Electric motors

I. Прочтите письмо.

Roxexport July 10, 20...

Dear Sirs,

Following the meeting that has taken place in Moscow between Mr Kozlov and our Mr Brown, we now understand that we are ready to deliver electric motors for the UK.

In this connection we have prepared a list of our requirements enclosed herewith covering a total of... motors for the total value of... which we now place as a firm order on the following basic conditions:

1. Subject to detailed discussion of terms, you will grant us exclusivity on the UK market for Russian Electric Motors for a period to be determined in negotiations but to be not less than initially three years.

2. We shall receive your motors on the basis of consignment and will pay for them when they are actually sold to the UK consumers. For this purpose we shall remit the money within 30 days upon sale.

3. The period of consignment will be not less than two years, a condition which may be varied subsequently.

4. The shipment of these motors will be effected by you during the first quarter, 19... although you have the option to ship earlier if you so wish.

Please confirm to us by telex the acceptance of the order as it stands at the moment, which will enable you also to place this order with your factories.

Yours faithfully,

...

II. Напишите ответы на следующие вопросы:

1. Why did the agent want the right of exclusivity for a minimum of 3 years initially?

2. Would the period of consignment be cut or extended in the future? What would it depend on?

3. Would Rosexport agree to the delivery schedule offered by the agents? What would influence their decision?

III. Напишите ответное письмо на английском языке, выразив свое мнение на условия фирмы.

IV. Переведите письменно следующие предложения с англий-
ского на русский язык, подчеркнув формы глагола в Passive Voice (страдательный залог), предварительно повторив Тему 2, раздел 2.1 Практикума.

1) The uncontrolled policy of the Central Bank of Russia, for instance, the money minireform which was carried out on July 25, 1993, and the lack of connections between various decisions demonstrated the weakness of the former bank on a macroeconomic level.

There has appeared in Russia a whole galaxy of about 3,000 so-called commercial banks. But many of them are not private institutions; they were simply established by old specialized banks and major state enterprises.

2) While similar problems are observed in Poland, Hungary and former Czechoslovakia, they assume a particularly great scope in Russia because of the immense number of commercial banks.

3) It is also necessary to stimulate competition within the banking system. This question is being broadly discussed in Russia since it is linked with the role of foreign banks in the country.

4) Russian banks fear the appeareance of foreign branches not because the number of their clients will be sharply reduced but because they do not want to lose immense bank margins.

5) These margins are formed out of greatly exaggerated basic services offered to clients.

6) The system of settling accounts should be simplified.

V. Прочтите текст и выпишите из текста предложения, в которых употребляются придаточные предложения, опре-
делите виды придаточных предложений; переведите письменно выписанные предложения. Прежде чем выпол-
нять это упражнение, повторите Тему 1 Практикума.

Adam Smith was born in 1723, and was a student at Glasgow University in Scotland from 1737 to 1740, when John Kay invented the flying shuttle. Between 1764 and 1766, Smith toured Europe as the tutor of the Duke of Buccleuch, the ancestor of the man who is still Britain’s largest private landowner. While in France Smith met Voltaire and was greatly influenced by a group of philosophers known as the physiocrats, who believed that governments should not interfere in the natural course of things.

On his return from France, Adam Smith sat down to write his great book.

The full title Adam Smith gave to his book was «An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations». It’s stated aim was to discover the causes of an increase in national wealth (i.e., what drives what we now know as economic growth).

The first key question the book addresses is what is wealth? When Smith was writing, wealth equalled bullion, gold and silver. The conventional aim of government policy was to create the largest possible trade surplus through manipulating tariffs on imports and subsidies on exports, so that the nation’s surplus of money increased. This approach Smith called the «mercantile system of political economy». He then went on to explain, forcefully, why the supporters of this system were wrong-headed.

This fundamental mistake of mercantilism, Smith wrote, was the view that national wealth consists in money. Real wealth is measured by the availability of consumable goods and the labour which produces them. An increase in wealth equals an increase in goods, and plenty means cheap goods. Anything that restricts the availability of goods reduces a nation’s wealth. National wealth can only increase as trade does between and within nations. For trade to grow you need a market, and how the market works is the core of Smith’s book.

What makes markets such formidable creators of wealth is that they encourage the division of labour and specialisation. Smith illustrates this point with an example «from a very trifling manufacture» – making pins. Working in a subsistence economy, where each person is forced to make everything he or she will use, one person «could scarcely make one pin a day, and certainly could not make 20».

But in a modern economy the whole process is divided into a number of stages. «One man draws out the wire, another straightens it, a third cuts it, a fourth points it, a fifth grinds it at the top for receiving the head; to make the head requires two or three distinct operations; to put it on is a peculiar business; it is even a trade by itself to put them into the paper; and the important business of making a pin is, in the manner, divided into about 18 distinct operations». Working together in this way, ten men equipped with poor machinery could make 48,000 pins in a day.

An effective market economy – and the civilised society that it supports – depends on a network of co-operation that is neither planned nor directed by a political power. The operation of market forces, like the division of labour, brings great benefits to society and raises the standard of living, but this benefit cannot be planned. Buyers and sellers in a market are motivated almost solely by self-interest, but serve the public interest without having intended it. If the seller is the sole producer of a popular product, he will push its price up as high as the market will bear. But a high price will attract rival producers. Once their goods are available in the market, the price will naturally fall. Thus the market is a self-regulating mechanism guided not by a government, but by what Smith called «the invisible hand».

VI. Прочтите текст и переведите его на русский язык в пись-
менной форме.

Moscow State University of Economics,
Statistics and Informatics (MESI)

Moscow State University of Economics, Statistics and Informatics (MESI) is one of the oldest higher educational establishments in Russia. The University was founded in 1932 (former Moscow Institute of Economics and Statistics).

Currently, more than 5, 000 students study on full-time, part-time and extramuros basis. MESI is an autonomous higher education institution under the authority of the Ministry of General and Professional Education of the Russian Federation; it is also chairing the Association of Higher Educational Establishments in Economics.

MESI is the leading training University in the CIS in the fields of Economics, Statistics and Information Systems applied to Economics.

In the field of economics, MESI rates third among Russian higher educational establishments. The University has five main institutes: Statistics and Econometrics, Information Technologies, Economics and Finance, Marketing and Law, Management.

The students have a broad choice of fields of studies:

- Economics

- Information systems in economics

- Statistics

- Banking

- Financial management

- Insurance

- Marketing

- Accounting, taxation and auditing

- Consulting

- Computer science

- World economics (international business)

- Operation research

- Corporate administration

- Economic geography

- Economic history

- Languages and business communication

- Law

- Management of small and medium-size companies

- Mathematics, etc.

MESI is managed jointly by the Scientific Council, the Rector and the Administrative Office.

The highest decision-making body is the Scientific Council, which consists of the deputy rectors, directors and representatives of the staff. The Rector chairs the Council, which is responsible for general administration of the University.

The Rector supervises general and international issues and takes the financial decisions. Each institute is run by the institute board and the director of the institute. The institute boards supervise the curricula.

Institutes are divided into departments which are headed by heads of departments. Departments are responsible for the teaching, approve degrees and make proposals concerning curricula.

MESI also houses a Second Higher Education allowing intensive business and economic training and retraining.

The University uses state of the art software and hardware including modern computer training equipment as well as multimedia and telecommunication facilities. Classrooms, laboratories and special «training firms», which actually simulate the activities of industrial, commercial or financial companies are all equipped with PCs and the necessary software.

About 450 professors, associate-professors and assistant-professors work at the various MESI departments. About 50 of them can provide classes in English and other European languages.

MESI has its own publishing house and its publications are well-known.

The MESI library has a wide stock of Russian and foreign special literature.

A preparatory department is training applicants entering higher educational establishments. MESI departments carry out scientific research in a wide range of areas: statistical research of socio-economic problems, forecasting economic trends, developing information technologies adapted to business, insurance, taxation, various forms of property, marketing and management.

MESI trains specialists of higher qualification, candidates and doctors of science in «statistics», «economics and statistical methods», «economics», «finance», «informational technologies».

Many specialists from Russia and other countries study at postgraduate and doctorate courses.

MESI has scientific exchange programmes with many centres and universities in different countries of Europe, Asia and America.

Напишите ответы на следующие вопросы:

1. What Institutes are there at your University?

2. When was the Institute of Economics and Statistics set up?

3. What subjects do the students study at your University?

4. What are departments responsible for?

5. Do you get a scholarship?

6. Who is the director of your Institute?

7. Who can be admitted to the higher educational establishments?

8. How many years does the course of study last at this University?

9. Do the students take examinations every year?