Vocabulary and Cultural Notes:

• Cadillac [`kædılæk] – trademark (informal Caddy) a very expensive and comfortable car. Cadillac vehicles are sold in over 50 countries and territories, but mainly in North America. Founded in 1902 as the Cadillac Automobile Company, it was purchased in 1909 by General Motors and over the next thirty years established itself as America’s premier luxury car. The Cadillac automobile was named after the 17<sup>th</sup>-century French explorer Antonie Laumet de la Mothe, Sieur de Cadillac, who founded Detroit [dı`trOıt] in 1701.

• appreciation [əֽpri:∫i`eı∫^ən] – the feeling you have when you are grateful to someone;

• unwavering [An`weıvərıŋ] – strong and steady despite opposition or other problems;

Richard Branson [`rıt∫əd `brænsən] (1950-) is a British businessman who started the Virgin [`və:Gın] companies, which include a record company, an airline, a train company, and a financial services company which sells and provides advice about investments. Richard Branson is best known for his thrill seeking spirit and outrageous business tactics. He dropped out at the age of 16 and started his first successful business venture, Student Magazine. Today he is the owner of the Virgin brand and its 360 companies. Branson is seen as different from the typical businessman, because he has got long hair and does not wear a suit. He has also made several attempts to go around the world in a balloon. His official title is Sir Richard Branson.

Vocabulary and Cultural Notes:

• thrill [θrıl] – a sudden feeling of being very excited and pleased;

• outrageous [ֽaut`reıGəs] – very shocking or unreasonable; extremely unusual and likely to shock people or make them laugh;

• to drop out – to leave something such as an activity, school, or competition before you have finished what you intended to do;

• Sir [sə:] – an honorific used as a title and in several other modern contexts. The form Sir is first documented in English in 1297, as title of honour of a knight or baronet. In formal protocol Sir is the correct styling for a knight or a baronet used with (one of) the knight’s given name(s) or full name, but not with the surname alone (e.g. “Sir James Paul McCartney”, “Sir Paul McCartney”, or “Sir Paul”, but never “Sir McCartney”). Richard Charles Nicholas Branson was knighted in 1999 for his “services to entrepreneurship.”

Coco Chanel [`kəukəu ∫ə`nel] (1883-1971) is a French fashion designer, who started the fashion company Chanel. Her clothes designs had a great influence on 20th century fashion, and she is known especially for a simple type of women’s suit and for the little black dress (a woman’s dress with thin shoulder straps made of a black usually silky material and worn to cocktail parties), which she invented. An orphan for many years, Gabrielle Coco Chanel trained as a seamstress. Determined to invent herself, she threw out the ideas that the fashion world deemed feminine, boldly using fabric and styles normally reserved for men. A perfume bearing her name, Chanel No. 5 kept her name famous.