№1. Read the text. Check the Vocabulary list while reading the text
«The Firm» by J.Grisham
extract
>Mitchell Y.McDeere, a Harvard alumnus and a lawyer by profession, is looking for a job. He already has had three job offers – one from Chicago and two from New York – from most prestigious firms in the country. That’s why he has small interest in the offer from a modest and not very well-known firm from Memphis. Nevertheless he decides to take the invitation for the job interview just out of curiosity
The senior partner studied the resume for the hundredth time and again found nothing he disliked about Mitchell Y. McDeere, at least not on paper. He had the brains, the ambition, the good looks. And he was hungry; with his background, he had to be. He was married, and that was mandatory. The firm had never hired an unmarried lawyer, and it frowned heavily on divorce, as well as womanizing and drinking. Drug testing was in the contract. He had a degree in accounting, and wanted to be a tax lawyer, which of course was a requirement with a tax firm. He looked good, on paper. He was their top choice. In fact, for this year there were no other prospects. The list was very short. It was McDeere or no one.
The managing partner, Royce McKnight, studied a dossier labelled «Mitchell Y. McDeere – Harvard.» An inch thick with small print and a few photographs, it had been prepared by some ex-CIA agents in a private intelligence outfit in Bethesda. They were clients of the firm and each year did the investigating for no fee. It was easy work, they said, checking out unsuspecting law students. They learned, for instance, that he preferred to leave the Northeast, that he was holding three job offers, two in New York and one in Chicago, and that the highest offer was $76,000 and the lowest was $68,000. He was in demand. He had been given the opportunity to cheat on a securities exam during his second year. He declined, and made the highest grade in the class. He drank an occasional beer, but drinking was expensive and he had no money. He owed close to $23,000 in student loans. He was hungry.
Royce McKnight flipped through the dossier and smiled. McDeere was their man. Lamar Quin checked his watch. He glanced at the two partners sitting at the small conference table near the windows.
