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The Educational System in Great Britain
Boehringer Ingelheim, GmbH, Germany
Task 1. What do you think about the following ideas?
- What is the role of information systems in the global economy?
- What problems do many businesses face nowadays? What kind of solution do information systems provide?
- What did the top managers of Boehringer Ingelheim decide to do in order to improve the employees work?
- How are hardware, software, databases, telecommunications used in Boehringer’s information systems to provide valuable data?
- Can you give examples of any other companies which invested millions in all the components of an information system to facilitate their work and achieve greater success?
Task 2. Read the text carefully. Say whether the sentences below the text are true or false.
1. As businesses grow and diversify, it becomes increasingly easy to access current information on which to base decisions.
2. With each of the company’s segments using diverse information systems, it took a significant amount of time to collect and combine all of the financial records.
3. Information systems provide a solution – opening lines of communication between several business units and providing a continuous stream of up-to-the-second information to support fast strategic decision making.
4. The new system has made the accounting department much more productive, allowing staff to run up-to-date reports whenever needed.
5. The software from BackWeb Technologies doesn’t provide employees with access to current sales information through a Web portal and a custom Web interface, wherever they travel.
Task 3. Choose the words from the box and put each of them in the correct place of the sentence.
| Workforce; deployed; technology makeover; updates; segments; paid off; consumer products; applications; transaction; revamp; foresee; state-of-the-art; to access |
1. By the time Boehringer was finished with its …, the company had implemented over seven new interconnected information systems.
2. Boehringer has diversified into … that include manufacturing and marketing pharmaceuticals (such as prescription medicines and …), products for industrial consumers (such as chemicals and biopharmaceuticals), and animal health products.
3. For a small business owner, one who is involves in every …, staying abreast of the state of the business is fairly straightforward.
4. If a business owner could … the future, decisions would be easy to make and involve little risk.
5. As businesses grow and diversify, it becomes increasingly difficult … current information on which to base decisions.
6. Top managers decided to totally … the company’s systems with … information system from SAP.
7. Boehringer is committed to providing employees at all levels of the company with access to the … and information they need to meet their objectives.
8. But the investment has …
9. Boehringer’s employees can access and change information presented in the portal when they are offline, with … later when they log on.
10. To provide its mobile workforce with up-to-the-minute data, the company … software from BackWeb Technologies.
Task 4. Find the words according to their definitions in the marked paragraph of the text.
1. A person who decides things, especially at a high level in an organization (p. 1);
2. to put a plan or system into operation (p. 6);
3. to unite or to join together to make a single thing or group (p. 3);
4. a part of a company that operates as a separate part of the whole business (p. 1);
5. a computer program that is designed for a particular purpose (p. 5).
Task 5. Discuss the following questions:
- Give reasons why information systems are so important for business today.
- What are the differences between a system and an information system?
- What is an information system and how does it differ from an information technology?
- What are the examples of an information system?
- Enumerate the components of information systems?
Task 6. Read the key terms carefully and find the best explanation.
| 1. Information system | a. a program or piece of software designed and written to fulfill a particular purpose of the user |
| 2. To invest | b. the method or way of approaching a place or person, or the right to use or look at something |
| 3. To implement | c. most recent; containing the most recent information |
| 4. To pay off | d. the machines, wiring, and other physical components of a computer or other electronic system |
| 5. A competitor | e. to result in success |
| 6. Database | f. the sending and receiving of messages by computer, telephone, radio, and television, or the business of doing this |
| 7. Access | g. the income that a business or government receives regularly, or an amount representing such income |
| 8. Hardware | h. put a decision (plan, agreement, etc.) into effect |
| 9. Software | i. an organization or country that is engaged in commercial or economic competition with others |
| 10. Telecommunications | j. information collected for use |
| 11. Application | k. to make something more accurate and suitable for use now by showing new facts or conditions |
| 12. Data | l. a computer system within a company or organization for sharing information |
| 13. To update | m. a structured set of data held in a computer, esp. one that is accessible in various ways |
| 14. Revenue | n. the programs and other operating information used by a computer. |
| 15. Up-to-the-minute | o. to put money, effort, time etc. into something to make a profit or get an advantage |
The Educational System in Great Britain
1. Put each of the following words or phrases in its correct space in the passage below.
State; terms; seminar; degree; co-educational; private; primary; nursery school; tutorial; graduate; grant; secondary; lecture; break up; compulsory; fees; academic.
When children are two or three years old, they sometimes go to a (a) __________, where they learn simple games and songs. Their first real school is called a (b) ____________ school. In Britain children start this school at the age of five. The (c) ____________ year in Britain begins in September and is divided into three (d) ____________. Schools (e) ____________ for the summer holiday in July, (f) ____________ education begins at the age of about eleven, and most schools at this level are (g) ____________, which means boys and girls study together in the same classes. In Britain education is (h) ____________ from five to 16 years of age, but many children choose to remain at school for another two or three years after 16 to take higher exams. Most children go to (i) ____________ schools, which are maintained by the government or local education authorities, but some children go to (j) ____________ schools, which can be very expensive. University courses normally last three years and then students (k) ____________, which means they receive their (l) ____________. At university, teaching is by (m)______________________________ (an individual lesson between a teacher and one or two students), (n) ____________ (a class of students discussing a subject with a teacher), (o) ____________ (when a teacher gives a prepared talk to a number of students) and of course private study. Most people who receive a university place are given a (p)__________________________________________ by the government to help pay their (q) ____________ and living expenses.
2. Read the information about different types of school in Britain. Put them in the right order: from the lowest to the highest level.
Date: 2014-12-29; view: 1684
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