Additional texts for rendering

Read the texts. Compress them using the vocabulary below the texts.

 

Text 1

 China: one country, two systems

 

The Chinese president has urged Macau and Hong Kong to try harder at implementing the one country two systems formula. How successful has the formula been for China?

 

When Deng Xiaoping devised the principle of one country two systems in the nineteen eighties it probably seemed like the perfect solution to a very delicate problem. How could China maintain its public commitment to socialism whilst still cashing in on the benefits of Hong Kong and Macau's very capitalist economies? So Deng came up with the agreement that the territories would return to Chinese sovereignty, but would be allowed to maintain their capitalist economic and social systems for fifty years. China meanwhile would continue along its path towards socialism, albeit with Chinese characteristics.

 

So how successful has the formula been? Well both Hong Kong and Macau were handed back to China with little fuss. The governments of Britain and Portugal were able to say that they had addressed the concerns of activists, worried that the limited freedoms they enjoyed in the territories would be eroded by Beijing's rule. And daily life in Hong Kong and Macau has not altered dramatically.

 

The big change that has taken place since the handovers is the rise of the Chinese mainland as an economic superpower. Some economists say it is not so much one country, two systems as one country one system, as China hurtles towards a market economy at an astonishing pace.

 

 

· devised the principle of one country two systems – сформулировал принцип одной страны с двумя системами;

· seemed like the perfect solution - казался чем-то вроде идеального решения;

· maintain – сохранять;

· cashing in on the benefits - используя прибыль;

· with little fuss - без особых проблем;

· worried that freedoms would be eroded - зд. обеспокоенных возможным постепенным свертыванием свобод;

· daily life has not altered dramatically - в повседневной жизни не произошло;

 

 

Text 2

Nestle compensation dispute

 

Nestle's claim dates back to 1975 when Ethiopia's then communist government embarked on a mass nationalisation programme. Virtually all foreign owned firms and property were taken over usually without any compensation.

This fate befell an Ethiopian based company called ELIDCO. It was mainly funded by a German firm which later launched a claim for compensation.

In 1986 Nestle bought the German company and took over the compensation claim which now stands at six million dollars. Ethiopia is offering to pay 1.5 million dollars plus interest but Nestle says it's not enough despite World Bank appeals for it to accept the deal.

Ethiopia's Minister for Finance and Economic Development, Mulu Ketsela told the BBC that her country needs to spend all the money it has on saving lives and she's appealing to Nestle to drop the case and put people before profits.

· claim -  требование, заявление о своих правах на что-л.;

· embarked on -  приступать к выполнению;

· nationalisation -  национализация;

· compensation - выплата, компенсация;

· fate – судьба, доля;

· launch -  запускать, выдвигать;

· stand at - достигать, оставаться на каком-л. уровне;

· appeal -  призыв, обращение, воззвание;

· drop - прекращать, оставлять.

 

Text 3

The World Health Organisation's annual report on the state of the world's health calls for more equality between countries. But economic and social issues continue to affect peoples' health.

Inequality of health care is still paramount, says the WHO's latest report. Industrialised countries account for less than 20 percent of the world's population but take 90 percent of health spending. In Japan more than five hundred dollars is spent on drugs per person per year. This compares to just three dollars in Sierra Leone. Only slightly more is spent in many sub-Saharan countries.

 

Over the last fifty years, life expectancy has increased globally from forty six years to sixty five. But today, instead of the gap being between the developed and developing countries, it's now biggest between the very poorest nations and all other countries. The burden of infectious diseases, including HIV, as well as chronic conditions, coupled with a lack of health care, has led to this situation.

 

However, it's children who are most affected. Almost fifty seven million people died in 2002, nearly twenty per cent children of less than 5 years of age, and ninety eight per cent of these deaths occurred in developing countries.

 

· health care - медицинское обслуживание;

· paramount - зд. дело первостепенной важности;

· health spending - расходы на здравоохранение;

· life expectancy - средняя продолжительность жизни;

· chronic conditions - зд. хронические заболевания;

· coupled with - вместе с;

· children are most affected - речь идет о том, что больше всего в этой ситуации страдают дети. 

 

 

Text 4