Assignment 4 (to p.60-80)

1. Get ready to answer the questions in class, make a list of topic vocabulary for each question and use it in your speech:

1. What is the Pleiade Project aimed at? How do the business and political meanings of the word takeover interact in this conspi-racy?

2. Describe the President’s major initiative for his second term. Why does Prescott consider it a threat to the ‘American Way’?

3. What important information does Prescott’s secret file contain? How did he acquire it?

4. Who was the anonymous caller to the Bradlees?

5. How is Falcon getting along with Alexis?

6. What tasks does Falcon have to complete in order to launch the takeover?

7. Sum up the discussion between Falcon and Barksdale on the share price.

8. What makes Falcon presume that the takeover should be an all-cash offer?

9. What was the reason for Falcon’s call to Eddie Martinez?

10. What’s the role of Phoenix Grey in the Pleiade Project? Substantiate your point of view.

11. How did Penn-Mar become part of the President’s portfolio?

12. Give a company profile for Londestar Investment Management.

13. What web is being woven around Falcon?

14. What, do you think, a fair inheritance tax rate in Russia should be? Why?

2. Find in the text the English equivalents for the word combinations given below and recollect the context in which they were used:

1. (p.60) свергнуть

2. (p.60) лазейка

3. (p.60) испытывать уважение к ч-л

4. (p.61) косвенная улика

5. (p.62) застать к-л врасплох

6. (p.63) иметь связи на очень высоком уровне

7. (p.63) устанавливать (аппаратуру)

8. (p.79) предотвращать (опасность)

3. Find in the text the English equivalents for the following business terms:

1. (p.60) ввергнуть финансовые рынки в состояние хаоса

2. (p.60) налог на наследство

3. (p.60) пересмотр (налоговой политики)

4. (p.60) удержать (какую-то сумму)

5. (p.61) капитальные расходы

6. (p.61) чистая стоимость компании

4. Explain the meaning of the abbreviations CEO and COO (p.61).

5. a) Work on the word ‘bid’ and its derivatives.

bid (1) v (bidding, bid, bid):

1) to offer to pay a particular price for sth, especially at an auction (предлагать цену на торгах)

2) (BrE) to bid for sth = (AmE) to bid on sth: to offer to do work or provide a service for a particular price, in competition with other companies; SYN  tender (предлагать цену на выполнение подряда)

3) bid to do sth (used especially in newspapers) to try to do, get or achieve sth; SYN  attempt   (пытаться, претендовать, домогаться)

bidder – покупатель, участник торгов

bid (1) n

1) a bid for sth: an offer by a person or a business company to pay a particular amount of money for sth (предложение цены, заявка), higher bid, last bid

a takeover bid: предложение о поглощении; цена, предлагаемая поглощаемой фирме

2) (BrE) a bid for sth = (AmE) a bid on sth: an offer to do work or provide a service for a particular price, in competition with other companies; SYN tender (цена на выполнение подряда)

3) a bid for sth) / a bid to do sth (used especially in newspapers): an effort to do sth or to obtain sth (попытка, претензия, домогательство)

bid (2) v (bidding, bade, bidden)

bid (sb) good morning, farewell, etc. (formal): to say ‘good morning’, etc. to sb (желать, здороваться, прощаться и т.п.)

bidder n

1) a person or group that offers to pay an amount of money to buy sth (лицо, выступающее на торгах, покупщик)

2) a person or group that offers to do sth or to provide sth for a particular amount of money, in competition with others (претендент)

bidding n [U]

1) the act of offering prices, especially at an auction (предложение цены)

2) the act of offering to do sth or to provide sth for a particular price (заявка на получение подряда)

b) Translate into English:

1. Я предлагаю за картину 2 тысячи фунтов. 2. Мы хотели купить стулья, но другая пара стала предлагать более высокую цену. 3. На этот подряд претендует одна французская фирма. 4. Команда борется за сохранение места в высшей лиге. 5. Я попрощался со всеми друзьями. 6. «Рено» предприняло попытку поглотить «Вольво». 7. Максимальная цена, предложенная за картину на аукционе, равнялась 200 долларам. 8. Газета рассказала об отчаянной попытке заложников освободиться от террористов. 9. Экспонат достанется лицу, которое предложит высшую цену. 10. На подряд обслуживания фуршетов претендовало 6 фирм. 11. Акционеры приняли условия предложения о поглощении.

6. Translate into Russian:

1. With the tax overhaul the President had announced as the major initiative for his second term, that fifty-million-dollar net worth, what he had labored a lifetime to build, would all but evaporate at his death, appropriated by the Internal Revenue Service. They were going to close all the loopholes and raise the in­heritance tax rate to ninety percent on all wealth over three hundred thousand dollars. And any money flow­ing from personal and trust accounts to offshore ac­counts would be subject to withholding tax rates equal to or higher than the inheritance tax rates.

2. In fact, seventeen Penn-Mar plants across the United States and Europe were systematically sending drums of toxic waste to unauthorized sites, saving tens of millions of dollars a year in the process. Legal storage of toxic waste involved construction and the ongoing monitor­ing of sites set up to handle the waste. That would have totaled hundreds of millions in capital expen­ditures—which they were saving.

3. If Penn-Mar's board does not embrace our offer, if the offer is hostile in other words, we'll have to get at least eighty-five percent of the stock in the initial tender or the Germans won't be able to touch Penn-Mar for three years.

4. Farinholt did not like to tinker with the composition of the President's portfolio. It was full of blue-chip compa­nies because the last thing he wanted was a real problem with one of the President's stocks. Just keep up with the Dow. That was all he wanted to do with that portfolio. But the truth was the President's portfolio had not kept pace with the Dow. It had increased just four percent since the beginning of the year, half the Dow's performance. He needed a winner.

7. Translate into English in writing:

1. Ключ ко всему был в проекте Плеяда. Без него они не cмогли бы свергнуть президента. С ним они ввергнут финансовый рынок в состояние хаоса и уничтожат эту ненавистную администрацию. 2. Складирование ядовитых отходов производства по закону включало в себя строительство специальных площадок и постоянный контроль за их состоянием. Это означало бы сотни миллионов дополнительных капитальных расходов. 3. Если мы заплатим больше, чем по 60 долларов за акцию, то владельцы этих акций не смогут рассчитывать на более чем 20-25% ежегодной прибыли, и это еще оптимистический прогноз.

8. Collect all the information on the Pleiade Project and complete the table:

Tasks	Executives (voluntary and involuntary)	How much does Falcon know about it?
general management	Winthrop, Rutherford,	nothing
taking over Penn-Mar
launching a lawsuit against Penn-Mar
making Lodestar invest President’s money into Penn-Mar

9. Write a short memo on the Pleiade Project. Try to predict the consequences of the conspiracy for the political and economic stability of the USA.

LISTENING Bloomberg information network

Bloomberg provides a wide variety of media services to the business community. Today it’s a huge corporation with $1 billion a year revenue. Subscribers pay for Bloomberg terminals $1.200 a month. Four of Bloomberg services are described in this interview.

Listen to the interview and complete the table for every Bloomberg product.

Product	Services	Audience(s)	Media
1. The Bloomberg service
2. Bloomberg News
3. Bloomberg Television
4. Bloomberg Personal