Anti-president protests continue in Georgia

News story	Words	Meanings
Several hundred activists in . . . Georgia extended protests into a third day on Monday, calling for the country's Western-backed President Mikheil Saakashvili to resign. Around 300 protesters maintained an overnight vigil outside the Georgian public television studios in the capital Tbilisi, many armed with sticks after brief clashes on Sunday when police used rubber bullets and tear gas against demonstrators who attacked cars. They said they wanted to defend the protest venue against any possible crackdown. The opposition accuses Saakashvili of becoming increasingly authoritarian, failing to tackle widespread poverty and losing large parts of Georgian territory during the country's disastrous war with Russia in 2008. Opposition leader Nino Burjanadze has said that a "revolution" has started in Georgia, but turnout at the protests has been relatively small, with around 6,000 attending rallies on Saturday and fewer on Sunday. The authorities say protests will be allowed to continue unhindered as long as they remain peaceful. (AFP, May 23, 2011)	activists	people who work to achieve political or social change; protesters
	calling for	publicly asking for
	vigil	watch; a period of time when people stay awake in order to protest,  watch a sick person, say prayers, etc
	armed with	carrying
	venue	place where an activity or event happens
	crackdown	strong official action taken to punish people; severe measures
	authoritarian	strict and demanding obedience; dictatorial; heavy-handed
	tackle	deal with
	widespread	common; existing over a large area or among many people
	turnout	attendance; the number of people who attend a particular event
	relatively	comparatively; somewhat
	unhindered	not hindered; unopposed

Model sentences and idiomatic expressions with “tackle”:

• There is more than one way to tackle the problem.

• Firefighters tackled a blaze in a garage last night.

• I think I'll tackle the repairs next weekend.

• Successive governments have failed to tackle the question of homelessness.

• I'll tackle this difficult task.

• Have you tackled them about paying for it?

• a new initiative to tackle the shortage of teachers

Exercise

Fill in the blanks with the following words:

1. venue 2. vigil 3. tackle 4. armed with 5. turnout

1. His parents kept a round-the-clock . . . . . at his bedside.

2. He was . . . . . a rifle.

3. Please note the change of . . . . . for this event.

4. The government is determined to . . . . . inflation.

5. This year's festival attracted a record . . . . . .

Answer key: 1. vigil 2. armed with 3. venue 4. tackle 5. turnout