READING, p. 101 TASK 1 Par 1 1. bruise = injury caused by a blow to the body or a fruit, discolouring the skin but not breaking it. 2. bandwagon = an idea or activity, especially in politics or business, that suddenly becomes very popular or fashionable, so that a lot of people want to be involved in it: His recent poll victory could start an ultra-nationalist bandwagon rolling. jump on/climb on/join the bandwagon: Every business was trying to jump on the ‘dot-com’ bandwagon. 3. scramble on = climb or crawl quickly, usu over rough ground or with difficulty 4. trait = element in sb´s personality, distinguishing characteristic Par 2 1. venture capitalist = a private investor or a financial business that invests money in new companies, which may involve a lot of risk and bring good profits 2. business angel = an investor who helps new companies develop by lending them their own money, which may involve a lot of risk 3. to be inclined to = to have a tendency to do sth, to have sth; likely to be sth, to do sth The car is inclined to stall when it´s cold outside. to stall = (of an engine) to stop suddenly because of insufficient power or speed 4. mediocre = not very good, second-rate 5. to attach a lot of importance on sth = to put a lot of weight on sth 6. scar = a mark left on the skin by a wound, sore, etc. 7. tissue = mass of cells forming the body of an animal or a plant; The tissues have been destroyed and a scar has formed. 8. asset= valuable or useful quality or skill 9. prospective = expected to be or to occur, future or possible Par 3 1. to rest on = to depend on 2. chances of = possibility, likelihood Par 4 1. spin-out = a company that is formed to develop and use the results of research done at a university or college Spin-off = the act of forming a new, independent company from part of an existing one; a company formed in this way 2. edge = advantage have an/the edge on/over sb/sth = have a slight advantage over sb/sth The young tennis player definitely had the edge on his older opponent. 3. entrant = someone who enters a competition, market or examination 4. survival = the fact or state of continuing to live or exist, especially in difficult conditions Par 5 1. pattern = a series of actions or events that together show how things normally happen or are done; a set of lines, shapes, or colours that are repeated regularly 2. to spot = to notice something or someone trainspotting = the activity of watching trains and writing down their numbers and names 3. intuitive = based on your feelings rather than on facts or evidence Par 6 1. radicalism = a way of thinking or behaving that is based on the belief that important political and social changes are necessary 2. domain = a particular area of activity or life 3. disruptive = causing difficulties that interrupt something or prevent it from continuing 4. to subject sth/sb to sth = to make someone experience something unpleasant 5. oligopoly = the control of trade in particular goods or the supply of a particular service by a small group of companies; the type of goods or service that is controlled in this way; the companies that control the trade:_ The North American market will ultimately turn into an oligopoly of five or six companies. Oligopoly is formed from the words oligarchy ( a small group of people who control a business, an organization, a country, etc. for a long time and are unwilling to let other people share power; the business, organization or country that they control) and monopoly. 6. erode = to gradually damage the surface of rock or land so that it begins to disappear, or to be gradually damaged in this way; to gradually reduce the strength, importance or value of something, or to be gradually reduced in this way 7. consolidation = the situation when companies of the same type join together; the act of joining two or more things together; the act of making your power, success, knowledge, etc. stronger The training focuses on the consolidation of skills. Par 7 1. inverse = opposite in amount or position to another thing (in the text this word is in the adverbia form) There is an inverse relationship between shares and the dollar (= the value of one goes up as the value of the other goes down). The gold price often moves inversely to the dollar. E-business knowledge is inversely proportional to age and height in the organization. in inverse proportion to if one thing is in inverse proportion to another, the more of one thing there is, the less there is of the other: The attractiveness of a city tends to be in inverse proportion to its economic productivity. The size of demand is in inverse proportion to the price (= if one is high the other is low and if one is low the other is high). Par 8 1. genuinely = honestly or in a sincere way 2. conscious = noticing that something exists or is happening and realizing that it is important 3. derive sth from sth = to receive or obtain something from something else 4. focused = concentrating on a particular aim and not wasting time or energy on other things; clear 5. counterpart = someone or something that has the same job or purpose as another person or thing, but in a different country, time, situation, or organization Par 9 1. groundbreaking = using new methods or achieving new results 2. benchmark = an amount, level, standard etc that you can use for judging how good or bad other things are 3. potential = the possibility to develop or achieve something in the future Par 10 1. dean = a senior official at a college or university