Grammar check

Task 1. Find the sentences in the text where Passive Voice is used, translate them. Make up your own sentences using Passive Voice and words word-combinations which are met in the text. Task 2. Find Participle I and Participle II in the text, translate these words into Ukrainian.

Score: 3

Total score: 70 points

UNIT VIII

Task 1. Remember the meaning of these words and word-combinations:

treatment – опрацювання, обробіток; обіг

intangible assets – нематеріальні активи

make up one's mind – вирішити; ухвалювати

estimate – оцінка; кошторис

cautious – обережний

to write off – повністю списувати з рахунку

valuation – оцінка

to confirm – підтверджувати

goodwill – "гудвіл", умовна вартість ділових відносин (стосунків); невідчутні (непомітні) активи

layman – міряний

coincidence – збіг

consistent – послідовний

leasehold rights – права володіння на основі оренди

to account for – пояснювати

to be conscious of – усвідомлювати

Score: 15

Task 2. Read and translate the text.

Text

Comparative accounting

Accountants are divided over the treatment of intangible assets because they cannot make up their minds what balance sheets are for. Are.they supposed to give a brave man's estimate of what a company is worth? Or are they to show (as they tend to in Britain) a cautious man's calculation of how much of a company's costs have not yet been written off against revenues?

To some extent it is up to companies to make up their auditors' mind for them. Price Waterhouse is auditor to both Reckitt & Colman and Rowntree. Yet unlike Reckitt & Colman, Rowntree has never included in its annual report any valuation of its famous brands, such as Kit Kat, Polo, After Eight and Smarties. When Nestle offered to pay over £ 1 billion for something that did not appear in Rowntree's accounts, it confirmed many laymen's view that accountants must be asses. Since Nestle's policy is also to write off trademarks and goodwill immediately against reserves, the value of Rowntree's brands has once again disappeared into an accounting black hole.

Low status of marketing

The fact that few British companies have pushed their accountants to value their brands could have something to do with the low status of marketing in the corporate hierarchy. It may not be a coincidence that Jean-Claude Larreche is a non-executive director of Reckitt & Colman. Mr.Larreche is professor of marketing at Insead, the international business school outside Paris. No marketing director can be happy to see the fruits of his efforts totaly ignored in his company's balance sheet.

Mr. Larreche may also have been influenced by France's example. Companies there keep intangible assets on their balance sheet. Unfortunately this does not mean that they are any more consistent than the British. In France the issue is not valuation but depreciation. In general, intangibles protected by legal rights (such as trademarks and, peculiarly, leasehold rights to property) are not depreciated, whereas goodwill and others are. A recent EC draft directive suggests goodwill be written off over five years.

The problem of how to account for intangible assets will not go away. Indeed, it can only become more of a problem. Not only because companies are more conscious of the value of brands (and more prepared to pay huge sums to buy them), but also because Europe's economies are increasingly becoming service economies. Services firms have few assets other than intangible ones. If their balance sheets continue to take no account of their most significant asset, then what use are they?

It would be nice to think that accountants across Europe will find a common solution for the treatment of intangible assets. If they do, they will themselves have shown considerable goodwill to consumers of their accounts.

Score: 15

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