Файл: Е.А. Копылова Тексты для внеаудиторного чтения (английский язык).pdf

1

Данные методические указания предназначены для студентов экономических специальностей 2 курса.

Указания состоят из 3 блоков. Каждый блок содержит основной текст на изучающее чтение, послетекстовые упражнения на закрепление лексики, тексты на поисковое чтение и предваряется лексическим комментарием. Послетекстовые задания, тесно связанные с информацией проработанного текстового материала, направлены на развитие самостоятельной деятельности студентов. Поэтому они, так же как и тексты, предназначены в основном для работы дома с последующим обсуждением в аудитории.

Органической частью указаний являются фонограммы текстов, озвученных дикторами из Англии, США и Австралии. В запись включены интервью с людьми, которые реально стоят за этими событиями. По своему усмотрению преподаватель может использовать разнообразные виды работ по аудированию.

В разработке использованы следующие источники:

1. Evans D. Business English. Make or break. BBC English, 1994.

2.Brieger N., Comfort J. Technical Contacts, 1990.

3.Business words. Heinemann, 1992.

4.Dictionary of English Language & Culture. Longman, 1997.

5.Oxford Advanced Learner’s Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1994.

6.English-Russian Dictionary of Verbal Collocations/ E.M.Mednikova. M.: Russky Yazyk, 1986.

7.The Big English-Russian Russian-English Business Dictionary. M.: Wiley, 1993.

8.Dictionary of Business & Management/ J. M. Rosenberg. Инфра-М, 1997.

9.Swan M. Practical English Usage. Oxford, 1996.

10. Рум А.Р.У. Великобритания. Лингвострановедческий словарь,

1980.

2

TEXT ONE

Pre-reading

Do you know these words?

Reading

Have you ever heard about the cola wars? ...if not, then this information may be interesting for you and you can get some idea about them.

DE:

Hello and welcome to Make or Brake. My name is David Evans. In this programme we look at one of the bravest and most controversial business decisions of the 1980s - the decisions to change the formula of the world’s best selling soft drink, Coca-Cola. The recipe for Coke-code- named Merchandise 7X - had remained unchanged since 1886 and the secrecy which surrounded it was legendary. Coke had many imitators, but only Coca-Cola could claim to be “the real thing”. Only Coke really was “it”.

Behind the slogans and the music, Coca-Cola had always been a highly traditional company. It stood for old family values and small-town America; for many it was the company that summed up the American dream. In contrast, Coke’s biggest rival, Pepsi, had a far more youthful image. The Pepsi Generation advertising campaigns of the 60s and early 70s had positioned Pepsi as the drink of the young and fashionable. Little by little the adverts had helped the company to eat away at Coca-Cola’s dominant market position. But despite this, in the early 70s Coke was still out selling Pepsi by two bottles to one.

It was the launch of a brilliant new campaign in 1976 which really worried the Coke management. In these new Pepsi advertisements, members of the public were invited to take a blind taste test comparing Pepsi to Coke. It was called the Pepsi Challenge.

Pepsi ad:

Wendy here tells me that she likes cola but she doesn’t like Pepsi-Cola.Is that right? That’s right, yes. I see, would you like to do our Pepsi Challenge for us? Give it a try. Alright, just taste those two colas and tell me which one you prefer. You prefer that one. Well, lift it up Wendy and let’s see which one you’ve chosen. Oooh! Take the Pepsi Challenge - let your taste decide.

DE:

Again and again, the adverts showed consumers choosing the slightly sweeter taste of Pepsi over the traditional taste of Coke. And, by the early 80s, market research was proving that more and more Americans were switching from Coke to Pepsi, because they really believed that it tasted better. So, when Roberto Goizueta took over as chairman of Coca-Cola in

4

1981, he found that his company’s main product was facing serious problems. True, Coke was still the biggest selling American soft drink, but for how much longer? Goizueta clearly had to find an answer to the Pepsi Challenge.

Then, while researching formulae for Coke’s new diet drink, Goizueta’s R & D people made an intriguing discovery. Bob Wilkinson, Coca-Cola’s head of corporate affairs for northern Europe, explains what happened.

Wilkinson:

In the course of that research we found a new cola flavour complex, which we found in internal taste test panels was preferable to the original Coca-Cola that we’d been using for 95 years.

DE:

Could this new formulation really be an alternative to the legendary Merchandise 7X recipe? Roberto Goizueta asked his market researchers to look into public reaction to the new drink. Over a period of 3 years 200,000 people sampled the new Coke formula in a $4m market research project. Perhaps Goizueta really had found the way to beat the Pepsi Challenge.

But in the early 80s, things were changing at Pepsi, too. In 1983, John Sculley left the company to join Apple Computers and Roger Enrico became Pepsi’s new chief executive officer. Enrico decided that, after a run of several years, the Pepsi Challenge message was clear enough. What Pepsi needed was advertising with more youth and more glamour. So, in 84, Pepsi launched an advertising campaign featuring pop superstar, Michael Jackson, then at the very peak of his fame. Pepsi’s UK marketing director, Chris Radfird, talks about the thinking behind this move.

Radford:

Our association with Michael is built on his entertainment value and the fact that...the fact that he’s a star that’s sold 40 million copies of Thriller and Bad looks on track to beat that, and entertains modern youth in the most lively and dynamic and energetic way that I think ... I think you could wish to experience.

DE:

The advertising campaign was a wild success. So, in the mind of the American public, Pepsi was now not only the better tasting cola drink, it

5

was also the one with the backing of the world’s number one pop star. Cola-Cola clearly needed to respond to Pepsi’s aggressive new initiative. Goizueta knew he had to hit back with something dramatic. In the next part of the programme we look at Coca-Cola’s response.

1985 was to be the most dramatic year ever in the history of the cola wars. Pepsi’s new advertising campaign had clearly raised the stakes. Everyone was waiting for Coke to strike back. Here, a BBC report sums up the position.

BBC report:

Both companies do billions of dollars’ business around the world and in most markets it’s agreed Coke’s market share has been dropping while Pepsi’s has gone up.

DE:

With the results of the market research for the new Coke formula on his desk, and the sound of the Michael Jackson ads ringing in his ears, Roberto Goizueta took the decision to launch New Coke. New Coke could have been a simple line extension - in other words, it could have considerably lessened its impact. Goizueta wanted to focus the company’s marketing energies totally on New Coke, and that meant withdrawing old Coca-Cola from the market completely. In April 1985, 99 years after the first batch of Merchandise 7X was produced, Roberto Goizueta announced that the recipe for CocaCola had been changed. It was, he said, “The surest move I ever made”. Far from being worried by their competitor’s dramatic announcement, the management at Pepsi were delighted. At their HQ in New York, Roger Enrico celebrated by giving his entire staff the day off. Pepsi’s marketing director for northern Europe, Drummond Hall, summed up the feeling within the company.

Hall:

Pepsi and Coke have been locked in the cola wars for something like 87 years now. I think it’s a turning point in those wars, we’ve at last got Coca-Cola on the run .They’ve changed the basic formulation of one of the world’s biggest brands. I think they’ve done that because of the significant success that Pepsi’s had worldwide. I think it’s good news for us and it’s a sign of panic on Coke’s part that they’ve had to change.

6

DE:

Panic is perhaps too strong a word to use, but there were undoubtedly problem with the launch of New Coke. Although $4m had been spent on market research for the new drink, it had clearly not been thorough enough. There had been no home use tests, nor had any test marketing been done on the product. Worse still, the research had totally failed to take account of the strong sentimental appeal of Coca-Cola. Many Coke drinkers were furious that their favourite drink had been taken away from them. An old Coke Drinkers Association was founded and soon it had nearly 9,000 members. Wine merchants started buying up crates of old Coke and selling them at premium prices. By early June the Coca-Cola consumer hot line was receiving 1500 calls a day complaining about the new drink.

In an interview shortly after the launch, Coke’s head of corporate affairs in northern Europe, Bob Wilkinson, attempted to present the company in a positive light.

Wilkinson:

We are what we claim to be, we are Coca-Cola, which is ... which is a product that has a special place in the minds of our consumers.

DE:

The consumers didn’t share his view. Market research in mid-June showed that 70% of people didn’t like New Coke and that 80% thought the change in formula had been a bad idea. In July, less than 90 days after the launch of New Coke, Goizueta gave in to public pressure and brought back old style Coca-Cola under the name “Classic Coke’. The decision to withdraw the old-style Coke had cost the company an immense amount of goodwill among loyal customers. Now they were faced with the problems and the expense of launching and selling two products in the same market. Figures at the end of 85 showed that sales of Classic and New Coke combined were less than those of old Coke the previous year. In the same 12 months, Pepsi had grown by more than 5% and for the first time in history had overtaken Coca-Cola to become the biggest soft drink in the US.

II. We can often leave out the conjunction that , especially in an informal style. Find omissions of that in the following sentences.

1. In the course of that research we found a new cola flavour complex which we found in internal taste test panels was preferable to the original Coca-Cola that we’d been using for 95 years.

2.Goizueta knew he had to hit back with something dramatic.

3.Both companies do billions of dollars’ business around the world and in most markets it’s agreed Coke remains the leader.

4.I think it’s a turning point in those wars, we’ve at last got Coca-Cola on the run.

5.I think they’ve done that because of the significant success that Pepsi’s had worldwide.

6.I think it’s good news for us and it’s a sign of panic on Coke’s part that they’ve had to change.

7.Market research in mid-June showed that 70% of people didn’t like New Coke and that 80% thought the change in formula had been a bad idea.