Контрольная по английскому

Вариант № 1

I.    Reading.
Before you read, think of people with similar jobs, background, etc. to you in another country that you know. When they go to a supermarket, do you think they buy the same products as you or are their tastes and lifestyles very different?
Read this article from the Financial Times and answer the ques-tions.
CONSUMING FASCINATION
by Alison Smith
The global brand is real enough, but what of the global consumer? Nicholas Trivisonno, the chairman and chief executive of AC Nielsen, the US-based international market research company, believes such a character is fictional. "There is no global consumer. Each country and the consumer in each country has different attitudes and different behaviours, tastes, spending patterns," he says.
Nielsen should be in a position to know. It has a presence in more than 90 countries across three continents, and works for more than 9,000 clients. Its revenue last year was $1.4 billion, out of a $12billion global market research industry.
Mr. Trivisonno specifically includes teenagers in what he says, though they are often seen by marketing executives as people who have more and more in common worldwide - and to whom some of the leading global brands most appeal.
"We are seeing changes in consumer behaviour, but not a convergence of consumer behaviour," he says. He believes the reason for this is that even though a global brand may get similar reactions in very different markets, the consumer will view it against different sets of rivals in the market.
"Take a global brand of soft drink. Acceptance of that product may be the same, but the competitive set in any particular country will be different - it could be mineral water, coffee or other types of soft drinks. You need to look behind not only reaction to the global brand but to competitors' brands."
Defining the competitive market is critical to making sensible use of market research information, and the boundaries are moving more often.
Mr. Trivisonno gives the example of a breakfast cereal manufac-turer. At one time competition for a cereal would have been from the brands that it stood alongside on supermarket shelves: these days it may be with other breakfast foods, such as yoghurts. "Now it's all about share of stomach, share of thirst," he says.
From the Financial Times

1.    Match the words 1-6 to the nouns a-f that they describe in the first paragraph. (One of the words 1-6 occurs twice.)
1. chief        a)    brand
2. fictional        b)    consumer
3. global        c)    character
4. market        d)    executive
5. spending    e)    patterns
6.             f)      research
2.    Nielsen has revenues of $1.4 billion. This means that it has:
a) profits of $1.4 billion
b) sales of $1.4 billion.
3. Does Mr. Trivisonno think that teenagers worldwide are be-coming more and more similar?
4. If a brand appeals to someone, do they like it?
5. If there is convergence in the behaviour of different groups, they are becoming:
a) more similar
b) less similar.
6. A rival is a comp______________. (complete the word)
7. A competitive set of products is a group of comp____________ products. (complete the word)
8. Correct these statements:
a)     The main competition to a soft drink is other soft drinks.
b)     You only need to look at reaction to the global brand to see what people think of it.
c)     Defining the competitive market for a product is not im-portant.
d)     The divisions between markets are staying more or less the same.
e)     The main competition for breakfast cereals is other breakfast cereals.
9. Answer the questions orally:
What do people have for breakfast in your country? Is there a difference between what younger and older people have? Which of these things are sold under brand names? Are the brands local, national or global? If they are local, are they locally owned, or part of a mul-tinational group? Do you think that global tastes in food are develop-ing?

II.    Grammar.
Using the information in each set of sentences, use "as...as...", "more", or "-er" to write a sentence of comparison. Use "nearly", "quite", "almost", "just", "much", "a lot", "far", "a little", or "a little bit" if appropriate.
Example:
Tom lives one and a half miles from the office.
Brian lives one mile from the office.
Possible answer: Brian lives a lot closer to the office than Tom.

1.
BART trains travel at 70 miles per hour.
Cars on the freeway travel at 65 miles per hour.
2.
In August 2005, gasoline cost $2.90 a gallon.
In August 2002, gasoline cost $1.65 a gallon.
3.
Writing English correctly is difficult.
Speaking English correctly is difficult.
4.
In San Francisco, many people walk on the streets.
In Fremont, only a few people walk on the streets.
5.
Tom makes $35,000 a year at his job.
Mike makes $40,000 a year at his job.
6.
Sally can type 150 words a minute.
Sam can type 120 words a minute.
7.
The Dumbarton Bridge is 2.8 miles long.
The San Mateo Bridge is 3.5 miles long.
8.
Maria is very intelligent.
Maria’s brother is not very intelligent.

III.    Vocabulary.
1. Give the English equivalents to the following expressions:
Гибкость/ конкурентное преимущество/ производитель/ прямая поставка/ обучение покупателей/ пополнение запасов/ время реа-лизации заказа/ наличие запаса на складе/ логистические затраты/ обслуживать рынок
2. Translate the sentences into English:
1.    Для того чтобы компания могла адаптировать свою деятель-ность к новым способам ведения бизнеса, необходимы гибкие информационные системы.
2.    Использование принципов логистики может значительно улучшить конкурентное преимущество компании.
3.    В некоторых отраслях промышленности, например, химической или бумажной, логистические затраты могут превышать стоимость самого продукта.
4.    Короткое время выполнения заказа и наличие оптимального уровня запаса говорит о превосходном уровне обслуживания покупателя.
5.    Логистическая система должна иметь способность изобретать новые пути обслуживания рынка.

IV.    Writing.
Write a memo to all staff in your department (or any department of any real or imaginary company) with new rules on how people should use electronic communications for business, or how people should communicate with each other in the office