Intermediate TOEIC (Test Of English for International Communication) Course 2Ed with key and tapescript (+ компакт-кассета)

It was one thing for Britain to have been confronted with the United States — given the obvious affinities and commonalities that they enjoyed — as its rival and successor as the world’s dominant power, but it is an entirely different matter for the United States to be faced with China — with whom it has nothing in common in either civilizational or political terms — as its usurper and ultimate replacement. For the United States, the shock of no longer having the world to itself — what has amounted to a proprietorial right to determine what happens on all major global questions — will be profound. With the rise of China, Western universalism will cease to be universal — and its values and outlook will become steadily less influential. The emergence of China as a global power in effect relativizes everything. The West is habituated to the idea that the world is its world, the international community its community, the international institutions its institutions, the world currency — namely the dollar — its currency, and the world’s language — namely English — its language ...»