УДК 802.0 ББК Ш143.21-923 Б 379
МИНИСТЕРСТВО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ РФ ОМСКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ
Рекомендовано к изданию...
3 downloads
169 Views
416KB Size
Report
This content was uploaded by our users and we assume good faith they have the permission to share this book. If you own the copyright to this book and it is wrongfully on our website, we offer a simple DMCA procedure to remove your content from our site. Start by pressing the button below!
Report copyright / DMCA form
УДК 802.0 ББК Ш143.21-923 Б 379
МИНИСТЕРСТВО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ РФ ОМСКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ
Рекомендовано к изданию в качестве учебно-методического пособия учебно-методическим советом 27.11.02, протокол № 2 Рецензенты: канд. пед. наук, доц., зав. каф. языковой подготовки ОмГАУ Т.А. Завелева; ст. преп. каф. АиФЯ ОмГУ О.К. Сургутская
Б379
УЧЕБНО-МЕТОДИЧЕСКОЕ ПОСОБИЕ ДЛЯ ПОДГОТОВКИ К ЭКЗАМЕНУ ПО АНГЛИЙСКОМУ ЯЗЫКУ (для студентов экономических специальностей)
Учебно-методическое пособие для подготовки к экзамену по английскому языку (для студентов экономических специальностей) / Сост. Н.В. Бегун, И.А. Сиволапова. – Омск. гос. ун-т, 2003. – 72 с. Содержит тренировочные упражнения и методические рекомендации по развитию и совершенствованию навыков перевода, реферирования и говорения. Даются образцы выполнения заданий, включён справочный материал. Источником текстового материала являются современные зарубежные издания. Для студентов экономических специальностей факультета международного бизнеса и экономического факультета.
УДК 802.0 ББК Ш143.21-923
Издание ОмГУ
Омск 2003
© Омский госуниверситет, 2003
Предисловие
PART I. TRANSLATING TEXTS
Пособие предназначено для аудиторной и самостоятельной работы студентов по развитию и совершенствованию навыков перевода, реферирования и говорения. Оно включает тщательно отобранный учебно-тренировочный материал, позволяющий повторить основные разделы грамматики, а также ряд тем, наиболее сложных для усвоения, и таким образом подготовиться к курсовому экзамену по английскому языку. Структура издания отражает три основных этапа экзамена. Первая часть пособия включает материал по грамматике для снятия основных грамматических трудностей при переводе текстов по экономической тематике. Предлагаются тексты на проверочный перевод. Во второй части пособия представлены схемы и образцы реферирования экономических статей, тренировочные упражнения, а также статьи для самостоятельного реферирования. Третья часть включает большой перечень вопросов по темам, входящим в базовые курсовые учебники "Insights into Business" и "First Insights into Business". Выбор вопросов осуществляется преподавателем в зависимости от изученной тематики, уровня группы и степени изученности тем. В приложениях к пособию дается полезный для студентов лексический материал (вводные слова и выражения, заимствования из других языков, аббревиатуры и т.д.). Составителями пособия использованы материалы современных зарубежных изданий.
GRAMMAR STRUCTURES DIFFICULT FOR TRANSLATION 1. Passive Voice. Models: A. The economic processes are increasingly being affected by the dominating influence of the monopoly sector. – На экономические процессы все больше и больше оказывает сдерживающее влияние монопольный сектор. B. The fluctuations in price are influenced by supply and demand. – Предложение и спрос оказывают влияние на колебание цен. C. This case should also be referred to for a detailed account of all the profit gained. – Для точной оценки всех полученных прибылей следует учесть и этот случай. 1. In periods of free supply of labour the employers have great advantage in any bargain or agreement which was entered into. 2. American workers have always sought full employment at good wages but a lot of them have been denied it. 3. Similar policies are followed in other countries. 4. The interests of the EFTA countries, which export agricultural goods, were looked after by means of bilateral agreements. 5. The provisional agenda for the Consultative Committee was agreed on at the last meeting. 6. There is no doubt that the external sources of inflationary tension are followed by or in some cases supplemented by a certain number of internal factors. 7. I wonder whether his data can be relied upon. 2. The Infinitive and Infinitive Constructions. Models: A. It is urgent to achieve successful results in the negotiations to be held in May. – Крайне необходимо добиться успеха в переговорах, которые будут проводится в мае. B. This will probably be the main difficulty to be taken into account. – Это, вероятно, будет основной трудностью, которую следует принимать во внимание. C. He was the first to pay attention to this peculiarity. – Он был первым, кто обратил внимание (он первый обратил внимание) на эту особенность.
3
4
1. There are difficult problems to be tackled, the solution of which will call for changes in policies. 2. The proportion of imported raw materials to be used in the manufacture of producer goods increased in comparision with the proportion to be used in the manufacture of consumer goods. 3. Conglomerate mergers have recently been motivated in large measure by the profits to be made from stock manipulation. 4. The multilateral arrangements to be considered should deal with matters of principle. 5. A power station to be built close to the Saudi Arabian Capital Riyadh will come into operation in the autumn of next year. 6. A devaluation of the pound against the dollar requires more goods to be produced in Britain and exported to balance the account. 7. It has become clear that the existing patterns of world trade will continue in being for several years to come. 8. Germany was the first country to adopt the system of exchange control. 9. The Swiss National Bank was the first to express doubts about a policy, which concentrates too much, on the supply of credit. 10. Japanese foreign trade experts developed a theory that their exports were the last to be bought in a boom and the first to be dropped in a depression. 11. The nationalized industries have always been the first to suffer because of a crisis in the balance of payments. Models: A. Several hundred million dollars are thought to have been moved into London. – Полагают (считают), что несколько сот миллионов долларов было переведено в Лондон. B. In Norway the balance of payments deficit happened to provoke grave Government concern. – Случилось так, что дефицит платежного баланса Норвегии вызвал серьезную озабоченность правительства. C. The deflation produced by these policies is likely to increase unemployment. – Дефляция, к которой привел этот политический курс, вероятно, увеличит безработицу.
3. Since the possibility of raising export prices is thought to be very limited, industrialists fear that there will be a sharp drop in US-Finland trade. 4. The cost of shipping an article from one country to another may be said to depend on a number of considerations: its weight, bulk, value, etc. 5. A firm is said to be in equilibrium when the entrepreneur has to move to change its organisation or its scale of production. 6. Latin America's economic future was thought (to be) dim for lack of coal. 7. Management was seen to have been handed over to the same people who had run the privately – owned enterprises. 8. The commission's recommendation seems to represent a new approach to the problem of inflation. 9. The statistics appeared to show that the Swedish investment flow was directed toward the EEC. 10. The downturn which began in the US turned out to be considerably more serious than its immediate predecessor. 11. The country appears to be spending some of its money in advance. 12. The general cooperation in EFTA seems to have stimulated investments also in the EFTA countries. 13. The participants of the forthcoming conference are certain to arrive tomorrow. 14. The further stades of integration are more likely to be a series of pragmatic compromises than economic union in any realistic way. 15. When trade is opened up, consumers are likely to alter their tastes because of the opportunity to buy foreign goods. 16. Exports to Japan are also expected to rise, but are unlikely to match last year's 66 per cent gain in light of the marked slackening in the Japanese economy. 17. The efforts of economists to arrive at a coherent and consistent explanation of the cycles, let alone to find a magic key to their elimination, are most unlikely to succeed. 18. The new needs are likely to continue to increase imports as income grows, but beyond a certain point the rise is likely to be slower than the increase in incomes.
1. The Congress is believed to be attended by more than 200 representatives from different countries. 2. The Home Secretary is known to belong to the right wing of the Labour Party.
Model: During inflation there is a tendency for prices and wages to rise, that is, for value of money to fall. – Во время инфляции отмечается тенденция цен и заработной платы к повышению, то есть к понижению стоимости денег.
5
6
1. International trade and other financial dealings between countries make it necessary for them to make payments to one another. 2. It is usual for a score or more of major new construction projects in a dozen countries to be under way simultaneously. 3. It is common in new modern factories for the fixed capital per worker to reach several hundred thousand dollars. 4. The post-war world food shortage and Britain's balance of payments problems made it necessary for Britain to maintain increased grain production. 5. For this prospect to be realized, the national programmer should be directed towards tariff reductions. 6. The speeding up of the scientific and technological revolution calls for such an increase in capital investment as to strengthen the tendency for finance capital to expand the whole credit structure in an inflationary way. 7. Throughout the past two hundred years there has been a tendency for the scale of production to increase. 3. The Participle and Participle Constructions. Models: A. This meeting provided the occasion for an exchange of views on several topics of interest to all the countries represented. – Это совещание дало возможность обменяться мнениями по некоторым вопросам, которые интересуют все страны, представленные на этом совещании. B. The Trade Union Congress emphasized that wages must correspond to quality and quantity of work done. – На съезде профсоюзов было подчеркнуто, что заработная плата должна соответствовать количеству и качеству выполненной работы. C. (When) faced with soaring living costs, the workers acted to preserve their living standards. – Когда рабочие сталкивались со стремительно растущей стоимостью жизни, они боролись за сохранение прежнего жизненного уровня. 1. The procedure adopted has so far been applied mostly in the field of trading agreements. 2. Every new military buildup involves a shift in the kind of weapons produced. 3. A number of aspects of the problems involved had been studied. 4. The actual price of labor power – the actual wages paid – is influenced by supply and demand. 7
5. The council regards the solution of the difficult problems involved as a necessary part of its taste. 6. We should expand trade with all the world, but it is necessary to observe that the price method of such expansion should differ according to the countries concerned. 7. Based upon the above assessments, the company identifies major future opportunities and problems in term of regions and countries. 8. Faced with the growing size of their enterprises, many companies have responded by decentralizing management of domestic as well as international business. 9. Compared with what had done before, the tempo of development became exceedingly rapid. 10. Added up the deficit picture seems less than bright to those counting on a strong fiscal stimulus. 11. As viewed by the industrial firm, planning consists in foreseeing the actions required between the initiation of production and its completion and preparing for the accomplishment of these actions. 12. The cognition of economic laws is not an aim in itself; when cognized laws are applied in practice. Models: A. Agreements having been reached on important questions, it only remain to agree on some minor questions. – Так как соглашения по важным вопросам были уже достигнуты, осталось только договориться по некоторым мелким вопросам. B. The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund stated that the era of inflation was coming to an end, the threat now being deflation. – Директор-распорядитель Международного валютного фонда заявил, что эра инфляции приходит к концу, причем опасность теперь представляет дефляция. C. It will be a long time before research workers will be able to make any significant comments on economic trends, figures produced at such intervals. – Научным работникам потребуется много времени, чтобы серьезно проанализировать экономическое положение, если данные будут поступать с такими интервалами.
8
1. The level of interest rates generally soaring, the average rate has increased during the past decade. 2. When levying specific duties on the same machinery, it becomes necessary to break the classification down into weight groups, lower rates applying to the heavier machines. 3. The government negotiated with the mine-owners and trade unions, representatives of the European Coal and Steel Community taking part in the talks. 4. Trade depends upon the efficiency of the means of transport, the expansion of trade having gone hand in hand with the development of transport. 5. The chief payments and receipts arise from trade in goods, payments having to be made for imports and being received from the sale of exports. 6. There is no sharp line of distinction between competition and monopoly, monopoly power being a matter of degree. 7. The United States is divided into twelve Federal Reserve Districts, each with its own Federal Reserve Bank, their activities being coordinated through the Federal Reserve Board in Washington. 8. When a commodity is sold by auction bids are made by prospective buyers, the commodity sold to the person making the highest bid. 9. Trade moves in channels, shaped by the communications network and by transport routes. The latter themselves affected in part by the former. 10. The productive forces, their development accelerated by the new discoveries, are seeking outlets for expansion. 11. The price of the enterprise could remain unaffected, the difference between it and the retail price covered by turnover tax.
1. We hope to see this issue raised in all trades councils, in every union conference. 2. They wanted the Government freely chosen by the will of the people. 3. During the work-to-rule campaign many saw their efforts wasted because some were induced to work extra hours. 4. The peoples of all countries are vitally interested in seeing further steps taken at the Foreign Ministers Conference in October. 5. All his criticisms were reserved for Labour backbenchers who want the British Army withdrawn. 6. Those who opposed the "showdown" in the State Department saw their viewpoint being taken increasingly into account by the White House. 7. Over the famous "non-dissemination" draft treaty, harmony is to be expected – and a powerful attempt to get it signed by many nations. 8. The need for pressure from the Labour movement to get such decisions taken is urgent. 9. We will not seek to frustrate that consensus, since it is not in the world interest to have the work of the general Assembly immobilized in those troubled days. 10. It is understood that the N.U.R. decision was taken against strongly expressed opposition to the T.U.C. plan particularly in the light of the Government's intention to have permanent legislation holding up pay increases without retrospective payment. 11. If this proves impossible the British would rather have this territory swallowed up by Iraq than by Syria.
Models: A. They spent last Friday listening to the Minister telling the trade union leaders that it is right for workers to hold back on wage claims. – В прошлую пятницу они слушали, как министр говорил профсоюзным лидерам, что рабочие правильно сделают, если воздержатся от требований о повышении заработной платы. B. The British people want hydrogen and atomic weapons outlawed. – Народ Англии хочет, чтобы водородное и атомное оружие было запрещено. C. We must treat this as a national emergency issue and must get this decision reversed. – Мы должны рассматривать это как вопрос чрезвычайной важности для страны и должны добиваться, чтобы это решение было (в корне) изменено.
Models: A. With the prices going higher and higher and the wages frozen, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the British housewife to make both ends meet. – Так как цены продолжают расти, а зарплата заморожена, английским хозяйкам становится все труднее сводить концы с концами. B. With unemployment now a crisis issue in many areas, the Labour movement is stepping up its 'right to work' campaign. – Теперь, когда вопрос о безработице стоит очень остро во многих районах страны, рабочие разворачивают кампанию за "право на работу". C. With a long history in international business and with more than one third of its revenue derived overseas, the company strives to be better prepared for changes that take place in various countries. – Имея длительную историю деловых отно-
9
10
шений с другими странами и получая более трети своих доходов от зарубежных сделок, компания стремится лучше подготовиться к переменам, которые происходят в разных странах. 1. With the Government doing its utmost to keep wages down, the standard of living in this country would be given an extremely serious setback. 2. With sterling staging its recovery on the foreign exchanges it has been easy for markets to lose sight of what is happening to the economy in the meantime. 3. Inflation in the United States profits both industrial and financial monopolies, with the biggest accretion of power going to the great banks. 4. The race for markets is uneven, with Japan threatening to seize almost the entire shipbuilding industry. 5. With balance of payments problems, Britain still invests abroad and then borrows abroad to correct the balance. 6. With average working hours already at a high level, the added demand for goods and services will be translated into additional jobs. 7. With more widespread travel, communications and media, companies find that they can use more information marketing approaches. 8. With investment spending expected to remain at high levels, the outlook for machinery sales is particularly good. 9. The trade agreements were concluded, with deliveries of industrial equipment paid for by the primary products and manufactured goods. 10. Confidence in Britain's future can be restored, with prices pegged and production planned. Pay attention to the participles used as conjunctions: provided (providing) – при условии, что; granted (granting) – принимая во внимание; supposing, assuming – если; допустим; предположим, что; seeing – поскольку; принимая во внимание; учитывая; ввиду того, что.
1. Provided (that) any serious interruption to chemical production does not occur, the market is bound to fall. 2. Britain would be capable to aid the developing countries, providing that British production is lifted out of its present stagnation. 3. Provided the capital was used only to pay wages, the rate of return would be fabulous. 4. Objections to this plan, supposing there is any, should be reported to the committee at once. 5. Granted that storm clouds were gathering over the economic affairs of the nation, we were given hopes of a fresh breeze from the Exchequer to blow them away. 6. It cannot be denied that, granting the difficulty of the undertaking, he has done his work with great skill. 7. Assuming the hearty cooperation of all the members, it is reasonable to expect that the celebration will be successful. 8. What we want is a wage increase. Let's have an inquiry into the cost of living seeing the Labour party are so keen on inquiries. The following participles can be used as prepositions: given, giving – при наличии failing – при отсутствии regarding, considering, respecting – относительно pending – до, в ожидании following – вслед за. Model: Given good will on the part of other states, this proposal of the USA could be carried into effect without any further delay. – При наличии доброй воли со стороны других государств, это предложение США можно было бы осуществить без дальнейшего промедления.
Model: A wider association of this kind would be feasible, provided that the methods adopted are in line with those proposed at the conference. – Более широкая организация (ассоциация) такого рода была бы возможна при условии, что принятые методы будут соответствовать методам, предложенным на конференции.
1. Prospects are bright for a big expansion of trade between these two countries, following the signing of a new three-year trade agreement. 2. These tremendous, complex tasks can be the national economy and correct leadership of the national economic development. 3. It was probably prudent to avoid expressing special enthusiasm for this project, given the support in Holland and Germany for British participation. 4. This was what the Tories want. They are against the Bill, but failing its complete defeat they are aiming to get it amended into uselessness.
11
12
5. Pending the reopening of negotiations and fearing the abrogation of some privileges the State Council adopted certain measures. 6. The Cabinet decided to consider the agreement pending ratification by the Majlis. 7. And it is argued that the risk that Britain runs in exposing her hand, though not to be discounted, is well worth taking, considering the importance to British industry of the negotiations as a whole. 4. The Gerund Construction. Person / Object + Ving form Model: We look forward to much attention being given to this question. – Мы рассчитываем на то, что этому вопросу будет уделено значительное внимание. 1. All the evidence of past words and deeds is against such agreement being possible. 2. We said it would lead to men being deprived of their livelihood and was not redeployment at all. 3. "There is no question therefore of the door being firmly closed against any increase of pay for firemen before July 1 next", he declares. 4. Refusal to do this work resulted in two men being suspended and strike action followed. 5. But if this experiment fails then it is my opinion that, far from there being an improvement in the standards of life of our people, there will be a steady diminution. 6. Our jobs and living standards depend on the industrial capacity of the nation being used to the full. 7. In and outside Parliament, using all means at their disposal, they intend to organize their considerable resourses in an effort to prevent the dominant sector of the industry becoming State-owned.
B. Far from being a triumph, it was the most ignominious surrender in modern diplomacy. – Это не только не было триумфом, но было самой позорной капитуляцией за всю историю дипломатии нашего времени. C. There is no denying that danger may be averted by this move. – Нельзя отрицать, что этим шагом можно избежать опасности. 1. Far from being thrown on the defensive by the Right Wing attack, the left should respond by the most vigorous counter-offensive. 2. The drive towards monopoly in the British Press is no different in essence from the same development in all other major industries. Far from hindering this development, the Government is actually encouraging it. 3. Far from doing anything to reduce the number of jobless, the Government is planning to throw more out of work with its rail and pit closures. 4. Far from challenging the rights and privileges of big business, he allied himself with big business against people. 5. The British Goverment far from diminishing or freezing its own war budget, is increasing its record heights. 6. Far from helping the low-paid the Prime Minister has hit them hardest of all. 7. There is no doubting that new men will be needed as well as a new attitude and new ideas. 5. Emphatic Construction. It is (not) … that (who, which, when, where)… It is not until … that …
Models: A. Far from averting this threat, this surrender will only bring about still tougher action later. – Отнюдь не устраняя угрозы, эта капитуляция приведет в будущем лишь к более жестким мерам.
Models: A. It is for that reason that the present book is both timely and appropriate. – Именно по этой причине данная книга является актуальной и своевременной. B. In peopled areas such as the Middle East, Asia and Africa, it is often not labour that is needed as much as capital, organization and access to markets. – Такие густонаселенные районы, как Средний Восток, Азия и Африка, часто нуждаются не столько в трудовых ресурсах, сколько в капитале, организации и выходе на рынок. C. It is not until November that the pensioners will receive the increase provided for in the Budget. – Прибавку к пенсии, предусмотренную в бюджете, пенсионеры получат только в ноябре.
13
14
Far from + Ving
– не только не … (+личная форма глагола), но … – вместо того, чтобы … (+неличная форма глагола) – отнюдь не (+деепричастие)
1. It is Britain's role in the projected political union which is at the heart of the discussion. 2. It was the failure either to coordinate these Ministries successfully, or to present an intelligent picture of their activities to the electorate, which was the chief weakness of the previous Cabinet. 3. It is just this issue that is at present in the centre of financial controversy in the USA. 4. It is the developing countries who are perpetually in deficit to the United States. 5. It is surplus value which provides the fund out of which all the incomes are paid, the rent, interest and profit. 6. It is obvious that it was the Portuguese army's siding with the people that spelled the doom on the fascist regime. 7. It is not only in the economic sphere that the advantages of this system manifest themselves. 8. It is not only the rate of profit but also the total amount of corporation profits that changes direction before the major turns in business activity as a whole. 9. It is not monopolies that should get compensation when industries are nationalized. 10. It is when one comes to determine the proper level of such a capital charge that the problem becomes difficult, even intractable. 11. It is only when labour productivity has been raised in all fields, disguised unemployment in agriculture removed, and labour appropriately allocated among the export, domestic, and import-competing sectors that a country can be said to be exporting in proper proportions. 12. It is not until June 5 that the Bill will be published.
Translate the following texts Text 1 PER CAPITA OUTPUT AND THE DEGREE OF SPECIALIZATION We now turn to an examination of the relationship between specialization and per capita output. At low output levels the following conditions are likely to exist. (1) The variety of activities engaged in per man will be very large. Not only will single individuals and production units produce a number of commodities. Inver but they are also likely to produce a number of commodities. (2) The performance of many operations is of a seasonal nature and therefore it is usually very difficult to spread the necessary work very evenly 15
over the year. (3) There will be considerable time lost in shifting from one activity to the next. (4) The skill displayed in performing any given activity or operation is likely to be very low, on the average. (5) The nature of the activities is such that very little capital per unit of product is required. To facilitate analysis we postulate that for every level of per capita income there is a degree of specialization that is optimum and that this optimum is in effect. For the moment let us also postulate that population size is constant. Since we assume that the proportion of different goods remains constant, an increase in income (or output) manifests itself in an increase in output of all commodities in the same proportion. The increase output of every commodity permits the concentrations of each worker on fewer activities. If workers are employed the same period of time as before, the economy as a whole can then produce more units of each commodity with the same labor force. It can do so because labor efficiency increases via specialization in the following ways: time lost in shifting from activity to activity is eliminated, activities are somewhat better synchronized than before, repetition leads to increased skill in performance, and, last, efficiency is increased, because increased specialization permits a better distribution of men among the activities in which they are most skilled. But the crucial question is this: Why was not the increased degree of specialization possible at the lower level of output? Increased specialization, given the smaller bundle of goods, would have meant less time needed per man to produce that bundle of goods, and hence the gain could have been taken in greater leisure per man. Surely, this represents a better solution than the one that involves less specialization. Why is this not done? Briefly, the answer that suggests itself is that specialization is costly, and its cost is both of a fixed and a current nature. But it is the fixed part of the cost that is significant, because this implies that increased specialization requires additional capital. In discussing the costs of specialization two types of costs must be distinguished. One is the cost of shifting from one stage of specialization to the next; the other is the differential cost of different degrees of specialization. The first type of cost is dynamic in nature. Some part of the costs of labor mobility and urbanization, as they are usually considered in discussions of economic development, involves the first type of cost. It really has to do with the cost of shifting from one resource and manpower base to another.
16
Text 2 STRUCTURE OF THE BUSINESS ENTERPRISE The typical large business enterprise of today in the United Kingdom consists of a small number of interrelated public companies and numerous private companies, overall control being vested in a parent company holding a majority of the equity of its subsidiaries. Reasons for the proliferation of companies within a business enterprise are many, including a desire to keep entirely separate types of business apart under specialised managements, historic factors such as acquisition of other companies, and tax complications. There has been a greater tendency in the United Kingdom than in the United States or Germany for the large-scale business enterprises to consist of a number of diversified businesses each operating on a medium scale rather than for there to be a massive aggregation of economic power within a narrow range of industry, as for instance in the American or German steel and engineering industries. Moreover, when a new business has been acquired by a take-over bid, management has often been retained whilst the new owners have exercised only general supervision over its affairs. Many British operating managements consist of boards of directors of subsidiary companies responsible to a parent board which controls major capital expenditure and demands a minimum standard of financial performance. The performance of the subsidiary may well be known only to the financial executives of the group may have little knowledge of the composition of the business of which they are the legal owners. Most shareholders have too small a share of the equity to influence decisions of the management whilst, so far, large institutional shareholders have chosen to exert little influence. Moreover, because of the size and complexity of the group, the parent board and its specialist advisers may well have only a sketchy knowledge of the efficiencies of operation of individual subsidiaries. Over the past few years growing competition in home and foreign markets and narrowing profit margins have caused many of the large British industrial groups to examine and to business consultants of British and American origin have been retained to advise on remedial measures. As a result of investigations by consultants, and a group's own specialist officers, there has been much reorganizations of the structure of large British businesses in recent years, most noticeably in electrical engineering, oil and chemical companies. Many groups have organised themselves into a number of separately accounting divisions, each dealing with and coordinating activities in one of the major business fields in which the group operates. 17
The operations of the divisions have been rationalised, reducing the resources and manpower required to achieve a given output. Unprofitable activities have been disposed of by many of these groups by running them down, by sale to a former competitor within a jointly-owned subsidiary, as in the case of the merger between AEI-Hotpoint and the EMI domestic appliance businesses. Many large British businesses have built up small specialist staff departments at group level which enable group operating managers to exercise adequate control over operating subsidiaries. The accelerating use of electronic data-processing machines, both in the number and in the complexity of problems handled, will allow group managements to exercise more and more exact overall control of the performance of operating responsibility to divisional and factory level. Parent boards of the major joint-stock companies are responsible mainly to themselves. Overall control usually rests with a dominant personality among their number who controls or guides the overall strategy of the group. Text 3 With a difficult agenda of this kind, and given also the very serious short-term problems which affected the British economy in the early postwar years, it is not surprising that the subject of economic growth was comparatively neglected. There were also other factors which contributed to this result. First, the rates of growth which seemed reasonable at the time appeared rather unglamorously low: it was commonly assumed that the British economy would continue to grow at something close to what was believed to be prewar rate of growth of output per man, of 1½ per cent per annum. A second additional factor was that some of the main determinants of growth – in particular, population growth and technical progress – were often held or assumed to be largely unamenable to explanation in terms of economic variables. Thus in the systems of thought or models which economists used as their intellectual frames of reference, these determinants of growth were often treated as something which had to be taken into account – at any rate in a long-term view – but which it was not necessarily the responsibility of the economist to analyse or account for. In technical language, they were treated as exogenous rather than endogenous variables. Finally, during the first five to ten years after the war, attention was to some extent distracted from the analysis of economic growth, not merely 18
because other questions seemed relatively more important and more urgent, and because economists had good reason for diffidence about their ability to explain the process of growth, but also because the rate of growth in Britain seemed reasonably satisfactory. Although there was a good deal of general concern about raising productivity, which was stimulated by comparative studies of British and US particular industries, there was no reason to feel that by historical standards, or by comparison with other countries, the overall rate of growth of the economy was seriously disappointing. Thus a variety of factors combined in causing growth problems to remain on the fringe of analysis and discussion, rather than in the centre. In the course of the nineteen-fifties each one of these factors disappeared. Text 4 The task of the evaluation of efficiency understood in this way is the achievement of the minimum investment consistent with the maintenance of equilibrium in the balance of the labour force and the balance of payments. In other words, for a given value of exports that covers (together with possible foreign loans) the value of imports, investment should be fixed at the lowest level at which the full employment of the labour force is obtained. A lower level of investment would mean that the plan is unrealistic, given the unemployment of labour. A higher level of investment would in turn imply a waste of resources that would negatively affect consumption. From this argument, on the other hand, one should not draw the conclusion that the investment calculus can by itself determine completely the pattern of foreign trade or even the productive techniques. An obstacle to obtaining the most effective export pattern can appear due, from the supply side, to technical organisational factors limiting the growth rate particular branches, and from the side of demand, to the insufficient absorption capacity of foreign markets. The export pattern is most effective when the rate of its expansion is low. Also, even the application of some effective technology can meet long-term bottlenecks. For instance, the burning of oil is more effective than the burning of coal, but in Poland that depends on the import of crude oil, and therefore it raises the foreign trade difficulties mentioned above. If we take into account this set of problems, then it appears that the necessary investment is in principle higher than the level which we would obtain by applying the 'pure' evaluation of investment efficiency. It is also worth further illustrating the arguments above, by using them to answer the frequent question whether manufacturing industries 19
should not be developed, because of their lower capital intensity, rather than primary industries producing raw materials. If we treat the question independently of foreign trade considerations, it really makes no sense at all. We cannot produce machines rather than copper, since that leads to a surplus of machines and a deficit of copper. Only if this problem is considered within the context of foreign trade can an answer to it be found in the calculus of investment efficiency. This calculus can in fact show that it is more advantageous to produce copper at home. But even this, in the light of the consideration of section 4 above, still does not prejudge the issue. The point is that it is not necessarily feasible for the export of machines to be expanded in order to import copper, and we might have to sell the machines so cheaply that this becomes ineffective. Therefore the construction of a copper mine, regardless of its capital intensity, can turn out to be, in the end, an appropriate way of implementing the development plan of the economy. Generally speaking, the so-called problem of the 'directions of development' makes sense only when it is treated as the choice of the pattern of foreign trade (as well as the production technology), because only then does it not lead to plan imbalance. Once the problem is formulated in this way, it can be solved by means of the calculus of investment efficiency, provided allowance is made for the absorption capacity of foreign markets for different export goods, and for the technical-organizational barriers to the development of the production of particular branches. Text 5 ECONOMIC GROWTH A society which has a fantastically high rate of growth of income because it reinvests all resources above the subsistence minimum and never enjoys the fruits of this investment cannot be said to behave very sensibly. On the other hand, there are important uses of a growing national product besides present and future consumption. There are military objectives, foreign aid, space travel. Moreover, we also desire the growth of leisure. And it is conceivable, though not perhaps very likely, that we are getting better off by an accelerated growth of longer holidays, shorter working weeks and a shorter working life, while the rate of growth of measured consumption declines. This is not very likely, because people do not enjoy their leisure in pure contemplation, but want more time in order to consume more. The problem is further complicated by the fact that some leisure activity is nonmeasured investment – both physical investment in the form of do-it20
yourself construction and improvement, and human investment in the form of education. The question whether it is growth in total consumption or growth in consumption per head that matters is controversial. Most people would perhaps opt for consumption per head, subject to not cutting off heads to increase the ratio. If it were possible to draw a line, above this line in preference to a smaller population at a still higher level of enjoyment. There is certainly a point beyond which we should not want to limit population, even if it meant a higher rate of growth of consumption for the remainder. Such questions were much debated in the nineteenth century and are still discussed. The fact that even very affluent societies do not encourage immigration and large families as part of their growth policies might suggest that aggregate growth is not their aim. But we cannot conclude from this that consumption per head is their objective, for neither are emigration and family limitation normally encouraged in rich countries in order to raise consumption per head. In underdeveloped countries the objective is much clearer. But in a country like Britain, does the absence of a conscious population policy mean that the government considers this is not a proper field in which to interfere, even though it aims at growth of consumption per head, or does it mean that the government is not clear about what it is that it wants to grow? If population policy is excluded, and if growth of consumption per head is the objective, we may have to abstain from consumption today in order to raise consumption per head after two generations simply because the population will be larger. Some people might object to making sacrifices now in order to satisfy the propensity to procreate of others. In spite of these objections, growth of consumption per head seems more sensible than the other possibilities, as long as we remember to include the growth of leisure and of consumption goods and services provided by the government, subject to the proviso that some growth of nonconsumption is wanted for other reason than to increase consumption later. Text 6 RECONCILIATION OF INCOME SUPPORT AND GROWTH The question of obtaining an appropriate level of overall resource use in agriculture is most acute when problems of clearing the market arise. Improvement in productivity and limited growth in demand may make this problem more widespread in the future at least for some commodities and in some countries. However, national and international policies for the development of agriculture should not be based irrevocably 21
either on the hypothesis that surpluses and low prices on the world market will continue, or that shortages and high prices on the world market will continue, or that shortages and high prices will develop. They should be flexible enough to react either to surpluses or to shortages, as the situation develops. For stability and emergency purposes should be shared by a wide group of countries. One approach is that of attempting to control the total inflow of capital into the agricultural sector. Programmes to control total capital inflow however are difficult to formulate. The terms of Government credit programmes can be varied, but the total range of credit sources is so wide as to make control difficult. Nonetheless, the special measures by governments that are designed to provide credit to farmers – often at reduced interest rates, or with other favourable terms – should be examined carefully with a view toward speeding the transformation of agriculture. More careful selection by public lending agencies could serve this purpose and possibly have some influence on the rate of overall capital inflow into the sector. The most powerful way, however, to influence capital investment is through the price level for agricultural products; this affects both the level of saving that accrue within agriculture, and the attractiveness of agricultural investment, whatever the source of finance. While price levels can also have an effect on land use in agriculture, direct programmes for shifting land out of agriculture may be needed. Programmes aimed at the transfer of land to other uses may have the effect of reducing other inputs and thus may take on something of the character of a general programme to reduce total resources used in the sector. Taking whole farms out of production is an example of this, since it is likely to entail a reduction in the number of people working in agriculture and to mean that some capital is withdrawn at the same time. This is in contrast to a reduction in the land input by restricting the area planted in each farm where the most likely result is the use of additional inputs of other kinds (e.g. fertiliser) in order to protect the income level of the farm. However, a programme of voluntary land retirement in whole farm units raises many difficulties and problems which, to be resolved successfully, need to be tackled within a general programme embracing alternative uses of land, structural reform and area development, as well as social schemes to aid the movement of farm families.
22
Text 7 DEAD, OR JUST RESTING? According to a document leaked to Shukan Bunshun, a news magazine, Fuji Bank, Dai-ichi Kangyo Bank and the Industrial Bank of Japan (IBJ), which have linked up to form the Mizuho Financial group, found some startling differences in their classification of borrowers when they got together. For example, Fuji had classified Hazama, another troubled builder to which it had little exposure, as in danger of bankruptcy. Dai-ichi Kangyo and IBJ, on the other hand, had placed it in a less risky category. As it happens, both banks had lent large amounts of money to Hazama. Now it seems that all three banks, like others in the industry, have decided that, since it recently had a chunk of its debt wiped out, Hazama (whose shares are trading below par) should be considered a "healthy" borrower. Mizuho says that the leaked document is not genuine. Mycal and Daiei, two struggling supermarket giants, also appear to have been kept out of the worst two categories of debt. Despite persistent talk that they are highly vulnerable, most banks seem to be happy that their debt is secure. The capital markets are less certain. One of Mycal's bonds, due to mature in 2008, is now priced at ¥33, a third of its face value. Investors would still, in theory, be able to get the full ¥100 a bond if they held on to maturity. That they are scrambling to sell (the price of these bonds has halved in the past two months) suggests they are afraid either that Mycal might not be around in 2008, or that it will default on its debt before then. Why do the banks seem so optimistic in the face of such market pessimism? One reason is that they cannot afford to be more cautious. Banks have to set aside reserves for only 15% of a loan that is "in need of monitoring". Reclassifying a loan as "in danger of bankruptcy" would mean reserving against 70% of the loan instead. The bigger the borrower, the bigger the hit, and some banks, already hurt by a sliding stockmarket, might find it hard to meet capital-adequacy requirements if they reserved more against big borrowers. Others might even be unable to make dividend payments on preferred shares owned by the government – putting them at risk of, in effect, being nationalised.
Text 8 TOUCHY-FEELY Accountants want to start measuring intangible assets and new economy "value drivers". They are unlike to be any good at it. Should "female potential" be rewarded with a place in companies' annual reports? Or how about the share of the staff who are younger than 40 and possess a college degree? These criteria, and many more like them, are to be found in supplements to past annual reports from Skandia, a Swedish financial group. Telling the world about its female managers and the average age of its workforce, the company thought, would attest to its wealth of "intellectual capital". Skandia's efforts in this direction seem to have petered out after 1999, when its most recent supplement was published. Now its touchy-feely approach looks prescient. Inside accountancy a debate is growing about recognising and measuring internally generated intangible assets – such things as intellectual capital and research and development. Many argue that more attention also needs to be paid in annual reports to non-financial, "soft" measures such as speed-to-market, quality of management and customer satisfaction. Ideally, the fans say, there should be rules about what extra information companies must disclose, and how. Late in 1999 America's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) gathered some people together to look into how accountants might get better at revealing "value in the new economy". According to Jeffrey Garten, dean of Yale's business school and leader of the SEC's task-force, which will report its findings later this month, changes in the world's industrial structure are threatening to make existing accounting standards obsolete. Profits in the internet age, the argument goes, are generated less from solid assets such as factories than from intangibles such as research and development or software programs. The SEC's report will conclude that companies should experiment with disclosing new types of information. A report in April by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) said that it would undertake four projects on non-financial metrics and intangible assets. The problem with all of this is that nobody inside the accountancy profession has much idea of how to put a numerical value on internally generated intangible assets, at least not while staying true to the principle of reliability. Under the present regime, most intangible assets are recognised in the balance sheet only when one company buys another and has to account for the "goodwill" part of the cost.
23
24
PART II. SUMMARIZING ARTICLES Read the following articles. Article 1. ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES MAKING POLLUTION PREVENTION PAY By Michael G. Royston Harvard. Business Review In November 1979, the ministers of the environment from the European countries and representatives from the United States and Canada met in Geneva under the auspices of the Economic Commission for Europe on the Protection of the Environment. Their purpose was to decrease pollution from industrial wastes. The ministers and representatives signed a resolution to "limit, gradually reduce, and prevent" this form of pollution. They also adopted a declaration stating that "economic development and technological progress must be compatible with the protection of the environment" and advocating the use of no-waste technologies in their countries' industries. Some businesses have long understood that environmental* protection and economic progress can go hand in hand. Consider the following examples: Ciba-Geigy, the chemical complex in Basel, Switzerland, has, with little capital investment, been able to eliminate up to 50% of the pollution from its operations and save an estimated $400,000 a year. By changing its manufacturing processes and recycling its water and solvents, it has saved not only money, but also energy. In the Federal Republic of Germany, Reffelmann Metallverar-beitung KG has recovered its electroplating liquors and made a 40% profit on them. ENKA-Glanzstoff AG is increasing its marginal profit by 30% in recovering zinc from its rayon plant effluents. Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, the multinational based in the United States and known as 3M, has since1976 expanded production by 40% and significantly reduced its annual pollutant load. Its liquid effluent has gone from 47 tons to 2.7 tons, its gaseous effluent from 3,000 tons to 2,400 tons, and its solid waste from 6,000 to 1,800 tons. This clean-up has resulted in a cost saving of $2,400,000 a year.
By 1976, this company had realized that the cost of meeting increasing demands for pollution control was threatening its profitability. It decided to attack the problem at its root by applying the philosophy that pollutants plus know-how equal potential resources and new profits. The company initiated this approach under the slogan "Pollution Prevention Pays" (3P). In the first nine months of operation in 15 countries, 3P programs eliminated 70,000 tons of air pollutants and 500 million gallons of waste water. Instead of expending money, 3M saved $11 million. By viewing pollution as an indicator of waste and an opportunity for profit rather than as a costly threat, the company had, by 1979, saved over $20 million. New no-waste technologies. The savings possible from such no-waste approaches vary widely from industry to industry and plant to plant. Most of the old technologies and processes in use were selected when the costs of energy, water, and raw materials were much lower than they are now and when the costs of waste disposal were either very low, or could be ignored. Thus, many existing plants and processes in all industries tend to have a good margin for improving efficiency, reducing costs, and minimizing waste and pollution. Even the best-managed and most efficient businesses are finding opportunities to improve their efficiency, to the benefit of both the economy and the environment. Many of these examples are to be found in Europe because it has a history of high energy and raw material costs as well as long-standing environmental concern. Many industrial and municipal installations in Europe convert wastes into energy in specially designed incinerators and use waste heat from power plants for district heating. It was there, in Finland, that the "systems approach" of integrating one type of processing plant with another to take care of wastes resulted in combined treatments that are clean, productive, profitable, and capable of generating 50% of their own energy needs. In the extraction and building industries, English Clays has been using its china clay wastes to make pre-fabricated houses. Germany's steel industry has recycled 99% of the water it uses and converted over 90% of its solid wastes into other useful materials.
_____________________ *
For the meaning of the words in bold type look up on pp. 31–32.
25
26
Exhibit I. Examples of no-waste technologies Integrated ystems
Products
Wastes avoided
Building materials (bricks, cement, aggregate)
Solid wastes
Electric power
Insulating bricks
Solid wastes
China clay
Prefabricated houses
Solid wastes Land
Copper smelting
Sulfuric acid
Fertiltzer
Garbage disposal
Power generation
Drinking water Land, heat, resources
Mining
Recreation
Garbage disposal
Fuel production
Metal recovery Land resources
Electric power
Heating for homes, fishponds, fields Heat
Paper
Alcohol
Protein
Animal waste
Gas
Food preparation
Protein
Water Pollutants
Food preparation
Chemicals
Air pollutants, resources
Steel production
Municipal waste water
Water pollutants
Hog production
Cheese
Water pollutants
Electric power
Sulfuric acid
Air pollutants
Domestic water
Industrial water Pollutant recovery Water pollutants, resources
Whiskey production Animal feed
Sulfur dioxide, heat, resources
Mining
Water Pollutants
Water pollutants, resources
Timber
Plywood
Pulp
Heat
Power generation
Air pollutants, heat, resources
Metallurgy
Paper
Air pollutants, heat, resources
Aluminum
Cryolite
Air pollutants, energy, resources
Alloy steel tubes
Pigments
Water pollutants
Titanium dioxide
Pigments
Steel production
Ceramics
Solid wastes
Phosphates
Plasterboard
Water pollutants
Magnetic tape
27
Water pollutants, resources
Water pollutants
Water pollutants
Some industries are able to turn half their gross pollution load to profit before having to pay for the hard task of cleanup, and many of them are in North America. Hylsa, the steel company in Mexico, is using the sponge iron process to implement direct reduction technology and prevent the massive pollution of coke ovens, which cost U.S. Steel over $600 million to clean up recently at its Clairton works. Shell Oil in Canada has been disposing of its refinery sludge by ploughing it into the prairie and increasing barley yields from 18% to 31%. In the United States, the paper companies have begun to look at their industrial wastes as ways of making money. As a by-product of processing at its Bellingham, Washington, plant, Georgia Pacific is producing 190-proof alcohol "so pure and potent" that the Treasury Department has stationed men in the plant full-time to make sure that none of it is converted to drinking liquor before its sale to industrial users. Organizing for profit. How can companies best exploit their own pollution prevention opportunities: The key to 3M's success has been giving corporate-wide recognition to the importance of technological innovation in making the company efficient and profitable, delegating responsibility and initiative to the shop floor and rewarding all company personnel who get involved in 3P programs. Each 3M factory has its own plant energy and environment committee comprising the plant engineer as chairman, the maintenance supervisor, the control engineer, the manufacturing supervisor, the division engineer, and an industrial engineer. Their job is to set targets for waste avoidance, establish programs with shop floor personnel, report progress to management, audit savings, and report to the central committee. 28
At 3M all corporate personnel from the shop floor upward are mobilized to contribute their knowledge and observations to the pollution abatement programs adopted. To qualify as a 3P program, a proposal has to eliminate or reduce a pollutant; bring about reduced energy use or more efficient use of raw materials like water; include some innovative features; and bring monetary benefit through reduced or deferred controls or manufacturing costs, increased sales of existing or new products, or reduced capital or running costs. Pollution has been efficiently lessened, not by installing pollution control plants, but by reformulating products, redesigning equipment, modifying processes, or recovering materials for reuse. Growth boost. If taking such a positive approach to environmental protection can help companies maintain their profit, it can also help them grow. In the United States this year, environmental business has been almost a $50 billion affair and has recently been increasing 20% a year. This new commercial area has brought in its wake a wave of new businesses. In the Federal Republic of Germany, more than 200 new companies have recently been set up to provide environmental products and services. In the United States, there are companies like Apollo Chemical Co., which started in the air pollution business some 15 years ago employing 10 people, but which now employs over 400 and has subsidiaries around the world. Another is Waste Management, Inc., a garbage-handling business based on a new technology that yields a turnover of $350 million. Exhibit II. Number of innovations in which environmental concerns have been considered* Industry
France
Federal United Japan Netherlands Total Republic of Kingdom Germany 12 2 10 28 12 6 5 12 44
Automobiles Chemicals
4 9
Computers
5
9
7
Consumer electronics
7
8
6
3 7
6
29
21
15
46
164
Textiles
10
6
Total
35
47
10
31
8
32
_____________________ * Source: National Support for Science and Technology; An Examination of Foreign Experience (Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1976).
29
Even more significant, many large companies have added divisions to provide environmental goods and services. In the United States, Boeing, FMC, Exxon, Dow Chemicals, 3M, and Caterpillar Tractor all market environmental products and services. In Europe, Shell, BP, Ciba-Geigy, Krupp, and Philips market specialized environmental services. New growth areas tend to stem from technological innovation, and innovation tends to result from external need or pressure. Environmental pressure generates innovation. Environmentally induced economic activity continues to stimulate the economy. It is an estimated 2% of the gross national product in countries like the United States. The amount of employment engendered by all aspects of environmental protection in the United States was, at the 1977 Environmental Improvement Council Conference, reported to be 2 million jobs. Direct employment induced by the National Environmental Policy Act runs at about 75,000. Japan, in recession in 1974, used strict pollution control to boost construction and engineering and hence restimulate the economy; 20% of its economic growth since then can be attributed to its new strict environmental legislation. Japanese companies are world leaders in supplying some kinds of advanced pollution control equipment. Survival of the fittest. In determining the direction of their future growth, companies as well as nations will more and more have to take environmental concerns into account. The ultimate objective of the corporation is survival, and reaching that depends very much on the adaptation of the corporation to its environment. Such major companies as Shell and BP are directing their development by forecasting from scenarios. They describe all the possible environmental conditions that might control their growth and make decisions accordingly. AKZO, the Dutch chemical multinational, constructs elaborate scenarios based on the social, political, physical, economic, and technological environments that it feels may prevail in the future and then determines which products and services will be most compatible with such conditions. More and more companies are assessing the environmental impact of projects they are about to introduce. Enterprises accept the validity of environmental concern and encourage environmental awareness on their staffs. They can minimize the negative and maximize the positive impacts of their new projects. They can also prevent their projects from being blocked by the courts or by citizen protest actions. By becoming concerned about environmental 30
Words to study. Environmental: concerning the surroundings; involving land planning, preservation of public lands and services, control of air and water pollution, and the keeping of coasts and countryside from harm. Protection: keeping safe, keeping secure. Environmental protection: the act of keeping lands, air, and water (usually public) safe and free from pollution or other harm. Complex: industry made up of several branches or parts. Operations: activities, actions. Processes: methods, series of actions deliberately undertaken. Recycling: reusing (of waste products). Liquors: here, special liquids. Marginal profit: difference between the cost price and the selling price. Effluents: wastes from manufacturing processes. Multinational: company involving more than one country. Annual: yearly. Pollutant load: amount of pollution. Gaseous: in the form of a gas. Clean-up: any lessening of pollution or polluting agents. Know-how: practical knowledge, ability to do something. Potential: possible in the future. Resources: materials usable in production. Expending: spending, using up. Raw materials: goods used in manufacturing a product. Disposal: throwing away, getting rid of. Efficiency: effective production with no unnecessary activity or costs. Managed: directed. Long-standing: since some time ago.
Installations: systems of machinery arranged for use. Integrating: using in combination. Extraction: process of removing or taking out. Pre-fabricated: constructed beforehand, entirely or in part. To implement: to put into effect or operation. Reduction: here, involving purification by removal of oxygen. Refinery sludge: very thick liquid waste from processing crude oil. Ploughing: working or turning up soil, as in farming. Barley: a kind of grain. By-product: anything produced as a result of making something else. Potent: here, strong. Stationed: placed in position. Exploit: take advantage of, profit from. Prevention: keeping something undesirable from happening. Corporate-wide: throughout the entire corporation. Innovation: any new process or device. Delegating: here, giving. Shop floor: where the work of a factory or plant is actually taking place. Comprising: including. Audit: check or verify financially. Mobilized: collected or assembled together for service or use. Abatement: lessening or decreasing. Proposal: formal suggestion. Monetary: financial. Deferred: put off, left until later. Running costs: costs of day-to-day operation. Boost: here, improvement. Subsidiaries: companies with more than 50% of the stock owned by another company. Turnover: amount of business done. Induced: caused, brought about. Engendered: created. Forecasting: predicting, foretelling. Scenarios: possible series of events or story outlines usually to make a specific point or for a specific purpose. Services: in business, something done to benefit others for pay. Impact: result, effect. Press: here, publicity. Payoff: the long-awaited reward. Ecological: having to do with living things and their relationship to the environment.
31
32
impact ahead of time, companies can avoid costly delay, bad press, and heavy financial burden. The payoff. If a company looks at economic questions in an ecological way and at ecological questions in an economic way, it can make pollution prevention pay in relation to three corporate objectives. By focusing attention on waste avoidance and efficient operation, it can increase profit. By investigating new areas in which to develop products and services, it can grow. By avoiding conflict over new projects and winning acceptance for them by looking at them with an eye to the new environmental values, it can improve its chances of surviving.
Assignments 1. Business Vocabulary. A. Complete the sentences with the appropriate form of the word in parentheses. 1. (environment) Many businesses are making their _____ concerns profitable. 2. (process) Chemical companies are now beginning to change their manufacturing ______. 3. (gas) Many pollutants are in _______ form. 4. (resource) Pollutants are now seen as possible _______. 5. (prevent) Companies are concerned with the _______ of pollution. 6. (innovate) Many businesses such as 3M are recognizing the importance of promoting technological _______. 7. (operate) Large _____ are finding profitable methods of using waste materials. 8. (mobile) The 3M Corporation has _______ all personnel in its efforts to prevent pollution. 9. (propose) ______ for eliminating or reducing a pollutant are being sought at some companies. 10. (protect) Currently, many companies are concerned with environmental _______. 11. (efficient) Businesses are concerned with the _______ of their operation while reducing pollution. B. Below is a brief summary of the article. From the list of words, there is one choice that is most suitable for each blank in the article. Each word is used one time. Be sure to use the appropriate form. marginal profit refinery sludge services by-product managed effluents multinational annual scenario increase This article looks at how businesses are working toward environmental protection at the same time as making economic progress. For example, the 3M Company, a _______ based in the U.S., has significantly reduced its _______ pollutant load. Another company, Georgia-Pacific, is producing salable alcohol as a _______ of its normal processing. Shell Oil 33
of Canada has found that some material such as _______ may be used to _______ agricultural production. Elaborate _______ are used by AKZO in planning future products and _______. Not only are poorly _______ businesses finding opportunities to improve their efficiency: a significant amount of _______ can be gained by recovering usable material from _______. 2. Structural Review. A. Expressing manner and purpose "with", "by" and "to". Some kinds of verb phrases (for example, PREP + VB + -ing or to + INF) are used very freely in technical and business writing. In the course of his article, the author uses by with a verb telling how a dozen times. The full form of this use by is by means of. It indicates that the verb following by tells how. A verb following by ends in -ing. Example 1: Ciba-Geigy has saved not only money but also energy by changing its manufacturing processes. Example 2: By 1979, 3M has saved over $20 million by viewing pollution as an opportunity for profit. Almost as often, the author uses to before a verb to tell why. A verb after to has the infinitive form. Example 1: Many large companies have added divisions to provide environmental goods and services. Example 2: To boost construction and engineering in a recession period, Japan used strict pollution control legislation. Using either by or to, combine the following pairs of sentences into one, changing the verb if necessary. Example: Shell Oil in Canada has been disposing of its refinery waste. It is ploughing it into the prairie. Solution: Shell Oil in Canada has been disposing of its refinery waste it into the prairie. 1. English Clays has been using its china clay wastes. It is making pre-fabricated houses. 2. The Treasury Department has stationed men in the plant. They are making sure that no alcohol is converted to drinking liquor. 3. Such major companies as Shell and BP are directing their own development. They are forecasting from scenarios. 34
4. Hylsa of Mexico is using the sponge iron process. It is implementing direct reduction technology and preventing massive pollution of its coke furnaces. 5. Companies can avoid costly delay. They become concerned about environmental impact ahead of time. 6. A company can increase profits. It focuses attention on waste avoidance. 7. At 3M all corporate personnel from the shop floor upward are mobilized. They are contributing their knowledge and observations. 8. Plants have efficiently lessened pollution. They have recovered materials for reuse. 9. In Germany more than 200 new companies have set themselves up. They are providing environmental products and services. 10. The corporation is surviving. It is adapting to its environment. 11. ENKA-Glanzstoff AG is increasing its marginal profit. It is recovering zinc from its rayon plant effluents. 12. By 1976, 3M had decided to attack the problem at its roots. It applied its know-how. 13. The company is increasing profits. It is focusing attention on waste avoidance. 14. Some companies are turning waste to profit. They are taking a positive view of pollution. 15. A company can grow. It investigates new areas in which to develop products and services. 16. The technology of an industry must have a good margin for improving efficiency. It economizes by means of a no-waste approach. B. Communicating other meanings with prepositions and verbs plus –ing. In the article there are also other prepositions which go before verbs ending in -ing. Most verbs following prepositions must end in -ing. Example: The industry changed to a new process without giving consideration to future environmental demands. In this article, there are four such prepositions used: for, of, in, and instead of. Choose the best of these four prepositions to complete the blanks in the following sentences: 1. ( ) expending money, 3M saved $11 million by viewing pollution as an indicator of waste. 2. As a by-product ( ) processing at its Washington plant, Georgia Pacific is producing 190-proof alcohol. 35
3. ENKA-Glanzstoff AG is increasing its marginal profit by 30% ( ) recovering zinc from its rayon plant effluents. 4. The key to 3M's success has been giving corporatewide recognition to the importance of technological innovation ( ) making the company efficient and profitable. 5. In the United States, the paper companies have begun to look at their industrial wastes as ways ( ) making money. 6. Many existing plants and processes in all industries tend to have a good margin ( ) improving efficiency. 3. Business Communications. Summarization. The ability to summarize is a skill vital to both oral and written business transactions. A summary presents only the most important information in a concise form. You will need this skill when writing business reports or in presenting lengthy oral explanations. The following questions are based on the text. Answer each question with one complete sentence. Example: Question: Some businesses have long understood that economic progress can go hand in hand with what? Solution: Economic progress can go hand in hand with environmental protection. 1. The three examples of companies cited in the introduction show the reader what? 2. What sort of technologies can be found in many industries and what does this mean for attempts to reduce pollution? 3. Not only poorly managed businesses but also what other kinds of businesses in Europe and North America are capable of benefiting the economy and the environment? 4. As an example of how a company works toward pollution prevention, how did 3M organize in its effort to reduce or lessen pollution? 5. Besides helping companies maintain or increase profits, what has been another benefit of the concern with pollution? 6. How does this new business help a nation's economy? 7. How are some companies planning for the future? 8. How can companies make pollution prevention pay? Taking the answers to the questions in the above exercise and putting them together, we have a paragraph similar to the one that follows. Compare your paragraph to the one below. Note that this paragraph is a summary of the most important information found in the article. 36
Example summary. Economic progress can go hand in hand with environmental protection. The examples given demonstrate that pollution may be greatly lessened while making a profit from recycling wastes. Many industries use old technologies and processes and thus have a good margin for improving efficiency and minimizing waste and pollution. Also, well-managed and efficient businesses in Europe and North America are capable of improving efficiency to the benefit of both the economy and the environment. The 3M Corporation recognized the importance of technological innovation, delegated responsibility and initiative to the shop floor and rewarded personnel for getting involved in its pollution program. A new commercial area has been created the environmental business. Environmentally induced economic activity stimulates the economy by creating new technological innovations and by employing more people. Some companies plan by forecasting from scenarios based on the possible social, political, economic, and technological environmental conditions that may exist in the future. If a company looks at economic questions in an ecological way and at ecological questions in an economic way, it can make pollution prevention pay. Article 2. WOUNDED EXECUTIVES FIGHT BACK ON AGE BIAS* Business Week Age discrimination has long been a fact of corporate life in the U.S. Wall Street's emphasis on "youthful, dynamic management" and the actuarial costs of an older staff have shortened many an executive's career. For some companies, firing or forcing early retirement on highly paid older executives has two perceived advantages: It cuts salary costs and pension liabilities and, at the same time, makes room at the top for young achievers. It is a particularly tempting option in a recessionary period like the present, when corporations seek to trim expenses. But these days it is also a potentially costly option. Executives have begun to fight back by invoking the protections of the 1967 Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). Among the companies that have recently lost suits under that act are Sandia Laboratories (a subsidiary of Western Electric), in Albuquerque; Eastern Air Lines, in Miami; Chemetron, in Chicago; Atlantic Container Lines, in New York City; and Textron, in Providence. *
For the meaning of the words in bold type look up on pp. 40–42.
37
Other companies have settled out of court. Standard Oil Co. of California paid $2 million to 264 employees in a 1974 age bias case. Pan American World Airways Inc. settled $900,000 on some 600 older management employees in 1978. Hartford Fire Insurance Co. (now Hartford Insurance Company), a subsidiary of International Telephone & Telegraph Corp., paid $240,000 last year to 72 current or former employees allegedly fired, demoted, or denied promotions in violation of the ADEA. And Connecticut General Insurance Corp. of Bloomfield, Conn., has quietly settled a number of individual age bias claims, with others pending. No fanfare. Age bias has become a major corporate issue without the fanfare of earlier race and sex discrimination cases. However, few executives outside the companies involved know that age bias cases are pending against Consolidated Edison (in a suit that involves more than 150 managerial employees), National Broadcasting, Trans World, Japan Air Lines, Home Insurance, and Equitable Life Assurance. In all such cases, say lawyers and management consultants, the odds are heavily in favor of the employee, particularly since amendments to the ADEA in 1978 assured the availability of jury trials. "When you put a large corporation against an employee in front of a jury on an issue like this, there is rarely any question as to the outcome," says George P. Sape, vicepresident of Organization Resource Counselors Inc., a New York-based employee relations consultant. In Connecticut, two former officers of Bloomfield-based Kaman Corp. have sued to recover income and benefits lost when they were fired in 1978. The men – a $90,000-a-year president of a subsidiary and a $50,000-a-year director of corporate affairs – were both nearing age 60. They claim that there is a decade-long pattern of discrimination at Kaman that has ended the careers of more than two dozen executives in their 50s and has prevented any corporate officer from reaching what was formerly the normal retirement age of 65. The company denies all charges but declines further comment. Clearly, there is a national trend. V. Paul Donnelly, a Detroit attorney, claims to have age discrimination cases pending or in court against at least 150 major corporations. He says: "I'm finding guys coming in now from all over, in the $60,000-and-up range, presidents and high vicepresidents. If people at those levels start talking, they can cause big problems for corporations." 38
"In the next decade," says Leonard S. Janofsky, president of the American Bar Assn., "the age act (ADEA) will be the source of a great percentage of employment discrimination litigation, perhaps even eclipsing Title VII (which covers race and sex)." Since July, 1979, the EEOC has recorded 8,000 complaints, nearly double the number of the previous year. The number of age bias suits filed by individuals is believed to be up, although the 1979 figure is unavailable because the EEOC does not record private suits. In 1978, when the Labor Dept. kept track, more than 400 private suits were filed, many of them by executives with enough savings to wait out such litigation. Special obligation. "Age discrimination is not only widespread but it is widely accepted by many Americans who have rejected discrimination based on race and sex," EEOC Chair Eleanor Holmes Norton told the House Select Committee on Aging last month. Because of this attitude, the EEOC feels a special obligation to move aggressively on these cases, Norton said. She explained that the agency aims to demonstrate to employers their intention to actively enforce the law. U.S. demographics suggest that the agency's attorneys will have plenty to do. By 1985, 36% of the labor force will be more than 40 years of age. Meanwhile, members of the postwar baby boom – many of them now adults in middle-management ranks – will be pushing for the higher-level jobs held by executives in their late 40s and 50s. "As talent becomes more plentiful and there's a real need for upward mobility, companies will say that the easiest way to accomplish it will be to retire older managers," says Dilworth F. Brown, senior vice-president of Meidinger Inc., a consulting firm based in Louisville. "We're suggesting to corporations that they must use a due-process approach," says H. Reeve Darling, president of Los Angeles Consulting Group. "They've got to be able to demonstrate measurable differences in performance, and employees must be reviewed at several levels." Darling adds that "right now, there is probably not a company in this country that has an adequate and effective appraisal program in place."
older, too-highly paid executive nowadays is going to do it in a subtle way over a period of time by building up a dossier on little ways he screwed up. If the executive senses he is getting out of favor, he should start building his own dossier, keep notes and copies of commendations, and, most of all, do a good job." Because the ADEA has a six-month deadline for filing a claim of age discrimination – although in states with their own age bias agencies, the deadline is extended to 300 days – employees who feel that age was the sole reason for their discharge should move fast, advises Donnelly. Some companies give a discharged older employee six months' pay "so that the man will forget about filing an age discrimination claim until after the 180 days are up," Donnelly says. Similarly, he cautions, the hiring of counselors to help discharged white-collar workers find new employment may be designed mainly to use up the six-month filing period. In addition to federal suits, state courts have helped the older employee who feels that his dismissal is because of his age. In Michigan, the state Supreme Court ruled that both Masco Corp. and Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Michigan had entered into an implied agreement with their employees by emphasizing pension plans and job security in their recruiting material; therefore, the court said, the organizations must show "just cause" before depriving an employee of those benefits. This marks a change in the traditional doctrine that nonunion white-collar workers can be fired at will. "The company is selling itself, too, when it hires people," Donnelly says. "What those rulings say is that a company must be bound by the promises it makes."
Self-protection. Likewise, the former employees' attorneys are also providing advice for endangered executives. "They should be aware of the law and the signs," says one. "A sophisticated employer who wants to get rid of an
Words to study. Bias: prejudice, unfair and negative opinion of something Discrimination: unfair treatment (the result of bias). Dynamic: active, energetic. Actuarial: statistical, pertaining to the study of rates of occurrence of events. Retirement: permanent ending of employment (usually because of age). Perceived: sensed, having gained an awareness of. Pension: regular payment made to someone old, disabled, widowed, or to an employee after long service. Liabilities: debts, financial responsibilities. Achievers: persons who accomplish something, especially something difficult. Tempting: creating a desire.
39
40
Option: choice, alternative. Recessionary: pertaining to a general economic slowdown. To trim: to cut off a little bit of. Invoking: calling on for help. Act: group of related laws passed at the same time. Suits: court actions, court cases. Subsidiary: a company with more than 50% of the stock owned by another company. Settled: reached an agreement, finished deciding. Demoted: reduced in rank or to a lower position and pay. Promotions: increases in rank or to higher positions and pay. Pending: not yet settled or decided. In a court of law, a case which is "pending" is one which has been heard by the judge, but about which a decision has not yet been announced. Fanfare: exaggerated publicity. Issue: question for discussion. Consultants: experts who are hired for a short time to provide knowledge or advice. Odds: probability. Amendments: formal changes. Jury: group of citizens who decide guilt or innocence during a trial. Employee relations: dealings between management and employees. Officers: persons with a position of authority. Sued: brought suit. Denies: says (something) is not true. Declines: refuses (politely). Attorney: lawyer. Litigation: court action, legal activity. EEOC: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Demographics: statistics based on large populations, or characteristics of large groups. Labor force: the working population of a country or region. Post-: after (added at the beginning of a word). Postwar: after the war. Middle-management: pertaining to management positions which are neither the highest ones nor the lowest ones. Upward mobility: capability of movement to a higher position. Due-process: pertaining to fair, timely, and legal action. Performance: quality of work.
Appraisal: evaluation, judging. In place: functioning, in operation. Dossier: collection of various papers for a specific purpose, especially for showing and describing the qualifications of a candidate for a job. Screwed up: made a mistake (sometimes considered very impolite). Commendations: compliments, praise. Deadline: last acceptable time that something must be done. Discharge: being fired, dismissal (of an employee). White-collar: pertaining to those who do not work with their hands (from the fact that office workers traditionally wore white shirts). Just cause: legal and fair reason. Depriving: taking away from. At will: arbitrarily, at any time, whenever one likes. Bound: put under legal obligation, made liable.
41
42
Assignments 1. Business Vocabulary. A. In English, nouns and verbs frequently share the same base (root). Many verbs may add the ending -ion (or often -tion, or -ation) to form a noun: create creation Notice that the final -e of the verb disappears in the noun form. In every case, the ending -ion means "process," "act," or "state of being." Creation is the act of creating, or it is what has been created. Look at the following examples from the article of verbs which can be made into nouns by adding some form of -ion. VERB NOUN protect (from) protection (from) intend intention promote promotion violate violation d deprive (of) deprivation (of) commend commendation tempt temptation perceive perception To familiarize yourself with both verbs and nouns and their meanings, write the verb form of the word beside its meaning in the list below: 1. _______to gain understanding, to realize. 2. _______to keep something from someone. 3. _______to guard, to keep from danger.
4. _______to raise to a more important job or rank. 5. _______to have a purpose in mind. 6. _______to praise, to approve of. 7. _______to break a rule or law. 8. _______to create a desire (often a desire for something bad). Now write the noun form next to its meaning: 9. ________the act of approving, praising. 10. _______the act of breaking a law or rule. 11. _______the result or process of gaining understanding. 12. _______the fact of having a purpose in mind. 13. _______the act of keeping something from someone. 14. _______an advancement in job or rank. 15. _______the act of keeping from danger. 16. _______the creation of a desire. From among the sixteen forms you have written, choose the one which is appropriate for each blank in the following memo. MEMORANDUM Date: November 23, 200__ To: Robert Ellison From: Deborah Weaver Subject: Age Bias I have just read a recent magazine article in Business Week which discusses age bias in business. The article comments on the fact that many businesses _______ the rights of many older managers in business by not giving them a _______ as they approach sixty-five years of age and by cutting their pensions. Companies are frequently _______ to fire older executives or to force them to retire early. However, many of the affected businessmen are seeking the _______ of the 1967 Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). Under this law, any business which has _______ a person of his/her job and pension benefits may be in _______ of the law and can be sued by the person affected. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission _______ to enforce the law whenever possible. Robert, please check the personnel files on all our departments' older employees. Find out if any have been given a written _______ for good work within the last three years or if any have been ______ to a higher position within the last two years. It is not the ________ of this department to _______ older managers of any legal rights. Please report your findings within the week. Thanks. 43
B. Choose the most appropriate word from the following list to complete the sentences. white collar subsidiary officers liabilities recession actuarial labor force attorney deadline consultants 1. _______ costs of an older staff have helped to shorten many an executive's career. 2. Early retirement helps the company by cutting salary costs and other ____. 3. During a period of _______, early retirement of older executives is especially appealing to corporations. 4. Sandia Laboratories is a _______ of Western Electric. 5. Management _______ say employees who have been discriminated against have a good chance of winning in court because the trials are jury trials. 6. Executives are frequently called _______. 7. A lawyer may also be referred to as an _______. 8. By 1985, 36% of the _______ will be more than 40 years of age. 9. Some state agencies are extending the _______ for filing a claim of age discrimination. 10. Sometimes, corporations hire counselors to help discharged _______ workers. C. The meanings of many two-word phrases may seem obvious, because each word in the phrase is a familiar one. But, together, the words may have a special meaning. This chapter includes several two-word phrases which are frequently used in business. From the list below, fill in each blank with the most appropriate two-word phrase. employee relations middle management due process upward mobility labor force just cause at will Many companies fire or force early retirement on highly paid older executives. Employees are fighting back, saying that nonunion white-collar workers cannot be fired _______ and that any company which wants to fire an employee must first show _______. 44
Age bias is partly a result of the large number of younger executives. As the number of younger, _______ level executives increases, the need for _______increases. This may become a greater problem as more of the _______ grows older. This problem of age bias has created business for specialists in _______. These people consult with both businesses and employees. Presently, they are advising businesses to observe _______ of law when preparing to fire someone.
3. Business Communications. Note taking and summarization. A summary is a short, orderly collection of the most important information in an article. It is different from notes, since it is written in sentence form. The ability to summarize is very useful to busy people. To do it well, you must understand the information and decide what is most important. Try to take notes on short selections by writing answers to the questions in only a few words. For each selection, if you combine the notes and put them into sentence form, you will have a summary. Expanding the notes, we have a summary sentence. You can take notes on and write a summary of an entire article simply by asking yourself questions in the form of a plan.
2. Structural Review. Expressing custom or repeated action in the past: used to. Used to + INFINITIVE expresses custom and habit, repeated action, or permanent state in the past. There is nothing like it in the present. Examples: Custom and habit: Companies used to look for employees with lots of experience. Repeated action: One corporation used to fire one older executive after another. Permanent state: Before 1967 and the ADEA, many older management employees used to see little hope of fighting back. Often, used to is employed to contrast something in the past with a new condition in the present. Negative. In American English the negative is didn't use to (or did not use to in formal language). Questions. In American English, used to is treated like a normal "do" verb: Did you used to worry about being fired? You used to come in early, didn't you? Pronunciation. The "s" in used to is pronounced /s/, not /z/. Notice that to be used to, meaning to be accustomed to, has nothing to do with used to + INFINITIVE discussed above. The following phrases can be combined into sentences if you add used to. Add only used to. No other words are necessary for the formation of a good sentence. This exercise is easy if you read all the parts and then look for the subject of the sentence. 1. age discrimination cases / very few / be taken to court 2. before ADEA / be helpless / older management employees 3. white collar workers / their own companies / sue / never 4. be low / brought by individuals / age bias suits / the number of 5. older white-collar workers / have more faith in / their own companies / in 6. to move older executives out / be less pressure / there 7. in firing older executives / there was no danger / to feel that / corporations
1. Age discrimination has long been a fact of corporate life in the U.S. The business community has emphasized youthful, dynamic management. For many companies, firing or forcing early retirement on highly paid older executives has two perceived advantages: it cuts salary costs and pension liabilities, and it makes room at the top for young achievers. 2. These days it is a potentially costly option. Executives have begun to fight back by invoking the protections of the 1967 Age Discrimination in Employment Act. Many companies have gone to court and have lost suits. Other companies have paid large amounts of money to settle out of court. 3. Age bias has become a major corporate issue because many companies have lawsuits filed against them, and the odds are in favor of-the employee. The lawsuits are decided by jury trials, and this is what gives the employee an advantage. Examples of this are Standard Oil Co. of California which paid $2 million to 264 employees in a 1974 age bias case. Pan American World Airways, Inc., which paid $900,000 to 600 older management employees; and the Hartford Fire Insurance Co. which paid $240,000 to seventy-two employees. 4. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is very concerned about age discrimination because many Americans accept this sort of discrimination, even though they do not accept sexual or racial discrimination. The EEOC plans to demonstrate to employers their intention actively to enforce the law.
45
46
Now, read the selections given below, decide what questions need to be asked, and write the answers in note form. When you finish making notes on all the selections, put all the notes together in sentence form in one paragraph. Now you will have completed a summary of the selections.
5. The EEOC will probably have plenty to do because by 1985, 36% of the labor force will be over 40 years of age. Also, members of the postwar baby boom will be moving into middle-management positions and will be pushing for the higher-level jobs held by executives in their late 40s and 50s. Companies will be wanting to retire older managers so the young can move up.
Scan the articles and summaries them Article 3. AMERICA’S HAMBURGER HELPER McDonald’s gives new meaning to "we do it all for you" by investing in people and their neighborhoods By Edwin M. Reingold Los Angeles If you’re going to take money out of a community, give something back. RAY KROC, McDonald’s
founder
WHEN THE SMOKE CLEABED after mobs burned through South Central Los Angeles in April, hundreds of businesses, many of them black owned, had been destroyed. Yet not a single McDonald’s restaurant had been torched. Within hours after the curfew was lifted, all South Central’s Golden Arches were back up and running, feeding fire fighters, police and National Guard troops as well as burned-out citizens. The St. Thomas Aquinas Elementary School, with 300 hungry students and no utilities, called for lunches and got them free – with delivery to boot. For Edward H. Rensi, president and CEO of McDonald’s U.S.A., the explanation of what happened, or didn’t happen, in South Central L.A. was simple: "Our businesses there are owned by African-American entrepreneurs who hired African-American managers who hired African-American employees who served everybody in the community, whether they be Korean, African American or Caucasian." The $19-billion-a-year company has often been the target of those who disparage everything from its entry-level wage structure to the aesthetic blight of its cookie-cutter proliferation. But the Los Angeles experience was vindication of enlightened social policies begun more than three decades ago. The late Ray Kroc, a crusty but imaginative salesman who forged the chain in 1955, insisted that both franchise buyers and company 47
executives get involved in community affairs. "If you are going to take money out of a community, give something back," Kroc enjoined. "It’s only good business." As a result, McDonald’s stands out not only as one of the more socially responsible companies in America but also as one of the nation’s few truly effective social engineers. Both its franchise operators, who own 83% of all McDonald’s restaurants, and company officials sit on boards of local and national minority service organizations, allowing the company to claim that its total involvement in everything from the Urban League and the N.A.A.C.P. to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce may constitute the biggest volunteer program of any business in the nation. Because their original prosperity came from hamburger stands in middle-class suburbs, McDonald’s managers were at first reluctant to move markets. But company executives say their first tentative steps in the ‘70s showed those fears to be unfounded. The policy practiced in the suburbs that McDonald’s stores reflect the communities in which they operate, was applied to the new urban markets. As a result, nearly 70% of McDonald’s restaurant management and 25% of the company’s executives are minorities and women, and so are about half its corporate department heads. This year McDonald’s will nearly double its purchases from companies that are minority of female owned, from last year’s $167 million to $300 million. Several of the biggest are owned and operated by former McDonald’s managers or franchise holders. The spawning ground for many of the new ideas and programs designed to integrate the franchises into neighborhoods in which they operate has been the company’s moral and intellectual McCenter, Hamburger University, set in its own 80-acre nature preserve near Oak Brook, 111. Since 1979 the company has held affirmative-action seminars for its executives and managers there, as well as in many of the company’s 40 regional offices, on such topics as how to manage the changing work force and handle career development for women, blacks and Hispanics. Each year 3,000 employees complete affirmative action training programs that last 1 ½ to 3 days. Ideas originated at headquarters and by individual franchisees have led to programs such as McJobs, which takes on mentally and physically impaired employees, and McPride, which keeps students in school and rewards them for academic achievement while they work. Through a program devised by its store owners, the company has helped establish 153 Ronald McDonald Houses, named tor the chain’s trademark clown, where families of seriously ill children can stay while the child is undergoing extensive medical treatment, such as chemotherapy or 48
bone-marrow transplants. Each house serves an average of 15 families who pay from $5 to $ 15 a night, if they can afford it. The local projects are supported by local fund drives, and all the money collected goes directly to the houses; McDonald’s pays all administrative costs of the program, which extends to Canada, France, Germany, Holland, Australia and New Zealand. But MCDONALD’S broadest impact… … has been through its basic job-training system. Its 8,800 U.S. restaurants (there are an additional 3,600 overseas from Beijing to Belgrade) train American youth of every ethnic hue. "Send-ing a kid to the Army used to be the standard way to teach kids values, discipline, respect for authority, to be a member of a team, get to work on time, brush your teeth, comb your hair, clean your fingernails," says Ed Rensi. "Now, somehow, McDonald's has become the new entry-level job-training institution in America. We find ourselves doing things in that role that we would never imagine we would do." Among them: paying kids to study, rewarding them for staying in school, hiring physically and mentally handicapped youngsters and adults and giving sensitivity training to co-workers. In a program called McMasters, older people, usually retirees, are hired to work alongside young crew members to give the workplace a sense of family and to set an example of caring, courtesy and responsibility. In conjunction with the vocational-rehabilitation services of several states, nearly 7,000 disabled and handicapped people have been trained to function as full McDonald's employees by job coaches drawn from within the company. Before these less fortunate employees take their places, company trainers often put young able-bodied workers in blindfolds, gloves or dark glasses to demonstrate the kind of handicaps their new colleagues have to deal with in doing the same jobs. At Pat Newbury's McDonald's restaurant in Renton, Wash., some young employees earn an hour's pay not for flipping burgers but for studying an hour before their work shift begins. In a Chicago-area restaurant, Hispanic teenagers are being tutored in English. In Tulsa, a McDonald's crew is studying algebra after work. At a Honolulu restaurant, student workers get an extra hour's pay to study for an hour after closing. In Colorado, Virginia and Massachusetts there are Stay in School programs offering bonus money for employees who receive good grades. Reading-improvement classes frequently take place at restaurants in Kansas and New Jersey. Despite the initial skepticism of educators, McDonald's programs have managed to allay the fears of many that work and school could not 49
mix. In February the National Association of Secondary School Principals passed a resolution commending the company for "exemplary and motivational efforts to support education, students and assistant principals." Bob Charles, the owner of a McDonald's in Boulder, has seen some of his employed at-risk students begin to get A's after joining his McPride program, which limits them to a 14-hour workweek and pays bonuses for improvement and school attendance. Many of them have a very low level of selfesteem, says Charles. But once they come to work as part of a team and gain a sense of confidence, "you'd almost never believe the change in these kids." Mark Brownstein's company owns 13 restaurants in Orange County, Calif., and hires elderly and handicapped workers aggressively. "They are people who need work, and we need people to work. You wonder why everybody makes a big deal about it," shrugs Brownstein. "Besides, the seniors and the special-ed kids in our stores create a sense of humanity." Owner Jonah Kaufman has 26 handicapped people, mainly with Down syndrome, on the payroll in his 12 Long Island stores. One of them, Joe King, trains new employiees. Kaufman says the key to his success with the disabled is "to try not to treat them differently." McDonald's has used Braille and its own kind of sign language as aids for impaired employees. At McDonald's Oak Brook headquarters, staff workers are sought from specialized schools, such as Gallaudet University and the Rochester Institute for Technology, which has an educational center for the deaf. Senior vice president Robert H. Beavers Jr., who gave up plans to become an electrical engineer 19 years ago to stay with McDonald's, says the company's socially minded business practices have made the company stronger: "Our energy level and our understanding of the market today are much better because of the cultural diversity we have." He points out that in the inner city, where he grew up, they say, "If you talk the talk, you better walk the walk." In Los Angeles, they talked and they walked – and they didn't burn. So Rensi and his team intend to keep on keeping on. After all, it's only good business.
The stapes of work on the article AMERICA'S HAMBURGER HELPER Preview. Fast-food restaurants have become very popular in the United States. One of the oldest and best-known fast-food chains is McDonald's. 50
Getting Started. 1. When you read or hear the word McDonald's, what do you think of ? 2. Would you like to work at a McDonald's? Why or why not? How do you think McDonald's treats its employees? 3. Read the brief description of the article. What do you expect to learn about McDonald's from this article? Culture. Affirmative action – a policy in government, business, and education that gives opportunities to women and minority group members. Affirmative-action programs began after the civil-rights movement of the 1960s. Franchise – the right and power to be part of a corporation; a business that is associated with a larger corporation. Most McDonald's restaurants are franchises with individual owners. Golden Arches – a McDonald's restaurant. The gold colored M, which looks like a pair of arches, is a trademark for McDonald's. Hamburger Helper – the brand name of packaged ingredients that are added to ground beef to make a one-dish meal. Hamburger stand – a fast-food restaurant that sells hamburgers. Inner-city – belonging to the older, usually poorer, central area of a city. Many inner-city neighborhoods are inhabited by minority groups. Special-ed – in need of special educational services because of mental or physical disabilities. "We do it all for you." – an advertising slogan used by McDonald's. Words to study. At-risk: in danger of failing in school. Cookie-cutter: repetitious; identical. This is a negative term that suggests a lack of imagination or creativity. (To) flip burgers: to cook hamburgers by turning them on a grill (to). Keep on: to continue. To boot: in addition; besides.
Comprehension Questions. 1. According to Edward H. Rensi, why weren't the McDonald's stores bumed during the rioting in Los Angeles? 2. Who was the founder of McDonald's? What advice did he give to franchise buyers and company executives? 3. What are some examples of McDonald's commitment to minorities and women? 4. What is Hamburger University? McPride? McJobs? McMasters? Ronald McDonald House? 5. What are some of the special things that McDonald's stores have done to help their employees? Discussion and Analysis Questions. 1. Do you have a different opinion of McDonald's after reading the article than you had before? If so, explain how your attitude has changed. 2. Do you think corporations have a social responsibility to employ people of various ages, ethnic groups, and abilities? Should they help their employees with academic subjects such as reading, math, and English? Why or why not? 3. The title of the article contains a double entendre (a phrase with two meanings). Using your knowledge gained from the article and the Culture section, explain the meanings. 4. Choose one sentence in the article that serves as the thesis (the main idea or unifying concept). Do you think the thesis is supported by adequate examples? Why or why not? 5. This article uses two framing devices (a phrase or topic used at the beginning of a composition and again at the end). Find the framing devices used in the first and fifteenth paragraphs and in the third and fifteenth paragraphs. How do they help the thesis of the article?
Culture and Vocabulary Activity. Many of the words and phrases listed above use familiar words in new or unexpected ways. Which terms are new to you? Which are used in a different way than you expected? Discuss the relationship between the definitions you expected and the ones that are given.
Group Activities. 1. The McDonald's corporation uses the prefix Me to form many words, such as McPride. In groups of four or five, develop a list of Me words related to McDonald's. Write the definition of each word (for example, McWork = employment at McDonald's). 2. In groups of four or five, discuss fast-food restaurants. What do they tell about the lifestyle of a culture? Are there fast-food restaurants in your home culture? Are they beneficial to the culture? Do they harm the culture in any way? Be prepared to report your conclusions to the class.
51
52
Individual Work. Visit a McDonald's (or another popular local restaurant). Observe the employees. Is there a variety of ages, races, and abilities? Is there an equal number of males and females? Write a one-paragraph summary of your findings. Be prepared to read it to the class or to tell the class what you observed.
competition. Good. These are all gaps in the market, which need to be filled fast if Central Europe is to catch up with the West. That's why foreigners need open access to such markets. Services should be liberalised as fast as industrial trade and prices. Or does anyone seriously want to protect communist-era service standards?
Article 4.
Plastic smiles. Poles are catching up with credit cards, but credit cards remain rare. Speak to a Western banker in Central Europe, and given half a chance he’ll drone on about the explosion in credit-card usage. If that were true, it would have an important effect on the economy, because consumer demand would blossom as people used borrowed money to go on a shopping spree. In fact, while debit card usage is increasing, the number of real credit cards remains tiny. Take Poland, which has 2,5 million users of Visa and Master Card – impressive, given that plastic was virtually unheard of until a few years ago. But analysts reckon that as many as 90% of these are debit cards. Therefore the impact of the card market on the economy remains negligible, because cardholders have no extra money to spend. Still, card usage is increasing. The indicator market research company found that nearly 29% of bank-account holders expect to use debit cards by the end of the year, compared to less then 15% in 1998. The number of credit-card users, while low, is also surging, with 24% growth predicted this year. Meanwhile, Poles are fast catching up with basic banking products. Already, bank usage is a lot higher than the figures suggest. Recent surveys show that while just one in five Poles has a current account, many more people use bank services. The Foundation for Education and Bank Research reckons two-thirds of Poles are bank clients in the wider sense – they have taken out a commercial loan, have a time-deposit account or an ATM card. A few of them even have chequeing accounts – which were useless only a few years ago when a cheque had to be accompanied by a bank letter guaranteeing its validity. Current accounts are now set to surge, as companies create new accounts for their employees. The days are fading when workers wanted their wages in cash. As people become more familiar with banking services, the number of credit-card users should rise as well. Jan Garlicki, Indicator’s president, reckons it may take only three years for Polish credit-card users to catch up with the three to four cards held by people in Western Europe.
OPEN SERVICE Why services should be liberalised – fast. There's little doubt that Central Europe has been damaged by rapid liberalisation. And little doubt that it needed to be. It's not just that much of industry was obsolete, and the clear-out has been accelerated by open competition. It's that the region has also been trying to develop a service sector from scratch. And it has only succeeded where foreigners were allowed to fill some of the gaps. The most obvious example is banking. The few banks in the region not already sold to foreigners soon will be, and for a good reason: it is impossible to create a commercial banking sector in just ten years. Even where governments were reluctant to give up control over banking they ended up with little choice: either, as in the Czech Republic and Hungary, because unskilled local managers ruined the banks through bad lending. Or, as in Poland, because local banks were just too small and too poor to survive EU competition. In either case, the debate should not be about ownership, but about the need for a more competitive finance system. The region is littered with companies that folded because they couldn't get outside finance, or couldn't afford hefty interest payments if they did. And the real damage is not that being done to the old communist steel mills and engineering companies that have little future, regardless of cash. It is that being done to new companies like Korado, a Czech radiator-maker that is selling up because it can't afford expensive bank loans. This is the real answer to those who still hanker after protectionism. Yes, it would certainly save a few companies who can't survive open competition, and yes, local bankers are probably right to complain that they weren't given enough time to prepare for EU competition. But that's missing the point. Protectionism does not save companies or banks, it simply disguises their lack of competitiveness. It's an argument that can be extended to the whole of the service sector, not just banks. The region's hotels and restaurants are being kicked into shape by foreign investors; its shops are already being wiped out by foreign 53
54
They won’t spend Western amounts of money, though. The average Pole makes just Zł 1, 500 ($375) a month. The might soon have many of the banking products available in the West. But it will be a long time before Poles have the money to drive a true consumer credit boom. Article 5. DALLAS DREAMS Will Hungary’s new mortgage loan plan boost home-ownership? There’s reason why Hungarians are fond of Dallas, a US soap opera depicting the lives of rich Texans with their big cars, big wallets and, especially, their big houses. And the reason is that gawking at the TV is as close as most Hungarians will ever get to buying a house. In Hungary, after all, it’s common for three generations of the same family to spend decades packed into a single, 50 – square-metre flat. "People get married and then have children, and then the children have children – and they still live in the same flat," says Sandor Horvath at the Ministry of Economic Affairs. "We have to change that." The main problem is not a shortage of housing. It is that the country lacks a mortgages – the state-owned Land Credit and Mortgage Bank. But it charges 20% a year in interest. That’s quite unaffordable for most Hungarians, with salaries stuck below $4,000 a year. And anyway, housing is simply too expensive for most people: a medium-sized flat costs about 15 times the average yearly salary. Apart from the little state mortgage bank, home lending is confined to a few commercial banks who offer lamentable terms. The former savings-bank OTP and Belgian-owned K&H are two of the retail banks offering loans, of a sort: the demand 23% a year in interest, and rarely finance more than 50% of the real-estate price. There are serious economic, as well as social, repercussions. Hungarian workers are notoriously immobile, for example – small wonder when it’s nearly impossible for them to move house. Fortunately, the government is launching a new programme of mortgage subsidies, which will go some way to kick-starting the market. The government hopes to lure commercial banks into mortgage lending by paying 3% of the yield on the mortgage-backed certificates they issue to fund home financing. That means banks can offer cheaper loans, which will be cheaper still because the government is offering to pay up to 40% of the interest payments as well. 55
Eventually, such subsidies will help interest rates drop to 6-7% a year, Mr. Horvath claims. "If rates really fall below 10% it will have a huge effect on the market," says Pal Danos, director at KPMG Property Services. "Poorer people could afford to take out loans." About time too.
PART III. QUESTIONS ON THE TOPICS Theme 1
Business & careers in business 1. What factors are important in defining business? (What does business involve?) 2. What is the major goal in the functioning of a business company? (What is a primary goal of business activity?) 3. What are five different fields of business? 4. What are some specializations within the field of finance? 5. What are some different types of managerial careers? 6. What kinds of questions should you ask in order to choose a suitable & successful career? 7. Rank the factors, which you consider when choosing your job according to their importance to you? 8. Which field of business interests you most? Within that field which specialization you find the most interesting? 9. Do you know what demand is for this specialization in your country? What do you know about salary & opportunities for advancement? 10. What skills do you think a bookkeeper (manager, etc.) should have an aptitude for? 11. What skills do you have an aptitude for? Theme 2
Company structures 1. What groups of people are most companies made of ? 2. What is the management structure of a typical company like? 3. What is the Board of directors responsible for? 4. Who is responsible for the running of the business? 5. Name some of the departments or functions within a company? 6. What are the structures, business activities & products of 3M/ the Philips company? 7. What are the main factors of successful performance of the company over the years? 56
8. What is necessary for any company in order to survive & be successful? 9. What kind of information should a company profile contain? Theme 3
Recruitment 1. What should an employer do when he wants to recruit or employ new people? 2. Where can you find job advertisements? 3. What may some job requirements be? 4. What may the benefits offered by the job be? 5. How can those who are interested in the particular job apply for it? What papers must they send to the company? What kind of information must these papers contain? 6. What are "Headhunters"? What is their role in business? 7. What is the most important stage in recruitment? 8. Does appearance matter in hiring & promotions? Do you think a certain type of appearance is necessary for some jobs? 9. What is morphosychology? Do you think it is a useful recruitment technique? 10. What are the stages of an interview? 11. Speak of the qualities a candidate must have, the kind of things he is expected to know & the mistakes he should avoid at an interview. 12. What job suits you perfectly? 13. What abilities and skills necessary for this job (profession) you possess? 14. Do you think of other people's opinion before making decisions? 15. Are you easily persuaded by the majority opinion or can withstand it? 16. Is success important for you? 17. Do you like tasks which require a lot of physical and mental energy? 18. Do you usually conceal your plans? 19. Are you quick at making conclusions? 20. Is independence important for you? 21. Are you full of creative ideas? 22. Do you get irritated easily? 23. Is it easy for you to find a solution? Do you keep to traditional methods or support all new, extraordinary things? 24. Are you good at persuading others? 25. Are you confident in dealing with other people? 26. Are you an original thinker? 57
27. Do you enjoy being a leader or being led? 28. What brunch of economics are you interested in more? 29. What do you think is rewarding, frustrating, annoying in your future job? 30. Do you know how to find a good job? What are the job-hunting tips? 31. Do you know how to be a good employee? 32. Speak about types of bosses and how to deal with them. Theme 4
Management styles 1. What is the distribution of power in a business organization like? 2. Are the characteristics of management the same in different countries? Can national culture determine how managers are trained, how they lead people & how they approach their jobs? 3. What should be the main objectives of a multinational company? 4. What are the principle problems of a multinational team of employees caused by? What should be done to overcome these problems? 5. What is a cultural barrier? Can it create a problem in negotiating? 6. Do you know how to succeed in an international business context & how to solve the problems in international negotiations? 7. What are three preconditions to become a successful manager? 8. How can you measure a motivation (7 dimensions)? 9. What do managers do? (What are managerial functions?) 10. Name the characteristic features necessary to be a good manager. 11. What are the steps of the decision-making process? Theme 5
Marketing & Advertising 1. What business activities does marketing include? 2. What are the elements of the marketing mix? (What does marketing mean?) 3. What is marketing? How does it help exchanges? 4. Name the functions of marketing. How does an organization use marketing activities to achieve its objectives? 5. What is the marketing concept? 6. What is a marketing strategy? What is market segmentation? Describe two approaches to segmentation. 7. List the variables in the marketing mix. How is each used in marketing strategy? 8. Briefly describe the factors that influence buying behavior? 58
9. Why are marketing research & information systems important to an organization planning & development of strategy? 10. List the steps involved in the marketing research process. 11. Why is marketing gaining an importance today? What benefits does it provide to consumers? 12. What is the impact of technological, political and legal forces on the market? 13. What is the aim of advertising? 14. What ways and methods of advertising do you know? 15. Which method of advertising is the most effective in your opinion? 16. What is "endorsement"? Can you give examples of celebrities in your country endorsing products or services? In which case, in your opinion, do the celebrity & the product make a good match? 17. What are advantages & disadvantages of using famous people in advertising? 18. Can endorsing a product be bad for a celebrity's reputation? How can appearing in commercials influence a movie star's career? 19. What is target market? 20. In your opinion, what should a successful advertisement or commercial be like? Can you give an example of a very good commercial, from your point of view? Theme 6
Franchising 1. How can franchising be defined? 2. What kind of fee must the franchisee pay to the franchiser? 3. What is an operation manual? 4. What can you say about franchise opportunities and prospects? 5. What is the difference between a Master franchise and an ordinary franchise? Theme 7
Japan and the business world 1. Why does Japan hold a top economic position in the world today? 2. Speak about an attitude of a Japanese executive to his job and his relations with the company. 3. What does 'Karoshi' mean? 4. Give your own opinion about advantages and disadvantages of a Japanes way of making technical decisions. 59
5. What does 'okagai' mean? 6. What is the role of a Japanese wife in the family and place of the family to the company? 7. What are the recommendations for doing business with the Japanese? Theme 8
Business and the environment 1. What are major environmental threats? 2. Speak about the role of business in environmental affairs. 3. Speak on the Body Shop's environmental policies and activities. 4. How can companies minimize negative impact on the environment? 5. Are your purchasing decisions based on the environmental concerns? Theme 9
Banking 1. What is the difference between Commercial Banks & Merchant Banks? What services do they provide? 2. What is HOBS? What services does it provide? 3. What benefits does HOBS offer to its customers? 4. What can the Bank of Scotland gain from the introduction of its new system? 5. Are there any similar services to HOBS available in our country? Who provides them & how do they operate? 6. How does the relationship between a company & a merchant bank differ from that existing between a company & a commercial bank? 7. What types of accounts can you choose at Lombard Bank? 8. What is "balance" and "balance sheet" ? (Give definitions of these terms.) Theme 10
The Stock Exchange 1. What options can a company choose when it needs to raise money for development? 2. What types of shares & stocks do you know? 3. What is a person buying shares in a company called? 4. Which companies are authorized to use the Stock Exchange to trade their shares? 5. What is the Stock Exchange? 6. How much business is done on the Stock Exchange each year? 60
7. What is the part of the Stock Exchange where shares are bought & sold called? 8. What are three examples of indirect investment on the Stock Exchange? 9. When did the "Big Bang" happen? 10. How did the Stock Exchange work before the "Big Bang"? How has it changed since then? 11. What is SEAQ? How is it functioning? 12. Which European Stock Exchange has the largest turnover? Why? Theme 11
Corporate Alliances & Acquisitions 1. What are the ways of strenthening companies' operations in order to remain profitable? 2. What are the differences between a joint venture, merger & acquisition? 3. Why do large businesses look for alliances? 4. What do you understand by the term "economies of scale"? 5. What economies of scale are Volvo & Renault seeking through their alliance? Name some of the advantages of the Renault – Volvo alliance. 6. What conditions are necessary that a joint venture should be set up? Theme 12
The Small Business 1. What forms of small businesses do you know? What are the differences between them? 2. The shares of which companies can be traded on the Stock Exchange? 3. Which is the easiest way of setting up a business? 4. What is necessary to do when forming a partnership? 5. What is the most common form of business in the UK? Is it easy to establish such a company? 6. What are, in your opinion, advantages & disadvantages of each form of the small business? 7. What questions should you ask yourself before opening a business? 8. Which sacrifices would you be prepared to accept in order to get money to start your own business? 9. What advice did Ben Fox give young people thinking of setting up their own business? 10. What information about your proposed business are you required to give in your business plan in order to get a loan from the bank? 61
APPENDIX 1. Latin Expressions and Abbreviations. ab initio – с начала ab ovo – с самого начала a.c. (anni currentis) – текущего года addendum (pl. addenda) – добавление A.D. (Anno Domini) – нашей эры ad hoc – к этому случаю ad interium – в промежутке a.m. (ante meridiem) – до полудня B.C. (before Christ) – до нашей эры c., cca (circa) – приблизительно cf. (confer) – сравни cum – с, включая e.g. (exempli gratia) = for example – например e.r. (en route) = on the way – в пути et. al. - и другие etc. (et cetera) – и так далее et seq. (et sequentia) – и последующие h.e. (hic est) – то есть ib., ibid (ibidem) – там же, в том же месте id. (idem) – тот же i.e. (id est) = that is – то есть in ex (in extenso) – довольно, полностью in parvo – в незначительной мере in re – относительно, по вопросу in situ – на месте in toto – в целом l.c. (loco citato) – в упомянутом месте med (medium) – середина, средний memo (memorandum) – меморандум modus operandi – способ действия m.m. – с соответствующими изменениями N.B. (nota bene) – примечание, отметка op.cit. (opus citatum) – цитируемое произведение p.a. (per annum) – ежегодно p.cap., per cap. (per capita) = per head = per man – на душу населения per se – сам по себе, по существу p.m. (post meridiem) – после полудня 62
prima facie – на первый взгляд p.c. (pro centum) – процент pro et con (pro et contra) – за и против pro forma – формально, для вида p.m. (pro memoria) – в память pro pata – пропорциональный, пропорционально q.l. (quantum libet) – сколько угодно Q.P. (quantum placet) – сколько найдете нужным q.v. (quod vide) – смотри (там-то) re, in re – по делу, по вопросу s.a. (sine anno) – без указания года (издания) sc. (scilicet) – а именно, то есть s.l. (sine loco) – без указания места (издания) s.n. (sine nomine) – без указания имени или названия s.s. (sensu stricto) – в буквальном смысле terra incognita – незнакомая область u.i. (ut infra) – как указано ниже vers., vs. (versus) – против; в сравнении с; в зависимости от v. (via) – через v.v. (vice versa) – наоборот v. (vide) – смотри v.i. (vide infra) – смотри ниже v.s. (vide supra) – смотри выше viz. (videlicet) – то есть, а именно vulgo – обычно APPENDIX 2. English Abbreviations. AAAA (American Association of Advertising Agencies) – Американская ассоциация рекламных агентств aar (against all risks) – страх. против всех рисков ABCC (Association of British Chambers of Commerce) – Ассоциация британских торговых палат ACCA (Association of Certified and Corporate Accountants) – Ассоциация дипломированных корпоративных бухгалтеров (Великобритания) ADP (automatic data processing) – автоматическая обработка данных AEA (American Economic Association) – Американская экономическая ассоциация AFC (average fixed costs) – средние постоянные издержки 63
AMA (American Management Association) – Американская ассоциация усовершенствования методов руководства предприятием amt (amount) – сумма; количество ASA 1. (American Standards Association) – Американская ассоциация стандартов ASA 2. (American Statistical Association) – Американская статистическая ассоциация A.S.E. (American Stock Exchange) – Американская фондовая биржа B.C.E.C.C. (British Central-European Chamber of Commerce) – Британская центральноевропейская торговая палата C.A. (chief accountant) – главный бухгалтер C/A 1. (capital account) – счет основного капитала C/A 2. (commercial agent) – торговый агент C/A 3. (current account) – текущий банковский счет, контокоррент; амер. открытый счет C.D.F.C. (Commonwealth Development Finance Corporation) – Финансовая корпорация по развитию стран Содружества Наций CEC (common european currency) – общая европейская валюта CEQ (Council on Environmental Quality) – Совет по вопросам качества окружающей среды (США) CICOM (International Marketing Center) – Международный центр по сбыту, СИКОМ c.i.f. (cost, insurance, freight) – стоимость, страхование, фрахт; сиф CS 1. (capital stock) – акция, акции; акционерный капитал CS 2. (common stock(s)) – амер. обычные [обыкновенные] акции CSP (cooperative statistical program) – программа комплексных статистических исследований DEA (Department of Economic Affairs) – Министерство экономики (Великобритания) DEP (Department of Employment and Productivity) – Министерство трудоустройства и производительности труда (Великобритания) DS (directing staff) – руководящий персонал EBB (extra best best) – самого высшего качества EBIC (European Banks International Company) – Европейское банковское объединение E.C. (executive committee) – исполнительный комитет ECE (United nations Economic Commission for Europe) – Экономическая Комиссия ООН для стран Европы, ЭКЕ 64
ECP (Eurocommercial) – paper простой вексель, выпускаемый международными компаниями ECU (European Currency Unit) – Европейская валютная единица EDF (European Development Fund) – Европейский фонд развития EDP (electronic data processing) – электронная обработка данных EEC (European Economic Community) – Европейское экономическое сообщество, ЕЭС, Общий рынок EFTA (European Free Trade Association) – Европейская ассоциация свободной торговли, ЕАСТ EMV (expected monetary value) – ожидаемая ценность денег E.P.D. (excess profits duty) – налог на сверхприбыль E.U. (expected utility) – ожидаемая полезность FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization) – Продовольственная и сельскохозяйственная организация ООН, ФАО f.c.s. (food, clothing and shelter) – пища, одежда и жилье FO (The Foreign Office) – Министерство иностранных дел (Великобритания) FP (fixed price) – фиксированная цена FTC (Federal Trade Commission) – Федеральная торговая комиссия (США) FX (foreign exchange) – иностранная валюта GATT, Gatt. (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) – Общее соглашение о торговле и тарифах, ГАТТ GCE (general certificate of education) – англ. (общее) свидетельство об образовании G.D.P. (gross domestic product) – валовой внутренний продукт gds goods товары; изделия G.F.C.F. (Gross Fixed Capital Formation) – валовой прирост основного капитала G.M.B., g.m.b. (good merchantable brand) – хороший коммерческий сорт GNI (gross national income) – валовой национальный доход GNP (gross national product) – валовой национальный продукт G.O.B., g.o.b. (good ordinary brand) – обычный коммерческий сорт GP (general purpose) – общего назначения GRR (gross reproduction rate) – валовой (общий) коэффициент воспроизводства GS (government stock(s)) – государственные ценные бумаги IMB (international monetary base) – международная валютная база
IMF (International Monetary Fund) – Международный валютный фонд, МВФ in 1. (income) – доход(ы); прибыль in 2. (interest) – проценты, процентный доход Inc., inc. (incorporated) – акционерный; зарегистрированный как корпорация ince (insurance) – страхование IOU (I owe you) – "я вам должен" iss. (issued) – выпущенный (в обращение) ITA (International Touring Aliance) – Международный туристский альянс ITO (International trade Organization) – Международная организация торговли j. 1. (joint) – объединенный; совместный j. 2. (junior) – младший L.C., L/C (letter of credit) – аккредитив L.D. (letter of deposit) – залоговое письмо L.E. (Labor Exchange) – биржа труда LIAA (Life Insurance Association of America) – Американская ассоциация компаний по страхованию жизни L.I.P. (life insurance policy) – полис страхования жизни LOC (letter of commitment) – гарантийное письмо loc.cur. (local currency) – локальная валюта M. (money) – деньги MC (marginal cost) – предельно высокая себестоимость MCEEC (Monetary Committee of the European Economic Community) – Валютный комитет Европейского экономического сообщества N.A., n/a (not available) – не имеется в наличии N.N.I. (net national income) – чистый национальный доход NNP (net national product) – чистый национальный продукт nop, N.O.P. (not otherwise rated) – только для указанных целей; только как предусмотрено N.U.R. (National Union of Railwayman) – профсоюз железнодорожников O&M (organization and methods) – служба рационализации управления OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) – Организация стран-экспортеров нефти, ОПЕК OR (operations research) – исследование операций O.R. (owner's risk) – на риск владельца P.B. (passbook) – банковская расчетная книжка
65
66
P.C. 1. (paid cash) – уплачено наличными P.C. 2. (prime costs) – основные затраты P.C. 3. (private contract) – частное соглашение или договор P.&L., a/c (profit-and-loss account) – счет прибылей и убытков Pr., pr. (price) – цена PrC. (private company) – частная акционерная компания Q.w.Q. (quantity with quality) – количество и качество RDT&E (Research, Development, Test and Evaluation) – исследование, разработка, испытание и оценка R.E. (real estate) – недвижимое имущество rem. (remittance) – денежный перевод; римесса SBA (Small Business Administration) – Управление по защите мелких предпринимателей (США) S.I. (short interest) – проценты по краткосрочным займам; доход от краткосрочных вложений TR (total revenue) – совокупный доход (общества) TU, T.U. (trade (s)) – union тред-юнион; профсоюз T.U.C. (Trades Union Congress) – Конгресс профсоюзов UNK (unknown) – неизвестный urgt. (urgent) – срочный V,v (value) – 1) ценность; цена 2) величина v. 1. (versus (лат.)) – 1) юр. против; 2) в сравнении с v. 2. (via (лат.)) – путем; с заходом в v. 3. (vide (лат.)) – смотри x. (ex exclusive) – исключая, без APPENDIX 3. Introductory words and word combinations. in a sense – в некотором смысле bearing in mind – учитывая, принимая во внимание as a whole – в целом by and large – вообще говоря so far – до сих пор otherwise – иначе other than – только, ничто иное, никто иной apart from – помимо in a very broad outline – в общих чертах the former – первый из двух названных, бывший the latter – последний (второй из двух названных) 67
in turn – в свою очередь undoubtedly – несомненно from the point of view of – с точки зрения appreciably – существенно to a great extent – в значительной степени in itself – само по себе despite the fact – несмотря на mainly because of – в основном из-за as regards to – что касается; в отношении in the long run – в конце концов among other things – помимо всего прочего primarily – в основном from the aspect of – с точки зрения to the detriment of – в ущерб чему-либо a mere 1,2 per cent – всего лишь 1,2 % throughout the 1970s – в течение 70-х годов therefore – по этой причине excluding smth – без ущерба чего-либо, исключая more seriously – более того in terms – с точки зрения in the mid -1980s – в середине 80-х годов in the early 1990s – в начале 90-х годов however – однако nevertheless – тем не менее before long – вскоре alas – к сожалению unfortunately – к сожалению hence – отсюда (следует) henceforth – с этого времени, впредь thus – таким образом nonetheless – однако so as – так чтобы as far as – до, насколько so far as – насколько as much … as – столько … сколько as well as – так же, как; а также rather than – а не yet – тем не менее, однако crucially – существенно 68
to deal with – иметь дело с moreover – более того what's more – и более того furthermore – к тому же, кроме того, более того according to – согласно as for = as to – что касается whilst = while – в то время как; пока on account of – по причине, из-за by means of – посредством, при помощи instead of – вместо in spite of = despite – несмотря на in case of – в случае by virtue of – посредством owing to – благодаря thanks to – благодаря due to – благодаря, из-за, в силу in addition to – кроме, в дополнение к with respect to – по отношению к in accordance with – в соответствии с
69
Оглавление Предисловие...........................................................................................3 PART I. TRANSLATING TEXTS GRAMMAR STRUCTURES DIFFICULT FOR TRANSLATION 1. Passive Voice ......................................................................................4 2. The Infinitive and Infinitive Constructions .........................................4 3. The Participle and Participle Constructions ........................................7 4. The Gerund Construction ..................................................................13 5. Emphatic Construction ......................................................................14 Texts for translation...............................................................................15 Text 1.....................................................................................................15 Text 2.....................................................................................................17 Text 3.....................................................................................................18 Text 4.....................................................................................................19 Text 5.....................................................................................................20 Text 6.....................................................................................................21 Text 7.....................................................................................................23 Text 8.....................................................................................................24 PART II. SUMMARIZING ARTICLES Article 1 .................................................................................................25 Words to study.......................................................................................31 Article 2 .................................................................................................37 Words to study.......................................................................................40 Article 3 .................................................................................................47 Article 4 .................................................................................................53 Article 5 .................................................................................................55 PART III. QUESTIONS ON THE TOPICS Theme 1 .................................................................................................56 Theme 2 .................................................................................................56 Theme 3 .................................................................................................57 Theme 4 .................................................................................................58 Theme 5 .................................................................................................58 Theme 6 .................................................................................................59 Theme 7 .................................................................................................59 Theme 8 .................................................................................................60 Theme 9 .................................................................................................60 Theme 10 ...............................................................................................60 Theme 11 ...............................................................................................61 70
Theme 12 ...............................................................................................61 Appendix 1. Latin Expressions and Abbreviations ...............................62 Appendix 2. English Abbreviations.......................................................63 Appendix 3. Introductory words and word combinations .....................67
Нина Васильевна Бегун Ирина Алексеевна Сиволапова
Учебно-методическое пособие для подготовки к экзамену по английскому языку (для студентов экономических специальностей)
Технический редактор Н.В. Москвичёва Редактор Е.В. Коськина Подписано в печать 12.03.03. Формат бумаги 60х84 1/16. Печ. л. 4,5. Уч.-изд. л. 5,1. Тираж 100 экз. Заказ 191. Издательско-полиграфический отдел ОмГУ 644077, г. Омск-77, пр. Мира, 55а, госуниверситет
71
72