II. Найдите ошибку в одном из подчеркнутых слов или фразе

20. Eventually the ministry insisted the reforms wouldstill go ahead, it is unclear

A B C D

what shape they will take.

21. Manufacturing industry orders in January rose 11.1 per cents from the same

A B

period a year earlier, compared with forecasts of an 11.2% rise.

C D

22. Leaders may run efficiently organizations, but they do not really serve

A B

the long-term interests of the institutions unless they plan and set goals.

C D

23. At Bloomberg’s headquarters, the premises are so busy and crowded what

A B C

you might for a moment think you were at the New York Stock Exchange.

D

III. От слов, данных в скобках, образуйте правильные формы. Возможны отрицательные формы.

24. Although Albania lies in Europe it’s really an _____ (develop) country.

25. If they want to improve their standard of living they should _____ (industry) their country.

26. The money will be refunded if the goods are _____ (fault).

27. Inflation rose _____ (grade) in March, before beginning its descent.

 

 

IV. Заполните пропуски в тексте словами из списка.

 

a) capable b) equipment c) previously d) packing e) monitors f) replace g) branches h) manufacture

 

Cadbury operate three chocolate factories in the UK. Two __28__ are at Bournville, which produce chocolate bars and chocolate assortments; the other, the Somerdale company, produces bars such as Double Decker and Crunchie which are known as “countlines”.

The modernization programme at Bournville, begun in 1980, has involved the rationalization of production. This consisted in bringing together individual product processing, on the one hand, and the most modern processing and control technology, on the other. The specialist __29__ comes from Britain and abroad. A number of these machines have been produced to Cadbury’s own design and specification.

Before the automation programme, __30__ was a series of operations individually supervised at separate control points. Now one person __31__ the whole operation from a control room full of computer terminals and TV screens.

A major revolution has been the automation of the __32__ systems. Where __33__ chocolates were individually placed by hand in boxes, machines now do this. New high speed chocolate bar plants have been introduced. They are __34__ of making and wrapping 800 chocolate bars a minute. The automation programme means that a dozen individual manufacturing plants will __35__ old plants.

 

V. Образуйте устойчивые словосочетания.

36. consumer 37. working 38. sign 39. import 40. listed 41. net

a. duty b. income c. capital d. goods e. a contract f. company

 

VI. В каждой строке найдите одно лишнее слово или словосочетание.

 

42. assets income revenue liabilities profit gains

43. tariff earnings dividends interest rate yield P/E

44. manufacture turn out purchase assemble produce industrialize

 

 

VII. Заполните пропуски в предложениях предлогами.

for out at down in on of

 

45. Every month we publish articles aimed ___ raising public awareness of environmental issues.

46. The cost of bringing the wrong person ___ board is sometimes huge.

47. The company didn’t want to let ___ investors by falling profits and started a new project.

48. Personnel manager is responsible ___ selecting, recruiting and training staff.

49. At the meeting the CEO pointed ___ some of the obstacles which the firm might face the following year.

50. This subsidiary specializes ___ household appliances and electronics.

VIII. Выберите правильный вариант.

51. As a result of the _____, we had to reduce the amount of money we spend on research and development.

a) recession b) retirement c) sustainability d) revenue

52. Our headquarters are _____ in Mountain View, California.

a) positioned b) located c) set out d) found

53. The goods were delivered two months ago but we are still waiting for our customer to pay the _____ .

a) account b) deposit c) invoice d) balance

54. A company can also borrow money from investors by issuing _____, loans for fixed periods with fixed interest rates.

a) obligations b) equities c) stocks d) bonds

55. Peugeot saw their new plant in India as a great opportunity for them to _____ this vast and quickly growing market.

a) exploit b) generate c) outweigh d) fluctuate

 

 

2^nd Y E A R

PART ONE

Section I. TEXTS

 

`Read the texts (1 – 10) and decide whether the statements are True of False, according to the texts.

Text 1

 

DO YOU ever feel as though you spend all your time in meetings?

 

Henry Mintzberg, in his book The Nature of Managerial Work, found that in large organisations managers spent 22 per cent of their time at their desk, 6 per cent on the telephone, 3 per cent on other activities, but a whopping 69 per cent in meetings.

There is a widely-held but mistaken belief that meetings are for "solving problems" and "making decisions". For a start, the number of people attending a meeting tends to be inversely proportional to their collective ability to reach conclusions and make decisions. And these are the least important elements.

Instead hours are devoted to side issues, playing elaborate games with one another. It seems, therefore, that meetings serve some purpose other than just making decisions.

All meetings have one thing in common: role-playing. The most formal role is that of chairman. He (and it is usually a he) sets the agenda, and a good chairman will keep the meeting running on time and to the point. Sadly, the other, informal, role-players are often able to gain the upper hand. Chief is the "constant talker", who just loves to hear his or her own voice.

Then there are the "can't do" types who want to maintain the status quo. Since they have often been in the organisation for a long time, they frequently quote historical experience as a ploy to block change: "It won't work, we tried that in 1984 and it was a disaster." A more subtle version of the "can't do" type, the "yes, but . . . ", has emerged recently. They have learnt about the need to sound positive, but they still can't bear to have things change.

Another whole sub-set of characters are people who love meetings and want them to continue until 5.30 pm or beyond. Irrelevant issues are their speciality. They need to call or attend meetings, either to avoid work, or to justify their lack of performance, or simply because they do not have enough to do.

Then there are the "counter-dependents", those who usually disagree with everything that is said, particularly if it comes from the chairman or through consensus from the group. These people need to fight authority in whatever form.

Meetings can also provide attenders with a sense of identification of their status and power. In this case, managers arrange meetings as a means of communicating to others the boundaries of their exclusive club who is "in", and who is not.

A popular game is pinching someone else's suggestions. This is where someone, usually junior or female, makes an interesting suggestion early in the meeting which is not picked up. Much later, the game is played, usually by some more senior figure who propounds the idea as his own. The suggestion is of course identified with the player rather than the initiator.

Because so many meetings end in confusion and without a decision, another more communal game is played at the end of meetings, called reaching a false consensus. Since it is important for the chairman to appear successful in problem-solving and making a decision, the group reaches a false consensus. Everyone is happy, having spent their time productively. The reality is that the decision is so ambiguous that it is never acted upon, or, if it is, there is continuing conflict, for which another meeting is necessary.

In the end, meetings provide the opportunity for social intercourse, to engage in battle in front of our bosses, to avoid unpleasant or unsatisfying work, to highlight our social status and identity. They are, in fact,, a necessary though not necessary productive psychological side-show. Perhaps it is our civilised way of moderating, if not preventing, change.

 

1. According to Henry Mintzberg, managers spend most of their working time having meetings.

2. According to him, the purpose of meetings is to solve problems and make decisions.

3. At a meeting every person is playing a role.

4. The writer mentions eight roles that people play at meetings.

5. A 'can't do' type is in favour of tradition and against new ideas.

6. People who aren't invited to meetings are regarded as less important by those who do attend.

7. It's normally junior people who steal other people's ideas at meetings.

8. Men at meetings no longer treat women as inferiors.

9. Even when no definite decisions are made at a meeting, the people often leave thinking the meeting has been useful.

10. The writer believes that meetings are a waste of time and prevent changes being made.

Text 2

 

On June 8th the Supreme Court ordered Eastman Kodak to stand trial in a competition case about the repair of expensive photocopiers. It has thrown a spotlight on the increasingly hostile relationship in America between manufacturing companies and the firms that service and repair the goods which the manufacturers produce.

If firms chose to use an independent service company, it is alleged, Kodak refused to supply either the servicing firm or the customer with spare parts. In effect, Kodak was trying to get customers to agree not to employ any firms that competed with it for service contracts on the Kodak machines.

Many economists would side with Kodak, rather than the court. They argue that consumers take servicing costs into account when buying equipment, so restrictive service agreements are not necessarily anti-competitive as long as there is competition in the equipment market itself.

The market for servicing high-technology electronic products alone is worth roughly $100 billion a year. Thousands of independent contractors compete for the business, but the lion's share goes to equipment manufacturers.

Roughly a quarter of the revenues of America's computer makers comes from servicing and maintaining the machines they sell. Profit margins on service contracts can be as high as 50%. That comes in handy when profit margins on the sale of computers are disappearing because of recurring price wars.

Other industries may also be affected. Detroit's car makers also backed Kodak. In 1990 the retail market for car parts was worth $150 billion, about the same as that for new cars. Servicing cars came to another $100 billion on top of that. Detroit used to be happy to leave the repair business to mom-and-pop garages. No longer. Many independent distributors of spare parts complain that the big car makers are muscling in on their business.

Big manufacturers in Japan and Germany service nearly all their own products. But America's high job mobility and entrepreneurial traditions have encouraged many engineers in high-tech industries to set up service firms of their own, often to the fury of their former employers.

Not all manufacturers are keen on the repair and service business. Makers of cheaper electronic goods, such as washing machines, tele-visions and video-recorders, find it cheaper and easier to replace faulty machines with new ones, or encourage customers to buy a new model, than to bother with spare parts. But many states in America require that manufacturers honour warranties on anything they sell. To satisfy the law they have appointed dealers and service agents. And yet because the manufacturers of electronic goods now view many of their products a disposable, they are in direct conflict with the dealers who have to provide service under those warranties.

 

1. It is alleged that Kodak refused to supply repair firms which competed with them.

2. It is generally agreed that Kodak acted unfairly.

3. Most servicing of electronic equipment is done by independent contractors.

4. US computer manufacturers earn about half their income from selling spare parts.

5. Servicing computers is more profitable than selling computers.

6. US car manufacturers earn about half their income from selling spare parts.

7. The number of independent servicing companies is greater in Japan and Germany than in the USA.

8. If cheaper electronic products go wrong, they are more likely to be replaced than repaired.

Text 3

 

Cultural differences between Japanese and American managers have presented the biggest obstacles to Japanese companies investing in America.

A seminar for Japanese executives working in America was attended by 25 men, nearly all of them in identical dark suits. Despite the room's stifling heating system, they resolutely refused to remove their jackets. Their coffee break lasted exactly the scheduled ten minutes. They did not ask any questions until after they had got to know one another a bit better at lunch. They were usually deferential and always polite.

A similar seminar for 25 Americans working for Japanese subsidiaries in America included eight women. Several of the men removed their jackets on entering the room. A ten-minute coffee break stretched beyond 20 minutes. Participants asked questions and several aggressively contradicted what the speakers had to say.

According to Mr Thomas Lifson of Harvard and Mr Yoshihiro Tsurumi of New York's Baruch College - the two main speakers at both seminars -misunderstandings between Japanese and American managers are possible at nearly every encounter. They can begin at the first recruiting interview. A big American company typically hires people to fill particular slots. Its bosses know that Americans are mobile people, who have a limited commitment to any particular employer or part of the country. As a result, jobs are clearly defined and so are the skills needed to fill them. American firms hire and fire almost at will.

The assumptions (and the expectations) of the Japanese managers of Japanese subsidiaries in America could hardly be more different. They hire people more for the skills they will acquire after joining the company than for their existing skills.

American managers rely heavily on number-packed memoranda and the like. The Japanese colleagues prefer informal consultations which lead eventually to a consensus. According to Mr Tsurumi, they find comical the sight of American managers in adjacent offices exchanging memos.

Confronted with a dispute between middle managers, most Japanese superiors refuse to become involved, expecting the managers themselves to resolve the issue. The Americans conclude, wrongly, that their Japanese bosses are indecisive or incompetent. Japanese managers do not share the American belief that conflict is inevitable, and sometimes healthy. They want to believe that employees form one big happy family.

 

1. This article is about American companies in Japan.

2. At one seminar the Japanese removed their jackets when they got hot.

3. The Japanese did not ask questions until after lunch.

4. At another seminar, some of the Americans were not polite to the speakers.

5. Americans and Japanese are likely to misunderstand each other in any situation.

6. American employees are very loyal to their companies.

7. Japanese companies are likely to recruit less experienced employees.

8. The Japanese rely less on meetings than the Americans.

9. Japanese managers send more memos than their American counterparts.

10. Japanese managers solve problems without involving their boss.

 

Text 4