Homework for Monday March 15th 2021

Reading Comprehension 2

Interpol

Interpol, byname of International Criminal Police Organization, is an intergovernmental

organization that facilitates cooperation between the criminal police forces of more than 180
countries. Interpol aims to promote the widest-possible mutual assistance between criminal
police forces and to establish and develop institutions likely to contribute to the prevention and
suppression of international crime. Headquartered in Lyon, France, it is the only police
organization that spans the entire globe.

Interpol concentrates on three broad categories of international criminal activity: terrorism

and crimes against people and property, including crimes against children, trafficking in human
beings, illegal immigration, automobile theft, and art theft; economic, financial, and computer
crimes, and illegal drugs and criminal organizations, including organized crime.

Interpol’s day-to-day operation is governed by a General Secretariat under the direction of a

secretary general, who is appointed for a five-year term by the General Assembly; the General
Assembly, consisting of one delegate from each member country, which is Interpol’s supreme
decision-making body; and an Executive Committee of 13 members, each representing a
different region of the world, which is appointed by the General Assembly at its annual meeting.

Interpol relies on an extensive telecommunications system and a unique database of

international police intelligence. Each year, Interpol’s telecommunications staff handles millions
of messages in the organization’s four official languages: Arabic, English, French, and Spanish.

In contrast to the image occasionally conveyed on television and in the movies, Interpol agents
do not make arrests, a practice that would unacceptably infringe on the national
sovereignty of member countries. Instead, the organization sends out “red notices,” based on
warrants issued by member countries, calling for the arrest and extradition of specific
individuals. Interpol also issues other “coloured” notices: yellow to help locate missing persons,
blue to collect information on illegal activities or on an individual’s identity, black to request
information needed to identify a body, green to warn agencies about criminals from one country
who may commit additional offenses in other countries, and orange to warn law-enforcement
agencies of dangers from bombs and other weapons.

Interpol traces its history to 1914, when a congress of international criminal police, attended by
delegates from 14 countries, was held in Monaco. In 1923, following a significant increase in
international crime that particularly affected Austria, representatives of the criminal police
forces of 20 countries met in Vienna and formed the International Criminal Police Commission
(ICPC) that year. The ICPC’s headquarters were established in Vienna, and the head of the
Vienna police, Johann Schober, became the organization’s first president. The ICPC flourished
until 1938, when Nazi Germany annexed Austria; the ICPC’s records were subsequently
relocated to Berlin. The outbreak of World War II effectively ended the ICPC’s activities.

After the war the ICPC transferred its headquarters to Paris. The ICPC was thus revived, though
the loss or destruction of all its pre-war records required that it be completely reorganized. In
1949 the ICPC was granted consultative status by the United Nations. From 1946 to 1955 its
membership grew from 19 countries to 55. In 1956 the ICPC ratified a new constitution, under
which it was renamed the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol). The
organization moved to its present headquarters in Lyon in 1989.
1. In your own words, say what Interpol’s purpose is.
2. How many governing bodies does Interpol have and what are they?

3. Explain the phrase: “a practice that would unacceptably infringe on the national
sovereignty of member countries.” (Paragraph 5)
4. What prompted the creation of Interpol in 1923?

5. Was there a smooth revival for the ICPC after World War II?

6. Look up the words and expressions in bold and underlined and write down the various
definitions, Italian translations and synonyms (where possible) in your vocabulary notebook,
highlighting the most suitable to the context.

Homework for Tuesday March 16th 2021

Translation 3

'One Belt, One Road'

Si chiama 'One Belt, One Road' il progetto cinese di una nuova Via della Seta destinata a
collegare l'Asia all'Europa e all'Africa, ma soprattutto a ridisegnare gli equilibri economici e
geopolitici mondiali.

It is called “One Belt, One Road” the Chinese project about a new Silk Road meant to link Asia to
Europe and Africa, but overall to redesign the economical and geopolitical global balances.

E' una rete di collegamenti infrastrutturali divisa in due parti : una continentale, dalla parte
occidentale della Cina all'Europa del Nord attraverso l'Asia Centrale e il Medio Oriente, ed
un'altra marittima tra le coste della Cina ed il Mediterraneo.

It is a network of infrastructural links divided in two parts: a continental one, from the
occidental side of China to North Europe, through Central Asia and Middle East, and a maritime
one among China and Mediterranean costs.

Il piano, annunciato nel 2013 dal presidente cinese Xi Jinping e spiegato dal primo ministro Li
Keqiang nel corso di diversi viaggi in Europa e in Asia, punta a coinvolgere 65 Paesi che
raccolgono circa il 65% della popolazione mondiale e il 40% del Pil.

The plan, announces in 2013 by Chinese president Xi Jinping and explained by the Prime
Minister Li Keqiang during various trips around Europe and Asia, aims to engage 65 countries
which collect approximately 65% of the global population and 40% of GDP.

La sua realizzazione avrebbe un costo di almeno 900 miliardi di dollari, una cifra enorme che
neanche la Cina può gestire da sola. Nel 2014 Pechino ha lanciato il Silk Road Fund, un fondo da
40 miliardi volto ad attrarre investimenti esteri.

Its realization would have a cost of at least 900 billion dollars, a huge sum that not even China
can manage by itself. In 2014 Beijing has launched the Silk Road Fund, a 40 billion dollars fund
to attract foreign investments.

Altri 100 miliardi di dollari verrebbero dalla Banca Asiatica d'investimento per le infrastrutture,
una banca di sviluppo alla quale partecipano vari Paesi europei. Una rete che potrebbe ora
facilmente allargarsi e rendere possibile uno dei più grandi investimenti infrastrutturali di
sempre.

Another 100 billion dollars would come from the Asian investment Bank for infrastructure, a
development bank to which various European countries take part. A network that could now
easily expand and make possible one of the biggest infrastructural investment ever.