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Министерство образования и науки Российской Федерации Федеральное государственное бюджетное образовательное учреждение высшего образования

«Хабаровский государственный университет экономики и права» Кафедра иностранных языков и межкультурной коммуникации

АНГЛИЙСКИЙ ЯЗЫК

BUSINESS PEOPLE AND BUSINESS PRACTICE IN THE WORLD

Хрестоматия экономических текстов для бакалаврантов 1–2-го курсов направления 38.03.06

«Торговое дело» очной и заочной форм обучения

Хабаровск 2016

ББК Ш 143.21 Х 12

Английский язык. Business People and Business Practice in the World :

хрестоматия экономических текстов для бакалаврантов 1–2-го курсов направления 38.03.06 «Торговое дело» очной и заочной форм обучения / сост. А. Г. Долган. Хабаровск : РИЦ ХГУЭП, 2016. – 100 с.

Рецензенты: И.Н. Лазарева, канд. пед. наук, доцент кафедры профессионально ориентированного перевода Дальневосточного федерального университета А.Б. Остапенко, канд. социолог. наук, доцент кафедры иностранных языков

ФГБОУ ВО «Тихоокеанский государственный университет» В.А. Давыденко, канд. пед. наук, профессор кафедры педагогики, завкафедрой педагогики ФГБОУ ВО «Тихоокеанский государственный университет»

Утверждено издательско-библиотечным советом университета в качестве хрестоматии для бакалаврантов

Учебное издание

Долган Альбина Григорьевна

АНГЛИЙСКИЙ ЯЗЫК

BUSINESS PEOPLE AND BUSINESS PRACTICE IN THE WORLD

Хрестоматия экономических текстов для бакалаврантов 1–2-го курсов направления 38.03.06

«Торговое дело» очной и заочной форм обучения

Редактор

Е.Ю. Лаврентьева

 

 

 

 

Подписано к печати

2016

г.

Формат 60х84/16. Бумага писчая.

Печать цифровая. Усл.-печ. л. 5,8.

Уч.-изд. л. 4,1. Тираж 50 экз. Заказ №

 

 

 

 

680042, г. Хабаровск, ул. Тихоокеанская, 134, ХГУЭП, РИЦ © Хабаровский государственный университет экономики и права, 2016

CONTENTS

ВВЕДЕНИЕ …………………………………………………………………………...4

PART 1. THE WORLD BUSINESS PRACTICE AND MORE…………………........5

Toy Story……………………………………………………………….........................5

Bild-interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin………………………………..7 There’s a light at the end of the tunnel for Russia’s economy………………………16 Shanghai Cooperation Organization………………………………………………….20

PART 2. THE WORLD BUSINESS: SUCCESS STORIES………………………....27

Success story of Alibaba.com………………………………………………………...27 The inspiring rags to riches story of Maria Das Gracas Silva Foster………………..29 Steve Jobs……………………………………………………………………………..30 A conversation with Lee Kuan Yew………………………………………………….34

PART 3. PRACTICE ………………………………………………………………...47

Assignments №№ 9 – 32 .............................................................................................

47

VOCABULARY……………………………………………………………………...75

SOURCES…………………………………………………………………………….77

The asterisk (*) is used to mark the words and word combinations, which have been given translations or transcriptions or both in the vocabulary.

Two asterisks (**) mark the word combinations, which have been given translations after the text.

3

ВВЕДЕНИЕ

Настоящее учебное издание предназначено для самостоятельной работы студентов бакалавриата 1-го и 2-го курсов направления 38.03.06 «Торговое дело», изучающих деловой или профессиональный английский язык. Хрестоматия представляет экономические тексты, содержащие актуальную информацию о мировой деловой практике, об историях успеха ярких бизнесменов и крупных компаний. Материал может привлечь обучающихся интересной тематикой, талантом героев текстов, возможностью перенять их опыт и научиться взаимодействовать в сфере межличностной и межкультурной деловой коммуникации при использовании английского языка. Цель хрестоматии – помочь студентам самостоятельно разработать наиболее распространенные формы деловой практики в опоре на англоязычный экономический текст и практико-методические рекомендации, способствовать совершенствованию знаний английского языка, навыков самоорганизации и самообразования.

Хрестоматия состоит из введения, трёх частей, содержащих тексты о деловой практике в мире (часть 1), истории успеха известных компаний и бизнесменов (часть 2) и практические задания и рекомендации по их выполнению (часть 3), в конце издания располагается небольшой англо-русский словарь. Каждый текст снабжен лексическим минимумом для овладения и расширения словарного запаса студентов. Незнакомые слова и выражения, перевод которых имеется в хрестоматии, обозначены следующим образом: * – перевод на русский язык дан в словаре, ** – перевод на русский язык дан после текста. Хрестоматия также содержит перечень использованных источников, среди них электронные англоязычные ресурсы, экономические журналы и учебные издания.

С данным учебным изданием достаточно легко работать как преподавателю, так и студентам, имеющим разный уровень языковой подготовки, индивидуально и в группе. Для оптимизации работы использованы тексты большого и среднего объемов, различной степени сложности и наличия новой или сложной специальной лексики, что дает возможность варьировать формы организации самостоятельной работы, задействовать творческие способности обучающихся, их исследовательские навыки, умение применять дополнительные знания, собственный опыт, а также навыки работы с информационными и электронными технологиями. Задания для самостоятельной работы представлены в части 3. Большим подспорьем в выполнении самостоятельных заданий являются сопутствующие им практикометодические рекомендации: программы семинара-диспута, алгоритм действий по подготовке экономического форума, круглого стола, сценарий проведения интервью, советы для подготовки презентации, а также помощники – ключевые слова и выражения. Материал хрестоматии стимулирует преподавателя к генерации других заданий, к творческой деятельности по созданию новых форм организации обучения.

Включение текстов в хрестоматию не означает, что их содержание совпадает с точкой зрения авторов-составителей на события и мнения, описанные в данных текстах. Автор-составитель выражает благодарность рецензентам за рекомендации и интерес, проявленный к хрестоматии.

4

PART 1. THE WORLD BUSINESS PRACTICE AND MORE

1 Read and translate the text from English into Russian:

TOY STORY

(by I. Lazareva)

The pokey shop** in Tokyo’s Asakusa district is jam-packed with** row on row of colorful smiley-faced soft toys. There are long shelves stocked with custom-made clothes** and a range of accessories for the cuddly characters*. At the top of a narrow flight of steps* up to the second floor is a little table set out ready for a pretend tea party*. Near the counter, an elderly couple is chatting with a shop assistant – perhaps they are choosing a toy for a favorite grandchild?

So far, so much like a thousand other toyshops. But Haato no Slippo (a heart shaped tail) is a toyshop with a difference. For one, it only sells a single range of merchandise**: Bandai’s Primo Puel talking soft toy. Another is that most of the shop’s customers are women in their forties, fifties, and sixties – and for the most part they are not buying toys for children or grandchildren, but for themselves.

Bandai has sold well over a million Primo Puel toys. When it produced the character with a big red heart on its chest six years ago the company marketed it to working women in their twenties. The company quickly discovered, however, that the toy was more popular with middle-aged and elderly women. Two years ago Bandai opened the Primo Puel shop in Asakusa; staff says that customers come from as far away as Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido to check out the range**.

Bandai’s talking soft toy is just one of a number of new toys aimed specifically at adults in Japan. The birthrate is already at a historic low and the number of children is predicted to fall further. If things go on as they are, the toy industry faces losing many of its traditional customers, which is why makers are experimenting with new products for young adults, middle-aged men and women, and retirees.

Asakusa, where Haato no Sippo is located, is an area with historic ties to the toy industry. Several of Japan’s best-known toy manufacturers are based there, including

Bandai. Part of the association centers around Asakusa’s famous Sensoji temple. For hundreds of years, pilgrims and tourists from all over Japan flocked to Asakusa, and when they left, the pilgrims often picked up paper or wood toys to take home to their families. Today, gift shops in a long arcade leading up to the temple sell everything from samurai wigs* to rice crackers to folding fans, and there are still several toy shops.

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Around the turn of the twentieth century many of Tokyo’s toy wholesalers set up in nearby Asakusabashi and Kuramae. Some of the largest formed business partnerships with major toy makers also based in the area. In the 1950th and 1960th, fuelled by the domestic postwar baby boom and foreign exports, the Japanese toy industry grew rapidly.

Today, though, times are tough for the Asakusa toy industry. Virtually all the factories have moved to China or other low wage cost countries. The wholesalers were dealt an almost fatal blow* in the early 1990s by the arrival of the American toy superstore chain Toys R Us, which started buying directly from makers. Now makers and retailers both do business at paper-thin margins**. And each year there are fewer and fewer children to buy their wares.

No wonder makers are looking for new customers.

Big Kids, Small Toys

Seeking male customers to match their female Primo Puel enthusiasts, Bandai has introduced the Little Jammer range. Users insert special cartridges into the accompanying stereo, and the figures play their instruments in time to the music.

The toys are targeted at middle-aged and elderly men, says Bandai spokeswoman

Imafuku Yuriko, nothing “people in those generations have a little more spare time and a little more spare money now.” About 5,500 of the product’s 50,000 customers have joined a Little Jammer Owner’s Club, receiving a special cartridge and set of stickers.

Another well-known company, Sega Toys has also had a recent hit with a product targeted at adults, selling 50,000 Homestar table-top planetariums.

For 19,800 yen (168 dollars), customers, who are often couples in their thirties, can project 10’000 stars onto the celling of their homes. There are two discs to insert into the volleyball-sized machine to change the pattern of constellations*.

Sega also makes the Brain Trainer, a small pocket-dictionary sized electronic gadget. One version looks much like a calculator and requires users to answer arithmetical questions; another features language questions. Brain Trainer is aimed at women from thirty to fifty, but is also used by families and retired people – anyone looking for mental exercise, says Harada. The company sells an accompanying set of playing cards. Instead of numbers the cards have brain-exercising sums**, say “2+5 hearts” for the seven of hearts.

6

Hug me

The most firmly established category of adult-targeted toys** so far is so-called iyashikei (healing) toys. The offbeat and cute products** are designed to sooth away the stresses of everyday life. Amongst the most popular are Takara’s “Walkie Bit” tiny robot turtles – featured in Time Magazine’s “Best Inventions of 2005.” “It’s small, it’s cute, and it sashays* across your desk, tail wriggling,” enthused the magazine.

Bandai’s Promo Puel also fits into the iyashikei category. The newest version of the 10,290-yen (90-dollar) toy can say 400 phrases, such as “kiss me,” “I’m lonely,” or “hug me.” It can also recognize a handful of spoken phrases like “I’m home” and “let’s play.”

Primo Puel has sensors for light, touch, vibration, and hearing. It is programmed with love levels of happiness, which alter depending on how users treat it. “The best way to make the toy happy,” says Primo Puel shop manager Fukuda Seiichiro, “is to hug it and play with it.”

Fukuda and the other staff hold a special event once a month in the shop. The next one will be a Valentine’s party. Bandai also organizes day trips, birthday parties, and kindergarten entrance days. “Lots of people treat it like a grandchild or daughter or friend,” says Fukuda. Although the toys are officially unisex, many owners decide the sex of the toy for themselves. And when a Primo Puel runs out of power, owners never refer to batteries, they talk about giving their toys “food.”

Iyashikei toys and other products for adult customers could be a ray of hope for the beleaguered* toy industry. Though the market’s decline appears to have bottomed out of late**, it is still contracting by about 1% a year. Makers are merging in an attempt to complete more effectively in the global toy market.

The industry’s peaks were probably during the 1960s baby boom and the first half of the 1990s before the recent recession. Since the turn of the century, though, the market has shrunk by about a fifth. Toy makers face stiff competition from sports equipment and game consoles* amongst other products. “When families want to spend money on their children there are lots of different choices now,” says Oishi Kenichi, secretary general of the Japan Toy Association.

“To an extent [the declining birthrate] may be inevitable,” says Oishi. Toys for adults and elderly people are a market that is just beginning to be tapped. “Lots of manufacturers are saying toys are not just for children. We need to develop ideas for lots of different new products.”

(from An Academic Excellence Starter Kit For EFL Freshmen)

7

Vocabulary development:

pokey shop –

тесный, убогий магазин

jam-packed with –

битком набитый (чем-либо, кем-либо)

custom-made clothes –

одежда, изготовленная на заказ

a single range of merchandise –

определенный ассортимент товаров

to check out the range –

проверить, проинспектировать, «прочесать»

 

(«прошерстить» – перен.) ассортимент

paper-thin margins –

недостаточная (тонкая, как бумага) прибыль,

 

маржа

to exercise brain –

тренировать, упражнять мозг

adult-targeted toys –

игрушки, адресованные взрослым

offbeat and cute products –

нетривиальные и милые продукты (изделия)

to have bottomed out of late –

быть последним из опоздавших

brain-exercising sums –

«тренирующие мозги» суммы

 

 

2 Read and translate the text from English into Russian:

BILD-INTERVIEW WITH RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN

(by Nikolaus Blome, Kai Diekmann and Daniel Biskup)

Part 1

„For me, it is not borders that matter“

BILD: Mr. President, 25 years ago, we celebrated the end of the Cold War. Now we have just had a year of more crises and wars than ever before. What went so horribly wrong in the relationship between Russia and the West?

Vladimir Putin: That is the big question. We have done everything wrong. BILD: Everything?

Putin: From the beginning, we failed to overcome Europe’s division. 25 years ago, the Berlin Wall fell, but invisible walls were moved to the East of Europe. This has led to mutual misunderstandings and assignments of guilt. They are the cause of all crises ever since.

BILD: What do you mean? When did this development escalate?

Putin: Back in 2007, many people criticized me for my talk at the Munich Security Conference. But what did I say there? I merely pointed out that the former NATO

8

Secretary General Manfred Wörner had guaranteed that NATO would not expand eastwards after the fall of the Wall. Many German politicians had also warned about such a step, for instance Egon Bahr.

(Putin has his spokesperson hand him a thin folder. It contains transcripts of talks that, among others, Bahr led in Moscow back then. „This had never been published,”

Putin says.)

BILD: What kind of talks were these?

Putin: Over the course of the year 1990, the then Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher had many conversations with President Gorbachev and other Soviet officials.

(Now Putin reads out, in Russian, the transcript of an exchange with Egon Bahr. His index finger follows each line on the paper.)

Putin: This, for instance, is what Egon Bahr said on June 26, 1990: “If we do not now undertake clear steps to prevent a division of Europe, this will lead to Russia’s isolation.” Bahr, a wise man, had a very concrete suggestion as to how this danger could be averted: the USA, the then Soviet Union and the concerned states themselves should redefine a zone in Central Europe that would not be accessible to NATO with its military structures. Bahr even said: If Russia agreed to the NATO expansion, he would never come to Moscow again. (Putin laughs quietly.)

BILD: Did he ever come back to Moscow?

Putin: (still laughing) To be honest, I don’t know.

BILD: But seriously: the central European states wanted to become NATO members by their own volition. They expected security for themselves from this step.

Putin: I have heard this a thousand times. Of course every state has the right to organize its security the way it deems appropriate. But the states that were already in NATO, the member states, could also have followed their own interests – and abstained from an expansion to the east.

BILD: Should NATO just have said no? It wouldn’t have survived that, because…

(Putin asks back, suddenly in German, ignoring the interpreter): Why not?

BILD: Because it is part of NATO’s rules and self-understanding to accept free countries as members if they want to and if they fulfill certain conditions.

Putin: (still in German) Who has written these rules? The politicians, right? (The President then switches back to Russian.)

Putin: Nowhere is it written that NATO had to accept certain countries. All that would have been required to refrain from doing so was the political will. But people didn’t want to.

9

BILD: Why, do you think, was this the case?

Putin: NATO and the USA wanted a complete victory over the Soviet Union. They wanted to sit on the throne in Europe alone. But now they are sitting there, and we are talking about all these crises we would otherwise not have. You can also see this striving for an absolute triumph in the American missile defense plans.

BILD: But the USA’s missile defense shield – should it ever be installed – is merely defensive, isn’t it?

Putin: In 2009, US President Obama said that the missile defense only serves as protection from Iranian nuclear missiles. But now there is an international treaty with Iran that bans Tehran from developing a potential military nuclear project. The International Atomic Energy Agency is controlling this, the sanctions against Iran are lifted – but still the US are working on their missile defense system. Only recently a treaty with Spain was signed, a deployment in Romania is being prepared, the same will happen in Poland in 2018, and in Turkey, a radar unit is being installed. What is the point of this?

BILD: You have now explained, in detail, the mistakes that, from Russia’s perspective, the West has made. Has Russia itself not made any mistakes?

Putin: Yes, we have made mistakes! We were too late. If we had presented our national interests more clearly from the beginning, the world would still be in balance today. After the demise of the Soviet Union, we had many problems of our own for which no one was responsible but ourselves: the economic downfall**, the collapse of the welfare system**, the separatism, and of course the terror attacks that shook our country. In this respect, we do not have to look for guilty parties abroad.

BILD: In your last interview with BILD, ten years ago, you said that Germany and Russia had never been as close as in 2005. What is left today of this special relationship?

Putin: The mutual sympathy of our peoples is and will remain the foundation of our relations.

BILD: And nothing has changed?

(Before speaking the next sentence, the President starts to sneer.)

Putin: Even with the help of anti-Russian propaganda in the mass media, Germany has not succeeded in damaging this sympathy…

BILD: Do you mean BILD?

Putin: I do not mean you personally. But of course Germany’s media are heavily influenced by the country on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

BILD: That’s news to us. So what is the state of the German-Russian relationship today?

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Putin: We had a very good situation in 2005. The common budget had a volume of 80 billion dollars per year. Thousands of jobs were created in Germany by Russian investments. At the same time, a large number of German companies invested in Russia. There were countless cultural and social contacts. And today? The trade volume is half as much, only about 40 billion Euros.

BILD: Would the Munich Security Conference be a good opportunity to improve the mood?

Putin: I will not come to Munich.

BILD: What do you think about the theory that there are two Vladimir Putins?

One, until 2007, the friend of the West, close friends with Chancellor Schröder. And the other one after that: the cold warrior.

Putin: I have never changed. I feel as young as I always did and remain close friends with Gerhard Schröder. But things are different in the international relations between states. In this respect, I am neither a friend, nor bride or groom. I am the president of 146 million Russians. I have to represent their interests. We are willing to settle this without any conflicts and to search for compromises** on the basis of international law.

BILD: In the year 2000, you said that the most important lesson from the Cold War is that there should never be any confrontation in Europe again. Today this confrontation is back. When will we get the first Putin back, the friend of the West?

Putin: Once again, I’m still the same. Take the fight against terrorism: after the attacks of September 11, I was the first to side with US President Bush. And now, after the attacks in Paris, I have done the same with the President of France, Hollande. Terrorism threatens us all.

BILD: Does the threat posed by Islamist terrorism not create a new commonality between Russia and the West?

Putin: Yes, we should cooperate much more closely in fighting terrorism, which is a great challenge. Even if we do not always agree on every aspect, nobody should take this as an excuse to declare us as enemies.

BILD: Since you are talking about a great challenge: is Crimea, by comparison, really worth damaging Russia’s relationship with the West that severely?

Putin: What do you mean by „Crimea“?

BILD: The one-sided movement of borders in a Europe that is based, in particular, on respecting state borders.

Putin: For me, it means: human beings. BILD: Human beings?

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Putin: The nationalists’ coup in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev in February 2014 has hugely scared 2.5 million Russian people living on Crimea. So what did we do? We have not gone to war, we have not fired, not a single person was killed. Our soldiers have merely prevented the Ukrainian troops on Crimea from impeding the freedom of expression of the people. In the referendum – which was still decided to take place by the Crimea’s old parliament – the majority of citizens voted for belonging to Russia.

This is democracy, the people’s will.

BILD: But one cannot simply challenge European state borders.

Putin: For me, it is not borders and state territories that matter, but people’s fortunes.

BILD: What about international law?

Putin: Of course one always has to follow international law. This was also the case in Crimea. According to the Charter of the United Nations, every people has the right to self-determination. Just take Kosovo: back then, UN bodies decided that Kosovo should become independent of Serbia and that the interests of Serbia’s central government had to be subordinated. You can read that in all the records, also in the German ones.

BILD: But prior to that, the Serbian central government had waged war against the Kosovo Albanians and had driven thousands of them away. That’s a difference.

Putin: The fact is that there was a long war in which Serbia and its capital Belgrade were bombarded and attacked with missiles. It was a military intervention of the West and NATO against the then rump Yugoslavia. Now I’m asking you: if the

Kosovars have the right to self-determination, why should people on Crimea not have it? I would say: everyone should comply with uniform international rules and not want to change them any time one feels like it.

BILD: If, in your view, there has been no violation of international law on Crimea, how do you explain to the citizens of Russia the severe economic sanctions** of the West and the European Union?

Putin: The Russian population is absolutely clear about the situation. Napoleon once said that justice is the incarnation of God on Earth. I’m telling you: the reunification of Crimea and Russia is just. The West’s sanctions are not aimed at helping Ukraine, but at geo-politically pushing Russia back. They are foolish and are merely harming both sides.

BILD: How difficult are the sanctions for Russia?

Putin: Concerning our possibilities on the international financial markets, the sanctions are severely harming Russia. But the biggest harm is currently caused by the

12

decline of the prices for energy. We suffer dangerous revenue losses in our export of oil and gas, which we can partly compensate for elsewhere. But the whole thing also has a positive side: if you earn so many petrodollars** – as we once did – that you can buy anything abroad, this slows down developments in your own country.

BILD: It is claimed that the Russian economy has suffered severely.

Putin: We are currently gradually stabilizing our economy. Last year, the gross domestic product had dropped by 3.8 per cent. Inflation is approximately 12.7 per cent. The trade balance, however, is still positive. For the first time in many years, we are exporting significantly more goods with a high added value, and we have more than 300 billion dollars in gold reserves. Several programs for modernizing the economy are being carried out.

BILD: In 2015, you talked extensively about Crimea and the crisis in eastern Ukraine with Chancellor Angela Merkel. What is your relationship like today?

Putin: We have a professional relationship. I have met her seven times last year, and we were calling each other on the phone at least 20 times. 2016 is the year of the German-Russian youth exchange, so the relations are moving on.

BILD: Do you trust Angela Merkel?

Putin: Yes, I trust her, she is a very open person. She is also subject to certain constraints and limitations**. But she is honestly trying to settle the crisis, also in the south-east of Ukraine. However, what the European Union is doing with those sanctions is nothing but a theatre of the absurd.

BILD: Theatre of the absurd? In eastern Ukraine, not everything is as it should be before the sanctions are lifted.

Putin: Anything that is missing in the implementation of the Minsk Agreement is – without any exception – up to the Kiev central government of Ukraine. You cannot demand something of Moscow that, in fact, the rulers in Kiev have to deliver. The most important aspect is the constitutional reform, Point 11 of the Minsk Agreement.

(Putin asks for another small file und reads out Point 11 of the agreement in Russian. His index finger is close to the narrowly printed paper. Then he continues to talk.)

Putin: The constitutional reform is supposed to give autonomy to eastern Ukraine and to be adopted by the end of 2015. This has not happened, and the year is over.

That’s not Russia’s fault.

BILD: Was the constitutional reform not supposed to be carried out once the separatists supported by Russia and the central government’s troops in eastern Ukraine have stopped shooting at each other?

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