Przykładowe Materiały Egzaminacyjne JĘzyk angielski poziom 3 Czytanie
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Text 4Record Numbers Desert the Army The Army has been hit by an unprecedented wave of absenteeism and desertion. Senior officers and defence experts say the huge numbers of soldiers going absent without leave (Awol) threatens a crisis that could jeopardise the ability of Britain's armed forces to fulfil their combat and peacekeeping missions. The Army is already stretched by heavy commitments overseas and has suffered acute recruitment problems. Most of the Awols are among the junior ranks of infantry regiments – the lowest paid and least motivated units in the army. Such soldiers however are indispensable, even on today’s hi-tech battlefield. Many incidents have been high profile embarrassment for the MoD and have stymied their recruitment campaign. According to Brigadier Sebastian Roberts, the Army's director of corporate communications many servicemen went Awol when they felt there were family situations that demanded their attention. 'Unfortunately they don't go to their commanding officers, but take matters into their own hands.' But experts say the problem will remain chronic until fundamental issues are addressed. 'The underlying reason for desertion is almost always the treatment meted out to soldiers,' said Robert Peterson, a – lawyer specialising in military offences. Of the 200 cases involving Awols that Peterson has handled in the past two years all but a handful have involved physical and psychological trauma caused by superior ranks or peers. 'I have only seen one lad who genuinely just couldn’t hack the physical demands of army life. The Army has been forced to pay out substantial sums in compensation. Earlier this year, the courts awarded £60,000 to a serviceman who had needed hospitalisation after being beaten by fellow soldiers while on active service in the former Yugoslavia. Scores of other such cases are pending. If they are successful, the MoD could be forced to pay out millions. Academics say that like all 'closed societies' the Army will find it hard to change. They cite senior soldiers' reactions to anything that smacks of 'political correctness' as evidence of the armed forces' institutional conservatism.
Text 5 NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense are negotiating new rules that will govern who can have access to data produced during a 1999 space shuttle Endeavor mission to map the majority of the Earth's surface, according to a NASA scientist. "We agreed with the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) to take a look around and make sure we were not publishing something that could be used by evildoers," said Michael Kobrick, a project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "We have given NASA and NIMA more time to work out the distribution details." Kobrick acknowledged that the negotiations between NASA and NIMA have not been the only problem delaying release of data from the mission. "Our original thinking was that we would be done by the end of 2001," Kobrick said. "But it turned out that calibrating and verifying the data was trickier than we thought. That work is proceeding, but it's a slow process. “Data will be released incrementally throughout 2002, he said. NASA released some data in late January, but the work will not be completed until the end of the year, Kobrick added. Two different sets of topographic maps are being developed, Kobrick said. A set with 30-meter accuracy will be made for military use, such as providing more accurate terrain data for cruise missiles and better navigation data for pilots. A second set of data, with 90-meter accuracy, will be developed from that set for non-military users such as scientists, emergency relief planners and commercial pilots. The 90-meter data will be available publicly through the U.S. archive at the Earth Resources Observation Systems Data Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Text 6France Aims To Boost Use of Helios Spy SatelliteFrench defense authorities are preparing to loosen the classification restrictions on Helios spy-satellite imagery to widen the distribution of those images among tactical French defense forces and France's European allies. They are also considering slashing the price of Helios imagery sold to the European Union's satellite center outside Madrid. The center, which compiles images to verify treaties and monitor refugee movements and troop concentrations, has been purchasing more imagery from the U.S. commercial satellite Ikonos than Helios pictures, according to the center's former director. Addressing a Feb. 13 symposium here at France's military academy, Gen. Bernard Molard, a former director of the center, said the systematic classification of Helios imagery and its high price to European allied governments have kept under wraps a program that should be a showcase of European know-how. "Why has there been such silence? No one knows," Molard said. "It is not surprising that we have difficulty persuading our political leaders to continue the space-based reconnaissance effort when most people are not even aware of its success." Gen. Gavoty, French MoD’s official, said that, after consulting with space-hardware manufacturers, he had reached preliminary estimates of what it would cost for Europe to begin to build a broad military-space capacity. According to his figures, it would cost about 750 million euros per year over 11-12 years for the satellites and their related launch vehicles. "That is about one-third of what European governments spend each year on the European Space Agency," Gavoty said. "I am showing these figures to make the point that, if there is a real demand for a military space capability in Europe, the money is there."
Text 7 Germany may delay its decision to help develop the Meteor medium-range air-to-air missile, which could throw the six-nation program into disarray. Defense Ministry officials here say they have not received enough technical data from the partner nations to make a decision. Lawmakers say they may not fund the effort. Five of the partners (United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden) signed a memorandum of understanding last summer, but German officials said – in a surprise move – that the country would not join until contract details were fully negotiated. Still, the partners had hoped for the final signature by April. But with the approach of the parliamentary summer recess and the September elections, a final signature is unlikely before the year's end. But lawmakers' schedules are not the only barrier to German participation. As Germany's military struggles to make do with a 3.5-billion-euro procurement budget, Meteor's technical troubles could make the radar-guided missile an easy target for cuts, the parliamentary source said. "This is something that Europe has never done before, and it bears a significant risk," he said. "What happens if we produce a multibillion-euro missile that might not work properly in the end? Perhaps we should trust our U.S. partners in this case and buy some of their products instead." The lead firm in the industry team professed astonishment. "We are very surprised by this statement because we understand from the discussions to date and from public statements made by the German parliamentary defence committee that Germany is committed to Meteor," said MBDA spokeswoman Carol Reed in London. "We feel we have all the elements ready for a decision, and contract, to be made this year. This program is extremely important to MBDA and to Europe's air forces as well as to Germany's own defense industry, especially with regard to the ramjet technology from Bayern Chemie."
Text 8Singapore's armed forces are seeking U.S. government permission to bring home their U.S.-based Apache attack helicopters equipped with the Longbow radar in 2006, two years earlier than originally agreed, according to military officials from both nations. A Singapore Air Force official confirmed that Singaporean military services want the copters and their trained pilots in-country far sooner than planned. U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Tome Waiters, head of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, the Pentagon organization responsible for Foreign Military Sales, said, "the United States has a policy of not being the first to introduce certain weapon systems into a region, and the Apache Longbow falls into this category." The first of Singapore's Apaches is scheduled for delivery in April. The Singaporean aircraft will remain for a period of time at a U.S. Army National Guard base in Marana, Ariz., home of an Apache training unit. They will join other Singaporean aircraft detachments in the United States. With large neighbours to the south and north of this small but wealthy city-state, there is little airspace for military pilots to train realistically. Therefore, Singapore has an agreement with the Pentagon to base tactical aircraft detachments in the United States. These include KC-135 refuelling aircraft, F-16 fighters and Chinook cargo helicopters, which are located at various bases in the United States. In return, Singapore allows the U.S. military to use military facilities in Singapore, including the Changi naval base. All of the Apache helicopters are expected to eventually return to Singapore. And the Longbow radar maker, Northrop Grumman Electronic Sensors and Systems Sector, Baltimore, Md., hopes that all 20 aircraft will be equipped with the fire control radar. Northrop Grumman is facing a potential break in its Longbow production line in 2004 unless new orders are placed by this summer, to meet the company’s 18-month-long lead time for supply of parts. The U.S. Army’s current multiyear procurement ends in December 2003.
Text 9 Directory: plik -> file -> Do pobrania - Mat. Egzaminacyjne -> Angielski Angielski -> Two texts. For questions 1 to 6 plik -> March 4th-8th 2000; ustroń, poland Download 1.02 Mb. Share with your friends:
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