Vocabulary notes

to confine	ограничивать
to raise sb	воспитывать
race riots	расовые беспорядки
affluent	богатый
siege	осада
blinds	жалюзи
prey	добыча

Task 3. Read the text again and make sure you know all underlined parts of the text. Give their Russian equivalents

Task 4. Answer the following questions:

1. What problem is this text primarily concerned with?

2. Who are particularly afraid to walk even in their own neighborhoods?

3. Why are people afraid both in cities and in rural areas?

4. What do people do to discourage muggers?

5. What was ranked above unemployment as the most important problem facing Washington city government?

6. What citizens are the favored prey of criminals?

Task 5. Agree or disagree with the following statements.

1. Ameri­cans are afraid to walk in their own neighborhoods only at night.

2. Women living in heavily urbanized areas are afraid of nothing.

3. Fear is mostly confined to cities.

4. The way of life is by no means dif­ferent from what it was 20 years ago.

5. Fear has created a siege mentality.

6. Older citizens are the favored prey of criminals.

Task 6. Make up your own questions. Use the following words and word combinations from the text

In daylight, to be accompanied by, a resident, to worry about safety, to come to one’s aid, to depend on, to call back, instruments of defense, a break-in attempt, age group

Task 7. Explain in English what the words and word combinations mean. Use them in your own sentences

Heavily urbanized areas, instruments of defense, a rural area, black ghetto,

a siege mentality, to identify, to discourage, to justify, to break into, to vandalize, victimization

Task 8. Practice the speech patterns given below. Make up two sentences of your own on each pattern

1. Thirteen percent of all Ameri­cans are afraid to walk even in their own neighborhoods in daylight, and about half would be afraid to walk the streets at night within a mile of their homes. Residents hesitate to push their way through the throng of pot-smoking youths loitering around the entrance, and are even more afraid to ride the elevators alone.

2. Six often make a point of dressing plainly to discour­age muggers. She made a point of calling me every time she got home. Their neighbor made a point of leaving the radio on and blinds down whenever he left his house.

3. She feels she can no longer depend on her neighbors. A Maine logger no longer bothers to report thefts to the local sheriff's office. It is because judges no longer seem to have as much respect for precedent.

4. But fear is by no means confined to cities. It’s by no means a cheap make of the car.

5. They keep their doors locked and blinds down. He kept me informed all the time. We left the things packed and safe.

Task 9. Make the summary of the text. Use the key words and word combinations

some of whom asked that their names be disguised or not used

Text 3

Task 1. Answer the questions:

1. Why do some victims of crimes not report them to the police?

2. Do you feel sure that the police are effective in protecting people?

3. What measures can you take to protect yourself against criminals?

Task 2. Read the text to get the main idea paying special attention to the underlined parts of the text (key words and word combinations)

Households in the West Dough­ly the area from Colorado to the Pacific experience proportionately more crimes of all kinds (33 percent last year) than do those in the rest of the United States (23 percent victimized). Experts speculate that demographics are to blame: the high-crime ages are 15 to 25, and the West tends to have a heavier in-migration of young people than the rest of the country has.

Surprisingly, many victims of crimes do not report them to the police. Thirty-nine percent of those who had property stolen, and 36 percent whose property was vandalized, failed to file complaints. Of crimes against people, includ­ing armed robbery, muggings and sexual assaults, 23 percent went unreported. Victims are often reluctant to report such crimes, fearing the criminals may return to take revenge. Many, if not most, sexual assaults and rapes go unreported because the victims, or parents of children who have been attacked, do not want their names made public.

Although a majority of the Americans polled (66 percent) ex­pressed confidence in the law-enforcement system, a considerable minority (21 percent) feel the police are not effective in protecting them. Principal complaints of victims interviewed: the length of time police took to respond to a call and subsequent lack of police effort and sympathy.

A Maine logger, who says he has had more things stolen than he can recall, no longer bothers to report thefts to the local sheriff's office. His reason: "They treat me as if I were the criminal."

Increasingly, those polled are taking measures to protect themselves against thieves. Surveys show that 20 to 25 percent of American households have a handgun, and 40 percent of those households keep the guns for "protection." A large majority (71 percent) lock their car doors regularly. Within the past three years, almost one-fourth (24 percent) of the families have installed dead-bolt locks, burglar alarms or other security devices.

A surprising number of people, however, fail to take precautions even after they have been victimized. Of those who reported their homes broken into in the survey, 38 percent did nothing to improve their security. Of those whose cars were stolen during the preceding year, 14 percent still do not regularly lock their automobile doors.

Depressing as the crime figures may be, the positive fact is that 75 percent of us go through the year untouched by crimes of even the most trivial kind. And those who have been touched are hanging tough.

Nita Lambert of Savannah, Ga., has been burglarized three times, despite dead bolts. She has now engraved her name or Social Security number on every item of value in her home and put decals on the windows notifying would-be thieves that her possessions have been reg­istered with the police. Neverthe­less, she still keeps her windows open in daytime, saying, "I refuse to become a prisoner in my own home. Only one percent of the population are criminals, and we must not let them run our lives."