FOCUS ON COMMUNICATION
TEXTS AND EXERCISES FOR ADVANCED STUDENTS
Cadrul general al cursului
Cursul de limba engleză, nivel mediu-avansat, îşi propune să dea studenţilor care urmează cursurile Facultăţii de Comunicare şi Relaţii Publice în sistemul Învăţământ Deschis la Distanţă (IDD) posibilitatea de a învăţa şi exersa situaţii comunicaţionale şi terminologia specifică teoriilor comunicării, de la foarte simplu la complex.
Fiecare curs este conceput în patru părţi, de aproximativ aceeaşi mărime şi importanţă în structura generală. Cea dintâi componentă este una comunicaţională, descriind modelele de conversaţie şi scriere corectă şi politicoasă în limba engleză, de la prezentare până la scrisori oficiale sau interviuri pentru obţinerea unui post, de la modalităţi de concepere a unui articol sau interviu pentru un ziar până la organizarea unor conferinţe de presă. A doua structură cuprinde scheme de bază din gramatica limbii engleze, începând cu verbul, cel mai important şi mai dificil subiect de discutat; fiecare problemă este exemplificată cu exerciţii şi traduceri care vor ajuta studenţii să înţeleagă mai bine partea teoretică. Partea a treia conţine texte de comunicare în care apar noţiuni întâlnite în celelalte cursuri ce vor fi studiate în facultate, texte adaptate după autorii clasici în domeniu despre componentele comunicării, propagandă, presă scrisă şi electronică, relaţii publice, creare de imagine, structura organizaţiei, imaginea politică, imaginea comercială; astfel, studenţii vor învăţa cum se exprimă aceste noţiuni în limba engleză, pentru a putea face comparaţia cu termenii româneşti. A patra componentă a cursului cuprinde exerciţii de vocabular uzual la început pentru ca pe parcurs să evolueze către probleme mai nuanţate şi cât mai apropiate de domeniul comunicării sociale şi al relaţiilor publice.
Structura cursului
Cursul 1: Communication – Past and Future; Presentation; The Indicative Mood
Cursul 2: Propaganda and Persuasion; Making Phone Calls; The Indicative Mood – Simple and Continuous Tenses
Cursul 3: Masses or Elites?; Writing letters; Passive Voice
Cursul 4: The Power of the Press; Official Phone Calls and Letters; Conditional Clauses
Cursul 5: The Newspapers and the Magazines; Commercial Correspondence; The Subjunctive
Cursul 6: The Radio and the Television; Searching for a Job; Modal Verbs
Cursul 7: Revision
Cursul 8: What is Public Relations?; Pro and Against Written Discourses; Oral Debates; Infinitive and Gerund
Cursul 9: Who Is the Image Builder?; Rules of a Written Article; The Direct and the Indirect Speech
Cursul 10: The Organisation; The Interview; Phrasal Verbs
Cursul 11: The Image of the Politician; Memos, Reports, Newsreleases; Phrasal Verbs
Cursul 12: Marketing; The Press Conference; Phrasal Verbs
Cursul 13: The Image of a Product; Negotiations; Phrasal Verbs
Cursul 14: Revision
Modalitatea de evaluare
Condiţia de intrare în examen este rezolvarea prealabilă în scris a exerciţiilor din curs în variantă personală. Examinarea propriu-zisă va consta dintr-un test scris pe durata unei ore şi dintr-o discuţie de cinci minute cu profesorul. În acest fel evaluarea se va face dupa analiza tuturor componentelor care sunt absolut obligatorii pentru acordarea unei note la limba straină: activitate individuală, scriere şi vorbire.
Graficul de examinare
Examenul fiind de an, materia de semestrul întâi şi cea de semestrul al doilea se vor da împreună. Studenţii vor fi examinaţi în fiecare vineri de la orele 16.00 la orele 20.00, de la 1 februarie 2011la 31 iunie 2001. Prima oră va fi testul scris, iar următoarele trei ore vor fi rezervate probei orale. Participarea la examinare se va face pe bază de programare prealabilă.
COMMUNICATION – PAST AND FUTURE
A. Presentation
People are generally aware that success in one’s life and career depends to a great extent on one’s ability to communicate effectively. Because the first impression one makes is very important, each person has to know certain rules of greeting, of presenting oneself and of having a brief opening conversation.
A1. Exchanging words with a new acquaintance. Read the following dialogue and try to write down a similar one taking place between your family and the family of a friend of yours.
John Smith : Mr. Brown, you know my wife, Mary, don’t you?
Michael Brown : No, I don’t think we have met. I didn’t have the pleasure.
Mary Smith : How do you do. It’s an honour for me to meet you, Mr. Brown.
Michael Brown : How do you do. The honour is on my side. Now allow me to introduce you to my family. This is my wife, Angela, and this is my daughter, Jane.
Angela Brown : I am delighted to make your acquaintance.
Jane Brown : Glad to meet you, madam, sir.
Mary Smith : You have such a lovely daughter. Have you already graduated the highschool, Jane?
Jane Brown : Yes, I graduated the highschool last year, and now I am a student.
Michael Brown : She studies social communication and public relations. Our child has always wanted to do something new and interesting, so this field suits her.
John Smith : When we were young, we also dreamt of doing the most fantastic things. We also left our son the freedom of choice and now he studies the art of painting.
Angela Brown : This gives me an idea. As Mr. Smith and my husband are colleagues, why don’t we meet some time at our place to find out more about the plans for future of our children?
Mary Smith : Thank you for your kind invitation, then we shall pay you a visit soon and we hope you will return the visit to us.
A2. Describing a person
You are on the beach and you see an empty blanket on which there are a few objects spread around. You look at them and you wonder who is the person that owns these objects. And you are waiting for it to appear…
The list of objects is the following:
• some chewing-gum
• a film
• a comb
• a belt bag
• some car keys
• a camera
• a picture of two old persons
• some sun-tan lotion
• a pair of head-phones
• a mirror
• a towel
• a pencil
• a book
• a letter
Now use your imagination:
• Is this person a man or a woman?
• Where does he/she come from?
• How old is he/she?
• What is his/her job?
• Is he/she married or single?
• What is he/she doing at the moment?
• What colour are his/her eyes?
Try to write a description of this person’s life, as you imagine it.
A3. Memories
In the following fragment the famous actress Sophia Loren recalls her first meetings with a film director, with the world of movies and, last but not least, with glory. Translate the text, then try to write down several memories about important encounters in your life.
They were golden days, the 50s. Vittorio De Sica and Carlo Ponti, my Carlo, were doing a project called The Gold of Naples. De Sica said, “I need a Neapolitan girl”. Carlo told him “I know a girl, she’s called Sofia Scicolone”. I was given the role of the pizzaiola (pizza street vendor). It was 1952. I was 17, and I was completely drunk with happiness.
For us Rome was an enchanting place, a city of trams and palaces. I felt like this because I was very young, but there were people 40, 50 years old who felt like me, too, because of what they had gone through during the war. They felt they could afford maybe to start a new life.
De Sica was a sensitive man with great instincts and a great sense of humour. We spoke the same language – almost the way as when you’re married a long time and you look at your husband and, with just a glance or a gesture, you know.
Then there was Anna Magnani. When De Sica was planning to film Moravia’s new book Two Women, he wanted Magnani to play the mother, and I could play the daughter. When De Sica went to see Magnani, she cocked that hip of hers and said, “No, I can’t play with Sophia. What are we going to do together on the set? We are going to kill each other!” As De Sica was leaving, she cocked that hip again and threw up her chin with that beautifully free-spirited air we all knew so well. “Hah! Why don’t you try to give Sophia the role of the mother?” Well, I did play that role. The mother became younger, and the daughter (played by Eleonora Brown) became a girl of 13. And I never played a role better!
A4. Choose one of the following topics and write a dialogue:
a. You are strolling downtown. Suddenly you meet an old friend of yours whom you have not seen since you were in elementary school. You are surprised to learn that he has become a millionaire.
b. You are walking down the street. Suddenly you see a friend in front of you. You run up to him and say hello, but when he turns around you discover that he is a stranger.
c. You are a teacher in the first day of school. Present yourself in front of the class and prompt the conversation with the students.
B. The Indicative Mood
In the exercises and texts above, while presenting characters and introducing people, we used the tenses of the Indicative Mood. We practised present and past, tenses which we have in the Romanian language, too, but also present perfect, which we cannot find in Romanian.
B1. Let’s compare the Romanian axis of tenses (which is only one) with the English axes (two of them) and discuss their different logic.
How is the Romanian manner? We have a unique axis of tenses, with a main point (prezent) with two derivations, one going up (viitor) and one going down (trecut). Of course, we know there are various kinds of past tense – “perfect simplu”, “perfect compus” and “imperfect” – and they differ from the point of view of usage (the first is informal, colloquial; the second is the most present in written communication; the third involves, in a way, continuity), but they cover the same position in the scheme. There is an intermediate tense which functions between present and future (called “viitor anterior” or “viitor apropiat”), expressing an action in the future taking place before another fact of the future. And there is another relational tense, named “mai mult ca perfect”, which represents an action in the past happening before something else in the past. The Romanian golden rule is that there is no rule: we are allowed to use any two tenses on the axis together, without restrictions. Let us have some examples:
- “prezent” in combination with “trecut” : “A spus că vine.”
- “trecut” in combination with “viitor” : “A spus că va veni.”
- “mai mult ca perfect” in combination with “viitor” : “Spusese că va veni.”
So, the Romanian structure seems to be very permissive, the indicative mood being perceived as a succession of tenses situated in a certain order on a continuous axis.
How is the English manner? In English there are two axes, each one with a main tense: the first axis with present tense and the second axis with past tense as the central points. The most important thing is not to pass from one axis to another, because they are parallel, and we know that parallels never meet.
So, on the first axis we have a complete structure of future – present – the past of the present tense (present perfect). We also have, like in Romanian, an intermediary tense between present and future, future perfect.
- future: subject + shall/will + infinitive (“shall” is used for the 1st person, singular and plural);
- future perfect: subject + shall/will + have + 3rd form of the verb (-ed for regular verbs);
- present: subject + infinitive (-s/-es for the 3rd person singular);
- present perfect: subject + have/has + 3rd form of the verb.
Present perfect represents, as we have mentioned above, the past of the present, used because in English it is not permitted to use present linked with the proper past. There are three situations in which present perfect occurs:
1. an action in the past which continues in the present
specific adverbs: always, ever, never, often, rarely, seldom, since, for
examples: I have never met a person like you. I haven’t seen him for five years.
2. an action in the past which is very close to the present
specific adverbs: just, yet, recently, lately
examples: I have just arrived. I have had a lot of work to do recently.
3. an action in the past whose results can be perceived in the present specific difference from past – example: I lost my pencil yesterday. I have lost my pencil yesterday and I am looking for it now.
On the second axis, we also have a complete structure, symmetrical to that of the first one, composed by future in the past (an action taking place before a past one) – past tense – past perfect (an action in the past taking place after a past one). There is also the intermediary tense between past tense and future in the past, future perfect in the past, rarely used.
- future in the past: subject + should/would + infinitive (“should” is used for the 1st person, singular and plural);
- future perfect in the past: subject + should/would + have + 3rd form of the verb;
- past: subject + 2nd form of the verb (-ed for regular verbs);
- past perfect: subject + had + 3rd form of the verb.
Future in the past is a technical tense, it is mechanically used whenever we try to express a future action in a past context. In a translation, whereas in Romanian we need a single axis, in English we need both axes.
Example: Spune că va veni. – He says he will come.
A spus că va veni. – He said he would come.
Past perfect represents in a way the Romanian “mai mult ca perfect”. But the difference is that in Romanian we can use either “trecut” or “mai mult ca perfect”, while in English past perfect has a stronger meaning of anteriority.
Examples: “A spus că plouase” is the same with “A spus că a plouat” and is translated into English as “He said it had rained”. “He said it rained” represents two actions taking place in the same time and is translated into Romanian as “A spus că plouă”.
The Romanian axis The English axes
Viitor Future Future in the Past
Viitor anterior Future Perfect Future Perfect
in the Past
Prezent Present Past
Trecut
Mai mult ca perfect Present Perfect Past Perfect
B2. Put the verbs in brackets into the correct tense:
a). 1. It (be) for the first time that John and Mary ever (be) so late. 2. It was not until she (say) “yes” that she (wonder) whether she (do) wrong. After all, she really (not know) him. 3. He asked the butler whether he (notice) anything different about his master the previous night. Jackson (reply) that he (notice) nothing of the kind. 4. “How long you (be) with him?” “23 years, Sir. Ever since he (start) to be anything at all”. 5. I told you we (have) guests at 8 o’clock and Mr. Johnson (be) the first and (smoke) a lot of cigarettes.
b). Agent Cooper (wake) up at 6 sharp, as he always (do), no matter where he (be) or what he (do) the previous day. His first thought was the realisation that he (wear) the pinstriped suit, and when his eyes (fall) on the reports piled around him, the events of the previous evening (come) back to him. He (go) to his club for supper, just (finish) his turtle soup and (look) forward to the second dish, when his meal rudely (be) interrupted by a call from his superior. Once he (drink) his black coffee, Cooper (think) carefully what to put on. He (see) M. at 9 o’clock that morning and (be) keen on impressing the latter. Glancing at himself in the mirror, it (strike) him that he (put) on weight recently. He (have) to pay more heed to his diet in the future.
B3. Translate into English:
a). 1. Copiii se joacă în parc în fiecare zi. 2. Duminica trecută am scris câteva scrisori, apoi am ascultat un concert la radio. 3. De când eşti aici? Am venit azi dimineaţă şi de atunci te aştept. 4. - De ce nu porţi ochelarii? – I-am pierdut. 5. Prietenii noştri nu vor veni în vacanţă la noi.
b). Acest băiet, care s-a născut acum, e nepotul meu. Pentru că să vedeţi domniile voastre: eu am avut şase fete, dintre care cea mai mare, pe care mă gândeam s-o mărit după ginere-meu, după ce va fi ieşit dascăl, s-a măritat după dascălul din Strântea, a doua s-a măritat după Mitrea lui Buduc, care acum e ctitor la biserică, pe a treia a luat-o ginere-meu, popa din Clădeni, cele două mai mici iată-le aici, iară Mili s-a măritat după ginere-meu, protopopul, şi a născut pe acest copil, care acum e nepotul meu. (Ioan Slavici – Budulea Taichii)
B4 .Do the following exercises:
a. Write down a funny adventure from your childhood, using the tenses of the past axis. Then retell the story as if it happened in the present, using the tenses of the present axis.
b. Write a telephone conversation you have had with your parents or your grandparents. Then re-tell the story, using the past axis.
C. In the contemporary world, the necessities of life include not only basic supplies, like food or water, but also the deep human need for communication and information. We all communicate or inform ourselves or each other, but few of us try to define the terms or describe the stages of communication or even seriously think about the results of their gestures or sentences. As this handbook has been conceived for the students in social communication and public relations, the first course has to comprise a series of texts and exercises of initiation in the field.
C1.Please answer the following questions, using your experiences and memories. Try to use, as correct as possible, the tenses of the indicative mood. Pay attention to the differences between the Present Perfect and the Past Tense.
a) Do you have a best friend? Do you tell him/her everything? Do you hide anything from him/her? If so, why?
b) Are you an easy communicator or a person who has difficulties in expressing his thoughts and feelings for the others? Try to list the good and the bad parts of each type.
c) Do you like being in a crowd or being lonely? Why? Have you ever felt lonely in a crowd and crowded with yourself alone? When?
d) How is your relationship with your parents? Do you perceive a clash between generations or can you say that you get along well?
e) Could you be a public speaker? Why? Have you ever spoken on behalf of a community (your class in highschool, your group of students in the faculty)? In what situation?
f) Would you like to be a professional spokesman? Why? If you were one, would you like to impress through the sincerity of your thoughts or through the art of rhetoric you make use of? Explain your option.
C2. Read, translate and comment upon the following text, adding examples for each device or situation:
At a general level, communication events involve the following: a source, a process of encoding, a message, a channel, a process of decoding, a receiver, the potential for feedback and the noise.
To begin with, the source initiates the process by having a thought or an idea that he or she wishes to transmit to some other entity. Naturally, sources differ in their communication skills. The source may or may not have knowledge about the receiver of the message. Sources can be single individuals, groups, or even organisations.
The encoding process refers to the activities that a source goes through to translate thoughts and ideas into a form that may be perceived by the senses. When you have something to say, your brain and your tongue work together to form words and spoken sentences. When you write a letter, your brain and your fingers co-operate to produce patterns of ink or some other substance on paper that can be seen. Encoding in a communication setting can take place once or more times.
The message is the actual physical product that the source encodes. When we talk, our speech is the message. Human beings usually have a large number of messages at their disposal, from which they choose to send simple or very complex ones. Messages can be cheap to produce or very expensive. Some messages are more under the control of the receiver than others.
Channels refer to the ways in which the message travels to the receiver. Sound waves carry spoken words; light waves carry visual messages. There are natural and artificial channels. Some messages use more than one channel to travel to the receiver.
The decoding process is the opposite of the encoding process. It consists of activities that translate or interpret physical messages into a form that has eventual meaning for a receiver. Both humans and machines can be thought of as decoders. Like encoding, decoding can also happen more than once. And, in the same way, some people are better encoders than others.
The receiver is the target of the message, its ultimate goal. The receiver can be a single person, a group, an institution or even a large, anonymous collection of people. The receivers of the message can be determined by a source or can self-select themselves into the audience. The sender and the receiver can be in each other’s immediate presence or can be separated by space or time.
Feedback takes into account the responses of the receiver that shape and alter the subsequent messages of the source. Feedback represents the reversal of the flow of communication.The original source becomes the receiver and the original receiver becomes the new source. There is the positive feedback from the receiver, which encourages the communication behaviour in progress, and there is the negative one, which attempts to change the communication or even to terminate it. Feedback can be immediate or delayed.
The last factor to be considered is noise, which is anything that interferes with the delivery of the message. There are three different types of noise: semantic (occuring when different people have different meanings for different words and phrases), mechanical (the fault of the machine that is being used to assist communication) and environmental (from sources of noise that are external to the communication process but interfere with it). As noise increases, message fidelity (how closely the message that is sent resembles the message that is received) goes down.
These are the components of the communication process in its simplest and clearest definition. Of course there are other possible, more refined, more complex ways of conceiving communication, as for example, it is difficult to make artistic communication enter these terms.
C3. We usually deal with communication between people, developed over centuries of expression, but researchers have pointed out the importance of transmitting messages and expressiveness also in the world of animals. These ones communicate inside their species and sometimes with other species. In this light, read the following text:
Our two pet donkeys were reliable watchmen, and their hearing was as sharp as their eyesight. I have seen them many a time look up from the grass they were eating and stare hard into the distance with ears raised; and in a minute or so I would see someone coming down the road towards the beach or observe a figure moving in a field a long way away.
When something unusual happened, Fred, the younger animal, would make so much noise that he could be heard in the next village and beyond. Obviously this could be embarrassing when the weather was still, for not everyone enjoys the sound of a donkey in full cry.
At night both donkeys were usually silent. They were undisturbed by the wild animals hunting in the fields after dark. They remained sleepily relaxed. Yet I was sure that they would always raise the alarm if there was a stranger about, or some activity which puzzled them.
One clear August night, for instance, I was woken up around three in the morning by Fred making a great deal of noise. It was a very quiet night and I immediately thought of all the people in the neighbourhood who might also have been awakened by him. It was a terrible noise, and it went on and on, and so I realised that something very unusual was bothering him. Then he stopped - and I heard voices.
On still nights we often heard the voices of the crews of fishing boats passing across the bay, sometimes speaking in French, but they soon faded away into the distance. On this night they did not fade away. And as I lay in bed realising that they had gone on for far too long to belong to a moving boat, I knew that I had to get up and investigate.
I pulled on some clothes, went outside, and shone my torch into the field by the cottage where I had put the donkeys. The light shone on Fred who was standing with his head facing towards the sea, ears upright like a V sign, showing such an intense interest in what was mysteriously happening that I felt like saying to him: “Here, take the torch, go and find out what it’s all about.”
Answer the following questions:
1. Why were the writer’s two donkeys good at keeping watch?
A They were dangerous animals.
B The noise they made was frightening.
C They could hear things a long way away.
D They were nervous and excitable.
2. When Fred was disturbed by something unusual he would
A sound like a baby crying.
B make a very loud noise.
C run towards the beach.
D stand still for several minutes .
3. When the writer was woken up at 3.00 a.m. he
A immediately felt frightened.
B thought he ought to wake the neighbours.
C shouted at the donkeys to be quiet.
D lay in bed and listened for a while.
4. What had alarmed the donkeys that particular August night?
A a French fishing boat
B wild animals
C voices nearby
D a strange light
C4. Explain the type of noise which led to the following funny miscommunications:
a. During the 1985 Christmas season, an 800 (call and win) number was set up so that children could call Santa Claus and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. Unfortunately, the phone lines got crossed and the little toddlers were connected to a Las Vegas bookie who dutifully informed them about the betting line on football games.
b. A leading national shoe company premiered this slogan in 1987: “We’ll only sell you the right shoe”.
c. A Seattle newspaper published a commemoration column in which Diana, Princess of Wales, was referred to as the “Princess of Whales”.
d. When Chevrolet introduced its Nova model in South America they were puzzled by the low sales. Someone then pointed out that “no va” was Spanish for “it doesn’t work”.
e. In 1984 the Coca-Cola company introduced a new advertising campaign to promote a soft drink, Tab. The theme of the campaign was “Let’s taste new Tab”. The commercials on billboards and flies were a success, but on radio and TV people heard “Less taste, new Tab”. The company had to remove the ads at considerable loss.
D. Vocabulary practice.
D1. Give the synonyms and the antonyms of the following words:
source; encoding; cheap; original; response; noise; to initiate; to enter; to buy; to manage.
D2. Complete the passage with these words:
information technologies accumulation global signals productivity
unified structure development worship shape unions
revolution competition stabilisation labour survival
The human race is on the threshold of a new emerging civilisation: the ……… civilisation. It is an extension and a successor to the agricultural and industrial civilisation that have determined our ………structure until now. Agricultural civilisation was the first to take concrete ………. It was established in fertile alluvial areas in the Middle East from the ………of agricultural production, fact which assured the ………of Homo sapiens and the ………of large amounts of social surplus. The increasing dependence of agricultural productivity on the sun and manual labour had as result the ………of two social aspects: a religion of sun ……… and a system of agricultural slave ……… Industrial ………provided the means by which industrial civilisation flourished. Its origins lay in the natural sciences and the machinery of the industrial ………made this possible. New society systems emerged, with the free ………of private business, comodity markets, parliamentary democracy and labour ………. The monuments of the agricultural civilisation are the pyramids and temples and those of the industrial civilisation are factories and skyscrapers. The information civilisation depends on computer and communication ………, being thus invisible. Its products are ………symbols and images. It is global, it does not take into account soil or city, because it spreads all over the world in ………form. It aims to the mutual understanding and ………thinking of citizens overriding national interests and deepening different cultures.
D3. Using the verbs to declare, to proclaim, to pronounce and to state, translate the following sentences into English:
a. S.U.A. a declarat război Iugoslaviei.
b. Vă declar soţ şi soţie.
c. Vă rugăm să declaraţi tot ce ştiţi şi să nu ascundeţi nimic.
d. În urma numărării voturilor el a fost declarat preşedinte.
e. A fost declarat cel mai bun jucător al turneului.
f. Vom declara poziţia noastră presei după pronunţarea sentinţei.
g. Aveţi bunuri de declarat la vamă?
h. Mă declar cu totul împotriva acestei acţiuni.
i. Vreţi să faceţi o declaraţie acum sau după ce v-aţi consultat avocatul?
j. Faimoasa Declaraţie de Independenţă a Statelor Unite ale Americii a fost proclamată pe 4 iulie 1776.
Remember the following phrases:
to declare war; to declare something or somebody to be something; to declare somebody a winner; to issue a declaration; to declare one’s hands (a da cărţile pe faţă); to proclaim a president; to proclaim somebody a traitor; a papal proclamation; to pronounce a judgement/verdict/sentence; to pronounce a statement; to pronounce man and wife; to state one’s opinion/view; to state a case; to make a statement; to state one’s full particulars.
D4. Write down the nouns deriving from the following verbs:
believe; threaten; agree; suggest; express; refer, form, correct, intend, analyse, correspond, lose, promiss, irritate, damage, inherit, decide, declare, insult, sustain.
II. PROPAGANDA AND PERSUASION
A. Making phone calls
The first person to patent an electric telephone in the modern sense was the American inventor Alexander Graham Bell. In 1876, he conceived a device which was capable of transmitting sound vibrations in the form of human speech. The phone is a very useful tool for immediate communication, it can connect you to people who are far away, at the other end of the world, in an instant. But it can also be very frustrating, when you cannot get through to the person you want to talk to. Can you present the advantages and disadvantages of the telephone as a means of communication?
A1. To be effective on the phone, both the caller and the person called must have clear objectives, the relevant information and a clear strategy and structure for the call. Pay attention to the steps which must be followed during the conversations on the phone both by the sender and by the receiver and then try to exemplify:
- phone communication – caller’s steps
- phone communication – the steps taken by the person called
[phone rings]
A2. The following sentences are taken from phone calls. Imagine the reply before or after each of them. Tell which type of conversational strategy they belong to. Establish in which part of the conversation on the phone it appears.
a. Who’s calling, please?
b. Thanks for calling.
c. Just a moment, please. I’ll put you through.
d. Which extension do you want?
e. Oh, I’m sorry. I must have dialled the wrong number.
f. Good morning, can I help you?
g. Sorry? Can you repeat, please?
h. Could we meet some time soon?
i. Would morning or afternoon suit you best?
j. Sorry, the line is busy.
A3. Translate the following texts and comment upon the reasons why lack of communication becomes humorous:
a. A fellow dialled his home telephone number.
“Hello”, he said. “Is that Mrs. Brown?”
“Yes”.
“This is Jack speaking. I say, dear, will it be all right if I bring home a couple of fellows to dinner?”
“Certainly, darling.”
“Did you hear what I was saying?”
“Yes – you asked if you could bring home a couple of fellows to dinner. Of course you can, dear.”
“Sorry, madam”, the fellow said as he was hanging up, “I’ve got the wrong Mrs. Brown”.
b. “Hello, is that the lawyers’ office of Messrs. Smithson, Smithson and Smithson?”
“Yes”, a voice replied at the other end, “this is the lawyers’ office of Messrs. Smithson, Smithson and Smithson”.
“Can I speak to Mr. Smithson?”
“I’m afraid not. Mr. Smithson is away on a business trip”.
“Then, perhaps, I could speak to Mr. Smithson?”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Smithson is being in court right now”.
“Oh, then give me Mr. Smithson”.
“This is Mr. Smithson speaking”.
A4. Write dialogues beginning from the following stories, using your past experiences or your imagination in shaping the situation:
a. You are at home alone. Suddenly the telephone rings. You pick up the receiver and hear a strange voice at the other end of the line…
b. You know that a friend of yours is very upset because he/she hasn’t passed an important exam for a scholarship in the United States of America. So you phone him/her to comfort the person. How do you start the conversation and how do you continue it?
c. A slight acquaintance calls you on the phone to invite you at a party. You don’t really like the person, so you have to quickly find good excuses for not going there.
B. The Indicative Mood – simple and continuous tenses.
B1. In the English language the tenses have two aspects, simple and continuous, with different usage and meanings, while in Romanian we have only tenses, without aspect. This is the first difficulty in understanding the English system. The second one is the fact that the features of simple and continuous are different for present, on one hand, and for the other tenses, on the other hand.
This is the representation of the structure for the present tenses:
- present simple: Subject + Infinitive (+ -s/-es at 3rd person singular);
- present continuous: Subject + Be (present) + Verb in –ing form
Present Simple Present Continuous
- habitual, repetitive, permanent action in the present (1st axis)
adverbs: always, ever, never
usually, generally
often, rarely, seldom, sometimes
every ………
example: I rarely go to concerts. - momentary actions in the present
adverbs: now, at the moment
today, tonight
this ……….
example: I’m going to a concert this evening.
- verbs of human perception (considered permanent) cannot be used in the continuous form and are only simple
a. verbs of physical perception
see – a vedea – I see a bird.
hear – a auzi – I hear a noise.
smell, taste – a avea miros/gust – The soup smells wonderful.
feel – a simţi – I feel the pain.
b. verbs of will: want, wish, desire
c. verbs of pleasure: love, hate, like, dislike
d. verbs of cognition: understand, trust, believe, know, think
think – a crede – I think I’m right.
e. verbs of possession: have, own , possess
I have a book. Have you a book? (auxiliary verb) - the same verbs are used in the continuous form if they change their meaning
see – a se vedea cu – I’m seeing the doctor.
hear – a afla – I’m hearing the news.
smell, taste – a mirosi, a gusta – I’m smelling the soup.
feel - a se simţi – I’m not feeling well.
think – a se gândi la – I’m thinking of you.
non-possessive have
I’m having a shower. Do you often have a shower? (normal verb)
- types of action which are always at simple form, although they are momentary, so they should be in the continuous form:
a. comments in the media (radio, TV, written press) – The Prime Minister arrives today.
b. stage directions - actions which are always at continuous form, although they seem to be in the simple form:
those actions which repeat so often in a negative form that they start annoying us
example: You are never listening to me!
- present simple instead of future for official programme or schedule
example: The train leaves at 8.00 tomorrow. - present continuous instead of future for personal programme
example: I’m leaving for the mountains tomorrow.
For the past tense, the situation is the following:
- past simple: Subject + 2nd form of the verb (-ed for regular verbs and 2nd form in the table for irregular verbs)
- past continuous: Subject + Be (past) + Verb –ing
Past tense simple represents an action in the past which is momentary or for which duration is not important. Past continuous expresses an action in the past which is durative, progressive, in development from moment 1 to moment 2 in the past.
Examples: I read yesterday. I was reading from three to five yesterday.
Present simple
Permanent action in the present Present continuous
Momentary action in the present
Past simple
Momentary action in the past Past continuous
Progressive action in the past
Comparing the types of actions in the table above, we notice that present continuous and past simple are momentary actions and correspond to each other on the two axes, while present simple and past continuous designate longer developments, but in different ways (present simple without expressing a progress and a certain beginning or a certain end of the action, past continuous with marked progression and certain moments on the trajectory).
All the other tenses, either on the axis of present or on the axis of past, function in the paradigm of past tense in what concerns the aspects:
Future – simple – shall/will + infinitive – non-progressive action in the future
He will go on holiday next week.
- continuous – shall/will + be + verb –ing – progressive action from m1 to m2 in the future
He will be travelling at this time tomorrow.
Future in the past – simple – should/would + Infinitive
- continuous – should/would + be + V-ing
(it functions the same as future simple/continuous, but on the past axis)
Present perfect – simple – have + 3rd form – past action related to the present
I have just arrived.
- continuous – have + been + V-ing – past action continuing in the present
I have been working for three hours.
Past perfect – simple – had + 3rd form – past action before another past action
It had rained before you came.
- continuous –had +been + V-ing – past action continuing towards another past action
It had been raining when I came.
B2. Do the following exercises:
1. Put the verbs in brackets into the correct tense:
a. I (make) cakes. That is why my hands are covered with flour. b.I (not understand) what you (wait) for. c. I am sorry I (not come) to class lately. I (work) late in the evenings for this fortnight. d. I really (enjoy) myself at that moment. e. I (think) to buy a new house last year, during the elections, but I (change) my mind ever since. f. I don’t know what time we (eat), it (depend) when Helen (get) here. g. I supported you at the time because I (feel) you (be) right. h. I (live) here. i. Sorry I (not fix) the plug yet. I (mean) to get round to it, but I just (not find) the time. j. At the meeting Peter (not understand) what (be) decided because too many people (talk) at once.
2. The sentences below contain one mistake each. Correct it:
a. I have once studied the guitar for three years. b. I am here since three o’clock, but nobody has come yet. c. When she arrived, I was waiting for three hours and a half. d. I have seen him three days ago. e. Will you have been having dinner out tonight? f. I knew she will arrive before long. g. I think it’s raining tonight. h. You are hating this party. i. I am seeing a rabbit over there. j. He always forgets people’s names.
B3. Translate into English:
1. a). Crede că se comportă foarte frumos. b). Mereu zice că îmi cumpără o rochie nouă. c). De-abia am început să vorbesc că m-a şi întrerupt. d). Obişnuia să cânte când făcea duş, dar asta s-a întâmplat înainte de accident. e). A plouat de la 3 la 5.
2. Era odată un moşneag şi o babă; şi moşneagul avea o fată, şi baba iar o fată. Fata babei era slută, leneşă, ţâfnoasă şi rea la inimă; dar pentru că era fata mamei, se alinta cum s-alintă cioara-n laţ, lăsând tot greul pe fata moşneagului. Fata moşneagului însă era frumoasă, harnică, ascultătoare şi bună la inimă. Dumnezeu o împodobise cu toate darurile cele bune şi frumoase. (…) Cât era ziulica de mare, nu-şi mai strângea picioarele; dintr-o parte venea şi în alta se ducea. (Ion Creangă – Fata babei şi fata moşneagului).
B4. Describe the actions you were doing at this time yesterday and those you will be doing at this time tomorrow.
C. In a time of global communication, information travels from one place to another with an amazing speed and there is such a large quantity of data in each field that we could get mad if we wanted to know all of them. That is why we have to keep ourselves correctly informed, not through gathering all the pieces of the puzzle, but through knowing the most sincere and open sources. Do we live in a society of manipulation? Is any piece of information a form of propaganda? Can we escape being cheated? These are some of the questions each contemporary conscious man asks himself without being certain about the answer.
C1. Do the following exercises:
a) Conceive a phone conversation with your parents, in which you try to convince them to send you some more money for your studies. Then write a letter to them on the same topic.
b) How would you persuade your boss to give you a leave, although you have had one for this year and the others in the office haven’t?
c) If you were a teacher, what do you think it would be the best way to convince students that the things you teach are important for them?
d) Which do you think is the most propagandistic type of media? Why?
e) Can you give examples of propaganda along the ages, before the contemporary period?
f) Do you consider that commercials are good or bad? Are they persuasive or not? Give examples.
g) Do you trust politicians? Do you find their discourses convincing? Give examples.
h) What do you think about the informative news bulletins on radio, television, in the written press? Are they realistic?
C2. Read and translate the following text, try to give examples for each concept:
Communication has been defined as a convergence process in which sender and receiver, either through mediated or non-mediated means, create and share information. When the information is used to accomplish a purpose of sharing, explaining or instructing, it is considered informative communication. People seek information when they need to understand their world and once gained it tends to reduce uncertainty. The informative discourse is considered neutral, it is communication about a subject matter that has attained the privileged status of being beyond dispute. The informative communicator has the purpose of creating mutual understanding of data that are considered to be accurate, based on facts.
Persuasion is a subset of communication usually defined as a communicative process aimed to influence others. A persuasive message has a point of view or a desired behaviour for the receiver to adopt in a voluntary fashion. It is a complex, continuing, interactive process in which a sender and a receiver are linked by symbols, verbal and non-verbal, through which the persuader tries to influence the persuadee to adopt a change in a given attitude or behaviour. Persuasion is transactional, it promises to help people by satisfying their wants or needs. Both parties, persuader and persuadee, will perceive the change as mutually beneficial in the end. The best example is that of a teacher convincing his students about a certain theory.
Propaganda utilises informative communication in a similar fashion, with the difference that the purpose exceeds the notion of mutual understanding. The aim of propaganda is to promote a partisan or competitive cause in the best interest of the propagandist, but not necessarily in the best interest of the recipient.
The propagandist is a sender of messages who uses special talents and also scientific work to influence the attitudes of an audience. To be effective, propaganda should be adapted to the particular needs of the situation and the target audience. Defining propaganda, we can say that it is the deliberate and systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions and direct behaviour to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist. It is deliberate because it is wilful, intentional and premeditated; the term systematic means precise and methodical, carrying out something with organised regularity; it attempts to direct communication towards an objective that has been established a priori. The shaping of perceptions usually focuses on language and images, that is why slogans, symbols, posters are used. Manipulating cognitions means changing and forming people’s trust, creating new positive attitudes. The direction of a specific behaviour is the final behaviour of a propaganda effort, this representing the achievement of a response or a reaction from the part of the audience.
Although propaganda takes many forms, it is almost always in some form of activated ideology. Sometimes propaganda is agitative, attempting to arouse an audience to certain ends with significant changes, some other times it is integrative, with the aim of rendering an audience in a passive, accepting and non-challenging way. Propaganda is also described as white, grey or black in relationship to an acknowledgement of its source and its accuracy of information. White propaganda comes from a source that is identified correctly, and the information in the message tends to be accurate, trying to build credibility with the audience. For example, some newspapers are for certain political parties openly and present the views of these formations. Black propaganda is credited to a false source and it spreads lies, fabrications and deceptions. For example, Radio Free Hungary attracted world attention and sympathy in Western countries for commenting the events of 1956 when the Russians sent their tanks to Budapest, but it was in fact a fake operated by the KGB with the intention to demonstrate that the United States could not be relied upon to help a country in revolt. Grey propaganda is somewhere between the two other forms, the source of the message is correctly identified but the information is inaccurate. It is used in advertising and electoral campaigns most of the time.
C3. Resume the following text, extracting the main ideas, in no more than five lines:
Out of the millions of things that happen every day, print and electronic journalists decide what few things are worth reporting. Deciding what is newsworthy is not an exact science, but there are common elements that characterise it. The most important feature of a newsworthy event is timeliness, because news is new and yesterday’s news is old news. A consumer who picks up the evening paper or turns on the afternoon news expects to be told what has happened earlier the same day. News is perishable and stale news is not interesting. Another quality of news is proximity, because readers and viewers want to learn about their neighbourhood, town, country. All other things being equal, things from close to home are more newsworthy than news from a foreign country. Psychological proximity is also important, for example subway riders from Bucharest will be more interested in a material about the New York subway than the people in the same town not travelling by this means of transport. Prominence is another feature, as the more important a person, the more valuable he or she is as a news source. Political leaders, sports and entertainment figures, but also dangerous criminals give media coverage. Another golden rule is that people are interested in events with consequences on their lives, with impact. A tax increase, drought, inflation, earthquakes, all these events have consequence and are widely mediatised. The last quality we mention is human interest, stories that arouse emotion in the audience by being ironic, bizarre, tragic. Typically, these items concern ordinary people who find themselves in circumstances with which the audience can identify. Thus, when the winner of the state lottery gives half of his winnings to the elderly man who sold him the ticket, it becomes newsworthy. Anyhow, it is not easy to establish what is news.
C4. Translate into English:
Comunicarea este un cuvânt la modă azi. Mai ales comunicarea în masă s-a dezvoltat extrem de rapid după cel de-al doilea război mondial, când eforturile s-au concentrat asupra eficienţei propagandistice. Iniţial, s-a considerat logic să se înceapă cu sursa, acest punct de vedere dovedindu-se o gravă eroare care îşi are rădăcinile în renumita teorie a glonţului. Potrivit acesteia, sursa (cel care comunică) foloseşte o combinaţie de mesaje şi strategii de media pentru a influenţa un public ce trebuie convins, aşa cum un glonte urmăreşte o ţintă precisă. Comunicarea scrisă sau vorbită se constituia atunci când cuvintele ce urmau să constituie mesajul erau selectate şi aranjate pentru a fi emise pe piaţă. Mai târziu specialiştii au ajuns la concluzia că impactul comunicării este mai mare dacă se începe cu publicul ţintă, cel ce dă sens mesajului, pe măsură ce informaţiile primite sunt procesate în contextul credinţelor, atitudinilor, motivaţiilor şi necesităţilor oamenilor. Astăzi teoria lui Schramm, potrivit căreia comunicarea este o relaţie tranzacţională între două sau mai multe părţi între care este schimbată informaţia, este comun acceptată. Dacă cel care comunică nu înţelege publicul căruia i se adresează, transferul de semnificaţii nu se produce. Capacitatea sursei de a se pune în locul receptorului a fost denumită empatie, aceasta începând să funcţioneze în primii ani de viaţă, atunci când copilul învaţă să preia rolul altuia.
D. Vocabulary practice
D1. Give the synonyms and the antonyms of the following words:
effective; careful; publicity; employee; stable; adequate; ability; manager; to persuade; to extend.
D2. What kind of personality do you have? Find out by solving this quiz. Tick the statement you agree with:
1. I’d love to do a parachute jump.
2. I don’t like telling other people what to do.
3. I prefer spending time on my own rather than in a crowd.
4. I find it easy to set myself objectives.
5. I have difficulties in making decisions.
6. I find it difficult getting to know new people.
7. I’d love to travel abroad.
8. Friends sometimes complain that I order them around.
9. I like to have the advice and support of experienced people.
10. I don’t like volunteering opinions in case they are unpopular.
11. I like to try to find new solutions to old problems.
12. I would prefer to be team captain than team member.
13. I get embarrassed easily.
14. I don’t mind where I go with my friends as long as they are happy.
15. I like the latest fashions.
16. I like to be fully responsible for anything I do.
Check your scores now. Three or four ticks in any category indicate personality characteristics you should take account of when choosing a job.
A. Positive answer for 1, 7, 11, 15
The entrepreneur
You are adventurous. You enjoy challenges and taking risks. You could find success in creative work. B. Positive answer for 2, 5, 9, 14
The team worker
You work well with others but dislike to be given responsibility, so you prefer to put into practice other people’s plans. You would do well in the army. C. Positive answer for 3, 6, 10, 13
The backroom worker
You are a little shy and find it difficult to mix with new people. You would do well in any behind-the-scene job where you don’t have to come face to face with strangers. You could be a researcher. D. Positive answer for 4, 8, 12, 16
The leader
You are confident in your abilities and you want to be in charge not to take orders. You enjoy having lots of people around and organising them.
Scoring A 1 7 11 15
B 2 5 9 14
C 3 6 10 13
D 4 8 12 16
D3. Complete the passage with these words. There are two words in surplus in the table.
What is success? Achieving a long-held ………. ? Earning a million by the time you are twenty five? Joining the ……….? ……….to the top of your chosen profession? Writing a ……….? ……….means different things to different people, but one has managed to ………. all this in a very short space of time.
Jeff Johnson was still at university when he realised the ……….profits to be made from the sale of posters to an eager public. The poster stall he organised every Sunday was regularly surrounded by enthusiasts eager to find something new. So, after graduating, he took a loan, rented office space and acquired a stock of posters. Soon his business was ………. rapidly and he was able to purchase a warehouse, which he renovated and used as a centre for his operations. Other shops were opened in different parts of the country and sales ………..
Hard-headed businessmen crowded to buy shares in this ……….’s company when it went public and Jeff was able to ……….the rewards of his hard work by taking time off to buy a house and get married. He is still only in his mid-twenties, a father of two, and a ……….businessman with a product which is a ……….leader. To admirers of his accomplishments he points out that he has had to make sacrifices. “It’s difficult to maintain one’s privacy”, he says. “Once you are successful, you have to live in the ……….eye to a certain extent”.
D4. Using the verbs to affirm, to allege, to assert, to claim, to contend, to insist, to maintain and to pretend, translate the following sentences:
a.Susţine că n-a văzut nimic.
b. Afirm cu toată răspunderea că n-am văzut-o la ora respectivă acolo.
c. Acuzatul îşi menţine declaraţia.
d. Ea susţine că soţul ei ar fi bătut-o.
e. Afirmaţi că aţi fost martoră la accident cu toate că aţi fost văzută în altă parte?
f. Susţine să i se plătească daune în urma accidentului.
g. Ştiu că minte, dar susţine acum că n-a spus nimic.
h. Ea tot susţine într-una că ei nu i s-a spus nimic.
i. După toate acestea vă mai susţineţi punctul de vedere?
j. Cotidianul “The Times” susţine că are informaţii precise cu privire la scandal.
Remember the following phrases:
to affirm readily; to allege to be somebody or something (that you are not); to assert one’s authority/claims/point of view/rights; to assert without proof; to claim attention; to claim for damages; to claim to be the best/the right; to contend a statement; to insist on something; to maintain an attack/a process.
III. MASSES OR ELITES?
A. Writing letters.
Correspondence was one of the first means of communication between people and it has always constituted a way of keeping in touch with persons who are at a certain distance from us. If we think of the origins, we could consider the pictures on the walls of the caves in the ancient times kind of letters, as hunters were trying to transmit their followers data about hunting possibilities of the area! All over the ages, human beings kept writing letters to their lovers and business acquaintances, to their parents or their employers, recalling or communicating certain things. Even though the telegraph or telephone diminished the usage of written words, nowadays people keep communicating through letters, with the help of the postal system or of more modern channels like e-mail or Internet.
A1. Make all the changes and additions necessary to produce, from the following sets of words and phrases, sentences which together make a complete letter.
Dear Diana
a. Thank you/much/your letter/arrive/few days ago.
b. It be lovely/hear/you.
c. I be sorry/I not write/such/long time/but I/be very busy.
d. As you know/we buy/new house/September.
e. It be/very bad condition/and it need/a lot/work.
f. We finish/most/it now/and it look/very nice.
g. Peter and I/decide/give/house-warming party/May 3rd.
h. You think/you able/come?
i. Please give me/ring/let/know/you/make it.
j. I/really/look forward/see you again.
Love,
Jenny
A2. Read, translate and notice the construction of the letter in the text below. It is a fragment included in the book entitled “Of Plymouth Plantation” by one of the first pilgrims from England to the “new world”, America, William Bradford. He was the religious guide and then the elected governor of the community which was established in Plymouth, Massachusetts, around 1620. This is the letter of a certain John Robinson who was writing to his brother-in-law, which was in America. Observe the old forms of some words. Observe the old syntactic constructions:
MY DEAR BROTHER, I received enclosed in your last letter the note of information, which I shall carefully keep and make use of as there shall be occasion. I have a true feeling of your perplexity of mind and toil of body, but I hope that you who have always been able so plentifully to administer comfort unto others in their trials, are so well furnished for yourself, as that far greater difficulties than you have yet undergone (though I conceive them to have been great enough) cannot oppress you; though they press you, as the Apostle speaks. The spirit of a man (sustained by the Spirit of God) will sustain his infirmity; I doubt not so will yours. And the better much when you shall enjoy the presence and help of so many godly and wise brethren, for the bearing of the part of your burthen, who also will not admit into their hearts the least thought of suspicion of any the least negligence, at last presumption, to have been in you, whatsoever they think in others.
Now what shall I say and write unto you and your good wife my loving sister? Even only this: I desire, and I always shall unto you from the Lord as unto my own soul. And assure yourself that my heart is with you, and that I will not forslow my bodily coming at the first opportunity. I have written a large letter to the whole, and I am sorry I shall not rather speak than write to them; and the more, considering the want of a preacher, which I shall make some spur to my fastening after you. I do ever commend my best affection unto you, which if I thought you made any doubt of, I would express in more and the same more ample and full words.
And the Lord in whom you trust and whom you serve ever in this business and journey, guide you with His hand, protect you with His wing, and show you and us His salvation in the end, and bring us in the meanwhile together in this place desired, if such be His good will, for His Christ’s sake. Amen.
Yours, etc.
July 27, 1620 John Robinson
A3. There is a standard and polite form of letters and of course each person adds his or her own skills to the pattern. We should learn the basic format in order to be sure that we do not make mistakes. Observe in the text bellow the structure of the letter: sender’s address, date, inside or receiver’s address, salutation, body of the letter, complimentary close and signature.
2 George Coşbuc Street
Bucharest 7110
Romania
10th October, 1999
1-3 Oxford Avenue
London EL6 12GB
Great Britain
Dear Sir,
I am writing to complain about the car that I bought from you last month. It is just a heap of scrap. When I tried to start it one morning the key would not turn in the lock, as the battery was flat and two of the plugs needed changing. When I finally got it going, the bonnet would not stay closed and the driver’s side door fell off. When I tried to stop to pick up the door, the brakes did not work so I crashed into a tree and smashed the radiator. Also one of the wheels came off.
Do you really think this car is worth 1,000 $? Well, if you do, I don’t. What are you going to do about it?
Yours faithfully,
Ion Popescu
A4. Write a letter to your internet supplier, showing that you are very pleased with the services rendered up to now and that you hope they will keep on working like that.
B. Passive Voice
B1. Voice is the grammatical category which shows the relationship between the subject and the action. In Romanian, we have three “diateze”(voices):'activă’,'pasivă’ and ‘reflexivă’. “Diateza activă” refers to an action in which the grammatical subject of the sentence is also the logical subject of the sentence, because it accomplishes the activity expressed by the verb (Mama spală rufe). “Diateza pasivă” represents an action in which the grammatical subject of the sentence is not the same with the logical subject of the sentence, because the activity accomplished by someone else (complement de agent) influences the subject (Rufele sunt spălate de către mama). “Diateza reflexivă” expresses an action through which the grammatical subject of the sentence in the same time does the action and is influenced by it (Ion se spală). In English there are only two voices: active and passive voice. The Romanian “reflexiv”is transferred either to the active voice (John is washing himself) or to the passive voice (Se spune că … - It is said that…).
The representation of the tenses in the Indicative Mood at Passive Voice:
Tense Active Voice Passive Voice
Present Simple Subject + Infinitive (-s/-es, 3rd person, singular)
John gives money to beggars. Subject + Be (present) + Past Participle (3rd form of the verb)
Beggars are given money by John.
Money is given to beggars by John.
Present Continuous S + Be (present) + V-ing
John is giving money to beggars. S + Be (present) + Being + 3rd form
Beggars are being given money by John./Money is being given to beggars by John.
Past Simple S + 2nd form of the verb
John gave money to beggars. S + Be (past) + 3rd form
Beggars were given money by John.
Money was given to beggars by John.
Past Continuous S + Be (past) + V-ing
John was giving money to beggars. S + Be (past) + Being + 3rd form
Beggars were being given money by John./Money was being given to beggars by John.
Present Perfect Simple S + Have/Has + 3rd form
John has given money to beggars. S + Have/Has + been + 3rd form
Beggars have been given money by John./Money has been given to beggars by John.
Past Perfect Simple S + Had + 3rd form
They said John had given money to beggars. S + Had + Been + 3rd form
They said beggars had been given money by John./They said money had been given to beggars by John.
Future Simple S + Shall/Will + Infinitive
John will give money to beggars. S + Shall/Will +Be + 3rd form
Beggars will be given money by John.
Money will be given to beggars.
Future in the Past S + Should/Would + Infinitive
They said John would give money to beggars. S + Should/Would + Be + 3rd form
They said beggars would be given money by John./They said money would be given to beggars by John.
A special case is constituted by the Romanian “diateza reflexiv-pasivă”, which has the form of a reflexive and a passive meaning (Cartea aceasta se citeşte uşor). The English variant for this mixed type is a sentence with active form and passive meaning (This book reads easily).
B2. Do the following exercises.
1. Give passive equivalents to the following active sentences:
a. The dog frightens her. b. The team is carrying out an interesting experiment. c. You found the door shut. d. She was cooking dinner when he came. e. They have built three blocks of flats by now. f. They had been digging the garden for two hours when it started to rain. g. Somebody will do justice. h. She said somebody would announce him. i. Did your mother tell you we had left? j. They have given him the job he was looking for.
2. Make passive sentences using the tense required by the adverbials:
1. (promise, an electric train, little Jimmy) for his birthday. 2. (arrange, the furniture) right now. 3. (embroider, my grandmother, this tablecloth) when she was a girl. 4. (destroy, the little hut, the wind) during the storm. 5. (analyse, the problem) tomorrow. 6. (attack, the monkeys, the explorers) the previous day. 7. (congratulate, he) when I saw him. 8. (throw away, that junk) this morning. 9. (look, into the matter) next week. 10. (not live, in this castle) for 200 years.
B3. Translate into English:
a. Duminică noaptea s-a abătut asupra Marii Britanii o furtună puternică, care a provocat moartea a 5 persoane şi rănirea gravă a altor 8. Au fost înregistrate de asemenea zeci de răniri uşoare. Numeroase întreruperi ale curentului electric au fost determinate de vântul extrem de violent. Maşinile staţionate pe trotuare au fost purtate de vânt la zeci de metri depărtare. Una dintre victime a fost atinsă de un arbore smuls de vânt. Importante pagube au fost aduse şi unor nave care staţionau în porturi. Au fost recepţionate apeluri SOS lansate de o navă aflată în larg.
b. După năcazul acesta iute păru că se aşează puţină linişte în gospodăria lui Toderaş Licea. Numai că spălătoreasa şi femeia care ţesea scorţuri îşi lăsară lucrul şi stătură o jumătate de ceas la sfat Anica. Se mirau, se băteau cu palma peste gură şi făceau felurite presupusuri. Apoi se duse fiecare la lucrul ei. Cucoana Catinca nu fu anunţată decât într-un târziu, când ieşi palidă la obraz, cu ochii strânşi, legată la cap cu o basma albă. (after Mihail Sadoveanu, Povestiri).
B4. Translate the following text into Romanian and then conceive a similar one about the Romanian universities, using passive voice as much as possible:
For many people, both among visitors to England and among the English themselves, the word “university” evokes before anything else the names of Oxford and Cambridge. With these names it is evoked a picture composed of such elements as ancient grey stone college buildings, green lawns, absent-minded professors, undergraduates on bicycles. The places are not conceived without a bookshop, a river, a chapel and a tower. It is not surprising that this should be so, since for several centuries Oxford and Cambridge were the only universities in England and even today their prestige remains unchanged. But the 20th century has seen an unprecedented increase in the number of universities and the development is still being continued. There are at present 46 universities in Britain, compared with 17 in 1945.
C. Any community is parted in several small groups of people constituting the elites of the political, social and cultural life, on one hand, and the crowd, the mass of people of an average level. Along the ages, there has always been a tension between such small exclusive groups of educated and informed men and the rest of the population. In certain periods, the elites tried to govern the people either in a tyrannical way or with the intention of illuminating them. The communist regimes in Eastern European countries pretended to use the reversed method, that of imposing the power of the masses over the elites. But Marxist theories are not isolated in the attempt of breaking the walls between small educated groups and large uneducated crowds, the whole wave of 20th century ideologies including globalisation and post-industrialisation have this purpose. Can we conceive a separation into masses and elites nowadays? Why? Can you define the concepts of culture for the elites and mass-culture?
C1. Try to answer the following questions:
a. Do you consider yourself an educated person? Why?
b. Do you like reading books? Which is your favourite genre? Which is your favourite author? Which is your favourite book? Why?
c. Do you like watching television? What kind of programmes? Why?
d. Which is your opinion about advertising? Is it necessary or not?
e. Do you think everybody should wear blue jeans or only young persons? Why?
f. Do you prefer classical music or the music of your age? Why?
g. Have you ever been part of a small specialised group (a reading club in highschool or a debate group in the faculty)? What do you think about this kind of activity?
h. Would you vote for a well-known cultural personality or for a very mediatised professional politician in the elections for presidency?
C2. Read and translate the following text. Comment upon the development of mass communication and its results and try to give more examples.
The distinctive feature of modern times is the change of culture (the field in which the spiritual and creative activity of men is developed) in “my culture” (the spirit of place and time imposing itself over the most elevated thought as well as over the simplest ordinary action). For the 20th century people, there isn’t any general principle to be applied in the spiritual universe, and there isn’t any possibility to isolate oneself from communities and masses, because human being is not only an individual but also a social being. Industrialisation and democracy levelled people in the developed countries, so there is no major difference in what concerns social class, living standards, and mentalities. Most of the population can have access to culture in its various forms and is allowed to keep informed about the topics of interest. Of course there are voices which raise against this kind of “dictatorship of the masses” and which try to preserve culture in a pure elitist form, of course there are intellectuals who do not like democracy although they enjoy its benefits, but the process is irreversible. “Mass culture has won, there is nothing else”, sociologists assume.
We have to start from the pyramid of needs, built by Abraham Maslow in 1954, which places, at the lowest level, physiological necessities (food, sex, rest etc.), then security (safety, lack of danger), acceptance and love (the desire to be part of a group, social category, agreed by the others), appreciation (after achieving a goal and making it known in the community), knowledge (the wish to understand and explore), the aesthetic component (symmetry, order, beauty), and, at the top, self-esteem. The form is that of a pyramid, the scholar explains, because the number of persons with certain needs decreases from the first to the last step, but also because the parts determine each other. We will easily recognise that at the beginning (from stage one to stage four) people cover material usage of things or practical actions with specific purposes. This is what normal men of average intelligence and standard of living usually act upon, do, think. The last three steps are very high, they manifest at individuals acknowledging the fact that there are also superior possibilities for human beings only.
Nowadays, the society of Western capitalist countries tends to focus on mass-audience culture, commercial culture, “popular” culture, the culture industry, defined as opposing to elitism. This conception developed according to the evolution of the world affairs in the latest century: mankind have striven to imagine and accomplish systems of government, economy, human relations, based on pluralism, equal opportunities for everybody, wide participation. These notions, together with the quick spread of new technologies and means of communication, which make people be able to keep in touch with each other at long distances and preserve stocks of information, have strengthened the middle class and have maintained market, customer-oriented economy, general elections in policy, democratic ruling. Accordingly, management and marketing, persuasion, propaganda, manipulation or image building are capital for going on.
What is mass culture? Which are its main components? The phenomenon represents the attempt of persons who have passed through four parts of Maslow’s scheme to go upper, without being prepared or trained for it. The result is that they take safety as knowledge, for example, or agreement of a certain community as personal fulfilment and reason for self-esteem, or appreciation as order. The theory of reification explains how, under capitalism, world is instrumentally organised and “taylorised” according to various rational models of efficiency, which means that ideas aren’t important for themselves anymore, but through consequences. Commodity and consumption become key words, instead of the traditional triad truth-beauty-good, and everything is measured in money and social position (power).
The story, the narrative has changed: it doesn’t tend to be situated at the top of the pyramid, establishing ideals and trying to explain exterior and interior forces; it is at the bottom of the structure, without any other hope or ambition but to make a spectator be content and happy with what he gets. But, in the same time, such a tale imitates, in a rough copy, the superior part of the stairs: after all, advertisement is nothing else but a rudiment of mythology.
In an American magazine there appeared, in a pro/con advertising debate, the interview of a copy chief at an advertising agency, and his words seemed to me the most we can say about Western capitalist commercial city civilisation: “The consumer is a great big gapping jaw we’re all trying to fill up with whatever we can cram down there, and the great hope is that the jaw will keep getting wider and wider”.
One of the most important reasons for transforming culture from a privilege of the elites into a field for everyone was the development of the means of transmission and circulation of its products. In the Middle Ages people were copying the books by hand and manuscripts were too rare and expensive for being read by large groups. In the 15th century, Guttenberg’s invention (printing with movable letters) revolutionised the possibilities to spread culture. The idea of mass-circulated newspapers followed the invention of printing. The early printed matter consisted of books and religious tracts, but soon literacy grew and the periodicals containing exciting stories for the middle class taste appeared. In Holland, printers began turning out corantos, or currents of news, around 1620. In the centuries to follow, printed materials constituted an important means of news quickly reaching the public, as for example the manifests issued by the intellectuals for the masses during the French Revolution, weapons for the communards and linkage between the elites and the people. In the 20th century, the appearance of faster means of communication, such as the telegraph, the telephone, radio and television, reduced more and more the distance between elites and average people. In contemporary world education is not so expensive as in the past so it is not the privilege of small wealthy groups anymore.
Apart from the good effects of culture globalisation, there are also some by-effects of this process: the standardisation of human knowledge, which has led to the creation of certain stereotypes and patterns of mind from which people are not generally accustomed to escape; the danger of vulgarising noble causes and ideas; the uniformisation and levelling of persons with different capacities and levels of information.
Maybe the solution to a problem prompted because of masses and communities is, paradoxically, an individual one: each of us should carefully choose his own sources of information and should try to build up a personality and a system of thought in spite of uniformisation and globalisation.
C3. Read the following text and then answer the questions:
Mass communicators have a set of common characteristics which distinguish them from other groups and institutions. First of all, mass communication is produced by complex and formal organisations characterised by specialisation, division of labour, focussed areas of responsibility. This means that mass communication will be the product of a bureaucracy. As in most bureaucracies, decision-making will take place at several different levels of management and channels of communication within the organisation will be formalised. Another important factor that characterises the mass communicator is the presence of multiple gatekeepers. A gatekeeper is a person or group which has control over what material eventually reaches the public. Gatekeepers exist in large numbers in all mass communication organisations, some being more obvious than others. The third rule is that mass communication organisations need a great deal of money to operate, so that they have to have strong financial resources in order to penetrate the market. That is the reason why small companies unite and form “mega-media concerns”. Another characteristic of mass communicators is that these organisations exist to make profit. The consumer is the ultimate source of this profit, but there are various secondary means of financing. Last but not least, mass communication organisations are highly competitive. Since the audience is the source of profit, mass communicators compete with each other as they attempt to attract the public.
Questions:
a. Which are the five characteristics of mass communicators?
b. What is a gatekeeper?
c. Why should mass communication be formalised?
d. Which is the ultimate source of mass communicators?
e. Why do mass communication organisations compete?
f. What are mega-media concerns?
C4. Complete the missing words in the following texts:
a. The struggles which ………to transform the legitimate hierarchies through the legitimating of a still ………art or genre, such as photography or the strip cartoon, or through the ………of minor or neglected authors, are precisely what creates legitimacy by creating belief in the value of the ………in which the value is produced and reproduced. These arts, not yet fully legitimate, which are ………or neglected by the big holders of educational capital, offer a ………and a revenge to those who, by appropriating them, try to remove the existing systems, having in the same time a great impact over the ……….
Missing words:
aim, disdained, game, illegitimate, refuge, audience, rehabilitation.
b. What makes a best seller? This is a sixty-four dollar question. It can be answered, ………largely by guess and summarise, and never satisfactory to the ………who wants a formula. The creation of a best seller does not follow an exact ………anymore than does the making of a ………man. Moreover, since there is not just one ………audience, no single formula could be expected. There are certain elements of………appeal, as religion, sensationalism, information and guidance, or adventure, democracy, humour, ………, juvenile suitability, timeliness and so on.
Missing words:
though, best seller, pattern, successful, inquirer, characterisation, popular.
C5. Write an essay about the themes, plots, character type, spatial and temporal structures, stereotypes used in soap operas. Think of examples from American serials (“Dallas”, “Dynasty”, “The Bold and the Beautiful”, “The Young and the Restless”) and from South-American telenovellas Which of the two types is the purest, which of them do you watch? Try to define melodrama in the context. Do you consider comical serials, like “The Bundies” or “Seinfeld” as part of the popular culture or of the elite culture? Explain your opinion. Make use of the table below. It would be suitable to watch the most popular serials for a week, to make a fresh opinion, and then to try to find several theoretical materials. Just after you have passed through these stages write down your essay.
Point of comparison
High culture Mass culture Folk culture
Degree and type of institutionalisation Recognised, protected and promoted by formal social bodies.
High social value Left to media and market Originally neglected.
Now often officially protected
Type of organisation of production Not organised, one-off
and unique for specialised markets Mass produced for mass markets, using technologies in certain planned ways Reproduced according to standard, traditional designs by hand.
Market not essential, artificially exhibited
Content and meaning Ambiguous, disturbing and timeless Superficial, pleasing, unambiguous, almost universal, but in the same time perishable Unselfconscious in meaning and purpose,
It is clear or obscure, decorative or rustic. Not universal but persists in time
Audience and effect Relatively small, being trained or educated, connoisseurs.
Intellectual satisfaction
Prestige.
Enlarging experience Everyone in principle, heterogeneous.
Consumption-oriented.
Immediate and direct gratification. Diversion All members of the same culture, though also limited.
Continuity, custom, solidarity, integration
D. Vocabulary practice
D1. Give the synonyms and antonyms of the following words:
profit; agent; extensive; irrational; popular; distinguished; revenue; demand; to concentrate; to attack; to gather; to conceal.
D2. Join the halves:
a. If money were not spent on advertising, it would give manufacturers the opportunity to
b. Some firms spend large sums of money on advertising to
c. The target audience is the selection of the population to
d. A jingle is a short tune to
e. Ego bait is intended to
f. Many manufacturers see advertising as an insurance policy which gives them the opportunity to
g. Advertising can be seen as a means to
h. The advent of satellite television has opened up possibilities for international advertising agencies to
i. A hoaring is a site for poster advertising which some firms use to
j. If manufacturers do not advertise when sales fall they might have to
k. The Trade Descriptions Acts were passed to
l. The purpose of much advertising expenditure on established brands is to
1. flatter the target audience by pandering to their self image and making them more receptive to the advertising message.
2. substantially reduce the cost of the goods to the consumers.
3. remind the public the name of the brand.
4. ensure that advertisers do not make false statements about their products, services.
5. attract the attention of people such as pedestrians and motorists.
6. communicate between those with goods and services to sell and those who might benefit from those goods and services.
7. Reduce large numbers of their workers.
8. which the advertising message of a television or radio is sung.
9. whom the advertisement is intended to appeal
10. restrict the entry of competitors into the market.
11. advertise throughout the world with a single commercial.
12. Protect themselves against their own too-optimistic forecasts.
D3. Translate the following sentences, using the following verbs and phrasals: to account for, to elucidate, to explain, to expound, to interpret. Then build up your own sentences containing the phrases given at the end of the text:
1. Încearcă să-i explici, sigur va înţelege.
2. Asta explică de ce n-au venit la timp.
3. Adaugă şi o notă explicativă la scrisoare.
4. Teoria aceasta trebuie să fie explicată în detaliu pentru a fi înţeleasă corect.
5. E o neînţelegere care se cere explicată cât de curând.
6. Explică acest pasaj în mod personal!
7. Va trebui să te explici!
8. Oboseala nu explică totul!
9. Mâine va ţine o prelegere şi îşi va explica doctrina.
10. Adaugă un comentariu la lucrare, acesta va explica sensul întregii acţiuni.
Remember the following phrases:
to account for something/everything; to elucidate the enigma; elucidatory clues; to explain to somebody/why; explanatory notes; to expound a doctrine/theory; to interpret a dream/text.
D4. Complete the sentences with these phrases:
standing ovation soap opera supporting roles low-budget
prime-time box-office success sub-titles final curtain
1. Despite being a critical disaster, the film was a huge ………
2. The orchestra and their conductor were given a………at the end of the concert.
3. People who are addicted to a particular ………seldom miss an episode.
4. It wasn’t until the ………fell that the audience voiced their disapproval by hissing and booing.
5. At the local arts cinema, foreign films are usually shown with ………, and only occasionally dubbed.
6. Compared with most American blockbusters, it was a ………film, as very little funding was available.
7. Programmes on ………television attract the greatest number of viewers.
8. Although the lead actor and actress were excellent, the ………were very well acted, too.
IV. THE POWER OF THE PRESS
A. Official phone calls and letters.
People often find themselves in official situations, in the company of their superiors or in relation with public institutions, and they feel embarrassed, they do not know what to do or how to express their opinion. We have already seen that information is usually standardized according to certain criteria as channel of communication or type of sender and receiver, and we have discussed the necessary procedures for sending and getting correct data through telephone or in writing. Official situations make us even more formal, more polite.
A1. Compare the formal phone invitation with the informal one. Compare the formal letter of invitation with the informal one. Then compare a phone invitation with a letter of invitation.
a. “Hello! Is there George?”
“Hi, Paul, this is George. What’s up?”
“Glad to hear you, I’ve been trying to get in touch with you for ages. You know, I’m going to the opera on Sunday and I was looking for someone to join me.”
“Is someone else coming?”
“I was thinking of inviting our colleague, Maria, too. Maybe you should also bring a friend.”
“Good idea. But what is on that day?”
“Madame Butterfly. Do you know the opera?”
“I’ve heard it, but I haven’t seen the performance. I agree, let’s go the two of us with Maria and Dana.”
“OK Let’s tell the girls and meet each other in front of the Opera House at a quarter to seven on Sunday.”
“Consider it done. And thanks for the invitation.”
“You’re welcome. See you there.”
“Bye.”
b. “Good afternoon, can I speak to Mr. Black, please?”
“Good afternoon, this is Mr. Black speaking. What can I do for you?”
“My name is Irene Phillips, I am the secretary of Mr. David Wilson, the director of the Opera House. I’m calling you on behalf of Mr. Wilson in order to kindly invite you at the premiere of ‘Madame Butterfly’ at seven o’clock, on Sunday evening.”
“Thank you and please thank Mr. Wilson for the invitation. A cultural evening away from the office is always a pleasure. I shall be there. But could you be so kind so as to tell me whether the invitation is for two, because I would like to also bring my wife?”
“Excuse me for not mentioning it from the very beginning, of course the invitation is for two persons, and it would be much to our content if you brought your wife, too.”
“I’m happy to hear that, you are being so kind. But I’d also like to know how I will receive the invitation”.
“Yes, sir, I shall be at the main entrance of the opera house at a quarter to seven with the invitations for all our guests.”
“ We shall be there in time, for sure. Thank you again. Good bye, Mrs. Phillips."
“Good bye, Mr. Black.”
c. Consider the letter of invitation at point A1 in course number 3 and then conceive another one from your part to one of your friends whom you want to invite to a symposium you know he would be interested in.
d. Communication Research Centre
10 Riverside Street
Cardiff CF1 1JW
Great Britain
17th November, 1999
Dear Sir,
You are cordially invited to a special three days seminar, which will be held at our headquarters on December 5th, 6th and 7th. The theme will be “Media Communication in Contemporary World”.
Attendance is limited so we must have our confirmation by November 25th. We sincerely hope that you will be able to join us on this occasion.
Yours faithfully,
Andrew Patterson
A2. Translate into English a letter of request and a letter of application:
a. Domnule Decan,
Subsemnatul …………………, student în anul ……… la Facultatea ……………… din cadrul Universităţii…………., vă rog să îmi aprobaţi cazarea în unul din căminele universităţii pentru anul universitar 1999-2000. Solicit acest lucru deoarece am absolvit anul universitar anterior cu media ……şi nu domiciliez în această localitate.
Vă mulţumesc anticipat.
Data:…………. Semnătura:……………..
b. Stimate domn,
Ref.: Asistent – Departamentul Relaţii Publice
Am aflat prin intermediul anunţului apărut în ziarul “România liberă” din data de 25 octombrie 1999 despre oportunităţile de angajare pe care firma dumneavoastră de publicitate le oferă studenţilor. Am fost foarte încântat că există în România companii care dau studenţilor posibilitatea să înveţe practic şi să dobândească experienţă.
După cum veţi vedea din Curriculum Vitae alăturat, sunt sudent în anul …… la facultatea …………….Am obţinut rezultate foarte bune în anii de studiu anteriori, iar perioadele de practică au constituit începuturile formării mele ca viitor specialist în domeniu.
Aş dori să scot în evidenţă calităţile pe care consider că le posed şi care cred că vin în întâmpinarea cerinţelor postului oferit de dumneavoastră.
Calităţi comunicaţionale - ştiu să mă fac uşor înţeles şi reuşesc în multe cazuri să îi conving pe ceilalţi să adopte ideile mele, lucrez foarte bine în echipă.
Cunoştinţe teoretice de comunicare socială şi relaţii publice - dobândite la cursurile şi seminariile din facultate.
Cunoştinţe temeinice de limba engleză şi computer - dobândite pe perioada liceului şi a anilor de facultate.
Dacă aceste abilităţi sunt de interes pentru firma dumneavoastră, sper că mă veţi contacta la adresa menţionată mai sus. În cazul unui interviu, vă voi explica mai amănunţit de ce consider că sunt potrivit pentru postul de asistent la Departamentul Relaţii Publice.
Cu respect,
Adrian Ionescu
You have already learnt the structure of the letter (sender’s address, date, inside address, salutation, body of the letter, complimentary close and signature), so you should complete the letter of application with the missing parts. We have to learn a new part of the letter, used in the official correspondence, the reference number, which makes easier the filing and storing of information. Compare the Romanian polite formulas with the English ones.
A3. Rearrange the following paragraphs in the correct order to make up a covering letter. Bear in mind that extensive letters for job application are drafted nowadays in case the applicant sends his professional documents to all firms likely to employ his services even if they have not made a public announcement of vacancies. This is called the SHOT-GUN approach. Try to apply this technique to your situation.
a. At the moment I am working part time as an independent agent for Romanian and German importers of Chinese textiles and chemical products. I find the relevant Chinese factories for the buyers, negotiate for them and translate their contracts into Chinese, Romanian or English.
b. I would appreciate if you considered meeting or speaking with me within the next two months about the possibility of my working for your company.
c. I am writing in order to enquire about the possibility of an opening in your company. My goal is to find a position in an international company and I would be interested in either research and development or marketing and sales.
d. Please find enclosed my CV containing further details of my educational background experience.
e. I am particularly interested in finding a position that would offer me management training, and that would involve my knowledge of chemical processes and my foreign language skills.
f. My long experience of actively participating in committee meetings as a representative of my student unit has given me good presentation skills, as I am able to present ideas clearly and concisely to an audience.
g. The liaison work I have been doing has been challenging. I have learnt a great deal about the cultural differences in conducting business with Asian and European clients.
h. I see my strong points as my ability to lead teams and manage tasks and groups, take the initiative, solve problems, make decisions and open and maintain friendly relationships with people from all walks of life, I have limitless energy and I am willing to work hard to achieve all the goals of any task I am set.
A4. Make up phone dialogues or letters on the following topics:
a. You are a student. Arrange through the telephone an appointment at your dean with the secretary of the faculty.
b. Write a letter of thanks for the scholarship offered to you by the board of the faculty.
c. Write a polite letter of refusal to take part in the opening ceremony of an organisation.
B. Conditional Clauses
B1. Conditional sentences are made up of a conditional or “if” clause and a main clause. The latter denotes an action whose fulfillment is conditioned by the fulfillment of the action expressed by the verb of the former. The conditional clause can be introduced by if, provided (that), suppose, supposing (that), in case, so long as, on condition that, unless. Conditional sentences are not difficult to understand, because there are three types of conditionals in Romanian and in English, too. The difficulties come from the fact that future of any kind (shall/will/should/would) is not allowed in the English conditional clause, while in Romanian future can be used both in the main clause and in the “if” clause.
Main Clause If Clause Value
- Future (shall/will + Infinitive)
- Present Simple (Infinitive + -s/-es at 3rd person singular)
- Present Perfect (have/has + 3rd form of the verb)
I shall go to the mountains
Mă voi duce la munte
You have got a present
Ai primit un cadou
- Present Simple (Infinitive + -s/-es at 3rd person singular)
- Present Perfect (have/has + 3rd form of the verb)
if you come with me.
dacă vei veni cu mine.
if you have come with me.
dacă ai venit cu mine. + possible
+ achievable (achieved)
Present Conditional (should/would + Infinitive)
(equivalent in form with Future in the Past)
I should go to the mountains
M-aş duce la munte Past Tense
(2nd form of the verb)
(it is actually considered a Present Subjunctive)
if you came with me.
dacă ai veni cu mine. + possible
0 achievable (we do not know whether the action can be accomplished or not, we only know that the first clause depends on the second)
Past Conditional
(should/would + have + Inf.)
(equivalent in form with Future Perfect in the Past)
I should have gone to the mountains
M-aş fi dus la munte
Mă duceam la munte Past Perfect
(had + 3rd form of the verb)
(it is actually considered a Past Subjunctive)
if you had come with me.
dacă ai fi venit cu mine.
dacă veneai cu mine. - possible
- achievable
(the action would have been possible at a certain moment in the past, but the subject missed the opportunity, so it is not possible anymore)
- unless = if not – it is used with the verb in the affirmative form.
Example: I wouldn’t ask you to help me unless you were my best friend.
- “if” may be omitted when the subordiate comes first. This emphatic structure is possible only for type 2 and type 3. The topic of the sentence is that of the interrogative.
Example: Had they informed me about the meeting, I would have attended it.
B2. Do the following exercises.
1. Supply the correct tense of the verbs in brackets:
a. I won’t call you if nothing (to happen). b. If the engine (not to be cold), don’t pull out the choke control. c. I will call the electrician if the lights (to fail) again. d. If more governments (to wake up) to what is happening, perhaps he would be able to avoid the disaster. e. It would be risky if you (to drive) this old car to Spain. f. I would take the day off if I (to have) stomach ache. g. I (to stop) working if I won a lot of money. h. If they (to change) more money, they could have stayed in a hotel. i. Perhaps dad wouldn’t have been so surprised if he (to hear) the boys talking about it. j. Even I had run as fast as I could, I (to miss) the bus.
2. Complete the following conditional structures:
a. If it doesn’t rain for months ……………….
b. If a driver sees a zebra crossing the street ……………….
c. I shall be happy if ……………….
d. I should be rich and successful if……………….
e. I won the prize unless ……………….
f. If I went to visit London, ……………….
g. I should have called you if ……………….
h. I would have bought myself a new car in case……………….
i. Had I been in your place ……………….
j. Unless he had told me differently ……………….
B3. Translate into English:
a. 1. Dacă îţi vei face datoria, vor fi mulţumiţi. 2. Dacă ne-am fi oprit acolo, am fi ajuns înapoi foarte târziu. 3. Nu fura merele dacă ceilalţi băieţi nu-l îndemnau să o facă. 4. Dacă îl vei întreba ce înseamnă pentru el reclama, îţi va spune ceva ciudat. 5. Dacă ai lua un ziar, ai găsi probabil un număr de cuvinte pe care nu le înţelegi. 6. Dacă din întâmplare nu voi veni la timp, nu mă aştepta. 7. Dacă aş fi în locul tău, aş face orice mi-ar spune. 8. Dacă aş fi fost atât de obosit, mi-aş fi luat câteva zile de concediu. 9. În caz că m-ar fi căutat, sora mea nu m-ar fi dat la telefon. 10. Să fi ştiut ce mă aşteaptă, nu m-aş fi angajat acolo.
b. …şi tot astfel, dacă închid un ochi, văd mâna mea mai mică decât cu amândoi. De aş ave trei ochi, aş vede-o şi mai mare, şi cu cât mai mulţi ochi aş ave, cu atâta lucrurile toate dimprejurul meu ar păre mai mari. Cu toate astea, născut cu mii de ochi, în jurul unor arătări colosale, ele toate, în raport cu mine păstrându-şi proporţiunea, nu mi-ar păre nici mai mari, nici mai mici decât îmi par azi. (Mihai Eminescu – Sărmanul Dionis)
B4.Write compositions on the following topics:
a. What would you do if you were the president of the state?
b. What would you have done if your best friend had cheated on you?
c. In case you become the director of an advertising company, how will you treat your employees?
d. Where would you have liked to use your skills unless you had been born in Romania?
C. In the broadest sense of the word, a medium is the channel through which a message travels from the source to the receiver (“medium” is singular, “media” is plural). When we talk about mass communication, we also need channels to carry the message. We will refer to these channels as the mass media. Our definition of a mass medium will include not only the mechanical devices that transmit and sometimes store the message (TV cameras, radio microphones, printing presses), but also the institutions that use these machines to transmit messages. When we talk about the mass media of television, radio, newspapers, magazines, sound recording, and film, we will be referring to the people, the polices, the organisations, and the technology that go into producing mass communication. There are seven main and different mass media: radio, television, film, book publishing, sound recording, newspapers, and magazines. Of course, these seven are not the only mass media that exist. If we choose, we might also include billboards, comic books, posters, direct mail, matchbooks, and buttons in our discussion.
C1. Answer the following questions:
a. Which medium do you find the most informative/the most sensational/the most biased?
b. Which medium influences you the most?
c. Do you know any specialised Romanian newspaper?
d. What kind of British television do you know?
e. Is there a gap in the media market? What kind of new magazine, newspaper, TV or radio programme would you launch if you had adequate funds and a creative team behind you?
f. How important is the image or presentation of an organisation or public figure? Is employing a public relations firm a good way of improving this?
C2. Read, translate and comment the following text:
We define the term communication as the process of sending, receiving and interpreting messages through which we relate to each other and to our larger world. It means that, if for centuries speech has been considered entirely individual, at the moment it represents social interaction, with established targets and expected feedback. Contemporary theories of language prove our tendency to conceive utterance as connection between people, rather than self-expression of personal ideas. For example, anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski distinguished two functions of speech, link in concerted human activity (as for people shifting furniture) and phatic communication (as when people want to show that they recognise each other’s presence – greetings). In conclusion, communication is a process involving groups of people, of words, of gestures, of interests and of new realities (facts), so we can say that starting from this point it is not difficult to reach organisational communication, mass communication or issue management.
• Organisational communication centres on the process of sending, receiving and interpreting messages within and between organisations. Organisations consist of independent goal-oriented activities of people who work together within a system of rules, norms and routines.
• Mass communication involves large numbers of people and is mediated, something coming between the sender and the receiver of message, putting a distance between them.
• Issue management investigates how organisations affect and are, in turn, affected by aspects of the communicative environment (government regulatory organisations, politicians, consumers, competitors and other organisations).
While there are important differences between the different media and between national societies and types of social system, there are also some similarities on which to base a generalisation. Any social institution comprises a set of activities, carried out by people occupying certain roles, according to rules and shared understandings. In the case of mass media, we are talking about the activities of cultural and informational production carried out by ‘mass communicators’ of many kinds and directed to audiences within a framework of regulation and custom.
The special features of media institution, as it is widely constituted, are as follows:
- It is concerned with producing and distributing ‘knowledge’ in the form of information, ideas, culture. This is in response to collective social needs as well as the demands of individuals.
- It provides channels for relating certain people to other people: senders to receivers, audience members to other audience members, everyone to their society and its constituent institutions. These are not only the physical channels of the communication network, but also the channels of custom and understanding which define who should, or is likely to, listen to whom.
- The media operate almost exclusively in the public sphere: they comprise an open institution in which all can participate as receivers and, under certain conditions, also as senders. The media institution also has a public character in that mass media deal with matters on which public opinion exists or can properly be formed (i.e. not with personal or private matters or those for expert or scientific judgement).
- Participation in the institution as audience member is essentially voluntary, without compulsion or social obligation, more so than is the case with other institutions concerned with knowledge distribution, such as education, religion or politics. Correlative is the association of media use with leisure and free time and its disassociation from work and duty. Relate also is the formal powerlessness of the media institution: it can claim no authority of its own in society nor has it any organisation linking ‘higher’ (message producers) with ‘lower’ participants (audiences).
- The institution is linked with industry and the market, through its dependence on paid work, technology and the need for finance.
- Although itself without power, the institution is invariably linked with state power through some of its customary uses and through legal mechanisms and legitimating ideas which vary from one state to another.
These features are not all unique to the media, but their existence in combination gives the mass media their distinctive character and particular significance in a modern society. We can find other characteristics, of course, but these ones are the necessary minimum for a proper definition.
Try to find other possible feature of mass media and discuss them. Think of the good and bad parts of the media, of written and electronic press. Discuss the ethics of mass media.
C3. Read and translate the following text and then answer the questions. What do you think about such an approach, is it functional or not? Have you read about other theories of the kind? Can you conceive a theory of your own about the use of media?
At the individual level, the functional approach to media is given the general name of the uses-and-gratifications model. In its simplest form, this model posits that audience members have certain needs that are satisfied by using non-media and media sources. The actual needs satisfied by the media are called media gratifications. Our knowledge of these gratifications typically comes from surveys that have asked people a large number of questions about how they use media. Several researchers have classified the various uses and gratifications into a fourfold category system: cognition, diversion, social utility, withdrawal. Cognition means the act of coming to know something. When a person uses a mass medium to obtain information about something, than he or she is using the medium in a cognitive way. Diversion can take many forms, including: stimulation, or seeking relief from boredom or the routine activities of everyday life; relaxation, or escape from the pressures and problems of day-to-day existence; emotional release of pent-up emotions and energy. Psychologists have also identified a set of social integrative needs, including our need to strengthen our contact with family, friends and others in our society. The media function that addresses this need is called social utility, and this usage can take several forms: that of conversational currency (media provide a common ground for social conversation) or that of parasocial relationship (the TV set represents a voice in the house for people who might otherwise be alone). On the other hand, humans occasionally need to escape from certain activities and they use media not only for relaxation but also for purposes that are best described as withdrawal uses. At times, people use the mass media to create a barrier between themselves and other people or other activities. For example, the media help people avoid certain chores that must be done.
Questions:
a. To what does the “uses and gratifications model” refer?
b. Which are the main gratifications obtained through the media?
c. Which are the basic forms of diversion through media?
d. What is social utility?
e. What is parasocial relationship?
f. What is withdrawal?
C4. Translate into English and comment upon the categories of media described in the text. Try to give examples for each type.
În general, mass media sunt clasate în categorii, în funcţie de câteva criterii: întinderea audienţei lor (potenţială/efectivă, locală/naţională/internaţională); natura mesajelor (audiovizuale/textuale); virtualităţi şi înclinaţii spre anumite obiective (funcţii – a informa/a distra). Criteriul cel mai pertinent de a le deosebi constă în modalitatea de comunicare (structura comunicării) deosebindu-se trei mari familii: mediile autonome, care nu au pentru transmitere un suport tehnic specific (cărţi, ziare); mediile de difuziune, care au ca suport de difuziune undele hertziene şi care pot acoperi simultan spaţii şi audienţe foarte mari (radio, TV); mediile de intercomunicare, permiţând o comunicare la distanţă în dublu sens (telefonul). După alte criterii, mediile pot fi clasificate în: medii de prezentare (vocea, corpul, faţa), cele care folosesc limbajul natural al cuvintelor, mimica, gestica; medii de reprezentare (cărţile, pictura, fotografiile, arhitectura), cu caracter simbolic şi mare coeficient de creativitate; mediile mecanice (telefon, radio, TV).
C5. Write an essay giving your opinion about the role of media in one of the following situations:
a. The rise and fall of super-stars in music industry (example: Michael Jackson).
b. The image of the president of a country for the citizens (example: the role of media during the Watergate scandal, which lately brought to the resignation of president Richard Nixon).
D. Vocabulary practice
D1. Explain the following words and phrases and make sentences with them:
a. to ring, to pick up, to disconnect, to cut off, slot, signal, extension, receiver, telephone booth, to dial, to be out of order, to make a call collect, to be engaged, hook, long distance call.
b. mail, post, postman, postage stamp, to deliver, to dispatch, address, addressee, pillar box, registered letter, certified letter, to fill in, letter package, parcel post.
D2.Do the following exercises:
a. Complete each sentence with a word formed from one of these verbs: catch, censor, circulate, cover, criticise.
1. The new gallery was given the seal of approval by the Observer’s art ………, who wrote several enthusiastic articles about it. 2. Roy Richardson is one of the BBC’s veteran cricket……….3. Under the Government’s wartime ………rules, all newspaper articles had to be checked by officials before being printed. 4, The tabloids have excellent ………of scandal and sport: the quality papers deal with everything else. 5. The local newspaper’s………fell dramatically when the editor was sacked. 6. That jingle from the teabag ad is so ………that I can’t get it out of my head.
b. Choose the correct word or phrase from the pair in brackets to complete each sentence:
1. The actors have been ………the play all this week. (rehearsing/repeating).
2. The audience applauded wildly when the director appeared on the ……… to take his bow. (scene/stage)
3. I’ve been watching a fascinating new ………of art programmes. (serie/series)
4. Although the play has a large number of ………, it is comparatively easy to follow the plot. (characters/persons)
5. If you don’t like that programme, you can always switch over to a different ………. (channel/canal)
6. The latest television dramatisation was filmed entirely ………in a country village not far from here. (in the wild/on location)
7. Which ………did Marlene Dietrich play in her last film? (role/performance)
8. What a wondeful ………of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” that was in the Evening Herald? (critic/review)
D3.Give the synonyms and antonyms of the following words:
to motivate, promotion, usual, satisfying, compliance, to recruit, ability, relevant, casual, skill, complex, purposeful, juicy, link, reliance, regulation, remark, premise.
D4.Translate into English the following sentences, using the verbs to notice, to observe, to perceive and to remark. Try to make sentences with the phrases related to these verbs, thus learning to use them in the suitable contexts:
1. Am observat imediat toate schimbările din cameră.
2. A observat cineva că am întârziat?
3. Nici nu am observat când a venit tata.
4. Ai făcut o observaţie cam obraznică.
5. Observă-l cu multă atenţie, să vezi ce face.
6. Nu observ să fie vreo diferenţă între desene.
7. L-am observat de mult, fii liniştit.
8. Am observat o uşoară ezitare în răspunsul ei.
9. L-am observat imediat în acel grup zgomotos.
10. Am observat că nu mai purta inelul de logodnă.
Remember the following phrases:
to notice somebody or something immediately, to take no notice of, to observe closely/thoroughly, to observe the details/indications/traffic rules, to perceive a motive/difference, to perceive through senses, to perceive at a glance, to remark on/upon a play/fact, to remark rudely, to remark in a slow voice, to make/pass a remark.
V. THE NEWSPAPERS AND THE MAGAZINES
A. Commercial correspondence
It is a well-known fact that any letter is the equivalent of a visiting card for the person who sends it. This is of capital importance in the case of commercial correspondence, because a firm is appreciated by the people with whom it establishes connections through the quality of the letters sent by the members of the organisation. Thus, writing business letters represents an essential element within a transaction, and the techniques have developed and refined along the ages, commercial correspondence becoming almost a science. For being considered well done from the technical point of view, a business letter should be clear, concise, polite, accomplishing a union of the style with the message.
A1. Read and translate the following business letters. Bear in mind their names.
a. Enquires (solicitare)
Lynch & Co. Ltd.
75 Newell Street
Satex S.A. Birmingham B3 3EL
4 Via di Pietra Great Britain
Italy
Ref: Inq. 351
6th February 1999
Dear Sirs,
We were impressed by the selection of sweaters that were displayed on your stand at the “Menswear Exhibition” that was held in London last month.
We are a large chain of retailers and are looking for a manufacturer which could supply us with a wide range of sweaters for the teenage market.
We would like to know about your usual terms of a contract. As we commonly place large orders, we would expect a quantity of discount in addition to a 20% trade discount off net list prices, and our terms of payment are normally 30-day bill of exchange, documents against acceptance.
If these conditions interest you and if you can meet orders of over 1000 garments, please send us your current catalogue and price-list. We hope to hear from you soon.
Yours faithfully,
Lionel Crane
General Manager
This type of letter contains in the body of the letter data about the source from which a firm has found out about the other firm, a brief presentation of the activities of the requiring company, the description of the terms of a possible contract or understanding and the enquiry for catalogues and price lists. The shortest form of this kind of letter would include a presentation and a polite request of information. Remember the structure, the pattern of this type of letter and try to conceive an enquiry yourself. Don’t forget to write the addresses and the reference number.
b. Letters of reply and quotations
Satex S.A., Via di Pietra, 00146, Rome
Lynch & Co. Ltd.
75 Newell Street Your ref.: Inq. C351
Birmingham B3 EL Our ref: D/1439
Great Britain
23 February 1999
Attn: Mr. L. Crane, General Manager
Dear Mr. Crane,
We are pleased to receive your enquiry and to hear that you liked our range of sweaters.There will certainly be no trouble in supplying you from our wide selection of garments which we make for all age groups.
We can offer you the quantity discount you have asked for which would be 5% off net prices for orders over 2000£, but the usual allowance for a trade discount in Italy is 15%, and we always deal on payment by sight draft, cash against documents. However, we would be prepared to review this once we have established a firm trading association with you.
Enclosed you will find our summer catalogue and price list.
We are sure you will find a ready sale for our products in England as have other retailers throughout Europe and America, and we do hope we can reach an agreement on the terms quoted.
Thank you for your interest, we look forward to hearing from you soon.
Yours sincerely,
D. Causio
Notice how, in the reply, Mr. Causio does not turn down the request but suggests a counter-offer. Observe two newly introduced parts of a letter, the letterhead (antet) and the attention note for the addressee (attn.).Write a quotation of your own.
A2. Complete the following sentences which open and close business letters:
a. Our firm is aware that you are exporters of ………
b. Your name was given to us by………
c. We are informed that your firm produces………and we would be interested in………
d. If you are interested in buying our merchandise we inform you that………
e. We are very interested in your offer as so ………
f. If you agree with our terms, please ………
g. We are looking forward to ………
h. We thank you for your confidence in us and ………
i. Having favourably solved our first offer, we hope ………
j. We would certainly appreciate ………
k. You may be sure of ………
l. Enclosed to this letter ………
m. With our best thanks ………
n. We kindly entrust you that we are able to settle the matter ………
A3. Translate into English the following letters, adding to them the missing parts:
a. Letter of ordering
Stimate domnule Causio,
Veţi găsi alăturat comanda noastră, Nr. DR4316, de pulovere pentru tineri, toate culorile şi mărimile pe care le oferiţi în catalog.
Am hotărât să acceptăm reducerea de 15 % şi condiţiile de plată pe care le doriţi, dar insistăm să rediscutăm aceşti termeni contractuali în viitorul apropiat.
Veţi găsi alăturat documentele de transport şi ordinul de plată de la Banca Northminster din Birmingham.
Dacă nu aveţi în stoc obiectele solicitate, vă rugăm să nu ne trimiteţi altele care să le înlocuiască.
V-am fi recunoscători dacă aţi face livrarea în termen de 6 săptămâni. Aşteptăm cu nerăbdare răspunsul dumneavoastră.
Cu respect,
Lionel Crane
Director general
b. Letter of complaint
Stimate domnule Causio,
Vă scriu pentru a face o plângere în legătură cu transportul de pulovere pe care l-am primit ieri în urma comenzii noastre din data de 10 martie.
Cutiile în care erau ambalate puloverele erau desfăcute şi păreau că s-au rupt în timpul transportului. Din documentele pe care ni le-aţi trimis, am constatat că 30 de obiecte au fost furate, având valoare generală de 1.500 £. Din cauza deteriorării cutiilor, alte câteva obiecte nu mai pot fi vândute ca articole noi.
Pentru că vânzarea s-a făcut în bani ghiaţă, vă rugăm să ne contactaţi urgent pentru a stabili compensaţiile.
Veţi găsi alăturat o listă cu bunurile dispărute şi cele deteriorate, iar noi vom păstra stocul intact până când vom primi instrucţiunile dumneavoastră.
Cu respect,
Lionel Crane
Director general
A4. Choose a topic and write a letter:
a. Request for a catalogue from a firm of tapes and cassettes whose products you have seen at a fair.
b. You are the director of an advertising agency, answer to the proposal of co-operation of a television station.
c. Answer the two letters you have translated before, on behalf of Mr. Causio.
d. Write a letter of complaint for the products you have ordered from a company of cosmetics. The items arrived to you very damaged.
e. You are the manager of a firm which offers shipment for goods. Write a reply to another company, explaining the ways in which you can help them with transport.
f. You are the manager of a small company. Write a letter to a larger company in the same field, proposing to co-operate in certain activities.
B. The Subjunctive
B1. The English Subjunctive differs very much form the Romanian “Conjunctiv”, as the English mood is syntactic, it can be expressed in different ways but it is requested by almost the same expressions all the time; the Romanian “Conjunctiv”Mood is morphological, it represents any verb which has a form beginning with “să”, no matter in which construction it appears. In English, we should try to remember the phrases requiring Subjunctive, which usually express: order, demand, suggestion, necessity.
There are two types of Subjunctive in English:
a. Subjunctive 1 (synthetic): identical in form with the short infinitive (I be, He have, She go).
Rules Examples
1. In sentences expressing greetings or exclamations.
(it could be replaced by May + Infinitive) Long live our Queen! – May our Queen live long!
Happen what may!
So be it!
Curse the wind!
2. In sentences expressing an order or a demand (it could be replaced by Imperative) Everybody come here. (Veniţi cu toţii aici)
Somebody go and tell him to come (Să meargă cineva să-i spună să vină) – Let one of you go and tell him to come.
3. In sentences introduced by it is + adjective + that: it is important, it is good, it is bad, it is strange, it is unusual, it is necessary, it is remarkable, it is surprising, etc.
(it could be replaced by should + Infinitive) It is better that he go now – It is better that he should go now.
It is strange that he leave the conference.
4. After verbs expressing order, decision, suggestion, condition, doubt, purpose, fear, desire, request: to order, to command, to decide , to suggest, etc.
(it could be replaced by should + Infinitive) I doubt that he be here on time. I doubt that he should be here on time.
They insist that the factory be modernised.
5. In expressions taken from the Medieval English Language: if need be (dacă este nevoie),
be it so (aşa să fie), far be it from me (departe de mine gândul), suffice it to say (este de ajuns să spun). If need be, I shall be there.
Suffice it to say that the project was accepted.
6. After phrases like would rather, had better, had best, would sooner, would have I would rather go to the mountains than stay in town.
You had better leave now.
b. Subjunctive 2 (analytical):
- Present: identical in form with the Past Tense of the Indicative mood (I were, I had, I went).
- Past: identical in form with Past Perfect from the Indicative (I had been, I had had, I had gone).
For the verb “to be”, there is only one form of Subjunctive 2 present, were, while in the Past Tense Indicative there are 2 forms, was and were.
We have seen that Subjunctive 1 has several equivalents, the Imperative Mood, May + Infinitive and should +Infinitive; Subjunctive 2 has only one equivalent for all the cases, should + Infinitive. Sometimes Subjunctive 2 can be used instead of Subjunctive 1 in situations 3 and 4 mentioned in the table above, but anyhow the specific form for these cases remain Subjunctive 1.
Examples: It is better that we went now.
I doubt that he were here on time.
Rules Examples
1. It expresses a desire introduced by an interjection or by the verb wish. Oh, that it were possible!
I wish I were you. (Aş vrea să fiu în locul tău)
I wish I had been you. (Aş fi vrut să fi fost în locul tău)
2. After phrases like as if, as though, even if, even though, rather than, than that. I asked him if this were what he wanted. (L-am întrebat dacă aceasta este ceea ce doreşte)
I asked him if this had been what he wanted. (L-am întrebat dacă aceasta fusese ceea ce dorea)
3. After the expressions with –ever: however, whatever, whichever, whoever, etc. Whoever they were I can’t see them now.
Whoever they had been I couldn’t meet them.
4. After be afraid that, fear that, be terrified that, for fear and lest.
Lest is a negative form, so it is used with a verb in the affirmative form. I am so glad that you were here.
I am afraid lest he missed the train.
B2. Do the following exercises.
a. Finish the sentences:
1. It is important that this paper ………
2. My mother took me to the cinema so that I ………
3. He didn’t dare ski lest he ………
4. I wish you ………
5. I suggest that he ………
b. Replace the Infinitive in brackets with the appropriate forms of the Subjunctive:
1. You had better (to listen) to me. 2. It is likely that he (to be) awarded a prize. 3. I wish you (to learn) better. 4. I asked her if this (to be) what she meant. 5. You look as if you (to be) tired. 6. Whoever they (to be) tell them to wait. 7. Even though she (to ask) she would not have been given an answer. 8. It is high time you (to make up) your mind whether you want to do the job or not. 9. She had rather (to come) with you. 10. I should like to have a rest rather than (to join) you on the trip.
B3. Translate into English:
a. A sugerat să ne petrecem vacanţa la mare. b. Mă îndoiesc că va fi aici până mâine. c. Dacă este nevoie putem să ne oprim acum. d. Ai face mai bine să mergi cu noi. e. Chiar dacă ai fi insistat nu l-ai fi convins. f. S-a hotărât ca proiectul să fie gata până la sfârşitul lunii. g. Ar fi bine să notezi aceste lucruri ca să nu le uiţi. h. Mi-e teamă să nu se strice vremea. i. Prefer să învăţ totul de la început. j. Mi s-a ordonat să-mi schimb programul de lucru. k. Oriunde ar lucra, ea întotdeauna va fi lăudată de toată lumea. l. Indiferent ce gândeşti despre mine nu-ţi dau rochia mea s-o porţi la bal.
b. Când vom povesti întâmplarea asta, lumea are să râdă şi are să spună că nu ne-am lăsat de palavre vânătoreşti. Tu ce părere ai, Fram, prietene Fram?…
Fram mormăi. Dacă ar fi ştiut să vorbească, ar fi povestit că mai cunoaşte el undeva, într-un trib eschimos, un copil care a păţit la fel şi, fără îndoială că s-a pomenit cu faima de cel mai mare mincinos, înainte încă de a deveni mare vânător. Mormăi. Se uită cu înţeles spre coliba unde se afla înăuntru cutia minunată care cânta – Ne roagă să dăm drumul la radio! Egon. Acesta este ursul cel mai amator de muzică din câţi am văzut eu în viaţă!
Intră în cabană şi răsuci resortul. (Cezar Petrescu – Fram, ursul polar)
B4. Conceive a composition on one of the following topics:
a. Things you would rather do.
b. If you were the first man on the moon, what would you write back home?
c. Which are your secret wishes?
C. Newspapers are publications usually issued on a daily or weekly basis, the main function of which is to report the news. Newspapers also provide commentary on the news, advocate various public policies, furnish special information and advice to readers, and sometimes include features such as comic strips, cartoons and serialised books. In nearly all cases and in varying degrees, they depend on the publication of commercial advertising for their income.
Periodicals are publications released at regular intervals, often called journals, or referred to as magazines when designating those for recreational reading. Periodicals differ from the other major form of serial publication, newspapers. Most newspapers are issued daily on pulp paper and have relatively large, unbound pages; periodicals generally appear on finer paper, with smaller bound pages, and at intervals longer than a day (weekly, biweekly, monthly, quarterly, or even annually). As a whole, periodicals feature, often exclusively, material of special interest to particular audiences. The contents of periodicals are often unrelated to current new stories; when dealing with the news, they tend to do so in the form of summaries or commentaries.
C1. Answer the following questions:
a. Do you regularly read newspapers? Which newspaper do you prefer? Why?
b. Do you read any magazines? Which one do you like from the Romanian market? Why?
c. If you were the editor-in-chief of a newspaper, what would you do to improve its circulation? Which target-audience would you choose?
d. Do you think Romanian newspapers and magazines are comparable to those in the Western countries? Are they better, are they worse? Why?
e. Which part of a newspaper would you rather write: the political columns, the social, the economic or the cultural ones? Which articles do you consider the most interesting in the Romanian newspapers?
f. What kind of magazine would you like to work for, one for entertainment, one specialised on politics, one for the teenagers, or one specialised on informatics? Can you give examples of these kinds of magazines on the Romanian market?
g. Would you like to be a journalist for the printed press? Why?
h. Do you consider our written press to be a free one? Give reasons for or against it.
C2. Read and translate the following text. Give examples for each type of newspaper or magazine described. Find the Romanian terms for the English words and phrases related to newspaper and magazine industries.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, who had something to tell about virtually everything, once said “the newspaper… does its best to make every square acre of land and sea give an account of itself at your breakfast table”. The newspaper industry is currently examining how well it fits with modern lifestyles and what it must do to keep and attract readers in an age in which competition for their time has become intense. Obviously, there are many ways to categorise an industry as diverse as this one. We group papers by frequency of publication (dailies and weeklies), by market size (national, large, medium and small) and, finally, by their appeal to specialised interest groups (for minority groups, students, professionals and shoppers).
The departmental structure and staffing of a newspaper vary with its size, but all papers have certain common aspects. They have a publisher and are generally divided into three main departments: business (having the responsibility of keeping the paper financially solvent, with subdivisions as advertising, promotion and circulation), production (which prints the newspaper, with subdivisions as the composing room, where computers and phototypesetters are used to lay out the newspaper pages; the platemaking area, where surfaces that will reproduce the printed page are constructed; the press room, where ink actually meets paper), news-editorial, which has the task of conceiving the text (comprising a managing editor who supervises the wire editor, the sports editor, the society editor, the food editor, the entertainment editor as well as the city editor; the department also contains reporters, photographers, copyeditors and a rewrite desk).
Getting out a newspaper is a twenty-four-hour-a-day job. News happens at all hours and many stories happen unexpectedly. Trying to cope with the never-ending flow of news and the constant pressure to keep it fresh, requires organisation and co-ordination among the paper’s staff. There are two basic sources of news copy: local reporting and the wire services. While the wire editor scans the output from the wire machines and the city editor checks his or her daily calendar, the managing editor handles the available space, called the newshole, that can be devoted to news in that day’s issue of the paper. As the day progresses, reporters return from assignments and write their news stories at the keyboard of a video-display terminal (VDT). The finished story is transmitted electronically to a computer, where it is stored. These stories are called up by copy editors, who trim and make changes and code the articles for use in the paper. The managing editor decides that the story is newsworthy and sends it back to the computer for processing. Decisions about page make up, the amount of space to be devoted to a story and the photographs are made as the deadline for publication appears. Meanwhile, in the composing room, high speed computerised photocomposition machines take electronic impulses and translate them into images and words. The stories are printed on strips of photographic paper and go to the make up room where they are pasted up into full newspaper pages. An offset plate is made by placing the negative between glass and a sheet of photosensitive metal and exposing the plate to bright light. Then, huge rolls of newsprint are threaded into the press and the printing process begins. Finished and folded papers are sent by the conveyor belt to the distribution area.
If we try to classify magazines, we can divide them according to two criteria: after the target audience (general consumer magazines, business publications, literary reviews and academic journals, newsletters and public relations magazines) and after the three traditional components of manufacturing (production, distribution and retailing). A consumer magazine is one that can be acquired by anyone, through a subscription or a single-copy purchase or by obtaining a free store. Business magazines or trade publications serve a particular business industry or profession and are published by independent companies that are connected with the field they serve. Literary reviews and academic journals, generally with circulation under 10,000, are published by non-profit organisations and funded by universities, foundations or groups of professionals. Newsletters are publications of typically four to eight pages which try to give their readers inside information about highly specialised topics, establishing a personal tone between writer and reader. Public relations magazines are published by sponsoring companies and are designed to be circulated among the company’s employees, dealers, customers and stockholders.
A second useful way of structuring the magazine industry is to divide it by function. The production function consists of approximately 2,000-3,000 publishers and encompasses all the elements necessary to put out a magazine – copy, art work, photos, titles, layout, printing and binding. The distribution function handles the job of getting the magazine to the reader, through paid or free (controlled) circulation. The retail function deals with the sellers, which may be corner newsstands, drugstores, supermarkets, tobacco shops, bookshops.
A typical magazine is generally headed by a publisher who oversees four main departments: circulation (responsible for getting new readers and keeping current readers satisfied), composed by the subscription manager, who tries to increase the number of people on the magazine’s subscription list, the single-copy sales manager, who works with the national distributors, and the subscription fulfilment director, who makes sure that the magazine gets to subscribers; advertising and sales (putting together new programmes to enhance sales); production (concerned with printing and binding the publication); editorial (handling the non-advertising content of the magazine), directed by a managing editor.
Producing a magazine requires a great deal of lead time. Most issues are planned several months or at least several weeks in advance. The first step in all magazine production is preliminary planning and the generation of ideas for upcoming issues. Once this step is completed, the managing editor starts assigning certain articles to staff writers or freelancers. The next step involves putting together a miniature dummy. A dummy is simply a plan or blueprint of the pages for the upcoming issue that shows the contents in their proper order. The printing of the magazine resembles that of the newspaper in the final stages.
C3. Translate into English:
a. Pentru aniversarea celor zece ani de la căderea Zidului Berlinului, ministrul federal german pentru problemele tineretului, Christine Bergmann, şi autorităţile noii capitale a Germaniei reunificate au invitat circa 1000 de tineri din Europa la o sărbătoare ce va dura mai multe zile şi care va avea punctul culminant pe 9 noiembrie, seara, de-a lungul urmei fostului Zid şi mai ales în faţa Porţii Brandenburg.
În plan politic, foştii preşedinţi sovietic şi american, Mihail Gorbaciov şi George Bush, protagoniştii reunificării germane, fostul şi actualul cancelar, Helmut Kohl şi respectiv Gerhard Schroeder, vor lua cuvântul pe 9 noiembrie în Bundestag (camera inferioară a parlamentului german).
În perioada 5-10 noiembrie, tineri cu vârste cuprinse între 16 şi 25 de ani, veniţi din Germania şi alte 24 de ţări europene, vor avea ocazia să cunoască oraşul şi istoria sa şi să discute mai ales cu martori direcţi ai căderii Zidului Berlinului. În zilele denumite de guvernul german Festivalul european al tineretului, tinerii vor asista la numeroase conferinţe privind rolul Berlinului în Europa şi relaţiile Est-Vest, având ocazia de a-şi face cunoscute opiniile privind edificarea în comun a continentului european, declara doamna Bergmann […]. (România Liberă, 4 noiembrie, 1999).
b. Revoluţia din decembrie 1989 a adus în spaţiul cultural românesc o problemă puţin dezbătută: rolul elitelor în societate. Până la acel moment teoria socială şi politică avusese drept principale ţinte grupările socio-profesionale, structurile şi raporturile dintre clasele sociale. Dinamica socio-politică postdecembristă a scos la iveală insuficienţa unui asemenea tip de analiză. Diversitatea actorilor politici, coagularea raporturilor dintre liderii sau promotorii proceselor schimbării şi diversitatea structurii sociale ce se înfiripau în societatea deschisă de implozia totalitarismului, aduceau în prim planul reflecţiei sociale nevoia de nuanţare a discursului clasial. Şi aceasta întrucât, dincolo de clase şi categorii sociale, de acţiunea colectivă, spontană sau organisată, articularea structurilor politice democrate şi a societăţii civile a focalizat interesul social asupra aflării şi impunerii de lideri. Să ne amintim de sloganul începuturilor revoluţiei “Avem nevoie de un Havel al nostru”, care, în afara conotaţiilor antiiliesciene, a fost expresia ofertei reduse de personalităţi apte să-şi asume promovarea transformării radicale beneficiind, în acelaşi timp, de o acceptare socială convenabilă.
Paradoxal, odată clamat, acest imperativ nu a fost prilej de compromis între personalităţi sau grupări politice aflate în centrul evoluţiilor politice. Dimpotrivă, orgoliul unora a prevalat în faţa oportunităţilor revoluţiei, iar sloganul şi-a accentuat repede trăsăturile luptei staliniste pentru putere, transformându-se practic în “Jos Iliescu!”. Revoluţia nu a fost furată ci a fost ratată, unele dintre “elitele” aflate la startul revoluţiei nefiind pregătite pentru a stăpâni complexitatea partiturii, au optat pentru aria învrăjbirii în speranţa de a-şi consolida poziţiile. (Alexandru Florian – “Elitele şi revoluţia”, in “Societate şi cultură”, 1/1998).
C4. Read the following text and then answer the questions.
[…] The ongoing political and economic transformations in the Republic of Moldova have induced a process of reorganisation in the sphere of media and in the legal framework of the journalist work.
The lack of proper legal regulation in the totalitarian era has made it practically impossible for the media to publish any critical information concerning the upper ruling circles and a whole range of social phenomena. The legislative vacuum engulfing the sphere of social life was affecting the media as well. In recent years, media situation has changed considerably. In the course of establishing a government of law, society could not disregard the media. There was an urgent need to establish a legal basis for the work of journalists.
The recent political and social changes disclosed many social cankers: drugs, prostitution, organised crime, corruption in the upper levels of government, the existing problems of multiethnic relations, the decreasing social status of the language of the most numerous ethnic group in the country, the need to adopt the Latin alphabet, the suppression of various events and facts concerning the national history. The media were the first to sound the alarm; however, the response consisted in threats and accusations aimed at the most intrepid and honest journalists. The lack of media legislation was more than obvious. The long-awaited day came in 1999 with the adoption of the Press and Media Act (still within the former Soviet Union). On its ratification, the act came into effect in the Republic of Moldavia.
This act eliminated the strict political control over the press and provided acceptable work conditions for the journalists. It established the freedom of media and the inadmissibility of censorship. Now there was more freedom, but the responsibility of the editorial staff and the author for the published information increased as well. Nevertheless, the freedom of press is not absolute. The press is prohibited from disclosure of state secrets, propaganda of war, cruelty, and violence, race, national, and religious discrimination.
Another important point is the legalisation of the right to publishing. The act established that media may be founded by government agencies, lawfully acting parties and organisations, as well as by private persons of legal age. The act also regulated the relations between editors and founders, editors and authors, stipulating also the right of the editors to collect information.
Thus, conditions were set to grant freedom of speech and freedom of press and to give all power structures the opportunity to propagate their views through the mass media. This legislative act was in line with the requirements of the respective historical period, laying the foundations of a further legislative progress in the sphere of mass media […]. (“Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Press in the Republic of Moldova”, by Alla Byelostechnik, Chisinau, in “Balkan Media”, the first media magazine of the Balkans, vol. V, no. 2, summer 1996/1997).
Questions:
a. What changed in the Moldavian legislation concerning media in the beginning of the 90’s?
b. Was it easy for the Moldavian journalists to do their job? What difficulties did they encounter?
c. What were the main provisions of the Press and Media Act of 1990 in Moldova?
d. Was this law all that the journalists needed to protect their work conditions?
e. Do you think it is easy to work as a journalist in a small former communist country?
C5. Accomplish a table with the best, the most well known and the most circulated newspapers in Romania. Use as a model the table of the most famous U.S.-British international publications:
• The International Herald Tribune, with a worldwide circulation of about 170,000, published by the New York Times and the Washington Post, headquartered in France. The paper has recently celebrated its hundredth anniversary.
• U.S.A. Today International, a newcomer to the scene, with a circulation of about 40,000, a Gannett-owned paper, read most of all by U.S. citizens travelling abroad.
• WorldPaper, published by the World Times Company in Boston, distributed as a newspaper supplement in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East, with a circulation of 650,000.
• The Financial Times of London, specialised in economic news, with a circulation of about 300,000.
• The Economist, based in London, carrying financial news and analyses, easily available in the United States, with about 300,000 readers.
• The Wall Street Journal, international editions for Europe and Asia, reaching about 75,000 people.
D. Vocabulary practice.
D1. Explain the following words and phrases:
circulation, gossip, domestic, foreign, front page, back page, inside page, top of the page, bottom of the page, cover, supplement, incident, accident, event, editorial, comment, announcement, report, refutation, serial, cross-word puzzle, journalist, correspondent, reporter, editor, compositor, printer, reader, subscriber.
D2. Do the following exercises:
a. Match the words on the left with the correct definitions.
1. obituary
2. leader
3. horoscope
4. review
5. gossip column
6. headline
7. deadline
8. cartoon
A. critical assessment of a book, film
B. leading editorial article
C. regular article about celebrities
D. announcement of a death, with a short biography
E. phrase or title at the top of an article
F. humorous or satirical drawing
G. time limit for reporting news
H. prediction of someone’s future according to the sign in the zodiac
b. Supply the suitable words:
A person who sends news, articles, reports to a newspaper is called ………..
who looks through the manuscript of an article,
corrects it, suggests changes and prepares it for
printing is called ………..
who sets up type for printing is called ………..
who buys a newspaper, magazine regularly is called ………..
who is engaged in publishing, editing or working
for a newspaper is called ………..
D3. Insert in the blanks the right word:
a. We should consider the major changes in ……….that were prompted by the success of the mass press during the 1833-1860 period. In short, we can identify four such changes. The ……….press, sold for a penny daily, changed the basis of economic support for ………., the pattern of the newspaper ………., the definition of what constituted ……….and the ……….of news collection. Before the penny press, most of a newspaper’s economic support came from ……….revenue. The large circulation of the penny press made ……….realise that they could reach a large segment of potential ……….by purchasing space. Moreover, the ……….of the popular papers cut across political ……….and social ……….lines, thereby assuring a ……….advertiser of a broadly based audience. As a result, advertisers were greatly attracted to this new ……….and the ……….newspapers relied significantly more on advertising revenues than did their predecessors.
The missing words are the following:
distribution, buyers, potential, mass, penny, subscription, class, medium, readership, techniques, advertisers, newspapers, news, party, journalism.
b. Appearing with the consolidation trend and enjoying a short but lively reign was ……….journalism. At the end of World War I, the United States found itself facing a decade of prosperity: the ……….twenties. The radio, Hollywood, the airplane, prohibition and Al Capone were all ……….that captured national attention. It was perhaps inevitable that ……….would reflect the times. The papers that best exemplified jazz journalism all sprang up in New-York between 1919 and 1929; all were characterised by two features: they were ………., printed on a page that was about one half the size of a normal newspaper page; they were all richly illustrated with ……….. The New-York Daily News had a slow start but by 1924 ……….on. Its tabloid size was easier for the people to ……….while reading on buses and ……….; it abounded with photos and ……….; writing style was simple and ……….. The “News” also blended a large portion of ………. with its news. Comic ………., gossip ………., advice to the lovers, ………. and sports were given large chunks of space.
The missing words are the following:
horoscopes, roaring, subways, gossip, jazz, tabloids, caught, handle, topics, photographs, cartoons, newspapers, strips, short, entertainment.
D4. Translate into English, using the verbs to earn, to gain and to win:
a. Cât câştigi la firma aceea?
b. Câştigă bine, are o casă mare şi o maşină frumoasă.
c. Nu câştigi nimic dacă nu spui adevărul.
d. A câştigat premiul întâi la concursul de informatică.
e. E un tip interesant, a câştigat faimă internaţională cu invenţia lui.
f. I-a câştigat încrederea, a angajat-o ca secretară particulară.
g. Trebuie să facem ceva să câştigăm timp.
h. Finala a fost câştigată la puncte.
i. Câştigătorii vor primi câte un bilet de călătorie gratuit.
j. Îşi câştigă existenţa cum poate, nu se descurcă grozav.
Remember the following phrases:
to earn good money/small salary, to earn a living, to gain time/respect/recognition/nothing by doing something, to win a contest/a seat/fame/the wooden spoon.
VI. THE RADIO AND THE TELEVISION
A. Searching for a job
Of all the things you do in life, few are more important than getting a job. Whether it involves your first job or one further down your career path, job seeking is directly related to your success and your happiness. It is vital that you conduct the job search properly, that you prepare wisely and carefully and proceed diligently. You can begin your job search long before you are ready to find employment, building relationships with people who could help you find work when you need it. Such persons include classmates, professors and business people. When you are ready to search for your career job, you should begin the effort by analysing yourself, your potential and abilities, your desires and ideals and the real opportunities on the market. You should take into account education, personal qualities and special qualifications, but in the same time the requirements of the possible employers. The stages from picking up a desired position to getting a certain job comprise writing the application letter (as we described it in the previous course) and eventually completing the application form, writing the Curriculum Vitae and sustaining the interview. If your self-analysis and your behaviour during the stages were well established and well prepared, then you have received the job you were looking for.
The following steps form an ideal chain in the process of applying for a job. Which of them do you think you could skip in reality?
A1. Curriculum Vitae is an essential part of your job hunting. There are many ways of writing it and on the following pages you will discover two of them. The first one is very detailed and it describes your abilities and training widely, but it is not very comfortable for the future employer as he could have to read many CVs in a short period of time and he would need synthetic presentations. The second one is very easily readable and systematic, but maybe it does not always tell all the important things about you.
CURRICULUM VITAE
I. PERSONAL DATA
Surname: ………
First name: ………
Date and place of birth: ………
Address: ………
Civil status: single/married/divorced/widow(-er)
II. EDUCATION
- 19… - I graduated the ……… Highschool in ………
- 19…, June - I graduated the ……… Faculty at the ………University in………, ……… specialty, with a final rate of …%. The courses I attended at the above-mentioned faculty included: ………
- in the year 19… I graduated the Master courses organised by the ………Faculty at the ………University in ………, specialty ……… The courses included: ………
- in 19… (month) I attended a course in ……… about ……… and I received a diploma in ………
III. PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
- 19…, (month)-19…, (month) - I worked, as a ……… (position), at ………(institution). My responsibilities included:
- ………
- ………
- ………(month)19…-present - transferred, after a contest, at ……… (institution), where I am working as ………. My responsibilities include:
- ………
- ………
IV. FOREIGN LANGUAGES
- English - fluent, both in oral and written communication
- French - medium level, oral and written
V. COMPUTERS
- knowledge of operation in Windows, Norton Commander, Word for Windows, Excel, Word Perfect
- knowledge of operation in Internet
VI. INTERESTS
- ………
- ………
VII. HOBBIES
- ………
- ………
VIII. REFERENCES
Available on request.
CURRICULUM VITAE
1. Family name: ………
2. First names: ………
3. Date of birth: ………
4. Nationality and Passport No: ROMANIAN - ………
5. Civil status: ………
6. Contact address: ………
tel.: +40 ………
7. Education:
Institution Faculty of ………
Date: from (month/year):
to (month/year) October 19…
October 19…
Degree(s) or Diploma(s): Bachelor of Arts
Institution Faculty of ………
Date: from (month/year):
to (month/year) October 19…
October 19…
Degree(s) or Diploma(s): Master of Arts in ………
Institution University of ……… - Faculty of ………
Date: from (month/year):
to (month/year) October 19…
May 19…
Degree(s) or Diploma(s): Post-graduate in ………
8. Language skills: (Mark 1 to 5 for competence)
Language Reading Speaking Writing
Romanian Mother tongue
English 5 5 5
French 5 4 3
9. Membership of professional bodies:
- ………
10. Other skills: computer literate
11. Present position: ………
12. Years within the firm: ………
13. Key qualifications:
- ………
14. Professional Experience Record:
Date: from (month/year) to (month/year) October 19…
June 19…
Location ………, Romania
Company ………
Position ………
Description ……… (what your tasks are)
15. Others:
- dynamic, pro-active
- good communication/organisational skills
A2. Interview Myths. Here are some assumptions about job interviews, some correct, some not. Decide which of them are real tips for success in an interview situation.
1. a. While waiting in the office, you should just sit and wait to be called.
b. I can predict and prepare for 80% of the questions the interviewer will ask me. Preparation will help me do well.
c. If the interviewer asks me if I have any negative points or weaknesses I should indicate that I have none.
d. It is perfectly acceptable to call the employer within two weeks of submitting my job application materials to ask when I might expect to hear about the final decision. They often fail to do that.
e. The most important time of the interview is the last five minutes, when I discuss salary, ask about hiring decision and close the interview.
f. I should keep my answers as short as possible, so the interviewer will have time to ask more questions.
g. I can also ask questions regarding the organisation of the company.
h. I should say that I am looking for a job which can offer me greater challenge and more opportunities for using my skills.
i. Most employers issue invitations to interview by phone.
2. a. My job interview begins as soon as I walk through the office door. As I might be under observation all the time, I could ask the secretary some friendly questions about the organisation, in case they ask her opinion about me.
b. The interviewer is the only one who can ask questions.
c. Be tactful, by turning a possible negative situation into a positive one. For example, “I tend to neglect my family because I often work too late.”
d. I should mind how I look and sit. What the interviewer thinks about me in the first minutes will set the tone of the interview.
e. I cannot prepare for an interview because: I do not know if I will get an interview; I do not know what the interviewer will ask; actually, once I am invited to an interview, I almost have a job.
f. Once I submit my application papers for the job, the proper thing to do is to wait until I hear from the employer.
g. The interviewer is looking for thoughtful answers that indicate some depth on my part. So I should go from general responses to specifics that indicate my depth of knowledge and interest.
h. If asked why I am leaving my job, I should criticise my colleagues or say I find my present work boring and underpaid.
i. Invitations to interviews normally come by letter or telegram.
A3. Read and translate the following interview, paying attention to the things people say to each other in this official situation. Then try to simulate your answers to the questions comprised in the interview. Do you think your answers could be firmer and better prepared? Why do you think the interviewers liked the fellow and, even though he seemed hesitating sometimes, in the end they were about to decide that he was the proper person for the job? What do you think a possible employer would appreciate the most in your attitude? Which quality would you like to stress as being your dominant feature? Why?
Secretary: Oh, Mr. John Pilgrim, would you go in now, please?
John P.: Oh, me? Yes, right.
Mr. Rich: You are Mr. Pilgrim, aren’t you?
John P.: Yes, that’s right.
Mr. Rich: Well, do sit down. My name is Rich, I am the assistant to the managing director; these two gentlemen are Mr. Hard, the Personnel Manager and Mr. Frost, one of our executives. Now, Mr. Pilgrim, I would like you to tell us what is it that makes you want to come and work with us.
John P.: Well, I have always wanted to work in a television station and I’ve noticed that yours is one of the best at the moment …
Mr. Rich: Yes?
John P.: Well, I know that your talkshows and entertainment programmes are very professionally accomplished and that you have very skilled employees who are also able to work in teams.
Mr. Rich: Well, it is true, but there are many aspects of a job in television that you have not considered yet. But, if you did come and work for us, you’d soon learn about them. I’m sure, Mr. Hard, that you’ve got a lot of things you want to ask Mr. Pilgrim.
Mr. Hard: Yes, I wanted to ask some questions about yourself that don’t come out clearly in your application. Why did you wait so long before deciding to further your education after you left school?
John P.: Well, I was short of confidence, really. It was not until later that I thought to myself: well, if others can get on, why shouldn’t I?
Mr. Frost: Good for you! You didn’t really like to work in a library?
John P.: It was quite pleasant, but not very demanding. Then … I thought of becoming a public communicator, I went to a faculty and here I am.
Mr. Frost: You’d have to do some pretty basic jobs here, you know, if we accepted you as a trainee.
John P.: Yes, but that would be different. Then I’d know where I was going,
Mr. Hard: Well, Mr. Pilgrim, that’s all for the time being. Could you wait outside for a bit, please? We’ll call you in again later.
Mr. Hard: Well, gentlemen, what do you think?
Mr. Frost: Well, I liked the chap, I think he knows what he’s after now, I’d recommend taking him on and giving him a try.
A4. Translate and bear in mind the following words and phrases. Try to make sentences with them:
What sort of jobs do you know? There are full-time jobs, part-time jobs, high-paid jobs, low-paid jobs, attractive jobs, dull jobs, clerical jobs, odd jobs, risky jobs, humble jobs, dirty jobs.
When applying for a job, what will you have to do? I have to fill in an application form, send in qualification documents, sustain a test, undergo probation of personal abilities, examine a job description, sustain an interview and undergo medical examination.
What should the employee information system contain? It should contain controls to monitor leave and absenteism, checks to ensure pay increases, decreases and promotions, review of job descriptions, applications and interview notes, medical history and records, time sheets, attendance records (sick time, vacation, overtime), employment history (promotions, transfers, grievances).
B. Modal Verbs
B1. Modal verbs express the attitude of the speaker in what concerns the process of communication in progress, in development, the action being considered possible, probable, obligatory, desirable, etc. (example: It might rain later. S-ar putea să plouă mai târziu).
There are two types of modal verbs in English:
a. notional verbs expressing manner (want, wish, order, oblige, advise, intend, mean, prefer, etc.) which act like normal verbs (He wants to see the play. Don’t oblige him to do this.)
b. defective modal verbs (can, could, may, might, must, have to, should, ought to, would, shall, will, need, dare; e.g. He can play the piano), which also express manner, but formally have certain characteristics:
1. they are defective, that is they lack certain verbal forms. Accordingly, they can not be used at all the moods and tenses, most of them having only indicative, present and past tense (can – present tense, could – past tense; may – present tense, might – past tense). Some of them have only indicative, present tense (must). That is why they have equivalents to express the other moods and tenses (can – to be able to; may – to be allowed/permitted to; must – to have to).
2. they do not receive –s/-es at the third person singular (example: He must see this play).
3. they form the interrogative and negative without the aid of auxiliary verbs, in the style of auxiliary verbs (example: Must you do this? She cannot speak English).
4. they are followed by the short infinitive of the notional verbs (except ought to).
Verb
Meanings Examples
Can - physical or intellectual ability
- permission
- possibility
- polite request I can ski now, I’ve learnt it.
Can I borrow your umbrella?
You can ski, there is enough snow.
Can you wait a little?
Could - abilities in the past
- more polite request I could ski when I was a kid.
Could you come with me?
May - requiring or granting permission May I go out?
No, you may not.
Might - past tense of may
- more polite request He said he might come.
Might I use your phone?
Must - obligation I must stay in bed, I’ve got flu.
Should - moral obligation
- advice You should meet him, he is your friend.
You should not do this.
Ought to - obligation or duty (synonym of should) You ought to finish the book before going on holiday.
Would - polite request Would you do me a favour?
Shall - intentionality (the strong will of another person than the subject imposed on the subject) (I say) you shall finish your studies!
Will - intentionality (the strong will of the subject imposed on the others) I will do this if I want to!
Need - necessity Why need she stay home for the holidays?
Dare - having the courage to do something How dare you contradict me?
All the defective modal verbs have besides the proper meaning another one which could be possibility, probability, certainty. The strongest one from this point of view is must (example: He has left an hour ago, so he must be at home now), then there follow shall, will, should, would, can, could, may, might. Might is the most uncertain, improbable (example: I might come with you tomorrow, but I don’t think so).
B2. Do the following exercises:
a. Fill in the blanks with modal verbs:
1. As the others insist on it you ………as they say. 2. You ………go to Predeal, you look very tired. 3. “You ………finish your work before going on holiday”. “I know I………”. 4. I ………take these pills three times a day. 5. You ………smoke cigars, they will ruin your health. 6. I want to get thinner. What ………I do? You ………see a doctor about it. 7. You ……… stop drinking, or else you will get drunk. 8. If you ………kindly wait here, I‘ll look for him. 9. I expected him to be reasonable, but he ………listened to me.
b. Rewrite the following sentences beginning with “He said”, “He didn’t know”:
1. What will John do about it? 2. You can go there if you try. 3. May I leave the room now? 4. Will you come to my place tomorrow? 5. I must see him immediately. 6. You needn’t do such a bad thing. 7. Can I come with you? 8. You must read this book. 9. You shall go to the university. 10. Must I attend the meeting?
B3. Translate into English:
a. 1. Mai bine ai sta acasă până te simţi mai bine. 2. Trecuse de miezul nopţii şi am propus să plecăm, dar el nici nu voia să audă. 3. Aş prefera să nu-ţi spun ce ştiu despre el. 4. Fereastra nu se deschide, trebuie să o repari. 5. Ar trebui să te duci la concert, de ce să-l pierzi? 6. Să răspund la telefon? 7. Îmi pare rău, nu s-ar fi cuvenit să spun asta. 8. Nu îndrăzni să le povesteacă prietenilor întâmplarea de teamă să nu râdă de el. 9. Trebuie să mă duc acolo chiar acum? Nu, nu este nevoie. 10. Eram sigură că prietenul meu nu va avea curajul să-mi spună ce gândeşte.
b. Stau deseori pe un scaun în cârciuma mea preferată, să beau un pahar de bere şi să citesc ziarul de seară. Abia dă cu ochii de mine, când Tom îşi trage scaunul lângă al meu şi începe: “Poate am dreptate, sau poate greşesc”, spune el, “dar e un lucru pe care trebuie să-l admit, Elena e sigur cea mai drăguţă fată din lume!” Rareori mă iartă de povara de a-l asculta. Câteodată îmi vine să-i zic: “Hei, bătrâne, mai curând mi-aş citi ziarul decât să te ascult”, dar de obicei nu mă lasă inima să-i spun. Îmi zic doar mie: “Chiar trebuie să vorbească atât de mult despre ea? De ce uită că există o limită a drepturilor prieteniei şi că prietenii nu ar trebui să devină atât de groaznic de plicticoşi? Ar trebui să existe o lege împotriva acestui lucru. Cât despre mine, dacă stau să îl ascult de fiecare dată cănd mă duc la cărciumă, nu-mi rămîne decăt un singur lucru de făcut, să-mi schimb cârciuma. Şi apoi nici nu mă interesează frumuseţea Elenei. Sigur, nu îndrăznesc să-i spun toate astea lui Tom.
B4. Translate the following into Romanian:
Daughter: I’m getting chilled to the bone – what can Freddy be doing all this time? he has been gone twenty minutes.
Mother: Not so long. But he ought to have got us a cab by this time. We must have a cab. We can’t stand here until half past eleven. It’s too bad.
D: If Freddy had a bit of gumption, he could get us a cab at the theatre door.
M: What could he have done, poor boy?
D: Other people got cabs. Why couldn’t he?
(Freddy rushes in out of the rain).
D: Well, haven’t you got a cab?
Freddy : There isn’t one to be had for love or money.
M: Oh, Freddy, there must be one. You can’t have tried.
F: The rain was so sudden, everybody had to take a cab.
M: You really are very helpless, Freddy, go again.
F: I’ll simply get soaked for nothing.
D: And what about us? Are we to stay here all night with next to nothing on?
(George Bernard Show, Pygmalion)
C. Broadcasting is a major industry in most nations, and popular entertainment, news and educational programmes are transmitted directly into people’s homes. Because it represents a critical national resource for communicating information and culture, and because the electromagnetic spectrum allows for only a limited number of broadcast stations, virtually all nations regulate their broadcasting within their borders. Many nations operate their broadcasting systems through a ministry of communications. In some countries where it is believed that broadcasting is an independent voice, tax revenues support a public broadcasting authority that is independent of the government. Other countries simply license private broadcasters who make their profits by selling advertising time, or they permit a mixed system of commercial and publicity supported stations.
Mass communication, mass media, either written or electronic, marketing and advertisement, image building, public relations are rules of the game being called “market economy” or “customer-oriented economy”, which is, at its turn, part of Western Europe and American capitalist civilisation nowadays. So that we must think of them, we must judge them and analyse them in the context of contemporary societies.
C1. Answer the following questions:
a. What do you prefer, radio or television? Why? Which are the main features of each of them?
b. If you had money, what would you found? A radio station or a television station? Which one could bring you more money back? Why?
c. Which radio programme do you like? What is it about?
d. Which television programme do you like? Is it for information or entertainment?
e. Do you think Romanian radio and television programmes can be compared with the ones in foreign countries? Why?
f. If you were the general director of a new-born television station, how would you explain, at the prompting press conference, the need for a new television? Which would be the target audience?
g. What kind of programme would you like to be the showman of? Why?
h. Which do you think is the most informative, radio or television? But the most entertaining? But the most educative?
i. Do you think at the moment the Romanian legislation is developed enough to allow a free market of radio and television stations, with an open competition? Do you think market is full now or there are certain needs of the people which are not fulfilled?
j. How much is your life influenced by the boom of information through electronic media?
C2. Read and translate the following text, remember the new words, specific for this field, and comment upon the differences and resemblance between the two media. Compare this description with the one in the previous course, concerning newspapers and magazines. Write an essay about the importance of written and electronic media in the last century.
Radio is everywhere, in the bedrooms, in kitchens, in cars, in offices, on city streets, on beaches, at ball games. It is ubiquitous. There are local radio stations, which operate in cities, towns and villages across the countries, and national radio stations. Programming for stations is provided by networks and by programme syndication companies, the distinction between them being that all stations on a net carry the net programme at the same time, while syndicated programming is carried at different times by different stations. Radio stations speak in two voices. Stations are either AM or FM. AM stands for amplitude modulation, one way of transmitting a radio wave, and FM stands for frequency modulation, another form of transmission. All physical factors being equal, radio signals sent by AM travel farther, especially at night, than signals sent by FM. This is because AM radio waves bounce off a layer of the earth’s atmosphere called the ionosphere and back to the ground. AM stations are classified by channels, and there are three possible channels: clear (with a single dominant station that is designed to provide service over a wide area), regional (shared by many stations that serve fairly large areas) and local (shared by large numbers of stations that broadcast only for their local communities). Perhaps the most meaningful way we can organise radio stations is according to their format, a type of consistent programming designed to appeal to a certain segment of the audience. The music format is the largest category and it includes many subdivisions and variations, like adults, contemporary (AC) and contemporary hit radio (CHR). The talk format attracts listeners in the thirty-five-to-sixty-five-years-old age group. Common types of programmes that appear on stations using the talk format are interview shows featuring well-known guests, advice shows, call-in shows. The news format emphasises information. National, regional and local news reports are broadcast periodically throughout the day, with sports, weather, editorials, public affair programmes.
The departmental structure of a radio station varies according to its size. At the top there is a general manager, who coordinates four departments, sales, programmes, news and engineering. The sales department is run by a sales manager, the programme department is headed by a programme director and comprises announcers, production and the music library, in the news department there are newscasters, reporters and writers under the guidance of a news director and in the engineering department the chief engineer conducts the staff engineers and the maintenance personnel. Radio programmes are put together by the station’s programme director who lays out the format wheel (or the format clock), which is simply a pie chart of an hour divided into segments representing different programme elements.
Radio stations earn their money by selling advertising time. The amount that a radio station charges for time is included in its rate card. Like the television industry, the radio industry has three different sources of income from the sales of commercial time. The first comes from the sales of spots on network programmes to national advertisers trying to reach a broad market, the second is the sale of time on local stations to advertisers who wish to reach a specific region and the third is advertising purchased by local establishments that want their commercials to be heard only in the immediate community.
In the case of television, people have many choices, from cable to independent stations, from satellite transmissions to superstations. There are commercial television systems, consisting in all those local stations whose income is derived from selling time on their facilities to the advertisers, and noncommercial systems, consisting of those stations whose income is derived from sources other than the sale of advertising time. As for the radio, there are three sources of production and programming, local, syndicated and network. Contractual arrangements take different forms. In a straight cash deal, the station pays a fee for the right to show the programme a specified number of times and retains the rights to sell all the commercial spots available in the programme. In a cash plus barter deal, the station pays a reduced fee for the programme but gives up some commercial spots to the syndication company, which, in turn, sells the spots to the national advertisers. In a straight barter arrangement, no money changes hands but the syndicator keeps more commercial minutes to sell nationally, leaving fewer spots for the local station to sell.
One important difference between TV stations is a technical one. Some TV stations are licensed to broadcast in the very high frequency (VHF) band of the electromagnetic spectrum, others broadcast in the ultra-high frequency (UHF) part of the spectrum. VHF stations have a signal that covers greater distances than UHF systems.
Regarding the organisation, at the top of the chart is the general manager, the person ultimately responsible for all station activities. The rest of the staff is divided into five different compartments. The sales department is responsible for selling time to local and national advertisers, scheduling ads and sending bills to customers. Maintaining all the technical equipment is the responsibility of the engineering department. The production department puts together locally produced programming, comprising producers, directors, camerapersons, artists and announcers. The news department includes the news director, anchorpeople, reporters and writers responsible for the station’s newscasts. The administrative department aids the station manager in running the station. Under this umbrella are included legal counsel, secretarial help, personnel, accounting, and bookkeeping subsidiaries.
Producing television programmes ranges from the incredibly simple – two chairs placed in front of a camera for an interview show – to the incredibly complex – million of dollars and hundred of people. Anyhow, everything functions according to a script, a planning of the story, the work of the reporters who write the copy and of the editors who prepare the videotape segments. One important consideration is audience flow, which is calculated from one period of transmission to the next. Mindful to this, programmers tend to schedule similar programmes back to back so as not to interrupt the flow (for example, when one television series is finished, it is followed by another of the same kind). Another principle could be counterprogramming, airing a programme designed to appeal to a different segment of the audience than those on competing stations (for example transmitting a show for women while the other stations transmit sports for men).
Radio and television have been the most important communication devices this century. Even though radio has somehow decreased because of the prevalence of television and even though there have appeared many other modern and fast means of communication during this century, like videoplayers, Internet, E-mail, people still mostly listen to the radio and watch TV when they want to keep informed with the hottest news, when they desire to be entertained and forget about their daily problems and even when they think they have nothing else to do or are too tired to do something else. We have lived for half a century in a society of radio transmissions, we are now living in a society of television, with Peg Bundy as the most important character. What is going to be next, for the 21st century?
C3. Translate into English and comment upon the following text:
Suscitate de televiziune, controversele asupra efectelor mediilor audiovizuale au continuat să agite spiritele. Unele persoane au rămas obsedate de teama că televiziunea, prin impactul direct şi masiv al mesajelor, amalgamează sistemele de valori şi criteriile aprecierilor estetice, ducând la degradarea vieţii culturale, iar pe de altă parte, că aceasta îndeplineşte mai curând o funcţie conservatoare, în sensul că este utilizată de telespectator pentru a-şi confirma opiniile şi valorile existente mai curând decât pentru a le schimba. Televiziunea, se subliniază adeseori, are efecte puternice, dar acţionează preponderent în direcţia conservării atitudinilor şi valorilor dominante ale sistemului.
C4 .Translate the following text and then summarise it in your own words, paying attention to the succession of stages in the evolution of the electronic media. Do you agree with the sharing? Can you suggest your own sharing?
Historians identify four stages in the evolution of broadcast programming. The first covers the debut of commercial radio in the 1920s. Having no precedents, experiments and entrepreneurs were unsure about what kinds of programmes people would like to hear. Radio attracted thousands of personalities from many fields. Commercials were brief and discrete. The second period is called “the golden age of radio”, beginning with 1928. At the time, the airwaves were filled with action and adventure, with vaudeville comedy, and the first entertainers appeared. The third stage of programming lasted from 1945 until the early 1950s, when television began its explosive growth. Unlike that of radio, the debut of television was free from confusion about what constituted effective programming. Television was perceived as “radio with pictures” and the structure of the industry was modelled on those of radio; performers and executives were drawn from radio. At the beginning of the fourth stage, the golden age of television, the reconstituted radio programmes dominated the television ratings. The variety show was the most popular programme, then the action-adventure programmes took over.
C5. Accomplish a table with the best, the most well known radio and television stations in Romania. Use as a model the table of the most famous international broadcasters:
• The Voice of America, now with its fifth decade of operation, broadcasts news, editorials, features and music in more than forty languages. The VOA estimates that more than 120 million people in Central and Eastern Europe listen to their programmes
• The World Service of British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has a worldwide reputation for accurate and impartial newscasts because, at least, it is independent of government ownership. Along with the news, the BBC also carries an impressive line-up of music, drama, comedy, sports and light features,
• Deutsche Welle (DW) , “German Wave”, broadcasts about 800 hours per week in 26 languages. DW transmitters are located in Germany, Africa and Asia.
D. Vocabulary practice
D1. Find in the dictionary as many names of professions and trades you know and then make sentences with them. Try to group these jobs in groups so that they should refer to the same group of activities. Describe which part of the field each word covers.
D2. Fill in the blanks:
Motion pictures and … … … are possible because of two… … … of the human perceptional system: the phi phenomenon and the persistence of … … …The phi phenomenon refers to what happens when a person sees one light… … …go out while another one close to the original is illuminated. To our eyes, it looks like the light is actually… … … from one source to another. In persistence of vision, our eyes continue to see an image for a … … … second after the image has actually disappeared from view.
These are the missing words:
quirk, source, television, split, vision, moving
D3. Remember the following words and phrases. Try to make sentences with them, bearing in mind the most suitable contexts for them:
Electronic media: radio, wireless set, tape-recorder, cassette recorder, record player, transistor, walkie-talkie, hi-fi/stereo equipment.
Wave lengths: short, medium, long, ultra-short, VHF.
Activities for radio and television: to broadcast, to be on the air, to turn/switch on/off, to turn down the volume, to listen to, to turn over to another channel.
What is wrong with your TV set? Flashing; hissing; stripes on the screen, it has atmospherics, distortion of the picture, the pictures go blank.
D4. Translate they following sentences, paying attention to the verbs to rise and to raise:
1. Ultimul congres al partidului de guvernământ şi-a închis şedinţa.
2. Micii întreprinzători au reuşit să scoată din sărăcie numeroase familii americane în secolul trecut.
3. La ultima şedinţă, nimeni nu a ridicat nici o pretenţie referitoare la data următoarei întrevederi.
4. Pentru a contracta un împrumut, orice firmă trebuie să prezinte o documentaţie riguroasă.
5. Mă tem că această problemă s-a ridicat şi în anii precedenţi, dar nu a avut nici un ecou.
6. Şi-a făcut o mulţime de duşmani din cauza felului său arogant de a fi.
7. Deşi se trezeşte foarte devreme, întârzie aproape de fiecare dată.
8. Se spune că marile companii americane au ridicat mulţi preşedinţi la putere.
9. Această persoană reuşeşte întotdeauna să se ridice la înălţimea situaţiei.
10. Astăzi este tot mai greu să fii în ton cu moda.
Remember the following phrases:
To rise to the occasion, to rise late, to rise above the prejudices, to rise in the world, to raise somebody to power, to raise somebody from poverty, to raise a question/ an objection/ a claim/ a loan/ money/ capital, to raise up enemies.
VII. REVISION
A. Communication tasks
1. Write a short letter to Professor Jane Baker of Oxford University to thank her for leading the workshop you organised at the faculty in Bucharest. Mention that you hope to invite her next year to talk about another aspect of the same topic.
2. A friend recently recommended a holiday company for particular destination. You took his advice and had a wonderful holiday. Write a note to thank him for his recommendation and describe one or two highlights of the holiday.
3. The local newspaper published an article about your sister recently. Unfortunately, many of the details in the article were incorrect. Write to the editor explaining the inaccuracies and asking for a few lines in next week’s paper to set the record straight.
4. Write a note inviting a friend to stay for the weekend and suggesting some places you might visit together.
5. Explain what the two candidates for jobs described bellow ignore:
a. A nineteen years old Romanian was fretting restlessly in the secretary’s office of a firm, nervously biting his nails. He was waiting for his first job interview. When his turn came, however, the secretary said that the interview was off.
b. It was his first Christmas in Jamestown and Dan was very happy. He had received ten confirmation calls to the 60 CVs he had sent to would-be employers. All callers had hung up with “we’ll keep in touch after Christmas”. But Christmas had passed for a long time and Dan is still waiting for his first job interview.
6. If you were an interviewer, in which order would you ask questions on the issues bellow:
• ways of improving company activities
• present duties
• reasons for applying and educational background
• leadership position
7. Write a letter of application to an advertising company which has published in the local newspaper the specifications for the position of copywriter.
8. Write a C.V. to be put on the Internet for all those who offer scholarships to the students in social communication and public relations.
9. Write a letter of application for the job of head of a certain department in a television (mention which one), and enclose your C.V. Be as convincing as possible.
10. Discuss all the necessary documents to be sent to a firm for employment. Explain why you have to send each of them.
B. Grammar tests.
B1. Translate into English:
Ar trebui să-l scrie. Trebuie să-l scrie. A putut să-l scrie. Se poate să-l fi scris. Probabil că l-a scris. Ar fi putut să-l scrie. Poate să-l scrie. Va putea să-l scrie. Ar putea să-l scrie. Va trebui să-l scrie. S-ar putea să-l scrie. Ar fi trebuit să-l scrie. Nu era nevoie să-l scrie. Nu i s-a permis să-l scrie.
B2. Translate the following text and comment upon the modal verbs in italic:
Strether hesitated. “No – she’s not well, I’m sorry to have to tell you”.
“Ah”, said Chad, “I must have had the instinct of it. All the more reason then that we should start straight off”.
Strether had now got together hat, gloves and stick, but Chad had dropped on the sofa as if to show he wished he would make his point. He kept observing his companion’s things; he might have been judging how quickly they could be packed. He might even have wished to hint that he would send his own servant to assist.
B3. Provide an alternative sentence beginning with the words in bold:
a. I think he should leave at once. It’s time …………
b. John thinks he knows all the answers. He talks as if …………
c. I would like you to clean the blackboard instead of telling jokes. I’d rather …………
d. Why didn’t you tell me first thing in the morning? I wish …………
e. My sister is getting married to a crook. I hope she’ll change her mind. If only…………
f. John wants to play the piano in order to earn money. He wants to play the piano in order that …………
g. I will tell him the truth to avoid being punished. I’ll tell the truth for fear that …………
h. Go change that dress immediately! I insist that …………
i. It would be better for you not to obey the order. You had better …………
j. How about teaching them a lesson? I suppose …………
B4. Choose the correct form:
1. What do you usually do in your free time?
a. I am swimming and reading a lot.
b. I go swimming and do a lot of reading.
c. I have been swimming and reading a lot.
d. I am always reading and swimming.
2. Why do you feel so tired now?
a. I have been working too much recently.
b. We painted our flat.
c. I am being ill so I am receiving treatment.
d. I have got a flu.
3. Thank you for the lovely dinner. This roast … … …
a. tastes superb.
b. is tasting superb.
c. has superb taste.
d. has been tasting superb.
4. I wonder … … …to make it.
a. how long it did take
b. how long did it take
c. how long it took
d. how long took
5. Here you are at last! … … …for you for 35 minutes.
a. I have been waiting
b. I have waited
c. I had been waiting
d. I waited
6. He … … …to me about his future plans over a year ago.
a. has spoken
b. had last spoken
c. last spoke
d. recently spoke
7. The parties … … …agreement last week if they had had more time.
a. must reach
b. could reach
c. could have reached
d. might reach
8. I am sorry I haven’t given you a ring, I … … …too busy over the past week.
a. was
b. have been
c. had been
d. am
9. It is high time … … …where to go this summer.
a. you will decide
b. you decided
c. you should decide
d. for deciding
10. If you … … …decide very soon, you will end up staying at home.
a. won’t
b. don’t
c. wouldn’t
d. aren’t to
11. It’s a pity you didn’t come to England. As you … … …there before, you would have enjoyed every minute of the trip.
a. weren’t
b. haven’t been
c. hadn’t been
d. had been
12. I … … …her something confidential, but I changed my mind.
a. was to tell
b. wanted to say
c. was going to tell
d. was going to say
13. … … …half of the villa had burnt down.
a. By the time the firemen arrived
b. By the time the firemen had arrived
c. When the firemen arrived
d. When the firemen had arrived
14. When you … … …him again you will surely notice the difference in his appearance.
a. see
b. will see
c. are going to see
d. are seeing
15. He said he … … …to go to the theatre as he had seen Hamlet three times.
a. didn’t want
b. doesn’t want
c. wouldn’t
d. won’t
16. I … … …that my teeth are in a bad state.
a. told
b. am said
c. have been told
d. have been said
17. I … … …it was a good idea, but now it is too late.
a. wouldn’t think
b. think hardly
c. don’t think
d. mustn’t think
18. I wonder what the problem is. The guests … … …come about seven.
a. should
b. ought to
c. should have
d. ought to have to
19. Your hair is very untidy. You … … ….
a. can have it cut.
b. need have it cut.
c. should have it cut
d. need cutting.
20. I wish John … … …drink so much at every party.
a. did not
b. does not
c. would not
d. not to
C. Communication theories.
1. Write an essay explaining the general pattern of communication and the critics addressed to it.
2. Explain in an essay the resemblance and the differences between propaganda and persuasion.
3. Write on two columns the arguments for and against mass culture.
4. Explain in no more than 100 words the special features of a media institution.
5. Give the definitions of magazines and newspapers and explain the concepts.
6. Try to give definitions of radio and television and sustain your opinion about these media.
7. Try to find interesting data and write down a brief history of one of the media.
8. Discuss in one page the ethics of media.
D. Vocabulary practice.
D1. Translate into English:
1. Profesiile necesită o pregătire specială. Meseriile necesită muncă manuală calificată.
2. Zidarii, zugravii, geamgii, dulgherii, electricienii, instalatorii şi tâmplarii lucrează cu toţii să construiască o casă.
3. Economiştii sunt specializaţi în management, marketing, comerţ, finanţe sau contabilitate.
4. La aceste birouri sunt angajaţi funcţionari, dactilografe şi secretare.
5. Avocatul apărării s-a întâlnit cu avocatul acuzării şi cei doi au hotărât să ceară schimbarea judecătorului.
6. Regizorul, actorii şi actriţele au făcut grevă pentru că nu erau plătiţi suficient.
7. Mecanicul de locomotivă s-a plâns şoferului de taxi că are o muncă foarte grea.
8. Ţesătoarea a dus pânza croitoresei care a făcut o rochie frumoasă şi apoi s-a întâlnit cu pălărierul pentru ca acesta să facă o pălărie potrivită.
D2. Translate into English:
Puţine întreprinderi au ca scop comunicarea. Majoritatea întreprinderilor au un alt scop: de a vinde un produs sau serviciu, de a satisface o nevoie socială, de a realiza planuri sau de a duce unele politici. Şi totuşi, pentru a face toate acestea, întreprinderile consumă enorm de mult timp, energie şi bani comunicând. Oamenii din întreprinderi comunică în multe feluri: de la om la om, discuţii în doi, în grupuri neofociale, în şedinţe, oral, la telefon, în scris, cu ajutorul calculatoarelor sau terminalelor, prin scrisori şi rapoarte. Toate aceste metode alcătuiesc aşa-zisa comunicare verbală.
D3. Translate into Romanian and comment upon the following text:
Business writing is a craft, not an art form. Like carpentry and knitting, it can be learnt even by those of us who have no particular artistic skill. As a craft, it has a heavy reliance on formulas, a wide use of graphics, and an intense awareness of purpose and audience. These formulas make the business writer more organised and the information conveyed more easily accessible to the reader. They also help speed possible, the writer won’t wait for inspiration, we’ll have a formula at hand for any information to be transmitted.
D4. Explain the differences between the following verbs:
- to declare and to pronounce;
- to affirm and to allege;
- to explain and to elucidate;
- to notice and to perceive.
VIII. WHAT IS PUBLIC RELATIONS?
A. Pro and against written discourses; oral debates
People write and talk a lot during their lifetime. They write in order to express attitudes and thoughts for people who are not around them, to keep their ideas into a more fixed and organised form, to transmit information over ages. They talk with another person who is near them or in groups, in order to persuade, to confess or to express emotions.
A1. Comment upon the following basic concepts applied both to the written and to the oral communication, and give examples:
• Opinion – conception of your values and attitudes;
• Argument – expression of a belief to be sustained by offering at least one reason for influencing a person/a group of persons over that fact;
• Reason – link between pieces of information;
• Definition – presentation of the key terms clearly, precisely, objectively;
• Types of definitions – logical, figurative, developed;
• How to define – by attributing features
- by analysing parts
- by comparing and contrasting
- by giving examples
- by formulating functions
• Ways of persuading – arguments through definition
- arguments from cause to effect
- arguments through circumstances
- arguments through comparison
- arguments through proofs
- continuations of the other types
A2. Read the following pro and against discourses on the theme of the importance of hiding inside one’s self in PR and try to write one opinion pro and one against on one of the topics indicated below:
a. Ever since the birth of this field, Public Relations have been naturally linked to the idea of communication, and this ability of the PR practitioners has been continuously cultivated and speculated all through the short history of this activity. Yet, overwhelmed by this “fever” of communication, most of the PR specialists ignore a major compound of their success: the need of hiding inside one’s self.
This concept may seem contradictory for the PR field only if wrongly associated with the idea of alienation. The fact is that hiding inside one’s self, so much promoted in Antiquity by the great philosopher Seneca, is equal to the dissimulation of one’s own ego, which means covering up one’s true personality so as to create an appearance meant to serve one’s purpose.
Regarded from this perspective, hiding inside one’s self becomes a vital element in PR, as it paradoxically represents the very essence of the persuasion attempt. The explanation of this situation lies in the fact that the person who is to be persuaded must not be aware of the real thoughts and feelings of the PR agent, but only of those “truths” which serve the best the goals of a certain organisation. By the nature of his/her job, the PR practitioner is not allowed to promote his/her own image, but he/she is supposed to build up and represent the image of the organisation he/she works for. This extraordinary ability of dissimulation can only be achieved by means of hiding inside one’s self.
As a conclusion of this short speech in favour of hiding inside one’s self, it is remarkable how a famous adage, belonging to a great antique philosopher, has “lived” over so many centuries to prove itself still valid and become nowadays one of the main principles of a very modern activity – Public Relations. Hopefully, someday all PR practitioners will become aware of the importance of dissimulation, which does not restrict communication, but adapt it to a certain goal.
b. The short speech below is meant to plead for the absolute necessity of fighting against a psychic phenomenon, which stands for a real danger for the fluency of human communication and, consequently, threatens the Public Relations field, as well; this harmful phenomenon is known as hiding inside one's self.
Due to its specific role of immaterial link which creates and mediates all kinds of relationships between people, communication is considered nowadays to have been the most important condition for the evolution of the humankind, ever since its birth. Men and women are born to communicate, as they are both physically and spiritually endowed with this ability. Consequently, they are permanently involved into this interactive process, the purpose of which is getting accustomed to and informed about the world outside, on one hand, and becoming self-aware, on the other hand.
As for the Public Relations field, communication stands for the very essence of this activity, which means building up one’s image by means of persuasion. Public Relations need communication to exist, therefore a good PR specialist must have a great ability to communicate. This is the reason why all the practitioners of this profession must be aware that their most dangerous common enemy is the so-called hiding inside one’s self, which is the very opposite of communicating.
Life in the modern world, dominated by stress and tension, may, sometimes, give birth to the natural temptation of running away from the harmful world outside and hide inside one’s self, in search of an ultimate refuge. Unfortunately, this apparent escape is hardly a solution for the person in trouble, as it doesn’t actually lead to a peaceful living, but to gradual alienation. Hiding inside one’s self means “enclosing” one’s personality and this permanent state of mind is able to inhibit one’s communication abilities step by step. Spiritually, such a person lives in a world of his/her own, dominated by solitude, which tends to reject any exterior influence and, finally, this person becomes unable to connect people and have normal relationships.
“Hide as you can inside yourself”, as the great Latin philosopher Seneca advised, is the principle that “kills” communication, which is almost vital for all human beings and extremely important for the Public Relations field, as explained above. Therefore, unlike other people, the PR practitioner has never got the right to submit to this temptation of hiding inside his/her self, in order not to lose the communication abilities and become unsuitable for this job.
Suggested topics:
1. Fantasy is worthier than knowledge.
2. The pen is more powerful than the sword.
3. Schools destroy the personality.
4. The place of the woman is in the kitchen.
5. The engine of society is selfishness.
6. Marriage is an obstacle in personal development.
7. Exams should be abolished.
8. We live in an immoral world.
9. Divide et impera.
10. You’d better grow cabbage than roses.
A3. The oral communication differs from the written communication through the features mentioned below. Comment upon them and try to give examples.
a. Oral communication is direct, that is the source and the receiver are placed in the same physical and mental environment, interacting without any obstacle. The advantage is the effectiveness of transmitting and decoding the message, because of the speed of the feedback; the disadvantage is the appearance of certain barriers like complexes, shyness, powerful position of one of the speakers.
b. Oral communication is personal, all the speakers are present there in full personality, even if the link between them is formal. The non-verbal language sometimes unwillingly transmits even things which are censored by the speaker. The advantage is the possibility of a better understanding because of the empathy; the disadvantage is the need for a high degree of self control, as we can never direct vivid discussions.
c. Oral communication is irreversible, it cannot be repeated. “Verba volant”, says the Latin proverb. So, it is more flexible than written communication and the instant should be caught for convincing the others or negotiating with the others.
A4. Rules for a debate:
• two teams of three members;
• a referee;
• a moderator;
• a person who measures the time.
Conditions for the contest:
• each member of each team talks once, first the heads of the groups, then the second member of each group, then the persons drawing the conclusions;
• each speaker greets the audience, introduces himself/herself, expresses his/her point of view, with arguments, defines the key words in the argumentation, answers the counter-arguments of the opposite team;
• the audience can ask questions after each intervention and the person who has been asked should answer briefly;
• the moderator has the right to interrupt the speakers only if the rules are broken. The observations of the moderators and the referees are to become public in the end.
Try to exercise debate with your friends, on one of the topics mentioned above.
B. Infinitive and Gerund
In the exercises and texts above we often used Infinitive and Gerund. We should discuss in this part of the course the way in which they look and behave, the verbs requiring exclusively Infinitive or Gerund and the situations in which both of them can occur, but with differences in meaning.
B1. Let’s compare the forms and usage of the Infinitive and Gerund.
Forms of the Infinitive:
• Long Infinitive (with the particle “to”); e. g. to be, to have, to do;
• Short Infinitive (without the particle “to”); used after the modal verbs (can, may, must, etc) and the causative verbs (to help, to make, to let; e.g.: He helps me do this.);
• Split Infinitive (with an adverb between “to” and the verb; e.g.: to clearly understand).
Tense, aspect, voice of the Infinitive
Tense Simple Aspect Continuous Aspect
Active Voice Passive Voice Active Voice
Present
Perfect wash
a spăla
have washed
a fi spălat be washed
a fi spălat
have been washed
a fi fost spălat be washing
a spăla
have been washing
a fi spălat
The noun features of the Infinitive:
• At the beginning of a sentence, the Infinitive can be a subject: To err is human.
• After nouns, the Infinitive can be an attribute: He is not the man to do it.
• After copulative verbs, the Infinitive can be a predicative: To see her is to like her.
Accusative with the Infinitive
Verb Accusative Infinitive
I 1. I want, I would like
2. I allow, order
3. I think, suppose, know, suspect, imagine, believe…
4. I wait for him I. long form
to go
II 1. I see, hear
2. I make, let, (help)
I shall have (= have cauzativ = îl pun să) him II. short form
come
Examples:
I know him to be clever = ştiu că e deştept
to be reading now citeşte
to have finished yesterday a terminat
to have been reading at seven citea
Nominative with the Infinitive
Nominative Verb Long Infinitive
He I. Passive
1. is allowed, ordered, etc. = i se permite, i se ordonă, etc.
2. is known, is supposed = se ştie, se presupune
3. is seen, heard
4. is made, let
5. is said, reported = se spune
II. Active
seems = pare
happens = se întâmplă ca…
appears = se pare
proves, turns out = se dovedeşte
is likely = e posibil
is unlikely = e puţin probabil
to go
to be a thief
He is known to come today, tomorrow
is said to be reading now
seems to have finished yesterday
to have been reading at five
Gerund
Tense Voice
Active Voice Passive Voice
Present
Perfect
I enjoy learning English
Îmi place să învăţ engleza.
He denies having taken the books.
Neagă că a luat cărţile. He cannot stand being interrupted.
Nu poate suferi să fie întrerupt.
He denies having been invited to the party.
Neagă că a fost invitat la petrecere.
Gerund can have the following functions:
• Independent expressions: generally speaking.
• Subject: Loving the children means being a good person.
• Predicative: He stood gazing at the brightly lit shop windows.
• Attribute: She looked at the children playing in the garden.
• Complement: She heard somebody knocking at the door.
Verbs that compulsory require an Infinitive in the complement:
agree, appear, arrange, ask, claim, consent, decide, demand, expect, fail, hesitate, hope, intend, learn, manage, need, offer, plan, prepare, pretend, promise, refuse, seem, tend, threaten, wait.
Example: I agree to come with you tomorrow – right
I agree coming with you tomorrow – wrong
Verbs and verb phrases that compulsory require an –ing form in the complement:
admit, appreciate, avoid, complete, consider, delay, deny, discuss, enjoy, finish, keep, mention, miss, postpone, practice, quit, recall, recommend, regret, risk, stop, suggest, tolerate, understand, approve of, be better off, can’t help, count on, do not mind, forget about, get through, insist on, keep on, look forward to, object to, think about, think of.
Example: I am looking forward to seeing you – right
I am looking forward to see you – wrong
Verbs that admit both Infinitive and Gerund, but have differences in meaning:
Verb, noun, adjective +Infinitive +Gerund
Meaning Example Meaning Example
hate, like, dislike, prefer - referring to a certain occasion I hate to get up early on Mondays. - the action in general I hate getting up early.
remember, forget - following action I must remember to post the letter. - previous action I remember posting the letter.
regret - action which is simultaneous with the regret I regret to say it wasn’t true. - action which has been previous to the regret I regret saying it wasn’t true.
begin, cease - involuntary action It began to rain.
He began to realise the mistake. - voluntary action He began writing when he was 50.
stop - the purpose of the action He stopped to talk to her. - the end of the action He stopped talking to her.
continue, dread, fear, intend, neglect - colloquial I intend to spend the holidays at the seaside. - correct written English I intend spending my holiday at the seaside.
deserve, need, require, want + Passive Voice His statement needs to be checked. +Active Voice His shoes need mending.
try - to make an effort Try to write with your left hand. - to pass through an experiment He tried writing with his left hand when he was a child.
mean - to intend I meant to tell you but I forgot. - to have a meaning This means war.
allow, permit + Indirect Object He doesn’t allow pupils to talk during tests. - without Indirect Object He doesn’t allow talking during tests.
opportunity - good occasion This will be a good opportunity for you to meet him. - possibility I had the opportunity of meeting him.
afraid - in a certain situation I am afraid to disturb him at this late hour. - in general I can’t play records here as I am afraid of disturbing him.
B2. Exercises:
a. Put the verbs in brackets at the correct Long or Short Infinitive:
1. He has decided (become) a mechanic. 2. Will you (come) to the theatre with me? 3. You ought (revise) for your exams this week. 4. We can (wait) for you here. 5. I saw them (cross) the street. 6. I asked her (repeat) the question. 7. I’d rather (wait) for you outside. 8. He is (return) tomorrow. 9. They were seen (compare) notes. 10. This book is too difficult for her (understand).
b. Put the verbs in brackets at the correct Infinitive or Gerund:
1. I will remember (give) your mother your message. 2. I remember (meet) him at your birthday last year. 3. Please stop (interrupt) me in the middle of a sentence. 4. He stopped (talk) to his former pupils. 5. Did you forget (give) him that message? 6. I definitely recall (leave) my coat in this room. 7. I like (cycle). 8. I like (walk) in the rain. 9. I meant (tell) you, but I forgot. 10. He tried (sell) newspapers, (work) in a café and various other jobs before he took up (write).
B3. Translations:
a. 1. Sunt sigur că argumentele mele o vor face să se răzgândească. 2. L-am sfătuit să renunţe la slujba aceea. 3. Am auzit-o pe Carolina cântând aseară la concert; nu m-am aşteptat să aibă o voce atât de frumoasă. 4. Le voi permite copiilor să meargă la plimbare mâine dimineaţă. 5. I-am cerut să nu spună nimănui ceea ce vedea acolo. 6. Nu are nici o scuză că a întârziat. 7. Mulţumesc că m-ai ajutat să găsesc acest hotel. 8. Ei au insistat să mă duc acolo în seara aceea. 9. Faptul că îi ştie numele este surprinzător. 10. Se gândeşte să participe totuşi la acest concurs.
b. Că, vezi, mintea e însetată de priceperea lucrurilor, de pătrunderea tainelor; şi osânda de a înfrânge această sete, de a trăi fără potolirea ei, însemna osânda de a te întoarce la una din formele trecute, de care natura n-a fost mulţumită, înseamnă osânda de a ucide în tine tocmai însuşirea cu adevărat şi cu deosebire omenească. (I.Al.Brătescu-Voineşti – Cele mai vechi amintiri).
B4. a . Write about the future plans you have for your life and career, using as many Infinitive and Gerund forms as you can.
b. Write about things you should and things you shouldn’t do (dos and don’ts) while sustaining a public speech.
C. What is public relations?
C1. Read, translate and comment upon the following text, explaining the role of the Pr specialist in the modern society. Discuss the key words and give examples of situations in which they can be applied effectively:
Humankind has at its disposal tools of communication so swift, so abundant, and so pervasive that their potential has not been fully comprehended yet. Messages flash around the world by satellite within seconds. Computers produce almost instantaneous calculations and pour out information at the rate of thousand of words a minute. Immense warehouses of information stored in electronic databases are available at the touch of a keyboard.
Yet in the midst of this information revolution, and in the general agreement that we live in a “global information society”, misunderstanding, lack of comprehension and antagonism abound. Time after time, a crisis or conflict is caused by the failure to communicate effectively.
Research and analysis have also provided knowledge of the motivation behind individual behaviour, highlighting the dynamics of group conduct and the sociological factors that create conflict among different groups. Our tools and accumulated knowledge, however, far surpass our ability to harness the concepts for effective conflict resolution, negotiation and compromise among groups that take different sides on such varying issues as economic development and preservation of the environment, abortion, cigarette smoking, etc.
More than ever, nowadays the world needs not more information but more sensitive communicators who can explain the goals and methods of organisations, individuals and governments to others, in a socially responsible manner. Equally, these experts in communication and public opinion must provide their employers with knowledge of what others are thinking, to guide them in setting their policies wisely for the common good.
Patrick Jackson, a former president of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and publisher of PR Reporter, makes the case for this role of the public relations field:
“As soon as there was Eve and Adam, there were relationships, and in every society, no matter how small or primitive, public communication occurs, needs and problems inevitably emerge and must be solved. Public relations is devoted to the essential function of building and improving human relationships.”
People often define public relations by some of its most visible techniques and tactics, such as advertising in a newspaper, television interviews with the spokespersons of certain organisations, or the appearance of a celebrity at a special event. What people fail to understand is that public relations is a process involving many subtle and far reaching aspects. It includes research and analysis, policy formation, programming, communication towards and feedback from numerous publics. Its practitioners operate on two distinct levels – advisors for their clients and technicians who produce and disseminate messages in multiple media channels.
There have been formulated many definitions over the years, from the simple to the complex:
• Good performance, publicity appreciated;
• PR stands for Performance and then Recognition;
• Doing good and getting credit for it;
• “Public relations is the deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics”. (“The British Institute of Public Opinion”, whose definition has been adopted in a number of Commonwealth nations);
• “Public relations is the conscious and legitimate effort to achieve understanding and the establishment and maintenance of trust among the public on the basis of systematic research” (“Deutsche Public Relations Gesellschaft” of Germany);
• “Public relations practice is the art and social science of analyzing trends, predicting their consequences, counseling organisation leaders and implementing planned programmes of action which serve both the organisation’s and the public’s interest”. (definition approved at “the World Assembly of Public Relations” in Mexico City in 1978 and endorsed by 34 national public relations organisations).
The key words to remember in defining public relations follow:
Deliberate. Pubic relations activity is intentional. It is designed to influence, gain understanding, provide information, and obtain feedback (reaction from those affected by the activity).
Planned. Public relations activity is organised. Solutions to problems are discovered and logistics are thought out, with the activity taking place over a period of time. It is systematic, requiring research and analysis.
Performance. Effective public relations is based on actual policies and performance. No amount of public relations will generate goodwill and support if the organisation is unresponsive to community concerns. A Pacific Northwest timber company, despite an advertising campaign with the theme “For Us, Everyday is Earth Day”, became known as the villain of Washington State because of its insistence on logging old-growth forests and bulldosing a logging road into a prime elk habitat.
Public Interest. The reason for any public relations activity is to serve the public interest, and not simply to achieve benefits for the organisation. Ideally, the public relations activity is mutually beneficial to the organisation and the public; it is the alignment of the organisation’s self-interests with the public’s concerns and interests. For example, the Mobil Corporation sponsors quality programming on public television because it enhances the image of the company; by the same token, the public benefits from the availability of such programming.
Two-Way Communication. Dictionary definitions often give the impression that public relations consists only of the dissemination of informational materials. It is equally important, however, that the definitions include feedback from audiences. The ability to listen is an essential part of communication expertise.
Management Function. Public relations is most effective when it is part of the decision making of top management. Public relations involves counseling and problem solving at high levels, not just the releasing of information after a decision has been made. Public relations is defined by Denny Griswold, founder and owner of PR News, as “ the management function which evaluates public attitudes, identifies the policies and procedures of an organisation with the public interest, and executes a programme of action (and communication) to earn public understanding and acceptance.”
C2. Consider the following text about the roots of public relations as a model, summarise it and try to give other examples of the kind:
Public relations is a twentieth-century phenomenon whose roots extend deep into history; in a sense it is as old as human communication itself. In succeeding civilisations, such as those of Babylonia, Greece, and Rome, people were persuaded to accept the authority of government and religion through techniques that are still used: interpersonal communication, speeches, art, literature, stage events, publicity, and other such devices. None of these endeavours was called public relations, of course, but their purpose and their effect were the same as those of similar activities today.
• For example, St. John the Baptist himself did superb advance work for Jesus of Nazareth.
• Generating publicity for the Olympics in ancient Athens demanded the same skills as it did in 1984 in Los Angeles.Speech writing in Plato’s time meant the same thing as it does today at Byoir; you must know the composition of your audience, never talk down to them, and impart information that will enlighten their ignorance, change their opinion, or confirm their own good judgements.
• In the eleventh century, throughout the far-flung hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Urban II persuaded thousand of followers to serve God and gain forgiveness of their sins by engaging in the Holy Crusades against the Muslims. Six centuries later, the church was among the first to use the word propaganda, with the establishment by Pope Gregory XV of the College of Propaganda to supervise foreign missions and train priests to propagate the faith.
• Businesses in the Republic of Venice in the latter half of the fifteenth century practised as fine an art of investor relations as IBM does in the United States in the latter half of the twentieth century: perhaps even finer since it was practised one-on-one, face-to-face, every day on the Rialto, just as it was under the spreading elm tree on Wall Street in the early days of the Stock Exchange.
• The stories that the Spanish explorers publicised the never-discovered Seven Cities of Gold, and even the fabled Fountain of Youth, induced others to travel to the New World. Some of the explorers probably believed those stories themselves. Two more blatant deceptions – examples of actions unacceptable to public relations people today – occurred when Eric the Red, in A.D. 1000, discovered a land of ice and rock and, to attract settlers, named it Greenland; and when Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584 sent back glowing accounts of what was actually a swamp-filled Roanoke Island, to persuade other settlers to travel to America.
It is clear, then, that the idea of using all forms of human communication – drama and storytelling among them – to influence the behaviour of other people is nothing new.
C3. Translate the following text, think about the four models of public relations and try to make comments and give examples:
To aid in understanding the history of formal public relations as well as its practice today, Professors James E. Grunig of the University of Maryland and Todd Hunt of Rutgers: The State University of New Jersey have constructed four models of public relations. All four models are practiced today, but the “ideal” one – that in increasing use – is the two-way symmetric model. They explain their models in their 1984 book Managing Public Relations:
Press Agentry/Publicity. Propaganda is the purpose, sought through one-way communication that is often incomplete, distorted, or only partially true. The model is sourcereceiver. Communication is viewed as telling, not listening, and little if any research is undertaken. P.T. Barnum was the leading historical figure during this model’s heyday from 1850 to 1900. Sports, theater, and product promotion are the main field of practice today.
Public Information. Dissemination of information, not necessarily with a persuasive intent, is the purpose. The model is sourcereceiver. Research, if any, is likely to be confined to readability tests or leadership studies. Ivy Lee is the leading historical figure during this model’s early development period from about 1900 into the 1920s. Government, nonprofit associations, and business are primary fields of practice today.
Two-Way Assymetric. Scientific persuasion is the purpose and communication is two-way, with balanced effects. The model is sourcereceiver with feedback ( to the source. Research is both formative, helping to plan an activity and to choose objectives, and evaluative, finding if the object has been met. Ivy Lee is the leading historical figure during the model’s period beginning in the 1920s. Competitive business and public relations firms are the primary places of practice today.
Two-Way Symmetric. Gaining mutual understanding is the purpose, and communication is two-way with balanced effects. The model is groupgroup with feedback (. Formative research is used mainly both to learn how the public perceives the organisation and to determine what consequences the organisation has for the public, resulting in the counseling of management about policies. Evaluative research is used to measure whether a public relations effort has improved both the understanding publics have of the organisation and that which management has of its publics.
Edward L. Bernays, educators, and professional leaders have been the main historical figures of the two-way symmetric model, followed by some organisations since the 1960s and 1970s.
One-Way Two-Way
Press Agentry/ Public Two-Way Two-Way
Publicity Information Asymmetrical Symmetrical
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬Purpose Propaganda Dissemination Scientific Mutual
of information persuasion understanding
Organisational Advocacy Dissemination Advocacy Mediation
contribution of information
Nature of One-way; One-way; truth Two-way; Two-way;
communication complete truth important balanced balanced effects
not essential effects
Communication SourceRec. SourceRec. SourceRec. GroupGroup
model (Receiver) feedback
Nature of Little; Little; Formative; Formative;
research “counting readability, evaluative of evaluative of
house” readership attitudes understanding
C4. Public Relations Literature. A measurement of the growth of public relations in the twentieth century also may be found in its literature. From 1900 to 1928, only two books with “public relations” in their titles were listed in the catalogue Books in Print. Landmark publications include the following books, magazines, reviews:
• 1902: “What Is Publicity?” by H.C. Adams, in the American Review. Perhaps the first magazine article dealing with public relations as a topic.
• 1915: Publicity and Progress, by H.H. Smith.
• 1920: Winning the Public, by S.M. Kennedy.
• 1922: Getting Your Name in Print, by Funk & Wagnalls, the dictionary publisher.
• 1923: Crystallizing Public Opinion, by Edward L. Bernays. The first book to reach a wide audience about how public relations can be used to shape public opinion.
• 1924: Public Relations: A Handbook of Publicity, by John C. Long.
• 1944: Founding of Public Relations Journal, the monthly magazine of the Public Relations Society of America.
• 1947: Practical Public Relations, by Rex Harlow and Marvin Black. Perhaps the first regular public relations textbook.
• 1949: Public Relations in Management, by J. Handly Wright and Byron H. Christian. The first attempt to link public relations with management.
• 1952: Effective Public Relations, by Scott Cutlip and Allen Center. The best-known basic textbook for many years.
• Social Science Reporter, founded by Rex F. Harlow. The first newsletter in the field to emphasize the relationship between public relations and applied social science theory.
• 1955: Founding of Public Relations Quarterly.
• Social Science in Public Relations, by Rex F. Harlow. The first book applying social science theory to public relations.
• 1970: Founding of IABC Communication World, monthly magazine of the International Association of Business Communicators.
• 1974: Founding of Public Relations Review, first quarterly refereed journal in public relations. By the Foundation for Public Relations Education and Research.
• 1976: Founding of IPRA Review, first magazine devoted to international public relations. By the International Public Relations Association.
• 1989: Founding of Public Relations Research Annual, edited by James E. Grunig and Larissa A. Grunig.
• 1992: Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management, edited by James E. Grunig. The results of a massive research study sponsored by IABC that lays out a general theory of contemporary public relations.
Try to find at least one of the books and articles mentioned on the list, read it and write a summary of it. Try to compare the book you have succeeded too analyse with those of your colleagues. Can you notice an evolution of the printed materials in the field? In which way? How do you think the domain will evolve in the future?
D. Vocabulary Practice
D1.Do the following exercises:
a. Combine the following sentences so that they should form a very short story:
Annie was a very good painter.
The street was quite empty.
Mr. Brown kept on saying: “Somebody has stolen my easel”.
It was a cold winter night.
She painted only landscapes and ancient houses.
At last Mr. Brown left for a weekend in the mountains.
Annie entered the studio and took some of his brushes, a water colour box and the easel.
The story could not have a happy end.
He realised at once what had happened in his absence.
Mr. Brown was a gray-haired gentleman, black-spectacled and kind-hearted.
However, Annie kept silence.
In his youth, Mr. Brown had been a clever sketcher.
She was forced to tell the truth.
b. Imagine a dialogue between Mr. Wakefield and his wife in the text below:
“Let us now imagine Wakefield bidding adieu to his wife. It is the dusk of an October evening. His equipment is a drab greatcoat, a hat covered with an oilcloth, top-boots, an umbrella in one hand and a small port-manteau in the other. He has informed Mrs. Wakefield that he is to take the night coach into the country. She would fain inquire the length of his journey, its object, and the probable time of his return; but, indulgent to his harmless love of mistery, interrogates him only by a look. He tells her not to expect him positively by the return coach, nor to be alarmed should he tarry three or four days; but at all events, to look for him at supper on Friday evening.” (“Wakefield”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne)
D2. Match the words listed below with the dictionary definitions which follow:
shareholders, dividends, strategic, tactical, expertise, eminent, frequently, obligations, remuneration, delegation, curtness, co-ordinate, diversify, objectives, take-over, integrity, executive, enterprise, administration, conflicting, majority, arbitrary, initiate, compliance, generalist.
1. To avoid the situation where all the eggs are in one basket.
2. Someone in a position of authority.
3. An undertaking with a view to profit.
4. The quality of being reliable and straightforward.
5. Brevity to the point of rudeness.
6. Payments made to those who own the equity of a company.
7. To bring together effectively.
8. The decision which chooses the direction in which the company is going.
9. The part of a business concerned with day-to-day problems.
10. Opposing or varying
11. Meeting with the set requirements.
12. Someone who is able to contribute to a business in a variety of its departments.
13. Having a reputation in a particular branch of business, such as law.
14. The sort of decision which is not based on facts.
15. The opposite of rights.
16. Targets or goals.
17. To commence or start.
18. More than half, for example, of votes cast.
19. Part proprietors of a company. Those who collectively own the equity.
20. Specialised skill or knowledge.
21. A description for salary, usually reserved for more senior officers.
22. The act of giving authority to one’s subordinates, while retaining the responsibility for the outcome.
23. The situation when a majority of a company’s voting shares are acquired by outsiders.
24. Occurring often.
25. The decision which concerns using the resources which have been allocated to the best possible effect.
D3. Using the verbs to look for, to seek and to search, translate the following sentences into English:
a. Caută bine, sunt sigură că l-am pus acolo!
b. Ce cauţi? Pot să te ajut?
c. Ei, ai găsit ce-ai căutat, ce să-i faci!
d. Hai să căutăm bine prin toate sertarele.
e. La treizeci de ani Buddha a plecat în căutarea înţelepciunii.
f. O echipă de salvare a şi plecat deja în căutarea echipajului pierdut.
g. După ce l-au căutat bine prin buzunare i-au dat drumul.
h. Am scotocit toate hârtiile degeaba, n-am găsit ce căutam.
i. Te-am căutat prin mulţime dar nu te-am găsit.
j. Se pare că o cauţi cu lumânarea, o s-o încurci!
Keep in mind the following expressions:
to look for trouble/work, to look for a needle in a haystack, to look for a mare’s nest, to seek happiness/remedy/solutions/wisdom, to search for a book/a key, to search in many places for; search light, search party, search warrant; to search one’s conscience/heart, to search after the truth, to search to the bottom.
D4. Find synonyms and opposites for the following words:
mobile, public, to confirm, to reveal, to distinguish, to decline, rashly, autocratically, decisively, purposefully.
IX. WHO IS THE IMAGE BUILDER?
A. Rules of a written article.
A1. Read and comment this text about the reporter and his role in the journalistic process.
The meetings of the newspaper or magazine board resemble the business meetings. Round a table, the persons in the high part of the hierarchy analyse offers, negotiate and make plans. The page must be filled up. The heads of departments suggest topics and articles. They decide what should appear on specialised pages and on general interest pages. Priorities are to be established. This is a process taking place every day
As a rule, reporters are specialised on certain topics. They are responsible, alone or in small groups, of the relationships with the police, the hospitals, the courts of law, the political parties, the parliament, the government, the counties, the sportsmen, etc. Their work is often repetitive, it has nothing in common with the adventures seen in the films about reporters. It is about the same and the same press conferences, the same old faces and sources, nothing new. Though, the gift of the journalist consists in discovering interesting things in daily routine.
The qualities of a reporter:
• the sense of the news (the “flair”);
• the sense of urgency;
• the capacity to meet the deadlines for delivery of materials;
• the capacity to fit into a given space;
• the good sense in the selection of the most significant details of an event and even in selecting what is or is not worth including in a newspaper material;
• the obsession of precision and accuracy;
• the tolerance (all the persons coming in touch with reporters should be treated in the same way, without irritation and prejudices);
• the capacity to change registers (a good reporter succeeds not to disagree with the interlocutors);
• the ability to listen;
• the curiosity;
• the perseverance;
• the ability to write about facts, not suppositions (a common temptation for journalists is to rapidly launch suppositions, without verifying the information).
A2. Read and comment upon this passage about the journalistic text:
Is there a manner of writing which is specific to the journalists in presenting the events? Are there ways of conceiving the articles for the newspapers? Has the journalistic text a specific, allowing us to talk about a journalistic discourse?
It is obvious for anyone who reads a short story, a letter or a report that they are not to be found in a newspaper as autonomous journalistic materials. Both the report and the letter could be support elements for an article, but the journalistic text could only be the reportage, the investigation, the interview. This observation makes us reach the conclusion that there are certain particularities of the journalistic text. We expect to find in a newspaper exciting and coherent texts, signed by professionals, informing us about the newsworthy events. We also expect to read texts which are conceived in a certain manner, so the presence of short stories, letters or reports in a newspaper would amaze us.
The final form of the journalistic text is the result of the activity of collecting, selecting, making hierarchies and condensing the information. The newspaper article does not offer rough information, as it is filtered in order to respond to the expectations of the audience. The filtering of the information is not accomplished by chance, it is a scientific process, taking into account the nature of the information, the channel of transmission and the type of text the author has the intention to write (news, reportage, investigation, interview, comment). Albert Kientz offers a general model of dealing with the information in the written press, using as analysis criteria for filtering the information: (1) the originality of the message; (2) the intelligibility of the message; (3) the degree of involvement of the audience; (4) the psychological depth of the information. What is originality in the journalistic practice? The informative press considers as being newsworthy only the unexpected, unusual pieces of information, which transmit changes of a tradition and modify the common perception of reality. The second criterion for dealing with the information refers to the degree of intelligibility of the message. The journalist will avoid abstract terms, long sentences, complicated syntactical structures, inversions. For retaining the information they use key words and redundancies. The evaluation of the information according to the degree of involvement of the audience is accomplished taking into account the types of reactions certain news might provoke (immediate or delayed reactions). This factor will make the journalist choose the genre and the length of the article. The fourth criterion in dealing with the information refers to the impact it has over the public mentality. The deeper the information gets into the human minds, the greater the possibility to be retained. That is why the sensational press addressing to wide categories of public use themes as violence, sex, family life, which have great impact. Information about economic, social, political issues affect superficial levels of human minds, being intended for the educated public.
A3. Read, translate and comment upon the following article from The Times and try to conceive an article about the daily activities of the President of Romania:
Alan Hamilton watches the Queen venture into a strange world of trainers and plastic washing-up bowls
Those determined to portray the monarch as a people’s Queen could hardly have designed a more populist day out for her yesterday: she spent the morning in Ellesmere Port, shopping for kitchenware and a pair of trainers, sustaining herself with a visit to a drive-in McDonald’s.
Being the Queen, she bought neither canvas shoes nor plastic washing-up bowl, and no Big Mac passed the royal lips. But as an exercise in carefully stage-managed window-shopping, it opened the eyes of both Sovereign and subjects.
Her visit to the Cheshire Oaks Designer Outlet Village fitted the new pattern that has emerged to counter criticisms of remoteness that surfaced after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. Typically on an away day, the Queen now meets far more ordinary people in everyday situations and far fewer flunkeys.
As the royal limousine drew up outside the burger bar, there seemed a momentary danger that the Queen might have to go inside to learn the mysteries of Quarter-Pounders and Chicken McNuggets; but she was spared, and her meeting was restricted to meeting the staff on the pavement outside. She looked a mite glum.
Pausing briefly to talk to members of a shopping motability group, and to be told that it would cost her £3 to hire a battery wheelchair, the Queen decided to walk, first to Whittard’s Coffee and Kitchenware store to browse among the utensils. “She was fascinated by the plastic bowls; she couldn’t make out what they were made of”, the manageress Katie Bellis said later. The shop presented her with a green glass bowl and some barbecue tools, which may yet find employment at Balmoral.
The royal shopping entourage moved on to the Reebok store, where she engaged the manager Darryl Peacock in conversation on the latest in sports shoes. “I asked if she would like to buy a pair, but she just smiled. She did take an interest in one sweater which she said Prince Philip might like”, Mr. Peacock reported.
Earlier the Queen, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, had toured the nearby Blue Planet aquarium, the largest in Britain, to come face to face with a sand tiger shark; fortunately there was stout protective glass between them. The rest of her day, which included visiting a hospital and a power station, seemed deeply traditional by comparison.
A4. Answer the following questions:
a. You receive at the editorial office a press communicate of the miners in the Jiu Valley, announcing the organisation of a meeting in Bucharest during the next day. What steps do you undertake in order to verify the information and to accomplish a complex material?
b. You receive an anonymous telephone informing you that the headquarters of an important political party is on fire. What do you do as a reporter?
c. You are the reporter responsible for the field of public transport at a national newspaper. What sources would you use for obtaining information?
d. Order according to the importance the following topics discussed at the press conference of the mayor:
• critics addressed to the town counselors of the opposition;
• announcement regarding the closing of hot water for two weeks for maintenance works;
• announcement regarding the opening of a new subway station.
Give reasons for your answer.
e. Conceive three pieces of information which could be transformed into articles. Why have you chosen them?
f. Could the description of the Botanical Gardens in Bucharest be a text to be published in an informative newspaper? Why?
B. The Direct and the Indirect Speech
There are only two ways of telling about the sayings of any person: by reproducing his/her words, that is in the Direct Speech, and by re-telling in your own words what the person has said, that is in the Indirect Speech.
In the Direct Speech the words of the person are usually introduced after a coma and between inverted comas: He asked me, “Where is Dan?”. The verb in the reproduced sentence is typically at Present or Present Perfect in the Indicative Mood.
In the Indirect or the Reported Speech, the reproduced sentence re-tells the discourse of the cited man in the third person singular, the clause becoming a direct object of the predicate in the first sentence.
Changes occurring when passing from the Direct to the Indirect Speech:
• The personal, reflexive and possessive pronouns change, according to the meaning, from the first or the second person to the third person.
Example: Tom said to Mary: “You should have asked me first”.
Tom said to Mary that she should have asked her first”.
There are still cases in which the second person singular changes into the first (“You are right, Diana”, Paul said that I was right), or in which the first person remains the same (“I think that we should leave immediately”, I said I thought we should leave immediately).
• The demonstrative adjectives and pronouns of place and time, as well as the adverbs, are changed, so that they express distance not closeness:
this becomes that today becomes that day
these becomes those yesterday becomes the day before
here becomes there tomorrow becomes the next/following day
now becomes then next week becomes the next/following week
last week becomes the previous week/the week before
• The use of tenses is changed, passing from the axis of the present on the axis of the past.
Present changes into Past
Present Perfect and Past Tense change into Past Perfect
Future changes into Future in the Past.
Examples: “I have been waiting for you for three hours”, He said he had been waiting for me for three hours. “It rained yesterday”, He said it had rained the day before.
• The interrogative sentences become affirmative sentences, and the order of the words in the sentence changes into that of the affirmative structures.
Example: “How old are you?”, I am asking you how old you are.
• The exclamatory and imperative sentences change into declarative ones or into infinitive phrases:
Examples: “What a funny joke!”, He exclaimed it was a funny joke.
“Sit down!”, He told Peter to sit down.
B2. Pass the following sentences from the Direct to the Indirect Speech:
a. 1. Mary said to me, “I’d like to go out”; 2. They always say, “These exercises are too difficult for us”; 3. Doris is saying, “Behave yourself, Peter!”; 4. Dan is always saying, “I have left my notebook at home”; 5. The teacher has said to the pupils, “I want to have a look at your homework”; 6. John and Tom are saying, “We haven’t done our homework”; 7. “I am leaving for the seaside tomorrow”; 8. “We watched TV last night”; 9. “We have never been here before”; 10. “I know what the teacher will say”.
b. Where does your father work? Who are your friends? What is your daily programme? What time do you get up in the morning? When did you move to this school? When will you finish school? When did you buy this camera? When are you going to take your first photo? Can they develop your films at the photographer? Do you think the pictures will come out clearly? Will you take pictures of your friends? Will you give me a photo, too?
B3. Translate into English:
a. 1. Elevul l-a înterbat pe director când trebuie să se prezinte la cabinetul său. 2. Funcţionarul ne-a sfătuit să citim atent instrucţiunile înainte să deschidem cutia. 3. Secretara întreabă dacă trebuie să bată la maşină toate rapoartele. 4. Mama mi-a atras atenţia să nu uit de întâlnire. 5. Doctorul ne-a spus că nimeni nu are voie să vorbească cu pacientul până a doua zi. 6. Voia să ştie de ce prietenii mei au plecat aşa de devreme. 7. Bătrânul ne-a spus că el nu încuie niciodată uşa din spate. 8. Profesorul i-a întrebat pe elevi dacă au înţeles lecţia sau nu. 9. George s-a scuzat spunând că nu e vina lui. 10. Profesorul voia să ştie cine a participat la olimpiada de matematică.
b. Translate into English the following dialogue, then change the text into an Indirect Speech:
“Domnul şef se uită de mai multe ori, când la flăcău, când la banii din portofel, şi după o lungă tăcere întrebă:
- Mai era cineva cu tine?
- Nimeni.
- Ai spus la alţii?
- La nimeni. Am venit p-ici pe poteca din dos, drept la dumneavoastră.
Domnul şef tace, apoi:
- Ia ascultă, măi Niculăiţă, parcă aşa te cheamă…
- Aşa.
- Să nu mai spui la nimeni, până nu s-o ivi păgubaşul, că te aude spunând cum e portofelul şi se scoală vreunul şi zice că el l-a pierdut, fără să-l fi pierdut el. Nici mătii, nici lui tat-tu să nu le spui până nu se arată păgubaşul, auzi?
- Auz!
- Bine ai făcut că l-ai adus, bravo! Eşti băiat cinstit. Şi să ştii c-o să spui eu păgubaşului să te cinstească frumos.”
B4. Re-tell an important dialogue you have had lately.
C. Who is the image builder?
C1. Read, translate and comment upon the following text:
Nowadays, image has become a common nourishment for our sensitivity, intelligence and ideologies, leading to the huge increase of the tendency to use certain means of action in order to influence the representations of people; we live inside a “civilisation of the image”, as modern sociologists say.
One should mention that the term “image” does not refer, restrictively, to the material reproduction of a given reality, but to an attribute of the inner self – based on the capacity of the human mind to build up mental representations – of utmost importance for the communicational relationship. So, image can influence the decision-making ability of a person or of a collectivity because, along the history of mankind, life has been related equally to images and to concrete realities.
Lately, the image builder has become a character of huge importance, a well paid person, as it is clear for everybody that it does not matter how good a product is, as long as it has not been imposed over the public consciousness; for this purpose, it should be presented in the most proper light; otherwise, it is lost in an immense mass of anonymous, similar items. The essential idea, which motivates the appearance of this new job, is that a “product” disappears, is not successful on the market, is not successful in the political life not because it is not good but because it is not known.
Robert Wilson, a specialist in the field of public image, who has become vice-president of the Pfitzer corporation, defines exactly this relationship between the image builder and the product of his work: “Mr. President – why should I build an image that will make the people love you? How much will this consume of the enterprise’s budget? Whom do you want to address to? The large audience? The large audience does not exist. There exist only clients.” Another specialist, Herb Schmertz, states: “we sell ideas, we are the managers of an election campaign that never ends”.
In any case, it is not about the work of a clerk, neutral and machine-like, which transfers data from the interior of a system towards its exterior. If things went on like this, efficiency would be zero. The image built after a real creation process, with artistic and scientific co-ordinates, must be vivid, in order to test the imagination of a possible consumer, to provoke a certain reaction, to induce a series of strong beliefs.
For being effective, the image has to evoke something, has to tell something, has to invite, in fact, to a possible and permanent dialogue. For this reason, the image itself will be thought as an open creation, it will contain a great number of messages, bearing in mind the basic principle stating that attention is hard to be retained for a long period of time, and when you have gained it you have to transmit the maximum of information.
The image builder intervenes when the product does not exist yet and, in the public consciousness, there has to be implemented the belief that people need it. The image builder asks the following questions and will start the action if he is convinced that he can generate a certain type of social reaction:
- Why will my product exist?
- Because it has to exist. It will appear because it is logical to appear, you will benefit from it and it is not the result of some accident, but it exists because our organisation (the firm, the party, the government, etc.) knows that you have needed it.
This is the moment when there comes the real necessity for a professional image builder. Only this person can create a belief, in a time in which mass media harder and harder succeeds to convince the large audience; the image builder proves to be socially necessary exactly when advertising has become more than aggressive, has become redundant, turning against its own purpose. Advertising does not attract anymore, it creates, through overloading, a reaction of rejection.
The image builder will try to identify the right areas for inserting his message into the widest informative spaces of the mass media. His arguments will be presented in succession, in order to create an image of the social need that has provoked the appearance of his product. So, it is not about a simple, conventional publicity, but about a demonstration, the creation of a belief, of a state of benevolent expectation.
The more credible motivations are found, the easier the product will be accepted, the easier its presence will be tolerated in a space that is already overcrowded – the nowadays public consciousness.
C2. Read the following text about the preparation of a PR plan and then try to conceive one of your own, on a topic presenting interest to you in the field. Try to think how your plan and schedule could work, could be made effective:
Writing a plan for a public relations activity is nothing more than preparing a blueprint of what is to be done and how it will be accomplished. By preparing such a plan, either as a brief outline or an extensive document, the practitioner can make sure that all elements have been properly considered and that everybody involved knows what the procedure is. Ketchum Public Relations, San Francisco, uses the following outline in preparing program plans for clients:
1. Define the problem. Valid objectives cannot be set without a clear understanding of the problem. To understand the problem, (1) discuss it with the client to find what the public relations effort is expected to accomplish, (2) do some initial research, and (3) evaluate ideas in the broader perspective of the client’s long-term goals.
2. Identify objectives. Once the problem is understood, it should be easy to define the objective. A stated objective should be evaluated by asking (1) does it really solve the problem? (2) is it realistic and achievable? and (3) can success be measured in terms which are meaningful to the client?
3. Identify audience. Identify, as precisely as possible, the group of people who comprise the primary audience for the message. If there are several groups, list them according to what group would be most important in achieving the client’s primary objectives.
4. Develop strategy. The strategy describes how, in concept, the objective is to be achieved. Strategy is a plan of action that provides guidelines and themes for the overall effort. There is usually one, and often several, strategies for each target audience. Strategies may be broad or narrow, depending on the objective and the audience.
5. Specify tactics. This is the body of the plan that describes, in sequence, the specific activities proposed to achieve each objective. In selecting communication tools – news releases, brochures, radio announcements, videotapes, special events, etc. – make sure the communication tools are appropriate for the designated audience.
6. Develop calendar. It is important to have a timetable, usually in chart form, that shows the start and completion of each project within the framework of the total programme. Using a calendar enables practitioners to make sure that projects – such as brochures, slide presentations, newsletters, and invitations – are ready when they are needed.
7. Ascertain budget. How much will it cost to implement the public relations plan? Outline, in sequence, the exact costs of all activities. Budgets should include such details as postage, car mileage, labor to stuff envelopes, typesetting, office supplies, telephone, etc. About 10 percent of the budget should be allocated for contingencies.
8. Specify evaluation procedures. Determine what criteria will be used to evaluate the success of the public relations program. Evaluation criteria should be realistic, credible, specific, and in line with client expectations. When determining objectives, make sure that each of them can be adequately evaluated at the end of the program.
C3. Read the following passages which build up a public relations perspective, comment upon each point and give examples:
a. Patrick Jackson, editor of PR Reporter and a public relations counselor, says communicators should ask themselves a series of questions before preparing any communication materials:
1. Is it appropriate?
a. For the sender?
b. For the recipient?
2. Is it meaningful?
a. Does it stick to the subject?
b. Is it geared to the recipient’s interests, not to the sender’s?
3. Is it memorable?
a. In phraseology or metaphor?
b. Through the use of visual or aural devices?
4. Is it understandable?
a. In both denotative and connotative language?
b. Graphically or orally?
5. Is it believable?
a. Does the audience trust the spokesperson?
b. Does the communication exhibit expertise in the subject matter?
b. In addition to examining the proposed content, a communicator should determine exactly what objective is sought through the communication. James Grunig, professor of public relations at the University of Maryland, lists five possible objectives for a communicator:
1. Message exposure. Public relations personnel provide materials to the mass media and disseminate other messages through controlled media such as newsletters and brochures. Intended audiences are exposed to the message in various forms.
2. Accurate dissemination of the message. The intended audience acknowledges the messages and retains all or part of it.
3. Acceptance of the message. Based on its view of reality, the audience not only retains the message but accepts it as valid.
4. Attitude change. The audience not only believes the message but makes a verbal or mental commitment to change behavior as a result of the message.
5. Change in overt behavior. Members of the audience actually change their current behavior or begin a new behavior.
Grunig says that most public relations experts usually aim at the first two objectives, exposure to the message and accurate dissemination. The last three objectives depend in large part on a mix of variables – predisposition to the message, peer reinforcement, feasibility of the suggested action, and environmental context, to name a few. The first two objectives are easier to evaluate than attitude change.
Although the communicator cannot always control the outcome of a message, researchers recognise that effective dissemination is the beginning of the process that leads to opinion change and adoption of products or services. Therefore, it is important to review all components of the communication process.
c. Philip Lesly, president of the Philip Lesly Company, outlined some guidelines for effective communication:
• Approach everything from the viewpoint of the audience’s interest – what is on their minds, what is in it for them.
• Give the audience a sense of involvement in the communication process and in what is going on, so that you will get their interest.
• Make the subject matter part of the atmosphere the audience lives with – what they talk about, what they hear from others. That means getting the material adopted in their channels of communication.
• Communicate with people, not at them. Communication that approaches the audience as a target makes people put their defenses up against it.
• Localise – get the message conveyed as close to the individual’s own milieu as possible.
• Use a number of channels of communication, not just one or two. The impact is far greater when it reaches people in a number of different forms.
• Maintain consistency – so, what is said on the subject is the same, no matter which audience it is directed to or what the context is. Still, tailor-make each message for the specific audience as much as possible.
• Don’t propagandise but make sure that you make your point. When a communicator draws conclusions, it is more effective than depending on the audience to draw its own conclusions.
• Maintain credibility – which is essential for all these points to be effective.
Comment upon the notions you have just acquired. Try to complete the list with other features and discuss the new concepts. Which is the most important quality of the public communicator, in your opinion?
C4. Translate the following text and then make a summary, emphasising the main features of the image builder:
Creatorul de imagine va încerca, ori de câte ori i se oferă posibilitatea, să-şi lege mesajul de personaje sau imagini deja intrate în mitologia modernă, încercând să profite de suportul de credibilitate oferit de acestea. Pentru a vorbi despre o reclamă comercială, să ne-o amintim pe cea a unui produs cu totul nou în România în momentul respectiv, TROPIKANA, care a intrat în conştiinţa publică prin racordarea la chipurile unor foarte cunoscuţi fotbalişti români. La un cu totul alt nivel de profesionalism, folosind efectul de sinergie, bazat pe imensul succes la public al emisiunii MUPPETS, realisatorii francezi au imaginat un serial ce a pornit de la aceeaşi bază (păpuşi de un grotesc neagresiv) pentru a evolua spre un spectacol de satiră politică, păpuşile înfăţişând personaje reale. Departe de a se supăra, politicienii francezi sunt foarte flataţi de interesul pe care îl trezeşte persoana lor, chiar dacă, în aparenţă, propaganda este negativă. Creatorul de imagine a înţeles că adevărata consacrare a politicianului, intrarea sa în mitologia contemporană, era simbolizată de trecerea sa în “imaginea” păpuşilor din familia MUPPETS. De ce? Foarte simplu. A înţeles această lege fundamentală a psihologiei mass media: politicieni sunt cu miile, emisiunea MUPPETS, în conştiinţa publică, este unică. În tehnologia specifică muncii de creare a imaginii, acest procedeu se numeşte transferarea imaginii de marcă, fiind folosit de câte ori se poate, şi la toate nivelele, prin selectarea a tot ceea ce, în memoria afectivă a publicului standard, poate trezi un reflex de plăcere sau de interes. Din momentul în care s-a stabilit un slogan, s-a ales purtătorul principal de imagine, urmează identificarea imaginilor de marcă cu care ne putem asocia sinergetic sau pe care le putem confisca, folosindu-ne de un eventual efect de proximitate. Bazându-se pe cunoaşterea valorilor ce întrunesc consensul în cazul publicului standard, creatorul de imagine poate analiza rapid nivelul de amplitudine al mesajului trimis, ca şi natura, forţa şi durata feedback-ului.
D. Vocabulary Practice
D1. Do the following exercises:
a. Develop the following sentence using the words and phrases given below:
She likes all kinds of music. Her sister doesn’t. Their parents are very fond of musical instruments. Only Jimmy, the elder brother, is such a lazy boy. As for their grandmother, well, she will never be able to enjoy a musical party.
to have a musical ear, barrel-organ, strings, to be a music fan, cello, to key an instrument, winds, to fiddle about, musical conductor, to set a poem to music, to play the second fiddle, juke box, to be as fit as a fiddle, to face the music.
b. Choose the right word to complete the following sentences:
Dan was a (1,2), but sometimes his behavior (3) his friends.
One summer night as he (4) in an armchair by the window and tried (5) a detective story, the door flung open and the lights (6). It was rather (7) for him to realise what (8). However, a (9) panic seized him. He could only (10) and (11) beating of his heart. He (12) to his feet and ran (13) the window. Can you (14) who (15) the light again?
1 – genial, innocent, inspired, diligent, clever
2 – shop-assistant, chemist, librarian, antiquary, confectioner
3 – to astound, to upset, to bewilder, to puzzle, to vex, to confuse
4 – to sit, to stand, to stay, to set
5 – to remind, to recall, to remember, to recollect
6 – to blow out, to quench, to extinguish, to turn off, to go out
7 – light, easy, slight, heavy, difficult, hard
8 – to happen, to occur, to go on, to come about, to befall
9 – vast, huge, big, large, great
10 – to hear, to listen
11 – strong, powerful, fierce, hard, intense, towering
12 – to jump, to spring, to leap, to bounce, to bound
13 – to close, to fasten, to shut, to lock, to bolt, to bar
14 – to realise, to fancy, to guess, to foretell, to divine, to find out
15 – to light, to kindle, to switch on, to stir up, to put on
D2. A number of words have been omitted from the following passage. You should find appropriate words to complete the text. When you have done this, re-write the passage including these words:
In the Western democracies emphasis is laid on the freedom of the individual, both as a consumer and the owner of resources. As a …………he expresses his choice of goods through the price he is willing to pay for them. As the owner of a factor of production (his own labor), he seeks to obtain as large a …………as possible. If he wants more of the good than is being …………at the current price, he will “bid up” the price. As a result, resources are attracted so that …………industry and supply expands. On the other hand, if consumers do not want a particular good or service, its price fall, …………make a loss and resources leave the industry. There is no …………of labor; people are free to work wherever they choose. The role of government is simply to correct any…………which might develop in the system. However, Western governments do not settle for a passive role. Rather they take it upon themselves to re-distribute …………income, succour the sick and the underprivileged, generate national wealth and provide for national defense. To achieve these ends, they are …………to raise taxes from the population and in doing this they are almost bound to become ………….
D3. Read the following passage carefully. Then give it a title and summarise it in about 100 words.
The world faces an energy crisis in the not so distant future. For the time being, there are plentiful supplies of oil, but the situation will not last. Oil supplies are finite, and what happens when the world’s reserves are exhausted? Britain is comparatively fortunate. It has North Sea oil and gas, and they will give self-sufficiency for another couple of decades. It also has substantial reserves of coal. According to some estimates, these reserves could last for other 60 years. That should give Britain a breathing space at least until alternative forms of energy are developed. There is a worldwide search for new sources of energy.
The government of Saudi Arabia has been making encouraging progress in the development of solar energy. Plants they have built in the desert are turning the race of the sun into what can only be described as permanent sources of energy. So successful have the experiments been that when they eventually run out of oil – as run out of oil they must – they will be switching to an even more durable form of energy.
Not only has the government of Saudi Arabia been working hard to develop solar energy, they have also been working hard to convert the desert to rich agricultural land. Impossible? By no means! Beneath the Arabian Desert lies an enormous water basin. The problem is to bring up those water supplies from the bowels of the earth. How to do it? Sink wells deep into the earth, seeking water this time instead of oil. As the water is drawn from the earth, it is spread over the crops of wheat and vegetables and of course they flourish in such an environment.
Perhaps it is unrealistic to expect all governments to play such a positive role in the development of their economy and the long term wellbeing of their people, but they do set the standards by which other governments can be judged.
D4. Translate the following sentences, using the verbs to conduct, to direct, to drive, to guide, to lead, to see off:
a. Cine a condus această campanie?
b. Condu-l afară pe domnul, te rog.
c. Condu-mă şi arată-mi ce merită văzut pe aici.
d. Are stil, conduce campania publicitară foarte eficient.
e. Echipa gazdă conduce cu două goluri la zero.
f. Ştii să conduci? Atunci condu-mă, te rog, la gară.
g. Experienţele acestea sunt greu de condus, sunt prea multe implicaţii.
h. L-a condus până la reuşita finală.
i. Toate aceste urme ne conduc uşor spre făptaşi.
j. Ia-l de mână şi condu-l să nu se rătăcească.
Keep in mind the following phrases:
to conduct a campaign/law suit/policy; to conduct an orchestra; to conduct electricity/heat; to direct the affairs; to direct a company/film; to drive a vehicle; to guide one’s steps; to lead by the hand; to lead a party/section; to lead somebody to do something; to lead in a match; to see off to the airport/station.
X. THE ORGANISATION
A. The interview.
It is not correct to consider as an interview a declaration made in a hurry by a personality or even a detailed discussion with a specialist in a certain field. These are conversations or materials for documentation. If it were so simple, the role of the reporter would be that of an investigator and his questions would be of no use. The interview is a conversation, usually taking place between two persons, for obtaining information for the benefit of an unseen audience. It is an informational exchange which provokes a new level of understanding.
A1. Read the following texts and comment upon them. Try to accomplish an interview of your own, on a social topic.
How do we choose a certain interlocutor in a certain moment?
• The person occupies an important position.
• The person has accomplished something important.
• The person has been accused of serious wrongdoings.
• The person knows something or somebody important.
• The person has witnessed an important event.
Which is the purpose of accomplishing the interview?
• To gather facts.
• To gather anecdotes.
• To characterise a situation.
• To confirm data you have already gathered.
• To prove that you have been there.
How can you convince a person to speak?
• Appeal to the pride and honesty of the person.
• Appeal to the person’s need to get to be known.
• Appeal to the person’s capacity to present a point of view.
• Appeal to the person’s need to use the opportunity to clarify a situation.
• Appeal to the person’s need to answer the accusations of his opponents.
The structure of an interview:
• The funnel type, beginning with a general idea and coming down towards details and particularities (resembling the court investigations).
• The reversed funnel type, beginning with a very well determined topic and enlarging towards a general theme.
• The tunnel type, gathering a series of questions grouped round a certain theme, in order to obtain rapid comments about an important event.
• The interview with masked order, in which the reporter tries to “cheat” the interlocutor by alternating the easy and the difficult questions.
• The interview with free form, used when there is no time limit and when the reporter wants the interlocutor to express his thoughts freely.
Which questions should not be asked?
• Questions proving the absence of documentation.
• Vague, general questions.
• More questions in one sentence.
• Long questions.
• Explanatory questions.
• Hypothetical questions.
• Questions with enclosed answers.
• Questions with Yes/No answers, although you need an explanation.
How to write the interview.
• When writing an interview the reporter should select the necessary information, give it the best form and correct the grammar and the style of the oral discussion. The reporter should not modify declarations, renounce certain pieces of information which could change the context or provoke meaning modifications.
A2. Translate the following text and then answer the questions below. Conceive an interview of your own with a professor from your faculty, on the theme of an international workshop organised by your faculty this year.
“Pentru funcţionarea administraţiei publice din România, cunoaşterea experienţei franceze este utilă”
Interviu cu dl. Michel Daynac, profesor la Universitatea de Ştiinţe Sociale din Toulouse
- Domnule Daynac, în primul rând, spuneţi-ne cu ce ocazie aţi venit la Timişoara.
- Am venit pentru un seminar organisat de Consiliul Judeţean Timiş, privind problemele de dezvoltare economică locală, seminar care este o parte dintr-o serie mai largă de seminarii (din care câteva s-au desfăşurat deja). Aceste schimburi, să le spunem, fac parte din schimburile generale franco-române, iar în particular ele sunt posibile datorită relaţiilor ce există între Universitatea din Toulouse şi Consiliul Judeţean Timiş.
- Pentru că aţi avut contacte cu reprezentanţi ai Consiliului Judeţean Timiş, v-aş ruga să caracterizaţi aceste întâlniri cu autorităţile locale.
- Apreciez faptul că, la rândul lor, participanţii la aceste seminarii şi contacte au considerat util schimbul de experienţă. Pentru ca serviciile de administraţie publică din România să funcţioneze normal, cunoaşterea experienţei franceze în domeniu a fost, cred eu, foarte interesantă. Asta şi dacă ţinem seama de similitudinile dintre sistemul administrativ francez şi cel român.
- Cum vedeţi pe viitor această colaborare?
- Din punctul meu de vedere, sunt foarte interesat de aceste seminarii. Tocmai de aceea am acceptat un prim contact în domeniul meu de activitate. La o adică, aş putea foarte bine analiza anumite probleme cărora specialiştii dumneavoastră le caută încă rezolvarea.
- În această seară aţi avut un prim contact cu Şcoala de Înalte Studii Europene Comparative, mai precis cu viitori specialişti în probleme europene. Ce impresie v-au lăsat cursanţii?
- Impresia lăsată este una foarte bună. Această conferinţă – improvizată – la care am participat a fost una caldă, iar întrebările ce mi s-au pus au fost foarte interesante.
(“Realitatea bănăţeană”, mai 1995)
a). What could make interesting the publication of this interview:
- the topics of this seminar;
- the hypothesis that it would have been organised for the first time;
- the fact that it is done with a personality from abroad;
- the fact that something important and with real chances to be applied has been decided on this occasion.
b). Reformulate or make better the title.
c). Reformulate the first question and, implicitly, the first answer.
d). What else should we have found out from this interview?
e). What pieces of information asked by the reporter go beyond the topic announced in the title?
A3. The negotiation and preparation of an interview by the PR specialist.
When a reporter wants to take you an interview, you should follow certain rules.
Rule a. Adopt a “public relations” behavior:
• be polite, honest and helpful;
• highlight your need for certain information;
• be professional, control your behavior, negotiate;
• avoid the unrecorded conversation;
• don’t say things you wouldn’t like to see written or to hear recorded;
• don’t say “No comment”;
• be calm.
Rule b. Questions you should ask the reporter:
• Your name, please?
• Whom do you represent?
• Which aspects are you interested in?
• What other people would you like to talk about the subject to?
• What do you know about our organisation?
• Which is the deadline for your article/news?
• Can I call you back later?
Rule c. Supplementary elements for negotiation:
• speak only about those subjects you have previously agreed to talk about;
• send a CV and supplementary information about your organisation by fax or e-mail before the interview;
• make suggestions about other experts related to the topics you discuss;
• if the reporter wants to record, negotiate before the recording what you will say;
• be brief, your time is limited.
A4. Write a pro discourse and an against one about the advantages and the disadvantages of using the interview, from the point of view of the journalist/from the point of view of the PR specialist.
B. Phrasal Verbs
In the English language, which is a language with very developed vocabulary, phrasal verbs are vital for being able to express yourself and to understand what is said by the others. They enrich the language and we should learn as many as possible.
B1. Remember the following verbs with the particle down:
• to be down = a fi la pământ, a avea depresie, a fi călcat în picioare
• to break down = a sfărâma, a nimici, a strica, a se prăbuşi, (despre sănătate) a se şubrezi
• to bring down = a doborî, a reduce
• to come down = a scădea, a reduce
• to get down = a coborî
• to get down to = a se apuca de
• to go down = (despre preţuri) a scădea; (despre soare) a apune
• to let down = a coborî, a dezamăgi, a lăsa la ananghie
• to look down = a privi de sus
• to pull down = a dărîma, a slăbi, a deprima
• to put down = a înăbuşi, a micşora, a scrie, a înscrie
• to run down = a defăima, (despre autovehicule) a călca
• to sit down = a se aşeza, a sta jos
• to step down = a reduce, a părăsi un post
• to turn down = a respinge, a da jos, a dezamăgi
B2. Complete the sentences below with a suitable verb, making sure that it fits grammatically into the sentence:
a. The anxious husband …………down the door when he smelt gas coming from the kitchen.
b. Prices of all sportswear are going to be …………by 20%.
c. The rebellious boy was told to …………down to studying by his concerned parents.
d. The psychiatric nurse …………down yesterday because of the strain of work.
e. The hypochondriac got a shock the other day when he …………down with flu.
f. That irresponsible youth was always …………down his parents until he got married and left home.
g. Our snobbish neighbour …………down on us because we aren’t as well off as he is.
h. On the last day, the boy scouts …………down their tents, packed their bags and caught the bus home.
i. The insurance underwriter …………down the details of the accident on his notepad.
j. Bill was …………down by the police because he was too short.
B3. Rewrite the sentences, using a phrasal verb with down, to produce the opposite meaning of the words in italics:
a. We all stood up when the managing director came in.
b. The building society has set up a branch in Warmsley.
c. Inflation has been rising steadily since Christmas.
d. When Caroline heard the terrible news, she remained calm.
e. Rain was gently falling.
f. The teacher quietly put the book on the table.
g. The company will probably want to publicise the results.
h. The old lady was adamant that her cat should be kept alive.
i. After three days of continuous bombardment, the White Tower remained standing.
j. Having Bruce to stay has really cheered me up.
C. The organisation
The organisation is a social system in and through which people get in touch, co-operate, in order to accomplish common purposes.
C1. Read, translate and comment upon the following text, giving examples:
The simplest and most significant classification of the organisations takes into account their degree of ordering. From this perspective, the organisations can be divided in two main types: informal and formal ones. As it is hard to find pure forms, each organisation comprising both informal and formal parts, it is more proper to analyze the informal level and the formal level of an organisation.
The informal level of an organisation is constituted by the spontaneous, indefinite relations between its members. The norms and regulations of the organisation are spontaneously agreed upon and are not imposed, so that the degree of acceptance is high. Similarly, the members of the organisation can adopt an informal leader, which is not the formal and official one, who has moral authority through his or her ability to establish stimulative relations.
The formal level of an organisation takes into account the official structure, clearly defined through the description of the establishment and behavioural norms, of the roles and relations between the members of the organisation (of power, authority and responsibility), through the specification of the leaders, the hierarchy, the conditions of access into and quitting the organisation.
Hughes identifies five different types of organisations occurring in contemporary societies, according to their purpose:
• voluntary associations (religious, scientific, etc.);
• military organisations;
• charities (social assistance organisations);
• corporations (industrial and financial organisations);
• family organisations (small enterprises, Mafia).
Blau and Scott propose a taxinomy in five types, according to the clients, the persons who benefit from the specific organisation activity:
• organisations of mutual benefit, which have as beneficiaries subscribers and members (political parties, trade unions, clubs);
• business organisations, which have as main beneficiaries owners and managers (firms, banks, insurance companies, shops);
• organisations providing services, which have as beneficiaries clients (hospitals, schools, social security agencies, employment agencies);
• public organisations with a large audience (state institutions, army, police, firemen).
Amitai Etzioni classifies the organisations according to the behavior of the organisation’s members, establishing a kind of conformist behavior, of adherence to the purposes and the specific of the organisation. People having power over their subordinates exercise it through punishment, reward or norms. Thus, the members of the organisation adopt a conformist behavior, of submission to punishment, reward or norms. Etzioni classifies the organisations after the types of conformation, establishing three dual structures (between the leaders and the people who are led):
• punishing organisations (prisons, concentration camps);
• utilitarian organisations (firms, research institutes, farms, military organisations on peace time);
• normative organisations (churches, hospitals, schools, professional organisations).
The dual structures have as consequences the following combinations:
• punishing-normative organisations (army);
• utilitarian-normative organisations (almost all structures);
• utilitarian-punishing organisations (traditional agricultural and industrial corporations).
C2. Organisational decision making. Summarise the following paragraphs and compare the conclusions they reach:
a. Decision-making ordinarily presumes an ordering of the confusions of life. The classic ideas of order in organisations involve two closely related concepts. First, it is assumed that events and activities can be ordered in chains of means and ends. We associate action with its consequences, and participate in making decisions in order to produce intended outcomes. Thus, consequential relevance arranges the relation between solutions and problems and the participation of the decision makers, second, it is assumed that organisations are hierarchies in which higher levels control lower levels and in which policies control implementation. Observations of actual organisations suggest a more confusing picture. Actions in one part of an organisation appear only loosely coupled to actions in another. Solutions seem to have only a vague connection to problems. Policies aren’t implemented. And decision makers seem to wander in and out of decision arenas. The whole process has been described as a kind of funny soccer game:
Consider a round, sloped, multi-goal soccer field on which individuals play soccer. Many different people (but not everyone) can join the game (or leave it) at different times. Some people can throw balls into the game or remove them. Individuals, while they are in the game, try to kick whatever ball comes near them in the direction of goals they like and away from goals they wish to avoid.
Disorderliness in organisations has led some people to argue that there is very little order to organisational decision making. A more conservative position, however, is that the ways in which organisations bring order to disorder is less hierarchical and less a collection of means-ends chains that is anticipated by conventional theories. There is order, but it is not the conventional order. In particular, it is argued that any decision process involves a collection of individuals and groups who are simultaneously involved in other things. Understanding decisions in one arena requires an understanding of how those decisions fit into the lives of participants. The logic of order is temporal. Problems, solutions, and decision makers fit together because they are available at the same time. Thus, decisions depend on attention, and important elements of the distribution of attention are exogenous to any specific decision process.
b. Most theories of choice assume that a decision process is to be understood in terms of its outcomes, that decision makers enter the process in order to affect outcomes, and that the point of life is choice. The emphasis is instrumental, and the central conceit is the notion of decision significance. Studies of organisations, on the other hand, seem often to describe a set of processes that make little sense in such terms. Information that is ostensibly gathered for a decision is often ignored. Individuals fight for the right to participate in a decision process, but then do not exercise that right. Studies of managerial time persistently indicate that very little time is spent in making decisions. Rather, managers seem to spend time meeting people and making managerial performances. Contentiousness over the policies of an organisation is often followed by apparent indifference about their implementation.
These anomalous observations appear to reflect, at least in part, the extent to which organisational decision processes are only partly concerned with making decisions. March and Olsen observe:
“Indeed, the activity within a choice situation may be explicable only if we recognize the other major things that take place within the same arena at the same time. A choice process provides an occasion for a number of other things, most notably:
an occasion for executing standard operating procedures, and fulfilling role-expectations, duties, or earlier commitments;
an occasion for defining virtue and truth, during which the organisation discovers or interprets what has happened to it, what it has been doing, what it is going to do, and what justifies its actions;
an occasion for distributing glory or blame for what has happened in the organisation, and thus, an occasion for exercising, challenging and reaffirming friendship and trust relationships, antagonisms, power or status relationships;
an occasion for expressing and discovering “self-interest” and “group interests”, for socialization, and for recruiting (to organisational positions, or to informal groups);
an occasion for having a good time, for enjoying the pleasures connected to taking part in a choice situation.
The several activities are neither mutually exclusive nor mutually inconsistent.
They are aspects of most choice situations and illustrate their complexity. Decisions are a stage for many dramas”.
Decision making is an arena for symbolic action, for developing and enjoying an interpretation of life. The rituals of choice infuse organisations with an appreciation of the sensibility of organisational arrangements and behavior. They tie routine organisational events to belief about the nature of things. The rituals give meaning, and meaning informs life. The meanings involved in decision making in an organisation may be as grand as the central ideology of a society committed to reason and participation. Or they may be as local as the ego needs of individuals or groups within the organisation.
C3. Complete the following text about Executive Directors with the words below:
A modern business enterprise is often a ………… system requiring a lot of …………, which is provided by the public when they ………… shares in the company. Since they have ………… the capital, it is appropriate that they choose the people who are to ………… the company for them, namely the board of directors. Many of the ………… also have executive responsibilities. Thus, a marketing director may be a full director of the board, ………… by the shareholders at the annual ………… meeting like the other directors. Yet he might also be responsible for the day-to-day ………… of the marketing department. Most of his time will be ………… on administrative matters, organising market research, dealing with ………… and generally ensuring that the ………… sales are maximised. But he will function as a director when the board of directors meets. The ………… of managing director also ………… the roles of chief executive with membership of the board and this allows him to act as a vital ………… between the board of directors and their ………… management team. The managing director is also chairman of the board of directors.
Executive directors have the advantage that they are ………… involved with the ………… affairs. If the board of directors wish to move in a ………… direction, the executive directors will know whether such a ………… of action is practicable. For example, the board might wish to ………… their products in a particular ………… market. The market would be profitable for the company, but the ………… director knows that his team of salespeople lack the experience to take advantage of the situation. Or perhaps the board would like to ………… the advertising expenditure during the ………… year but the ………… director knows that the company will have to meet some heavy commitments during the ………… months and it would be better to ………… the campaign.
Perhaps the best board is one which contains a ………… of executive and non-executive directors. In this way the board has the ………… of some directors who know the practical problems ………… by the business, while others bring their own ………… to expertise to the boardroom discussions.
Words:
link, increase, capital, certain, combines, benefit, general, directors, company’s, delay, provided, mixture, course, appointed, advertising, management, actively, sell, run, brand, coming, marketing, complex, post, coming, company’s, spent, overseas, faced, financial, buy, appointed.
C4. Translate the following organisation charts, discuss their structures and give examples:
Marketing Director Production Manager Personnel Manager Financial Director
Overseas Sales Market Research Recruitment Officer Welfare Officer
Manager Manager U.K. Sales Training Officer
Manager
A Line B Line C Line Chief Cost Computer Wages Budget Chief
Manager Manager Manager Engineer Accountant Manager Officer Officer Accountant
The Department for Information and Public Relations (DIPR):
D. Vocabulary Practice
D1. Do the following exercises, paying attention to the way in which you express things. Try to write as refined and elegant as you can. Use as many phrasal verbs as you know, matching them in the suitable contexts.
a. Ask questions to receive the following answers. Say in which situation you could have these samples of dialogues.
I imagine it was difficult to get used to it.
It was very stupid of me to lose your hat.
He believes that you’ve just stepped on his toe.
They say you’ve spoken ill of her.
They confessed that they had never seen a dressing table.
b. Show your agreement or disagreement with the following statements. Explain your choice in brief essays. Develop your answers in longer compositions, giving examples from the real, concrete life for each situation.
He had always had an odd fancy for clocks.
I believe in ghosts.
The worst things in the world are the gnats and the weeds.
Ben Johnson was not only a very good cook but also a skillful musician.
I would rather be a barber than a writer.
D2. Choose the word or phrase that best keeps the meaning of the original sentence if it is substituted for the underlined word or phrase:
1. Flamingos were about to have died out until laws were passed to protect them.
a. become confined
b. become extinct
c. become infected
d. become deformed
2. Caves are often formed by selective wearing away of cliffs by the sea.
a. erosion
b. evasion
c. extension
d. eradication
3. All drinks that include saccharin must be marked with a warning label because saccharin may cause cancer.
a. packages
b. medications
c. beverages
d. desserts
4. Like snakes, many insects grow up by throwing away their skin several times.
a. digesting
b. stretching
c. discarding
d. mending
5. A chance sample can often provide information about a larger population.
a. prudent
b. genuine
c. random
d. modified
D3. Translate the following text and then answer the questions:
The nuclear family, consisting of a mother, father and their children may be more an American ideal than an American reality. Of course, the so-called traditional American family was always more varied than we had been led to believe, reflecting the very different racial, ethnic, class and religious customs among different American groups.
The most recent government statistics reveal that only about one third of all current American families fit the traditional mold and another third consists of married couples who either have no children or have none still living at home. Of the final one third, about 20% of the total number of American households are single people, usually women over 65 years of age. A small percentage, about 3% of the total, consists of unmarried people who choose to live together; and the rest, about 7 %, are single, usually divorced parents with at least one child. Today, these varied family types are typical and therefore normal. Apparently, many Americans are achieving supportive relationships in family forms other than the traditional one.
Questions:
With what topic is the passage mainly concerned?
What does the author imply about the American family?
How many single people were identified in the survey?
Who generally constitutes a one person household?
D4. Translate the following sentences, using the verbs to breed, to grow, to increase, to raise, to rear:
1. L-au crescut cu greu, erau foarte săraci în tinereţe.
2. E un tip bine crescut, distins şi politicos.
3. Hai să-l vizităm, e un cunoscut crescător de câini.
4. Întotdeauna i-am admirat pentru felul cum şi-au crescut copiii.
5. Au rase selecţionate, se ocupă de mult de creşterea cailor.
6. Turiştii s-au prezentat la biroul lor în număr crescând.
7. De ce nu încerci să creşti ceva în grădina aceea enormă?
8. Trebuie să creştem cantitatea de mărfuri livrate firmei lor.
9. Cresc animale din tată în fiu.
10. Vânzările din luna aceasta au crescut simţitor.
Remember the following phrases:
to breed dogs/horses/sheep; an ill-bred/well-bred man; to grow corn/vegetables; to grow in bulk/quantity; to grow in wisdom; to increase development/intensity/production/power; to raise cattle/a family/salary/prices; to rear chicken/pigs/children.
XI. THE IMAGE OF THE POLITICIAN
A. Memos, reports, newsreleases.
The internal and external communication of an organisation are vital for its functioning, that is why we should know certain rules of conceiving the written messages in several standard forms.
A1. The internal information. Memoranda.
Read the following text and comment upon the utility of such documents. Remember the rules of conceiving a memorandum.
A memorandum might be described as an internal note (or letter) circulating within an organisation. Quite often the memorandum will be handwritten. Each organisation will have its own design for memoranda (the plural for memorandum), but a typical format is shown below.
Alpha Engineering Co Ltd Memorandum
To Graham Dolby From Peter Robinson
Chief Safety Officer Personnel Manager
25th Sept. 199_
Subject: Accident to Julia Styles
I have been asked to prepare a report for the Managing Director and need to know what instructions there are for welders changing gas canisters. There seem to be conflict accounts of what actually happened. Can you see me before Thursday if possible? Please, give my secretary a ring to fix a mutually convenient time.
Memoranda are used for a variety of reasons, but tend to be informal and brief, which explains why the forms are often printed in the smaller paper sizes. They need to be addressed sufficiently to enable them to land on the right desk after going through an internal mailing system, and the date and the initials (if not the signature) of the originator are essential.
Memoranda might be used to:
• seek information or cooperation;
• give instructions or advice;
• offer ideas and suggestions;
• notify, clarify and explain events which have occurred.
The type of memorandum shown here is an alternative to the telephone message. Most internal communication in organisations is face-to-face or by telephone, but when these avenues are closed for one reason or another (perhaps the person you are trying to contact is “out of office” or otherwise unavailable), the memorandum comes into play.
Increasingly in modern offices desktop visual display units (VDUs) are used to convey information from one part of the organisation to another, and this has the effect of reducing the flow of paper.
A2.The internal information. Reports.
Read the following text and comment upon the importance of such documents. Remember the rules of writing a report.
Report
To Mr. C. Houseman From Conn McBride
Works Manager Supervisor (Welding Section)
25th September 199_
Re: Accident to Julia Styles
As requested I have looked into the circumstances of the accident that happened to Julia. I understand the purpose of this report is to ascertain whether she can claim against Alpha Engineering (or its Insurance Company) for the injuries she received.
Cause of accident
It seems that when her gas canister ran dry, Julia went to the reloading bay in compliance with the normal safety drill, but when she went back to the workstation she found the new canister malfunctioning. She then played with the fastening nut to tighten it, but instead loosened it. As a result, some of the liquid gas spread on to the flame of a workmate’s gun.
Result of the accident
The blow back from the naked flame to the malfunctioning canister caused the casing to crack and release the rest of the gas. There was a massive explosion and, although Julia had thrust the canister away from herself just before it happened, her hair caught fire and the left hand side of her face was badly burned. A welding gun and some aluminium casings were completely destroyed.
Injuries incurred
I have visited Julia twice in hospital. The first time she was hardly able to speak, but when I saw her yesterday she was recovering. She was comforted by the news from the doctor that they would be able to repair all the damage with the aid of plastic surgery. Apparently, there will be no permanent scars.
Conclusion
I cannot see that Julia was in any way to blame for the accident, but on a strict interpretation of the rules applied in the Welding Section, she should have gone to the reloading bay to adjust the gas canister.
The report is usually reserved for the more important deliberations. The matters considered are likely to be more complex and the contents aimed at helping management to make rational decisions. Still on the subject of the accident to Julia Styles, the Works Manager has asked for a full report on the accident from the supervisor in the Welding Section. The accident would have been reported in the official logbook for accidents.
Accident Log Book
Date/Time
22nd Sept. Day
Monday Department
Welding Worker involved
Julia Styles Nature of accident
Gas canister exploded. Worker burned face and hands. Taken to hospital.
The entries in this log are very important as the accident would have to be reported to the appropriate authorities. For example, a formal report arising from the accident might be presented to the Works Manager at Alpha by the supervisor in the Welding Section where the accident happened.
A3. The external information. Newsreleases.
Newsreleases can comprise rough information, as that regarding an appointment for a position or the foundation of a new department in an organisation, or they can be articles presenting a new product, a new client, an event. The main difference between an article in a newspaper and the newsrelease is the structure. The newsrelease should be much more concise and the final paragraph should contain precise information, for example:
“Kingsford Products is a subsidiary of the Clorox Company. Having headquarters in Oakland, California, Clorox produces food for the American market”.
Newsrelease
The name of the client and its public coordinates
(Address, telephone number, fax, email, home page, etc.)
Date of issuing
Date
Relevant title, indicating the topic
The place where the article comes from
Content – the first paragraph – containing the most important elements of the news
- the other paragraphs – gradual details
At the end of each page there should be written “to be continued”.
The main qualities of a newrelease are precision and clarity.
Newsom and Carrell distinguish four types of newsreleases: announcements, short news, replies and presentations. The announcement type is very often used by the PR agencies. They seem not to have only commercial contents. The short news type appear in the periods when the client is in a crisis. The replies contain specific information as an answer to the pressure of the public opinion, questions or accusations. Presentations are newsreleases but they are more than a rough accounting of facts. Then, the PR agent should behave like a reporter himself, searching for the most interesting approach.
A4. Exercises:
a. Peter Robinson, the Personnel Manager at Alpha, has called for a meeting of his staff next Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. You are a member of his team but have arranged to visit a couple of local schools on Friday, hoping to recruit some new clerical staff. You are not sure how long this will take and might not be able to get to the meeting until later. Draft a memorandum to the Personnel Manager explaining the situation.
b. Having received the report on the accident, the Works Manager wants the supervisor to make sure all the welders follow the safety rules in the future. He also wants to know the address of the hospital and the visiting hours so he can go and see her. Taking into account the guidelines for a report (conciseness, precision, the use of headings and subheadings, the use of title and subject specifications, the use of conclusions and recommendations) you are asked to draft a proper memorandum for him to sign.
c. Write a newsrelease on the topic of the change of the General Manager in the firm in which you work.
B. Phrasal Verbs
B1. Remember the following phrasal verbs with in and into. Maken sentences with each of them, using them in the most suitable contexts. Make comparisons between the meaning of the phrasal verb and the meaning of the “mother” verbs.
• to break in = a se băga în vorbă
• to break into = a intra într-o casă prin efracţie
• to bring in = a duce (un venit)
• to do in = a executa, a lichida
• to drop in = a trece pe la cineva
• to fill in = a completa (un formular)
• to get in = a intra, a strânge, a recăpăta, a plasa, a învăţa
• to get into = a pătrunde, a se deprinde cu
• to give in = a înmâna
• to give into = a se da bătut în faţa unor argumente
• to go in = a intra, a sosi
• to go in for = a se prezenta la un examen, a se ocupa de ceva
• to go into = a intra în, a se implica în
• to pull in = a veni, a sosi (despre mijloace de transport)
• to read in = a introduce date în calculator
• to ring in = a anunţa sosirea cuiva
• to run in = a conduce la poliţie, a aresta, a alege un candidat, a roda o maşină
• to take in = a pofti înăuntru, a înşela, a strâmta (despre haine)
• to turn in = a transforma, a preschimba, a se culca
• to turn into = a transforma în, a deveni
B2. Complete each of the sentences below with a suitable verb, making sure that it fits grammatically into the sentence:
a. He …………into the filing cabinet and helped himself to the top secret documents.
b. …………in the next layby. I’d like to get out and stretch my legs for a bit.
c. They say they’ll …………in the hostage if the ransom isn’t paid by tomorrow.
d. And after the game’s over, I may …………in for a cup of coffee.
e. You might try Mrs. Willow across the road. She …………in lodgers.
f. No matter how cruel and offensive you are to me, I won’t …………in and give you a divorce.
g. As soon as he’d …………in the coupon, he went out to post it.
h. Excluding overtime pay, how much do you …………in a week?
i. Excuse me, what time does the London to Manchester train …………in?
j. When you’ve finished writing …………in the test paper to the invigilator.
B3. Add it where necessary to the following sentences, and say what it means or might mean:
a. Here is the hair-dryer. You can plug in over there.
b. The door was flung open and Gloria burst in.
c. I’ll probably stay in tonight as I’ve got a cold.
d. Have you finished the report? Hand in tomorrow, please.
e. Rolf pulled in for petrol at the motorway services.
f. The new clerk needs to be the right sort of person to fit in here.
g. I don’t think poor Mrs. Gates can take all in.
h. Well, I give in! I’ll do whatever you like!
i. That horse is completely wild. You’ll have to break in!
j. If you’d like a lift, get in!
C. The image of the Politician
Among the characters of the modern world, the politician is admired and hated, made responsible for all the bad parts of our social life and praised for the evolution and the accomplishments of the state. As specialists in the field of public relations, you should know almost everything about the building-up of his image.
C1. Answer the following questions in little essays having no more than 100 words:
a. What Romanian politician would you like to consider for being part in his/her public relations team?
b. If you were a politician, where would you start your image building campaign from? What slogan would you use?
c. Which type of media do you think is the most important in a political campaign? Why?
d. When establishing the agenda for the political campaign, which part of Romania should a politician start? Why?
e. Which events would you introduce, as a possible image builder, in the program of the politician you advise? In what order? Why?
f. What do you think about the ethics of a political campaign?
C2. Read and translate the following text about the image of the politician, comment upon it and try to give examples for the situations described:
It is a five-minute biographical film, one that many Americans viewed on their TVs early in the 1980 presidential campaign. It opens with Ronald Reagan accepting his party’s nomination. A flashback takes the viewer to pictures of the candidate’s youth in “America’s heartland, small-town Illinois”, to Hollywood where Ronald Reagan attracted audiences because he was “so clearly one of them”, to his World War II military record, to Reagan’s work as “dedicated union man” and, then, to his success as California’s governor after taking over “ a state in crisis”. The overall message: “Governor Reagan dealt with California’s problems. He will do as much for the nation”.
There was nothing particularly unusual about the Reagan TV ad. Candidates for public office routinely employ a variety of spot advertising, mini-documentaries, lengthy biographical sketches, televised town meetings, call-in radio shows, and other electronic devices to campaign. Other propaganda pops up in brochures, newspaper advertising, yard signs, lapel buttons, bumper stickers, even – would you believe? – on toilet paper. Considerable time, money and artistic talent is expended on convincing voters that each candidate is a man or woman for all seasons, capable of anything the times, situation and constituents demand…
…Candidates, of course, are in a position to act out their fantasies. They dramatise their fantasies by creating rhetorical visions. These visions appear over and over again in each candidate’s propaganda. Each speech, brochure, position paper, slogan, TV or radio advertisement and so on is a carefully crafted effort to portray the candidate’s rhetorical vision. Such crafting is an artistic enterprise. Hence, campaign propaganda can be regarded as an example of fantastic art, that is, the use of artistic devices to promote a candidate’s rhetorical vision of his presidency. If successful, the candidate’s fantasy chains out to become the news media’s and the voters’ fantasy as well.
Campaign propaganda aims at mediating two closely related, overlapping fantasies. First, propaganda constructs fantasies about the candidate, his qualities, qualifications, program and destiny. Second, propaganda mediates realities about the nature of the world, the array of forces, dangers, threats and enemies that must be confronted and vanquished. The linkage of the two fantasies is essential, that is, the destiny of the candidate becomes the destiny of the political world.
An entire industry now exists to construct such fantasies, craft appropriate propagandistic artifacts for them, and espouse each candidate’s rhetorical vision. This industry of “propartists” consists of specialists with a variety of skills. There are, for instance, organisers, fund raisers, pollsters, TV producers, filmmakers, advertisers, public relations personnel, press secretaries, hairstylists and all manner of consultants. The industry has developed an aesthetic style consistent with the artistry of modern advertising. Two devices in that artistry are particularly key mechanisms, positioning the candidate and fashioning the image.
In commercial advertising positioning places a product at a particular point or with a particular stance as a means of distinguishing it from competing products that, in substance, are strikingly similar to the product being huckstered. The attempt is to carve out a share of the market. But it is not the unique traits or qualities inherent in the product that are stressed. Rather, advertisers mold a picture of the product as distinct because of the people who buy or consume it. Consider beers. Many are indistinguishable in taste, but TV ads alert us that Miller Lite is favored by former athletes, Schlitz is the cool and tough brew of macho James Coburn and Natural Lite is the favorite of discerning women. Now consider candidates. In 1976, Jimmy Carter and his team conceived a successful pre-campaign scenario of the news media: Jimmy Carter’s pollster, Pat Caddell, advised against Carter’s positioning himself on the liberal/conservative continuum, Caddell noted that his polls indicated a large portion of Americans were disenchanted with government and with the failure of the politicians, liberal or conservative, to solve problems. He advised Carter to position himself as the anti-Washington candidate. Carter did, carved out a whole new market, and ended up with the nomination.
Positioning puts a candidate in a place to run from in a campaign. Image making is what the candidate runs as. The progress is not one-way. Voters’ impressions on candidates’ qualities derive only in part from campaign propaganda; how voters contrast the candidate’s fantasies with their own makes a difference. A household cleanser or trash bag may position itself to carve out a market segment, but if “Big Wally” or the “man from Glad” does not conform to what the pop song calls “dreams of the everyday housewife”, the desired image may not follow. Fashioning image themes that strike responsive chords requires skill, resources and luck. In 1980, with varying degrees of success, the process gave us George Bush jogging while he waved and talked, to remind voters that he was not like the older Reagan; John B. Anderson telling that he was a “candidate with ideas”, to mark himself off from the republican pack; and Jimmy Carter dramatising himself as “moral” and “a good family man”, to denote he was no Kennedy.
C3. Case study: Udall and the Iowa caucuses. Comment the situation, discuss the weak points of the campaign and try to find a similar example from the Romanian electoral campaigns.
From their initial decision-making in early 1975 to November of that year, the Udall campaign planned to make their first solid effort in the New Hampshire primary under the assumption that, in the years past, the print and broadcast media would devote a great deal of attention to the build-up and results of that first primary. Campaigning in New Hampshire, Udall would attract considerable press coverage; winning New Hampshire (followed, hopefully, by a win in Massachusetts) would catapult him into the front runner status. It was a familiar route: “Our strategy”, explained Stewart Udall, the candidate’s brother, in an interview, “has to be a strategy in the key states, which are New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Wisconsin”.
Beginning on October 27, the national political reporters began to devote so much attention to the upcoming Iowa caucuses that it soon became apparent that the first big splash of the 1976 race would occur there, rather than in New Hampshire. R.W. Apple’s piece in the October 27th New York Times signaled the fact that the Iowa caucuses would be an important event form the perspective of news reporting organisations. The significance of Apple’s piece was enhanced by the clairvoyance of his reporting in 1972, interpreting the caucus results in Iowa as demonstrating unexpected McGovern strength. As in 1972, Iowa could be the first opportunity to observe which candidates were “emerging from the pack”.
All the attention caused the Udall campaign to reconsider its decision to stay out of Iowa. As frequently happens, the decision caused a split within the campaign. The efforts of key participants to explain their positions after the fact provide a unique opportunity to observe the importance of predicted media coverage in major political decisions. The campaign political director argued for making a major, albeit eleventh hour, effort in Iowa. His position was reinforced by a memo prepared by a key advisor after an explanatory trip into the state. The important passage of that memo read: “Iowa justifies the expense. It will be covered like the first primary always has been in the national press. If we can emerge as the clear liberal choice in Iowa, the payoffs in New Hampshire will be enormous.”
Despite the argument by others in the campaign that it was by them too late to make a successful effort in Iowa, the political director’s side finally won with the additional argument that even if that did not win Iowa, at least their presence there would keep the liberal frontrunner from emerging in the headlines until New Hampshire. The Udall campaign committed 80,000 $ and, an even more precious resource, ten days of the candidate’s time to the Iowa effort.
While it can never be ascertained whether this decision to switch resources away from the New Hampshire effort resulted in a poorer showing there, it certainly did not improve their New Hampshire campaign. With hindsight, Udall staffers admitted the preeminence of the media considerations in their mistaken venture: “Iowa was regrettable in that we had no inclination or desire to devote resources and time and money to Iowa. But it became such a media event that I think some of our staff people panicked in the face of it and we rushed in headlong” (Press secretary Robert Neumann).
Their discovery that the media planned to cover the Iowa caucuses as extensively as they would, the early primaries led Udall’s advisors to conclude that they could not let the other candidates (principally Bayh and Carter) get the jump on them either in sheer amount of coverage or in favorable perceptions of political progress communicated by the media to New Hampshire voters. Needless to say, by any standard, this was a major campaign decision.
C4. Translate into English, then comment upon the consequences of the annalzsis in the following text:
Prima problemă care apare, din punctul de vedere al creatorului de imagine din România, este că aceste semnale ale realităţii cotidiene îndreptate în flux continuu către filtrul colector al mass-media nu sunt decât arareori pre-elaborate la nivelul imaginii sau, atunci când există asemenea intenţie, ea se realisează haotic, cel mai adesea neprofesionist.
În acest caz, selecţia se mută exclusiv în zona de acţiune a editorilor de programe sau şefilor de secţii de la marele ziare. Ei se vor afla în faţa unei mase enorme de fapte brute ce reprezintă tot atâtea mesaje potenţial interesante, lipsindu-le însă forma, expresia simbolică adecvată.
Deoarece în ţara noastră nu există încă o preocupare profesionistă din partea creatorilor de imagine pentru o codare a mesajelor în sensul formulării lor corecte şi descifrabile la nivelul filtrului informaţional, greşelile din acest domeniu vor avea consecinţe importante, generând efecte paralizante în conştiinţa publicului.
Problemele devin şi mai complicate, gradul lor de gravitate creşte, în măsura în care spre filtrul mass-media se îndreaptă elemente componente ale unor fapte politice. Să ne aminitim de perioada nu foarte îndepărtată denumită “era comunicatelor de presă”. Era timpul în care mass-media difuza, obositor şi cu relevanţă mică pentru publicul standard, comunicate, contracomunicate, replici multiple la prima sau la a doua categorie, cel mai adesea date simultan şi prezentate publicului în bloc comun, pentru respectarea principiului echidistanţei. Amuzante pentru ziariştii profesionişti, poate utile pentru comentatorii şi analiştii politici, ele nu produceau din punctul de vedere al creatorului de imagine decât confuzie şi, la limită, adversitate.
D. Vocabulary Practice.
D1. Do the following exercises:
a. Complete the following sentences:
Richard couldn’t enter his house because …………
He realised that his umbrella …………
He made up his mind to break the window because …………
He broke the parlor window by …………
He was climbing through the window when suddenly …………
b. Complete the following sentences paying attention to the sequence of tenses:
I told Maggie the story before …………
While we were talking a man …………
When he came in …………
He said in a most dreadful voice: “You’ll leave this house as soon as …………”
“Go to help her before …………”, he added keeping on smiling.
Had I known what would have happened, I …………
“You can ask him if …………”, whispered Maggie from under the table.
Unfortunately the man heard the words and muttered: “We shall have a good time if …………”.
“I am going to see if …………”, I replied quickly and made for the door.
“If I met you before, I …………”, laughed the man.
We could have escaped from the room if Maggie ………….
D2. One way of extending your vocabulary is by learning to use all the forms of a word. For example, to access (verb) – access (noun) – accessible (adjective). Complete the following table with other parts of speech besides the verb:
Verb Noun Noun Adjective
Concept Agent
to administer administration administrator administrative
to supervise
to manage
to operate
to apply
to inform
to account
to maintain
to acquire
to realise
to choose
to remember
D3. Complete the expressions by matching the verbs on the left with the appropriate phrase on the right:
1. to clear a. a big order
2. to fix b. for a meeting
3. to pick up c. with a new product
4. to cut d. 200,000 $ worth of sales
5. to appeal to e. your problem
6. to pull out of f. an optimistic target
7. to get together g. young consumers
8. to appreciate h. an opportunity
9. to miss i. the recession
10. to be successful j. stock levels
D4. Translate into English, using the verbs to detect, to discover, to find out:
a. Am publicat de curând o lucrare despre epoca marilor descoperiri geografice.
b. În cele din urmă s-a descoperit totul şi s-a dat publicităţii.
c. Ei, ce-ai descoperit, e bine sau nu?
d. Materialul are unele defecte dar sunt greu de descoperit la prima vedere.
e. S-au descoperit urme de vopsea verde pe hainele celui accidentat.
f. S-a descoperit cine îi trimitea scrisorile acelea anonime?
g. Uite ce am descoperit în pod, cărţi vechi şi valoroase.
h. N-am reuşit să-i descopăr numele.
i. E mare scandal pe şantier, s-au descoperit vicii ascunse la elicea cea nouă.
j. În final, după multe investigaţii, am descoperit totul din relatările lor separate.
Remember the following phrases:
to detect traces of; lie-detector; to discover new lands; the Age of Discovery; to find out the truth/the meaning.
XII. MARKETING
A. The press conference
The image of an organisation is made in an ongoing process, by appealing to a very diversified range of modalities.
But there are some moments in its evolution in which it is absolutely necessary that the target audience find out new pieces of information. The press conference is held in such moments. Now is the moment when one can find the need for information and the information offer, when the hypothetical is confronted with the real, the opinions with the proofs and the terms of the communication strategies are redefined.
A1. Read the following text and keep in mind the factors for accomplishing a good press conference. Think what you should do for properly organising a press conference. Think of dos and donts for the good management of a press conference.
The press conference is the best way to create informational transparency. This can sometimes be even an occasion for different channels of spreading the information, tributary to certain political or economic interests, to use a pretext, which is apparently serious, to make some facts or ideas known, with the purpose of manipulating public opinion.
But normally a press conference is to be announced only if there is something really important to be told or when the requests of the press (as it happens during crisis periods) are too numerous to be considered separately.
There are various rules to be applied to press conferences, but we can mention several common factors sustaining the possibility of organising a good press conference:
• Novelty. It is essential for press conferences, the progresses obtained should be clearly mentioned.
• Opportunity. If the implications of the news require discussions, then a press conference represents the ideal opportunity for interpreting the information.
• The personal aspect. If you have a good news and a prepared speaker, this person should come in touch with the accredited journalists, who would like to establish contacts with the official representatives of the organisation.
• Duration. Don’t organise and event which is longer than necessary. Successful press conferences are organised early in the morning or late in the afternoon. Delay the conference with a few minutes for the late journalists.
• Welcoming. A person from the public relations team should welcome the guests, verify the list of the accredited journalists, hand in the written information to the representatives of the press and present the officials.
• Invitations. Make sure that you give enough information for allowing the journalists to decide whether they want to take part in the event. Ask for confirmations.
• Continuity. Try to give style to the event. Avoid unnecessary descriptions. Use films, maps, charts. Make sure that the speakers are well informed. Make positive presentations. Accept difficult questions.
A2. Translate the following text and then make a briefing on it:
First comes the question: “Should we hold a news conference or not?”. Frequently the answer should be: “No!”. The essential element of a news conference is news. If reporters and camera crews presumed that in a conference they have heard propaganda instead of facts, or information of minor interest to a limited group instead of news which is relevant to the large audience, they go away disgusted. Their valuable time has been wasted – and it is valuable. Editors complain that they never have enough staff hours available to cover everything they would like to cover; if they send reporters to a conference that has been called merely to satisfy the host’s sense of self-importance, they resent the fact. The next time, they probably won’t send reporters.
If the material involved fails to meet the criteria of significant news, a wise public relations representative will distribute it through a press release. The information has a chance of being published based on its degree of merit without irritating editors and reporters.
Notices usually are sent by fax or mail, but some organisations use special delivery methods for major conferences in the belief that the extra impact justifies the additional cost. Every news outlet that might be interested in the material should be invited. An ignored media outlet may become an enemy, like a person who isn’t asked to a party. The invitation should describe the general nature of the material to be discussed so, an editor will know what type of reporter to assign.
What hour is best? This depends upon the local media situation. If the city has only an afternoon newspaper, 9 or 9:30 a.m. is good, because this gives the reporter time to write a story before a midday deadline. If the city’s newspaper publishes in the morning, 6 p.m. is a suitable hour.
Another prime goal of news conference sponsors is the early evening news casts on local television stations, or even network TV newscasts if the information isn’t important enough. A conference at 2 p.m. is about the latest that a television crew can cover and still get the material processed at a comfortable pace for inclusion in a dinner hour show. This time period can be shortened in an emergency, but the chances of getting on a show diminish as the processing time decreases.
A warning: a public relations representative in a city with only an afternoon newspaper who schedules a news conference after that paper’s deadline, yet in time for the news to appear on the early evening television newscasts, makes a grave blunder. Newspaper editors resent such favoritism to television and have long memories. Knowledge of, and sensitivity to, local news media deadlines are necessary elements of a public relations representative’s work.
Deadlines for radio news are less confining than those for newspapers and television, because radio newscasts are aired many times a day. The conference hours suggested for newspapers and television are suitable for radio as well, though.
Some organisations provide coffee and possibly sweet rolls for the media guests as a courtesy. Others find this gesture unnecessary because most of the newspeople are in a hurry, more concerned with getting the story than with enjoying social amenities. Liquor should not be served at a regular news conference. Such socialising should be reserved for the press party.
At some news conferences, photographers are given two or three minutes to take their pictures before questioning begins. Some photographers complain that, thus restricted, they cannot obtain candid shots. If free shooting is permitted, as usually is the best practice, the physical arrangements should give the photographers operating space without allowing them to obstruct the view of reporters.
Relationships between print and television reporters sometimes become strained at news conferences. A practitioner should take particular care to arrange the room in such a way that the electronic equipment does not impede the print reporters.
A final problem in managing a news conference is knowing when to end it. The public relations representative serving as backstage timekeeper should avoid cutting off the questioning prematurely. To do so creates antagonism from the reporters. Letting a conference run down like a tired clock is almost as bad. At every conference there comes a moment when the reporters run out of questions and the danger of dull repetitions arises. A speaker may or may not recognise this. If not, the practitioner may step forward and say something like “I’m sorry, but I know some of you have deadlines to make. So, we have time for just two more questions”.
A3. Tips on combating rumors. Discuss each principle and try to give concrete examples:
Here are general guidelines for combating rumors:
1. Analyse the nature and impact of the rumor before taking corrective action. Many rumors are relatively harmless and dissipate in a short time.
2. Attempt to track the cause of the rumor and the geographical locations where it is prominent. This will help determine whether the rumor should be dealt with on a local, county, or national level.
3. Compile complete, authentic information that will either refute or confirm the rumor.
4. When denying a rumor, avoid repeating it more than necessary.
5. Use outside experts and credible public agencies to refute the rumor. The public views a public institution as more trustworthy than the president of a company defending the firm’s product. If the rumor is only among certain highly identifiable groups, enlist the support of the group’s leaders.
Exercise:
The national headquarters of the Continental Oil Company in Los Angeles. For the past month, a false rumour has been circulating that the company will move its headquarters to Houston. In fact, plans are on the drawing board for a new, larger headquarters building in Los Angeles.
The rumour probably started because the company had a managers’ conference in Houston several months ago. This was rumoured to be a high-level meeting to take a look at Houston real estate and decide on a sight for the new headquarters. The rumour is beginning to affect the employee morale in Los Angeles.
The president of Continental Oil, upon the advice of public relations council, decides to put the rumour to rest in a speech at the annual employee recognition banquet next week. You are assigned to write the ten-minute speech for the president.
Would you include in the speech a direct reference to the rumour? Would you take the opportunity to ridicule the rumour? Write a draft of the speech for the president.
A4. Conceive a press conference on one of the following topics:
a. The board of a university has been reinforced with a series of businessmen. Try to explain the good effects of such a decision to the press.
b. The Alpha Company presented in the previous course tries to explain to the press what has happened during the accident at the Welding Section and which are the consequences.
c. A firm launches a new product on the market.
d. A politician explains why he has chosen to run for a place in the senate.
e. A politician explains why he has lost the elections.
B. Phrasal Verbs
B1. Remember the following phrasal verbs with off:
• to be off = a pleca, a porni, a renunţa
• to break off = a întrerupe (din vorbă, din conversaţie, relaţii); a rupe
• to call off = a opri, a anula, a chema înapoi
• to come off = a se produce, a se desprinde
• to drop off = a scădea, a aţipi, a dispărea, a lăsa
• to fly off = a se îndepărta, a se desprinde
• to get off = a scoate, a dezbrăca, a da jos, a trimite pe cineva undeva, a scăpa uşor
• to give off = a scoate, a scăpa de, a învăţa pe de rost, a se da jos
• to go off = a pleca, a leşina, a muri, a se produce, a se desfăşura, a exploda, a se descărca
• to lay off = a renunţa la, a lăsa, a părăsi, a concedia
• to let off = a elibera
• to put off = a mâna, a împiedica
• to set off = a scoate în evidenţă, a separa
• to take off = a scoate, a dezbrăca, a scădea, a da jos, a decola
• to write off = a compune, a anula
B2. Complete each of the following sentences with a suitable verb, making sure that it fits grammatically into the sentence:
1. The colonel …………off in mid sentence as soon as he saw the soldier yawning on parade.
2. Overcome with tiredness, the cleaning lady …………off while polishing the managing director’s desk.
3. His attempt at winning the singing competition didn’t …………off because he lost his voice the day before.
4. The gardener got angry with the little boy for …………off a branch from the apple tree.
5. In all his years as a criminal, Tedd Fellon never once …………off for committing an offence.
6. We should …………off now, otherwise we’ll miss our bus.
7. When the alarm …………off every morning at six, he jumps out of bed.
8. It was a pleasant surprise for Barbara to …………off early from work.
9. I wanted to order roast beef but the waiter told me it …………off.
10. That cake smells awful! It must have …………off.
11. It’s been years since a bomb …………off in our district.
12. The judge …………off the accused as it was his first offence.
13. We’d better …………off the picnic if it’s going to rain.
14. That flower …………off beautiful fragrance.
B3. Decide whether the definitions are true or false. Give the correct definition if necessary:
1. pick off collect a person from a place
2. live off survive
3. round off complete, give the finishing touch to
4. be off separate someone from another person
5. scare off frighten someone away
6. switch off stop concentrating
7. show off make someone feel embarrassed by behaving badly
8. set off cause to explode
9. see off be present at someone’s departure
10. rip off steal from or cheat someone.
C. Marketing
In contemporary societies, marketing is everywhere. When we sell or buy something, not only products, but also ideas, when we make presentations of anything that we want to show or to offer to the others, we are consciously or unconsciously influenced by the marketing concepts.
C1. Read, translate and comment the following text abot marketing. Try to find in the books you have at your disposal other definitions of marketing and explanations about it.
Virtually every writer and lecturer on marketing has felt the need to phrase his or her definition of marketing. So, there is no shortage of definitions. Here is one of the simplest: marketing takes the guesswork out of hunch.
Any new business starts with an idea; any change of business direction has the same beginning: an idea. If an advertising agency creates a purely speculative campaign for one of its clients, the cost is mainly time, a few materials and some share of total overheads: not a vast sum. But it can save spending a fortune: imagine trying to build a nuclear reactor hoping that someone might want to buy it! Even door hinges are expensive to produce, if we take into consideration the cost of the iron or plastic, the cost of the machine operators, the property and all the ancillary costs of book-keeping, selling and so on.
If someone has a hunch, whether about nuclear reactors or door hinges, it can be tested through appropriate market research. This will not eliminate risk entirely but it may help to reduce the risk by the information obtained about the needs and preferences of potential customers. Also, market research can help to quantify the risk that will be taken by a person and give him or her some ideas of the potential rewards, in order to see whether it is worth to make the investment.
Professor Peter Drucker has reached the conclusion that “Marketing is the whole business seen from the point of view of its final result, that is, from the customer’s point of view”. Some people consider that “Marketing is the creative process of satisfying customer needs profitably”.
The most widely accepted definition of marketing is provided by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM): “Marketing is the management process of identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably”.
Marketing is a management skill; it is neither a science nor a technique. Marketing is a matter of identifying opportunities and of deciding what risk to take when anticipating how customers might act or be persuaded to act. Appropriate techniques can be used but, in the end, it’s a matter of judgement. You seek to satisfy customer’s requirements for the purpose of making a profit.
The CIM’s definition is sometimes criticised for dealing inadequately with social marketing (that’s the applications of marketing philosophy and marketing techniques to non-commercial activities). However, the concept of “welfare benefit” can easily be include under the heading of “satisfying customer requirements profitably”.
So, what is marketing? Marketing is more than selling or advertising, it is wholly what business is about, but it’s concerned with the essential matter of investigating the most profitable direction for any business. It therefore:
1). Assesses markets. It measures existing and potential markets, defines market segments, recommends which one is to be attacked, monitors progress.
2). Specifies products and services. Taking both market assessment and product potential into account, it ensures that the end user’s views and opinions are adequately represented in the goods and/or services offered. That is the way in which customers are offered products or services emphasizing “benefits” rather than production “features”.
3). Evaluates pricing policy. Marketing recommends policies which will afford maximum of profits at the minimum of risk. It will also consider possible competitive reactions and devise responses to them.
4). Recommend channel policy, or how goods/services should reach the end user. Marketing establishes the levels through which goods/services will pass. It asks whether sales are to be entirely direct, only indirect or some combination of the two.
5). Evaluates sales and physical distribution policy, on the basis of the functional consequences of channel decisions; the size and duties of the sales force; the number and location of warehouses and departments; call and delivery rates and so on. In other words, marketing examines the question of profit versus volume.
6). Makes recommendations regarding advertising and promotion – how much, when, to whom? Such areas as packaging, service manuals and training need to be analysed and researched.
7). Coordinates the work of the different areas of the business and ensures total quality management. This is vital, if there is any single role that transcends all others in distinguishing a marketing person from other managers.
These are the main features of the field . Can you think of others?
C2. Read the following text about the marketing mix and try to exemplify the concepts:
“It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it. That’s what gets results” (popular song of the 1940s).
The simplest definition of the marketing mix is “the four Ps”: product, price, place and promotion.
It is sometimes thought that “selling” ought to be added to the ingredients that go to make up the marketing mix. Proponents of the “four Ps” include “selling” under “promotion” because the “four Ps” provide a simple and easily remembered definition.
However, a less memorable and more accurate definition of the marketing mix is: those elements that are capable of manipulation and variation in order to improve the effectiveness of marketing programmes, the way in which they are planned and combined, their relative importance and the proportion of each used to produce a desired effect. This definition can be explained as follows:
1). “Manipulations and variations” means that one can change the order of importance, vary the money spent, make short term tactical changes or long term strategic ones.
2). “To improve effectiveness” explains the need for each company to discover its optimum mixed, which might be defined, simply, as the least amount of money and effort needed to achieve profit objectives.
3). “Planned and combined”. Few of the items in the mix are complete substitutes, so the way in which they are used together is very important.
4). “Relative importance”. This element can change from time to time.
5). “Proportion of each used to produce a desired effect”. This is the area where the differences between competing companies really show. Otherwise, the major differences between marketing approaches are caused by the fact that certain elements of the marketing mix are not available, appropriate or simply don’t work in that particular field or with that particular product.
C3.The ideal plan. Read the following text and, bearing its recommendations in mind, try to conceive a marketing plan of your own:
The way in which plans are drawn up differs from organisation to organisation, but there are certain things that all plans have in common. In particular, senior managers want firm recommendations – not a set of alternatives which leaves them with the hard work of having to make a choice between them. They may not necessarily agree with the recommendation presented to them, but it is still helpful to have a set of reasons why one is preferred to another. In addition, they want to know how much profit will result from a plan, over what period and with what degree of certainty or risk.
The key factors to ensure that you have the right planning process and therefore get the right sorts of plans are:
• the extent to which the past is examined;
• how far plans are projected into the future;
• how much detail is included;
• what emphasis is placed on strategy, tactics and execution;
• the number of alternatives to be considered;
• the degree of flexibility permitted during the plans life.
Prices may have to be changed, different product lines may have to be pushed, new service packages may have to replace planned ones and so on. All these should be given first priority rather than reducing the target or changing the strategy.
Thus, achieving the ideal plan is a matter of: careful pre-planning; the right sequence; reasonable chance of success; controlling performance during the plan’s life.
C4. Pay attention to the following schemes, charts or structures which are so familiar for any person working in the field of market research. Comment upon them and try to find others with the same relevance for the domain:
The dynamics of marketing
Marketing as the interface
Customer Product Consumer
needs needs Promotion Marketing Price Goods Place Services
D. Vocabulary Practice.
D1. Do the following exercises:
a. Answer the following questions paying attention to the modal verbs:
Which are the things you can / cannot / may / may not / must / must not / should / shouldn’t / need / needn’t / dare / dare not / would / wouldn’t / shall / shan’t / will / won’t do when you are invited to deliver a speech.
b. When will you say that one is:
all sugar and honey; all over oneself; all legs and wings; all abroad; as cross as two sticks; dry/wet behind the years; in deep waters; one’s own man.
D2. Find the words or expressions which are the closest in meaning to the words in italics in the expressions below:
1. There are three issues we need to discuss…
2. …have to settle for September …
3. … a trade fair coming up at the end of …
4. August is out …
5. Hardly time to get over to London …
6. Can’t we make it the second weekend…?
7. I’ve found the ideal spot…
8. Does that include everything?
9. …to sort out the details…
10. What’s your view, Ron?
Words:
a. travel; b. fix; c. is that all inclusive?; d. items; e. location; f. agree to; g. arrange; h. opinion; i. taking place; j. cannot be considered.
D3. Match the words below with their opposites:
1. overstate; 2. major; 3. vital; 4. home-grown; 5.short-term; 6. genuine; 7. maverick; 8. obvious.
a. unimportant; b. conformist; c. long-term; d. unexpected; e. superficial; f. understate; g. minor; h. external.
D4. Translate into English the following sentences, using the verbs to make and to do:
1. O să fac tot ce o să pot.
2. Fă-mi o cafea, te rog!
3. Ce să-i faci, trebuie să te împaci cu situaţia.
4. Ce mai faci?
5. L-am făcut să-şi taie părul.
6. Cine ţi-a făcut rochia asta?
7. Fă-mi, te rog, acest serviciu.
8. Ce faci cu pensula aia aici, o să te pătezi.
9. A făcut o grămadă de bani.
10. Mă duc să-mi fac un permanent.
11. Cum faci tu maioneza?
12. Am făcut o mare descoperire.
13. M-ai făcut foarte fericit cu această veste.
14. Bine ai făcut că mi-ai spus la timp.
15. Băiatul ăsta pare făcut pentru înot.
16. Fă-mi şi mie loc pe sofa lângă tine.
17. Fă-ţi temele şi du-te la joacă.
18. Mi-a fost greu să-i spun adevărul, dar am făcut-o totuşi.
Remember the following phrases:
to do business/carpets/dishes/exercises/homework/rooms/shopping; to do the best; to do one’s hair; to do fine/well; to do good/harm; to do one’s best; to do the grand/polite; to make coffee/a mess/the beds/a discovery/efforts/inquiries/friends/ a gesture/love/money/an offer/ a remark/room for/a speech; to be made for; to make somebody angry/happy; handmade; home-made; ready-made; self-made man.
XIII. THE IMAGE OF A PRODUCT
A. Negotiations.
A1. The negotiation techniques. Read, translate and comment upon the following text. Try to give concrete examples for each situation.
Negotiation is a process in which, from an ethical point of view, all those involved must be winners. At times, an apparently successful negotiation, if it hides unfavorable terms from one of the partners, can change destinies and destroy social positions. Negotiation has as main objective the fulfillment of a will agreement, of a consensus and not of a victory. Both partners must end the process of negotiation with the feeling that they have accomplished the maximum possible from what they intended to do.
The main purpose in the negotiation process is to obtain a consensus. That is why the negotiators must transform the diverging interests into common purposes, adjusting their demands in a flexible way and keeping some reserves from which to be able to cede from the very beginning. No negotiation starts from “the minimum acceptable” with the idea “this should be the fair thing to do” and with the hope that the partner will appreciate this “realistic” approach. In reality, a negotiation is nothing else but the most elementary application to practice of the demand and offer law. Coming to a negotiation, everyone should be prepared to play a role which is specific to the market economy. Because of this reason, one should be accustomed, in time, with the products, services or even similar concepts (as it is the case of political programmes) offered on the market, the advantages and disadvantages offered by one compared to another.
An elementary aspect is that of knowing when to stop. In all negotiations there is a “critical point”, after which all the agreements fall down, annulling all the communication effort made up to that moment. A good negotiator will know to stop before reaching that point.
Any verbal agreement should be confirmed in writing as quickly as possible.
That gift of accepting the compromise and of getting accustomed with new situations is an important thing in a negotiation. The one who wins a negotiation is the one who thinks better and who plans better. Spontaneity, the capacity of acting promptly and the ability to improvise are important qualities in the process of negotiation.
The process of negotiation should comprise at least three elements:
• the list of things to be negotiated;
• the classification of issues which have been agreed upon;
• topics of disagreement.
A2. Principles of negotiation.
As long as two parties consciously negotiate in order to find a solution to a common problem, the approach involves ethics and certain principles.
As a rule, within a negotiation, each party adjusts its claims and revises the initial objectives. The final agreement is a good compromise. The principle of the mutual advantage (WIN-WIN) does not exclude, though, the fact that the advantages obtained by one of the parties are bigger than the advantages obtained by the other party at the negotiation.
Types of negotiations
There are three main types of negotiations mentioned in the specialised literature:
• The distributive negotiation (winner-loser or victory-defeat). This “either-or” negotiation is the negotiation bringing face to face two adversaries with completely opposed interests and it becomes a confrontation in which one of the parties has to win. Each compromise seems to be a sign of weakness. Each successful attack is a sign of power. The result is decisive for the opponents’ strengths. Among the usual tactics of this kind of negotiation, there are: polemics, attack, intimidation, dissimulation, rhetorical maneuvers.
• The integrative negotiation (victory-victory) is the one in which the aspirations and interests of the partner are taken into consideration, even if they contradict the ones of your own organisation. This type is based on mutual respect and tolerance. The advantage is that through this type of negotiation the parties can reach good, durable solutions in an atmosphere of friendship and trust. So, people can avoid conflicts and really communicate. The specific tactics are based on mutual compromises. The negotiation starts from formulating the problems which must be solved, through questions like: What is not going on well? Where is the bad side? Which facts are not desired? After defining the problems, the parties should analyse the reasons and find solutions.
A3. Tactics of negotiation.
Keep in mind the following tactics, discuss the definitions and try to give examples for each type. Think of building an argumentation in a negotiation, starting from each of the following types.
The fundamental principle in a negotiation is the use of tactics and techniques for putting a strain to the interaction of wills that confront each other at the table of treaties, in order not to let them become open conflicts.
In the same time, to control the interaction of the wills involved in a negotiation means not to let yourself fall prey to the spontaneous reactions, without any logical and reasonable determination. Generally, an impulsive reaction of the adversary makes the other party choose the tactics of negotiation. The tactics could be an effective communication technique, a rhetorical trap or a psychological trick. They help us take initiative or control.
• The YES…BUT tactics. “NO” is direct and categorical negation which hurts and cuts. It presents the risk to offend the partner and to block the discussion. It is not delicate. YES…BUT leaves a possibility but may also mean NO. It allows formulating a personal opinion as a continuation of what the other party has said.
• The tactics of provoking stress and disturbing the adversary. As an exception and as rarely as possible, when we negotiate with a difficult or disagreeable adversary, who has the intention of negotiating with tricks and for a long time, it is recommended to use tactics of provoking stress. This can be about the room in which the negotiation takes place, the light falling on the face of the adversary, repeated and irritating noises in the environment, heat. We have to do this under the mask of complete innocence.
• The tactics of time pressure. It is based on the simple idea that there is always a negotiation programme and a work agenda of the negotiators. These elements should be organised and manipulated so that the most delicate issue remains at the time limit of the process of negotiation.
• The tactics of alternating the negotiators. The basic idea is that when the partner changes the negotiator, you are forced to take everything from the beginning. Another version of the tactics is that the head of the negotiating team seems kind and reasonable but totally unable to face the pressures of the specialists in his team. The other members of the team seem tough and stubborn.
A4. Imagine negotiations on the following topics:
a. The trade union of the teachers requires a 30% raise in salary from the Ministry of Education.
b. The personnel of a research institute requires a variable work hour from the management.
c. Two parties negotiate the places in the government in case they win the elections together.
d. A party negotiates with the ruling party to support its initiatives in Parliament.
e. The representatives of two countries negotiate a peace treaty.
f. The representatives of two countries negotiate the end of a conflict.
g. Romania negotiates the accession to the European Union.
h. The representatives of the EU countries negotiate a common agreement for agriculture.
B. Phrasal Verbs.
B1. Keep in mind the following phrasal verbs with the particle up:
• to be up = a se scula
• to break up = a dărâma, a împrăştia, a se desface, a se destrăma, a se despărţi, a sfărâma, a dezbina
• to bring up = a creşte, a educa
• to come up = a creşte, a progresa, a veni
• to do up = a repara (o casă); a-şi aranja părul, a împacheta, a-şi încheia nasturii
• to dry up = a muri, a dispărea
• to fill up = a completa un formular, a ocupa un post
• to give up = a părăsi, a ceda, a înmâna, a declara pierdut, a renunţa
• to go up = a merge la oraş, a se ridica, a creşte
• to hold up = a expune, a arăta, a opri, a întârzia, a jefui, a se face de râs
• to keep up = a dura, a se menţine; to keep up with = a ţine pasul cu
• to look up = a căuta un cuvânt în dicţionar, a ridica ochii, a privi cu respect pe cineva, a căuta, a vizita
• to make up = a se farda, a da din nou un examen; to make up one’s mind = a se hotărî; to make up with = a se împăca cu
• to put up = a ridica, a găzdui, a manifesta, a născoci, a se acomoda, a se instala, a ridica mâna, a monta un cort; to put up to = a aţâţa pe cineva la; to put up with = a suporta; to put up at = a se instala la un hotel
• to set up = a înălţa o statuie, a organisa o instituţie, a înfiinţa, a păcăli
• to show up = a demasca, a se arăta
• to stock up = a aduna
• to take up = a ridica, a ocupa, a primi
• to throw up = a vomita, a arunca la
• to turn up = a se ivi, a sosi pe neaşteptate
B2. Complete each of the sentences below with a suitable verb, making sure that it fits grammatically into the sentence:
1. Haven’t you ever considered …………up smoking?
2. It mustn’t have been the curdled milk that made him …………up his dinner.
3. I tried to …………up Tim when I was in Los Angeles, but he must have changed his address.
4. If you …………up any more of my time, I’ll kick you.
5. Come on, stop arguing. Let’s …………up!
6. Spring term usually …………up just before Easter.
7. The rebels couldn’t win, so they decided to …………up.
8. We are thinking of …………up a small car hire firm.
9. No amount of money can …………up for the damage you’ve done.
10. The doctor says Arthur will …………up and about in a couple of days.
B3. Match each phrasal verb with the correct definition.
1.stir up; 2. sum up; 3. own up; 4. draw up; 5. hang up; 6. call up; 7. liven up; 8. dress up; 9. settle up; 10. speak up; 11. stay up; 12. flare up.
a. confess, admit; b. come to a stop (of a vehicle); c. summon for military service; d. put on smart clothes; e. try to cause (trouble); f. raise your voice; g. not go to bed early; h. summarise; i. make more lively; j. suddenly become angry; k. pay all that is owed; l. finish a phone call.
C. Advertising
C1. Read, translate and comment upon the following text:
Businesses need to advertise. If they did not advertise no one would ever learn of the existence of their wares. In part, advertising is aimed at conveying information to potential customers and clients, but it is also used to persuade the public to buy. This is the area in which advertising is often criticised. Advertisements are sometimes misleading. Although it is illegal for advertisers to make untrue statements about their goods, services or prizes, they still make their wares seem undully attractive. They pander to our egos and our vanities. They create a demand which would not otherwise exist.
Successful advertising is a challenge. The first few seconds are the key. Advertising is the most visible and highly criticised element of the marketing mix and an important aspect of promotion. Advertising is defined as any paid form of nonpersonal presentation of goals, services or ideas by an identified sponsor. Two terms are highlighted: paid distinguishes advertising from publicity and non-personal separates it from personal selling.
It is easy to say “I’m not influenced by the adverts!”. Everyone is influenced to a certain extent. There was recently some research on subliminal advertising. The word “coffee” was flashed on the television screen. It happened so quickly that no one was aware it has happened. For just a fraction of a second it registered on the viewers’ subconscious. The result? A surprising number of people chose to make coffee at that precise moment. Of course, it could have been a coincidence but it was highly unlikely.
Advertising is a way of communication and the purpose of communication is to inform and influence people’s behaviour. The 4 elements of communication, the sender, the message, the media and the receiver, are all found in advertising.
Advertising can be classified into two broad categories: informative and persuasive. Typically an advert contains elements of both. When a product is first launch, sales are low because very few customers are aware that it exists. The role of advertising here may be to inform the public of the product’s existence and its particular uses. The same applies when a product has been modified or improved. In other cases, for example new cars and scientific calculators, the nature of the product can be such that large amount of technical information has to be supplied, and advertising again may have to be informative. Advertising that informs and educates consumers gives them greater choice in their selection of goods and services. It can be seen as a form of competition between firms and may encourage manufacturers to improve their products to the benefit of the consumer. Persuasive advertising, as its name implies, is used to try to convince the consumers to buy a particular product. It is subjective and contains many statements of opinion rather than facts. Persuasive advertising is normally associated with consumption products and is used heavily where the differences between the products are minor. Persuasive advertising has been criticised because it emphasises the advantages of a product and attempts to make those who do not use the product feel as if they are missing something. It plays on jealousy, envy and “keeping up with the Joneses”.
Informative and persuasive contents can be combined in the form of an appeal to provide a basic reason for the consumer to act. Although the marketer can use many different types of appeals, common advertising appeals include fear appeals, sex appeals and humorous appeals. Fear appeals suggest to the consumer that he or she can avoid some negative experience through purchasing and using the product. Sex appeals suggest to the audience that the product will increase the attractiveness of the user. Humorous appeals imply either directly or more subtly that the product is more fun or excitement than the competitors’ offers.
In relation to the life cycle of the product, advertisement can be pioneering, comparative and reminder. Used in the introductory stage of the life cycle, pioneering advertising tells people what a product is, what it can do and where it can be found. The key objective of a pioneering ad is to inform the target market. Informative ads have been found to be interesting, convincing and effective according to consumer judgement. An increasingly common form of competitive advertising is comparative advertising which shows one brand’s strengths relative to competitors. Firms that use comparative advertising need market research and test results to provide legal support for their claims. Reminder advertising is to reinforce previous knowledge of a product. It is good for products that have achieved a well recognised position and are in the mature phase of their product life cycle.
There are several regulations that control the content of advertisements. For example, British firms are required to follow the British Code of Advertising Practice. Some important extracts from the code are:
1. All advertisements should be legal, decent, honest and truthful.
2. All advertisements should be prepared with a sense of responsibility to the consumer.
3. All advertisements should conform to the principles of fair competition as generally accepted in business.
4. No advertisement should bring advertising into disrepute or reduce confidence in advertising as a service to industry and to the public.
C2. For or against advertising. Read the following text and try to add new points both on the pro and on the against list.
Some would go so far as to say that advertising actually enriches our lives. Commercial television is able to provide us with free programmes thanks to its advertising revenues. National newspapers derive much of their income from advertising. Look at a typical newspaper and you will discover the proportion of the pages devoted to advertisements. We also have advertisers to thank for the free caller supplements accompanying the newspapers.
Arguments for advertising:
1. Advertising tells consumers about the products that are available, allowing them to make a wider and more informed choice.
2. It encourages competition between firms, which have to produce cheaper and better products.
3. By creating a wider market for products, advertising makes large-scale production and sales possible. Mass production also makes goods and services cheaper for consumers.
4. Without advertising, media such as newspapers and television would be more expensive. Many sporting clubs and other organisations also benefit from advertising revenue.
Arguments against advertising:
1. Advertising is expensive and may lead to prices being higher than necessary. High advertising costs may also prevent new firms from entering the market because they cannot afford the expense.
2. Advertising is often wasteful, sometimes involving the same firm advertising virtually identical products against each other. Some writers claim that advertising has little or no effect upon the total demand for goods or even upon the demand for a particular type of good or service. This argument is supported by cigarette manufacturers, who claim that advertising only causes a shift from one brand to another.
3. Advertising can be misleading. However, there are substantial controls upon the industry.
4. Advertisers can exert control over media such as the written press and the television, which often design their content specifically to reach target groups such as the young or the better-off. It can be argued, however, that such “targeting” only works by providing consumers with the reading or entertainment that they want.
C3. Developing the advertising programme. Read the text and try to conceive a programme of your own, for your own business and product.Think of all you have learnt about marketing, at the English courses or elsewhere. Which product would you like to launch? Why?
Once the firm has decided that advertising is going to play some role in the marketing of its product, it must then decide on the message, the media and the receiver. All these factors will be linked. It could be that the receiver – the so-called target audience – will determine the message and the media.
1. Identifying the target audience. To the extent that time and money permit, the target audience for the advertising programme is the target market for the firm’s product, which is identified from the marketing research and market segmentation studies. The more a firm knows about its target audience’s profile (including their lifestyle, attitudes and values), the easier it is to make an advertising decision.
2. Specifying advertising objectives. Consumers can be said to respond in terms of hierarchy of effects, which is the sequence of stage a prospective buyer goes through from initial awareness of a product to eventual action.
• Awareness: the consumer’s ability to recognise and remember the product and brand name.
• Interest: an increase of the consumer’s desire to learn about some of the features of the product and brand.
• Evaluation: the consumer’s appraisal of how he or she feels about the product and the brand.
• Trial: the consumer’s actual first purchase and use of the product and brand.
• Adoption: through a favorable experience on the first trial, the consumer’s repeated purchase and use of the product and brand.
3. Setting the advertising budget. Determining the ideal amount for the budget is difficult because there is no precise way to measure the exact results of spending advertising money. However, there are several methods used to set the advertising budget.
• Percent of sales: funds are allocated to advertising as a percentage of past or anticipated sales, in terms of either money or units sold.
• Competitive parity: matching the competitor’s absolute level of spending on the proportion per point of market share a competitor has.
• All you can afford: common to many small businesses, money is allocated to advertising only after all other budget items are covered.
• Objective and task: the best approach, the company (1) determines its advertising objectives, (2) outlines the tasks to accomplish these objectives and (3) determines the advertising cost of performing these tasks.
4. Selecting the right media. Every advertiser must decide where to place the advertisements. The alternatives are the advertising media, the means by which the message is communicated to the target audience. This media selection decision is related to the target audience, type of product, nature of the message, campaign objectives, available budget and the costs of the alternative media.
Media buyers speak a language of their own. So, every advertiser involved in selecting the right media for campaigns must be familiar with some common terms. Reach is the number of different people exposed to the message, term often used to describe the total circulation of a newspaper. Television and radio stations describe their audience using the term rating, the percentage of households in a market that are tuned to a particular TV show or radio programme. When advertisers want to reach the same audience more than once, they are concerned with frequency, the average number of times a person in the target audience is exposed to a message. Cost per thousand (CPM) refers to the cost of reaching 1,000 individuals or households with the advertising message in a given medium.
5. Writing the copy. The central element of an advertising programme is the advertising copy, the messages that the target audience is intended to see or hear. This usually involves identifying the key benefits of the product that are deemed important to a prospective buyer in making and adopting decisions. In designing the message the advertiser needs to consider the following: the content of the message, who the receiver is, the person used for sending the message, the timing and number of messages.
6. Creating the actual message. The ”creative people” or copywriters in an advertising agency have the responsibility to turn appeals and features such as quality, style, dependability, economy into focus, getting believable advertising copy. This often relies on creative use of fear, sex, humor, sound or visual effects. Translating the ideas into an actual advertisement is also a complex process, including artwork and layout.
7. Scheduling the advertising. There is no correct schedule to advertise a product, but three factors must be considered. First, the issue of buyer turnover, which is how often new buyers enter the market to buy the product. Second, purchase frequency, which means that the more frequently the product is purchased, the less repetition is required. Third, companies must consider the forgetting rate, the speed with which buyers forget the brand if advertising is not seen or heard.
Setting schedules requires an understanding of how the market behaves. Most companies tend to follow one of two basic approaches:
• Steady (“drip”) schedule, when demand and seasonal factors are unimportant and advertising is run regularly throughout the year.
• Pulse (“burst”) schedule, when advertising is distributed unevenly throughout the year because of seasonal demand, heavy periods of promotion or introduction of a new product.
8. Evaluating the advertising programme. The purpose of evaluating advertising efforts is to try to ensure that the advertising is not wasted. Evaluation is done usually at two separate times: before and after the advertisements are run in the actual campaign, taking into account the intended or accomplished objectives.
9. Making needed changes. Results of post-testing the advertising copy are used to reach decisions about changes in the advertisement programme. If the posttest shows that an ad is doing poorly in terms of awareness or cost efficiency, it may be dropped and other ads run in its place in the future. On the other hand, sometimes an advertising may be so successful it is run repeatedly or used as the basis of a larger advertising programme.
C4. Think of the advantages and disadvantages of each medium and give examples of concrete situations. In the space remained on this page, write a brief and as brilliant as possible comment on advertising and its consequences.
MEDIUM ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
Television - exposure on a national scale;
- the advert reaches all socio-economic groups;
- sound, vision, movement and color can all be used;
- reaches extremely large audience - expensive;
- there may not be a nationwide interest in the product, so TV advertising would be inappropriate;
- short exposure time and perishable message;
- difficult to convey complex information.
Radio - low cost;
- can target specific audiences;
- ads can be placed quickly;
- can use sound, humor, intimacy effectively. - no visual excitement;
- short exposure time and perishable message;
- difficult to convey complex information.
Magazines - can target specific audiences;
- high quality color;
- long life of ad;
- ads can be clipped and saved;
- can convey complex information. - long time needed to place ad;
- limited control of ad position;
- relatively high cost;
- competes for attention with other magazine features.
Trade magazines - circulation is rising;
- read by people who take an interest in trade adverts;
- less expensive than newspapers. - only reach small percentage of the population;
- tend to be published less frequently.
Newspapers - excellent coverage of local markets;
- ads can be placed and changed quickly;
- ads can be saved;
- low cost and quick consumer response. - ads compete for attention with other newspaper features;
- can’t control ad position on page;
- short life span;
- can’t target specific audiences.
D. Vocabulary Practice
D1. Do the following exercises:
a. Translate into English:
- E cineva la voi acasă? îl întrebă Nang oprindu-se şi vorbind cu copilul peste umăr.
Băiatul dădu din cap afirmativ.
- Cine e ? reluă Nang.
Copilul spuse că e vorba de două surori ale lui mai mari.
- Numai ele sunnt acasă? întrebă Nang.
- Păi cine să mai fie? se miră băiatul şi adăugă că tata e plecat şi că i-a lăsat singuri, n-a mai venit pe acasă de mult.
Unde era dus? Copilul răspunse că el nu ştia, că ştiau cele două surori ale lui, dar acum ele erau în casă şi nu puteau să iasă afară… De ce?
Nu răspunse în prima clipă la această întrebare, apoi îşi ridică privirea şi spuse că el trebuie să aştepte, acuma nu poate să mănânce orezul… (Marin Preda, Întâlnirea din pământuri)
b.Form positive and negative adjectives from the following nouns, according to the model:
Friendliness friendly unfriendly
Speed
Qualification
Efficiency
Strength
Effectiveness
Extent
Security
Sophistication
Rain
D2. Group the words below under the four headings, according to the model:
Upward trend Downward trend Future estimate Speed of change
to increase to decline to expect to slow down
The verbs:
to rise, to rocket, to fall, to predict, to go up, to project, to plummet, to sink, to accelerate, to anticipate, to calm down, to decrease.
D3. Summarise and explain the following text:
It was the first photograph that I had ever seen, and it fascinated me. I can remember holding it at every angle in order to catch the flickering light from the oil lamp on the dresser. The man in the photograph was unsmiling, but his eyes were kind. I had never met him, but I felt that I knew him. One evening when I was looking at the photograph, as I always did before I went to sleep, I noticed a shadow across the man’s thin face. I moved the photograph so that the shadow lay perfectly around his hollow cheeks. How differennt he looked!
That night I could not sleep, thinking about the letter that I would write. First, I would tell him that I was eleven years old, and that if he had a little girl my age, she could write to me instead of him. I knew that he was a very busy man. Then I would explain to him the real purpose of my letter. I would tell him how wonderful he looked with the shadow that I had seen across his photograph, and I would most carefully suggest that he grow whiskers.
Four months later when I met him at the train station near my home in Westfield, New York, he was wearing a full beard. He was so much taller than I had imagined from my tiny photograph.
“Ladies and Gentlemen”, he said, “I have no speech to make and time to make it in. I appear before you that I may see you and that you may see me.” Then he picked me right up and he kissed me on both cheeks. The whiskers scretched. “Do you think I look better, my little friend?”, he asked me.
My name is Grace Bedell, and the man in the photograph was Abraham Lincoln.
D4. Translate into English the following sentences, usinng the verbs to abuse, to affront, to insult, to offend, too outrage:
1. Ştiu că nu e uşor, dar încearcă să înghiţi această ofensă.
2. Nu vreau să te jignesc, dar cred că nu ai dreptate.
3. De ce ai înfruntat-o, ştii că nu o să îţi ierte niciodată aşa o insultă în public.
4. Felul tău de a vedea lucrurile e de-a dreptul jignitor, ai reuşit să insulţi pe toată lumea.
5. O insulţi dacă râzi de ea.
6. Accidentul e vina lui, nu pot suporta să fiu vătămat şi insultat.
7. Nu pot să mă las ultragiat de ziarul dumneavoastră, aşa că vă voi da în judecată pentru insultă.
8. Am considerat o insultă faptul că nu mi-a adresat nici un cuvânt la petrecere.
9. L-a insultat dar el nu s-a supărat.
10. Nu trebuie să te simţi insultat!
Remember the following phrases:
to abuse one’s opponents, to feel affronted, to offer an affront to somebody, to insult one’s memory, to be offended by somebody, to offend against the law, to feel outraged, outraged feelings.
XIV. REVISION
A. Communication tasks
1. Write pro and against discourses on the following topics:
a. The national character is largely influenced by climate;
b. A politically and economically united Europe is desirable;
c. “Religion is the opium of the people” (Karl Marx);
d. “All art is useless” (Oscar Wilde);
e. There can be no freedom without discipline;
f. Propaganda is the worst form of argument;
g. “Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable” (Dr. Samuel Johnson);
h. “Good fences make good neighbours” (Robert Frost);
i. Advertising is one of the most unpleasant features of modern life;
j. “The human race’s prospects of survival were considerably better when we were defenseless against tigers than they are today when we have become defenseless against ourselves” (Arnold Toynbee).
2. You are a news reporter for a popular newspaper and have been sent to cover a serious traffic accident. Write an article (of about 250 words) for your newspaper. Before you begin to write, ask yourself the following questions:
a. What happened, in brief? Write down all the words you can think of on the topic (e.g. crash, skid, injured, trapped, rescue services, etc.);
b. Who was involved? Were there any witnesses? Did you get an interview?;
c. Did you get a story from a spokesperson in overall charge?;
d. Were there any lessons to be learnt for the future?
3. Imagine an interview with a person who is in charge with the development of an important event (e.g. a ceremony, a demonstration, etc.).
4. Write notes or messages for the following situations:
a. An English speaking friend is coming round to see you this evening but you’ve been asked to go and babysit at short notice. Leave a message for your friend telling where you are and apologising;
b. You are on a language course in Britain but one day you are ill and can’t attend school. Write a note for your teacher which a friend can take for you;
c. You work for a British company. Your boss is out when someone calls to make an appointment for the secretarial job advertised in the paper. Write a memo for your boss, telling him what arrangements you have made;
d. The TV isn’t working. You’ve phoned the repairman and he’s coming this afternoon while you are out. Leave a note for your English speaking flatmate, asking him to stay in for his call.
5. Write down the advantages/disadvantages of organising a press conference in the afternoon.
6. What is a rumour? Which are the main rules of combating a rumour?
7. Explain briefly the main types of negotiation and argue for/against each type.
8. Imagine a negotiation with a trade partner, in order to reach a better agreement and to close a new contract.
B. Grammar tests.
B1. Translate into English:
De prisos să mai spun cât am rămas de uluit de ceea ce s-a întâmplat în ultimul sfert de oră; cât despre Anghel, efortul pe care trebuie să-l fi făcut l-a dat gata: cuprins, cum spunea, de o migrenă cumplită, ne-a rugat să-l însoţim într-o încăpere întunecoasă, unde s-a lungit pe o canapea, cerând să i se aducă şi un şervet ud pe care să şi-l pună pe frunte. Când am repovestit, şi eu şi ceilalţi, mai pe urmă, această întâmplare, nimeni n-a reuşit să ne explice nimic şi de fapt mi-am dat seama că nici nu regretam realmente că nu cunoşteam cauza tainică a incidentului.
B2. Write statements consistent with the verbs and adverbs given and then change them into Indirect Speech:
1. “………”, he complained.
2. “………”, he promised.
3. “………”, he snapped.
4. “………”, he groaned.
5. “………”, he announced.
6. “………”, he said angrily.
7. “………”, he said passionately.
8. “………”, he said brutally.
9. “………”, he said accusingly.
10. “………”, he said fiercely.
11. “………”, he declared.
12. “………”, he said sympathetically.
13. “………”, he gasped.
14. “………”, he said complacently.
15. “………”, he retorted.
B3. Re-write the following text in the Direct Speech:
“Mr. Harding told the Archdeacon that he had informed Sir Abraham he would resign and that consequently he must do so. The Archdeacon couldn’t agree that this was at all necessary, and pointed out that nothing Mr. Harding said is such a way to his own counsel could be in any way binding on him. He had simply been there to ask his lawyer’s advice. The Archdeacon felt sure that Sir Abraham had not advised such a step. Mr. Harding agreed that he hadn’t. The reverend cross-examiner went on to say that he was sure Sir Abraham had advised him against it, which, again, Mr. Harding could not deny. Pressing home his advantage, the Archdeacon expressed his assurance that Sir Abraham must have advised Mr. Harding to consult his friends. Mr. Harding having been obliged to assent to this proposition also, the Archdeacon concluded by saying decisively that Mr. Harding’s threat of resignation therefore amounted to nothing and that they were just where they had been before.” (The Warden, by Anthony Trollope)
B4. Do the following exercises:
a. Choose one of the four possibilities closest in meaning to the sentences you will see below:
1. If you touch my daughter again I will kill you. The parent says he will
a). fill in somebody. b). do in somebody. c). take in somebody. d). pull in somebody.
2. John earns quite a lot. John
a). brings in a lot. b). pulls in a lot. c). gives in enough. d). gets in too much.
3. I am so pleased my holiday starts tomorrow. I can’t wait! The speaker is
a). putting forward her holiday. b). looking forward to her holiday.
c). bringing forward her holiday. d). having her holiday brought forward.
4. The climbers had to stop and return home as the weather was so bad. The climbers were forced to
a). hold back. b). take back. c). turn back. d). keep back.
5. The Howards are decorating their flat at the moment. The flat is being
a). done up. b). made up. c). filled up. d). broken up.
6. I don’t know how Jim survived after that car crash. Jim managed to
a). get through. b). pull through. b). look through. d). go through.
7. She likes to imitate people. She
a). puts them off. b). writes them off. c). takes them off. d). lays them off.
8. The lift is out of order. The lift has
a). come down. b). run down. c). gone down. d). broken down.
9. Dick can’t tolerate this job any longer. Dick can’t
a). keep up with the work. b). put up with the work.
c). take up his job. d). give up his job.
10. On the second day of their honeymoon they quarrelled. The couple
a). were knocked out. b). ran out. c). fell out. d). carried out.
b. Look at the phrasal verb headlines below and then try to work out what each of them means.
a) LADY DIVINA CUT UP
b) KINLOCK TO WRAP UP
c) HATCHET’S DRAWERS GONE THROUGH
d) DUKE RUNS DOWN ANIMAL RIGHTS SUPPORTERS
e) PRINCE TAKEN IN BY PRO
When you have tried to explain the headlines, consider the explanations provided below. There are two possibilities which can be matched up with each headline.
1. Customs officers strip search ex-PM by mistake
2. Maid caught snooping in ex-PM’s bedroom
3. Conman tricks Prince out of 5,000 pounds
4. Magician’s trick goes horribly wrong
5. Opposition leader catches pneumonia
6. Divina distressed at death of goldfish
7. Duke orders chauffeur to drive into animal rights supporters
8. Opposition leader told to cool it
9. Prince put up by call girl after being kicked out of Palace
10. Duke criticises animal rights activists for sabotaging grouse shoot.
Write down one of the articles for: a serious newspaper; a tabloid newspaper; a women’s magazine.
C. Public Relations theories.
1. Write your own considerations about the Public Relations field. Try to be as original as you can.
2. Explain what an image builder is and which the person’s main features should be.
3. Give examples of possible organisation structures and explain them.
4. Comment on the organisation chart and try to apply it at an organisation you are familiar with.
5. What tactics would you choose as a Public Relations specialist for the campaign of a politician who runs for the position of mayor? Why?
6. Conceive a slogan for the politician you prefer in the Romanian political arena. Why do you think it suits that person?
7. Define marketing and explain the definition.
8. Conceive a slogan for a product you like on the Romanian market. Why have you chosen it? How is it in comparison with the existing slogans for the product?
9. Write an essay about the latest political campaign in Romania, specifying runners, way of doing things, effectiveness, analysing the results.
10. Write an essay about the effects of a possible integration in the European Union over the political life of Romania.
D. Vocabulary practice.
D1. Translate into English:
Cei patru tigri mici ai Asiei: Coreea de Sud, Taiwan, Hong Kong şi Singapore au demonstrat în jumătatea a doua a secolului nostru posibilitatea decolării economice, a ieşirii din subdezvoltare, a intrării în marea familie a economiilor avansate şi prospere. Au urmat tigri mijlocii, la distanţă de zece-douăzeci de ani, din zona ASEAN: Malaezia, Indonezia, Tailanda şi Filipine. Şi fiindcă mai rămânea timp până în 2000, surpriza s-a produs. China a adoptat ritmurile de creştere ale tigrilor. Mai întâi să recunoaştem că în lume primul indice care este lipit pe fruntea unei ţări, paşaportul sau buletinul ei, clasificarea absolută şi finală, este produsul pe cap de locuitor. Sociologi, umanişti, istorici încearcă în zadar alte semne distinctive: spiritualitatea, fericirea, armonia, creativitatea. Pentru literatură toate sunt bune, dar nu ţin loc de criteriul economic, universal admis, ce rezistă oricărei dezbateri. Dar după el urmează imediat alt indice, rata creşterii acestui produs. Spune-mi cât produci ca să-ţi spun cine eşti, spune-mi cum creşti, ca să-ţi spun pe cine contez.
D2.Summarise the following text:
A basic and reasonably accurate way to divide concepts, skills and values into two clumps – things adaptable to being taught by technology at reasonable cost and things not adaptable – is to create a differentiation between “training” and “education”. Any type of instructional programing will be most effective for subject matter with a limited range of right answers (training), because defining an incorrect learner response and channeling student effort in an appropriate direction are much easier. While creating good “multiple right answer” instructional units (education) is technically possible, the difficulties and costs of doing so are prohibitive compared to using human teachers. Thus, training in subjects such as reading, basic maths, accounting, carburetor repair, nuclear power plant operation and cooking will be done by machines; and education in creative writing, clinical psychology, salesmanship and executive decision making will be done by humans.
D3. Find the usual partner for each of the following words:
revenue, net, profit, supply, wholesale, stocks, the private sector, state-owned enterprise, credit, blue-collar workers, boom, skilled labour, take on new staff, lending, the shop floor.
D4. Explain the differences between the following verbs:
- to look for and to search;
- to conduct and to lead;
- to grow and to increase;
- to detect and to find out.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Grammar and Vocabulary
• Alexander, L.G., Essay and Letter Writing, Longman Press, London and New York, 1999
• Bantaş, Andrei, Engleza pentru admitere, Editura Teora, Bucureşti, 1995
• Bantaş, Andrei, Essential English, Editura Teora, Bucureşti, 1992
• Bădescu, Alice, Gramatica limbii engleze, Editura Ştiinţifică şi Enciclopedică, Bucureşti, 1984
• Bell, Jan, Gower, Roger, Cunningham, Gillie, Matters. Elementary – Advanced, Longman Press, London and New York, 1999
• Blackman, Daniel, Test Your Phrasal Verbs, Editura Teora, Bucureşti, 1995
• Chiţoran, D., Panovf, I., Poenaru, I., English Grammar Exercises, Editura Ştiinţifică, Bucureşti, 1972
• Crowther, Jonathan, editor, Oxford Guide to British and American Culture, Oxford University Press, London, 1999
• Fârnoagă, G., Lecca, D., English Conversation Topics, Universitatea Bucureşti, 1985
• Fielder, Erkhard, Jansen, Reimer, Norman-Risch, Mil, America in Close-Up, Longman Press, London and New York, 1990
• Gălăţeanu-Fârnoagă, Georgiana, Exerciţii de gramatică engleză, Omegapress, Bucureşti, 1994
• Gălăţeanu-Fârnoagă, Georgiana, Comişel, Ecaterina, Gramatica limbii engleze, Omegapress, Bucureşti, 1996
• Groza-Filip, Adriana, Zaharescu, Dorina, Synonyms in Practice. Exercises, Editura Dacia, Cluj-Napoca, 1996
• Hadfield, Jill, Communication Games. Beginner – Advanced, Longman Press, London and New York, 1999
• Iarovici, Edith, Mareş, Liliana, Exerciţii lexicale de limba engleză, Editura Ştiinţifică şi Enciclopedică, Bucureşti, 1981
• Leviţchi, Leon, Gramatica limbii engleze, Editura Teora, Bucureşti, 1995
• McDowall, David, Britain in Close-Up, Longman Press, London and New York, 1988
• Pop, Maxim, Engleza vorbită, Editura Sport-Turism, Bucureşti, 1978
• Soars, John and Liz, New Headway English Course. Elementary to Upper-Intermediate, Oxford University Press, London, 1999
• Stephens, Mary, Practice Advanced Writing, Longman Press, London and New York, 1996
• Turcu, Fulvia, Năstăsescu, Violeta, Engleza de afaceri în economia de piaţă, Editura Uranus, Bucureşti, 1996
• Walker, Elaine, Elsworth, Steve, Grammar Practice. Elementary – Upper Intermediate, Longman Press, London and New York, 1999
• Watcyn-Jones, Peter, Test Your Vocabulary, Longman Press, London and New York, 1999
• *** Limba engleză. Exerciţii pentru admiterea în învăţământul superior, Editura Didactică şi Pedagogică, Bucureşti, 1978
2. Communication and Public Relations
• Adler, Ronald B., Communicating at Work, Random House, New York, 1998
• Ashley, A., A Handbook of Commercial Correspondence, Oxford University Press, London, 1995
• Brody, E.W., Communication Tomorrow. New Audiences, New Technologies, New Media, Praeger Publishers, New York, 1990
• Chiriacescu, A., Mureşan, L., Barghiel, V., Hollinger, A., Corespondenţă de afaceri în limbile română şi engleză, Editura Teora, Bucureşti, 1995
• Daft, R.L., Organization Theory and Design, West Publishing Company, Minneapolis, 1987
• DeFleur, Melvin L., Ball-Rokeach, Sandra, Teorii ale comunicării de masă, Editura Polirom, Iaşi, 1999
• Dominick, Joseph R., The Dynamics of Mass Communication, McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, New York, 1990
• Dulek, R., Fielden, J.S., Principles of Business Communication, MacMillan Publishing Co., New York, 1990
• Epstein, Edward, Between Fact and Fiction: The Problem of Journalism, Random House, New York, 1985
• Graber, Doris, Mass Media and American Politics, Congressional Quarterly Press, Washington D.C., 1994
• Haberman, David, Dolphin, Harry, Public Relations: The Necessary Art, Iowa State University Press, 1984
• Hennssey, Jane, Global Marketing Strategies, Houghton Mufflin Company, New York, 1995
• Jowett, Garth, o’Donnell, Victoria, Propaganda and Persuasion, SAGE Publications, New York, 1992
• Kuiper, S., Wolf, M.P., Effective Communication in Business, South-Western Publishing Co., Cincinnati, 1994
• Linski, Martin, Impact: How the Press Affects Federal Policymaking, Norton Press, New York, 1996
• McQuail, Denis, Mass Communication Theory. An Introduction, SAGE Publications, New York, 1990
• Nager, Norman R., Allen, Harrell T., Public Relations. Management by Objectives, Longman Press, New York and London, 1984
• Schramm, Willem, How Communication Works, University of Illinois Press, 1971
• Schultz, Don, Strategic Advertising Campaigns, NTC Business Books, Illinois, 1995
• Shaw, David, Press Watch, Mac Millan Publishing Co., New York, 1984
• Toma, Gheorghe (coord.), Tehnici de comunicare, Editura Artprint, Bucureşti, 1999
• Wilcox, Dennis, Ault, Phillip, Agee, Warren, Public Relations, Harper-Collins College Publishers, New York, 1994
• Wood, Robert J., Gunther, Max, Confessions of a PR Man, New American Library, New York, 1988
• *** International Media Guides: Newspapers Worldwide, Consumer Magazines Worldwide, Business Publications Asia/Pacific, Europe, the Americas, Middle East/Africa, International Media Enterprises, 22 Elizabeth Street, South Norwalk, CT 06856.
