Taxation

Everyone knows that taxation is necessary in a modern state. Taxes are a part of life. Governments argue that taxes are a necessary evil – the price of a «civilized society». In fact, taxes help governments to pay massive amounts of money to operate and provide necessary services. Taxes are needed to pay salaries, they provide roads, schools and hospitals and help to pay the bill for such services as garbage collection* and postal delivery*. Without taxes it would not be possible to pay the soldiers and policemen who protect us; not the workers in government offices who look after our health, our food, our water, and all other things that we cannot do for ourselves; not also the ministers and members of parliament who govern the country for us. By means of taxation we pay for things that we need just as much as we need somewhere to live and something to eat.

Taxes can be divided into two categories: direct and indirect. Income tax, corporate tax, and property tax are examples of direct taxes. Income tax is probably the most resented, because in some lands it is progressive – the more you earn, the more tax you pay. Indirect taxes include sales taxes, taxes on liquor and cigarettes, and customs duties.

Though everyone knows that taxation is necessary, different people have different ideas about how taxation should be arranged. Should each person have to pay certain amount of money to the government each year? Or should there be a tax on things that people buy and sell? If the first kind of taxation is used should everyone pay the same tax, whether he is rich or poor? If the second kind of taxation is preferred should everything be taxed equally? Nobody enjoys paying taxes, many people try to find different ways to avoid paying certain taxes. That′s why whenever a new tax is proposed, legislators try to close any possible loopholes*.

Vocabulary List

garbage collection – вывоз мусора

postal delivery – доставка почты

loophole – лазейка

Task 1. Скажите, верны ли следующие утверждения согласно тексту?

1. Taxes are useless in our society.

2. Taxes are needed to provide necessary services.

3. The main idea of progressive income tax – the more you earn, the less tax you pay.

4. All people prefer to pay taxes.

5. Direct taxes include income tax, corporate tax and property tax.

Task 2. Ответьте на следующие вопросы:

1. How many categories of taxes can you name?

2. How do taxes help government to operate and provide necessary services?

3. Do all people agree with the main principle of taxation?

Information in Economics

Vocabulary

browser – браузер (программа навигации и просмотра в интернете)

computer industry – – промышленность средств вычислительной техники

computer literacy – компьютерная грамотность

computer technology – компьютерные технологии

computerized robots – роботы с компьютерным управлением

disappear – исчезать

domain name – имя домена

enormously – чрезвычайно

flow – поток, движение

hack – «взламывать» чужой компьютер

hardware – аппаратура, оборудование

illegally – незаконно

keep smth. secret – держать в секрете

keyboard – клавиатура

log on to the net – входить в интернет

monitor – осуществлять контроль

network communication – передача информации в глобальной сети

programming language – язык программирования

progress – двигаться вперед

provide access – обеспечивать доступ

realize – представлять себе, ясно понимать

relating to – связанный с, касающийся

remote – удаленный

site – сайт (любой адрес в интернете, где хранится информация)

software – программное обеспечение

software program – компьютерные программы

superhighway internet service providers – провайдер (компания, предоставляющая доступ удаленным пользователям к интернету)

to dial – набирать код

virtual circuit – виртуальная цепь, виртуальный канал

voice command – команды, подаваемые человеческим голосом

web – – сокр. от www всемирная паутина

website – узел глобальной сети

Task 1. Match the words.

website база данных

subnet узел глобальной сети

browser виртуальная цепь

software program в режиме онлайн

virtual circuit сообщение

message компьютерная программа

site набирать код

to dial сайт

online order подсеть

database программа навигации

Task 2. Cross one out.

1. web, site, freeway

2. billboard, software, hardware

3. off-line, fill-in forms, on-line

4. time-consuming, online order, place an order

Text 1. Bill Gates and Microsoft Corporation

Task 1. Read and translate the text.

William (Bill) H. Gates is chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft Corporation, the worldwide leader in software services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. Gates’ foresight and his vision for personal computing have been central to the success of Microsoft and software industry.

In August 23, 1995 an unprecedented marketing and media frenzy reached its peak throughout the world. The level of publicity and excitement had rarely been seen before but it was not for a new movie or even a new car. It was for a piece of software. By midnight, customers had already queued up outside computer stores to be among the first to purchase Windows 95, an upgraded operating system for IBM and IBM-compatible personal computers. Microsoft Corporation, the company behind Windows 95, spared no expense in exciting the demand for its new product.

Born on October 28, 1955, William Henry Gates grew up in Seattle, Washington, in a socially prominent family with his two sisters. Their father was a lawyer with a well-connected firm in the city. Their mother, Mary Gates, was a schoolteacher, active in charity work. Gates attended public elementary school and the private Lakeside school. There, he discovered his interest in software and began programming computers at the age of 13. “He was a computer nerd before the term was invented”, as one of his teachers described Gates at the time.

In 1973 Gates entered Harvard University as a freshman, where he lived down the hall from Steve Ballmer, now Microsoft’s chief executive officer. While at Harvard, Gates developed a version of the programming language BASIC for the first microcomputer – the MITS Altair.

In his junior years Gates left Harvard to devote his energies to Microsoft, a company he had begun in 1975 with his childhood friend Paul Allen. Guided by a belief that the computer would be a valuable tool on every office desktop and in every home, they began developing software for personal computers. Gated and Allen were not typical entrepreneurs. They had no business plan, no venture capital, no bankers or Small Business Administration loans. But they had the most important tools needed for software development: brains and computers and they had everything necessary for entry into the porous computer industry of the time: they had product, programming expertise and most importantly, a vision of greater possibilities.

The introduction of Windows 95 mirrored the rapid changes in the marketplace and marked a new crucial point for Bill Gates. His role in the personal computer revolution had given him a net worth estimated in the summer of 1996 at $18 billion and had turned him into an icon of information technology. Few American businessmen have ever occupied such a niche in the popular imagination. Just as John D. Rockfeller created order from chaos in the most important new industry of the late nineteenth century, Gates and his company did the same in the most crucial industry of the late twentieth century: computers. And, like Rockfeller, Gates found ways to force the rest of the industry to follow his lead.

Gates was married on January 1, 1994, to Melinda French Gates. They have three children. Gates is an avid reader and enjoys playing golf and bridge.

In 1999 Gates wrote Business and the Speech of Thought, a book that shows how computer technology can solve business problems in fundamentally new ways. The book was published in 25 languages and is available in more than 60 countries. Gates’ previous book, The Road Ahead, published in 1995, held the No. 1 spot on the New York Times’ bestseller list for seven weeks.

Though an innovative and forward-thinking entrepreneur, Bill Gates didn’t invent crucial technology. Rather, he shrewdly adapted and improved products first made by others. He recognized the coming of the personal computer (PC) long before others did and deduced that operating systems and applications (software) would be at least as important to the PC business as the nuts-and-bolts equipment (hardware). Part of the reason for Microsoft’s dominance in the field lies precisely in Gates’ ability to anticipate developments in computer technology and to judge when the public will be ready for them. Another part of Microsoft’s success lies in Gates’ unwavering confidence in his own ideas. Through the force of his personality, as much as through the popularity of his products, Bill Gates has imposed his own order on the burgeoning computer industry.

Gates has donated the proceeds of both books to non-profit organizations that support the use of technology in education and professional skills development. Under Gates’ leadership, Microsoft’s mission has been to continually advance and improve software technology and to make it easier, more cost-effective and more enjoyable for people to use computers.

Philanthropy is also important to Gates. He and his wife, Melinda, have endowed a foundation with more than $24 billion to support initiatives in the areas of global health and learning, including the Gates Library Initiative to bring computers, Internet Access and training to public libraries in low-income communities in the United States and Canada.

Essential Vocabulary

bestseller – сенсационная книга, бестселлер

compatible – совместимый

computer nerd – компьютерный фанат

crucial – ключевой, решающий

donate – передавать в дар

endow – пожертвовать капитал, делать дар

executive officer – должностное лицо

expertise – опыт, знание дела, компетенция

foresight – предвидение

forward-thinking – прогрессивно мыслящий

frenzy – безумие

information technology – информационные технологии

innovative – новаторский

lead – лидерство, руководство

net worth – собственный капитал предприятия

operating system – операционная система

personality – индивидуальность, личность

proceeds – выручка, доход

software architect – разработчик структуры системного программного обеспечения

software development – разработка программного обеспечения

software industry – промышленность по производству программного обеспечения

unwavering – непоколебимый, твердый

upgrade – модернизация

to upgrade – модернизировать

venture capital – венчурный капитал; капитал, вложенный в новое предприятие

vision – предвидение

Task 2. Translate the following word combinations or find Russian equivalents.

1. software

2. software industry

3. media frenzy

4. IBM-compatible personal computers

5. to spare no expenses

6. venture capital

7. computer industry

8. programming expertise

9. non-profit organizations

10. professional skills development

Task 3. Translate the following sentences into Russian.

1. Gates’ foresight and his vision for personal computing have been central to the success of Microsoft.

2. The unprecedented marketing and media frenzy was for a piece of software Windows 95.

3. Through the force of his personality Bill Gates has imposed his own order on the burgeoning computer industry.

4. Microsoft’s mission has been to continually advance and improve software technology.

5. Bill Gates devoted his energy to make it easier, more cost-effective and more enjoyable for people to use computers.

Task 4. Fill the gaps in the sentences below with the words and expressions from the box. There are two expressions, which you don’t need to use.

Software, computer technology, an upgraded operating system, information technology, net worth, innovative, foresight, marketplace, business problems, computer nerd, software architect, forward-thinking, executive officer, demand, Internet technologies

1. Bill Gates is chairman and chief ______ of Microsoft Corporation.

2. Bill Gates is the worldwide leader in software services and _____ for personal and business computing.

3. Customers queued up outside computer stores to purchase Windows 95, ________ for IBM and IBM-compatible personal computers.

4. Microsoft Corporation spared no expense in exciting the ______ for its new product, namely Windows 95.

5. Bill Gates was a _____ before the term was invented: he devoted all his energies to developing _____ for personal computers.

6. The introduction of Windows 95 mirrored the rapid changes in the ______ and marked a new crucial point for Bill Gates.

7. Gates’ ability to anticipate _____ developments in _____ had given him in 1996 a ______ of $18 billion.

8. Bill Gates’ role in the personal computer revolution had turned him into an icon of ____________.

9. In 1999, Gates wrote a book that shows how computer technology can solve ______ in fundamentally new ways.

10. Being an _______ and ______ entrepreneur Bill Gates found ways to force the rest of the industry to follow his lead.

Task 5. Find English equivalents for the following Russian expressions and words.

1. лидер на мировом рынке

2. программное обеспечение

3. Интернет

4. операционная система

5. стимулировать спрос

6. компьютерный фанат

7. язык программирования

8. разработка программного обеспечения

9. ключевой момент

10. непоколебимая уверенность

Task 6. Translate the following sentences from Russian into English.

1. Успех «Майкрософт» состоит в непоколебимой убежденности Гейтса в своих собственных идеях.

2. Гейтс разработал версию языка программирования BASIC для первого микрокомпьютера.

3. У Гейтса были самые важные инструменты, необходимые для разработки программного обеспечения: мозги и компьютеры.

4. У Гейтса было все для компьютерной промышленности: продукт, опыт программирования и предвидение еще больших возможностей.

5. Гейтс пожертвовал гонорар, полученный за обе книги, общественным организациям.