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Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2006

Taken from the Magazinesection in www.onestopenglish.com

Fill the gaps using these words from the text:

embezzlement nepotism abysmal barred incompetent

bribe decline zealot demolish corrupt

1. If something is in ____________ , it is suffering from a reduction inquality.

2. If a person is ____________, they do illegal or dishonest things to gainmoney or power.

3. ____________ is the practice of using your power and influence to givejobs to members of your family.

4. Prohibited and banned are other words for ____________ .5. A ____________ is someone who believes they can do whatever they

want to help their religious ideas to succeed.6. ____________ is the practice of stealing money from your employer.

7. If something is ____________ , it is extremely bad or low in quality.8. If you ____________ something, you destroy it completely.9. An ____________ person is one who lacks the ability to do something

correctly.10. If you ____________ someone, you give them money so they will help

you by doing something dishonest or illegal.

Choose the best answer for each question. Then look in the text and

check your answers.

1. What is the capital of Afghanistan?a. Islamabad b. Kabul c. Kandahar

2. Which country occupied Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989?a. The USA b. Iran c. The Soviet Union

3. Who took control of Afghanistan in 1990?a. The USA b. The Taliban c. Iran

4. When did the USA invade Afghanistan?a. 2001 b. 2000 c. 1999

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5. Ariana is the national airline of:a. Pakistan b. Slovenia c. Afghanistan

Its four o'clock in the afternoon and a hundreds of employees are leaving theheadquarters of Ariana, Afghanistan's national airline. In the boardroom, onestays behind. Dr Muhammad Atash, a man with a kind but worried face, sits inhis chair and rubs his eyes. Ariana faces a number of "difficulties," he explainsmodestly. "Embezzlement. Nepotism. Red tape. Lack of qualified staff, and ageneral attitude not to work." But then he pauses. "I believe we are starting to

make progress."

Ariana has few equals in the airline business for many reasons, all of thembad. Its history is abysmal. During Afghanistan's quarter of a century of war,Ariana planes were shut down, shot down or hijacked. It is still nobody'sairline of choice today. A disastrous safety record means its flights are barredfrom most European and American airports. It is nicknamed "Scaryana". UNofficials and foreign diplomats are forbidden to board. And most of the 1,700staff are, Atash cheerfully admits, spectacularly incompetent or corrupt.

Is Ariana the world's worst airline? Not necessarily. There are many poor

airlines across the developing world. "I would not single out Ariana," saysDavid Learmount at Flight International magazine. "If a country has no safetyculture, neither does its airline." But Ariana has one advantage over otherdisaster airlines - a plan to turn it around. Atash, a straight-talking Afghan-American emigre, returned three years ago from the USA where he ran abusiness. He was given the job of manager at Ariana in J une.

It is not a glamorous job. Atash is paid just $100 a month and uses his ownmobile phone. But he has a can-do attitude and plan to get rid of hundreds ofdeadwood staff without actually firing them. It is a difficult task but he is not

alone. Atash pushes a buzzer. In comes Hanns Marienfeld, the leader of asix-strong team from Lufthansa hired to help with the rescue plan. Hedescribes the state of Ariana one year ago: "It was not up to internationalstandards," he says. "The flight schedule was non-existent. Customers had topay a bribe to get a ticket, a second bribe to get a boarding pass andsometimes a third to get their seat in business class. We flew here or there,whenever the pilots felt like it." Initial safety standards were not good. In 2003and 2004, Ariana's fleet of six planes suffered six major engine failures. "InGermany our pilots only see that sort of thing in a flight simulator. In Arianawe do it in real life," says Marienfeld.

The early years were very different. Founded in 1955, Ariana quickly gained areputation as a small but proud regional carrier. It flew hippies and

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adventurers from London, Paris and Frankfurt and brought honeymooningcouples from neighbouring Pakistan. But in 1973, King Zahir Shah wasoverthrown and five years later the guns of war exploded. The visitorsvanished and Ariana, like the rest of Afghanistan, fell into a steep decline.

During the 10-year Soviet occupation, when the roads were too dangerous,Ariana became the safest way to travel. But the sense of security was strictlyrelative. Thanks to US support, the mujahideen were armed with Stinger anti-aircraft missiles. So Ariana pilots had to learn dangerous manoeuvres to avoidthe missiles while taking off and landing. Some staff could take no more. On a

flight to Kandahar in 1989, a fight broke out in the cockpit. The pilot wanted todefect to neighbouring Iran. His co-pilot resisted. As they fought for thecontrols, the plane fell out of the sky, crashing into the desert near the Iranianborder. All six people on board died.

After the Soviet departure the airline went from bad to worse. When theTaliban took control of Kabul a year later, they changed Ariana's 20th-centurybusiness to fit their 7th-century ideals. Stewardesses were sent home, inflightmusic was banned and control was handed to a 26-year-old zealot. Thehelpless pilots asked the Islamic courts for permission to trim their beards otherwise they could not fit the emergency oxygen masks on to their faces.

The UN imposed an international flight ban on the airline as part of asanctions package against the Taliban. The company's reputation for disastergot bigger as its fleet of ageing aircraft got smaller. The former prime ministerdied in a 1997 crash; two accidents in early 1998 killed about 100 people. In2000 a flight from Kabul to Mazar-i-Sharif was hijacked to Stansted airport inthe UK.

The US-led offensive the next year should have saved Ariana. Instead italmost destroyed the company. US planes bombed the Ariana fleet,demolishing six of its eight planes. The Taliban took $500,000 in company

cash and ran.

Now a process of change is taking root. The number of flights has increasedfrom 10 to 15 a week. Management claims 85% of flights are on time and thefirst accounts in 16 years show that Ariana made a modest $1m profit lastyear. At Kabul airport the mechanics are being given new tools and new pilotsare being trained, many of them former fighters. The old Kabul office is due toclose and a modern sales centre, complete with young, eager staff andcomputerised booking, will open soon.

Meanwhile Atash plans to put half his 1,700 workforce into a "reserve pool",

asking them to stay at home but continue their pay. "We are building thesystem with completely new people. We cannot afford to mix them with the

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corrupt old ones," says Atash. Success is far from guaranteed and a battle isnow under way for control of the company. "We're going to fight all the way,"Atash promises. "Because the other option is to sit here and do nothing. Andthat's not an option - either for Ariana or for Afghanistan."

Match the beginnings and the endings of the sentences:

1. Ariana has a very bad image because 2. Ariana is different from many other disaster airlines because 3. Ariana is going to employ completely new people because 4. Things got worse for Ariana after the US invasion because 5. Ariana is nicknamed Scaryana because 6. There are reasons for optimism because

a. many of the current employees are corrupt and lazy.b. the number of flights has increased and the airline made a modest profitlast year.c. many people are too scared to fly in its planes.

d. it has a very poor safety record.e. the Americans destroyed 75% of its planes.f. it has a plan to turn its fortunes round.

Match the verbs with the nouns they collocate with:

1. to impose a. control2. to make b. a bribe

3. to run c. a ban4. to pay d. engine failure5. to gain e. a profit6. to take f. progress7. to make g. a reputation8. to suffer h. a business

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Look in the text and find the words that mean:

1. excessive bureaucracy2. to take control illegally of a plane by means of force3. to choose one thing from a group for special attention

4. to leave a country, political party or organisation and go to another one5. to cut hair so that it looks tidy6. a piece of equipment used to train people to operate an aircraft7. a group of planes owned by one organisation8. a weapon designed to attack aircraft

Use these words to make phrasal verbs from the text:

out around down off out down

1. shut _______2. shoot _______3. single _______4. turn _______5. take _______6. break _______

Would you travel with this airline? Why? Why not?

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KEY

1 Key words

1. decline2. corrupt3. nepotism4. barred5. zealot

6. embezzlement7. abysmal8. demolish9. incompetent10. bribe

2 What do you know?

1. b; 2. c; 3. b; 4. a; 5. c

3 Comprehension check

1. d; 2. f; 3. a; 4. e; 5. c; 6. b

4 Vocabulary 1 Collocations

1. c; 2. f (e); 3. h; 4. b; 5. g; 6. a; 7. e (f); 8. d

5 Vocabulary 2 Find the word

1. red tape

2. to hijack3. to single out4. to defect5. to trim6. a flight simulator7. a fleet8. an anti-aircraft missile

6 Vocabulary 3 Phrasal verbs

1. down

2. down3. out

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4. around5. off6. out

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