Практичний курс англійської мови навчальний посібник з практики усного та письмового мовлення для студентів 4 курсу
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СодержаниеTEXT 2 ‘Russia’s New Rich’ |
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TEXT 2 ‘Russia’s New Rich’
4.7. Study the glossary to the article. Find the words in the context and choose the proper translation.
blatant 1) вульгарний, крикливий A blatant, insolent materialism threatens to engulf moral distinctions. — Вульгарний, нахабний матеріалізм погрожує знищенням моральних відзнак. Syn: loud , flashy
2) волаючий, страшний, жахливий Syn: terrible, horrible 3) очевидний, явний, волаючий a blatant lie — явна неправда
cronyism- призначення на посади по знайомству
flimsy 1) тонкий папір ( використовуваний для копіювання ); тж. копія на такому папері
2) а) "папірець", банкнот б) телеграма
2.1) ламкий, неміцний, тендітний; тонкий ( про тканину ) flimsy wooden huts — неміцні дерев'яні хатини You wоn't be warm enough in that flimsy dress. — Тобі не буде тепло в такій легкій сукні.
Syn: frail, insubstantial , fragile , brittle
Ant: firm , rugged , solid , sturdy , substantial ,
2) а) необґрунтований, безпідставний, хибкий flimsy argument — непереконливий / слабкий довід
Syn: unconvincing б) незначний, дрібний, слабкий He gave the flimsy excuse. — Він навів погану відмовку.
Syn: trivial , tenuous
gaudy I 1) велике свято Syn: rejoicing , joy , festival , merry-making 2) щорічний обід в англ. університетах ( на честь колишніх студентів )
II 1) несмачний, кричущий, яскравий Syn: garish , meretricious , tawdry 1., flashy Ant: modest , plain I 1., quiet 1., simple 1., tasteful 2) квітчастий, ( про стиль)
legion 1) рим. легіон ( основна організаційна і тактична одиниця в армії Древнього Рима ) 2) легіон - Legion of Honour - foreign legion 3) асоціація ветеранів American Legion — Американський легіон ( асоціація ветеранів Америки ) 4) маса, безліч, сукупність their name is Legion — ім'я їм легіон Syn: multitude , great number
lip-service нещирі слововиливи; порожні слова - pay lip-service to smth. - pay lip-service to smb.
opulence 1) достаток, багатство Syn: wealth , riches , affluence 2) надлишок ( сили, ресурсів і т.д. ) 3) розкіш ( тіла )
platitudes - банальність, заяложеність, площина, вульгарність, тривіальність to mouth, utter a platitude — говорити, вимовляти банальність to speak in platitudes — говорити банальності, сипати побитими фразами Hе's always mouthing platitudes. — Він увесь час говорить вульгарності. Syn: truism
platitudinarian 1. банальний, побитий, неоригінальний, вульгарний platitudinarian remark — банальне зауваження Syn: banal , trite
2. людина, що говорить вульгарності, площини, банальності; паскудник
poach 1) а) помішувати что-л. пальцем, рукою і т.д. Syn: poke б) виколювати ока в) сунути пальці в дірки, отвори 2) а) намацувати шлях тростиною, ціпком Syn: thrust б) тупотіти, топтати; розривати землю копитами Syn: trample в) ставати м'якою, неміцною ( про землю ); грузнути ( у такій землі ) Syn: soak г) змочувати ( щоб зробити більш м'яким ) 3) а) незаконно вторгатися на територію з метою украсти ( особливо худобу чи дичину ); полювати незаконно чи незаконними методами The police caught the young man poaching for rabbits on the lоrd's land. — Поліція схопила юнака за незаконне полювання на кроликів на землі лорда. Syn: encroach , trespass б) переходити на половину полю супротивника і відбирати в нього м'яч в) нечесним образом одержати перевагу на стрибках ( звичайно при старті забігу )
II [ ] 1) варити яйця без шкарлупи в окропі Syn: boil 2) варити яйця в пароварці 3) варити що б те ні було на повільному вогні Syn: simmer
poacher turned gamekeeper браконьєр, що став лісником ( про людину, що поміняла переконання на протилежні )
rapacious 1) жадібний, жадібний rapacious appetite — жадібний апетит Syn: avid , avaricious , greedy 2) хижий ( про тварин ) Syn: raptorial
spawn 1) ікра ( маса з яєчок самок риб, молюсків, і т.п. ) Syn: roe II 2) (численний) виводок, потомство Syn: brood I 1.3) поріддя, породження Syn: offspring 4) плоди, результат ( of ) Syn: product , result 1., effect 1.5) грибниця, міцелій ( вегетативне тіло грибів, що складається з одноклітинних чи багатоклітинних ниток ) Syn: mycelium 2.1) метати ікру 2) народжувати ( у великій кількості ); розмножуватися, плодитися ( про людей )
4.8. Read the essay ‘ Russia’s New Rich ’ by Vichael Specter
About the author: Michael Specter is a senior correspondent for the New York Times. He was the Moscow bureau chief for the Times from 1995 to 1998.
Since the 1991 breakup of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Russia has embarked on a rocky transition from a planned, state-run economy to one set free to market forces. In the early, heady days of capitalism, a new breed of Russians, known as the New Rich, has emerged.
Russia's New Rich
By Michael Specter
In the 1980s the surest sign of status and wealth in Moscow, the capital of the USSR, was a Volvo: Ordinary people never owned cars, let alone cars made in Sweden. A Volvo meant the owner was a foreign diplomat, journalist, or a Soviet official with extremely rare and powerful connections to the West.
That was before one of the most astonishingly rapid shifts in wealth the world has ever seen. These days you could leave a Volvo unlocked at night in a high-crime district in Moscow, and chances are nobody would bother with it.
There are so many more rich people in Moscow—they are uniformly referred to as New Russians, or the New Rich—that Volvos no longer seem worth stealing. In 1997 more of the most expensive models of Mercedes-Benz were sold in Moscow than in any other city in the world. The riches accumulated by a few thousand people—through an odd combination of cronyism, hard work, and blatant theft—have astonished nearly everyone who has seen them, spawning envy, fascination, and, naturally, some bitterness.
New Russian jokes, which say as much about today’s mood in Moscow as any federal report possibly could, are legion. This one is typical: Alex wants to date Masha. “Does your father have a Mercedes?” she asks him. Reluctantly, he has to say no. “Well, does your father have a three-story house in the country?” she asks. Again the answer is no. “Get lost,” the vulgar young lady says. At home, Alex complains to his stupefied father. The father picks up a mobile phone and calls his driver. “Ivan, tomorrow go sell one of the Rolls Royces and buy a Mercedes,” he says. Then he turns to his son and continues, “But there is no way I am going to demolish the top two stories of our dacha (country home) for that girl of yours.”
Behind all the jokes, of course, the opulence is not so simple, and it is certainly not so common. Taken as a whole, Russian society is significantly poorer than it was when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991—in part because the Soviets destroyed a generation of workers and factories—through poor management. The end of Communism, and the closing of hundreds of factories, threw tens of thousands of people with no special skills out of work. Many of the enterprises that still operate fail to pay wages on time. And in the new competitive environment that capitalism demands, workers reared under Communism—particularly those over the age of 45—have had a hard time learning to adapt to a new way of life.
In 1997 the wealthiest 10 percent of Russians—almost all of them in the biggest cities, such as Moscow, Saint Petersburg, or Nizhniy Novgorod—earned about 15 times as much as the poorest 10 percent. That ratio is not uncommon in the world—the disparity between the richest and poorest is even higher in the United States—but this is a country that until recently gave lip service to Communist platitudes about an equal distribution of wealth.
No longer though. In Moscow, the home of most of the New Rich because it is the home of most of the new wealth, there has been an endless proliferation of restaurants since the mid-1990s. Where fresh fish was once a delicacy whispered about among the elite Communist leaders, today you can find it grilled or poached and wrapped in figs. Restaurants here now routinely fly in lobster from Maine and wine from California. It is not unusual for a meal in one the city’s gaudier showcase restaurants to cost two people $300 with a bottle of wine.
The New Rich often live in the same drab apartment blocks they occupied during the Communist era, preferring to spend wildly on dachas. Most Russians have dachas, although often they are flimsy shacks without running water or electricity. But the dachas of Russia’s New Rich are like nothing else on earth.
Most cost $1 million or more; rental prices can exceed $40,000 a month. For that money you get many rooms in an old mansion once inhabited by the Communist elite. There will also typically be a house for guests, a sauna annex—and often—underground passageways connecting them all.
The New Rich in Russia suddenly find themselves surrounded by a burgeoning service industry eager to cater to their every whim. The Gold’s Gym in Moscow, for example, is one of the busiest, most expensive, and most successful in the world. Many expatriate businessmen belong to it, but most of the members are Russians eager to pay $2000 or more a year to use its state-of-the art equipment while their drivers wait in their Mercedes outside. After the workout, people can relax at the juice bar with a $7 glass of apple juice.
The transition from a rigidly controlled planned economy to the freedom of the semi-open market made it all happen, of course. It has been described as the biggest giveaway in history: Nickel mines, defense factories, public works projects that were owned by the state suddenly became private in huge numbers. And in a desperate attempt to get businessmen to invest in the future of Russia—many of those industries were all but given away—sold at a fraction of their value to insiders.
In the Soviet era capitalism was a dirty word, and people who practiced it drew prison sentences. Today the goal of most young people is to become an entrepreneur. A transition that quick is necessarily bumpy. Moscow’s many nightclubs pulse from dusk till dawn; rich people think nothing of dropping $10,000 on French champagne at a dinner party. Mercedes are often flanked by Chevrolet Suburbans—chase cars—filled with bodyguards. And it is not unusual for the children of wealthy parents to head off to their private school each day with an apple in their rucksacks and a bodyguard in the next seat.
Not all money has fallen into the hands of people who obtained it solely through their connections or by illegal means. Nor are all the New Rich of Russia stunningly wealthy. Many earned their money by seeing ways to serve a new market before anyone else. Russian travelers now spend more than $5 billion a year abroad; villas in France are in demand, hotels in much of Europe are now filled with Russian guests. As a result, travel agents are suddenly successful and in demand. Dry cleaners did not even exist in Russia in the 1980s. Now they pick up and deliver. So do pizza parlors and computer repair people. Art galleries have proliferated, and advertising, once almost nonexistent, is one of the fastest growing businesses in the former workers’ state.
Of course there is a dark side to all the rapid accumulation of wealth. For one thing most people don’t benefit from it—at least not yet. Pensioners never lived as desperately in the Soviet system as they do now. Students have been stranded by the loss of government support, and the federal government—deeply in debt—routinely fails to pay teachers, soldiers, and even its own bureaucrats on time.
Some say rapacious greed is a necessary start on the road to a free market. They point to Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s, when Al Capone and other gangsters dominated the underworld, and to the American robber barons of a century past. They are instructive but not totally apt comparisons: the price of wealth in Russia can be judged at the morgue. More than 100 people in Moscow alone—bankers, businessmen, mobsters—were killed in gangland slayings in 1997. Kidnappings have increased, and the rich have begun to retreat behind the giant, constantly protected walls of gated communities.
Normal Russians grumble and laugh, often saying a fine bottle of Dom Pеrignon cannot be worth losing your life—even a rich man’s life.
4.9 Use the expressions below in the sentences of your own. Try to make a connected text on the problem of wealthy and poor division in our society.
- the surest sign of status and wealth
- extremely rare and powerful connections to
- astonishingly rapid shifts in wealth
- an odd combination of cronyism, hard work, and blatant theft
- spawn envy, fascination, and some bitterness
- to destroy a generation of workers and factories
- through poor management
- with no special skills out of work
- to adapt to a new way of life.
- the disparity between the richest and poorest
- to give lip service to
- to be like nothing else on earth
- to be eager to cater to one’s every whim
- transition from a rigidly controlled planned economy to the freedom of the semi-open market
- giveaway in history
- to become private in huge numbers
- to invest in the future
- to sell at a fraction of the value
- the goal of most young people is to become an entrepreneur
- to obtain solely through connections or by illegal means
- to be successful and in demand
- pick up and deliver
- once almost nonexistent, is one of the fastest growing businesses
- the former workers’ state
- to be stranded by the loss of government support
- on the road to a free market
- to retreat behind the giant, constantly protected walls of gated communities
- be worth losing your life
4.10 Discuss the following questions:
- Comment on the title of the chapter. What is the stylistic function of the expression “New Rich” in it ? How does it help the reader to grasp the idea of the text ?
- What is the main idea of the text at large and how is it conveyed to the reader? Try to formulate it in brief.
- What does the author mean when giving the idea that “Of course there is a dark side to all the rapid accumulation of wealth. For one thing most people don’t benefit from it—at least not yet. ”? Express your own opinion on the subject.
- What does Michael Specter mean by “the opulence is not so simple, and it is certainly not so common” and “ to head off to their private school each day with an apple in their rucksacks and a bodyguard in the next seat”? How does he treat the problem of what he qualifies as “a dark side to all the rapid accumulation of wealth”?
- Say what you think about it .
- What stylistic devices prevail in the text ? Point them out and comment on their function.