A. Provide synonyms used in the text for the following words

a) to tie

b) gentle, harmless, favourable

c) collapse, downturn

d) to outrun, to surpass.

B. Could you paraphrase the following expressions?

a) to send shockwaves around the continent

b) Britain crashed out of the ERM

c) doomed effort

d) well capitalised, risk-taking traders.

Text 3. 1992: UK crashes out of ERM

The government has suspended Britain's membership of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. The UK's prime minister and chancellor tried all day to prop up a failing pound and withdrawal from the monetary system the country joined two years ago was the last resort. Chancellor Norman Lamont raised interest rates from 10% to 12%, then to 15%, and authorised the spending of billions of pounds to buy up the sterling being frantically sold on the currency markets.

But the measures failed to prevent the pound falling lower than its minimum level in the ERM. The second rise in the interest rate was reversed by the beleaguered chancellor soon after the withdrawal from the ERM, setting it at 12%.

The move is a dramatic U-turn in government policy, as only last week Prime Minister John Major reaffirmed the government's commitment to remaining within the mechanism.

Mr Lamont admitted it had been an extremely difficult and turbulent day, but a Downing Street spokesman said he would not resign.

The shadow chancellor, Gordon Brown, said colossal errors of judgement by the prime minister and chancellor had betrayed the British people. Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown said the government's policy had failed. "They have lost control of the economic situation," he told the BBC.

We are in a state of political shambles