9.Vocabulary

10. Written translation

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Стратегические ядерные силы - снова в действии

В Вооруженных силах состоялась плановая стратегическая командно-штабная тренировка. Со­гласно Договору о начале мероприятий было по­ставлено в известность военное ведомство США. 17 февраля тренировка вступила в свою активную фазу и за­вершилась 18 числа запуском с космодрома Плесецк ра­кеты-носителя «Молния-М» с военным спутником серии «Космос». Основная цель тренировки - практическое обучение органов управления Стратегических ядерных сил и Сил общего назначения. Планируется также освоение новых способов применения различных видов вооружений, в том числе ядерных.

Воинские формирования шести военных округов, за­действованные в тренировке, были минимизированы по количественному составу, зато охвачена практически вся территория страны. Помимо нескольких учебных пусков межконтинентальных баллистических ракет наземного ба­зирования, за которые отвечали Ракетные войска стратеги­ческого назначения, был произведен запуск и с одной из атомных субмарин Северного флота из подводного поло­жения. В стратегической командно-штабной тренировке участвовали Космические войска и страте­гические бомбардировщики ВВС. Особенность тренировки состояла в том, что она прово­дилась с учетом серьезных изменений в мире, военных и иных угроз. В ходе ее проверялись научные разработки и вы­воды, направленные на создание перспективных стратегиче­ских сил и систем, способных обеспечить адекватные меры против действий существующих систем ПРО.

11. Prepared sight translation

Even the Queen is feeling the crunch as Royal bill soars £2m

1. The roofs will need work, some rewiring is badly needed — and then there is the asbestos problem.

The Queen is facing a maintenance backlog which she can’t afford at a time when the cost of keeping the Royal Family rose by £2 million last year to a total of £40 million. A packed itinery of expensive foreign trips pushed travel costs alone beyond the £6.2 million mark, but Palace officials admit that the Queen still could not afford to redecorate. Publishing the Royal Household’s annual financial report yesterday, Sir Alan Reid, Keeper of the Privy Purse, gave warning of a £32 million black hole in funding. The budget for maintaining Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and other royal buildings has been frozen by the Treasury for the next three years, leaving officials unable to carry out asbestos removal, rewiring and reroofing work that they say is badly needed.

2.The royal accounts showed that not even the Head of State is immune from the pressure of the credit crunch, with Royal Household costs rising at almost twice the rate of inflation, reversing years of real-term falls. Answering criticism that the Royal Family does not represent value for money, the Queen’s financial chiefs described the cost of the monarchy — 66p per person in Britain — as less than the price of two pints of milk or a download for an MP3 player. However, the £40 million quoted in accounts does not include the cost of security provided by the police and Army and the ceremonial duties performed by the Armed Forces. Some critics argue that the true bill to the taxpayer could be £150 million a year.

To predict quakes, listen to the animals.

1.TANGSHAN, China - Well before this city was destroyed by an earthquake 32 years ago, the coming disaster was loudly preceded by strange animal behaviour and other bizarre signals that survivors wish they heeded. "The animals were trying to tell us something. If only we knew that, not so many people would have died," said one of the survivors whose wife was among the estimated 240,000 who perished in Tangshan's quake on July 28, 1976. Chinese media reports and Internet blogs have buzzed with reports of mass migrations of thousands of frogs and toads near the quake region in Sichuan province just before the May 12, 2008 disaster, which left more than 80,000 people dead or missing. There is little dispute among scientists that animals can predict earthquakes, possibly through sensitivity to pressure waves. Dogs erupted in wild howling and barking hours before the quake. Mice and snakes skittered around crazily in the open. Horses and cows kicked at their stable walls.

2. Yet there are many other strange precursors whose utility in forecasting remains unexplored. Water levels in wells plunged in the weeks before, only to rise sharply in the hours preceding the quake, with many overflowing. Even people behaved strangely becoming irritable, confused and belligerent. The bad tempers were blamed on a sudden heat wave, strangely unforeseen by weather forecasts. Temperature rises have been reported in quakes around the world, with some scientists suspecting geothermal forces. The same goes for mysterious brilliant lights seen in skies before large earthquakes since ancient times. Dubbed "earthquake lights", some scientists believe they may be the products of a traumatised mind, while geologists suggest a link to electromagnetic forces from deep underground. Yet animal behaviour is widely believed to hold the most promise in forecasting. Eventually, studies of animal behaviour could lead to better and more sophisticated sensors for use in short-term prediction.

UNIT 7