Russia's Chaos: A Hit at U .S .Cocktail Parties

Russia is once again sexy in America. Human nature being what it is, the chaos and confusion reigning over there have put Moscow back on the front pages of newspapers and on the covers of magazines, and have made it a prime topic of conversation among the in-crowd at social (светские) gatherings.

This has raised my stock (зд. вес) at cocktail parties – something 1 might actually enjoy if I weren't worried sick about the crisis in Russia.

I am always introduced as "the woman from Russia," and many linguistically naive Americans have had entire conversations with me without realizing I am a fellow countryman. It apparently does not surprise them that a newly arrived Muscovite with a Scottish name speaks perfect American English with a slight Boston accent.

In any case, I am widely hailed as an unrivaled expert on Russia, and, depending on my interlocutor's degree of savvy, I am called upon to answer questions ranging from "Do they have food over there?" to "What effects will the events in Chechnya have on foreign investment?" My favorite query came from a friend who asked, "Whatever happened to that guy with the mark on his head?"

I went to a party a few days ago with a fairly sophisticated Washington crowd, leaning heavy on (в основном) government types with a sprinkling of lawyers, doctors. I was having a great time when I ran into the only Russian in the place:

His name was Kolya, and he was of a species immediately recognizable to anyone who has spent any time in Moscow. I half-expected him to sneak up to me and murmur, "Military watch? Rabbit hat? Maybe some postcards?"

The inevitable happened: He learned that I live in Moscow and speak Russian, and he became my faithful shadow for the rest of the evening. I did everything I could to shake him, not least because his date – a tough-looking woman from Pittsburgh who was immensely proud of her Russian beau – showed every indication of becoming violent.

But Kolya, with all the charm of the Russian male on the prowl, blithely ignored her and devoted himself to pestering (зд. донимать, «доставать») me. "What a woman! I love your world view. How old are you? Really, I would say you could not be over 25."

That I was, in fact, over 25 was as apparent to Kolya as it was to me. But it was pretty standard fare, and, as the evening progressed, his compliments grew more and more outrageous.

The really funny thing was the reaction of the party crowd. While I sighed and sought refuge, these normally blases Washingtonians were endlessly amused by Kolya's "natural charm." When I complained that Kolya was a boor, my fellow guests accused me of being anti-Russian. My protests that Russians were not all like this fell on deaf ears (were ignored).

I feel the same way when I see cheap matryoshkas, or "nesting dolls," as they are called here, sold in fancy New York boutiques for $200. "This is not Russia!" I wail. "Don't be fooled!"

Back at the party, while the other invitees sipped champagne punch, Kolya put away an entire bottle of vodka. They smiled. He then began smashing crystal glasses on the floor, screaming that this was "old Russian tradition."

They laughed delightedly.

Kolya finally collapsed on the floor. When my old friend Robert, who was hosting the event, tried to get him out the door, Kolya broke Robert's finger. This really gave everyone a chuckle.

I can't wait to come back to Moscow.

Jean McKenzie ("The Moscow Times")

Комментарии in-crowd = high society; cp. to be in - to be in fashion/vogue [voug];

to be out = to go out of fashion;

hailed = зд. praised;

savvy = knowledge;

sophisticated crowd – зд. изысканное общество;

sprinkling = a bit of;

species = type;

beau [bә:] фр. – ухажер;

on the prowl = in search of a woman;

fare = thing;

blasé – пресыщенный, pr. [bla'zei];

boor – хам, грубиян

Задание

Share your experiences of staying in the West (US, Britain). Do you think the media gives the balanced picture of Russia? Do you think Westerners are sincerely interested in the current developments in our country?

V. Taxation Terms Mini Chart

(с вариантами символов УПС)

(tax) assessment начисление налога, t/a

реже – расчет налога

audit 1. контрольная проверка Au

2. аудиторская проверка, аудит

(проверка отчетности независимой

специализированной фирмой-аудитором)

3. ревизия (в широком плане)

field audit документальная(контрольная)

проверка с выездом на предприятие fAu

(tax) avoidance «избежание» налогов (снижение

уплачиваемых налогов законными

средствами)

award of contact присуждение контракта кнтр®

batch пачка (документов, напр, деклараций, bº

платежных поручений и т.д.)

batch processing пакетная обработка (режим работы ПК) b/РС

bid, предложение, торги, тендер, bid

bidding documents документы для торгов

cash method «кассовый» метод; налогообложение Km

по поступлению денежных средств

check digit контрольный разряд, dt

контрольная цифра

check value контрольное число к/ч

контрольный признак

collection, 1. сбор налогов t/cl

(tax) collections (pl.) 2. сбор недоимок

3. налоговые поступления (сумма)

taxpayer in default (налоговый) недоимщик нед.

deregistration снятие с (налогового) учета reg

(tax) evasion уклонение от налогов (незаконное t/ev

сокрытие или занижение налогов)

exempt (adj.) 1. освобожденный от налога (в узком t/ex

смысле)

льготированный (в широком лг

смысле)

to file (a return) подать (декларацию) декл.®

(lax) fraud (налоговое) мошенничество мшн

to garnish обращать изыскание на суммы, grns

(garnishment) причитающиеся недоимщику

от его дебиторов

income доход (объект налогообложения) inc

interest пеня пня

late filing просрочка подачи декларации late f

legal entity юридическое лицо юл

physical person физическое лицо ф/л

mark-up method метол расчета НДС на базе m/u

(торговой) наценки (meth)

outline план-проспект п/п

payment demand платежное требование пл/трб

payment order платежное поручение пл/прч

process, progress 1. технология, технологическая опр.

операция

2. процесс (в автоматизированной

системе

procurements закупки buy²

Project Design, проектно-технологические п/т ршн

Project Decisions решения

re-assessment перерасчет п/рсч

reconciliation выверка (данных ГНИ и вврк

налогоплательщика)

(tax) return (налоговая) декларация; (налоговый) н/дкл

расчет (документ, подаваемый

в налоговую инспекцию)

revenue доход (бюджета) (ср.: income) rvn

settlement account расчетный счет рс.сч

tax enforcement система контроля за соблюдением к/нлг

system налоговой дисциплины

tax arrears, (ax in недоимка (налоговая), недоплата недмк

default, tax owing,

short receipts,

underpayments

tax reliefs, налоговые льготы лгт²

exceptions,

privileges, exemptions

taxpayer account, лицевой счет лц/сч

ledger

under-reporting занижение декларируемых нлг↓

налоговых сумм

VAT return декларация по НДС н/дкл

write-off waiving списание, снижение (суммы сп/сн

задолженности)

 

 

Тема: Перевод прецизионной информации

The Lady and the Age: She Lived Longer Than Anyone in Living Memory

The world's oldest person, Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, died on August 4, 1997, at the age of 122.

Calment, who had lived in a retirement home for the past 12 years, was born on February 21, 1875 to a well-off Aries family of shop owners.

Calment's life spanned 17 French presidents, the execution of Tsar Nicholas II, the birth and death of the Soviet Union and two world wars. She was born in the year Bizet's "Carmen" was first staged and Tolstoy published 'Anna Karenina," a year before Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone.

According to the "Guinness Book of Records," no woman reached 122 before. It says the only man to live as long was Chigechiyo Izumi of Japan, who died in 1986 at the age of 120 years and 237 days.

Van Gogh Still Had His Ear

At the age of 14, she met Vincent van Gogh. She recalls him as " ugly as sin... bad tempered, a grumbler and smelling of alcohol," although at that point the artist was still "with his ear."

At 20, she saw the first film, "The Sprinkled Sprinkler"¹ by Louis Lumiere, which was shown along with the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II.

She remembers traveling to Paris when the Eiffel Tower was still under construction and was 70 when French women were first allowed to vote. But her favorite memory is her first helicopter ride, in 1939. "I thought I was a little bird in the clouds. It was a magnificent feeling."

Calment gave up smoking only five years before her death and was still riding a bicycle at 100. "All my life I've put olive oil on my skin and then just a puff of powder. I could never wear mascara, I cried too often when I laughed," she said.

The so-called "Doyenne (зд. старейшина) of Humanity," who heard best if spoken to loudly in the right ear in a thick Aries accent, was legendary for her aphorisms and jokes like this one: "I've only ever had one wrinkle, and I'm sitting on it."

Extraordinary Case

"She was an exceptional case," said Jean-Marc Robine, a longevity expert (gerontologist) with the National Institute of Medical Research. "By chance, she was endowed with (had) an extraordinary genetic makeup."

He said research into her ancestors determined that unusually high proportion of them lived far longer than the norm for their eras, including many in the 17th and 18th centuries who lived into their 70s. Her father died at 94 and her mother at 86.

Robine remarked on her "extraordinary resistance to sickness, stress and depression." "There's nothing exceptional about her lifestyle," he said. "She was not athletic, not a health fanatic – simply interested in everything but not really passionate about anything."

At 21, Jeanne married her cousin, Fernand Calment. The couple had an only daughter, Yvonne, born in 1898, who gave them their only grandson. After she was widowed, Calment lived alone in her apartment in central Aries until the age of 110.

Calment celebrated her birthday every year in the presence of international journalists, but last January, Calment was placed under the guardianship of a local association after being judged incapable of looking after own affairs (недееспособна) and died of "natural causes."

Aries mayor Michel Vauzelle said that the whole town was in mourning for her. "She was the living memory of our town. She gave us comfort and hope with her vitality, her sense of humour, her tenderness. In short, we hoped she could be immortal."

Tiny in physical stature, Calment was a grandmother by 1926, but soon found herself alone after her grandson was killed in a road accident in 1960 at the age of 36.

Rotten Deal

One person had no reason to celebrate her longevity. He was lawyer Andre-Francois Raffray, who bought Calment's Aries apartment under an annuity arrangement when she was 90. Raffray never took possession of her property as he had planned, dying in 1995 aged a mere 77. "In life, people sometimes make rotten deals," she said at the time.

Doctors were constantly amazed by her longevity. "At 122 Madame Calment's heart, lungs, digestion and kidneys were all doing fine," said the physician Denis Mery. "Her intellectual faculties also remained astonishing for a woman of her age," he added.

But Calment had been decreasingly active, and celebrated her 122-nd birthday very quietly on doctors' orders because of her increasing frailty.

In 1996, however, she made a funk-rap, techno and dance compact disc shortly before her 121st birthday. Entitled Maitresse du temps (Mistress of Time), the funk-rap disc featured the former piano teacher singing four tracks, including one in English.

"I sleep like a baby," she told the daily Le Figaro shortly before she passed away, adding: "One hundred and twenty-two years old. Who could ask for more?"

Комментарии annuity arrangement – право пожизненного проживания;

frailty = poor health.

Тема: Real Estate Development and Hotel Business (Revision)