2.2. Suggest the Russian/Belarusian equivalents.

officials have confirmed 333 deaths; unofficial counts by local newspapers […] ran as high as 600; a series of weather fronts […] dumped heavy rain; washed-out bridges and roads; the rain forced closure of schools; mudslide; rescue workers; body-detecting dogs; to lead the rescue effort; to call for foreign aid; to tour the stricken area

2.3. Reproduce the situations in which the words and phrases from the above exercise are used.

2.4. Work in pairs. Write a summary of the article leaving out the insignificant details (from your point of view). Compare with the summary of your group-mate. What are the differences? Why?

2.5. Read the following article and find the English equivalents to the following Russian expressions in the text.

ранним утром/раніцай; сорвать крыши/сарваць дахі; обрушить воду/абрушыць ваду; проливные дожди/праліўныя дажджы; как сообщается/ як паведамляецца, семь человек погибло/сем чалавек загінула; оставаться без крова/заставацца без прытулку, прыстанішча; кошмарные последствия/кашмарныя наступствы; испытывать судьбу/выпрабаваць лёс; объявить комендантский час/аб'явіць камендантскую гадзіну

In the dark early hours of yes­terday morning Hurricane Floyd gave a terrifying re­minder of why they call this corner of the country Cape Fear.

The vast wheeling storm — which had grown to the size of Britain and France combined — had sent 3m Americans flee­ing inland as it stroked the coasts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.

When it finally came ashore at Sam it was weakening and its winds were dipping below 100mph, but it was still potent enough to rip roofs off barns and dump more water on this tip of North Carolina than any storm in living memory.

Seven people were reported dead yesterday afternoon, mostly from car accidents in the downpour. Tens of thou­sands were made homeless.

“It was roaring and raining so hard I couldn't hear any­thing else,” said Robert James, a tobacco farmer in the small settlement of Boiling Spring Lakes. He did not even hear Floyd cut his farmhouse in two.

As he spoke the floodwater was gathering at his feet, spluttering out of the drains along the road to Cape Fear. Earlier in the morning the state governor, James Hunt, declared the flood the worst in North Carolina's history and warned of the dangers of ven­turing out in Floyd’s uncertain aftermath.

Further north the storm had reached as far as Maine and closed schools and airports in Washington and New York as it drenched the east coast.

Just across the interstate highway from Robert James’s farm, seven people who had taken refuge up the steps of the Town Creek church the previous night had managed to escape the waters.

Paula Calkins sat on the front porch yesterday with her son Jeremy, looking helplessly across the newly formed lake. Shouting to a journalist on the other side, she said the flood had stopped rising at dawn, at the moment the water touched the foot of the crucifix hanging on the church’s eastern wall.

The Calkins were not willing to tempt fate by wading through the water, which Mr. James warned was teeming with venomous snakes.

A little further down Route 17 a rattlesnake could be seen on the edge of a shallow pond cov­ering the road, half squashed by a passing car but still writhing furiously. Everywhere along the Carolinas’ coast the floodwater had driven wildlife into human habitats.

Yesterday Hurricane Floyd gave the old southern city a wide berth of about 100 miles, but it still brought trees crash­ing down on to roads.

The city’s police declared a curfew from 7pm until 7am yesterday morning, partly in an attempt to prevent looting.

Washington Post, 24 August 1999