Oxford University Press

This extraordinary collection of stories from Japan are retellings of legends and fairy tales. You'll meet the Sea Spirit, the Moon God, the Emperor Kiyomori, Dragon Princess and many other magical characters. Amidst the stories, the beauty of Japan — its people, its animals and its landscape — is joyfully evoked. The stories include «The Birth of Japan», «Tales of the Heike», and the «Tale of Princess Kaguya».

Short and Scary! includes stories of ghosts, monsters, and aliens — as well as some much more unexpected scares! Over forty stories in one book — all of them very, very short! None of the stories are more than two pages long, but each of them is special and thought-provoking. Drawn from a range of sources, including folk tales, urban myths, and narrative jokes, as well as original stories, the stories are ideal for use in the classroom.

Short and Shocking is full of stories with a twist in the tail — each surprising and stimulating in its own way. Over forty stories in one book — all of them very, very short! None of the stories are more than two pages long, but each of them is special and thought-provoking. Drawn from a range of sources, including folk tales, urban myths, and narrative jokes, as well as original stories, the stories are ideal for use in the classroom.

Meet Clovis, the roaringest tiger in the whole world Clovis is a very noisy little tiger. He knows he has the loudest roar in the whole jungle. And Clovis thinks that everyone else should know it too. He's good at roaring, but he's very good at hiding — and that's when the trouble begins. The other animals soon tire of him jumping out and shocking them with his loud roar! — but what can they do to stop him?

From the formation of the Russian state in the 14th century to the political power struggles of the 1990s and the uncertainties of the new millennium, this new history offers a fresh and systematic account of Russian history across six tumultuous centuries. With greater access to previously unobtainable material, and with the gradual depoliticization of what was once an intellectual Cold War battleground, historians are now able to tell the story of Russia more dispassionately and with greater precision than was formerly possible. Drawing on the best contemporary scholarship, and informed throughout by the latest archival research into previously classified sources, thirteen international experts here reassess and reinterpret the history of one of the world's great powers. What emerges is a powerful sense of national destiny — of repeated themes, unchanging conditions, and cycles of circumstance. Throughout Russian history, all-powerful autocrats like Ivan the Terrible or Stalin have maintained their authority through brutality; but their omnipotence was always under threat, circumscribed by geography, compromised by bureaucratic incompetence, pervasive corruption, and resistance from below. A curious combination — a veneer of omnipotence, a void of operational power — has periodically dissolved into 'times of trouble', as in 1598, 1917, and 1991, when the impotence of the regime became transparent to all. Russian rulers have also had to contend with the same immense physical challenges — a hugely dispersed population, a perennial dearth of means and men to govern, a primitive infrastructure. Plagued by natural disasters, hamstrung by structural problems, the Russian economy — whether pre-revolutionary capitalist, Soviet socialist, or post-Soviet semi-capitalist — has had enormous and disruptive difficulties adapting to the competitive world of international markets. Another immutable, elemental fact has been Russia's multinational composition, which continues to generate discontent and disorder. Yet Russia is a great survivor, as the years from 1995 show, charaterized by economic recovery, institution-building, and a new mood of self-assertion in world politics. For too long Russian history has been dominated by myths and counter-myths, concocted by those seeking either to legitimize the existing order or to destroy it. This book — containing many little-known illustrations — represents an important attempt to rethink Russian history and to provide a new understanding of Russia's complex but ever-fascinating historical development. A compelling story in its own right, it is also essential reading for anyone with a private or professional interest in Russia and its place in the world.

A truly beautiful picture book, in which Brian Wildsmith sets out the life of Jesus: his birth, his childhood in Nazareth, his baptism and temptation, his teaching and miracles, and finally the entry in to Jerusalem, culminating in his death and resurrection.

- Thrilling tale of espionage and survival against all odds, in the tradition of Peter Hopkirk's books on Central Asia — Deals with events Peter Hopkirk discusses in The Great Game and Setting the East Ablaze — Resurgence of interest in Central Asia, its history, and its peoples — First published in 1932; reissued by popular demand 'My position was uncomfortable. Here was I, in an absolutely exposed place, with Red Guards and commissars on every side. I had very little money left and no means of transport at all.' Paul Nazaroff was the ringleader of a desperate plot to overthrow the Bolsheviks in Central Asia in 1918. He was betrayed to the Secret Police, who declared him 'the most dangerous counter-revolutionary at large in the Tashkent region'. Thus began his extraordinary catalogue of adventures, 'a long and distant odyssey which would take me right across Central Asia . . . over the Himalayas to the plains of Hindustan'. As he fled from Lenin's men, he was aided by the indigenous peoples of the region, the Kirghiz and the Sarts, whose language and culture had been steeped in since boyhood. For months he was forced to live the life of a hunted animal. Peter Hopkirk has contributed a fascinating introduction to this tale of hair-breadth 'scapes and survival against all odds, as well as an epilogue which reveals Nazaroff's later fortunes.

- A comprehensive survey of the significance and interrelationship of language and nationalism in Europe — Examines the central issues of national, ethnic, linguistic, and cultural identity — Highly interdisciplinary approach — Wide coverage including the majority of European countries This book examines the role of language in the present and past creation of social, cultural, and national identities in Europe. It considers the way in which language politics may sometimes reinforce national identity (as in France), or sometimes tend to undermine the nation-state (as in Spain). After an introduction describing the interactive roles of language, ethnicity, culture, and institutions in the character and formation of nationalism and national identity, the book considers their different manifestations throughout Europe. This is an accessible investigation of a subject of perennial importance in European culture and politics. It will be of equal interest to political scientists, historians, and sociolinguists. Chapters by leading scholars are devoted to Britain and Ireland; France; Spain and Portugal; Scandinavia, Iceland, and Finland; the Netherlands and Belgium; Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Luxembourg; Italy; Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic; Bulgaria, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Albania, Slovenia, Romania, Croatia, Macedonia, and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia; Greece and Turkey; the Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, the Baltic States, and the Russian Federation. The book concludes with a consideration of the relative status of the languages of Europe and how these, and the identities they reflect, are changing and evolving.

This book offers a defense of the tensed theory of time, a critique of the New Theory of Reference, and an argument that simultaneity is absolute. Although Smith rejects ordinary language philosophy, he shows how it is possible to argue from the nature of language to the nature of reality. Specifically, he argues that semantic properties of tensed sentences are best explained by the hypothesis that they ascribe to events temporal properties of futurity, presentness, or pastness and do not merely ascribe relations of earlier than or simultaneity. He criticizes the New Theory of Reference, which holds that «now» refers directly to a time and does not ascribe the property of presentness. Smith does not adopt the old or Fregean theory of reference but develops a third alternative, based on his detailed theory of de re and de dicto propositions and a theory of cognitive significance. He concludes the book with a lengthy critique of Einstein's theory of time. Smith offers a positive argument for absolute simultaneity based on his theory that all propositions exist in time. He shows how Einstein's relativist temporal concepts are reducible to a conjunction of absolutist temporal concepts and relativist nontemporal concepts of the observable behavior of light rays, rigid bodies, and the like.

This collection of previously unpublished, cutting-edge research discusses the conversation analysis (CA) approach to understanding language use. CA is the dominant theory for analyzing the social use of language and is concerned with the description of how speakers engage in conversation and other forms of social interaction involving language. Its proponents are not only linguists but sociologists and anthropologists as well. The unifying theme of these chapters is the intersection of practice and form through the construction of turns and sequences.

- One of the best books about secret intelligence work ever written 'Peter Hopkirk' — A remarkable insight into British secret intelligence work during the Great Game — Told with breathtaking understatement by the nonchalant Bailey, a quintessesntial Great Game player — First published in 1964; now reissued by popular demand 'one of the best books about secret intelligence work ever written' Peter Hopkirk. Colonel F. M. Bailey, whose extraordinary adventures are told here, was long accused by Moscow of being a British master-spy sent in 1918 to overthrow the Bolsheviks in Central Asia. As a result, he enjoyed many years after his death an almost legendary reputation there — that of half-hero, half-villain. In this remarkable book he tells of the perilous game of cat-and-mouse, lasting sixteen months, which he played with the Bolshevik secret police, the dreaded Cheka. At one point, using a false identity, he actually joined the ranks of the latter, who unsuspectingly sent him to Bokhara to arrest himself. Told with almost breathtaking understatement, Bailey's narrative — set in a region once more back in the headlines — reads like vintage Buchan.

- Gripping adventure story, in the tradition of Peter Hopkirk's classic books on Central Asia — First published by OUP in 1997; now reissued by popular demand — Colourful and opinionated descriptions of the people Burnaby encountered — not only an adventure story, but a fascinating cultural document of its time — Peter Hopkirk's books have sold over 100,000 copies in their Oxford paperback editions — Resurgence of interest in this area and its history 'He who once enters Khiva abandons all hope, as surely as one who enters Hell. His prison house is girdled with trackless deserts, whose sole inhabitants are the sellers of human flesh.' In the winter of 1875, a young British officer set out across central Asia on a strictly unofficial mission to investigate the latest secret Russian moves in the Great Game. His goal was the mysterious caravan city of Khiva, closed to all European travellers by the Russians following their seizure of it two years earlier. His aim was to discover whether, as many British strategists feared, this remote and dangerous oasis was about to be used as a springboard for an invasion of India. Captain Frederick Burnaby was already something of a legend. For a start he was reputed to be the strongest man in the British Army, standing six-foot-four and weighting fifteen stone. Nor was he simply a Goliath, for he spoke no fewer than seven languages, including Russian and Turkish, and possessed a most vigorous and colourful prose style. Unknown to his superiors, who would have forbidden the venture, he rode for over a thousand miles across steppe and desert, struggling through blizzards and snowdrifts, to reach forbidden Khiva. Ordered home by an alarmed government, Burnaby immediately sat down and wrote this best-selling account of his adventures, which has become a Great Game classic.

- Professor Treitel is universally regarded as the world's greatest authority on English contract law — Detailed coverage of topics which are at the core of most undergraduate courses in contract law — Clear, in-depth analysis of the most recent case-law and legislation This book contains a slightly expanded version of the Clarendon Lectures in Law given in Oxford in 2001. It deals with major contributions made by the English Courts in the Twentieth Century to three important areas of English contract law. The first is the variation of contracts by subsequent agreement, where developments in the doctrines of consideration and estoppel are discussed in the light of Williams v Roffey Bros and Nicholls (Contractors) Ltd and the High Trees case. The second is the battle over privity of contract, discussed mainly in the light of the Midlands Silicone case and Beswick v Beswick; much of this discussion retains its practical importance even after the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999. The third is the development of different types of contractual terms: starting with the distinction between 'conditions' and 'warranties', this discussion traces the development of 'intermediate' or 'innominate' terms in the light of the Hong Kong Fir case and later authorities; it also considers the development and continuing significance of the concept of the 'fundamental' term.

- The Soviet Union is a subject of enduring fascination for the whole of the Western world — Designed with the general reader in mind, it focuses upon the main cultural, political, social, and economic developments in the USSR since 1945 — John Keep is an expert on Soviet history, and has written numerous books on the subject — Excellent reviews Described as 'one of the most tragic human experiences in human history', the Soviet Union as an empire holds much intrigue and fascination for the Western world. It held unquestionable status as an empire, with its coverage of over 100 nationalities. Its status as the 'Last of the Empires' depends on what the future may hold, but any future 'empires' will undoubtedly be based on intellectual and institutional foundations far different from those developed during the Soviet era. Here John Keep presents the narrative history of the USSR, from the last years of Stalin, to the checkered fate of Gorbachev's reform policies, and the ultimate collapse of the empire under manifold centrifugal pressures. Focusing upon political, economic, social, and cultural developments, the book is divided into four parts: the last years of Stalin; Nikita Krushchev's abortive attempts to reform Communist rule; the years 1964-1985, covered largely by Breshnev's long tenure of power; and lastly Gorbachev's abortive attempts to promote a reformed, 'democratic', communism.

- Brand-new text with over 100,000 words, phrases, and translations — Completely revised and updated to cover the latest vocabulary — Warning symbols make slang and informal language instantly identifiable — Special layout and usage notes provide extra help with translation of frequently-used words — Verb tables at the back for easy access — ISBNs 0-19-280014-0 and 0-19-860331-2 are replaced by this edition. This major new edition of the Oxford Paperback French Dictionary has been completely revised and updated to cover the latest vocabulary: *Over 100,000 words, phrases, and translations: up-to-date coverage of all the essential vocabulary *Special treatment of key words: frequently-used words, which are the building blocks to learning the language, are given a special layout and usage notes to help users deal with them correctly *New warning symbols: slang and infomal words and expressions are instantly identifiable *Also includes: guide to French pronunciation and French verb tables.

- Edited by two pre-eminent historians — Contributions from 26 of the world's leading scholars — Early chapters take a global overview of the century as a whole, from a variety of perspectives — demographic, scientific, economic, and cultural. — An invaluable repository of information, offering unparalleled insights into the last century In 1900 Queen Victoria still ruled over the British Empire, the imperial Manchu dynasty over China, and the Romanov Tsars over Russia. The cinema was in its infancy, with radio and television still to be developed. The earliest cars were on the road, but air travel was yet to come. Before antibiotics and effective vaccines against many common diseases, death rates were high. Over the course of the twentieth century, the human population of the world tripled, space travel left the realms of science fiction and became reality, two cataclysmic world wars and a host of other conflicts were fought, the internal combustion engine replaced the horse as the basic means of transport, and computer technology revolutionized communications. In this ambitious book, some of the most distinguished historians in the world survey the momentous events and the significant themes of recent times, with a look forward to what the future might bring.

A series of videos for those working or training to work in a business environment. Level: Elementary Overview Big City combines factual reports with a dramatized story to introduce students to Business English in context. Who is it for? Suitable both for pre-experience students and students already in work. How can it be used? To accompany the Business Basics course. As a supplement to any business or general English course at the appropriate level. Key features Factual reports look at major companies and illustrate business themes such as branding, marketing success, customer service, and adapting to change. Dramatized story demonstrates situational language and effective communication in a contemporary business context/environment. Support materials enable learners to understand the video and express their own opinions and ideas.

The only comprehensive volume designed to show how markets work. Explains why some traders profit while others fall short of success.

This is a beautifully illustrated thematic word book consisting of full-page spreads of various familiar locations such as the house, street, nursery, supermarket, beach, bedroom, bathroom etc, plus side panels detailing 15-20 particular words with English translations and corresponding pictures for each scene. Sections on colours, numbers, weather and time are also included, making this the ideal introduction to German words for children of all ages. This work features lively, colourful illustrations on every page — plenty for parents and children to look at together. It is published simultaneously with bilingual editions of «My First Oxford French Words» and «My First Oxford Spanish Words». David Melling is an extremely talented and popular picture book artist who has a lovely child-friendly style and has been published in numerous editions around the world.

A topic-based course with four levels, perfect for maintaining the interest and motivation of young teenagers. • Adventures builds students' confidence through the use of clear grammar presentations, varied practice exercises, and guided skills work. • The highly motivating topics have been carefully chosen to appeal to teenagers. • The clear syllabus offers an analytical approach to grammar, as well as extensive and varied practice. • Strong emphasis is placed on skills development and study skills. • There is a systematic approach to vocabulary building. • The variety of challenging and enjoyable activities motivate students to participate fully in class. • The optional 'World of English' sections exploit functional and everyday language, cross-cultural topics, and authentic pop songs.

A four-part series designed to meet the needs of secondary students continuing English as well as those starting English for the first time. • Dream Team is a communicative course that teaches students how to use language in real situations, while also paying careful attention to grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. • Strong emphasis is placed on the clear and thorough presentation of grammar points, followed up by systematic practice throughout the course. • Plenty of practice is given from the start in reading, writing, listening, and speaking, training students to communicate fluently and effectively in English. • Stimulating and engaging topics, and an amusing and lively presentation story involving the activities of teenagers, appeal directly to the age group. • There is a solid built-in process of revision and consolidation, which trains students to review what they have learnt regularly and systematically, and helps them prepare for tests. • The course offers a range of flexible options to help teachers meet the needs of their particular teaching situation. These include an optional introductory section, an optional final 'Bonus unit' and optional projects and stories.

A four-part series designed to meet the needs of secondary students continuing English as well as those starting English for the first time. • Dream Team is a communicative course that teaches students how to use language in real situations, while also paying careful attention to grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. • Strong emphasis is placed on the clear and thorough presentation of grammar points, followed up by systematic practice throughout the course. • Plenty of practice is given from the start in reading, writing, listening, and speaking, training students to communicate fluently and effectively in English. • Stimulating and engaging topics, and an amusing and lively presentation story involving the activities of teenagers, appeal directly to the age group. • There is a solid built-in process of revision and consolidation, which trains students to review what they have learnt regularly and systematically, and helps them prepare for tests. • The course offers a range of flexible options to help teachers meet the needs of their particular teaching situation. These include an optional introductory section, an optional final 'Bonus unit' and optional projects and stories.

A comprehensive Business English course for learners with little or no experience of the business world. • The course assumes that students have a good basic knowledge of general English. It aims to teach students core business vocabulary, develop their professional communication skills, and introduce them to key business concepts. • It is aimed at learners with little or no experience of working in the world of business. Texts from the business world have been chosen for their interest and accessibility, and students are not asked to draw on their own work experience to complete tasks. • Each of the 15 units is topic-based. The scope of the topics is broad rather than specialized, including subjects such as company culture, the changing nature of work and the economy, international trade, marketing and advertising. • All four language skills are developed, with a focus on communicative practice. Each unit begins by introducing students to the core vocabulary relating to the theme of the unit. This is then reinforced through listening and reading texts drawn from authentic sources, information gap and discussion activities, role-plays, mini case studies and creative writing tasks. • A guided discovery approach to grammar leads students to a clearer understanding of the forms and underlying concepts of English. Each unit has a 'language study' section, linked to a more detailed Grammar guide at the back of the book. • Regular business concept boxes introduce or revise key concepts in business management, such as the terms of trade and financial indexes. Quotations from prominent business people provide the opportunity for additional discussion. • Creative writing tasks are included which follow the task types required in the BEC exam

A comprehensive Business English course for learners with little or no experience of the business world. • The course assumes that students have a good basic knowledge of general English. It aims to teach students core business vocabulary, develop their professional communication skills, and introduce them to key business concepts. • It is aimed at learners with little or no experience of working in the world of business. Texts from the business world have been chosen for their interest and accessibility, and students are not asked to draw on their own work experience to complete tasks. • Each of the 15 units is topic-based. The scope of the topics is broad rather than specialized, including subjects such as company culture, the changing nature of work and the economy, international trade, marketing and advertising. • All four language skills are developed, with a focus on communicative practice. Each unit begins by introducing students to the core vocabulary relating to the theme of the unit. This is then reinforced through listening and reading texts drawn from authentic sources, information gap and discussion activities, role-plays, mini case studies and creative writing tasks. • A guided discovery approach to grammar leads students to a clearer understanding of the forms and underlying concepts of English. Each unit has a 'language study' section, linked to a more detailed Grammar guide at the back of the book. • Regular business concept boxes introduce or revise key concepts in business management, such as the terms of trade and financial indexes. Quotations from prominent business people provide the opportunity for additional discussion. • Creative writing tasks are included which follow the task types required in the BEC exam