IRBR CLIO - Mdulo: Ingls Regular - Professor: Anthony Rosenberg

Class 6 Reading Comprehension

Drugs and development caught in a vicious cycle
1 Conflict and drugs inevitably go together. Most drug production is in places subject to generations of conflict. This
2 is due to two main factors: illicit drug production funds wars, and conflict areas lack structures of law enforcement.
3 Not so obvious is the more deep-seated reason the drug trade and conflict are so closely linked: the progress of
4 social and economic development. This is a vicious cycle poor development fuels conflict, which fuels the drug
5 trade, which fuels conflict, which fuels poverty. As with most vicious cycles, this one is extremely hard to break.
6 This issue is particularly salient as this year marks the 50th anniversary of the UN conventions that declared a
7 global war on drugs. The UN agency in charge of implementing and overseeing the conventions is the UN Office
8 on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which often views drugs issues as only relating to law and order, and security.
9 Despite being part of the UN system, the body rarely looks at the implications of socioeconomic development.
10 This has to change. It is imperative that the UNODC and the parties to the UN conventions inform themselves of
11 the links between development, conflict and drug cultivation. These links are all too apparent in places such as
12 Burma, the Balkans, South America and the Indian subcontinent.
13 Instability stemming from poor and highly inequitable socioeconomic development is a major catalyst for civil
14 conflict, which itself is often funded by the drug trade. Drug lords in turn take advantage of the poor and force
15 them to produce drugs, which often leaves them more vulnerable.
16 Poverty has given impetus to a wave of civil unrest that has swept across north Africa and the Middle East. This
17 could become a tsunami as the countries most deeply involved in drug production have even lower socioeconomic
18 development than those inspired by the "jasmine revolution". Thus, for better or worse, the ground is ripe for
19 more Colombia-style conflicts than the peaceful democratic revolution of the Egyptian people.
20 The situation in Afghanistan, for example, is well known: there is an intimate connection between opiate
21 production and the ability of the Taliban and warlords to engage in long-term conflict. Attempts have been made
22 with "alternative development"; however, the reality is that the poppy cultivation will not be eradicated until
23 farmers have more secure livelihoods. That will not happen soon because that is not the mission.
24 In Burma, 73% of households rely on income from opium to provide food, shelter, education and healthcare for
25 their families. Drug enforcement agencies claim that the drug economy in southeast Asia creates a difficult
26 environment for socioeconomic development. They have got it backwards the lack of socioeconomic
27 development makes it imperative for many Burmese people to produce opium. Not to mention that the
28 government and the rebels are both dependent on the drug trade to fund their fight against each other.
29 The world is gradually awakening to the reality that our current drug policies have failed. We are becoming more
30 aware of the disenfranchisement of hundreds of millions of people in less developed nations and how this has the
31 propensity to spill out on to the streets and directly challenge state authority. Though we understand the system is
32 broken, little is done to change or fix it. Development agencies frequently skirt their role in helping to change the
33 environment in which the drug economy flourishes and drug control agencies rarely consider the development
34 context in which their activities take place. As this year marks the 50th anniversary of the global war on drugs, the
35 world can no longer ignore the intricate links between drugs, development and conflict.
36 Donor agencies must become more aware of the role they can play if we are to meet the millennium development
37 goals by 2015. Drug control agencies must learn to look beyond the simple realities of drug production, and take
38 into account the social and economic factors that fuel cultivation and consumption. Both must learn to live and
39 work together achieving common goals is often hard work, but it is work that must be done if we truly want to
40 make development work for everyone and break the vicious cycle.
41 Taken and adapted from http://www.newstin.com/tag/us/146969552

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 1) Answer the questions below, based on the text Drugs and development.

Circle C for Correto and E for Errado

a) The author believes the UNs drug division is too closed-minded about the drug problem. C / E
b) The aim of Afghan operations is to use alternative policies to get rid of drug-driven poverty. C / E
c) Not only insurgents, but also the government use the drug issue as a way of bringing in money. C / E
d) The world has disregarded the link between drugs and development for more than half a decade. C / E

2) Match one part from column A with another from column B to form coherent sentences.
A B
a) The poor are often put more at risk 1) but chances are they will see more
bloodshed due to underdevelopment.
b) Working together, Aid and Drug agencies have
more of a chance to 2) because a lack of opportunities leaves them
few options.
c) The situation in North Africa and the Middle East
may be enthused by the activism in Egypt 3) if efforts are made by organs to combat
drugs and foster development together.
d) UNODC is charged with the task of watching over
conventions on drugs; 4) put an end to the vicious circle.

e) The Millennium Development Goals only stand a 5) . however, the focus seems to be on legal
chance of being met issues rather than development.

3) Choose the best synonym for the word in bold.

1) deep-seated (line 3) a) predetermined b) inherent c) fundamental d) profound

2) overseeing (line 7) a) supervising b) overlooking c) coping d) nurturing

3) stemming (line 13) a) arising b) causing c) curtailing d) falling

4) livelihoods (line 23) a) opportunities b) crops c) shelters d) incomes

5) disenfranchisement (line 30) a) removal b) disagreement c) deprivation d) isolation

6) skirt (line 32) a) cover b) bend c) garnish d) sidestep

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 IRBR CLIO - Mdulo: Ingls Regular - Professor: Anthony Rosenberg
Class 6 Reading Comprehension
Who Speaks English?
1 1 EVERYONE knows the stereotypes about foreigners speaking English: Scandinavians are shockingly fluent,
2 while the Japanese lag despite years and billions of yen spent trying. Now a significant recent study confirms some
3 of those stereotypes. But it holds some surprises as well.
4 2 EF Education First, an English-teaching company, compiled the biggest ever internationally comparable sample
5 of English learners: some two million people took identical tests online in 44 countries. The top five performers
6 were Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. The bottom five were Panama, Colombia, Thailand,
7 Turkey and Kazakhstan. Among regions, Latin America fared worst. (No African country had enough test-takers to
8 be included on the list for the minimum number of participants.)
9 3 This was not a statistically controlled study: the subjects took a free test online and _____ their own
10 accord. They were by definition, connected to the Internet and interested in testing their English; they were also
11 younger and more urban than the population at large. But Philip Hult, the boss of EF, says that his sample shows
12 results similar to a more scientifically controlled but smaller study by the British Council.
13 4 Several factors correlate with English ability. Wealthy countries do better overall. But smaller wealthy countries
14 do better still: the larger the number of speakers of a countrys main language, the worse that country tends to be
15 _____ English. This is one reason Scandinavians do so well: what use is Swedish outside Sweden? It may also
16 explain why Spain was the worst performer in western Europe, and why Latin America was the worst-performing
17 region: the role of Spanish as an international language in a big region dampens incentives to learn English.
18 5 Export dependency is another correlate with English. Countries that export more are better at English (though
19 it is not clear which factor causes which). Malaysia, the best English-performer in Asia, is also the sixth-most
20 export-dependent country in the world. (Singapore was too small to make the list, or it probably would have
21 ranked similarly.) This is perhaps surprising, given a recent trend _________ anti-colonial and anti-Western
22 sentiment in Malaysias politics. The authors of the study surmise that English has now been seen as a mere tool,
23 divorced in many minds from its associations with Britain and America.
24 6 Teaching plays a role, too. Starting young, while it seems a good idea, may not pay off: children between eight
25 and 12 learn foreign languages faster than younger kids, so each class hour on English is better spent _____ a 10-
26 year-old than on a six-year-old. Between 1984 and 2000, the authors say, the Netherlands and Denmark began
27 English-teaching between 10 and 12, while Spain and Italy began between eight and 11, with considerably worse
28 results. Mr Hult reckons that poor methods, particularly the rote learning he sees in Japan, can be responsible for
29 poor results despite strenuous efforts. (He would say that, as his company sells English-teaching, but it rings true.)
30 Finally, one surprising result is that China and India are next to each other (29th and 30th of 44) in the rankings,
31 despite Indias reputation as being more Anglophone. Mr Hult says that the Chinese have made a broad push for
32 English (they are "practically obsessed with it).
33 7 Still, efforts like this take _____ time to marinade through entire economies, and so may have avoided notice
34 by outsiders. India, by contrast, has long had well-known Anglophone elites, but this is a narrow slice of the
35 population in a country considerably poorer and less educated than China. English has helped India out-compete
36 China in services, while China has excelled in manufacturing. However, if China keeps up the push for English, the
37 advantage of its sub-continental neighbor may not last.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2011/04/english?fsrc=scn/fb/wl/bl/whospeaksenglish

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1) In the left-hand column, place a word from the text that matches the meanings on the right
(The paragraph has been given to help)

2 perform, do, get on

4 lessen, diminish
5 conclude, speculate, suspect
6 sound, appears to be
7 permeate, find its way

2) Choose the best preposition to fill the gaps in the text

Line 9 by / on / of Line 15 at / in / with

Line 21 toward/ for / of Line 25 (no preposition) / with / on

Line 33 in / on / (no preposition)

3) Answer the questions below, based on the text Who Speaks English?

Circle C for Correto and E for Errado

a) A country like Brazil has less chance of scoring high compared to a country like Chile in the test. C / E
b) Italian children scored better than Spanish kids due to the size of their country. C / E
c) People who took the test came from a broad spectrum of citizens within the country. C / E
d) The author believes that Mr. Hult might have a biased opinion. C / E

4) Match the words or phrases to form lexical groups

on hold some efforts methods

1) poor ___________________ 3) _________________ surprises

2) __________________ the list 4) strenuous _______________

5) Now fill in the sentences using the appropriate lexical groups (from ex. 4)

1) Illiteracy results in Africa are expected to be low, but some areas may still _________________________.

2) Some governments are making ________________________ to increase the literacy rate in urban areas.

3) Much illiteracy can be traced to _______________________________________ of teaching reading skills.

4) According to a new study Chicago ranked number 28 ______________ of "America's Most Literate Cities".