Читаем Английский язык: самоучитель полностью

Английский язык: самоучитель

Just over 200 men, representing 14 countries, competed in a total of 43 events. Winners received a silver medal, a certificate and a crown of olive leaves. Runners-up were given bronze medals and a crown of laurel while those who finished third went home empty-handed.

The Olympic Games are held every four years with one country being responsible for the organisation of the event. There is often fierce competition to be the host city. In 2004, Greece hosts the Games and in 2008 they will be held in Beijing in China.

the site of a battle

the place where a battle happened

legend

a legend is a very old story that may be based on facts

exhaustion

the state of being so tired that you have no energy left

abolished

stopped

pagan influences

if something has a pagan influence it is affected by beliefs that are not connected with any of the main religions of the world

Movement

A movement is a group of people who share the same ideas or opinions

aim

an aim is something that a person or group of people want to achieve

through sport

if you do something through another thing, you use that thing to achieve another. So here, the Olympic Movement is using sport to promote peace between nations

runners-up

here, the people who come second in a race or game. Usually a runner-up is a person or team who do not finish first but do win a prize

a crown

a circular ornament for the head, usually made of gold and jewels which Kings and Queens wear at official ceremonies

went home empty-handed

did not receive anything. This phrase is used here to show the difference between the early Games and the new Games where people who finish in third place receive a bronze medal

Telephoning

reason:

You will often have telephone contact with a company before an interview. Some companies will even assess these phone calls as part of the selection process.

Objective:

To leave a positive impression, of someone who's capable and efficient.

The basic problem

Lots of research shows that the biggest impact in spoken-word communication is visual. Some researchers say it's as much as three-quarters of the total. Yet on the phone we don't have any of that. Our voice has to do all the work.

If we want people at the other end to form a good impression of us, we need to give more thought to business phone calls than we do when we're just chatting to our friends.

Your calling them

There are two main possibilities.

· The job advert asks you to ring the company for an application form.

· Or, usually a little later in the process, you have to ring up and arrange a time for an interview.

Either of these cases can be entirely straightforward – just a matter of getting a small administrative task done. But depending on who you speak to, there could also be questions of a sort you wouldn't otherwise expect until you fill in the application form or go for an interview.

These could be either factual – «what's your educational background?» – or human – «what interested you particularly about this job?»

It makes sense to be prepared before you make the call, just as you would before an interview.