О. С. Петрищева, Н. В. Старостина, И. Ю. Соловьева

Английский язык для магистратуры

Обсуждаем современные проблемы

ENGLISH FOR MASTERS. Discussing Issues of the Day

Уровень C1

Учебник

Под редакцией
Н. В. Старостиной

ebooks@prospekt.org

Информация о книге

УДК 811.111(075.8)

ББК 81.2Англ-923

П30

Авторы:

Петрищева О. С., Старостина Н. В., Соловьева И. Ю.

Учебник направлен на дальнейшее развитие языковых компетенций студентов, владеющих английским языком на уровне С1. Курс включает аутентичные тексты, посвященные актуальным социально-экономическим проблемам, обсуждению которых уделяется особое внимание. Книга построена по тематическому принципу и состоит из девяти разделов (Units), содержащих задания для развития всех видов речевой деятельности, а также из приложений (Appendices), в которых представлена справочная информация.

Для студентов I и II курсов магистратуры факультета управления и политики МГИМО МИД России.

УДК 811.111(075.8)

ББК 81.2Англ-923

© Петрищева О. С., Старостина Н. В., Соловьева И. Ю., 2024

© ООО «Проспект», 2024

Предисловие

Данный учебник базируется на принципах компетентностного, личностно-деятельностного и коммуникативного подходов к изучению английского языка, соответствует требованиям федеральных государственных образовательных стандартов, образовательному стандарту высшего образования МГИМО МИД России и предназначен для занятий по общеязыковой практике со студентами магистратуры I и II курсов Факультета управления и политики МГИМО МИД России по направлениям «Государственное и муниципальное управление», «Политология» и «Международные отношения», владеющими английским языком на уровне С1.

Основная цель учебника — комплексное развитие языковых и металингвистических компетенций с учетом принципа взаимосвязанного обучения всем видам речевой деятельности. Задания, представленные в учебнике, направлены на решение следующих задач: совершенствование лексических и грамматических навыков, расширение лексического запаса обучающихся, развитие компетенции академического письма, умений чтения и аудирования, подготовленного и неподготовленного говорения как в форме монологической, так и в форме диалогической речи. Обсуждения в рамках предложенных актуальных социально-экономических тем предполагают развитие критического мышления, исследовательской компетенции, умения аргументировать свою точку зрения, требуют четкой структуры и логичности изложения мысли.

Учебник состоит из девяти тематических разделов (Units), а также шести приложений (Appendices), содержащих справочную информацию по реферированию статей, проведению панельных дискуссий и различным жанрам академического письма. Все разделы (Units) имеют единую структуру, каждый состоит из четырех частей, объединенных общей темой: введение в основную часть (Introduction to Main Topic), основная часть (Main Topic), письмо (Writing), анализ и обсуждение (Research and Discussion).

Работа с материалами подраздела Introduction to Main Topic предполагает актуализацию фоновых знаний студентов, обсуждение содержания и проблем, поднятых в тексте и видео, а также развитие умений чтения и аудирования. Подраздел Main Topic включает текст, задания к нему и блок лексических упражнений. Важной задачей здесь является расширение словарного запаса и употребление активных лексических единиц в процессе обсуждений и дискуссий по заданной теме. Подраздел Writing тематически и жанрово связан с предыдущими подразделами и разделами учебника, он нацелен на развитие навыка академического письма. При работе с материалами заключительного подраздела Research and Discussion предполагается подведение итогов и обсуждение проблематики всего раздела с использованием активной лексики, а также подготовка презентаций и панельных дискуссий.

Тексты, лексические упражнения и видеоконтент учебника были составлены на основе материалов последних лет таких источников, как TED Talks, RT, McKinsey & Company, Harvard Business Review и др. Видеоматериалы, ссылки на которые приведены в учебнике, представляют собой экспертные мнения в области бизнеса, управления, экологии.

Данный учебник рассчитан на 90 академических часов аудиторных занятий в течение трех семестров и 78 часов самостоятельной работы. На каждый раздел (Unit) отводится 10 часов аудиторного времени. Учебник прошел апробацию в течение 2022/2023 учебного года и получил положительные отзывы студентов и преподавателей.

Авторы выражают благодарность заведующей кафедрой английского языка № 6 МГИМО МИД России, канд. филол. наук, доц. В. В. Селезневой и ст. преп. А. Н. Поляковой за помощь и поддержку в процессе работы над учебником.

Unit 1. CHALLENGING TIMES

I. Introduction to Main Topic

1. Warming-up

• When does a problem become a crisis? Is it possible to predict when a crisis breaks out and prevent it?

• What is the difference between risk management and crisis management?

• What are the crises that governments and people have to face nowadays?

2. Reading A

Skim Text A and say why it is in a crisis that managers show their mettle.

Text A
How Corporate Leaders Should Act in a Crisis

Managers earn their money when the going gets tough

When things are going well, it is pretty easy being a business leader. The economy is booming, orders are rolling in and there are no tricky decisions to make about staff or budgets. It is still possible to screw things up, but a rising tide tends to lift all yachts.

It is in a crisis that corporate helmsmen show their mettle. Employees will be uncertain and will look to the leader for direction. Sometimes, as with the COVID-19 pandemic, the problem will be something few bosses can reasonably have anticipated. They are expected to chart a steady course in days.

In the political arena the obvious examples of successful crisis leadership are Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. Both were somewhat erratic decision-makers. But they made up for it by being excellent communicators. Their styles diverged, but the public had little difficulty in understanding their core message. Roosevelt made clear that he was willing to try any combination of new ideas in an attempt to end the depression; Churchill was unambiguous about the need for Britain to resist Nazi Germany, whatever the cost.

Corporate leaders should resist the temptation to give Churchillian speeches. But they have something to learn from the calm authority of Roosevelt’s “fireside chats”. As chief executive you have to communicate a message to two different audiences: your workforce and your customers. That message should demonstrate that the company has a plan. Both staff and customers will also need reassuring that the company has sufficient financial resources to survive the economic downturn.

Jefferies, an investment bank, has just provided a fine example. In a joint letter, the chief executive, Rich Handler, and the president, Brian Friedman, stressed that “topmost on our minds is the safety of our employees and our clients” before adding that the firm “is flush with capital at both the operating business level and our parent company”. Other firms may not be so lucky. But silence on such matters would be dangerous.

For the broader strategy, tips can be gleaned from the National Defence University (NDU), an American military college. In 2006 it produced a useful — and prescient — report called “Weathering the Storm: Leading Your Organisation Through a Pandemic”. It advised leaders to analyse the tasks required for an organisation to continue operating and prioritise them. To ensure essential functions can be performed, employees should be trained in different disciplines. That way they can cover for colleagues who become sick.

It helps to have done this in advance, of course. But even firms that dithered can — besides making amends now — adopt the right tone. How you handle crisis communication is, the NDU says, “critical”. It can matter as much as having the right message.

This point is amplified by Shawn Engbrecht, a former US Army ranger who now runs a personal-protection company. He has written a highly entertaining, if idiosyncratic, book entitled “Invisible Leadership”. “As a leader,” he cautions, “you can promise everything to the many until you are unable to deliver even a little to the few.” In the end, “Failure to tell the truth rapidly erodes trust and confidence in higher command.”

In a crisis, Mr Engbrecht advocates “embracing the suck”. This means accepting where you are at a given moment: “Wishing, hoping and praying the problem away does not work so don’t waste your time with coulda, shoulda or woulda.” In short, no sugarcoating. If everyone on staff realises there is a problem, they will not be reassured by an executive blithely promising that it may go away.

A good manager must take time to listen to staff concerns and answer their questions. That may require a bit of patience. In Mr Engbrecht’s words, “the quieter you become, the more you can hear”. Mass meetings may not be appropriate at a time of a highly infectious disease. But an online town-hall gathering would be salutary.

Have a clear message, keep calm and be transparent: all obvious stuff, crisis or no crisis. Another kind of leadership may be more painful. Good leaders show they face at least some of the same dangers as their troops.

(The Economist Mar 21st 2020)
(https://www.economist.com/business/2020/03/21/how-corporate-leaders-should-act-in-a-crisis)

a) Define or explain the following.

1) a booming economy

2) tricky decisions

3) charting a steady course

4) successful crisis leadership

5) excellent communicators

6) topmost on one’s mind

7) the operating business level

8) crisis communication

9) sugarcoating

10) a clear message

b) Match A and B to make collocations. Reproduce the contexts they are used in.

A | B
1. to screw | a. decision-makers
2. a rising tide | b. tasks
3. to show | c. amends
4. erratic | d. things up
5. to make up | e. one’s mettle
6. to survive | f. time to listen to sth
7. to be flush | g. lifts all yachts
8. to prioritise | h. with capital
9. to make | i. for sth
10. to take | j. the economic downturn

c) Read Text A and answer the questions.

1) Why is it so difficult to be a business leader in a crisis?

2) Is it possible to be an erratic decision-maker and a successful business leader at the same time? Give arguments.

3) What can corporate leaders learn from political leaders such as Churchill and Roosevelt?

4) What should a leader’s core message demonstrate to staff and customers?

5) Where can leaders find tips for a broad crisis strategy?

6) Why is employees’ training so important during a crisis?

7) Why is the tone of the leader’s message as important as the content?

8) What will happen if the leaders are silent or don’t tell the truth?

9) Why is crisis communication essential?

10) How should leaders behave during a crisis?

3. Video

1. Choose five adjectives to describe a great leader. Explain your choice.

• confident • decisive

• unwavering • brave

• experienced • cautious

• transparent • steadfast

• honest • purposeful

2. Watch the video How to lead in a crisis. The way we work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cxf_SRCcaGo (4:33) and say whether the statements are true, partly true or false. Correct the false and partly true ones.

1) Confident, unwavering leaders have always been celebrated.

2) More upheavals are coming that can send shock waves around the world.

3) In the midst of upheaval people don’t believe that their leaders can help.

4) Leaders should communicate with transparency, share what they know and never admit that they don’t know anything.

5) Delta airlines CEO had to wait for the information before taking the right action.

6) Avoiding action when you have incomplete information is the right strategy.

7) When the COVID-19 crisis broke out New Zealand PM chose not to communicate about the threat with the nation.

8) Goals, situations, values — everything changes.

9) In times of upheaval follow your instincts and hold to control tightly.

10) Ask for help, nobody can cope with the crisis alone.

3. Answer the questions.

1) What is a conventional image of a leader?

2) Why is a new kind of leader needed nowadays?

3) What does communicating with transparency imply?

4) Why is it important to communicate when you don’t have the answers? Give the example from the video.

5) Why is acting urgently so important despite incomplete information?

6) How did New Zealand PM manage to save countless lives?

7) How can values help to make the right decision?

8) Why is sharing the power helpful in times of upheaval?

9) Why are people ready to follow a new kind of leader?

II. Main Topic

1. Reading B

Skimming Text B

a) Skim Text B and say what influence pandemics have on the economy and people.

b) Find and write out all the diseases mentioned in Text B. Make sure you pronounce them properly. Reproduce the contexts in which they are used.

c) Make an outline of Text B.

Text B
Money, Machines and Mayhem

What history tells you about post-pandemic booms. People spend more, take more risks — and demand more of politicians

The cholera pandemic of the early 1830s hit France hard. It wiped out nearly 3% of Parisians in a month. The end of the plague prompted an economic revival, with France following Britain into an industrial revolution. But the pandemic also contributed to another sort of revolution. France saw political instability for years afterwards.

Today, even as COVID-19 rages across poorer countries, the rich world is on the verge of a post-pandemic boom. Governments are lifting stay-at-home orders as vaccinations reduce hospitalisations and deaths from the virus. Many forecasters reckon that America’s economy will grow by more than 6% this year, at least four percentage points faster than its pre-pandemic trend. Other countries are also in for unusually fast growth. The Economist’s analysis of GDP data for the G7 economies going back to 1820 suggests that such a synchronised acceleration has not happened since the post-war boom of the 1950s.

The situation is so unfamiliar that economists are turning to history for a sense of what to expect. The record suggests that, after periods of massive non-financial disruption such as wars and pandemics, GDP does bounce back. It offers three further lessons. First, while people are keen to go out and spend, uncertainty lingers. Second, crises encourage people and businesses to try new ways of doing things, upending the structure of the economy. Third, political upheaval often follows, with unpredictable economic consequences.

Take consumer spending first. Evidence from earlier pandemics suggests that during the acute phase people behave as they have during the past year of COVID-19, accumulating savings as spending opportunities vanish. History also offers a guide to what people do once life gets back to normal. Spending rises, prompting employment to recover.

The second big lesson from post-pandemic booms relates to the “supply side” of the economy — how and where goods and services are produced. Though, in aggregate, people appear to be less keen on frivolity following a pandemic, some may be more willing to try new ways of making money. Historians believe the Black Death made Europeans more adventurous. Indeed a study for America’s National Bureau of Economic Research, published in 1948, found that the number of startups boomed from 1919. Today new business formation is once again surging across the rich world, as entrepreneurs seek to fill gaps in the market.

Other economists have drawn a link between pandemics and another change to the supply side of the economy: the use of labour-saving technology. Whether automation deprives people of jobs, however, is another matter. Some research suggests that workers in fact do better in the aftermath of pandemics. A paper published last year by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco finds that real wages tend to rise.

In other cases, however, rising wages are the product of political changes — the third big lesson of historical booms. When people have suffered in large numbers, attitudes may shift towards workers. That seems to be happening this time: policymakers across the world are less interested in reducing public debt or warding off inflation than they are in getting unemployment down. A new paper from three academics at the London School of Economics also finds that COVID-19 has made people across Europe more averse to inequality.

Such pressures have, in some instances, exploded into political disorder. Pandemics expose and accentuate pre-existing inequalities, leading those on the wrong side of the bargain to look for redress. Ebola, in 2013—16, increased civil violence in West Africa by 40%, according to one study. Recent research from the IMF considers the effect of five pandemics, including Ebola, SARS and Zika, in 133 countries since 2001. It finds that they led to a significant increase in social unrest. “It is reasonable to expect that, as the pandemic fades, unrest may re-emerge in locations where it previously existed,” researchers write in another IMF paper. Social unrest seems to peak two years after the pandemic ends. Enjoy the coming boom while it lasts. Before long, there may be a twist in the tale.

(The Economist Apr 29th 2021)
(https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2021/04/29/what-history-tells-
you-about-post-pandemic-booms)

Vocabulary Focus

1. Read Text B and explain or paraphrase the italicised parts.

1) The record suggests that, after periods of massive non-financial disruption such as wars and pandemics, GDP does bounce back.

2) …while people are keen to go out and spend, uncertainty lingers.

3) …during the acute phase people behave as they have during the past year of COVID-19, accumulating savings as spending opportunities vanish.

4) … people appear to be less keen on frivolity following a pandemic.

5) Historians believe the Black Death made Europeans more adventurous.

6) When people have suffered in large numbers, attitudes may shift towards workers.

7) …COVID-19 has made people across Europe more averse to inequality.

8) Pandemics expose and accentuate pre-existing inequalities, leading those on the wrong side of the bargain to look for redress.

9) …policymakers across the world are less interested in reducing public debt or warding off inflation…

10) Before long, there may be a twist in the tale.

2. Find in Text B all the collocations with the following words. Translate them into Russian. Reproduce the contexts they are used in.

economic

political

suggests

boom

history

3. Find in Text B English equivalents for the following expressions. Make your own sentences with the expressions.

1)
отменить предписание оставаться дома

2)
одновременный рост

3)
масштабные сдвиги, прекращение нормального функционирования, кризис

4)
способствовать оживлению экономики

5)
способствовать восстановлению занятости населения

6)
увеличивать сбережения

7)
заполнить ниши на рынке

8)
неожиданный поворот

9)
пытаться компенсировать

10)
проявляется и обостряется (социальное) неравенство

11)
в целом

12)
политическая нестабильность, беспорядки

13)
после пандемии

14)
найти связь, провести параллель

15)
кардинально менять структуру экономики

4. Translate the words in brackets using the expressions from Vocabulary Focus tasks 2 and 3 to fill the gaps in the sentences. Translate the sentences into Russian.

1) China’s premier has warned the world is entering a period of profound ………………. (политические) and economic ……………….. (сдвиги). He urged China to brace for “more complicated and graver situations” ahead, as a result of developments “both in and outside China”.

2) Around 1.5m students graduated from US universities just as the 2008 financial crash ………………………….. (кардинально менять структуру мировой экономики).

3) Borrowers are ………………………. (пытаться компенсировать) further along the lending chain, bringing claims against participants in the secondary market for the predatory acts of mortgage brokers and originators.

4) Airlines are restructuring. Bankruptcies and cutbacks will leave ………………………….. (незаполненные ниши на рынке), aircraft are cheap, once-scarce pilots are plentiful, and airports will have spare slots, if they are allowed to redistribute them.

5) We know that savings equal investment and investment is needed to grow an economy over the long term. We also know that individuals need ………………………….. (увеличивать сбережения) pots to see them through retirement — governments offer tax breaks to pension savings to encourage this process.

6) Women have borne the brunt of ……………………… (прекращение нормального функционирования экономики) caused by the pandemic. If job and productivity losses persist, they could reverse progress towards gender equality in the workplace.

7) The army has a low tolerance for …………………….. (политическая нестабильность) and has frequently used it as an excuse to seize power.

8) …………………….. (В целом) the results suggested that European banks were in a healthier position than when the last exercise was conducted.

9) But ……………………….. (неожиданный поворот) was that Ratu Iloilo promptly backed a more moderate ethnic-Fijian government proposed by the armed forces.

10) Short-term austerity ……………………….. (после) a severe crisis may prove more painful than thought.

11) Rather than rethink the system, governments rely on equal-opportunity laws to cut ……………………… (неравенство) — though the evidence is that they do not.

12) Many economists ………………………… (находить связь) between the low rate of entrepreneurship after the financial crisis of 2007—2009 and the weak productivity growth of the 2010s.

13) ………………. (Уровень занятости населения) among those aged 20—24, who might often work as waiters and bar staff, has ……………………… (вновь увеличился) nearly 80% of its losses.

14) Estimates from the IMF suggested that the drachma would fall against the euro by 50%. Such a reduction could spur an eventual ……………………… (восстановление экономики) by making Greece more competitive.

15) According to figures from Google, which has been compiling mapping data from mobile phones to understand how ……………………… (предписания оставаться дома) have affected people’s everyday movements, Americans travelled 35% less on the week ending on April 11th than they did on average in the five weeks between January 3rd and February 6th.

5. Fill the gaps using the expressions from Vocabulary Focus tasks 2 and 3 in an appropriate form.

1) Thailand has experienced more successful coups than any other country in the world. It also holds the record for “adverse regime changes”, which the Centre for Systemic Peace (CSP) defines as shifts towards authoritarianism, violence or …………………………. in the following three years.

2) There are some signs of an …………………………. in America. But the prospects elsewhere are bleak; Europe’s purchasing managers’ index for March showed a further fall in manufacturing activity.

3) California lifted its ………………………. statewide on Monday after four-week projections showed intensive care unit capacity to be above 15% in beleaguered regions for the first time in weeks. The decision came amid improving trends in the state’s rate of infections, hospitalisations and intensive care unit capacity as well as vaccinations.

4) ………………………, the public finances of the currency block compare favourably with countries such as America which can borrow at dirt-cheap rates (last year’s euro-wide budget deficit was 4.1% of GDP, less than half America’s 9.6%).

5) After a decade of worries about inadequate demand and spending power in ……………………….. the global financial crisis, signs of insufficient supply are now emerging.

6) All while the president was on a determined mission to tell America that COVID-19 certainly was not going ………………………… — the centrepiece of his strategy for re-election in November.

7) The world economy remains in fine fettle, buoyed by a ………………………. in America, Europe and Asia.

8) Some of his critics are also trying ……………………… between these economic hardships and Japan’s rising crime rates.

9) Much of the first tranche of around $2.7trn, now entering the meatgrinder of congressional politics, will be spent on greening the American economy and tackling ……………………… .

10) The dénouement of the cash-for-honours affair was the final ………………………. that had gripped Westminster for over a year. It was prompted by the revelation that a number of individuals whom Mr Blair had nominated for life peerages had made secret loans to the Labour Party.

6. Translate from Russian into English using the vocabulary from Vocabulary Focus tasks 2 and 3.

1) В период эпидемий всегда обостряется социальное неравенство, что ведет к увеличению социального недовольства и политической нестабильности.

2) Что касается функционирования ряда отраслей, то можно смело сказать, что тут произошел неожиданный поворот. Вместо масштабного экономического кризиса, о котором аналитики говорили еще полгода назад, наблюдается восстановление уровней производства и занятости.

3) Исторический опыт показывает, что у кризиса есть и положительная сторона. Он способствует внедрению инноваций и поиску новых способов получения прибыли, что в целом может изменить структуру экономики.

4) Эпидемия COVID-19 стала глобальным явлением, которое затронуло как развивающиеся, так и развитые страны. По-прежнему неясно, как быстро восстановится экономика после пандемии. Более того, мнения экспертов относительно того, удастся ли добиться экономического роста одновременно в разных странах, расходятся.

5) Согласно результатам исследования, как только удастся победить вирус, начнется так называемый послепандемийный рост. Когда правительство разрешит выходить из дома, откроются магазины и рестораны, население начнет тратить средства, накопленные во время локдауна.

6) Эксперты связывают экономические проблемы, которые правительство старается решить, не с фазой экономического цикла, а с политическими потрясениями, которые наблюдаются в стране в последнее время. Учитывая крайне негативное влияние пандемии, даже если она закончится в ближайшие 12 месяцев, ожидать скорейшего восстановления экономики не стоит.

7) Отмечено, что в периоды кризисов склонность людей к риску в целом резко возрастает. Предприниматели пытаются компенсировать убытки и заполнить появившиеся на рынке ниши, что в конечном итоге приводит к резкому увеличению количества новых предприятий. Компании быстро внедряют новые продукты, новые возможности обслуживания клиентов и получения прибыли.

8) Что бы ни предпринимало правительство, кризисные ситуации неизбежно способствуют проявлению и обострению социального неравенства. При этом нельзя не признать, что меры государственной поддержки могут смягчить негативное влияние кризиса и обеспечить социально-политическую стабильность.

9) Ряд специалистов проводят параллель между проблемами, которые мы пытаемся решить сейчас, и кризисом, с которым столкнулась компания год назад. Если бы удалось привлечь кадры необходимой квалификации тогда, в настоящее