|
|
|
Before you read a story about a parking attendant at Bristol Zoo, read the
following questions.
|
|
|
Now read the text and answer the questions.
The Bristol Zoo Parking Attendant
Outside
the Bristol Zoo, in the UK, there’s a car park for 150 cars and 8 coaches, or
buses.
It was looked after by a very nice and pleasant car park attendant who carried a
ticket machine and charged cars £1 (about $1.40) and coaches £5 (about $7). This
car park attendant worked there continually for 25 years. Then, one day, he just
didn’t turn up for work.
“Oh well”, said Bristol Zoo management – “we’d better phone up the City Council
and get them to send a new car park attendant…”
The City Council said, “Err … no. That car park is your responsibility, not
ours.”
“Err … no”, said Bristol Zoo Management, “the attendant was employed by the City
Council, wasn’t he?”
“Err … NO!” insisted the Council, “we know nothing about a Council employee
working at the zoo.”
Somewhere on the coast of Spain, sitting in his expensive villa and gazing at
the view and his beautiful blue swimming pool, is a bloke who had been
taking the parking fees, estimated at £400 (about $560) per day at Bristol Zoo
for the last 25 years. Assuming he worked 7 days a week, this amounts to just
over £3.6 million ($7 million)! And no one even knows his name.
*Consulta
un PDF con la información y resumen de 100 libros en inglés
que puedes descargar en 1 único archivo.
|
|
|
|
|
Before you read an article about a computer game manufacturer, read the
following questions.
|
|
|
Now read the text and answer the questions.
Cyberlink Finally Closes
The
computer game manufacturer, Cybermax, finally closed down its last two offices
yesterday and called in the receivers. The news came as a shock to many city
analysts who were expecting the company to arrange a refinancing package with
its creditors.
Cyberlink was founded in 1998 by British-born IT whiz-kid Sammy Lee, who dropped
out of university early to develop revolutionary computer game software and
hand-held gaming consoles. Despite early successes and a strong international
following from hardcore gamers, the company's business plan did not take into
account that most people were looking to Sony and Microsoft for their gaming
needs.
Cliff Western, head of the banking consortium which was Cyberlink's main backer
announced yesterday "Market research now shows that most people don’t want to
pay more money for a product they haven’t heard of. Cyberlink simply cannot
compete with the two market leaders in product promotion, marketing or price."
Mr Western also pointed out that the consortium had always considered
Cyberlinkto be a speculative investment, and he mentioned that the consortium
had played it safe by making an equivalent investment in Blackmans, a larger,
more mainstream company which manufactures gaming hardware. On balance, Mr
Western thought that the consortium would break even.
Sammy Lee complained that the company had been badly hit by an unexpected drop
in its share price, which had made it very expensive for the company to take on
new debt by pledging equity as collateral. Recent months have seen the share
price of the company fall from a high of $1.98 per share, to yesterday's low of
23 cents.
Because the company has got almost nothing that creditors can sell, they have no
way to get their money back again - another example of the dangers of trading in
the hi-tech sector.
*Consulta
un PDF con la información y resumen de 100 libros en inglés
que puedes descargar en 1 único archivo.
|
|
|
|