I. Learn the following words. Entrepreneur – предприниматель;
Entrepreneur – предприниматель;
interest – процент;
to hire – принимать на работу;
to fire – увольнять;
risk-averse – нерасположенный к риску;
bet – заклад, пари;
cluster – группа, скопление;
boom – быстрый подъем;
to yield – давать доход;
to thrive – процветать;
to fritter away – растрачивать по мелочам.
II. Answer the following questions:
1. What opportunities are given to people by the venture-capital industry?
2. What factors are essential to America's success?
3. What is the modern American economy compared with?
4. What is meant by saying that other countries are right to seek to foster venture-capital industries of their own?
5. What is meant by "a cottage industry"?
6. What problems are successful partnerships faced with?
7.What are the reasons for the venture-capital industry's success?
8. What lesson should be learned by other countries?
III. Complete the following sentences with the words from the box:
venture capital; a risk-averse bank manager; entrepreneurial culture; partnership; a stockmarket bubble; to monitor managers.
1. … allows entrepreneurs to build a firm without having to borrow and pay high interest charges before they generate any revenues.
2. Without venture capital, people with bright ideas would have to go to … .
3. … in which people work for little or nothing if they have share options is essential to success.
4. Small close-knit … each invested a few million dollars a year, and partners spent much time advising and … .
5. But it also reflects … that has been particularly pronounced for initial public offerings.
IV. Give Russian equivalents for the following words and phrases used in the text:
the venture-capital industry;an established firm;to be hostile to innovation;low-inflation macroeconomic policies;share options;to foster venture-capital industries;small close-knit partnerships;a sustainable business;start-ups;e-retailers;publicly traded venture-capital firms;initial public offerings;to yield no returns.
V. Translate the following sentences into Russian in writing:
1. Without venture capital, people with bright ideas would have to go to a risk-averse bank manager, or fight through the bureaucracy of an established firm that may be hostile to innovation.
2. To use the jargon of the new economy, venture capital is not easily "scalable".
3. Small close-knit partnerships each invested a few million dollars a year, and partners spent much time advising and monitoring managers as they built a firm into a sustainable business that could be sold to investors in the stockmarket.
4. The Californian cluster of venture capitalists is now a loose global network; the large number of near-identical e-retailers launched in the past two years is evidence that the grapevine no longer works.
5. Part of the point of venture capital is that, as in Hollywood, many investments yield no returns - but those that do then pay off by the bucketful.
VI. Summarise the text using the words and phrases given below:
to pay high interest charges; to generate revenues; to hand over money; to seek to foster venture-capital industries; a cottage industry; a small cluster; to ensure; to flood in; to place bets; to recruit; to launch; the markets' tumble; to lead to smth; to pay off by the bucketful; to thrive.
VII. Translate into English:
1. Венчурный капитал позволяет предпринимателям открыть свое дело, не прибегая к займам под высокий процент.
2. Венчурный капитал - это не единственный фактор, обеспечивающий успех американской экономики.
3. В основе ее процветания - стабильная макроэкономическая политика, направленная на поддержание низкого уровня инфляции, гибкие рынки труда, а также культура предпринимательской деятельности.
4. Для вновь возникающих венчурных предприятий наиболее актуальны проблемы подбора персонала и управления ростом капитала.
5. Индустрия венчурного капитала расширяется и приобретает глобальный характер.
6. Успешное существование индустрии венчурного капитала объясняется более значительной ролью, которая стала отводиться менеджменту, наряду с финансами, в процессе принятия рисков и управления ими.
VIII. Work as one group. Supply details to prove the following:
1. "... venture capital deserves a slice of the credit for transforming America's economy from the industrial dinosaur of the 1980s into today's high-growth, high-tech animal";
2. "the boom in venture capital reflects the opportunities created by the Internet".
IX. Work as several groups. Comment on the following statements:
1. Yet as the venture-capital industry gets bigger and more global, more may not always mean merrier.
2. Too much investment in innovation is unlikely to be damaging in quite the same way as too many building or factories.
3. The venture-capital industry has thrived partly as a disciplined risk-taking process that put as much emphasis on managing as on financing.
Revision of chapter 3
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