B. Present the general idea of the text in five-six sentences. Do it in written form

A. Say what the text is about. Comment on the content of the text (orally).

Exercise 12.

Exercise 11. From the text, select those facts and ideas concerning small businesses (in written form).

What each of the following companies is involved in.

Exercise 10. Look through the text again and write down ways to express

Exercise 9. Choose all the words that are appropriate in answering the questions.

A. What does Glaxo make?

B. What does BP manufacture?

C. What does the Morgan Motor Company produce?

Elite cars, high-quality loudspeakers, petrochemical products, new medicines, hi-fi equipment, petrol jams, waterproof jackets.

A. Quad Electroacoustics

B. Wilkin & Sons

C. J Barber & Sons

TEXT 10. THE CITY OF LONDON: ITS PAST AND PRESENT

London has been an important centre for finance for many years and the City is the financial centre of London. It contains the Bank of England, the Stock Exchange and hundreds of insurance, banking and finance companies. This goes back to the 12th century when Lombards — moneylenders from Lombardy — settled in London.

A Lombard meant a native of Lombardy in Italy, whose ancestors were the Germanic people who conquered Italy in the 6th century. This term was applied in the Middle Ages to bankers, moneylenders, and pawnbrokers, many of whom were from Lombardy or elsewhere in north Italy. Italian bankers played an im­portant part in financing the English Crown in the 13th and 14th centuries. In re­turn for their loans, such firms as the Riccardi of Lucca and the Frescobaldi of Florence received substantial gifts and a variety of business privileges.

Italian bankers received gifts because the charging of interest on a loan of money was forbidden by medieval cannon law and punishable in the ecclesiastical courts. Interest on loans, such as those made by Italian bankers to the Crown in the late-13th and 14th centuries, was thus paid in other forms until legally per­mitted in the 16th century.

Dislike for these advantages, their power, and their association with unpopu­lar government policies at the beginning of the 14th century culminated in the expulsion of the Frescobaldi by the Lords Ordainers — the committee of 21 lords that Edward II was forced to appoint in 1311. The strain of heavy royal borrowing brought the collapse of the Riccardi in 1294 and of the Bardi and Peruzzi of Florence in the mid-14th century.

Many Italian bankers occupied premises in what became Lombard Street, in London.

The City covers one square mile in the centre of modern London. This is the area of the original city of Londinium founded by the Romans around AD 50. It re­mained the same for a thousand years until the Normans came from France in 1066. William the Conqueror gave the Saxons in the City a special Charter, and the City is still independent from the rest of London. It has its own council called the Corpora­tion of the City of London, its own Lord Mayor and its own police force.

Until very recently, the area was the home of the «City gent» with a black bowler hat and a tightly rolled umbrella; the bowler is rarely seen today. In con­trast to the entertainment district in the West End of London, the City is almost deserted at night. Although hundreds of thousands of people work in its offices by day, only about eight thousand actually live within the square mile.

The City is very rich and has a lot of influence. The term «the City» is often used to refer to the financial world in Britain in general. But to many observers the City seems increasingly independent of the British domestic economy: in fact, the City is central to international finance. When London was an imperial capi­tal, the City was its financial heart, but in the age of telecommunications, the City could be situated anywhere.

Notes andCommentary

the Bank of England — Банк Англии; государственный центральной эмиссионный банк; основан в 1694 году; национализирован в 1946 году

the Stock Exchange — Лондонская фондовая биржа

a Lombard — ломбардиец; уроженец или житель области Ломбардия в Италии

the Germanic people — зд. германские племена

the Middle Ages — средние века

the (English) Crown — зд. королевская власть

the Lords Ordainers — Лорды-«реформаторы»; составители свода законов, ограничивающих власть короля (в целях установления баронами контроля над правительством)

Edward II — Эдвард II (1284-1327), король Англии (1307-1327)

the Romans — римляне (римское завоевание Британии: середина I в. — начало V в. н.э.)

around AD (Anno Domini) 50 — лат. приблизительно в 50-м году нашей эры

the Normans — норманны (норманнское завоевание Британии под предводительством Вильгельма Завоевателя, William the Conqueror, началось после разгрома англо-саксов под Гастингсом в 1066 году)

a Charter — королевский указ

the Corporation of the City of London — Совет («парламент») Сити Лондона

Lord Mayor of the City of London — лорд-мэр Сити Лондона

the West End of London — Вест-Энд Лондона; район театров, музеев, аттракционов, увеселительных заведений

EXERCISES

Дата добавления: 2014-10-22