According to the text, mark these statements T (true) or F (false).

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 579.

Understanding Expressions: give the best explanation for each of these phrases used in the text.

B. Reading for Details

Read the text again to understand details and try the following tasks.

Industrial base; sustained high gear; to purify land; to be an embryo (about tourism); natural ecosystem; to be in abundance; to be abandoned; World Heritage List; to have a devastating effect on smth.; energy intensity; financial aid; to absorb the bulk of the fallout; to account for; novel textile; improved hygienic property; to have capacity.

1. During the Soviet era, agriculture in Belarus consisted mainly of state and collective farms, now it is transformed into joint-stock companies and family plots.

2. In terms of GDP growth rate Belarus lags behind neighboring Poland, Latvia and Lithuania.

3. Tourism and ecotourism have always been key industries in Belarus.

4. The tariff system in Belarus is totally independent of the budget sector.

5. Belarus inherited one of the highest standards of living in the former Soviet Union (FSU).

6. Much attention is given to reengineering of the industries engaged in processing of agricultural products and building up the export potential of the agricultural sector.

7. Belarusian raw materials remain the main export going mostly to the Russian Federation, the country's main trading partner.

8. Peat used in the chemical industry is imported from neighboring Poland.

9. Former Soviet republics export Belarusian milk, meat, eggs, potatoes, etc.

10. Commercial banks in Belarus distribute state financial resources and fulfill mostly technical functions.