2020-10-10
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Switching car insuranceprovider can be a painless way to save hundreds of pounds or more a year. You should compare deals whenever you come to renew and may even be able to save by paying an exit penalty and changing mid-term. Bear in mind that there are few rewards for loyalty.
Shop around. You can compare prices across scores of insurers in minutes at comparison websites, but be aware that some sites provide estimates rather than binding quotes. Some companies will strip their policies to push them to the top of the tables, so check the excesses payable if you need to make a claim and whether a policy includes extras such as legal cover or courtesy car provision.
Test your titles. Be as specific as possible when entering your job description. For example, the title manager gives insurers less of an ideaof your risk profile than a callcentre manager. The latter is clearly a desk job with no driving involved and would cost less to cover.
Add a second driver. In the event the insurance company went broke it would automatically invalidate the policy and the driver will be charged with driving uninsured.
Lower your risk. Insurers increase prices if your car is vulnerable to theft or vandalism, so you could pay hundreds of pounds more if you park on the street rather than in a garage or on a driveway. If your car does not have an alarm, you can save a further 10 per cent by fittingan approved system.
Don’t skimp on cover, though it may be tempting to cut back on it to save money – go for a comprehensive cover.
Look for special offers. Most providers offer better rates to people who buy online – through their own websites or a comparison site. Discounts of up to 15 per cent on the telephone price are typical. Tesco is giving a £100 pressure washer to new customers who are Tesco Clubcard holders and buy a policy. This includes 24-hour roadside assistance, with no call-out charge and up to an hour’s free roadside labour. For greener-minded drivers, Co-operative car insurance will offset 20 per cent of fuel emissions and provides an accident recovery service.
M. Bridge. The Times
Practicum 10.5
Translate the italicized parts of Text10a into Russian
Practicum 10.6 
Practicum 10.7 
Practicum 10.8
Account for the most natural pattern of communicative behaviour of an insurance company CEO in the suggested setting:
-when asked about the crisis management measures, which allegedly have saved the company he
is evading the answer
Practicum 10.9
Practice Evading & Being Vague and Pushing for an Answer strategiesin the following situations
1.a 29-year-old female self-starter, born to a Russian mother of an African father, grew up in a village orphanage, now head of a travel agency, in the interview is carefully evading the sensitive issues of her orphanage background and unfriendly treatment in ethnic minority-hostile environment;
2.an entrepreneur, one of the top thousand richest men in Jakarta, born into a family with 13 siblings in a rural part of Indonesia, running his own business, when granting an interview offers a vague description of
-his first working experience at the age of 14 after his father’s death (ice creams street vendor; then door-to-door peddler in his native town);
-leaving the wife and two children at 21 and moving to Jakarta to set up his own business;
-cheating the bank to get a soft loan;
-struggling with anti-Chinese riots’ attacks on his shops
Practicum 10.10
Practice Evading & Being Vague strategyin the following situation (to be done in writing)
a new editor-in-chief of a medical journal is responding to the letters of readers concerned about the changed message of the periodical (a distinct turn to pharmaceutical product placement) and evading direct answers
Text 10b
The text to follow deal in talking economics. Study the text and use it as a starting point for communication
When the Job Dies, Try Going it Alone
Last week Tommy Gordon was officially made redundant. But Gordon is not sitting at home wondering what to do next. He has already started a venture – a business dealing in natural-history curiosities. In partnership with a world-renowned collector of everything from mammoth tusks to birds of paradise Gordon plans to build an inventory of pieces to sell through the art dealer and to provide a bespoke service to collectors. “I was never particularly happy doing what I used to do,” said Gordon. “But they were pretty good to me in terms of a redundancy payment so I decided to use the money to do what I had always really wanted.”
Gordon is not the only one using redundancy money to start a business. All over the country, new start-ups are springing forth, the brain-childrenofentrepreneurs who see the recession as an opportunity. That view is shared by Jim Surguy, who specialises in corporate development. “ Start-up costs are much lower, technology is cheaper and there are a lot of talented people who are out of work and so are more reasonable about salaries. ” And, he added, recessions have always produced successful businesses – such as Tesco and Revlon in the depression of the 1930s and Microsoft in the recession of the 1970s.
So what do you need to succeed? Getting the product right is vital, and the markets to consider include anything to do with the overfifties – from travel and holidays to entertainment. “They have more time and more disposable income – and it’s a quickly growing part of our population,” said one expert. Then there are the buzz industries of energy saving and climate change. In boom periods, people get sloppy and pay lots of money for rubbish, whereas in times like this, technology that saves money is what investors want to invest in.
Any areas to avoid? Forget food retailing, keep-fit or gyms and home interiors – all these industries are suffering. And don’t forget the practical elements – enough cash and some good management people. Entrepreneurial brains aren’t always the best at managing. Is it worth studying for an MBA? Many seem to think so. According to statistics courses across the country have had an increase in applications. At a Business School in London applications for some courses have gone up as much as 60%. They even have a full-time professor of entrepreneurship who focuses on teaching the skills people need to start a new venture. Even for those who aren’t starting up now, but are already running small companies, the recession can be a good thing. Will Holloway started a goody-bag supply. Although he admitted he doesn’t expect this year to go so well, he is adamant that the recession has been a good thing for his company. “We’ve been able to move to better, cheaper offices, and having a bit more time has enabled me to make the company slicker,” he said. “We’ve cleaned up our database, redone our website and sent out press releases. This time last year we were frantically busy and earning good cash, but I never had time to do anything like update the website. We are not going to do the same amount of business as we did last year, but we are trying new things, such as more targeted promotional campaigns. It keeps us on our toes. ”
Going solo, meanwhile, could even lead you to full-time employment. That’s what happened to Damien Lipman, when he set up a firm to provide assistance to wealthy individuals. He spent several months organising the busy lives of the very rich, doing everything from setting up work rotas for household staff to interviewing potential personal assistants. At lunch he got chatting to his neighbour about what he did. She happened to be the CEO of a hedge fund and promptly offered him a job. “I was quite happy doing what I was doing, said Lipman, I was chasing contracts. Now I do a similar thing, but in-house.”
L. Denyer. The Sunday Times
Practicum 10.11
Translate the italicized parts of Text 10b into Russian
Practicum 10.12
Practicum 10.13
Practicum 10.14
Account for the most natural pattern of communicative behaviour in the suggested settings, rely on the Evading & Being Vague strategy
-Tommy Gordon and his business partner discuss their future plans with the art dealer;
-the full-time professor of entrepreneurship at the Business School in London is delivering a workshop dealing with up- and downsides of entrepreneurship at a time of recession
-Will Holloway and an IT-designer are discussing the firm’s website
-Damien Lipman is discussing his future occupation with the CEO of the hedge fund
Practicum 10.15
Practice Evading & Being Vague and Pushing for an Answer strategiesin the following situation
A young ambitious female, a managing partner in Ernst & Young’s office and chairperson of the International Business Association, being the first Russian and the first female to hold the position, is granting an interview and evading the questions concerning her first employer when she, as a law student, joined an accounting firm; her private life
III. Communication Practice
Brainstorming
A team of spinners are coaching a celeb before a talk show (currently facing declining popularity against a looming third divorce threatening joined custody over the children on multiple grounds: drinking, excessive clubbing, adultery & womanizing) to rely on Evading & Being Vague strategies
