How about some reading in English?

From this week on we will work on articles from renowned British or American newspapers, magazines and websites which deal with the current state of events in the world. I will paste parts of the original content (whilst quoting the source, of course) and add some additional activities for you to practice new vocabulary and check whether you’ve actually understand the text. This articles are dedicated to those of you who are at least as the B2 (upper-intermediate level) but I will try to include some easier articles for the lower levels too.  We begin this section with an article from my favourite Comment is Free section of the Guardian, where you can find letters and articles from readers about current affairs. The topic of the first article is very important for all of us, since we hear about the crisis and austerity measures all the time. Many people from around Europe are not happy with the situations so they decided to show their discontent in anti-austerity protests. Is the situation similar in Poland or we are still doing fine…it’s up to you to answer that one for yourselves.

·         TheRoot of Europe’s Riots - Ha-Joon Chang

·         The Guardian, Friday 28 September 2012

 Throughout the 1980s and 90s, when many developing countries were in crisis and borrowing money from the International Monetary Fund, waves of protests in those countries became known as the "IMF riots". They were so called because they were sparked by the fund's structural adjustment programmes, which imposed austerity, privatisation and deregulation.

The IMF complained that calling these riots thus was unfair, as it had not caused the crises and was only prescribing a medicine, but this was largely self-serving. Many of the crises had actually been caused by the asset bubbles built up following IMF-recommended financial deregulation. Moreover, those rioters were not just expressing general discontent but reacting against the austerity measures that directly threatened their livelihoods, such as cuts in subsidies to basic commodities such as food and water, and cuts in already meagre welfare payments.

ex. 1 Match the word to the definition
(by making this exercise I was also forced to do some thorough HTML table making revision as well :-)

word	Definition
1.Spark	a.because
2.Adjustment	b.a situation in the market when the prices are much higher than the values of the products sold
3. Austerity	c.Start a fire or explosion. To make something happen, especially involving violence and angry feelings.
4.Thus	d. dissatisfaction.
5.  As	e. A change that makes somebody better, more productive etc.
6. Self-serving	f. An economic policy by which a government reduces the amount of money it spends by large amount
7.Discontent	g. As a result of the fact you have just mentioned
8. Livelihood	h. The money government pays to reduce the price of a product
9. Asset Bubble	i. Basic things necessary for comfortable life
10. Commodities	j. Smaller or less than you need
11. Subsidies	k. Your source of income, f.e your job
12. Meagre	l Benefiting the people that are doing it

Key: 1c, 2e, 3f, 4g, 5a, 6l, 7d, 8k, 9b, 10i, 11h, 12j (some definitions are courtesy of the MacMillan dictionary, check it out here)

Questions:

1.    What were the “IMF monetary riots”?

2.    Why did the IMF complain of the name of the riots?

3.    What was the real cause of the riots?

4.    What were the rioters unhappy about?

You are free to write down the answers in the comments below or send them to me in an e-mail at biuro@soft-skills.pl  for evaluation.