Бизнес через литературу и кино. Домашнее чтение : учебное пособие на английском языке. Часть 1. Уровень С1 — С2. = Business Through Literature and Film. Home Reading Guide. Part 1. Level C1 — C2

А.А. Lipina

Business  
Through Literature and Film

Home Reading Guide. Part 1 

Level C1 — C2

| И  ДЕЛО |

Москва | 2021

 
 

Publishing House “Delo”

Moscow · 2021

УДК 378(075.8):811.111

ББК 81.2Англ

        Л61

Lipina, А. А.
Business Through Literature and Film. Home Reading Guide. Part 1. Level C1 — C2.  / А. А. Липина.  
Бизнес через литературу и кино. Домашнее чтение : учебное пособие на английском языке.  
Часть 1. Уровень С1 — С2.  — М.: Издательский дом «Дело» РАНХиГС, 2021. — 100 с. — ISBN 978-5-85006-367-2

The following reader contains elegant extracts taken from books written by the well-known American and English 
writers whose works were made into TV movies.
The reader is targeted at advanced and proficient (CEFR level C1 — C2) learners of English majoring in business 
studies and economics who want to develop linguistic competences of general and business English, enrich 
vocabulary, develop the ability to interpret and evaluate literary works.
The content of the materials will contribute to broadening students' general, professional and linguistic 
knowledge. 

УДК 378(075.8):811.111

ББК 81.2Англ

ISBN 978-5-85006-367-2

© ФГБОУ ВО «Российская академия народного хозяйства и государственной службы при Президенте 
Российской Федерации», 2021

Л61

СОДЕРЖАНИЕ

Part 1. Arthur Haily “The Moneychangers” ...................................................................5

Biography ......................................................................................................................5

Internet Research ..........................................................................................................5

Chapter 3 (pp. 19–24) ....................................................................................................6

Exercises ........................................................................................................................9

Chapter 2 (pp. 293–301) ..............................................................................................12

Exercises ......................................................................................................................18

Part 2. John Grisham “The Firm’’ .................................................................................22

Biography ....................................................................................................................22

Internet Research ........................................................................................................22

Chapter 1 (pp. 1–16) ....................................................................................................23

Exercises ......................................................................................................................32

Chapter 2 (pp. 17–37) ..................................................................................................35

Exercises ......................................................................................................................47

Chapter 3 (pp. 38–44) ..................................................................................................50

Exercises ......................................................................................................................54

Part 3. Lauren Weisberger “The Devil Wears Prada” ....................................................57

Biography ....................................................................................................................57

Internet Research ........................................................................................................58

Chapter 2 (pp. 9–23) ....................................................................................................59

Exercises ......................................................................................................................67

Chapter 3 (pp. 24–33) ..................................................................................................71

Exercises ......................................................................................................................77

Chapter 4 (pp. 34–59) ..................................................................................................79

Exercises ......................................................................................................................95

Bibliography ................................................................................................................99

PART 1.  
ARTHUR HAILY “THE MONEYCHANGERS”

BIOGRAPHY

Arthur Hailey (5 April 1920–24 November 2004) was 
a British/Canadian novelist, whose works have sold 
more than 170 million copies in 40 languages. Most 
of the novels are set within one major industry, such 
as hotels, banks or airlines, and explore the particular 
human conflicts sparked-off by that environment. 
They are notable for their plain style, extreme 
realism, based on months of detailed research, and 
a sympathetic down-to-earth hero with whom the 
reader can easily identify (http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Arthur_Hailey).

Born in Luton, England, in 1920, Arthur Hailey was 
educated in English schools until age fourteen. After 
a brief career as an office boy, he joined the British 
Royal Air Force in 1939 and served through World 
War II, rising through the ranks to become a pilot 
and flight lieutenant. In 1947, Mr. Hailey emigrated 
to Canada, where he was successively a real estate 
salesman, business paper editor and a sales and 
advertising executive. He became, and still is, a 
Canadian citizen. In 1956, Arthur Hailey scored his 
first writing success with a TV drama, “Flight Into 
Danger,” which later became a motion picture and a 
novel, Runway Zero-Eight. Since then, as a novelist 
and one of the great storytellers of our time, he 
has acquired a worldwide following of devoted readers and his books are 
published in twenty-seven languages. Arthur Hailey and his wife, Sheila, 
made their home at Lyford Cay in the Bahamas, where their children, Jane, 
Steven and Diane, join them during college vacations (http://www.iblist.com/
author1837.htm).

INTERNET RESEARCH

Task 1. Write down 5 interesting facts about Arthur Hailey.

1. ___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___ _________________________________________________________________________

2. ___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___ _________________________________________________________________________

BUSINESS THROUGH LITERATURE AND FILM 

6

3. ___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___ _________________________________________________________________________

4. ___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___ _________________________________________________________________________

5. ___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___ _________________________________________________________________________

Task 2. Find two book reviews (from a common reader and an official one 
e. g. releazed in a newspaper) and summarize them using key words from 
them.

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________________ __

Chapter 3 (pp. 19–24)

Not all who had been at the momentous boardroom session left as speedily 
as Roscoe Heyward. A few lingered outside, still with a sense of shock, 
conversing quietly.

The old-timer from the trust-department, Pop Monroe, said softly to 
Edwina D’Orsey, “This is a sad, sad day.”

Edwina nodded, not ready yet to speak. Ben Rosselli had been important 
to her as a friend and he had taken pride in her rise to authority in the bank.

Alex Vandervoort stopped beside Edwina, then motioned to his office 
several doors away. “Do you want to take a few minutes out?” She said 
gratefully, “Yes, please.”

The offices of the bank’s top echelon executives were on the same floor 
as the boardroom the 36th, high in FMA (Financial Market Authority?) 
Headquarters Tower. Alex Vandervoort’s suite, like others here, had an 
informal conference area and there Edwina poured herself coffee from a 
Silex. Vandervoort produced a pipe and lit it. She observed his fingers moving 
efficiently, with no waste motion. His hands were like his body, short and 
broad, the fingers ending abruptly with stub-by but well-manicured nails.

The cama’raderie between the two was of long standing. Although Edwina, 
who managed First Mercantile American’s main downtown branch, was 
several levels lower than Alex in the bank’s hierarchy, he had always treated 

PART 1. ARTHuR HAILy “THE MoNEyCHANGERS” 

7

her as an equal and often, in matters affecting her branch, dealt with her 
directly, bypassing the layers of organization between them.

“Alex,” Edwina said, “you you’re looking like a skeleton.” A warm smile lit 
up his smooth, round face. “Shows, eh?”

Alex Vandervoort was a committed partygoer, and loved gourmet food and 
wine. Unfortunately he put on weight easily. Periodically, as now, he went on 
diets.

By unspoken consent they avoided, for the moment, the subject closest to 
their minds. He asked, “How’s business at the branch this month?” “Quite 
good. And I’m optimistic about next year.”

“Speaking of next year, how does Lewis view it?” Lewis D’Orsey, Edwina’s 
husband, was owner-publisher of a widely read investors newsletter.

“Gloomily. He foresees a temporary rise in the value of the dollar, then 
another big drop, much as happened with the British pound. Also Lewis says 
that those in Washington who claim the U. S. recession has ‘bottomed out’ 
are just wishful thinkers the same false prophets who saw ‘light at the end of 
the tunnel’ in Vietnam.”

“I agree with him,” Alex mused, “especially about the dollar. You know, 
Edwina, one of the failures of American banking is that we’ve never 
encouraged our clients to hold accounts in foreign currencies Swiss francs, 
Deutsche marks, others as European bankers do. Oh, we accommodate the 
big corporations because they know enough to insist; and American banks 
make generous profits from other currencies for themselves. But rarely, if ever, 
for the small or medium depositors. If we’d promoted European currency 
accounts ten or even five years ago, some of our customers would have 
gained from dollar devaluations instead of lost.” “Wouldn’t the U S. Treasury 1 
object?”

“Probably. But they’d back down under public pressure. They always do.” 
Edwina asked, “Have you ever broached the idea of more people having 
foreign currency accounts?”

“I tried once. I was shot down. Among us American bankers the dollar no 
matter how weak is sacred. It’s a head-in-sand concept we’ve forced upon the 
public and it’s cost them money. Only a sophisticated few had the sense to 
open Swiss bank accounts before the dollar devaluations cone.”

“I’ve often thought about that,” Edwina said. “Each time it happened, 
bankers knew in advance that devaluation 2 was inevitable. Yet we gave our 
customers except for a favored few no warning, no suggestion to sell dollars.” 
“It was supposed to be unpatriotic. Even Ben…”

Alex stopped. They see for several moments without speaking.

1 
uS Department of the Treasury —  Министерство финансов США —  Treasury promotes economic growth through policies to support job creation, investment, and economic 
stability. Treasury also oversees the production of coins and currency, the disbursement of 
payments to the public, revenue collection, and the funds to run the federal government 
(http://www.treasury.gov/Pages/default.aspx).

2 
Devaluation —  обесценивание, девальвация —  official lowering of the value of a 
country’s currency within a fixed exchange rate system, by which the monetary authority formally sets a new fixed rate with respect to a foreign reference currency (http://en.wikipedia.
org/wiki/Devaluation).

BUSINESS THROUGH LITERATURE AND FILM 

8

Through the wall of windows which made up the east side of Alex’s office 
suite they could see the robust Midwest city spread before them. Closest to 
hand were the business canyons of downtown, the larger buildings only a 
little lower than First Mercantile American’s Headquarters Tower. Beyond the 
downtown district, coiled in a double-S, was the wide, traffic-crowded river, 
its color today as usual pollution gray. A tangled latticework of river bridges, 
rail lines, and freeways ran outward like unspooled ribbons to industrial 
complexes and suburbs in the distance, the latter sensed rather than seen in 
an all —  pervading haze. But nearer than the industry and suburbs, though 
beyond the river, was the inner residential city, a labyrinth of predominantly 
substandard housing, labeled by some the city’s shame.

In the center of this last area, a new large building and the steelwork of a 
second stood out against the skyline.

Edwina pointed to the building and high steel. “If I were the way Ben is now,” 
she said, “and wanted to be remembered by something: I think I’d like it to be 
Forum East.” “I suppose so.” Alex’s gaze swung to follow Edwina’s.

“For sure, without him it would have stayed an idea, and not much more.”

Forum East was an ambitious local urban development, its objective to 
rehabilitate the city’s core. Ben Rosselli had committed First Mercantile 
American financially to the project and Alex Vandervoort was directly in 
charge of the bank’s involvement. The big main downtown branch, run by 
Edwina, handled construction loans and mortgage details.

“I was thinking,” Edwina said, “about changes which will happen here.” She 
was going to add, after Ben is dead…“There’ll be changes, of course perhaps big 
ones. I hope none will affect Forum East.” She sighed. “It isn’t an hour since 
Ben told us…”

“And we’re discussing future bank business before his grave is dug. Well, 
we have to, Edwina. Ben would expect it. Some important decisions must be 
made soon.” “Including who’s to succeed as president.” “That’s one.”

“A good many of us in the bank have been hoping it would be you.” “Frankly, 
so was I.”

What both left unsaid was that Alex Vandervoort had been viewed, until 
today, as Ben Rosselli’s chosen heir. But not this soon. Alex had been at First 
Mercantile American only two years. Before that he was an officer of the 
Federal Reserve and Ben Rosselli had personally persuaded him to move over, 
holding out-the prospect of eventual advancement to the top.

“Five years or so from now,” old Ben had told Alex at the time, “I want to 
hand over to someone who can cope efficiently with big numbers, and show 
a profitable bottom line, because that’s the only way a banker deals from 
strength. But he must be more than just a top technician. The kind of man 
I want to run this bank won’t ever forget that small depositors, individuals 
have always been our strong foundation. The trouble with bankers nowadays 
is that they get too remote.” He was making no firm promise, Ben Rosselli 
made clear, but added, “My impression, Alex, is you are the kind of man we 
need. Let’s work together for a while and see.”

So Alex moved in, bringing his experience and a flair for new technology, 
and with both had quickly made his mark. As to philosophy, he found he 
shared many of Ben’s views.

PART 1. ARTHuR HAILy “THE MoNEyCHANGERS” 

9

Long before, Alex had also gained insights into banking from his father a 
Dutch immigrant who became a Minnesota farmer.

Pieter Vandervoort, Sr. had burdened himself with a bank loan and, to 
pay interest on it, labored from predawn until after darkness, usually seven 
days a week. In the end he died of overwork, impoverished, after which the 
bank sold his land, recovering not only arrears of interest but its original 
investment. His father’s experience showed Alex through his grief that the 
other side of a bank counter was the place to be.

Eventually the route to banking for young Alex was a Harvard scholarship 
and an honors degree in economics. “Everything may still work out,” Edwina 
D’Orsey said. ‘I presume the board will make the choice of president.”

“Yes,” Alex answered almost absently. He had been thinking of Ben Rosselli 
and his father; his memories of the two were strangely intertwined. “Length 
of service isn’t everything.” “It counts.”

Mentally, Alex weighed the probabilities. He knew he had the talent and 
experience to head First Mercantile American but chances were, the directors 
would favor someone who had been around here longer. Roscoe Heyward, 
for example, had worked for the bank for almost twenty years and despite 
his occasional lack of rapport with Ben Rosselli, Heyward had a significant 
following on the board.

Yesterday the odds favored Alex. Today, they had been switched.He stood 
up and knocked out his pipe. “I must get back to work.” “Me, too.” But Alex, 
when he was alone, sat silent, thoughtful.

Edwina took an express elevator from the directors’ floor to the main floor 
foyer of FMA Headquarters Tower an architectural mix of Lincoln Center 
and the Sistine Chapel. The foyer surged with people hurrying bank staff, 
messengers, visitors, sightseers. She acknowledged a security guard’s friendly 
salute.

Through the curving glass front Edwina could see Rosselli Plaza outside 
with its trees, benches, a sculpture court, and gushing fountain (сильно 
бьющий фонтан). In summer the plaza was a meeting place and downtown 
office workers ate their lunches there, but now it appeared bleak and 
inhospitable. A raw fall wind swirled leaves and dust in small tornadoes and 
sent pedestrians scurrying for indoor warmth.

It was the time of year, Edwina thought, she liked least of all. It spoke of 
melancholy, winter soon to come, and death. Involuntarily she shuddered, 
then headed for the “tunnel,” carpeted and softly lighted, which connected 
the bank’s headquarters with the main downtown branch a palatial, singlestory structure. This was her domain.

Exercises

1. a) find English equivalents to the following words and phrases in 
the text.

1. Важный, исключительной важности

2. Заседание совета директоров

3. Тихо разговаривать

BUSINESS THROUGH LITERATURE AND FILM 

10

4. Старожил, ветеран

5. Подняться до уровня начальника в банке

6. С большим стажем, длительный

7. Иерархия

8. Относиться к кому-либо как к равным

9. Изысканная еда и вино

10. Негласное соглашение

11. Предвидеть временное увеличение стоимости доллара

12. Экономический спад достиг нижней точки

13. Мечтатель

14. Оказывать услуги большим корпорациям

15. Получать большую прибыль

16. Вкладчик

17. Возражать, не одобрять

18. Идти на попятную

19. Поднимать идею

20. Навязывать что-то людям

21. Продвинутый

22. Неизбежный

23. Динамичный

24. Реконструировать

25. Кредиты на строительство и ипотека

26. Преемник

27. Передавать что-то кому-то

28. Успешно справляться с чем-либо

b) explain the meaning of these phrases and translate them into 
Russian.

29. Show a profitable bottom line

30. To run a bank

31. Get too remote

32. Long before

33. To gain insights into banking from his father

34. To labor from predawn until after darkness

35. Overwork, impoverished

36. In arrears of interest

37. Scholarship

38. Honors degree in economics

39. I presume