Test file

А. Read the article below about a university professor who has founded successful companies.

Academic or businessman?

Julia Granger is professor of chemistry at Brookridge, one of the US’s top science universities and technology centers. But she has also had a hand in founding nine companies, dealing with new materials for use in everything from computers to construction. Many of the companies are now very profitable. Financially, she has been very successful, but she says that it’s the entrepreneurial buzz that really motivates her. “I like making a tangible impact in industry. I like changing the way that things are done – and if I can make some money on the way, so much the better, but money is not my main goal, ” she says.

Prof Granger has been at Brookridge ever since she was a research assistant in the 1970s, working on the recondite area of advanced plastics. Prof Granger was born in Glasgow, of working class parents – her father worked in a shipyard. She speaks highly of her parents who encouraged her to study hard. She got good grades at school, stayed in Scotland and went to Edinburgh University, where she obtained a first-class degree in chemistry. “This was in the late 1960s, when a lot of basic research on new materials was being undertaken. I got involved in that at an early stage because it was the most exciting thing to get into.”

Prof Granger had always been attracted by the idea of living in the US, and she moved from Edinburgh to Brookridge in 1972. She says she was attracted by the close links between the university and business, which existed even then. “In the UK, academia and business have only got to know each other in the last 10 or 20 years or so, but when I moved to Brookridge, there was already quite an entrepreneurial environment here. From the beginning, I worked with academics who were already making money out of their innovations.”

As research assistant, Julia Granger worked on adhesives. “We were looking at all the hi-tech ways of sticking things together, and this became my main area of expertise.” Two of the startups with which she has been associated have involved adhesives. The main customers are in aerospace – manufacturers of airplanes, satellites and so on. “Adhesives are extremely important in these industries, as you can imagine,” she says.

She founded her first company with an academic colleague in 1983, and has never looked back. Of the nine startups with which she has been associated, three have been sold to large corporations, giving an extremely good return on investment.

Asked whether all academics can thrive as entrepreneurs as she has, Prof Granger replies circumspectly. “I’ve been lucky in choosing areas of chemistry that have had direct industrial applications. But obviously, universities, whether in the US or the UK, exist primarily to teach and to do basic research. Academics should choose their careers in relation to this basic fact. I guess I don’t fit the usual mold – I’m as much an industrialist as an academic in spirit, even if I like the academic life. I especially like watching the college football games on weekends – when I have the time!”

Answer the questions by choosing the correct alternative: A, B, C or D.

1. Julia Granger

a). grew up in Scotland and graduated from an American University;

b). graduated from an American University and then did research there;

c). graduated from a University Scottish University and then went to the US;

d). has lived her entire life in the US.

2. She became interested in new materials at her first university because

a). of her family background;

b). she thought she could make a lot of money from them;

c). she couldn’t think anything else to do;

d). she found the area intrinsically interesting.

3. She says that she is motivated to succeed in her business activities

a). solely by the idea of making a lot of money;

b). by the idea that the results of what she does will be visible;

c). by the effect that her success might have on her colleagues;

d). by the prospect that she will one day be able to leave academia.

4. Of the startups she has been associated with

a). all have been sold to US multinationals;

b). all have been commercially successful;

c). two have specialized in adhesives;

d). one has not made money at all.

5. In Prof Granger’s opinion, academics should choose a university career on the basis of

a). possible earnings from business ventures;

b). the sports opportunities at their chosen University;

c). the relationship between their chosen University and local companies;

d). the traditional activities of teaching and research.

6. Prof Granger feels that

a). she does not possesses the usual characteristics of academics;

b). she likes American football more than her colleagues;

c).she prefers the company of industrialists to that of. University professors;

d). she has chosen the wrong career.

В. Read the article about training and answer the questions below.