Речнова М. С.
Федичева О. В
THE LANGUAGE OF BUSINESS
LOOKING UP
Санкт-Петербург
ВВЕДЕНИЕ
Данное пособие предназначено для студентов старших курсом дневного отделения СП6ГУЭФ и содержит материалы, знакомящие студентов с различной экономической проблематикой. Оно составлено на основе текстов учебника А, Мак "Деловой английский язык".
Пособие включает 24 раздела, по тематике соответствующих урокам учебника А. Мак. Каждый раздел содержит 2 части: 1) упражнения, направленные на активизацию лексики, предложенной в учебнике "Деловой английский язык"; 2) дополнительные материалы по соответствующим темам.
Целью пособия является совершенствование навыков использования специальной лексики и широкого спектра грамматических явлений в ситуациях делового общения; а также развитие коммуникативных умений в различных видах речевой деятельности.
Особенностью данного пособия является акцентирование внимания на современных тенденциях развития делового английского языка. Наряду с этим, авторы стремились обеспечить студентов интересным фактическим материалом по предложенным темам.
The history of the company
The company of Harper & Grant Ltd. was started forty-two years ago by Ambrose Harper and Wingate Grant. Wingate Grant died many years ago, and his son Hector, who is in his fifties (aged between fifty and sixty) is the present Managing Director. Ambrose Harper is the Chairman. He is now an old man, semi-retired, but he still comes in to the office regularly to attend the board meetings and keep an eye on the business.
The company started by making steel wastepaper bins for offices. With the increase in smoking, these were considered much safer than the old type of basket made of cane or straw, because there was less likelihood of fire (but, strangely, we still continue to use the expression 'wastepaper basket, as well as 'bin'). Old Mr. Grant, the present Managing Director's father, put the business on its feet when he captured a big contract to supply government offices with steel wastepaper bins. He always said that luck, or happy coincidence, turned a business into success or failure. He was rather like Napoleon, who always asked if an officer was lucky before giving him a higher command. Mr. Grant Senior used to tell the story that, in the week before he landed his contract, a cane wastepaper basket had caught fire in a government department, the fire had spread rapidly, and destroyed a number of irreplaceable documents.
From wastepaper bins, Harper & Grant began to manufacture other items of office equipment: desks, chairs, cupboards, filing cabinets and smaller objects, such as filing trays, stapling machines and so on, until now when there are fifty-six different items listed in their catalogue. Today, nearly all the items produced by this company are made of pressed steel. The steel arrives in sheets from a steel works in South Wales. It is then cut by machinery into the required pieces; these pieces are then pressed into shape and fixed together by welding (joining two metal parts by heating so that the metals flow together), or by drilling holes in the metal and securing the two pieces with a bolt or a rivet.
The factory consists of workshops where the actual making of a desk or filing cabinet is done. These are divided into the Tool Room, Works Stores, Press Shop, Machine Shops, Assembly Shop, Paint Shop, Inspection, Packing and Despatch Departments. There is also the Warehouse where finished articles are stored pending, waiting for, sale.
The firm has a history of slow, steady growth. Hector Grant firmly believes that he knows the best way to run a business. However, his nephew Peter Wiles (son of Mr. Grant's sister), who joined the company six years ago and is Production Manager, and John Martin, appointedtwo years ago to be Sales Manager, are more adventurous.
They want to treble Harper & Grant's business over the next few years and are certain that, with modern business techniques and increased exports, they can achieve this.
Modernising a business to increase its profitability and competitiveness is a complicated affair. It requires a management team which is aware of such aids and tools of efficiency as electronic data processing, O.R. (Operational Research), D.C.F. (Discounted Cash Flow), budgetary control, corporate planning, P.E.R.T. (Project Evaluation and Review Technique), automation, etc. We shall be dealing with some of these words and expressions as the series goes along. Business management is a rapidly developing science (some call it an art), and new techniques and words, very often of American origin, are used more and more in everyday business conversation.
A small business cannot possibly afford to have on its staff experts in every modern management technique. It usually hires expert advice from outside consultants and bureaux. On the other hand, it is important that members of a firm's management are aware of the more sophisticated techniques they might call on to solve particular problems. Inevitably while this changeover from the old way to the new is taking place, there are often difficulties and conflict. But Harper & Grant Ltd., like their rivals, must get right up-to-date and enlarge their business, or they will be outpaced by a firm whose business organisation is better than their own.
VOCABULARY EXERCISES
I. Give the English equivalents to the following words and expressions:
корзина для бумаг; тростник и солома; цех; вероятность; заключить контракт (2); совпадение; незаменимый; файловый шкаф; сварка; заклепка; сборка; ожидающий; склад; склонный к риску; утроить; технология; конкурентоспособность; сложный (2); расширять бизнес; опередить
II What do these definitions stand for?
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A large building where large quantity of raw materials or manufactured goods are stored until they are exported to other countries or distributed to shops to be sold (noun)
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Willing to take risks and to try new methods (adjective)
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To become three times as great in number, amount , or size (verb)
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Made using advanced and complex methods (adjective)
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Chance occurrence of two or more things at the same time (noun)
6) Short metal pin for fastening two pieces together, having a head at one end, the other end being hammered flat after being passed through (noun)
7) Waiting to be finally settled or decided (adjective)
III. Fill in the gaps with the words from the list:
board meetings; cane or straw; manufacturing; in his fifties; irreplaceable; produced; the best way; profitability and competitiveness; to treble; management.
1) The present Managing Director is aged between fifty and sixty, that is he is ……………………………………………………….
2) The Chairman is a person who attends ……………………… and keeps an eye on the business.
3) Steel wastepaper bins for offices are considered much safer than the old type of basket made of
4) The fire spread rapidly and destroyed a number of ……………………… documents.
5) The factory consists of workshops where the actual …………………………………………of a desk or a filing cabinet is done.
6) Nearly all the items…………………..by the company are made of pressed steel.
7) Hector Grant believes that he knows, ……………….. to run a business.
8) Production Manager and Sales Manager want ………………………. the
company's business over the next few years.
9) Modernising a business to increase its ………………………………. is a complicated affair.
10) Business ………………… is a rapidly developing science.
IV. Explain the meaning of the following expressions:
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to put the business on its feet |
to give somebody a higher command |
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to capture a big contract |
changeover from the old way to the new one |
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to keep an eye on business |
aids and tools of efficiency
|
|
to be outpaced by somebody |
to hire expert advice
|
|
|
|
COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
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How many years ago and who was the Company of Harper and Grant Ltd started by?
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Who is the follower of Wingate Grant?
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What can you say about the Chairman of the Company?
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How did old Mr. Grant, the present Managing Director's father, put the business on its feet? Why did the company start making steel wastepaper bins for offices?
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What items of office equipment does Harper and Grant Ltd. manufacture?
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How are the goods manufactured?
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Why are Production Manager and Sales Manager considered to be more adventurous and what is their aim?
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Why does a small business usually hire experts in modern management technique from outside?
ADDITIONAL VOCABULARY
Business combinations
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leaders
school interest
ventures business empire
community confidence |
Find combinations that mean:
1)an individual's business activities, especially those of politicians
2)a very large business organisation
3)specific money-making projects, perhaps involving an element of risk
4) an institution that awards qualifications in business studies
5) heads of important companies who speak for (5) as a whole
6) the morale of all those referred to in (5) and (6)
8) people involved in business in general
Enterprises
A business may be referred to approvingly as an enterprise to emphasize its adventurous, risk-taking qualities, and business in general may be referred to in the same way, for example in combinations such as free enterprise and private enterprise.
Business is also referred to as commerce. This word, and its related adjective commercial, are often used to distinguish the business sphere from other areas such as government or the arts, or to distinguish it from non-money-making activities.
Translate the following into Russian:
● Americans have an ease with individual enterprise and risk that few Europeans share.
● Government in Malaysia has promised to reduce its interference in the economy and rely on private enterprise to pace economic growth.
● Kangaroo hunting is not just a hobby but a lucrative commercial business.
Large companies are referred to as corporations, especially in the United States. Corporate is used to describe things related to a corporation, or to corporations in general, in expressions like the ones in the next exercise. Large companies operating in many countries are multinationals. Big business can refer to large business organisations or to any business activity that makes a lot of money. Small companies are referred to as small businesses or small firms. Unlike other languages, English does not have an everyday term for small and medium-sized companies, apart from this rather clumsy expression.
Translate the following into Russian:
● Some operations of a typical multinational are more global than others.
● In Korea, democracy has slowed some government decision-making. But it has also cut the power of big business groups and the bureaucracy, in the process creating freer markets and more opportunities for small businesses.
Corporate combinations:
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performance logo
governance corporate srategy
immage collapses culture ladder |
Find combinations that refer to:
1) the perception that people have of a corporation
2) what corporate employees climb during their career
3) company results over a period of time
4) the values that people have and the ways things are done in an organisation
5) the way a company is managed at the highest level
6) plans that companies have maintaining and developing their position in the future
7) company failures
8) a symbol, usually showing the company's name
Now use these expressions to complete the extracts:
a) Corporate …………. and associated fiascos have exposed the failure of the auditing industry as a whole, not just the failure of individual audits.
b) No single subject so dominated the attention of managers, consultants and management theorists as the subject of corporate …………….
c) While Wal-Mart grew, Walton was developing the practices that were to give the firm one of America's most-admired corporate …………s.
d) Huet, remaining one step ahead on the corporate ……………………., has been transferred to New York as head of Societe Generale in America.
e) Good corporate ……………………… should be about stopping messes from happening, not just cleaning up afterwards.
f) Few investors are prepared to look beyond conventional measures for assessing corporate ............... .
g) All phone books are to have identical blue covers with the British Telecom ……………. . It is part of the corporate …………………. .
Sectors
Businesses may be classified according to which industry they are in: for example construction, oil, banking, food. Sector is sometimes used to mean industry in the same way, particularly by specialists such as financial journalists, but it is more often used to talk about different parts of the economy in combinations such as public sector and private sector, or about types of business in expressions like service sector and manufacturing sector.
Translate the sentences into Russian:
● Arden's customers are primarily in the packaging industry but also the electronic sector.
● One industry that has kept the manufacturing sector going for much of this year is aircraft.
● Many young workers are taking jobs in the rapidly growing service
sector — banking, computer programming, financial services.
When a private company is bought by the state and brought into the public sector, it is nationalised in a process of nationalisation. A nationalised company is state-owned. When the state returns a company to the private sector in a sell-off, it is privatised. This is privatisation. The first to be sold off in a privatisation programme are often the companies responsible for the public supply of electricity, water and gas: the utilities.
Translate the following into Russian:
● British Rail stations worth about 10 billion pounds will be sold off under Government plans to privatise the network.
● Malaysia is five years into an initial privatisation programme. To date, 22 government-owned concerns have been privatised, including a lottery, the national airline and shipping companies, regional water utilities, highway construction projects and a commercial TV station.
Read this article from "The Economist” and complete it using the words listed.
a) privatisation b) privatised c) nationalised d) re-nationalised
DISGUSTED
Most Britons see privatisation as a rip-off. The evidence says otherwise.
To say that (1)………….. is unpopular in Britain is an understatement. Every week brings fresh outrage at tales of bosses of (2)………………
firms picking up huge pay rises while over-charging customers, sacking employees and cutting the pay of those who remain. The ordinary man, who has never liked (3)………….. , wants the water and electricity industries, and maybe more, to be (4)………………. .
So what can be said in defence of (5)……..? Actually a great deal. Back in 1979, Britain's public-sector firms were in the doldrums, lacking both entrepreneurial vigour and a concern for customer service. Many were losing large sums of money. According to the treasury, the (6)………. industries were then costing each tax-payer the equivalent of 300 pounds in today's money.
Since (7)………….. — and the changes in management, financial controls and regulation associated with it — these firms have been transformed. Most (8)………. companies were more profitable in real terms in 1994 than in the year before they were sold. Most had higher sales, and a higher share price than in their first year after (9)………… . They now pay 2.5 billion pounds a year in taxes (equivalent to 100 pounds for each tax-payer).
Firms such as British Airways and British Telecom have been turned from corporate dogs into some of the world's most admired companies.
Types of business firms
When considering how types of companies differ, we should ask ourselves the following questions:
● Where did the money to start or expand the business come from?
● Who owns or controls the company?
● What happens to the profit?
● What legal requirements must the company satisfy?
● Does the company have limited or unlimited liability?
The commonest type-of firm in the UK is private limited company. A private limited company has limited liability, and this is indicated by the letters LTD after its name. The shareholders elect a Board of Directors, and the directors appoint one of their number to the position of Managing Director who is the link between the Board and the management. Thus, the Managing Director is in charge of the day-to-day running of the company, and in large organisations he is often assisted by a General Manager. British company law requires a limited company to have a Company Secretary who is responsible for the submission of a Memorandum of Association and other documents to the Registrar of Companies when the company is set up, and the publication of annual accounts.
Sometimes a private limited company becomes a public limited company - which must put the letters PLC after its name. Like private limited companies, PLCs have limited liability, must have a Memorandum of Association, publish their accounts and are subject to many legal requirements as set out in the Companies Act, 1985.
Translate the following into Russian:
● There is no one answer for all companies at all times. It's up to the board of that company to decide how to run the company and for the shareholders to shout if they don't like it.
● Registrar of companies is a person reporting to Department of Trade and Industry, who makes up the lists of joint-stock companies operating in the country. Any potential investor has a right to inspect the information kept by the Registrar in order to obtain the required information about the company.
● Every company before starting its operation has to submit its Memorandum of Association to the Registrar of Companies. This document defines the relation of the company to the third parties.
Classify Harper and Grant Company according to the criteria mentioned above.
Presentations
What do you think?
1) What is a "presentation"?
2) For what purposes are presentations made in business?
3) What makes a presentation effective?
Here is some vocabulary on equipment that one may need for a presentation.
To make a successful presentation one should be well equipped.
The presenter should be well seen and heard, so they can use a
podium and a microphone. As visual aids are very important in a
presentation, the presenter could choose from among a wide range of equipment. The most common is the use of a whiteboard and
felt-pens to draw diagrams and charts. Though it is also possible to
use overhead projector (OHP) with overhead transparency (OHT),
flipcharts or a slide-projector. To point something on the screen or a
whiteboard the presenter usually uses a pointer. At a presentation it
is always quite common to give handouts to the participants.
Match the following definitions with the words given in the box above:
1) a long rod used by a lecturer to point to some parts of a map, blackboard, etc.
2) a device that throws an enlarged image of a transparency onto a surface above and behind the person using it
3) a leaflet, free sample given out to publicise something
4) a sheet giving graphical, tabular, or diagrammatical information
5) small raised platform used by a lecturer, orchestra conductor, etc.
TEXT
Read the following text and be ready to answer the questions.