Part II. Reading for analysis Text I

Pre-reading

Task 1. Translate the following words.

English Russian

custom …

… таможня

to date from …

… требование

… доход

auspices …

… правительство

Task 2. Look up the pronunciation of the following words in your dictionary: meticulously, experience, false, conquest, quay, auspices, tax.

Task 3. Match the words from the left to their corresponding definitions.

1. tradition a) something that you do regularly, often without thinking about it because you’ve done it so many times before

2. manner b) something that is done by you in a particular situation or by people in a particular society

3. habit c) the way in which something is done

4. way d) a way of doing something that has existed for a long time

5. custom e) the style in which someone does something

Task 4. Complete the table.

Verb	Noun	Adjective
declare … … collect … … create …	… … grant … receipt … … conquest	declared suspicious … … … approved … …

Reading for analysis

The custom of customs

Customs. Zoll. Donane. Dogana. Aduana.

You say, “Nothing to declare”, and the man who tosses your clothes around like a chef’s salad asks, “Do you really expect me to believe you have absolutely nothing to declare?”

Or you come clean with “Something to declare”, and the man who meticulously unroll your toothpaste tube demands, “What about something else to declare?”

Either way, panic sets in. “No. Nothing. Why? Do I look like I’ve got lots of stuff to declare?”

Years of experience have sharpened his jaundiced eye. Could there be a five-pound hunk of gorgonzola in a false – bottomed suitcase?

Could this be a hollowed out volume of Proust? Very suspicious, because nobody ever actually reads Proust.

It doesn’t matter what you have, or what you don’t have, because the moment he gives you that look, you feel so guilty that he becomes convinced you’re hiding something. And you know that he knows. And he knows that you know that he knows. And if you’re not careful this could go on forever.

And as a matter of fact, this has been going on forever.

The custom of customs comes from England and appears to date from the year 742, when good King Etherbald granted the Abbey of Worcester the dues of two ships. Three years later he gave the Bishop of London the revenue from one ship. Later still, King Ethelred set up a collection post for ships sailing the Thames past King’s Wharf. Shortly after the Norman Conquest, when the French began filling England with their wine, the kings decided they were entitled to something for their own cellars and claimed five percent of whatever wine came in. And so import duties became a fact of life.

The New Custom Act of 1275 formally created “Customers”, now known as Customs Collectors, and Customs Controllers, just in case some of the Customers needed watching. And “Chercheurs”, whose job it was to keep an eye on the Controllers.

Collectors were appointed at each principal port to receive revenue. The system of special canals was introduced, requiring goods to be landed only at approved quays.

Since then, several well known people have served as Customers, Controllers, and Chercheurs on both sides of the Atlantic. Included are Geoffrey Chaucer, William Congreve, Robbie Burns, Adam Smith, Herman Melvill, Pat Garrett, Ulysses S.Grant, Chester A.Arthur, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Tom Paine.

Born in Thetford, Norfolk, in 1737, Paine lived in England for almost forty years before emigrating to the Colonies. Yet he is forever remembered in other circles as the only Customer, Controller, and Chercheur to have been fired from the Customs service – not once, but twice. He must also be one of the few people in history to have been sentenced to death not once, but twice – first in England, then in France – and in the end to have died of old age.

The US Customs Service, based on the British model, was formed in 1789, put under the auspices of the newly created Treasury, and run by a thirty-four-year-old Alexander Hamilton. The first duty ever collected in the New World, $774.71, was paid on a cargo brought over from Italy in August of that first year.

In fact, from that day until the start of World War I, the US Customs Service was the government’s sole source of revenue. Their winning streak ended when Congress made a decision to introduce an income tax.

Notes: How to read figures