Przykładowe Materiały Egzaminacyjne JĘzyk angielski poziom 3 Czytanie
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The Cruise Missile ThreatPentagon acquisition chief Jacques Gansler got it right in late July when he directed the U.S. Navy to reassess its defenses against cruise missiles. This class of weapons is pervasive, dangerous and much more likely to be used than the ballistic missiles that attract so much public attention. Cruise missiles are already in the hands of more than 70 nations. As their numbers increase, they are becoming more sophisticated and more difficult to defend against. The Navy, forced to deal with limited resources and a variety of defense priorities, has cut its funding for some missile defense hardware. Mr. Gansler appears to hold reservations about the Navy’s ability to deal with the more than 80 types of cruise missiles in the world’s arsenals, some fitted with advanced target seekers and stealthy designs. His directive to the Navy asks for a re-valuation of whether the service’s operational assumptions “reflect the reality of fleet operations.” The assessment is essential. Vice Adm. Art Cebrowski, president of the Naval War College, recently noted “the emerging preferred way to kill a ship is with missiles. That is indeed significant.” Indeed.
Text 16 Howdy President PutinThe 610 residents of the Texas town of Crawford greeted President Putin warmly. It was a clear signal that it's not only Bush and Putin who are forging a new relationship; something is stirring at the grassroots level as well. There's no doubt who started that something. After September 11, both Putin and Bush proclaimed a new era in U.S.- Russian relations, ignoring or overriding the skeptics at home. And they continued to do so last week. Although they failed to hammer out a deal on missile defense, the two leaders couldn't praise each other enough. Such behaviour is changing not just the tone of the bilateral relationship but the way Americans and Russians see each other. It is a case of a warm and fuzzy glow at the top working its way downward. According to a CBS News poll last week, 25 percent of Americans now consider Russia an ally, and 55 percent consider it friendly. By contrast, 58 percent held an unfavorable opinion of Russia in a l999 poll. Russia has registered a similar trend. Most Russians viewed the United States as an "unfriendly power" before September 11, and a subsequent poll by the Public Opinion Foundation showed that a sizable minority-46 percent –continue to believe this. But 14 percent consider the United States an ally, putting it in first place on a list that it didn't even appear on two years ago. And 69 percent now favor closer relations with Washington. Alexander Oslon, the president of the Public Opinion Foundation, which works mainly for the Kremlin, attributes these reversals to much more than Putin's policies. What angered many Russians was the sense that Americans had emerged in the aftermath of the cold war as the sole super power and often seemed to write Russia off altogether. Now the perception is that the United States is no longer invulnerable, and no longer as prone to unilateralism. "America looks a lot weaker than it seemed, " says Oslon. "That means that the mental distance between us has decreased.” And that Russians feel important again, which is exactly what Bush had in mind when he pronounced Putin "very trustworthy" at his first meeting with the Russian president in Slovenia last June.
Text 17 Drugs What DrugsWhile looking for Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters, American special forces in Afghanistan routinely come across something they're not looking for: evidence of a thriving Afghan drug trade. But according to antinarcotics experts, they're not doing anything about it. Several Kabul diplomats familiar with U.S. military operations say that while carrying out searches in eastern and southern Afghanistan – opium-growing areas that are also Taliban strongholds – U.S. soldiers have found hidden caches of narcotics, crude heroin-processing labs and convoys racing across the desert with bundles of hashish and opium, headed for Europe and Central Asia. “If these drug convoys have any connection with terrorists, special forces will move in,” says one Western diplomat. “Otherwise, the attitude is: Hey, it's not our problem.” Antinarcotics experts in Kabul say the U.S. is making a mistake by ignoring the Afghan drug smugglers. Moving against them would hurt the terrorists, they argue, since both use the same underground pipeline to move cash, guns and fugitives across borders. “I’m positive that the Taliban are heavily involved in drug trafficking,” says Wais Yasini, counternarcotics adviser to Afghan President Hamid Karzai. “How else do you account for their money?” This year, after a bumper crop of opium poppies, say United Nations officials, Afghanistan became the world’s largest heroin producer, with an estimated $1.2 billion in profits. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said, “I don’t want the already overstretched 8,000 U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan to be sidetracked from their main goal: to capture and kill terrorists.” And diplomats say that many of the local commanders, whom the U.S. military relies on for intelligence on al-Qaeda and the Taliban, are mixed up in the business.
Text 18 Burma Feels the PressureBurma’s military dictators have shrugged off outrage from the West since they jailed democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi two months ago, but might find it harder to dismiss criticism from near neighbors. Early last week, Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad suggested expelling Burma from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) if the Nobel peace laureate isn't freed. It was Mahathir who - despite protest from Suu Kyi and the West - insisted on Burma's inclusion in ASEAN in 1997. But the frustrated PM - no champion of democracy - says the junta's continued obstinacy “has affected ASEAN'S international standing.” Mahathir's comments were echoed by Philippine Foreign Minister Blas Ople at a meeting last week of Asian and European foreign ministers in Bali. Burma already faces possible U.S. sanctions, and Japan has cut economic aid, but expulsion from ASEAN - which is sending delegates to Rangoon to press for Suu Kyi's release - would carry graver diplomatic and economic consequences. The group is virtually Burma's only link to the outside, and membership lends the junta legitimacy. The regime's release of 91 political prisoners might be too little to maintain that link.
Text 19 New Life for Sea Kings in India India has established a facility to repair the Navy's Sea King helicopters, grounded because of age and unavailability of spare parts. In March India's state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. began developing the repair facility in Bangalore, in technical collaboration with Agusta Westland Helicopters at a cost of $15 million. The facility is expected to be functional by the year's end. Most of the 43 anti-submarine warfare Sea Kings purchased from the U.K company Westland Helicopters about 20 years ago had to be grounded. Spare parts were unavailable following U.S. sanctions in 1999, which were lifted in September 2001. At present, the grounded helicopters need gear boxes, rotor systems, transmission systems, sonars and avionics gear. Details of the technology transfer agreement with Agusta Westland were not provided but are expected shortly. A Navy official said current efforts include the repair of only seven Sea Kings in Bangalore, while the Navy plans to replace 14 of the helicopters with another anti-submarine warfare helicopter. However, James Mohanty, the spokesman for the Agusta Westland, said that the Bangalore facility would be capable of restoring the entire Sea King fleet. Mohanty said the facility may also be used to overhaul the additional anti-submarine warfare helicopters the Navy intends to procure to replace 14 Sea Kings. The ineffectiveness of the Sea King fleet has severely crippled the Navy's offshore surveillance capability. An Indian Defence Ministry official said the ability to overhaul the Sea Kings is vital in view of Pakistan's acquisition of French-made Agusta submarines and because of the heightened presence of China's submarine force in the Indian Ocean region.
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