him b) tell the police c) ignore him d) other

2. You are in an elevator with a big man. He tells you to give him your money. He doesn’t seem to have a gun or knife. What would you do?

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3.You are the prime minister of your country. One of your ministers was kidnapped by terrorists. They say the government must free 10 people from prison or they will kill the minister. What would you do?

Do you know any other situations like these?

Pre-listening Activity

Answer the following questions.

1.Does society have a right to kill people?

2.How should a murderer be punished?

Listening Activity

Task 1. Listen to the story. It is a mother’s story. Have you ever wished that another person were dead? This mother did. Listen to the story and find out: Why did she want a man to die?

Task 2. Read the following statements. Which opinions do you agree with? Check as many as you want.

a)If you kill someone, you have to die, too. That is your punishment. The only exception to capital punishment is self-defense.

b)People who kill are crazy, insane. No one in his right mind would kill another person. That’s why I think murders should be put in mental hospitals.

c)Capital punishment is wrong. We should never kill anyone, no matter how terrible the crime.

d)Capital punishment is necessary. It helps prevent murder.

e)Life in prison is the right sentence for a murder.

Now exchange your ideas with a classmate.

Task 3. In which situations do you think it is OK to use the death penalty?

a)Criminal A kidnapped and killed a young child.

b)Criminal B set fire to a house, and the fire killed three people and injured many others.

c)Criminal C broke into a house, killed he two residents, and stole their money.

d)Criminal D went into a school yard and fired a machine gun, killing many schoolchildren.

e)Criminal E set a bomb to explode in an office building, killing many people.

f)Criminal F raped and killed several woman.

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g)Criminal G had her husband killed so that she would receive a large sum of insurance money.

h)The death penalty should never be used in any situation.

SPEECH PRACTICE

Task 1. Develop the following statements.

a)The stricter the punishment, the lesser the crime rate.

b)Law is developing: it has no impunity in the court of time.

c)There is a connection between violence on TV and the crime rate in real life.

Task 2. Comment on the following quotations.

1.“Society prepares the crime; the criminal commits it.” H. Buckle

2.“Stolen sweets are best.” Ch. North

3.“Laws were made to be broken.” Ch. North

4.“All crime is a kind of disease and should be treated as such.” M. Gandhi

5.“Organized crime constitutes nothing less than a guerilla war against society.”

L. Johnson

Task 3. A university student from the UK came to Belarus to collect data for his course project. He wants to know what would happen in your country to the people if they were caught: a) speeding in a car; b) in possession of soft drugs; c) with a gun in the pocket; d) breaking into a house; e) telling state secrets; f) having pornography.

Before starting here is a list of possible sentences.

Life imprisonment, imprisonment, fines, put on probation, suspended sentence, let off, driving ban/endorsement

These four students should be ready to present their findings and give their own comment.

Task 4. Kids’ main objection to the curfew is that it violates their rights. Express your own attitude to this point.

Task 5. Work in groups. Make a list of your proposals of the 10 most urgent measures for social reform in our country. Have a brain-storming session in which all ideas are noted down by the group leader. Then discuss your lists with another group.

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Task 6. Role-Playing: “Speaker’s Corner”

Situation: As you walk past Hyde Park in London you may see people speaking out on any subjects they like. Freedom of speech is sacred. Make your own Speaker’s Corner. In turns speak on the following subjects. A time limit may be set.

Role-Assignments

Student 1. You know how to ensure a fairer distribution of wealth.

Student 2. You speak about the greatest problem facing our country nowadays and you know the ways to solve it.

Student 3. You are a great believer in law and order.

Student 4. You believe that the death penalty is a primitive ritual and should be abolished.

Student 5. You know the reasons for the capital punishment. Student 6. You are for (against) strict gun control.

Student 7. Your basic principle is self-help. All social problems must be run by people themselves, not waiting for the government support.

Student 8. You know the ways to stop terrorism. It is up to you to decide which of the ways is more preferable prevention or retaliation (vengeance).

Student 9. You believe that aggression is innate in a man, i.e. is in his genes.

WRITING PRACTICE

Task 1. You are a local police officer. Make a list of some measures (including preventive) to stop crimes in your area.

Task 2. Make a list of social problems, which have touched you personally.

Task 3. By definition terrorist wants publicity. The mass media provide extensive coverage of every major or minor terrorist attack. Do they not play into the hands of the terrorists by doing so? To what extent should the media withhold publicity about terrorist acts? Write an essay to reflect on the problem.

Task 4. Crimes are caused by a number of factors. Reflect on the issue trying to focus on psychological, genetic, political, moral factors.

Task 5. Write an essay: “The world is suffering from a social and moral crisis which, in many societies, is of immense proportions.”

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ACHIEVEMENT TEST

I. Give appropriate terms to the following definitions.

a)illegal trading;

b)wrong use; mistreatment; a corrupt practice;

c)a person who is captured and held prisoner unless certain demands are met;

d)organized violence designed to create fear in a given population;

e)all the rules for regulating the behaviour of members of a community or country;

f)misdemeanor committed by young people.

II. Match the synonymous/antonymous pairs.

III. Choose the most suitable word to complete the sentence.

IV. Fill in the blanks with the proper words given below.

The second (1)… of the constitution of the USA means that every (2)… has the right to (3)… and carry a gun if they wish to. In most other western democracies, the (4)… is very different — the ownership of guns is strictly (5)…. In Britain following terrible tragedies, all privately owned (6)… are now banned.

Handguns, citizen, law, controlled, amendment, own.

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