Номер 11, страница 54 - гдз по английскому языку 11 класс рабочая тетрадь Вербицкая, Фрикер

Unit 7. Why risk it? - номер 11, страница 54.

Условие.

11 Find the phrases in the text which have the meanings given.

1 to make a large amount of money

to amass a fortune

2 to be naturally good at business

to h______ a f______ for business

3 a company which sells things by post

a m______ o______ business

4 to do something that you don’t know whether will succeed or not

to t______ a r______

5 to make a business bigger by doing different things

to e______ a business into o______

f______

6 He doesn’t worry about it.

He d______ i______ it b______ him.

7 to make other people’s opinions of you worse

to d______ your r______

8 to be similar or the same as something

to m______ something

A SUPERHERO FOR THE BUSINESS WORLD

BY JAMES SEALY

According to The Sunday Times, he is Britain's ninth richest person with a fortune of over £3 billion. A man, who it seems has a magic touch where business is concerned.

It was obvious, even as a schoolboy, that Sir Richard had a flair for business. He set up a school magazine at the age of fifteen, his first business venture. He was also a keen sports player and captain of the school football and cricket teams. Richard Branson left school at the age of sixteen and in 1970 he started out in the record business with a mail order company selling records by post. A year later he opened his first shop on London's Oxford Street.

The first route was from London to Newark, and two years later a route was added to Miami. Although Virgin Atlantic only flew to the Americas, Virgin have since added different routes throughout the world.

A composer, named Mike Oldfield, had recorded a demo album of an instrumental record called Tubular Bells. The only record company that showed any interest had asked him to add vocals before they would consider releasing it. Eventually, Oldfield played the demo to a studio engineer, Tom Newman, who told Richard Branson about it. The record was released in 1972.

This was where Branson took the risk which could have sunk his business. He invested the money needed to record the album and released it on his own Virgin Records label.

If it had failed, he would have lost everything. In fact, the record sold millions, and Richard Branson, the success, was born.

One such failure was Virgin Cola, first sold in 1994. Despite initial high sales, its popularity soon fell dramatically although it is still served on Virgin planes and Virgin trains. The train business has also been a difficult one for Virgin since it started running in 1997. High prices and poor punctuality have damaged Richard Branson's reputation slightly although performance is improving. Not that it is stopping Sir Richard from looking to the future. His latest venture, set up in 2004, is Virgin Galactic which offers flights into space for £200,000 a ticket.

Twelve years after Tubular Bells had given the world a new listening experience, Virgin Atlantic Airways promised a different kind of flying experience with in-flight music and entertainment including video games that passengers could play against each other.

In 1986 he broke the speed record for crossing the Atlantic by boat and in 1987 he became the first person to cross the Atlantic Ocean by balloon. He repeated the feat four years later, becoming the first person to cross the Pacific Ocean by balloon. Four attempts to be the first to fly around the world by balloon ended in failure before he was beaten by a team of Swiss flyers. Branson then put all his efforts into repeating their feat but more quickly. It's no wonder that he makes an appearance in Superman Returns, he truly is a superhero for the business world.

Решение.