Fill in the blanks with one of the given words or its derivative. Remember that there are some extra words.

1. Many members of that minority group are leaving the country because they have been ___. 2. The government currently has a(n) ___ to convince the people to buy more domestically produced products. 3. The people will overthrow the king when they can no longer tolerate his ___. 4. Small countries often feel that they must ___ themselves with one of the major powers. 5. The government’s ___ stops at the country’s borders; it has no control over the actions of its neighbours. 6. He has lived in ___ since his act of treason was discovered. 7. Her party has to ___ her before she can officially run for that position. 8. Strong countries are sometimes accused of ___ their smaller neighbours and forcing them to go along with their decisions. 9. Those two men have quite different political ___: one believes strongly in capitalism while the other is a communist. 10. Your driver’s license may be ___ if you do not obey the traffic laws.

7. Match a word from A with its synonym in B:

8. Answer the following questions:

1. Have you ever crusaded for anything? 2. Does your country have a Prime Minister? 3. Has there ever been a period of tyranny in the history of your country? 4. Have certain groups in your country been persecuted? 5. What is the penalty for treason in your country? 6. Does the national court system in your country have jurisdiction over all crimes? 7. Which countries is your country aligned with? 8. What do you think is the best way for a child to handle a bully? 9. Under what circumstances will your driver’s license be revoked in your country?

9. Match a word with its definition:

10. Substitute an active word for the italicized one:

I.1. An outgrowth of that situation is that some members of that group have been persecuted. 2. His treasonous acts will have a variety of ramifications. 3. After that bombing incident our government severed relations with that country saying that they were to blame. 4. He was arrested for aiding and abetting a crime because he had supplied the weapons and helped plan the robbery. 5. That organization has been accused of fomenting revolution by encouraging the citizens to buy guns. 6. The church annulled their marriage because they had never actually lived together. 7. The problem was instigated by the refusal of people to stay home and indoors. 8. The government plans to nullify its decision to drop its trade barriers if imports increase too rapidly. 9. The premier has called a meeting of his top ministers today. 10. The agreement was abrogated when neither side followed its guidelines.

II.1. Our permission to hold the parade has been rescinded because the police are afraid that there will be violence. 2. It is the President’s prerogative to make foreign policy decisions initially, but eventually he must convince the people that the policies are good ones. 3. The government announced today the discovery of an intrigue to illegally sell weapons to our enemies. 4. The plot to assassinate the prime minister failed because the gunman missed and the police have arrested four men and women who were involved. 5. The treachery of several people close to the President led to the downfall of the government.

11. Write the key word for each set of words:

1. rescind annul ____

2. foment abet ____

3. intrigue plot ____

4. nullify abrogate ____

5. ramification outgrowth ____

6. abet instigate ____

12. Circle the word that is least related in meaning:

1. abrogate abet rescind

2. subvert foment instigate

3. ramification outgrowth prerogative

4. treachery intrigue plot

5. sever cut abrogate

6. nullify foment annul

7. premier president prime minister

13. State whether the sentences are true or false:

1. You have a prerogative to do things which are against the law. 2. The people involved in a plot planned to do something. 3. The subversion of a government will cause it to gain power. 4. A government usually punishes people who have committed treachery. 5. Driving too fast is one outgrowth of traffic accidents. 6. Abetting a criminal is a crime.

14. Give the key word instead of the italicized one:

1. Their attempt to subvert the administration failed. 2. It is the accused man prerogative to consult a lawyer. 3. Those two countries have severed relations. 4. Their treachery will not be forgotten. 5. The premier was assassinated last year. 6. The ramifications of this problem are not yet known. 7. The law passed last year was nullified last month. 8. She was accused of fomenting revolution. 9. He was involved in an intrigue to subvert the government. 10. If she instigates any more trouble, she will be exiled.

15. Answer the following questions:

1. Think about one of your government’s policies. What are some of its ramifications. 2. Has your government abrogated any of its laws? 3. Have there been any famous intrigues in the history of your country? 4. Have there been any cases of treachery in your country? 6. Has your country recently severed ties with any other country? 7. Does your country have a premier? 8. Are marriages ever annulled in your country?

16. Read and translate the text:

Defining democracy

Government of the people democracy may be a word familiar to most, but it is a concept still misunderstood and misused in a time when totalitarian regimes and military dictatorships alike have attempted to claim popular support by pinning democratic labels upon themselves. Yet the power of the democratic idea has also evoked some of history’s most profound and moving expressions of human will and intellect: from Pericles in ancient Athens to Vaclav Havel in modern Czechoslovakia, from Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence in 1776 to Andrei Sakharov’s last speeches in 1989.

In the dictionary definition, democracy “is government by the people in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system” In the phrase of Abraham Lincoln, democracy is a government “of the people, by the people and for the people.”

Freedom and democracy are often used interchangeably, but the two are not synonymous. Democracy is indeed a set of ideas and principles about freedom, but it also consists of a set of practices and procedures that have been molded through a long, often tortuous history. In short, democracy is institutionalization of freedom. For this reason, it is possible to identify the time-tested fundamentals of constitutional government, human rights and equality before the law that any society must possess to be properly called democratic.

Democracies fall into two basic categories, direct and representative. In a direct democracy, all citizens, without the intermediary of elected or appointed officials, can participate in making public decisions. Such a system is clearly only practical with relatively small numbers of people – in a community organization or tribal council, for example, or the local unit of a labour union, where members can meet in a single room to discuss issues and arrive at decisions by consensus or majority vote. Ancient Athens, the world’s first democracy, managed to practice direct democracy with an assembly that may have numbered as many as 5,000 to 6,000 persons – perhaps the maximum number that can physically gather in one place and practice direct democracy.

Modern society with its size and complexity, offers few opportunities for direct democracy. Even in the Northeastern United States, where the New England town meeting is a hallowed tradition, most communities have grown too large for all the residents to gather in a single location and vote directly on issues that affect their lives.

Today, the most common form of democracy, whether for a town of 50,000 or nations of 50 million, is representative democracy, in which citizens elect officials to make political decisions, formulate laws and administer programs for the public good. In the name of the people, such officials can deliberate on complex public issues in a thoughtful and systematic manner that requires an investment of time and energy which is often impractical for the vast majority of private citizens.

How such officials are elected can vary enormously. On the national level, for example, legislators can be chosen from districts that each elect a single representative. Alternatively, under a system of proportional representation, each political party is represented in the legislature according to its percentage of the total vote nationwide. Provincial and local elections can mirror these national models, or choose their representatives more informally through group consensus instead of elections. Whatever the method used, public officials in a representative democracy hold office in the name of the people and remain accountable to the people for their actions.

17. Read the text. Make up 10 questions using topical vocabulary: