Unit 9: Vooruitzichten voor de Belgische economie (May 2007)
Introduction
In Unit 9 you will read a shortened and simplified text fragment on the Belgian economic forecasts. The fragment is based on the press release 'Economische vooruitzichten 2007-2012' (Economic forecasts 2007-2012) which can be consulted at the website of the Federaal Planbureau (Federal Planning Bureau). The article was published online on 11th May 2007.
The trilingual website (Dutch, French and English) of the public agency Federaal Planbureau, which carries out studies and projections on economic, social and environmental policy issues, is of interest to anyone researching the current state of affairs of Belgian society and the policies developed by its leaders.
Print this page or write down the five sentences below. Read the sentences, underline the words you do not understand and write down the meaning of the words you already know.
Er wordt verondersteld dat de Belgische economie over de periode 2007-2012 met gemiddeld 2.1% zal groeien.
Omdat de consumptieprijzen maar met 1.9% stijgen, zal de Belgische economie geen inflatie lijden.
Daarnaast zal de werkgelegenheid toenemen, maar niet genoeg om de doelstellingen van de Europese Unie te halen.
De Belgische overheid moet ook nieuwe maatregelen treffen om de uitstoot van broeikasgassen te beperken.
De Europese normen waarnaar België dient te streven, kunnen anders niet gehaald worden.
Click on the Vocabulary link to compare your answers and to find out the meaning of the words or phrases you do not understand.
Identify the word that introduces the relative clause. To first read about pronominal adverbs in Dutch, click here.
Find all infinitive forms.
After finishing the exercise you can check your answers on the Feedback Page.
Task 3: Compounds
In this new exercise you will be asked to identify the different parts of compound words (click here if you do not know what compounds are). Why do this exercise? Compounds in Dutch are very common and new combinations are invented almost daily. For that reason, most dictionaries do not include all possible word combinations you may encounter in texts. In order to understand their meaning, it is thus important that you learn to break down compounds into the different parts they consist of. Click here for this exercise.
Task 4: Text Comprehension
Now you should be able to answer a set of questions on the content of the text. Click here to enter the exercise.
Task 5: Translation
Try to make a clear, comprehensive and fluent English translation of the text. After finishing, click here to compare your translation.
Task 6: Glossary
Finally, you should try to memorise the following words from the text.
1. veronderstellen:je veronderstelt iets, als je denkt dat iets waar is[to assume; verb]
2.de inflatie: het feit dat geld minder waarde heeft [inflation; noun]
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