Victoria and Albert Museum

Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) is named after Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert. It grew out of the collection of objects bought for the Great Exhibition in London in 1851.

National Gallery

National Gallery has a collection of Italian, Dutch, German and French pictures. The National gallery is rich in paintings by Italian masters such as Raphael and Veronese. It has pictures of European schools of art such as works by Rembrandt, Rubens and El Greco. The gallery is open seven days a week and admission is free.

Tate Gallery

The Tate Gallery opened in 1897and is named after Sir Henry Tate, who donated his collection of 65 paintings to the nation. Now it is the National Gallery of Modern Painting. There is a large collection of European twentieth-century art there.

The Tower

The Tower of London is a very old building. It is more than 900 years old. English kings lived in it many years ago, but now it is a museum. People who come to London like to go to the Tower. It was a fortress, a royal palace and later a prison. The ravens are another famous sign. The legend says that without them the Tower will fall.

Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace is the London home of the Queen. When the flag is flying on the top she is at home. The Buckingham Palace is the Royal residence. It was built in 1703 by the Duke of Buckingham. King George III bought the palace in 1761. It is now the official home of Queen Elizabeth and the British Royal Family. There are nearly six hundred rooms in the palace and three miles of red carpet. Buckingham Palace is like a small town, with a police station, two post offices, a hospital, a bar, two sport clubs, a disco, a cinema and a swimming pool. Two men work full-time to look after the 300 clocks. About 700 people work for the Palace.

Big Ben

Ben is the name of the huge clock in one of the tall towers of the Houses of Parliament. The Houses of Parliament is the largest modern building in the richest Gothic style completed in 1857. It stands on the left bank of the river Thames and is 940 ft in length. Those who want to get a front view of the building should look at it from a boat on the Thames. Clock Tower, overlooking Westminster Bridge is 316 ft high and 40 ft square. People are allowed to get inside the Tower so they can see the works of Big Ben. There is no lift and there are three hundred and forty steps up to Big Ben. The faces of the clock are very large. The minute hand is 14 ft long, the hour hand is 9 ft, the figures are 2 ft long.

Nelson’s Column

Nelson's Column is named after the greatest admiral Lord Nelson. It is a very tall column and a figure of Nelson on top of it. Equally famous is the general who led the army at the battle of Waterloo in 1815. This is the Duke of Wellington. His house stands at Hyde Park Corner. It is sometimes named as Number One, London. Like Admiral Nelson, the Duke of Wellington is buried in St Paul’s Cathedral.

1) Find the English equivalents in the text.

Королевская библиотека, огромный, древний, доисторический, назван в честь, картина, современное искусство, крепость, тюрьма, вороны, легенда, готический стиль, ступени, минутная стрелка, колонна, герцог.

2) Find in the text and put the words in the correct order.

1) gallery, open, the, days, admission, free, a week, is, and, is.

2) London, very, building, Tower, is, a, old, the, of.

3) flying, when, is, on, top, she, at home, the, flag, the, is.

3) True or False

1) Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) is named after Queen Victoria.

2) George II gave the royal library to the museum in 1757.

3) National Gallery has a collection of Italian and Dutch pictures.

5) Buckingham Palace is the London home of the Prime Minister.

6) Ben is the name of the huge clock in one of the tall towers of

Buckingham Palace.

7) The legend says that without the ravens the Tower will fall.

8) People are not allowed to get inside the Tower.

9) Nelson's Column is named after the Duke of Wellington.

10) The Duke of Wellington led the army at the battle of Waterloo in 1815.

Exchanges of Russia

There are different types of exchanges all over the world. They are commodity exchanges, currency exchanges and stock exchanges. The first exchanges in Russia were commodity exchanges as the country is rich in natural resources. Besides at the end of the 80s there was a growing shortage of goods and raw materials and the centrally planned system collapse d.Currency exchanges have been operating in this country since 1989. Their task is to fix the official rates of exchange. In the course of the trading sessions freely-convertible currency is bought and sold for Russian roubles.

The first stock exchange, the Moscow International Stock Exchange, was established in 1990. Among its founders were the Ministry of Finance and a number of banks. The other stock exchange is the Moscow Central Stock Exchange which is closely connected with the Commodity Exchange and the regional stock exchanges. Stock exchanges regulate the circulation of shares issued by joint stock companies. All these types of exchanges help Russia improve its financial system during its transition to a market economy.

Making a contract

Contract as a document

A contract is the most accepted form of formal document confirming the decision of the contracting parties to carry out mutual business obligations. The major contract clauses include articles on legal titles of the parties, subject of the contract, quality and quantity of the goods, terms of inspection, delivery and payment, requirements for parking and marking, claims and arbitration and other articles.

Enquiry

Dear Sirs,

We were greatly impressed by the samples of your goods which we saw on display at the exhibition last November. We were very interested in establishing contract with you and feel that we shall be able to do successful business provided your terms and conditions are acceptable for us. Please let us have your catalogues and latest price-lists quoting your best terms and prices. We are looking forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully,

Offer

Dear Sirs,

Thank you for your enquiry of … which has given our careful attention. We enclose detailed quotations for a wide range of our product. We can make a firm offer to meet any delivery dates. The prices and the terms of payment will depend on our mutual agreement. If you place a big order we shall be able to give you a discount. Your early reply will be appreciated.

Your faithfully,

Preliminary discussion

F: Well, Mr. R., you’ve studied our offer and seen our samples, haven’t you? What’s your final decision?

R.: We like samples 5 and 8, they suit us. The quality is excellent and we think the goods will go down well in our market if the prices are reasonable.

F.: You are right. We’ve been selling out goods for two years and very successfully. Sample 8 is our latest modified model. Are you going to place a big order?

R.: Yes, … pieces for prompt delivery and … pieces for delivery in four equal lots of … per month within 4 months of signing the contract.

F.: We are quite able to meet the dates. We have a big stock. Do you prefer CAF terms?

R.: Yes, no insurance. And you remember my remark, don’t you, Mr. F.?I said: If the prices are competitive. We would like you to give us a discount of 5%.

F.: That’s too much. As a special concession to a new customer, we can give you a 3.5% discount. And payment by an irrevocable confirmed L/D(аккредитив) which you will open right after signing the contract.

R.: Good, it’s a deal. We’ll be able to sign the contract this week, I think.

Performing the contract

R.: Welcome to Moscow. Mr. F., I’m glad to see you, though the occasion is not quite pleasant.

F.: I hope we’ll settle everything. I hear you have problems with customs clearance?

R.: Yes, you see we couldn’t clear the goods because there was a discrepancy between the bill and your invoices.

F.: Yes, I’ve seen to that, everything will be all right. Anything else?

R.: Yes, in the first consignment some items proved to be of inferior quality and there was a short -delivery of 10 pieces.

F.: My best apologies, Mr. R.. May I have a copy of your report? It’s the first complaint we’ve ever had from your companies. We’ll arrange for immediate shipment of short-delivered items and replace the interior ones.

R.: Good. But I’m afraid we’ll have to revise some parts of the contract.

THE INTERNET

The Internet, a global computer network which embraces millions of users all over the world, began in the United States in 1996 as a military experiment. It was designed to survive a nuclear war. Information sent over the Internet takes the shortest path available from one computer to another. Because of this, any two computers on the Internet will be able to stay in touch with each other as long as there is a single route between them. This technology is called packed switching. Owing to this technology, if some computers on the network are knocked out (by a nuclear explosion, for example), information will just route around them. One such packet-switching network which has already survived a war is the Iraqi computer network which was not knocked out during the Gulf War. Most of the Internet host computers (more than 50%) are in the United States, while the rest are located in more than 100 other countries. Although the number of host computers can be counted fairly accurately, nobody knows exactly how many people use the Internet, there are millions worldwide, and their number is growing by thousands each month.

 The most popular Internet service is e-mail. Most of the people, who have access to the Internet, use the network only for sending and receiving e-mail messages. However, other popular services are available on the Internet: reading USENET News, using the World-Wide-Web, telnet, FTP, and Gopher.

 In many developing countries the Internet may provide businessmen with a reliable alternative to the expensive and unreliable telecommunications systems of these countries. Commercial users can communicate cheaply over the Internet with the rest of the world. When they send e-mail messages, they only have to pay  for phone calls to their local service providers, not for calls across their countries or around the world. But who actually pays for sending e-mail messages over the Internet long distances, around the world? The answer  is very simple: users pay their service provider a monthly or hourly fee. Part of this fee goes towards its costs to connect to a larger service provider, and part of the fee received by the larger provider goes to cover its cost of running a worldwide network of wires and wireless stations.

But saving money is only the first step. If people see that they can make money from the Internet, commercial use of this network will drastically increase. For example, some western architecture companies and garment centers already transmit their basic designs and concepts over the Internet into China, where they are reworked and refined by skilled – but inexpensive- Chinese computer-aided-design specialists.

However, some problems remain. The most important is security. When you send an e-mail message to somebody, this message can travel through many different networks and computers. The data is constantly being directed towards its destination by special computers called routers.However, because of this, it is possible to get into any of the computers along the route, intercept and even change the data being send over the Internet.

In spite of the fact that there are many good encoding programs available, nearly all the information being sent over the Internet is transmitted without any form of encoding, i. e. “in the clear”. But when it becomes necessary to send the important information over the network, these encoding programs may be useful. Some American banks and companies even conduct transactions over the Internet. However, there are still both commercial and technical problems which will take time to be resolved.

Answer the questions: 1) What is the Internet? 2) What was the Internet originally designed for? 3) What country are most of the Internet host computers in? 4) What is the most popular Internet service? 5) Whom do you have to pay for sending e-mail messages?

Clothing Design

The conception of the design is the initial phase in clothing construction. The first consideration in design must be the function of the garment. Is it to be for a formal occasion, everyday wear, for work or for play? Once the purpose of the garment has been established the specific design can be developed. The idea for the design may come from the style that was seen on the street, a garment viewed in a store window, a sketch in a clothing catalog, or from the imagination of the designer. Many interesting designs can be created by combining various standard sleeve and collar patterns with basic body styles.

Pattern Drafting

Pattern Drafting is the first step in the process of turning a design conception into a reality. There are three basic elements to work with during drafting: 1. the sketch which shows the desired design, 2. the material which must be used, 3. the measurements of the person who will wear the clothes. Ready - to - wear designers will use the manufacturer's basic patterns which have been developed to fit as many people as possible.

 Dressmaking

Most of our clothes, of course are produced in factories. They are made in a variety of standard sizes, so that they can fit people of any size and shape. These clothes are called ready - to wear clothes. But to get a perfect fit, you must go to a dressmaker. She takes your exact measurements and makes clothes specially for you. This process is called dressmaking. The dressmaker buys some dress material and a paper pattern of a design she likes. Then she makes the cutting. Then she sews the dress together on a sewing machine. She has to finish the seems, sew on pockets and buttons, make button holes and put in zippers.

Fashion

Fashion is an art and an industry. It has long played a secondary role in the history of applied arts, but the development of the fashion industry in the post-war period was connected with changing life-styles and tastes. The immediate post-war period was a difficult time for fashion: there was no atmosphere and there were shortages in everything, including materials. In the fifties the situation improved. A new trend appeared in fashion - the fashion of the young. Young people wanted inexpensive, ready-made clothes, sometimes even vulgar and shocking.

The sixties were famous for "fashion revolution". It was a decade of extremes. Youth demanded an end to rules in fashion, their idea was classless, casual style.