NIPIGAS

Business Result Name _______________________

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Final Test

Listening (10 minutes)

A Listen to a radio interview with Scott Duran, CEO of the US firm Charters Inc. Take notes and
then answer these questions (1–8).

1 What type of company is Charters? _______________

2 Where is its main location? _______________

3 How long has the company been outperforming its rivals? _______________

Scott outlines three main targets. What are they?

4 _______________

5 _______________

6 _______________

7 What percentage of the company’s sales are currently outside the US? _______________

8 Where are the company’s best prospects for sales in ten years’ time? _______________

Use of English (15 minutes)

1) Choose the correct answer from the words in italics.

1 It’s out of the question to stop production in South Korea – it would be significantly /
irretrievably / potentially disastrous.
2 Now that the price of oil has settled, transport costs are relatively / unexpectedly /
decreasingly stable.
3 I have no idea why I keep getting all these unsolicited emails. It’s significantly /
potentially / profoundly worrying.
4 After last month’s PR scandal, it looks like we have serious problems. The whole
situation has been profoundly / irretrievably / unexpectedly damaging to the company.
 2) Use the words in italics to complete these sentences.

1 I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do – beyond / control.

________________________________________________________________________
2 I was thinking about another alternative – getting in a consultant:
that / something / you / consider?
________________________________________________________________________
3 Sam’s going to be off for six months on a secondment – you / make / do / part-time
employee as a replacement for the time being?
________________________________________________________________________
4 Your point about speeding up deliveries is an interesting one, and it’s certainly
not / question.
________________________________________________________________________
5 The answer’s no. That’s all there is to it.
I / firm / this.
________________________________________________________________________

3) Complete the sentences. Use the correct form of the verb in brackets.

Example: If I’d been watching (be watching) the game properly, I would have seen Sven score
the goal.

1. How long ________ you and Stan ________ (be going out)?
2. Darren ________ (have to) work late last Friday night.
3. I was watching TV when the telephone ________
(ring).
4. We ________ (not used to) see many people at this beach, but now it’s very crowded.
5. It ________ (be) announced by a company spokesman that the new factory will not open
until next year.
6. Could you get someone ________ (help) us with some work in the office?

Reading (20 minutes)

THE SCIENCE OF PERSUASION

A Persuasion is key to business and to much more besides. In many walks of life and in
many situations, persuading people to do what you want them to do is the key to
success. Is persuasion a science with rules that can be taught and learnt, or is it simply a
matter of instinct and personal experience? Researchers have looked into different
aspects of persuasion and come up with some interesting results.
B One advertising copywriter, for example, came up with an approach to selling a
product on a TV shopping channel via phones sales that differed from the norm for such
advertising. Instead of being instructed: ‘Operators are waiting, please call now’,
viewers were told ‘If operators are busy, please call again’. This might appear to have
been a risky tactic, putting potential buyers off by suggesting that they would have to
 waste their time calling repeatedly until they finally got through to someone to take
their order. But the results were extraordinary and an unprecedented number of sales
resulted. The advert suggested that instead of there being lots of operators sitting there
and hoping people would call, there were so many people who wanted the product that
people might have to wait until they could get it. This showed just how desirable the
product was. Potential customers decided that, if so many other people wanted it, they
definitely wanted it too.
C What role does choice have in persuading people to buy or get something? One study
looked at the choices employees made when offered different retirement programmes.
This showed that the more choices people were given, the less likely they were to
choose anything at all. Another study in a supermarket revealed a similar effect of
choice. A particular supermarket displayed either 6 or 24 different kinds of jam. When
there were 24 jams to choose from, 3% of customers went to the display and bought one
of the jams. When there were 6 jams on display, 30% of customers did so.
D To what extent can fear play a part in persuasion? One experiment involved public
health leaflets on the dangers of tetanus infection. Some of the leaflets consisted almost
entirely of frightening images of infected people, with a bit of information about
infection, while some contained no images at all, only information about infection.
Some included information on where people should go to get tetanus injections to
protect themselves, while others only gave this information and nothing else. The
outcome was that the greatest number of people who went for injections were those who
had been given the leaflet with both frightening images and instructions on where for
injections. People who had been given the leaflets dealing only with infection did
nothing. The conclusion was that fear paralyses people if no solution is offered, but if
people are frightened and offered a solution they are motivated to take action.
E Research has also looked into the issue of restaurants persuading people who have
booked to let them know if they are not going to turn up. This shows that getting people
to promise to do something makes them more likely to do it than simply asking them to
do it. If the restaurant asks people to call if they can’t make it, 30% of them simply
don’t turn up and don’t tell the restaurant. If, however, the restaurant asks them to call if
they have to cancel and they reply that they will do so, only 10% fail to notify the
restaurant in advance that they will not be coming.
F Another aspect of persuasion concerns getting someone to change their mind.
Everyone knows how hard this can be. It’s hard to prove to someone that a previous
decision was wrong, and as people get older they get less and less willing to change
their minds. This is because people want things to be consistent, they want their
attitudes, statements, values and actions to follow a set pattern. The only way to
persuade them to change is to acknowledge this by agreeing that the previous decision
they made was a perfectly understandable one. This allows them to focus on your
suggestion without feeling that their previous decision was wrong in any way. As a
result, they may be persuaded to break out of their established pattern without feeling
uncomfortable about doing so.

1 In section A, the writer raises the question of whether or not ________.

A business is different from other walks in life with regard to persuasion
B persuasion is as important as people say it is
C it is possible to generalize about how persuasion works
2 The writer says that the instruction mentioned in section B ________.
 A sounds like a bad idea B was given by mistake
C was necessary in the circumstances
3 In both of the studies mentioned in section C, ________.
A some of the choices proved more attractive than others
B the number of choices affected what people did
C only a few people selected any of the choices
4 What is said about the leaflets mentioned in section D?
A Some of them contained images that were not frightening.
B Some of them contained images and information.
C Some of them contained only images.
5 The research described in section E involved ________.
A asking people to do different things
B making the same request more than once C people agreeing to a request
6 In section F, the writer says that trying to persuade people to change their minds can
________.
A take longer with some people than with others
B seem like a challenge to ordinary behaviour
C fail for reasons that do not seem logical
Writing (20)

Make a list of the news, current events and personnel changes that have recently taken place in
your company or a company you know well. Decide which of these items of news and events
you want to cover in a newsletter and in what order. Then write the newsletter.

1 firstly, first of all, _________

2 secondly, next, _________, _________
3 finally, _________
Speaking (25 minutes)
Student A

You are an IT manager of a large property agency. You work with a number of key corporate
clients on a regular basis and need an improved system of keeping records. You have recently
found new software to do this. Tell your staff members about your idea.

Rationale
 The software tracks all communications between staff and clients.
 The software is not difficult to use, and training is short.
During the meeting
 give reasons for the change
 build your argument / reinforce the message
 ask for their commitment
 conclude and deal with any concerns.