ФЕДЕРАЛЬНОЕ АГЕНТСТВО ПО ОБРАЗОВАНИЮ
ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЕ ОБРАЗОВАТЕЛЬНОЕ
УЧРЕЖДЕНИЕ
ВЫСШЕГО ПРОФЕССИОНАЛЬНОГО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ
«ВОРОНЕЖСКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ
УНИВЕРСИТЕТ»
СТАРООСКОЛЬСКИЙ ФИЛИАЛ
THE WORLD OF BUSINESS
Учебное пособие для вузов
Составитель
Т. <...> Being hooked on work, a workaholic would say, “I have no life.” Then,
why do you think they continue putting in long hours at work?
c. The dictionary defines a workaholic as “a person who works most of the
time and finds it difficult to stop working in order to do other things.” List
things, activities, relationships etc., workaholics have to sacrifice.
d. <...> World – Class Workaholics: are Crazy Hours and
Takeout Dinners the Elixir of American Success? <...> Chris Strahorn’s parents haven’t seen much of him lately. <...> They’re usually asleep
by the time he gets home, anywhere between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m. And he’s often
asleep when they leave work. <...> If his car is in the driveway, they know he made it
back. (Sometimes his father says “hi” to the car.) If not, it’s a safe bet that
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Strahorn, a 24-year-old computer programmer at an Internet start-up called the
Tomorrow Factory, has pulled another overnighter, grabbing a few hours of sleep
on his futon. <...> Strahorn likes the relative calm and quiet of his cubicle. <...> Wherever he slept, he tends to have breakfast at the Morning Brew Coffee Co. in
the same small South San Francisco building at the Tomorrow Factory. <...> When the Tomorrow Factory moved in over the
summer, the founders installed a door between the two places. <...> Thanks to that
piece of foresight, the Tomorrow Factory’s thermoses are kept steadily filled with
freshly ground Sumatra. <...> Some of the employees, says Strahorn, think it may be
time to add a “direct line – an intravenous tube.”
Young computer whizzes with stock options may not be broadly representative of
the contemporary work force. <...> But in one respect – crazy hours – the Silicon
Valley ethos speaks for American these days. <...> What makes them tick so fast?
“Everybody knows I don’t have a life,” says Ken <...>
The_World_of_Business.pdf
ФЕДЕРАЛЬНОЕ АГЕНТСТВО ПО ОБРАЗОВАНИЮ
ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЕ ОБРАЗОВАТЕЛЬНОЕ
УЧРЕЖДЕНИЕ
ВЫСШЕГО ПРОФЕССИОНАЛЬНОГО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ
«ВОРОНЕЖСКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ
УНИВЕРСИТЕТ»
СТАРООСКОЛЬСКИЙ ФИЛИАЛ
THE WORLD OF BUSINESS
Учебное пособие для вузов
Составитель
Т.А. Чичеренкова
Издательско-полиграфический центр
Воронежского государственного университета
2009
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CONTENTS
Section 1. Lifestyles and work............................................................................ 4
Section 2. Business travel ................................................................................... 8
Section 3. Globalisation ...................................................................................... 14
Section 4. Profit from the prophets ..................................................................... 19
Section 5. Economic reports ............................................................................... 23
Section 6. Profitable banks.................................................................................. 28
Section 7. Advanced points................................................................................. 33
Literature ............................................................................................................. 40
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Eight Days a Week
Co-worker Dylan Greiner’s marriage almost broke up five years ago, after a stint
of 12-hour days at a software company in Texas. “A lot of lifestyle changes were
made,” says Greiner. Yet he, too, has embraced the start-up life, including an
hour and a half commute from his home near Modesto. Early next year, they will
launch their product – a form of personal shopping management software whose
wonders they cannot yet divulge. Before he joined the Tomorrow Factory,
Greiner had a nice thing going at a software company in San Mateo, where he
was required to do overtime just once in 18 months. From a domestic point of
view, he says “it was a dream job. But it was pretty boring.”
Chris Strahorn, a 24-year-old programmer, worked at Sun Microsystems for three
years while pursuing an as-yet-unobtained degree in computer science at the
University of California-Davis. He put in some 60-hour weeks at Sun. He says
he’d sooner work 100 hours a week in a small and collegial setting of the
Tomorrow Factory, working on something he believes in. A few years from now,
he hopes to be in a position to say, “That’s mine – I wrote that – and it’s sitting
on a million desktops.”
Speaking
4. Explain what the following means. Here is the vocabulary you can use to do
the task: hectic, exhausting, voracious, non-stop, jammed, tight, full, flexible,
fixed, rigid, relaxing.
– to work crazy hours
– to pull another overnighter
– national Work-a-thon
– What makes them tick so fast?
5. Answer the questions below making inferences from the text about the
following values: time, hard work, success/achievement.
а. What value can be revealed from the title and the closing phrase?
b. Why do you think takeout dinners are mentioned along with crazy hours in
the subtitle? Why is fast food popular with workaholics?
c. Why has the company thoughtfully provided the sofa for the employees?
Does the company encourage its employees to have more rest? If not, give
a different guess.
d. Why do you think some of the employees would like to add a “ direct
line – an intravenous tube”?
6. In small groups, discuss what you think of the workaholics’ lifestyle. Try to
balance all pros and cons. The information below will help you.
– Americans across the country will join in hundreds of activities to start a
national conversation about how we can all live more fulfilling, happier lives.
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– Americans work nine weeks more each year than their colleagues in
Western Europe.
– More than half of Americans (52 %) say they would be willing to trade a
day off a week for a day’s pay a week.
– Americans say they’d accept a pay cut to: have more free time to do
whatever I wanted (27 %); have more free time to spend with my family
(21 %); and genuinely feel less pressure and stress in my life (20 %).
– More than 4 in 5 Americans (83 %) wish they had more time to spend with
the family. This sentiment is shared among adults with and without children.
More than 8 in 10 parents (88 %) and non-parents (83 %) want more time for
family.
Writing
7. Writing a composition (300 – 400 words). Give your opinion on the problem
of workaholism and justify it.
Points to remember:
– Never start writing your composition before making a plan.
– Each paragraph should start with a topic sentence which summarises the
paragraph.
– Each viewpoint should be joined to the others with linking or sequence
words e.g. in the first place, to start with, what is more, also, furthermore,
besides, apart from this, it is argued that, etc.
A good argumentative composition expressing opinion should consist of:
a. аn introduction in which your opinion is clearly stated,
б. a main body which can consist of two or more paragraphs. Each viewpoint,
supported by a logical reason, should be presented in a separate paragraph.
The opposing viewpoint is mentioned in a new paragraph. In the same
paragraph you might include a lead-in opinion to your conclusion.
c. A conclusion in which you sum up your viewpoints and re-state your
opinion.
Useful Words and Phrases:
To list viewpoints:
Firstly, In the first place, To begin with, Secondly,
Thirdly, Finally, etc.
To add viewpoints:
both…and, What is more, not only…but also, In addition, Furthermore, Besides,
not to mention the fact that, etc.
To present the other side of the argument:
Contrary to what most people believe, As opposed to the above ideas, Some
people argue that…etc.
To express opinion:
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I believe, In my opinion, I think, In my view, I strongly believe, I feel that, It
seems to me that, etc.
SECTION 2
BUSINESS TRAVEL
PART 1
Preview
1. Work with a partner and discuss these questions.
– How are business travellers different from other travellers?
– How can an airline cater for their special needs?
2. Match the words below with their meanings.
1) to upgrade
2) a carrier
3) to savvy
4) economy
5) to check in
6) a cabin
7) in the offing
a. to understand or to get the sense of (an idea, etc.);
b. a class of travel in aircraft, providing less luxurious accommodation than
first class at a lower fare;
c. the part of an airliner in which the passengers are carried;
d. to raise to a higher grade;
e. possible;
f. to arrive and register at a hotel, airport, etc.
g. a vehicle, ship, etc used for the transport of sth.
Reading
3. Read this article from the business travel section of a British
newspaper and answer these questions.
a. What is it that airlines cannot “have both ways”?
b. How easy is it to get an upgrade?
c. Why will it “count as nought” if a traveller is wearing jeans and a T-shirt?
d. How can a business travel agent help?
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