Wide context

Complete PICLE corpus of essays by Polish advanced EFL students (330,000)

/^t/Secondly, the Poles found themselves on the crossroads in 1989 - the turning point in our history. The collapse of communism in its deviated form was caused by a big social unrest revealing itself in many strikes throughout the country. People missed normality and the only token they had of this "normality" came from the West. We began to have greater access to western culture - films especially. More and more of us started to buy (at that time a state-of-the-art) equipment like colour TV-sets, videos etc, in order to feel a bit like in western world. Then plenty of Poles followed the instruction of President Walesa, "Money is lying in the streets". They set up new businesses - small ones but which allowed them to become rich very fast during the time of changes. This was also the result of scrutinizing the american culture that seems to have as its motto: "First come, first served." Next, we found ourselves in the country of growing social and economic diversity. Some couldn't cope with the problems of everyday life, and after they were made redundant committed suicides. At the same time, the noveau-rich travelled to Bermuda for a holiday and spent their money in the richest parts of the city - most expensive and exclusive shops.