Hurricane Irene: Emergency declared in seven us states

Seven states along the east coast of the US, from North Carolina to Connecticut, have declared emergencies ahead of Hurricane Irene's arrival.

The storm weakened slightly on Friday to category two - with winds of up to 105mph (169km/h) - a strength at which it was expected to make landfall.

Mandatory evacuations have been ordered in parts of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and North Carolina.

Irene has caused havoc in the Caribbean and could do the same in the US.

US President Barack Obama, on holiday in Martha's vineyard, an island on the Massachusetts coast, said in a statement to reporters: "All indications point to this being a historic hurricane."

"I cannot stress this highly enough: if you are in the projected path of the hurricane you have to take precautions now," he added.

"Don't wait, don't delay. We all hope for the best, but we have to be prepared for the worst. All of us have to take this storm seriously. If you are given an evacuation order, please follow it."

Irene, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, could affect up to 65 million people in major cities along the east coast from Washington to Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and Boston - the most densely populated corridor in America.

If it hits New York and New England at category two, it will be the region's strongest storm since Hurricane Bob glanced off the Massachusetts coast in 1991, and Hurricane Gloria, which caused extensive damage to New York City in 1985.

"We're going to have damages, we just don't know how bad," Craig Fugate, the head of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, told the Associated Press news agency.

"This is one of the largest populations that will be impacted by one storm at one time."

States of emergency have been declared in North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.

President Obama also declared an emergency in North Carolina, where Irene is due to make landfall first, on Saturday afternoon.

The move allows greater co-ordination between state and US federal disaster management authorities.

The American Red Cross said it was preparing dozens of emergency shelters along the east coast.

Forecasters said Irene could strengthen slightly before its expected arrival in North Carolina on Saturday. It is then expected to weaken as it moves up the east coast, diminishing in strength by Sunday.

Heightened waves began hitting North Carolina's Outer Banks early on Friday.

Section 5 Economics

Enough money is always a little bit more

than you have.

Jay Slabaugh

Activity1. Present Russian equivalents for the following word-combinations:

• to pull out of economic crisis - to resolve the crisis

• to suspend reforms – to prevent reforms from being carried out

• volume of personal consumption – an amount of goods per a man

• to eke out a living – to make just enough money to live on

• to live below a poverty line – to be very poor

• income gap – difference in amount of money earned

• to diversify the economic base – to invest money into economy

• means of payment - money

• stock market – a market where stocks and shares are bought and sold under fixed rules, but at prices controlled by supply and demand (syn. securities exchange)

• labor exchange – a place where people are offered a job

• commodity exchange – a place where raw materials and some manufactured goods are bought and sold for immediate or future delivery

• produce exchange – a place where agricultural products are bought and sold

• currency market – a place where currency is bought and sold

• staple commodities – the most necessary goods

• supply and demand – the amount of goods available and the amount wanted by customers

• joint-stock company – a business formed by a group of people using money provided by them all

• cost of living – enough income to pay for the necessities of life (syn. living wage, subsistence minimum)

• value added tax – a tax charged at 20% of the price of goods and services

• gross domestic product – the annual total value of goods produced and services provided by a country

• surplus assets – reserve capital

• board of directors – a group of directors who are responsible for running a company and usually have legal responsibilities to it

• board of shareholders – meeting of stockholders

• competitive ability – ability to compete with other business companies

• seniority – official advantage coming from the length of one’s service in an organization

• turnover of staff – situation when workers leave a company and new ones are employed

• to launch a new enterprise – to start the activity of a new company

• excise taxes – the government tax on certain goods produced and used inside a country

• tax exile – a wealthy person who leaves a country to avoid paying high taxes and goes to live in another one

• to freeze import – to cancel import

• to pay tax – to submit taxes

• to generate a tax – to get taxes

• compete with smb. in smth. v – to try to get benefit in competition with other business companies

• purchase (v) – to buy

• transaction (deal) – the act of doing business or carrying out a business deal

• tax return – a statement of a person’s income for the past year, including any claims for tax relief

• consumption – the purchase and use of goods and services to satisfy human wants

• conspicuous consumption – the tendency of the wealthy to buy goods and services to impress others

• break-even point – point at which income from sales equals fixed and variable expenses

Activity 2. Translate the sentences:

1. The relations between the states were aggravated and the freezing of import served the pretext to it.

2. It’s difficult to survive in conditions of the transitional period if you ignore the experience of developed countries.

3. The deputy dwelt on the commercial activity of privatized enterprises.

4. The aid worth $10 mln. was transferred to International Charitable Fund.

5. All the commercial enterprises paid taxes to state budget, those, which didn’t do it, were carefully checked by the tax inspection of the city.

6. The employees are responsible for carrying out general office duties, filling in forms and keeping statistics.

Activity 3. Insert the words into their correct places:

accounts expenditure quarter bottom line fiscal surplus deficit ledger tax break even

loss earnings profit

A company writes its … each year to show its … (the money it spends) and its …(the money that comes into company). The accounts are written in a book called a … . If the company earns more than it spends, then the …of the ledger shows a…or a … . If it spends more than it earns, then the company makes a … and the bottom line shows a … . If earnings and expenditure are equal, then the company will …the company pays a percentage of its profit to the government in… . The period of one year on which tax is calculated is called the …year. Often the company also draws up accounts every … (every three months).

Activity 4. Read the text and work with the topical vocabulary.

GDP growth slows as inflation picks up.

The country’s gross domestic product growth dwindled to 4,4 percent year-on-year in January. This marks a major slowdown from nearly 8 percent growth in the same month in 2004. growth in the whole of 2004 was 7.1 percent, according to preliminary figures.

January was quite hard for the economy because of the 10-day holiday. Russians only returned to work Jan.11 after an extended New Year holiday.

President Vladimir Putin is determined to double the size of the economy within a decade – but for that happen the economy needs to keep expanding by more than 7 percent annually.

Analysts warn that the high growth rates of recent years are unlikely to be repeated as the energy sector runs into capacity constraints, while much-needed investors stay away, unnerved by the state’s assault on oil major Yukos.

Economists, however, have said believe the January slowdown is an unavoidable outcome of the extended holidays this year and is unlikely to impact the outlook for growth overall.

Nevertheless, news of the downturn came as a Kremlin advisor admitted that inflation is likely to overshoot the government’s 8.5 percent target, in what could turn out to be another possible danger to growth.

Tariff hikes as high as 20 percent triggered the fastest monthly consumer price growth in three years in January. “There have now appeared fairly real risks that inflation will again exceed the planned level – 8.5 percent,” Arkady Dvorkovich, head of the presidential administration’s Expert Department, said in televised comments Monday.

Last year policymakers insisted for much of the year that 10 percent inflation was a realistic goal. It finally came in at 11.7 percent.

Dvorkovich added that allowing the ruble to appreciate faster would tackle inflation, but said there was a drawback.

“The other thing, which everyone including the Central Bank understands, is that it could have a negative impact on the competitiveness of Russian goods and lower the rate of groeth of the Russian economy.”

The 2005 budget allows for GDP growth of 6/3 percent in the whole year, but a Reuters poll published earlier this month forecast growth at a median 5.5 percent.

The Moscow Times

Activity 5. Social trends.

Use the words below to complete the sentences, putting the verbs into the correct tense. Note that sometimes more than one answer is possible.

rise decrease lower decline fall raise deteriorate reduction boom drop improve go up

increase reduce go down double

1. We welcome the recent________ in taxes announced in the Chancellor’s speech.

2. To the relief of the government, unemployment___________ last month by 90 000.

3. The_______ in drug-related crime is very disturbing.

4. Relations between the two countries have__________ since the refugee crisis started.

5. the number of divorces has nearly _________ from 10 000 to 19 000.

6. An _______ of 20% in the number of people claiming pensions over the last ten years has left governments wondering what they can do.

7. Most people admit that there has been a worrying _______ in broadcasting standards.

8. The government is thinking of _______ the school leaving age by one year to seventeen.

9. In spite of higher import duties, the demand for foreign luxury goods is still ________ after three years of recession.

10.Bike thefts are on the ________ despite police warnings.

Activity 6. You are going to listen to an extract from news program and decide whether the sentences below are T(true) or F(false)

1. More people are immigrating to Britain than four years ago.

2. The quality of food is improving.

3. People are eating fewer potatoes than ten years ago.

4. Last year the average Briton watched more than seventeen hours of TV per week.

5. Most people go on holiday twice a year.

6. Improvements in diet have helped to extend life expectancy.

7. More women are opting to stay at home to look after their families rather than going out to work.

8. The number of single mothers has risen sharply.

9. The income of the poorest tenth of the population has fallen.

10.The income of the richest tenth has risen sharply.

Activity 7. read the article and express your opinion concerning the necessity of cooperation between Ukraine and IMF.

The IMF and the LDC’s: Friend or Foe?

Less than century ago Latin America nations that failed to pay their debts were likely to be confronted by the British Navy or the United States Marines. Then, under the watchful eyes of the occupying troops, the country would be forced to pay its bills.

The International Monetary Fund, established after World War II, extends credit to financially troubled countries. Nevertheless, the IMF is sometimes accused by people in the countries it is trying to help with being a tool of imperialism, or a bodyguard of the big New York banks.

The reason for this hostility is that in return for its loans, the IMF often demands that the countries impose certain restrictions on their economics. The purpose of the restrictions, or austerity programs as they are called, is to prevent a repeat of the events that led to the financial problems in the first place. To a Mexican peasant, however, austerity could mean that flour will cost more. To an Argentine factory worker it could mean a reduction in real wages, or to a Brazilian retiree it could mean a smaller government pension.

The current problems faced by many less developed countries began with the oil crisis of the 1970s and the global recession of the 1980s. After OPEC quadrupled its prices in 1973, a number of the developing countries borrowed from private banks to pay their oil bills. Those developing nations with large oil reserves found themselves suddenly enriched by the increase in prices and borrowed to finance expensive industrial developing projects.

By the 1980s oil prices began to slide, and international trade slowed. As a result, many of the debtor nations found themselves unable to repay their loans. Private banks were no longer willing to extend additional credit. That left it to the International Monetary Fund to keep the debtor nations “afloat”.

As a result, the IMF has tried several strategies to help the countries in difficulty repay their loans.

• Lend the debtor nation the money it needs to meet its payments

• Ask debtor countries to adopt austerity measures that would give them enough money to repay their debts

• Require the lending banks to reduce the interest rates on their loans and extend the time borrowers have to pay

• Adopt some combinations of the three strategies above as a solution to the international debt problem

Despite the disagreement over the proper role of the International Monetary Fund in the currant crisis, virtually everyone would agree that they would rather see the IMF looking for solutions than the British fleet or the United States Marines.

Activity 9. Choose an appropriate substitute for the italicized words:

aid budget capital cash currency finance fund loan reserves subsidies

1. The yen is the type of money in Japan.

5. Could you give me money in notes and coins for this cheque?

6. How much is next year’s agricultural estimated expenditure and income?

7. We got the necessary money for this particular purpose.

8. The company is starting a pension stock of money.

9. How much is the money needed to start the company?

10. The farmers received milk money from the government to help them sell cheaply without making a loss.

11. We had $5,000 borrowed money from the bank to buy new equipment.

12. The country has not got enough money to pay other countries for its imports.

13. The industrial nations give help in the form of money to the developing countries.

Activity 10. Listen to these people talking about their jobs. Decide what each person does.

Activity 11. Now think of a job. Prepare a short description of it without stating directly what it is. Then, give your description to the rest of the class and your classmates have to guess what job you meant.

Activity 12. Listen to the conversation and fill in the chart.

CANDIDATE SPECIFICATION Job title: Sex: Age range:
	Essential	Desirable	Undesirable
Working experience	-5 years’ experience in industry -	-	-over-specialized experience -
Educational record	-	-business diploma	-business diploma but no science degree
Personal details	-resident in area -	-	-someone with no ties
Non-working life	-ability to mix well with people	-	-solitary pursuits
Attitudes	- - -	-creative, enthusiastic	-

Activity 13. Translate the article.

Перспективи евро у Європі.