Task

Read the three paragraphs below and decide which of them follow the necessary conventions of an
abstract. Identify what you would change to improve their quality if necessary.


a) Let us first explain that interest in the relationship between health behaviours and academic
achievement has recently intensifyed in the face of an epidemic of childhood and adolescent obesity
and converging school reforms in the United States and other nations with advanced economies, such
UK, France, Germany, Canada, Italy or Australia. Epidemiologic research has demonstrated that poor
diet and luck of adequate physical activity place childrens at risk for being overwaight and obese
and thus influence future health status. Additional research has also shown that childrens and
adolescents whose diets are nutritious and whose participation in physical activity is high tend to
perform better on various measures of cognitive performance and academic achievement. We tried to
analyse cross-sectional survey data from some 5000 or 6000 Icelandic school childrens. Our idea and
finally the goal of the research was to explore the relationship between selected health behaviours
and academic achievement. Body mass index, diet and physical activity explained up to 24% of the
variance in academic achievement when controlling for gender, parental education, family structure,
absenteeism and some other things. If we added depressed mood and self-esteem to the model,
variance explained might increase to 27%, but we are not really sure about the role of physical
activity. Although not really excellent, these findings are consistent with some previous work and
affirm the complexity of the relationship of health to academic achievement.


b) This publication examines how Western publishing houses have entered the Chinese magazine
market. Based on the industrial economics approach, the aim is to identify a successful market
entry strategy into an emerging media market regarding entry timing, entry mode, entry process, and
product choice. Applying a qualitative, exploratory approach, comparative case studies are used as
primary research method and the market entries of four Western publishing houses are analyzed.
Findings reveal that an early entry with cooperative entry modes and choosing a successful
cooperation partner are important factors in the entry strategy. Further, an incremental expansion
process and choosing a global brand that has already been successful world-wide facilitates the
market entry. Obtaining general experience in internationalization and near-market experience could
be identified as crucial issues for entering an emerging media market. (Strube, 2010)


c) What binds the Western Balkans to the Caucasus is, among other issues, certainly an extremely
challenging legacy of the past. Dissolution of two respective multinational states – the Soviet
Union and Socialist Yugoslavia in the beginning of 1990s – introduced ethno-nationalist conflicts
on a large scale. While the Yugoslav crisis ended in 1999 after FRY was bombed by NATO during its
Kosovo campaign, the Caucasus still remains a conflict-ridden region where Russian and Western
influences keep colliding. In that respect, the point of this article is to present an analytical
comparison of the three respective regional conflicts - Kosovo, Abkhazia and South Ossetia – by
enumerating and analyzing similarities and differences among them as this proves to be one of the
current and more intriguing issues of the contemporary international political scene. In that
respect, this article is aimed at providing answers to two different issues: Did Kosovo’s
independence influence the establishment of a specific political pattern applicable to other
disputed regions, and, on the other hand, to what degree are the cases in question comparable to
each other? (Dordevic, 2010)