cut back…
The last two bus services were withdrawn.
thrown about…
Lincolnshire is a country with the population scattered around in little pockets over the flat, rich farmland.
taking:…
The buses have to cover long distances from place to place carrying only a few passengers at a few passengers at a time.
3. Read the following passage and select the appropriate link-words from the list given below:
All hope…1, is not lost. South Rural district Council is trying to persuade a local firm to run a bus service to and from Donington two days a week,…2. Is that it will not do so…3 the council underwrites the costs at the rate of €7 a day. The council has refused,…4 its clerk is trying to talk the firm into having a few experimental runs.
1 2 3 4
thus The only result on the condition if but
however As a matter of under the circum- however
in this way fact stances yet
in addition The trouble unless and
this
4. The title, the first sentence and the first words of each paragraph of an article have been given below. Pick the points that you think are mentioned in the article.
The last bus to Donington - on - Bain
Last Monday the little village of Donington - on - Bain, deep in the Lincolnshire woods, lost its last contact through public transport with the outside world.
Lincolnshire is not a good bus country… .
The buses have to cover… .
But what … .
It game as… .
Donington’s local councilor… .
All hope, however… .
Unless something is done… .
The article tells us/mentions:
- about one of the local problems of a national crisis
- that the fact mentioned in the article be a tragedy with the villagers
- that the situation doesn’t seem to improve soon
- how people without cars can’t move about the country
- how the little village lost its last contact through public
- what problem the villagers of Donington face
5. Work in groups of two.
a) Look at the following word combinations and think of a story that might combine them all. You may reoder them in any way you want to using any form of the verb:
to lose a contact, two bus services, to make ends meet, to cling to the mistaken belief, to be withdrawn, to carry a few passengers at a time, to be hit by the lost service, the drain of people from the villages to the towns, to persuade a local firm.
b) When you have decided upon the story, tell the story to your partner. Then listen to that of your partner. Ask each other as many questions as you can to learn further details or clarify some points.
Текстовый этап
1. Read the text “The last bus to Donington - on - Bain” and a) underline the sentences that best sum up the main idea of each paragraph; b) reorder the words according to what happens in the passage. When you have finished, discuss the order you decided on with other groups.
2. Would you mark the position where Donington - on - Bain is on a map? Indicate all the roads and neighboring cities mentioned in the text, please. (Дается контурная карта.)
Послетекстовый этап
1. Please, complete the following statements with phrases:
1.The last bus services to the little village of Donington - on - Bain were withdrawn because… (there are a few passengers at a time; there are passengers; there are no buses; there are few people in the village)
2. The villagers need the bus service badly because …(not all of them have a car; they have a three-mile walk to the bus; some people travel by bus; they haven’t got any other transport)
3. Louth Rural District Council is trying to persuade a local firm to run a bus service to and from Donington … (every day, every other day; two a week; from time to time)
4. The local firm wants the Council to underwrite the costs at the rate of €7 a day and the latter…(has agreed; doesn’t know what to do; is discussing the problem; has refused)
5.The drain of people from the villages to the towns will continue if…(all the villagers haven’t got a car; public transport is withdrawn; the villages are situated far from the railway station; the living conditions of the villagers are improved)
2. Answer the following questions, selecting the right answer:
1. Who wrote this text? (author’s name and occupation)
2. What is the aim of the message? (informing; teaching; entertaining)
3. What is the author’s intention in this messages? (There may be more than one answer.) (to amuse the reader; to predict what the future of an English village; to criticize society; to teach us something about life in the future)
4. What is the author’s attitude towards the problem he describes? (indifference; sympathy; pity; admiration; anxiety; detachment hiding concern; criticism)
5. Do you think the article its aim? Why? (yes; no; probably; perhaps)
4.3. Тексты для самостоятельной работы студентов.
1. Read the text “Mr. Holland’s Dream”
When Mr. Holland was a young man, he played a lot of football, and he had always been thin and very strong. But then he worked in an office for many years, and he drove to work in a car, so when he was forty, he was fat and very soft, and he didn’t wish to get fatter and softer every year.
One day one of his friends said to him: “Would you like to be thinner, Fred?”
“Of course, I would”. Mr. Holland answered.
“Well”, his friend said, “stop going to your office by car, and get a bicycle”.
Mr. Holland had not ridden a bicycle for many years. “It’s very hard to learn to ride a bicycle again at your age”, his wife said.
But it was not too hard for Mr. Holland to do. He usually sat in his living room and read the newspaper in the evening, but he bought a bicycle for his birthday and practiced riding it every evening instead. He hope that it would help him to get thinner, and he got a lot of pleasure from it.
He found little roads which not really very narrow, but were too narrow for cars, and there he got away from the nasty noises of the city, which were becoming too much for him. They were not really very loud, but they were too loud for Mr. Holland.
Then he began to go his office by bicycle. Sometimes all the cars stopped at a red light, and he went past them to the front, because his bicycle was narrow. Then he was very happy.
Yesterday he stopped at a red light, and a man came up behind him on another bicycle. he stopped too and to Mr. Holland, “Have the police taken your driving licence away too?”
I. Put the sentences in the correct order.
1. Then he began to go to his office on his bicycle.
2. He usually sat in his living room and read the newspaper.
3. It was not too hard for Mr. Holland to ride a bicycle.
4. He found little roads which were not really very narrow.
5. When Mr. Holland was a young man, he played a lot of football.
6. When he was forty, he was fat and very soft.
7. Mr. Holland hadn’t ridden a bicycle for many years.
8. He didn’t wish to get fatter and soften every year.
9. When all the cars stopped at a red light Mr. Holland went past them, because his bicycle was narrow.
10. Another man stopped too and said to Mr. Holland “Have the police taken your licence away too?”
II. Answer the following questions.
1. What is Mr. Holland’s dream?
2. When did he play a lot of football?
3. Why had he always been thin and very strong?
4. Why did he become fat and very soft?
5. What was the advice of one of his friends?
6. Was it hard to follow this advice? Why?
7. What did he usually do in the evening?
8. What would help him to get thinner?
9. Where did Mr. Holland practice?
10. Did he stop at the red light?
11. Why did a man behind him ask: “Have the police taken the driving licence away too?”
III. Circle the correct answer.
1. Was Mr. Holland fat or this when he was young?
A. He was slim C. He was thick
B. He was thin D. He was fat
2. What was he like when he was forty?
A. He was fat C. He was thick
B. He was thin D. He was slim
3. Who told him to get a bicycle?
A. His son did C. His mother did
B. His wife did D. A friend
4. Was it hard for him to learn to ride a bicycle again?
A. Sometimes it was to learn to ride a bicycle again
B. Yes, it was very easy
C. Yes, it was very hard
D. No, it wasn’t
5. When did he practice?
A. In the evening C. On his birthday
B. In the morning D. At weekends.
6. Did he enjoy riding his bicycle?
A. Yes, he did C. No, he didn’t
B. Fifty-fifty D. Sometimes
7. Why did he like narrow roads?
A. Because they were crowded
B. Because they were very clean
C. Because they were noisier
D. Because they were less noisy
8. Why could he go past cars at red lights?
A. Because he didn’t have to stop at them
B. Because he was very ambitious
C. Because he didn’t know traffic rules
D. Because his bicycle was narrower
9. Had the police taken Mr. Holland’s driving licence away?
A. No, they hadn’t C. Yes, they had
B. Just checked it D. He left it at home
10. Had they taken the other man’s away?
A. No, they hadn’t C. He left it at home
B. Just checked it D. Yes, they had
1. Read the text «Scenarios»
Making up stories about the future might seem a curious occupation for grown-up executives. But there was a time, in the 1970s and early 1980s, when scenarios were a familiar part of the planning process. They then fell out of fashion for a while, as did strategic planning overall. Now that strategy is making a comeback, so are scenarios. In essence the scenario technique consists of describing a range of possible future. Let us suppose that the Chinese economy collapses, or that it flourishes: that the Internet enriches the telephone companies or drives them out of business. What then?
The aim is not to make predictions, but to provide a framework into which subsequent events can be fitted. If executives have thought out the possible outcomes, they should be quicker to react when one of them arrives. As Arie de Geus, former head of planning at Shell, puts it, they can remember the future.
Since the oil industry vats single investments such as refineries or petrochemical complexes, scenarios applealed as a from of risk analysis. What would happen in the oil price soared or plummeted? What was the probability of a given host government collapsing, or nationalizing the industry?
Then came the reaction. In a recent book, The Living Company, Mr. de Geus describes how in the 1980s, Shell’s senior executives became skeptical. Making up stories, they said, was great fun and good public relations. But how many decisions could be attributed directly to the scenario process?
Over the last 10 years, says Roger Rainbow, Shell’s present head of planning, there has been more emphasis on getting the managers involved. “The trend has been to get them to bring scenarios into their decision processes,” he says. “We need to help people to make decisions on quite specific issues, down to the level of a specific strategy in a given country, or a specific project.”
At the same time, he reports. there is a rising level of interest outside. “We get one or two companies a week calling us up to ask our advice on scenarios. If we were a consultancy, we’d be making a lot of money.” There are a number of consultancies doing just that. Northeast Consulting, of Boston, was founded by a group of consultants who had previously done scenario work for IBM.
According to Keith Anderson, senior associate for Northeast Consulting Resources in Europe, the difference in origins is fundamental. Where Shell began with geopolitical change, the computer industry was more concerned with detailed developments in technology.
As Mr. Anderson puts, the task is not merely to describe possible future, but to identify the preferred one and work to bring it about. Microsoft, he observed, was dismissive about the Internet at the outset. When it perceived its mistake, it set out not merely to catch up, but to take a lead in determining how the Internet developed.
By Tony Jackson
from the Financial Times.
2. Number this information in order it appears in the text:
1. People call Shell in order to ask how to develop and use scenarios.
2. At Shell, they get managers to participate more in developing scenarios.
3. Several consultancies are working in the area of scenarios.
4. People outside Shell are getting more interested in scenarios.
5. At Shell, managers have to make decisions on particular projects.
6. Northeast Consulting was started by people who had worked at IBM.
3. What do these figures refer to in the text?
1. 1980s
2. 1970s
3. 10
4. Choose the correct alternative:
1. If the price of something soars, it
a. stays the same
b. falls really very quickly
c. increases by a lot very quickly
2. If the price of something plummets, it a stays the same
a. stays the same
b. falls really very quickly
c. increases by a lot very quickly
3. If you undertake something, you
a. carry it out
b. take it over from someone else
c. plan to avoid it
4. If something appeals, it looks
a. uninteresting
b. attractive and interesting
c. boring
5. If a government collapses, it
a. loses power
b. gains power
c. stays in power
5. All of the following statements are false. Your task is to correct them:
1) Scenarios are of no real practical use
2) The scenario technique involves thinking of one possible series of future events.
3) Scenarios were a part of strategic planning right through the 1980s.
4) Executives started to use scenarios before the Second World War
5) Getting executives to make up stories is a normal thing to do.
6. Translate the following sentences into good Russian.
1) Scenarios fell out of fashion for a while, as did strategic planning overall.
2) Since the oil industry undertakes the vast single investments such as refineries or petrochemical complexes, scenarios appealed as a from of risk analysis.
3) Making up stories about the future might seem a curios occupation for grown-up executives.
4) In essence, the scenario technique consists of describing a rang of possible futures.
5) If we were a consultancy, we’d be making a lot of money.
6) At the same time there is a rising level of interest outside.
7) What would happen if the oil price soared or plummeted?
8) The aim is not to make predictions, but to provide a framework into which subsequent events can be fitted.
9) When it perceived its mistake, it set out not merely to catch up, but to take a lead in determining how the Internet developed.
10) Over the last 10 years, says Roger Rainbow, Shell’s present head of planning. there has been more emphasis on getting the managers involved.
7. Explain these words in English:
1) Framework - ____________
2) Collapse - _______________
3) Economy - _______________
4) Prediction - ______________
5) Strategy - _______________
6) Government - ____________
7) Fashion - _______________
8) Development - ____________
9) Decision - ________________
10) Consultant - __________
1. Read the text «Nelson’s management style could have come from a modern textbook»
Millions find it hard today to identify white European males, and 20th century warfare has made it almost impossible to use war leaders of the past as role models for the present. Yet leaders and heroes are still needed, and Nelson’s characters and his preparation for the Nile adventure, still make him an example for everyone, black or write, male or female, British or otherwise. The reason lies less in what he did, more in how he did it.
Even in the toughest boardroom, battle, very few people today have to carry the level of responsibility Nelson bore in 1798. Yet the way he bore it could have come from a modern textbook:
- developing teamwork with defined roles and close personal relationships;
- allowing the expression of different ideas;
- providing clear, shared and understandable goals;
- permitting participation in decision-making;
- encouraging initiative;
- promoting sense of ownership and commitment.
All today are at least recognized as valuable, and all were present in his conduct of the campaign. If he had had time to write books, he could have advanced management theory by two centuries.
In 1978, he faced something which management-speak would call “a challenge”. The would seems hopelessly inadequate. With continental Europe controlled by revolutionary Franc, the Royal Navy had been forced to leave the Mediterranean. In Toulon, the French were preparing a colossal fleet and army - 17 major warships with more than 300 troop ships. Nelson was selected to find it and, if possible it. He was only 39 years old and had never commanded a fleet before, yet in London his task was seen as crucial to all Europe’s destiny.