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 collapsed. 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.