UNIT 1 H FIRST IMPRESSIONS

13 Match the informal phrases 1-6 with the formal phrases a-f.
1 Because of ... a) Please find enclosed ...
2 Can you tell us more b) Please let us know your exact
about ... ? requ irements.

3 Here are ... c) We regret to inform you that ...

4 I've got some bad news. d) Owing to ...

VI S What exactly do you need? e) We are pleased to inform you that ...
;::::
r- 6 I've got some good news. f) We would be grateful if you could send
r-
VI us further information about ...
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z
c
"tJ
m The e-mail below is inappropriate because it uses an informal writing style.
Rewrite it completely using the formal phrases in the box to replace the
;::c underlined items.
0
z
c: attend the event
z
n if you could confirm your talk at your earliest convenience

~ We are writing to inform you

0 With best wishes
z
We would be honoured
Please do not hesitate to contact me
We realise this is a topic close to your own heart
should you require further details
We would be extremely grateful

,----------
From: Frances Reynolds
To: Dieter Fuchs
Date: 18th September
Subject: Conference : Beyond Culture Shock

Dear Mr Fuchs,

This is just to let you know 1 that the Chamber of Commerce in Birmingham is
hosting a one-day event early next month on the subject of 'Beyond Culture
Shock'.

We know this is the kind of stuff you are interested in 2 following the recent
merger of the Savings Bank of Salzburg with the Midlands Savings Bank and
the intercultural issues that subsequently arose. It would be greaP if you could
come 4 and give a plenary talk to the business community at large.

Thanks in advances for letting us know as soon as possible if you can make
j!6. Please find attached a speaker's proposal form. Just get in touch with me?
if you need more informations.

All the best 9 ,

Frances Reynolds
Events Manager
Birmingham Chamber of Commerce
franreynolds @msb.co.uk
-~- ------~--------------------!

8
11 Work out the difference between the sentences in each oai'".
1 We need a radic al management shake-up.
What we need is a radical management shake -up.

2 I really liked the way she kept in touch with her audien ce.
It was the way she kept in touch with her audience that I really liked .

m Rewrite the sentences in the same way as in Exercise C.

:.:
1 I'm looking forward to a good networking function. ,..
r-
2 They don't like slang or colloquialisms.

3 Your rapport with the audience matters most. >

Z
C
4 I didn't like the sort of questions they asked me. .,;,
~
S They expect a high-tech presentation. o
z
c:
IJ ~))) 1 Listen to the different presenters and decide what each one is doing. z
• Write one letter (a-f) next to the number of the speaker.
-~
n

• You will have to use some letters twice.

-o
z
Speaker 1 ... ... ... ..... .. .... . a) introducing the main topic

Speaker 2 ....... ... .... ...... . b) turning to a new topic

Speaker 3 .... ..... ... ..... ... . c) going back to a previous point

Speaker 4 ....... .......... ... . d) referring to visuals

SpeakerS .......... .. ... . ... . . e) dealing with questions
Speaker 6 ... .............. .. . . f) concluding the presentation
Speaker 7 ...... ... .. ....... .. .

SpeakerS ... ....... ...... .... .

D ~))) 2 Listen to the examples. Notice where / t / and / d / tend to disappear.

1 Pleasee- to meet you.

2 Our website's just been updated.

3 Sorry, I didn't quite catch your last point.

In rapid speech, / t / and / d / often disappear when they are between two other
consonants. This is called elision. An awareness of elision can help you understand
rapid speech better.

B Cross out the letters in these sentences that may disappear during rapid
speech.
1 It's hard to say which aspects are the most positive.

2 The second talk focused particularly on deregulation.

3 Last summer we worked together on a research project.

4 The first presentation wasn't very difficult to understand.

S I wouldn't say it was the greatest networking event I've ever attended.

~)>> 3 Listen and check your answers. Then listen again and practise
the sentences.

9
 UNIT 2 ~~ TRAINING

El Write a report (200-250 words) to the Head of your HR Department.

You recently attended an assertiveness training workshop organised by the department.
The Head of H R has asked you to write a short report about the training.

In your report

• describe what you liked about the workshop and what you found useful

• mention one point that you did not like and explain

• describe one course or workshop you would like to attend in the future
r- • explain how this course or workshop would be useful to you and to the company.
r-
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>
Z
C
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:::tI R.epD!j' on th€ AssatiVen€55 Tr(li!,~~ worksv..op
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1he o...im of thIS report i5 to"C~~,:~my
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z feeGlbo...ck on the tLUO-Glo...y5to...ff Tro...ini!,~ ~~.c
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$ 1>eve\opment LUOrk5~p"J 0...ttenGleGl 0...t oU.r
-o~ ~c~Gl1.u.(lrter5 on ;;Z6th (lnGl ;;Z'7th .Jo...nu.o...~y~.
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~»)) 4
Listen to five different employees in a performance appraisal interview.
Decide which of the supervisor's questions each employee is answering.
• Write one letter (a-e) next to the number of the speaker.

• Do not use any letter more than once.

Speaker 1 ..... .. .... ...... .. .. a) Is your job description up to date?
Speaker 2 .. .... ... ... ........ . b) What have been your contributions, besides

Speaker3 ....... ..... ..... .. . . achieving your target, since your last performance
appraisal?
Speaker 4 .... ... .... ...... .. .
c) Which of your previous appraisal objectives have
Speaker 5 ... .... .. ........ .. . .
you achieved?

d) Is there anything in your job that you have

problems with?

e) Is there anything in your job you would say you

could do better in the future?

11 ~)>> 4 Listen again and answer the questions.

1 Who has a very varied job? Speaker .....

2 Who is not particularly happy with the way they organise their time? Speaker . .. . .

3 Who is planning to do a training course? Speaker .... .

4 Who is sometimes unfairly criticised? Speaker .... .

5 Who would not like to have to write an official report regularly? Speaker .....

14
 UNIT 3 H ENERGY

El Complete the sentences with tinkers from the box.

given however in order to thus despite although unless

AltJ,ovaJ,
1 .............. :; ........... t here WI'11 bea b"Ig Increase .In CO 2 emissions
. . .In In d'la, per capita
.
emissions in developed countries will still be far higher than in India.

2 Garnex, the Belgian retailer, said it achieved a 3 per cent reduction in electricity usage
(I) last year from an annual energy budget of more than €5m, ..................... increasing
25 its shop floor area.
r-
r-
(I) 3 Observers say Indian companies' aggressive bids in exploration auctions reflect a
>
Z
readiness to accept a lower rate of return than western companies ........ .. .......... .

C secure a strategic asset.

." 4 Peter Morgan, economist at HSBC in Tokyo, believes the indirect impact of slower
:::c
o global growth - and .................. ... lower demand for Japanese exports - is twice the
z direct impact in terms of reduction to GDP.
c:
z
n 5 The world will soon experience a severe energy crunch .............. .. ..... the major

~ energy firms stop digging ever deeper into existing reserves.

oz 6 Today solar energy is one of the most popular alternative sources of energy. Ten years
ago, ........ .. ........ .. . , it was still widely regarded as impractical.

7 .... ................. the extent of the climate change crisis, we all need to learn a radically
new way of thinking.

m Write a report (maximum 150 words) on the chart below.

• The bar chart below shows the levels of a country's investment budget for the
development of its railway and road infrastructure for the period 2006-2010 (in
millions of euros).

• Use the information from the chart to summarise the changes in the transport
infrastructure budget.

1,000

900

Railways
800
11 Roads

700

600

500

400

300

200

100

o
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

20
 UNIT 4 ~~ MARKETING

a Complete this extract from a presentation with the verbs from the box.
ask credit cut decided increase launched plan
recognise ~ start stopped sum up

So, to go back to what I was saying earlier, one of our objectives at Molrops Engin eering
was to reach a wider audience while at the same time reduce our advertising costs.

That ... ....?P.<!~~~ ... . l like a bit of a tall order, doesn't it? Maybe some of you are
V)
thinking, 'You can't have your cake and eat it'? Well, what 1.... .............. .. 2 to do

"(i;
r- in the next part of my presentation is precisely that : explain how we managed to
.. .. .. ... . ... . . . . ... 3 our advertising expenses by 12 per cent over the past two years and
»
z
..••... • ... • .. • ..•••. 4 sales by 5 per cent as a result of more effective marketing.

o Let's .... .. ........... ... S then with how we did it. As my grandmother used to say, the
-g good things in life come in threes, so there we go: networking, referrals, blogs. Three
;iID
oz 6
words which summarise the future of advertising. First, we .... .. ...... ... ..... . paying our
local radio extortionate fees for 30-second commercials and instead got involved with
c:
Z social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. I can't tell you exactly how many new
t""'I
customers this move has brought into our business but an honest answer is: a lot more
!t than we'd have dared to hope for two years ago.
oz 7
Secondly, we .. ..... ..... .. .... ... a word-of-mouth referral system with and for our
employees: for each referral that an employee brings into our business, he or she gets a
reward. This too has been working really well so far.

And thirdly, we also started our own blog and this is an ongoing experiment which is
attracting more and more customers . Companies which doubt the effectiveness of blogs
are probably those that think customers are naive and enjoy reading product-endorsing
8
comments day in day out. But we ........ .... .... ..... from the start that all comments on
our blog would be genuine. We use our blog as a platform for communicating with our
customers. That's what today's consumers want : dialogue, participation , trust. In fact, we
can already ... ..... .. ... .. ..... 9 our blog with a sharp increase in revenues . But that's only
part of the story. We've also invited our customers to tell us about the projects they're
involved in, to tell us what would make their life and their work easier and all their ideas
feed into the design and development of our next generation of products.

Let me just. ........ .. .. .... .. .. 10 you one question before 1.......... .. ...... ...11 the key points :
what could be more satisfying for consumers than to ... ........ ....... .. 12 their input in the
products they buy?

III Look at the extract in Exercise A again. Prepare one PowerPoint slide with
the key points.
Remember the following points:

• title
• font size and colour

• bullet points instead of full sentences.

Use between 8 and 15 words .

26
 UNIT 5 ~~ EMPLOYMENTTRENDS

m Write a report (maximum 200 words) on the graphs below.

• The graphs illustrate employment trends in the manufacturing and service industry in
a country and its capital city.

• Using the information from the graphs, write a report describing the general
movements of employment levels in the period 2004-2010.
130 130
Manufacturing industry 2004-2010 Service industry 2004-2010
125 125 I. V)

...
"r-r-
120 120 -• - I V)
>
z
115
- Capital city
•••• Country
115
/ -.\- / C
."
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110 110 I ". '-' 0
Z
,
c:
z
105 105
- "
n
~
100 l ,. • 100 ,.
•• ••• 0
Z
95 \ •••• ... •• 95
••
••
90 \. •• ,.-"" 90
••
••
·•••.- J - Capital city
85

80
"'-
... . " 85

80
• ••• Country

75 75
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

IJ ~)>> 14 Look at the graphs in Exercise D and listen to a presenter describing

them. How many errors can you spot in the presentation?

~)>> 15 Listen and check your answers.

D Circle the word in each group which has a different stress pattern. Then
check your answers in the Key.
Example: seasonal 610ym~ temporary

We say '5e'Qsonai and tl!rTJporary (stress on the first syllable) but emptuyment (stress
on the second syllable).

1 permanent flexible abusive

2 attrition promotion atmosphere

3 security economy motivation

4 location company loyalty

~»)) 16 Listen and practise saying the words.

33
 UNIT 6 ~~ ETHICS

El Write a report (200-250 words) to your Managing Director.

You work for a new international organisation which is expanding rapidly. Your Managing
Director has asked you to comment on the desirability of a Code of Conduct for all the
staff in the future. Write a report in which you

• explain the usefulness / necessity of such a Code of Conduct

• explain how it would benefit both the organisation and its staff

• outline possible areas of content.

r-
In
»
z
c R.€pai" on fu:h..u-€ Cod..€ of condt0
"'0
:=0 Ms ste\\o.. H-u.bert, Mo..no...9in.9 t'irector of our
o
Z Berlin ;ftfce, MS rlZLlu.ested.. thiS report on the
c:
z d..esiro..bihty of 0.. Cod..e of Cond..u.ct for 0..\\ oU.r
n
employees.
~
oz -rv.e o..im

D ~))) 17 Listen to eight different people chairing meetings and decide what
each one is doing.
• Write one letter (a-f) next to the number of the speaker.

• You will have to use some letters twice.

Speaker 1 ..... .. ... .. .. .. ... . . a) opening the meeting
Speaker2 ....... .... ...... . .. . b) stating the purpose of the meeting
Speaker3 ..... ... .. .... .... .. . c) asking for clarification
Speaker 4 ... ........ ..... ... . . d) calling on a speaker
Speaker 5 .... ......... .... ... . e) interrupting a speaker
Speaker 6 ...... ...... .. .. .... . f) summarising decisions taken
Speaker 7 ...... ... ..... ... ... .

Speaker 8 ............ .. . .. .. . .

38