Business Class

"A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business"

Henry Ford

Business class 

OBJECTIVES:

At the end of this unit you will be able to:

-Express yourself clearly in a business context using the second conditional, relative clauses, compound relative pronouns and indirect speech with ease.

-Spell on the phone confidently, relate the sounds and spellings, and use fillers to express doubt and hesitation.

-Organise and survive on business trips using vocabulary and expressions related to flight booings, travel itineries, hotel reservations, and leasing and renting. 

-Use vocabulary related to airport organization and foreign entry requirements. 

1 : Choose the correct reported speech options taken from the dialogue: Lara asked how much longer they... Lara: Excuse me, could you tell me how much longer we will be waiting here for? Flight Attendant: I'm afraid I can't tell you exactly, we're short of staff today so everything is taking longer than usual. Lara's husband: But we checked in three hours ago, if you're short-staffed why don't you hire more people? Flight Attendant: I do apologise sir. Are you aware that there have been strikes in the airport this week? We've had many problems but we're doing our best to run as efficiently as possible. Lara: We are aware, but we thought that they were all over by now. Are we going to lose our luggage because of this? Lara's husband: Of course not, Lara. You're thinking of when they opened a new terminal and all the luggage was mixed up. This is different. Let's leave the poor flight attendant alone, the delay isn't his fault. will be waiting for were waiting for would be waiting for 2 : The flight attendant said he was afraid... he cannot tell them exactly he can't tell them exactly he couldn't tell them exactly 3 : Lara's husband said that they... checked in three hours ago had checked in three hours ago were checking in three hours ago  4 : The flight attandant asked if they... were aware that there had been strikes were aware that there have been strikes were aware that there has been strikes 5 : Lara asked if they will be going to lose their luggage were going to lose their luggage would be going to lose their luggage 2. Listen the following audio and complete the sentences http://http-ws.bbc.co.uk.edgesuite.net/mp3/learningenglish/2009/05/090604_6min_homeswap_audio _for_web_au_bb.mp3 Home swapping is the growing trend of  your house or apartment with someone in a different country for a  period. One advantage of home swapping is that you can get a  holiday anywhere in the world.  you be willing to  your house with a stranger rather than stay in a hotel? How does home swapping work? You think of a country  like to go to,  with one of the many companies who deal with home swapping  list your house on their website and hopefully someone will want to swap with you. Home swapping has become cheap because it's become part of the . It often includes a  3. Reading TRAVEL TIPS FROM THE UNITED STATES: Register so the State Department can better assist you in an emergency:  Register your travel plans  with the State Department through a free online service.  This will help us contact you if there is a family emergency in the U.S., or if there is a crisis where you are traveling.  In accordance with the Privacy Act, information on your welfare and whereabouts will not be released to others without your express authorization. Sign passport, and fill in the emergency information:  Make sure you have a signed, valid passport, and a visa, if required, and filled in the emergency information page of your passport. Leave copies of itinerary and passport data page:  Leave copies of your itinerary, passport data page and visas with family or friends, so you can be contacted in case of an emergency. Check your overseas medical insurance coverage:  Ask your medical insurance company if your policy applies overseas, and if it covers emergency expenses such as medical evacuation.  If it does not, consider supplemental insurance. Familiarize yourself with local conditions and laws:   While in a foreign country, you are subject to its laws.  The State Department web site has useful safety and other information about the countries you will visit.  Take precautions to avoid being a target of crime:  To avoid being a target of crime, do not wear conspicuous clothing or jewelry and do not carry excessive amounts of money.  Also, do not leave unattended luggage in public areas and do not accept packages from strangers. Contact us in an emergency: Consular personnel at U.S. Embassies and Consulates abroad and in the U.S. are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to provide emergency assistance to U.S. citizens. Source adapted from:  http://travel.state.gov/travel/tips/tips_1232.html 1. Register your travel plans.     --ABCDEF   A. Let people close to you know where you'll be and when. 2. Fill in the emergency information.     --ABCDEF   B. Get informed about the customs and culture(s) of your travel destination. 3. Leave copies of itinerary.     --ABCDEF   C. Make sure you can be attended to by a doctor or hospital abroad if you need to be. 4. Check your overseas medical insurance coverage.     --ABCDEF   D. Leave an official record of where you're going with the state in case of emergency. 5. Familiarize yourself with local conditions and laws.     --ABCDEF   E. Put the emergency details in a form. 6. Take precautions.     --ABCDEF   F. Consciously undertake a series of preventitive measures. Answers Exercise 1 1. would be; 2. He couldn't tell them exactly; 3. had checked in three hours ago; 4. were aware that there had been strikes; 5. were going to lose their luggage Exercise 2 exhanging, limited, low, cost, would, swap, you'd; register, who'll, mainstream, car Exercise 3 Register your travel plans. Leave an official record of where you're going with the state in case of emergency. Fill in the emergency information. Put the emergency details in a form.  Leave copies of itinerary. Let people close to you know where you'll be and when.  Check your overseas medical insurance coverage. Make sure you can be attended to by a doctor or hospital abroad if you need to be. Familiarize yourself with local conditions and laws. Get informed about the customs and culture(s) of your travel destination. Take precautions. Consciously undertake a series of preventitive measures.

The Media

"The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make guilty the innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses"

Malcom X

The media

VOCABULARY 

1 Complete the gaps in the statements with the words. 

bias, deadline, privacy, record, scoop, sources, speculation

A good news journalist… 

1. Never misses a _____ . 
2. Respects the _____ of public figures. 
3. Deals in facts rather than _____. 
4. Will do almost anything for a _____ or to break a story. 
5. Always identifies their _____ . 
6. Allows people to speak off the _____ to protect themselves. 
7. Reports honestly, objectively and without _____ . 

2 Match the meanings with the expressions.

a sound bite, broadsheets,chequebook journalism, circulation figures, libel laws, media covergade, rating war, libel laws, media coverage, ratings war, spin, the tabloids, viewing figures


1. The number of newspapers sold. 
2. The number of people who watch a broadcast. 
3. Popularity battles with rival channels / networks / programmes.
4. Official rules governing what you may say about people in print.
5. Present a positive view of something to influence people. 
6. Paying people for information. 
7. Amount of time / space given to a subject. 
8. Very short part of speech or statement. 
9. The ‘popular press’. 
10. Quality newspapers / the ‘quality press’. 

3 What are the following people’s roles in the media? Think about your answers and discuss reasons. Which job would you most like to do? 

a) Editor 
b) Anchor 
c) Publisher 
d) Producer
e) Reporter 
f) Correspondent 
g) Paparazzo 
h) Columnist 

4 Replace the words in bold with the correct form of prepositional verbs. 

1. Anyone who doubts the power of the social web only needs to observe the activity on Twitter. 
2. How are you progressing at work? 
3. A free microblogging service that started a few years ago, Twitter resembles an onscreen bulletin. 
4. An opportunity has arisen for a Twitter correspondent at Sky News board. 
5. I am resisting an urge to investigate Twitter in case it is as addictive as Facebook. 
6. If Twitter ever suffers a catastrophic failure it cannot recover from, you will still be protected from any data loss. 
7. We inspected the new office to see if the building was suitable. 
8. I’ve seen a really interesting anecdote on Twitter. I found it by chance. 

How do you feel about the use of social media for news gathering? Do you think they will replace the mainstream media in the future? Think about the following prompts to discuss them during the tutorial. 

1. ‘In journalism there has always been a tension between getting it first and getting it right.’ Ellen Goodman, American Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. 
2. ‘Newspapers will soon be a thing of the past.’ 
3. ‘Today a country belongs to the person who controls communications.’ Umberto Eco. 
4. ‘People in the public eye should not expect to have private lives.’ come across come up get on get over look at look into look like look around

Answers

Exercise 1.
1.deadline; 2. privacy; 3.speculation; 4.scoop; 5.sources; 6.record; 7.bias
Exercise 2.
1.circulation figures; 2.viewing figures; 3.rating wars; 4.Libel wars; 5.spin; 6.chequebook journalism; 7.media coverage; 8.a sound bite; 9.tabloids; 10. broadsheets
Exercise 4.
1.Look at; 2.Getting on; 3.Looks like; 4.Come up; 5.Look into; 6.Get over; 7.Looked around; 8.Came across

Money makes the world go round!

"When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is"

Oscar Wilde

 

 Managing your finances

Read this leaflet on personal financial management given out by a university to its students. Note the collocations in bold, study them and try to use them during your next conversation class.

"Keeping afloat - how to manage your finances"

While you’re doing your degree, your main source of income may be a student loan or, if you’re lucky, a grant or scholarship. But you may well still need to supplement your income by getting some kind of part-time work. Here are some tips for avoiding financial problems: 

Open a current account (cuenta corriente) at the campus bank – they have a team there which specializes in helping students with their financial matters.

If you get into debt, try to clear your debts as soon as possible.
If things are difficult, you may have to economise by, say, cutting down on

luxuries (reducir en lujos). This is far better than running up huge debts (acumular deudas)
if you have a credit-card debt, try to make a payment every month, however

small. Never exceed your agreed credit limit1.

It’s a bad idea to borrow heavily (endeudarse fuertemente) to repay your debts. Always seek advice from your bank about how to clear outstanding debts and pay back loans. Keep an ey on the bank statements your bank will regularly send you, which contain special information regarding possible overdrawns (números rojos).

Never run up an overdraft (descubierto) if you can avoid it. If you do need one, remember that most banks will offer students an interest-free overdraft. 

Business expressions

  Complete the expressions with the correct words from the box. 

1. Something worth buying-a_________buy
2. Compare goods or services before buying – to shop__________
3. Make neither a profit or a loss – to break ___________
4. Buy large quantities at a cheap price–to buy in___________ 

5. Not available at the moment – out of __________

6. Whenabusinessfails–itgoes___________  

7. To delay payment of goods by agreement – to buy on __________ 

 

Money collocations

 
Match words from each box to form collocations and use them to complete the

sentences below. 

borrow; make; spend;  stay; supplement

afloat;  a fortune ; heavily;  my income ; a payment

1. I___________of €500 every month to my credit-card account.
   
2. When I was a student I got a job in a fast-food outlet to___________.
   
3. I used to ___________ on books when I was at university.
   
4. I had no grant or scholarship, so I had to ___________ to finance my studies.
   
5. Small firms find it difficult to ___________ when costs and interest rates are high.
   

Public finance

 
Read the article paying close attention to words in bold. 

The government collects money from citizens through taxes. Income tax is the tax collected on wages and salaries. Inheritance tax is collected on what people inherit from others. Customs have to be paid on goods imported from other countries. VAT or value added tax is a tax paid on most goods and services when they are bought or purchased. 

The government also sometimes pays out money to people in need, e.g. unemployment benefit (also known informally as the dole), disability allowances and student grants (to help pay for studying). 

The money that you pay for services, e.g. to a school or a lawyer, is usually called a fee; the money paid for a journey is a fare. 

Words in the news. 

Take a look at the headlines and answer the following question: Is the ordinary ‘person-in-the-street’ pleased to see these newspaper headlines or not? 

Mortgage rate goes up

Waves to be fronzen

Pension are raised

Interest rates down

Vat to be reduced

Number on dole rises

Match the beginning of each sentence with its ending. 
 

1. The government is finding it very difficult to curb                       exclusion
   
2. The country is suffering because of the current economic            interest
   
3. Although heavy industry is in decline, service industries are       inflation
   
4. The CEO is anxious to safeguard his company’s                          climate
   
5. New machinery has enabled the factory to increase its                 resources
   
6. The tax authorities plan to tackle the issue of undeclared             output (producción)
   
7. The budget plan explains how we intend to allocate our various  thriving (próspero)
   
8. We must tackle and solve the problems caused by social              earnings
   

Match the words on the left with their definitions. 

1. Interest
2. Mortgage
3. An overdrawn account
4. Savings account
5. Current account
6. Pension
7. Disability allowance
8. Child benefit
9. Grant

a. a bank account with minus money in it
b. money paid towards the cost of raising family
c. money given by the government for education, welfare, etc. d. an account that is used mainly for keeping money
e. money paid to people after a certain age
f. an account that cheques are drawn on for day-to-day use
g. money chargeable on a loan
h. money paid to people with a handicap
i. a loan to purchase property 

Follow-up: To improve your financial vocabulary, read articles on business in any English magazine or newspaper. Write any new words or expressions that you come across. 

Can money buy the happiness?

CRITICAL CONSUMERISM 

It is estimated that the average 20-year-old American has seen one million commercial messages throughout his or her life. This number is sure to rise, as teens are the fastest growing consumer demographic, spending billions ($150 billion to be exact) of dollars each year, and thus commanding the rapt attention of many companies and advertisers. These compelling statistics raise some vital questions to any concerned teacher, parent or citizen: what is the effect of advertising on our teenagers? Is there a connection between the increase in advertising and social unrest? Do cases of depression, self-mutilation, and eating disorders reflect plummeting self-esteem as children feel they can never be as happy, thin or beautiful as the people portrayed in ads? Would as many people want to divorce their partner if ads did not glorify casual trysts and sex appeal as the highest measure of worth?

ANSWER KEY

Business expressions

1. A good buy
   
2. To shop around
   
3. To break even
   
4. To buy in bulk
   5. Out o fstock
   6. It goes bankrupt 
   7. To buy on credit 
   
   
   

Money collocations

1. Make a payment
   
2. Supplement my income
   
3. Spend a fortune
   
4. Borrow heavily
   
5. Stay afloat
   

Words in the news 

Mortgage rate goes up (bad)
Wages to be frozen (bad) 
Pension age raised (bad)
Interest rates down (good)
VAT to be reduced (good) 
Number on dole rises (bad)

Match the beginning of each sentence with its ending.

1. The government is finding it very difficult to curb     INFLATION.
   
2. The country is suffering because of the current economic     CLIMATE.
   
3. Although heavy industry is in decline, servicei ndustries are     THRIVING.
   
4. The CEO is anxious to safe guard his company’s     INTERESTS.
   
5. New machinery has enabled the factory to increase its     OUTPUT.
   
6. The tax authorities plan to tackle the issue of undeclared     EARNINGS.
   
7. The budget plan explains how we intend to allocate our various     RESOURCES.
   
8. We must tackle and solve the problems caused by social EXCLUSION.
   

Match the words on the left with their definitions on the right. 
     

1. G 2. I 3. A 4. D 5. F

6. E 7. H 8. B 9. C

 

Science and technology

"We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology"

Carl Sagan

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/vocabulary/science.shtml

Science and technology

Word formation. Complete the gaps with the correct form of words in the right. Use the word given in capitals at the end of the text to form a word that fits in the gap in the same line

The twentieh century witnessed a ______(1)_____ change in the relationship between science and society. In World War I scientists were conscripted and died in the trenches. In World War II they were exempted as national treasures and committed to secrecy, and they rallied behing their country's war effort. The explanation of the change is not hard to find -governments came to believe that _____ (2)_____ research can produce practical improvements in industry, agricultures,and medicine. The belief waas firmly reinforced by developments such as the discovery of antibiotics and the _____ (3)_____ of nuclear physics to the production of atomic weapons. Science became so identified wich practical benefits that the _____ (4)_____ of technology on science is commonly assumed to be a _____ (5)_____ relationship and a single enterprise. Science and technology, research and development -these are assumed to be almost _____(6)_____ twins.  These rank among the sacred phrases of our time. The belief in the _____(7)______ of science and technology is now petrified in the dictionnary definition of technology as applied science, and _____(8)_____ reports under the rubric of "science news" are, in fact, often accounts of engineering rather than scientific achievements. The belief, however, is an aircraft of today's cultural attitudes superimposed whitout warrant on the _____(9)_____ record. Although the record shows that in the earliest civilizations under the _____(10)_____ of pharaons and kings, and in general whenever centralized states arose, knowlegde of nature was exploited for useful purposes. 

FATE, THEORY, APPLY, DEPEND, TIME, SEPARATE, COUPLE, JOURNAL, HISTORY, PATRON

Phrasal verbs. Look at the examples below ans analyse how phrasal verbs are used to talk about technical equipment. Then, try the following activity to practice phrasal verbs

"When the battery is low, the whole unit simply plugs into the mains supply to recharge"

"Tune into any radio station anywhere in the world with Worldband software. You can pick up thousands of stations 24 hours a day

"No need to spend hours wiring everything up. Bluetooth means you just switch on and connect! " Wiring up: connecting something to a piece of electrical equipment by using electrical wires

"Most Scanners take up to minute to warn up. The Zono 844B takes just 10 seconds Warn up: start working so that it becomes warm enough to work well

"Looking for a photocopier that doesn't seize up every time you change the paper? The new Jentra 850 has unique paper-flow controller" Seize up: stop moving or working in the normal way

Choose the correct word to complete theses sentences

1. With my new radio I can _____ far more stations that I used to be able to get

          a) tune in          b) pick up           c) set up

2. If a machine stops moving or working normally, you can say that it has_____

          a) cut off           b) wiped out       c) seize up

3. Okay, if you want to create a template, go _____. Word and open the File menu

          a) onto              b) in                     c) into

4. I'm going to have to get my printer repaired - it keeps going _____ for no apparent reason

          a) on                  b) off                    c) out

5. Please could you help me _______Internet acces on my new computer?

          a) set up            b) tune in             c) pick up

6. Whenever Dave is abroad he _____ the BBC World Service listen to the news

          a) seizes up      b) tunes into          c) goes onto

More phrasal verbs related to technology and devices

break down: stop working (for a machine...)

carry out: perform an experiment...

come off: succeed

come on: develop or make progress

come up with: think of (an idea, a plan...)

cut off: stop the supply of sth

find out: discover information...

give off: produce something such as heat or smell

narrow down: reduce the number of possibilities

plug in: connect to the electricity supply

put throught: connect by phone

turn into: change into sth different

turn off: stop a machine working

work out: find the solution to a problem...

Complete using the correct form of the words

plug, turn, carry, narrow, put, work, come, break

1. A lorry had _____ down on the motorway and we had to wait for over an hour     

2. I have _____ it down to two computer games, but I still can't make up my mind

3. I wish youo would _____ the TV off and go outside and get some exercise

4. Scientists are trying to _____ out ways to reduce pollution from aircraft

5. Tomorrow, we will be _____ out an experiment to test this theory

6. Who _____ up with the idea of the ball-point pen?

7. I'll just _____ you though to our research department. Please hold on

8. No wonder the vacuum cleaner isn't working. You haven't _____ it in!

Answer Key

Word formation      

(1) fatal; (2) theoretical; (3) application; (4) dependence; (5) timeless; (6) inseparable; (7) coupling; (8) journalistic: (9) historical; (10) patronage

Phrasal verbs

1.b; 2.C; 3.c; 4.B; 5.a; 6.b

More phrasal verbs

1. broken; 2. narrowed; 3. turn; 4. work; 5. carrying; 6.came; 7. put; 8. plugges