2.4. Explain the meanings of the following notions, draw examples to illustrate their usage.

a) shareholder activism;

b) Europe's integration into the world economy;

c) takeover struggle;

d) a multinational company;

e) high-value-added industries;

f) a a chemical conglomerate;

g) a mature industry;

h) defensive strategy;

i) agile strategy;

j) absorption strategy;

k) to diversify out of the core business

2.5. a) Complete the following collocations as they occur in the text

A	B
1. streamlined	a) strategy
2. corporate	b) consumer goods
3. contrasting	c) business
4. core	d) sciences
5. voting	e) product range
6. fast moving	f) portfolio of businesses
7. life	g) market
8. home	h) difference
9. clear	i) approaches
10. transatlantic	j) shares

b) translate the above collocations into Russian;

c) make use of them to express the main ideas of the article.

2.6. Complete the sentences below using the following verbs from the text

to thrive; to get; to convert; to resort; to exploit; to weigh; to rage; to scrap; to fall; to emerge; to preserve

1. Some analysts claim that one of the biggest obstacles on the way to progress in Europe is a desire to ..... the status quo.

2. Shareholders of the Deutche Borse forced the board ... a bid for the London Stock Exchange.

3. The takeover battle ..... for six months before the company's bosses finally listened to shareholders who wanted the board to accept the bidder's offer.

4. Long-suffering Eurotunnel shareholders .....to activism to deal with the company's debt.

5. A series of mergers and takeovers in the 1990s was meant to ..... national champions into wider European champions.

6. New multinational companies .... from the BRIC economies and make transnational deals increasingly common.

7. If Europe does not do well in these industries, it risks ..... behind.

8. High-value-added industries will ..... increasingly heavily in the world economy.

9. Many American firms started to ..... out of more traditional industries and into IT hardware, software and biotech.

10. Strategic agility means that a firm is able to ..... changes in the environment faster and more effectively than rivals.

11. Procter and Gamble, for example, .....on its streamlined product range.

2.7. A) Say how you understand the following sentences from the text, pay special attention to the words and expressions in bold type. Reproduce the context each of the sentences is used in.

1. A series of mergers and takeovers in the 1990-s - of which Arcelor itself was an example - was meant to convert national champions into wider European champions.

2. The Arcelor-Mittal merger was followed barely three months later by a two-way takeover struggle for another large European steel firm, Corus, between Tata Steel of India and Brazil's CSN.

3. The same goes for Scandinavia which comes third after America.

4. But despite this conservatism, ... Germany has remained the world's leading exporter, with companies that put together products and services from all over the world.

5.The "rumble in the jungle"

6. ICI and GEC - at the time the twin pillars of Britain's manufacturing industry - both tried it in the mid-1990s.

7. When stodgy European firms decide they, too, can become agile, they sometimes come to grief.

8. Many European businesses are able to soldier on thanks to their bulk and solidarity rather than their capacity for innovation.

9. Emerging economies are producing nimble companies that may prove capable of shaking up slow-moving sectors.

10. When dancing elephants trip up.

b) Translate the above sentences into Russian.