- •Unit 1. Employment Issues
- •Vocabulary and Listening
- •Vocabulary and Reading
- •Active Participation of Women in the Labour Force
- •Unit 2. Public Relations
- •Vocabulary and Reading
- •Unit 3. Spending on Education
- •Vocabulary and Listening
- •Investing in Brains
- •University fees
- •Unit 4. Corporate Morals. The Psychology of Power
- •Only the little people pay taxes...
- •Vocabulary
- •Unit 5. A Competitive Spirit in Business
- •Unit 6. The World Economy. New Dangers
- •Supply chains in China
- •Unit 7. Innovations
- •Opting for the quiet life
- •Vocabulary and Reading
- •Innovations in cell phones
- •Unit 8. Joint Bosses. The Trouble With Tandem
- •Vocabulary and Listening
- •Vocabulary
- •Unit 9. Storing and Managing Economic Information
- •Vocabulary and Reading
- •Unit 10. Food Production and Consumption
- •Vocabulary and Reading
- •Genetically modified food Attack of the really quite likeable tomatoes
- •More than strange fruits
- •Unit 11. Economy and Environment. Climate Change
- •Vocabulary and Listening
- •For peat’s sake, stop
- •Spin, science and climate change
- •Insuring against catastrophe
- •Unit 12. Intellectual Property Rights and Music Piracy
- •Vocabulary and Reading
- •How to sink pirates
- •Appendix 1. Role Plays
- •1. Read the situation:
- •2. Choose your role:
- •3. Study your role and get ready to present it:
- •1. Read the situation:
- •2. Choose your role:
- •3. Study your role and get ready to present it:
- •1. Read the situation:
- •2. Choose your role:
- •3. Study your role and get ready to present it:
- •1. Read the situation:
- •2. Choose your role:
- •3. Study your role and get ready to present it:
- •1. Read the situation:
- •2. Choose your role:
- •3. Study your role and get ready to present it:
- •1. Read the situation:
- •2. Choose your role:
- •3. Study your role and get ready to present it:
- •1. Read the situation:
- •2. Choose your role:
- •3. Study your role and get ready to present it:
- •1. Read the situation:
- •2. Choose your role:
- •3. Study your role and get ready to present it:
- •Unit 1. Employment Issues.
- •Unit 2. Public Relations
- •Unit 3. Spending on Education. Investing in Brain
- •University fees
- •Unit 4. Corporate Morals. The psychology of Power
- •Corporate crime is on the rise The rot spreads
- •Unit 5. A Competitive Spirit in Business Spit and polish
- •Unit 6. World Economy. New Dangers
- •Supply chains in China
- •Unit 7. Innovations
- •Unit 8. Joint Bosses. The Trouble With Tnadem
- •Unit 9. Storing and Managing Economic Information The data deluge
- •Unit 10. Food Production and Consumption
- •A hill of beans
- •Unit 11. Economy and Environment. Climate Change For peat’s sake, stop
- •Unit 12. Intellectual Property Rights and Music Piracy Singing a different tune
- •Bibliography
- •Contents
- •Вопросы мировой экономики/world economy issues
- •400131, Волгоград, просп. Им. В. И. Ленина, 28.
- •400131 Волгоград, ул. Советская, 35.
Insuring against catastrophe
Plenty of uncertainty remains; but that argues for, not against, action. If it were known that global warming would be limited to 2°C, the world might decide to live with that. But the range of possible outcomes is huge, with catastrophe one possibility, and the costs of averting climate change are comparatively small. Just as a householder pays a small premium to protect himself against disaster, the world should do the same.
This newspaper sees no reason to alter its views on that. Where there is plainly an urgent need for change is the way in which governments use science to make their case. The IPCC has suffered from the perception that it is a tool of politicians. The greater the distance that can be created between it and them, the better. And rather than feeding voters infantile advertisements peddling childish certainties, politicians should treat voters like grown-ups. With climate change you do not need to invent things; the truth, even with all those uncertainties and caveats, is scary enough.
(“The Economist”, March 20th 2010, page 13)
Exercise 7. Comprehension check. Answer the following questions:
What is climate science responsible for?
Where does the problem about climate science lie?
What happened when governments started thinking seriously about climate change?
Are politicians satisfied with the uncertainty of the science?
What was the point of the British government advertisement?
What perception has IPCC suffered from?
Exercise 8. Study the report again (Exercise 6) and find the adequate English equivalents of the following words and phrases: 1) дремлющий, 2) обязательный контроль, 3) радоваться, 4) бледная тень, 5) итоговые показатели, 6) нежелающий, 7) подвергаться (принимать на себя), 8) разногласие (спор), 9) преувеличивать – преуменьшать, 10) неопределенность (двусмысленность), 11) упрощать, 12) засуха, 13) подразумевать, 14) восприятие, 15) созданный человеком, 16) правдоподобный, 17) несовпадение (несоответствие), 18) неуверенность, 19) защитить от катастрофы, 20) срочная необходимость в чем-либо, 21) мелочный (пустяковый), 22) обращаться с кем-либо как со взрослым.
Exercise 9. Translate the following sentences into English using the target vocabulary (Exercises 2, 8):
Гринпис предлагает установить обязательный контроль за выбросами углекислого газа в атмосферу с целью сдерживания климатических изменений.
Исследование свидетельствует о срочной необходимости сокращения выбросов парниковых газов, пока у нас еще есть такая возможность.
Уничтожение лесов привело к изменению климатических условий.
Общайтесь с подростком, как со взрослым человеком, это поможет решить ваши разногласия и преодолеть непонимание.
Вырубка лесов, осушение болот изменяют условия обитания животных и птиц.
Загрязнение атмосферы выбросами углекислого газа подвергает опасности здоровье всех живущих на Земле.
Итоговые показатели урожая были невысоки из-за продолжительной засухи.
Преступник раскаялся и признал свою вину.
Нельзя преувеличить значение науки как продукта, созданного человеком.
Speaking
Exercise 10. Work in pairs. Discuss the situation with the environment and the economic situtaion in your city using your target vocabulary (Exercises 2, 8). What has changed since you were a little child? Do you think these are positive or negative changes?
Exercise 11. Free discussion.
a) Answer the following questions. Give your opinion and justify it.
1) Do you believe that climate is changing and changing to the worst?
2) Do you think that the costs of averting climate change are small?
3) What can be done to avoid global warming?
4) Do you believe that CO2 emissions worldwide cause global warming?
5) Could it be that global combatting CO2 emissions is just another way to distract people’s attention from local pollutions caused by more dangerous chemicals?
b) Write down a short summary based on the results of the discussion.
Exercise 12. Role play “Chemical Pollution”.
Turn to page 112 to choose your role and get ready to present it.