Контрольная работа. Английский язык

Задание 1. Read the article, translate it and check your comprehension by doing the Activity 2.

BUSINESS BOOKS

Keeping up with developments in your professional field is getting more and more difficult. It used to be enough to read a few trade magazines, attend the occasional conference and subscribe to a professional website. Nowadays, though, it seems this is not enough.

Many people involved in business today will have heard of long tails, black swans, freakonomics and one-minute managers. However, if you haven’t read the right books and don’t know the jargon, a “long tail” is a way of describing sales patterns, a “black swan” is an unusual but high-impact event, “freakonomics” is a way of describing unusual economic effects and the “one-minute manager” is a good time manager.

Books on the subject of business, and the jargon (or specific language) they produce have now become a business in themselves. Most bookshops now have several shelves filled with books suggesting all sorts of revolutionary theories which will change the way you do business, manage your time or do your accounting procedures. Many of these books claim they can make you rich and successful.

There are now books which tell you how to persuade people and close the deal, how to read and use body language, how to unlock the secrets of international markets, how to go global and stay green, or list the 25 principles of success, the ten ways to make yourself a better manager, the 100 richest people in the world.

As well as these books, there is another style of business book: the biography or autobiography of the successful business person. These days, it seems, no one can become the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of even a small company without putting pen to paper and telling the story of their rise to the top, especially if they have a personal tragic story to overcome, or some fantastic ideas to share. In one of these books, a fairly well-known CEO says “Everything I know about business, I’ve learned myself” which makes me wonder why people would buy his book.

Some of these books sell by the thousands, often appearing in the bestseller lists alongside blockbusting works of fiction. Who is buying them, and what do they learn? Are these books essential tools for the modern workplace, or just a way for publishers to make money?

Undoubtedly some books do become vital textbooks for students of business at any level, and some of the biographies can hold valuable lessons for any aspiring or practicing entrepreneurs. However, the accusation that many of these books are creating unnecessary jargon, words and terms which complicate, not simplify, the world of business, also seems true.

Задание 2. Choose the best ending.

1. According to the article, being more informed in your profession

a) is becoming more complex.

b) has never been easy.

c) means reading a lot of magazines.

d) is now done through the internet.

2. If you haven’t read certain business books.

a) you won’t be able to do your job properly.

b) you won’t understand what your colleagues are talking about.

c) you won’t know certain new terms.

d) you won’t use terms correctly to describe things.

3. Many bookshops

a) have books full of radical ideas.

b) will help you to become successful.

c) stock a lot of business books.

d) are successful businesses.

4. Books are available

a) about all kinds of business subjects.

b) about management.

c) which will improve your career prospects.

d) which will make you a successful person.

5. According to the article

a) many company directors have written their life stories.

b) it is necessary to have good ideas to write a book.

c) it is necessary to have had personal difficulties before you can be successful.

d) biographies of famous people are useless. 6

. Some business books

a) are made into films.

b) are very commercially successful.

c) are works of fiction.

d) only helps publishing companies.