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Facoltà di Economia Lingua Inglese II

Listening comprehension ( Inglese II ) HUGE RISE IN MOBILE PHONE THEFTS FROM CHILDREN: Up to half a million young people aged between 11 and 15 fell victim to a mobile phone theft last year, according to an official Home Office research report to be published today. The study also estimates that the overall number of stolen mobiles is more than double the 330,000 officially recorded by the police.While about 1% of all adults had a mobile stolen last year, the chance of becoming a victim rises more than fivefold for those aged 11-16, with 5% of Britain's younger teenagers reporting that they had their phone stolen at least once. For those aged under 16 and living in deprived areas in big cities, the figure rises to 12%.The report is also sceptical about possible methods of curbing the problem, to be canvassed today by Home Office ministers. Also it found that the mobile phone manufacturers have so far failed to come up with a way of disabling a stolen handset at a cost which they are prepared to pay.The researchers also cast doubt on the value of a technique known as "bombing", whereby the police bombard stolen mobiles with a continuous flow of text messages. Members of a group of young offenders were said by researchers to be "bemused" by this proposal: "In their view, avoiding it would simply be a matter of stealing another phone on the expectation that its loss would not be reported, or that the police would not be able to keep up."The official study says that the most likely phone robber is male, younger than most other kinds of robbers, with most aged only 14 to 17, and - in five out of the seven police areas studied - most probably black, and operating in a gang. Fewer than 10% of mobile phone thefts are carried out by teenage girls. While the majority of those accused of being phone robbers are black ( rising to 71% in London ) there is some variation around the country. In Birmingham 34% of suspects were Asian and 54% black, and in Stockport 76% of suspects were white. The research also shows mobile phone robbery is predominantly a male-on-male and black-on-white teenage crime in the four city centres studied. "Young male phone users have cause to be the most wary. Probably, though, women and girls are more vulnerable to theft from the person, which often involves thefts from bags. Risks of unattended phones are likely to be fairly equal." Some police officers believed that phones are stolen less for their value than as a system by which gangs of teenage boys establish territorial rights and "show who's who" by penalising other street users, especially other teenagers, by "taxing" them through phone thefts. The main moral to date is that the phone manufacturers should have thought more in advance about the crime potential. Better security needs to be a key issue for the next generation of phones.

FACOLTA’ DI ECONOMIA

COGNOME _________________ NOME ___________________ Comprehension: listen carefully to the text and decide whether the following statements are true or false.

Check (X) for True (T) or False (F)

F F

1)

Police records adequately reflect the reality of mobile phone theft.

2)

1% of phone thefts from children are carried out by adults.

F

3)

F

4)

F

5)

F

7)

F

8)

The report's findings recognise and commend the efficiency with which the problem is currently being dealt with. Phone manufacturers cannot afford to implement measures in order to render stolen phones useless. The researchers were in no doubt of the significant value of the police "bombing" technique. The young offenders were unconcerned about police tactics regarding mobile phones. The profile of a typical phone robber is a young black teenager operating on his own initiative. Over half those accused of mobile phone theft in Birmingham were Asian.

F F

9)

Both boys and girls are equally likely to be the target of mobile phone robbery.

10)

The opinion of some police officers is that phones are stolen less in areas where gang activity is greater.

6)

T

FACOLTA’ DI ECONOMIA LINGUA INGLESE II

THE REALLY BIG TIGER'S TALE The Guardian 21 August 2000

If the British newspapers are right, the Irish economy is in serious trouble. British

commentators are convinced that we are headed for a severe recession. Some base their belief on a simple appeal to the notion that what goes up must come down. Others discern portents of doom in some of the recent trends. They have a point. Inflation is now running at 6.2%, wage inflation is accelerating sharply and house prices have risen by about 20% per annum over the past three years. On the face of it, this seems like a recipe for a rough hangover. But is it? Take consumer prices. Inflation in a very open economy like Ireland, where exports and imports amount to 170% of GDP, is mostly a reflection of international influences and exchange rate changes. Thus, of the 3.5% point acceleration in inflation since July last year - the core rate has increased from 2.4% to 5.9% over this period - 1.2 points are due to rising world energy prices and 1.1 points to the weak euro. Much of the remainder is due to a hefty rise in tobacco duty. So it would be quite mistaken to regard the RPI as a barometer of overheating in Ireland, or to interpret its recent behaviour as a harbinger of gloom. It would be disingenuous to deny that the RPI reflects domestic inflationary pressures to some extent. The services component of the index is rising at a vigorous 7% annual rate. It is due to wage inflation, of course: the services sector is labour intensive and sheltered from international competition. But, is wage inflation in the vicinity of 7% the precursor of recession? Pessimists answer "yes" on the grounds that it will undermine the economy's competitiveness. But Ireland has become a hyper-competitive economy and must become less competitive if output growth is to moderate to a sustainable rate. When there is a labour shortage, wages must rise until the shortage is eliminated. It is not necessary that anything be lost in this process except the surfeit of competitiveness that caused the demand for labour to exceed supply in the first place. So, is there nothing that can go wrong? Well, it is possible that wages will rise so steeply and competitiveness be so massively eroded that output and employment will fall. For this to happen would require a labour market in which employees exercised bargaining power way above that which the operation of free market forces confers on them. This is improbable in an economy where only 25%-30% of the private sector workforce is unionised, and where workers in the most dynamic sectors are not unionised at all. As for the persistence of double-digit house price inflation, one must distinguish cause and effect. Not even in the UK in the early 1990s was the collapse in house prices the cause of recession. It was a consequence of a recession rooted in a weakening of the world economy and a sharp tightening of British macroeconomic policy. It makes no sense to argue that a fall in house prices (itself an improbable event in the absence of some deterioration in the economic environment) would cause a recession in Ireland. Even assuming that consumer spending would weaken in response, the very high

propensity to import (Ireland imports virtually all its cars and consumer durables) would mean that the impact on output would be small. The main determinant of long-term growth in the Irish economy is the size of its export base. Given that internal resources are limited, expansion of that base relies heavily on foreign direct investment. A key barometer of the health of the economy, therefore, is the rate of inflow of foreign investment. Here the indications are that Ireland's rapid expansion will continue for quite some time. Even in recent weeks there has been a flood of announcements by leading international information technology firms - Intel, IBM, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, to name a few - of their intention to expand existing facilities or establish greenfield operations in Ireland. The Irish economy stories that have dominated the media of late have been those of runaway inflation. In my view, the really big story is that, despite rising costs, Ireland continues to prove irresistibly attractive to global hi-tech firms. It seems that Ireland, in a European context, is moving towards the kind of position that regions like Seattle and Silicon Valley occupy in the US - a dynamic hi-tech pole that specialises in a range of knowledge-intensive activities and enjoys much higher than average productivity and living standards. Higher than average production and living costs are just part of that territory.

COGNOME _________________ NOME ___________________ Comprehension: read the text carefully and decide whether the following statements are true or false.

Check (X) for True (T) or False (F)

T

1)

F

2)

Some people are convinced that a recession is inevitable after a period of economic boom merely because it seems logical. The inflation rate in Ireland is not greatly affected by external factors.

F

3)

The increase in inflation was contributed to by a slight rise in tobacco duty.

F

4)

F

5)

F

6)

It would not be totally wrong to consider the current RPI as an indicator of bad times ahead. Due to the weakness of Trade Unions in the private sector, there is a real risk that wage inflation could have a damaging effect on output and employment levels. House price inflation represents a serious threat to causing a recession in Ireland.

F

7) 8)

T F

T

9) 10)

In a period of recession Ireland would be disadvantaged by its high propensity to import. Unlike the RPI, foreign investment levels serve as a reliable indicator of economic well-being. Ireland has only recently been considered an interesting location by leading international IT companies. The high cost of living is compensated for by higher than average productivity.

FACOLTA’ DI ECONOMIA LINGUA INGLESE II

COGNOME _____________________________ NOME ________________________________ Choose the best alternative to fill in the gap in each of the following sentences: 1. I ______________________ my hair blonde. I've been thinking about it for ages. a) will dye b) am going to dye c) will have dyed d) am dying 2. I think that in this case ____________ honesty is the best policy. a) A b) The c) An d) ----3. I ___________________ have seen Rachael at the supermarket otherwise I would have said hello. a) must not b) should not c) might not d) could not 4. Kim _______________ me she was a vegetarian! The restaurant I've booked specialises in meat dishes. a) might tell b) could tell c) must have told d) might have told 5. It took the children a long time to get _____________ the death of their father. a) by b) through c) over d) round 6. " If you continue with these shopping sprees you'll end up ________________ your credit card company a fortune!" a) borrowing b) being in debt c) owing d) lending 7. At the meeting someone ________________ the idea that there should be a student representative on the committee. a) put across b) put forward c) put out d) put over 8. They ___________________ the journey from Edinburgh to London on foot. a) made b) did 9. Could you cut me another _________________ of cake please? a) lump b) slice c) bit d) lot 10.Join the following sentences using relative pronouns. Remember to put commas where necessary. We bought a car from a man. He has written a novel. The novel has become a bestseller. __________________________________________________________________________________ _ The man we bought the car from has written a novel which has become a best seller. __________________________________________________________________________________ _...