G8 pledges billions to foster Arab Spring

News story	Words	Meanings
The Group of Eight promised tens of billions of dollars in aid to Tunisia and Egypt on Friday and held out the prospect even more to foster the Arab Spring and the new democracies emerging from popular uprisings. Likening it to the fall of the Berlin Wall that changed the face of Europe, G8 leaders ending an annual summit in France launched a partnership for North Africa and the Middle East that tied aid and development credits to political and economic reforms by states which have thrown off autocratic rulers. Most is in the form of loans, rather than outright grants, to the two countries in the vanguard of protest movements which have swept the Arab world from the Atlantic to the Gulf.  (Reuters, 27 May 2011)	aid	financial assistance; money, food, or other help
	held out	offered
	prospect	possibility; hope
	foster	encourage; promote
	Arab Spring	The Arab Spring refers to the pro-democracy uprisings currently sweeping the Middle East and North Africa.
	uprisings	revolutions; rebellions
	summit	official meeting
	tied	connected or linked (closely with)
	credits	loans
	thrown off	got rid of; freed themselves from
	autocratic	oppressive; dictatorial
	outright	entirely; altogether
	vanguard	frontline; forefront
	swept	suddenly affected strongly

Model sentences and idiomatic expressions with “prospect”:

• There is no immediate prospect of peace.

• A place in the semi-finals is in prospect (= likely to happen).

• There's a reasonable prospect that his debts will be paid.

• The prospects for employment in the technology sector are especially good right now.

• There is every prospect (=a strong possibility) of the weather remaining dry this week.

• There are good prospects for growth in the retail sector.

• There's a real prospect that England will not qualify for the World Cup.

Exercise

Fill in the blanks with the following words:

1. credit 2. vanguard 3. foster 4. tiredness 5. outright

1. The club's aim is to . . . . . better relations within the community.

2. The bank refused further . . . . . to the company.

3. Neither candidate won . . . . . .

4. The company is proud to be in the . . . . . of scientific progress.

5. A wave of . . . . . swept over her.

Answer key: 1. foster 2. credit 3. outright 4. vanguard 5. tiredness