Suggested activities

i Find the answers in the text and write them down:

1 What did American officials discover on a Colombian Air Force plane in Florida on 9 November?.............

.............................................................................................................................................................................

2 What did it result in?.......................................................................................................................................

3 What law was introduced to combat drug trafficking in Colombia?..............................................................

4 What are the weak points of the law?.............................................................................................................

5 What do Colombians think about American involvement?.........................................................................

j Use your imagination and describe:

• how a DEA agent was killed in Colombia

• what newspapers wrote about that

• what conclusion the author of this article makes about American involvement

k Write down your own title of this article and say why you like it.

l Have a look at the picture and answer the following questions:

One last drag

1 Who do you think this young man is?

2 Do you believe he is really making the last drag?

3 Are many young people becoming drug addicts in all the countries of the world?

4 Is it easy to give up smoking, inhaling or having drugs, according to professional doctors?

5 Do you know the names of famous people who managed to give up drugs taking?

6 Is drugs taking illegal in all the countries?

7 Is drugs trafficking illegal in all the contries?

8 What do anti-drugs law adopted in Russia say?

Part E. Consumers and Law in the USA

Section 1: Consumer Fraud

Section 2: Frequently Asked Questions

Section 1: Consumer Fraud

Pre-reading question:

What do you remember about fraud in Europe as was described in Part В (Section 1) of this book?

Skim and scan:

Read the text quickly and answer the following question:

Is fraud described here similar to that shown in Part B?

Text 1

Fraud costs North American consumers billions of dollars per year. The act of deceiving unsuspecting consumers can be easily committed, difficult to prosecute and very profitable for the criminals. Whether the financial loss is large or small, no one likes to be swindled or conned. The unwary can be easy marks for criminals, unaware that they have been defrauded or too ashamed to admit it when they discover that they are a victim of fraud.

The best way to reduce fraud is through increased awareness. The greatest enemy to the perpetrator of fraud is the informed consumer. Fraud can take many different forms, as the only limit to the con artists is their creativity and imagination. The following descriptions do not provide an exhaustive list of fraudulent practices, but serve to provide an indication of some of the more common consumer fraud schemes.