Английский язык. Учебное пособие по развитию навыков устной речи и чтения для магистрантов технических специальностей
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Text 12 1. Read an extract from a technology magazine and explain what VOIP is. Skype, used by 75 million people, is the best known operator in the world of Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP). VOIP is beginning to threaten the domination of the communications market by traditional landline suppliers such as British Telecom. Technology Today Skype, the Scandinavian web telephone company, hit the headlines in 2005 when it was bought by eBay, the online trading company, for a cool US$ 4.1 billion. Skype, used by 75 million people, is the best known operator in the world of Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP). VOIP is beginning to threaten the domination of the communications market by traditional landline suppliers such as British Telecom. In 2005 the major UK retailer, Tesco, launched its own VOIP service as did the High Street electronics retailer Dixons. Once again, the Internet is proving to be the key driver to business re-modelling. VOIP works by turning sound into data packages that are then sent over the Internet infrastructure from one connected PC to another in the same way that an e-mail is sent at no extra cost to that of the Internet connection. Calls can also be made from a connected PC to a normal land number. One recent response to the explosion of VOIP traffic over the Internet has been to block it. This has happened in countries where there is still only a single telecoms company such as Saudi Arabia. Here U.S. developed software is being used to block all VOIP calls. In the U.S. and other countries’ telecoms( that provide Internet infrastructure are unwilling to have their bandwidth used up by VOIP traffic as it provides them with no revenue. Occasionally they block VOIP traffic. At the moment this is legal. Network managers at some institutions are concerned at the amount of traffic generated by VOIP and again block these services. Brunel University in west London decided to do this. However, so many students and staff used Skype that network management had to change policy to allow access again. They now partition off VOIP traffic to monitor its impact on their networks. Rather than block VOIP traffic British Telecom reacted to this threat to its traditional bread and butter business by offering customers a VOIP service of its own. Some telecoms commentators say that the really ‘hot’ telecoms area at the moment isn’t VOIP but fibre optics. These are being used in the U.S. to provide a step increase in bandwidth provision that will carry VOIP traffic but also high definition TV programmes. 2. Test your comprehension by choosing the best summary and fill in the gaps with the correct word. 1) … bought Skype, the … web telephony company for US $ … billion. 2) In some countries VOIP is blocked e.g…. 3) In the US some bandwidth suppliers block VIOP traffic – this is …. 4) The ‘hot’ telecoms area is …. 5) Fibre optics will provide a … increase in bandwidth provision. Text `13 STRATEGIC INNOVATION 1. Put the steps of the strategic innovation process in the correct order. Looking at the state of the overall industry. Defining own company’s expertise. Looking at changes in the industry. Introducing innovation throughout the company. Redefining own company’s business concept. Developing products based on end-user opinion. Evaluating customers’ feelings.  If you’re the kind of person who lives on take-aways or microwave ready meals, you may not know the name 'CucinTech'. If, however, you are the kind of person who knows the difference between white, green and black pepper, or has at least three different kinds of balsamic vinegar in your kitchen cupboard, then you probably will.CucinTech – for the frozen pizza-eaters among you – make gadgets for fine cooking. Special knives to shave parmesan cheese perfectly, sieves to drain pasta just the right way, six different types of egg whisk (omelettes, scrambled eggs and meringues, for example, all need their eggs whisked to a different consistency) and wooden hammers to tenderise meat just to the correct extent – these, and many other products which may look useless to the untrained but to the expert are essential tools for preparing a decent meal – are what CucinTech specialise in. CucinTech began in the 1950s, a family firm set up in London by an Italian emigré. They stayed a local concern until a disastrous attempt to reach a wider market in the early 1970s. «We didn’t really know what we were doing,» says Dominic James, current director of the firm. «We wanted to expand and we copied what everyone else was doing – making cheap plastic gizmos that broke before they were even out of the box.» Having failed in their attempts to go mass market, the company started to rethink their entire operation, and moved into making upmarket specialist kitchen equipment for chefs. Success, however, still didn’t come. «We were making quality products, and sitting there thinking, this stuff is great, why isn’t anybody buying it?» says James. «Then we realised that it wasn’t enough just to make quality products: we had to become customer-focused as well. Innovation had to be about more than product innovation, it had to be about innovation at all levels of the company – especially at our customer-focused end.» This was where strategic innovation came in. «Usually I’m distrustful of new management techniques – they’re usually a lot of gobbledegook or things that state the obvious in complex terms, but with strategic innovation it was different. Yes, a lot of this stuff was ‘obvious’ but it made sense in a way I hadn’t thought about before. Very simply, strategic innovation was taking a good idea from one part of the organisation and saying, ‘Well, if it works here, why shouldn’t it work at every level of the company?’...and, you know what? It did!» CucinTech looked at three levels of strategy. Firstly, industry foresight. «We stopped thinking only about ourselves, but looked at what changes were taking place in the industry as a whole. We looked at what sectors our expertise lay in – product innovation, above all – then thought about how we should redefine our business concept.» «Following that, we looked at consumer insight. We balanced consumer needs against consumer opportunities.» This, basically, was about creating a «need» for CucinTech’s innovative products. «People didn’t think they needed a lot of gadgets in their kitchens, but by focusing on and identifying the values, feelings and attitudes of our target market, we used psychological understanding to interpret these feelings and create products which the end users would consider essential.» Finally, CucinTech looked at strategic alignment. «This, in many ways, was the most difficult step. We had to rethink the entire company – we weren’t going to compete with major producers of household appliances. The whole company had to innovate – and face change. Our strategies had to be aligned throughout the company.» Now CucinTech have embedded strategic innovation at all levels of the company. Innovation is managed from R&D to product development and then to business development. Now they are market leaders in their sector. So, instead of your regular lunchtime sandwich, why not take a leaf from CucinTech’s book – innovate! Text 14 AMAZON – THE BIGGEST SUCCESS STORY IN E-COMMERCE 1. Decide if the statements are True or False. Bezon originally ran a traditional bookshop. Amazon got a lot of business right from the start. Amazon’s customers wanted to buy more than just books. Bezon expected Amazon to quickly start making a profit. Amazon made its first profit after five years. Amazon is successful because its customers usually return. Amazon will send any of its products to anywhere in the world. When the Amazon.com website went live on July 16th 1995, nobody could have predicted that the small, Seattle-based online bookseller would become the most successful Internet retailer in the world. Founder Jeff Bezos had realized that an online bookshop could offer far more titles than the biggest brick-and-mortar shop, and launched Amazon, named after the river, with just a few employees and a tiny warehouse. The business took off immediately, and Bezos and his workers soon found themselves struggling to ship a growing volume of orders. Bezos only ever intended to sell books, but when customers started emailing asking him to sell music and electronics in the same way, he decided to diversify. Amazon began selling music and DVDs in 1998, and added electronics, toys, software and video games a year later. Today the online store sells a vast range of products, including food, beauty products and musical instruments. As well as the original US site, it has websites for Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, China and Japan. When it was launched, Amazon’s business plan was highly unusual in that it did not expect to make a profit for five years. Throughout the late 1990s, when other Internet companies were growing at a blisteringly fast pace, Amazon grew at a very steady pace. When the dot.com bubble burst in 2000 and many of its e-commerce contemporaries went out of business, Amazon was still unprofitable. Bezos persevered and the company made its first profit in 2002. Since then profits have grown steadily. Why has Amazon survived when so many dot.coms have failed over the years? Customer loyalty plays a large part. Right from the start Amazon’s customers have tended to return over and over again. The personalised website, offering suggestions based on previous purchases, and features such as customer reviews, make the shopping experience easier and more personal than most online retailing. International sales are another factor. Unlike many US and UK online retailers, Amazon will ship many of their products anywhere in the world. A reputation for reliability, and a clear policy on returning goods, has also helped Amazon achieve world dominance in the virtual marketplace. Bezos vows to keep expanding, both by launching more country-specific websites and by adding more product lines and services. Amazon looks set to remain the market leader for some time yet. Список литературы Advancing the chemical sciences [Электронный ресурс]. – URL: http://www.rsc. org/chemistryworld/2012/06/anti-social-amino-acids-gang British Council [Электронный ресурс]. – URL: http://www.britishcouncil.org Discover Engineering [Электронный ресурс]. – URL: http://www.discover engineering.org Food for today. – Woodland Hills, USA: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2010. Garner A., Keoleian G. Industrial Ecology: An Introduction - National Pollution Prevention Center for Higher Education – University of Michigan, USA, 1995. Golden technologies: Heavy duty scooter. User manual [Электронный ресурс]. – URL: http://www.goldentech.com/products/avenger/ Hollett V. Meeting Business . - Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Hollett V., Sydes J. Tech talk – Oxford University Press, 2005. Ibbotson, M. Cambridge English for engineering/ M. Ibbotson. – Cambridge University Press, 2008. Lambert, V., Murray, E. English for work/ Everyday technical English/ V. Lambert, E. Murray. – Longman, 2005. Lee J., Wei R. Milk, Doing Your Body Good? // Journal of young investigators, 2002. – Vol. 6. - [Электронный ресурс]. – URL: http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/ 2012/06/anti-social-amino-acids-ganghttp://www.jyi.org/site/p Pollution [Электронный ресурс] – URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollution Statistical Mechanics, Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2000 [Электронный ресурс] – URL: http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2000 Microsoft Corporation. Starting Your Own Recycling Business [Электронный ресурс]. – URL: http://www.squidoo.com/recyclingbusiness The Manufacturing Institute: The Facts About Modern Manufacturing, 2009 [Электронный ресурс]. – URL: http://www.nist.gov/mep/upload/FINAL_NAM_ REPORT_PAGES.pdf Workplace, health and safety basics for processing factory workers: rights responsibilities, problems and Solutions [Электронный ресурс]. – URL: http://www.wst. tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/77544/Factory_workers_ohs.pdf Содержание
У ч е б н о е и з д а н и е Анна Мееровна Митина Нона Васильевна Багметова Наталья Ивановна Кохташвили Елена Александровна Литвинова Наталья Александровна Пром Professional English for Engineers Учебное пособие по развитию навыков устной речи и чтения для магистрантов технических специальностей Английский язык Редактор Е.В. Кравцова Темплан 2013 г., поз. № Лицензия ИД № 04790 от 18.05.2001г. Подписано в печать г. Формат 60 84/16. Бумага газетная. Гарнитура Times Печать офсетная Усл.-п.л. 7,5. Уч.-изд.л. л. . Тираж 100 экз. Заказ . Волгоградский государственный технический университет 400005, г. Волгоград, пр. Ленина, 28 РПК «Политехник» Волгоградский государственный технический университет 400005, г. Волгоград, ул. Советская, 35 1 Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of current English, 7th edition, 2005. |