reer path, drawing economists away from academe. Behind this, says 1) What uncomfortable question are British economics dons askSimon Gaysford of London Economics, a consultancy, lie two things. ing themselves Why One is privatisation, which in effect forced companies to hire experts 2) Which fact from the article proves the unpopularity of scienon economic regulation. AS privatisation has spread across the world, tific activity among British students so British economists have found that expertise gained at home is 3) What is the obvious explanation of the fact the number of highly marketable. Second, because antitrust cases "how turn on eco- would be PhDs is falling nomic as well as legal arguments, companies are paying big fees to 4) What is the role of the growth of economic consultancy economists as well as lawyers. 5) Which two things make economic expertise highly marketBesides the pay gap, academic life is less secure than it used to able be: staff who would once have had tenure are as sackable as anybody 6) What does it mean “academic life is less secure than it used to else. Also, says Dieter Helm – who is an Oxford don as well as director be” of «Oxera», a consultancy – the burden of paperwork and lack of re- 7) What is the author’s conclusion search funds are extra reasons not to become an academic. The market for economists works far better outside the universities than it does in- 3. Summary.
side them. The scarcity of top professors, says Professor Oswald, is The aim of the article is to discuss the problem of reducing docnow driving their salaries up; but the cartel of university bosses has tors of economics in Britain. The author considers pay to be the main succeeded in keeping the lid on junior dons' pay. Meanwhile, the City cause. A university lecturer with a doctorate in economics starting saland the consultancies pay up. This may be lucrative for the current ary is much lower than that of an economist with only master’s degree.
generation or economists. Who will educate the next generation, The growth of economic consultancy has provided another career path.
though, is an unanswered question. Economic regulation expertise in privatisation issues and antitrust cases has become highly marketable. Less secure academic life and the bur1. Vocabulary notes: den of paperwork and lack of research funds are believed to be extra 1) sprinkling – посыпание, уснащение reasons not to become an academic. Nowadays market situation may 2) PhD (= Doctor of Philosophy) – доктор философии be lucrative for the current generation of economist. But the question 3) master’s degree – степень магистра “who will educate the next generation” is still unanswered.
4) sought after – популярный, модный 5) econometrics – эконометрика (наука, изучающая конкретные количественные связи между экономическими объектами и процессами) 6) expertise – специальные знания, компетенция 7) tenure – зд. срок пребывания в должности 8) scarcity – недостаток, нехватка, редкость 9) to keep the lid on – держать в секрете 10) lucrative – прибыльный, доходный, выгодный 13 Write on Islamic calligraphy, on the other hand, has always been perceived as a meditative, even mystical exercise; the scribe has to make himself or Just as the introduction of the printing herself (many Arabic calligraphers have been women) ritually pure bepress in Europe in the late 15th century led fore they set about transcribing from the Koran.
many scribes of the time into a state of unemThe best 20th-century calligraphers in the West are powerfully ployed despair, so the more recent spread of painterly. And their inspiration, as in the case of Mark Tobey, an the computer – whose typefaces can reproduce American Expressionist who studied calligraphy at a Zen monastery in calligraphic designs of enormous variety – has Japan, is usually oriental and (sometimes) Islamic.
made many latter-day scribes redundant NevHans-Joachim Burgert, a German master, believes that calligraertheless, calligraphy as an art is still alive – phy is now free to discover its own underlying, primitive forms. His both in its three traditional forms, based on spirited brushwork in English of the words "Unknown Branches", in Chinese, Roman and Arabic scripts, and in which the letters tumble and sway like a tree in a tempest, hovers proexperimental new departures.
vocatively on the borders of illegibility.
For most people in the West, pride in penmanship is rare nowadays; however, in eastern countries good handwriting is still steadfastly 1. Vocabulary notes:
taught in schools. China's Chairman Mao aspired to write out his own 1) scribe – писец, переписчик mediocre poems in a jagged script. And modern calligraphic master2) despair – отчаяние, источник огорчения, безысходность pieces in Japan can sometimes fetch as much as a small Picasso paint3) typefaces – печатные литеры ing.
4) departure – отклонение, направление, курс Oriental calligraphers (who work with the brush rather than the 5) penmanship – каллиграфия, чистописание pen) study and copy the output of their great forerunners and work 6) steadfastly – упорно, прочно within the same rigorous limits. Varying effects are created by holding 7) rigorous – строгий, точный, неукоснительный the brush at different angles, and no mistakes can be altered or erased.
8) “Nesting Crane” – «Журавль, вьющий гнездо» After Mao's death in 1976, however, a new generation in China 9) blizzard – метель, буран, буря dared to use calligraphy in avant garde as well as traditional ways. And 10) quill – птичье (гусиное) перо in Japan, at least one modern Japanese master, Ogawa Toshu, has also 11) secular – зд. светский, нецерковный rejected the old limits. One of his calligraphic drawings, using' the 12) reed – тростник, камыш characters for "Nesting Crane", depicts eyes at the heart of an ink 13) workmanlike – искусно storm; the artist says that it represents a mother crane who is protecting 14) meditative – созерцательный her young in a blizzard.
15) painterly – живописный, относящийся к живописи Western and Arabic calligraphy is based on the pen (though the 16) underlying – лежащий в основе, основной brush was employed for illuminating manuscripts). Medieval Christian 18) spirited – смелый, задорный, выразительный monks preferred to use a quill, made from goose or swan feathers, and 19) tumble – валяться, метаться, кувыркаться modern secular calligraphers often use the same antiquarian tool. Is20) sway – качаться, раскачиваться lamic calligraphers preferred pens cut from dried reeds, as they still do 21) tempest – буря today.
22) hover – парить, зависать, болтаться Later Christian craftsmen were usually clerks whose business was to make copies of the Bible in acceptable, workmanlike fashion.
15 2. Answer the following questions. Dyed in the Womb 1) What is the article about A lesbian's sexual identity seems to be established before her 2) In what countries can one be taught modern calligraphy birth. Men and women blink differently when startled. That simple and 3) What calligraphic styles does the author of the article menwell-established observation has led Qazi Rahman of the University of tion East London, in England, and his colleagues to evidence supporting the 4) Can we say that the art of calligraphy has been developing idea that homosexuality is a characteristic which people are born with, 5) What does the author tell us about the best modern calligrarather man one they acquire as they grow up.The team's research, just phers published in Behavioral Neuroscience, shows that lesbians blink like heterosexual men. That, in turn, suggests that the part of their brain that 3. Summary.
controls this reflex has been masculinised in the womb.
In this article the author describes calligraphy, an art which is Anyone who is startled by an unexpected noise tends to blink. If, still alive. There are traditional calligraphic forms, based on Chinese, however, the startling noise is preceded by a quieter sound, this blink is Roman and Arabic scripts, and modern as well. Modern calligraphic not so vigorous as it would otherwise have been. It is this lack of vigmasterpieces in Japan can be compared with Picasso painting (the auour which differs between the sexes. Men blink less vigorously than thor describes “Nesting Crane”). The article contains basic features of women when primed in this way.
Western and Arabic, Christian and Islamic calligraphy and considers Given such a clear and simple distinction, testing the responses calligraphic art in its development. The best modern calligraphers in of homosexuals to noise seemed an obvious experiment to do. So Dr Rahman and his colleagues did it. Their subjects, men and women, gay the west are as powerfully painterly as their old brothers.
and straight, were sat down one by one in a dimly lit room. The muscles that cause blinking were wired up with recording electrodes, and the subjects were fitted with headphones through which the sounds (sometimes a single startling noise, and sometimes a combination of soft and loud) were fed.
In the latter case, as compared with the former, straight men had blinks that were 40 % less vigorous. In the case of straight women the drop was 13 %. Lesbians dropped 33 % which, statistically, made them more similar to straight men than straight women. Gay men were also intermediate, although in their case the difference was not statistically significant. Even in this apparently trivial matter, it seems, lesbians have male-like brains. So what is going on By default, people are female. Without influence of testosterone in the womb, a fetus will develop into a girl. The way testosterone acts to turn a fetus male is still poorly understood. It seems likely, though, that different organs respond independently to the hormone, and may do so at different times. Hormonal surges at critical moments could thus cause particular organs in an otherwise female body to become "male". (A lull in hormone products might have the opposite effect.) If the organ concerned is the brain, the result is more male-like behaviour 17 including, possibly, male-type sexual preferences. Previous research Omnipresent has provided some evidence for this idea. Lesbians, for instance, are Bengt Ryden, chief executive of the Stockholm Stock Exchange more accurate throwers of objects such as darts than straight women. In (SSE), calls it an "agreement to merge", but he is not fooling anybody, this they resemble straight men in a way that has nothing to do with OM Gruppen, one of the SSE'S listed companies, has taken over Mr Rysexual preference. And tissues other than the brain's may be affected, den's venerable exchange itself, OM Gruppen's startling rise holds lestoo. On average, lesbians ring fingers that are longer than their index sons for other small financial centres: it has reinvented itself to bring a fingers, a feature that is typical of men but not of heterosexual women.
different line of work to a city in danger of losing its traditional finanIn that context, a difference in the blink of an eye is no surprise at all.
cial businesses.
1. Vocabulary Notes:
Like its new subsidiary, OM Gruppen is in the business of run1) blink – мигать, закрывать глаза ning an exchange – several, in fact. These include Sweden's derivatives 2) startle – пугать, поразить exchange, OM, its sister exchange in London, OMLX, and PULPEX, a 3) masculine – мужской, мужеподобный wood-pulp exchange. But the firm likes to compare itself with other 4) vigour – сила, мощь, живость, энергичность Nordic companies such as Ericsson and Nokia. OM Gruppen sees its 5) prime – зд. воздействовать chief business as designing "transactions technology" to make markets 6) wire up – связывать, соединять run more smoothly. This might include writing computer programs to 7) straight and gay – гетеросексуальные люди и гомосексуаhandle securities trading, designing efficient communications networks листы to route "buy" and "sell" orders, and building electronic clearing and 8) default – бездействие, пассивность, неявка, отсутствие settlement systems.
9) fetus – плод, зародыш The company was founded in 1983 by Olof Stenhammar, a 10) surge – скачок, колебание Swedish options trader who worked in Chicago in the 1970s. Mr Sten11) lull – перерыв, затишье hammer's original plan was to set up a Swedish version of the Chicago 12) tissue – биол. ткань Board Options Exchange (CBOE) to trade options on Swedish com13) ring finger – безымянный палец pany shares. The venture got off me ground quickly and OM Gruppen 14) index finger – указательный палец soon diversified into technology sales.
Last year that business matured. OM Gruppen built a new elec2. Answer the following questions.
tronic trading system for the Australian Stock Exchange, including an 1) What observation has made some East London specialists order-routing network to connect 60 Australian banks across three time support the idea that homosexuality is an inborn characteristic rather zones. It added the Athens Stock Exchange to its growing list of clithan acquired one ents. And it won a contract to design technology for CalPX, the Cali2) What exactly differs between the sexes startled by an unexfornian Power Exchange, which is set to become America's first elecpected noise tricity Exchange. OM Gruppen has already built and is running the 3) What experiment was waged by Dr. Rahman and his colworld's two other electricity exchanges, both in Scandinavia. The comleagues pany also has a nice sideline in selling back-office consultancy services 4) What way does testosterone act to banks and brokers. Recently the firm bought Research & Trade, a 5) What features are lesbians and straight women characterized by Swedish company that specialises in designing software to provide access to lots of electronic exchanges from a single computer screen.
3. Make up a summary of the text.
19 Some of this is now showing up on the bottom line. Operating 6) diversify – зд. вкладывать деньги в различные предприprofits last year increased by 92 %, to SKr338m ($44m), buoyed by ятия runaway growth in technology-sales income, which accounted for 7) show up – выявлять (-ся), обнаруживать (-ся) about 40 % of sales. Return of equity was 22 %. The company's shares, 8) buoy – поддерживать before the takeover of the SSE, WEre trading on a lofty price/earnings 9) runaway – стремительный, неудержимый ratio of 20. In the five years since the beginning of 1993, OM Grup- 10) lofty – зд. высокий pen's share has risen tenfold. Per Larsson, the company's 37-year-old 11) squander – растрачивать, проматывать chief executive, suggests several reasons for OM Gruppen's success. It 12) vanquished – побежденный ran one of the first exchanges in the world to champion electronic trad- 13) to have an ace up one’s sleeve – иметь козырь про запас ing, giving it an early lead in exchange technology. Moreover, right 14) sniff – зд. чуять, подозревать from the start the company has been owned by shareholders, not by its 15) fishy – зд. сомнительный, подозрительный trading members, helping it to avoid conflicts of interest. Some ex- changes that have developed technology in-house have squandered ex- 2. Answer the following questions.
traordinary sums of money. The Swiss exchange, the Deutsche Borse 1) The article begins with startling rise of OM Gruppen, one of and the London Stock Exchange have all built their own systems with the SSE’s listed companies, doesn’t it the help of Andersen Consulting. According to one its board members, 2) Its chief business is designing “transactions technology” Deutsche Borse has spent DM150m developing its new system, Xetra. (computer programs for securities trading, communications networks London may have spent even more. Mr Larsson does not claim to be for “buy”/”sell” orders routing and electronic clearing and settlement cheap, but other exchange executives say a company like his could systems) to make markets run more smoothly, isn’t it supply an off-the-shelf system for a small fraction of that kind of 3) OM Gruppen spends a lot to expand its business, doesn’t it money. Tradepoint, a British stock exchange, spent just 9m setting up Give examples.
an electronic exchange (bought from Canada) with the capacity to han- 4) The company’s chief executive Per Larsson suggests several dle all the shares traded in Britain. reasons for OM Gruppen’s success, doesn’t he Name them.
