I. Answer the following questions to check how carefully you have read the text.

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 383.

COMPREHENSION CHECK

ACTIVE VOCABULARY

1. a chaotic period of incessant warfare
2. to emerge as one of the founding republics of the Soviet Union
3. a period of transition to a market economy
4. the economy experienced a high increase in GDP growth
5. to catch up in the worldwide economic crisis
6. to house the Russian Black Sea Fleet under a leasing agreement
7. sizable minorities
8. to convert the Kievan nobility and most of the population to Christianity
9. to be annexed by Poland and Lithuania
10. to impose terror campaigns to ravage the intellectual class
11. to create artificial famines as part of his forced collectivization policies
12. horrific Nazi massacres of Ukrainian Jews and ethnic Ukrainians
13. initial efforts to conceal the extent of the catastrophe
14. a founding member of the Commonwealth of Independent States
15. to experience deeper economic slowdown
16. to enjoy steady real economic growth averaging about seven percent annually
17. to be criticized for electoral fraud and concentrating too much of power in his office
18. to challenge the outcome of the elections
19. to become Prime Minister in the Alliance of National Unity until snap elections
20. to stop all gas supplies and to lead to gas shortages

1.What does Ukraine's modern history begin with?

2.Under what circumstances did Ukraine become independent?

3.What was the role of the first identifiable groups to populate the territory of Ukraine?

4.Why did Ukrainian peasants come to be known as Cossacks?

5.What crucial historic events took place on the territory of Ukraine between the 14-th and the 19-th centuries?

6. What terror campaigns did Stalin impose on the territory of Ukraine in 1932-33 period ?

7.What are the characteristic features of the period of the Nazis invasion?

8.What were the pre-conditions of the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union and the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States?

9. How can you characterize the period under the President Leonid Kuchma?

10. What lead to gas shortages in several European countries in 2006 and 2009?

II. What do these letters stand for? Give situations where they are used in the text.