Bài giảng anh văn chuyên ngành 2 ba19 Đại học mở hà nội

UNIT 7 EMPLOYMENT • READING: A Full House • LISTENING: The Curriculum Vitae (CV) • SPEAKING: Managing business meetings • LANGUAGE WORK: - Vocabulary: The recruitment process - Grammar: Relative Pronouns • WRITING: writing a fax I. READING A FULL HOUSE Recruiting the entire staff for the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas in record time and at minimum cost may sound like mission impossible. But Arte Nathan came up trumps. Talk about long odds. Arte Nathan was Vice President of Human Resources for the launch of the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Everything about Bellagio was larger than life. So too was the challenge that confronted Nathan: hire 9,600 workers in 24 weeks. Nathan and his HR team would have to screen 84,000 applicants in 12 weeks, interview 27,000 finalists in 10 weeks, and process 9,600 hires in 11 days. In the end, they nailed the deadline and here’s how they did it.

E-learning training center Learning opportunity for All

UNIT 7 EMPLOYMENT

• READING: A Full House

• LISTENING: The Curriculum Vitae (CV)

• SPEAKING: Managing business meetings

• LANGUAGE WORK:

- Vocabulary: The recruitment process

- Grammar: Relative Pronouns

• WRITING: writing a fax

I READING

A FULL HOUSE

Recruiting the entire staff for the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas in record time and at

minimum cost may sound like mission impossible But Arte Nathan came up trumps

Talk about long odds Arte Nathan was Vice President of Human Resources for the

launch of the Bellagio in Las Vegas Everything about Bellagio was larger than life So

too was the challenge that confronted Nathan: hire 9,600 workers in 24 weeks Nathan

and his HR team would have to screen 84,000 applicants in 12 weeks, interview 27,000

finalists in 10 weeks, and process 9,600 hires in 11 days In the end, they nailed the

deadline and here’s how they did it

E-learning training center Learning opportunity for All

A

This started out as an experiment But in the end, the guinea pig survived We saved

Bellagio $1.9 million Most HR people are afraid to let go of their hire – and- fire

authority But if you really want to sit at the big table, you’ve got to start thinking

strategically and globally And the only way to do that is to eliminate HR transactions

from your life You have to be willing to say, ‘I am in the wrong place in this process’

You have to take yourself out of the system

B

If a manager wanted to hire you, he would click on CONDUCT BACKGORUND

CHECK Law-enforcement officials would then receive your application online and

check your employment and education history We rejected about eight per cent of your

candidates at this stage for various reasons, such as lying on their applications If you

passed this and a drug test, the manager would then make the final decision When you

appoint somebody, you create three files: a personnel file, an equal employment

opportunity commission file and a medial file Why not have an electronic personnel file?

In the process, we could eliminate the files that managers usually keep at their desks So

we developed one and transmitted everything form the application database to the new –

hire database Using the same technology for all of our personnel and payroll forms

meant that we no longer had to collect, input, and file thousands of paper forms

C

The only way to hire so many so fast was to move everything online That meant we had

to build an online job application and HR system It told our managers that his

technology would give them hire-and-fire responsibility, which they say they want, and

complete authority, which they rarely get And it would make them 100 per cent

E-learning training center Learning opportunity for All

accountable for their decisions Going online would take human resources out of the

process

D

Next came the interviews Everyday, 180 hiring managers, who we had specially trained,

conducted 740 interviews of 30 minutes each Applicants were asked a set of behavioral

questions that we had developed, like ‘Tell me about a time when you were at the front

desk, and a guest was late What did you do when you couldn’t find the reservation?’

Using a PC embedded in their desktops the managers evaluated the answers on a rating

sheet and the scores were fed into the database

E

In 14 months we had designed, built, and implemented the system This is how it worked:

to apply for a position, you set up an appointment When you arrived, an HR staff person

wearing a microphone confirmed your identity and notified staff, who greeted you by

name and assigned you to a computer terminal Once you completed the application, the

computer would ask you to proceed to a checkout desk where a staff member would

review it In fact what our people were really doing was a assessing your communication

skills and your overall demeanor At that point, we weeded out about 20 per cent of the

E-learning training center Learning opportunity for All

1 Speed interviewing D

2 Click to file B

3 Checking in and checking out E

4 Empower your managers C

5 Making yourself redundant A

THE CURRICULUM VITAE (CV)

Exercise 7.4 Read the flowing CV of Monika Vaz, who is applying for a position as a

marketing manager Listen to the questions that she is asked during an interview and fill

in the missing information (Track 7.1)

Koln, 50858 Germany Tel; 0049 221 5036997 E-mail: mvaz@cybermail.com

Objective: seeking a position of responsibility in the field of Direct/ internet Marketing

E-learning training center Learning opportunity for All

Employment History

2004 to date: 1………

Phoenix Media, Hamburg, Germany

Planned and developed direct mail

campaigns for major clients in the retail

sector Advised on the internet marketing

strategies Conducted in-depth

company participation at various media and

Main course components: sales and marketing, accounting, European business law, media studies, economics, and information technology Options:

5……….and

………

Awarded high school leaving certificates from the Vienna Schule, majoring in economics

200302004; Assistant Sales Manager

MSV – Business Services

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Responsible for finding new clients,

4………

Other skills:

Computers: Experience in programming in

6………

Flash and Dreamweaver, MS Office, SAP

Languages: Mother tongue German, fluent

French and English

7……… in Italian

Personal Interests:

Sports: 8……….and

snowboarding

Hobbies; music (jazz piano) and theatre

(member of an amateur theatre group)

E-learning training center Learning opportunity for All

References

 Professor Jurgen Drexler

University of Vienna

 Norman Achilles, President of the

European Marketing Foundation

III SPEAKING

MANAGING MEETINGS

When managing a meeting, you should know some terms and phrases as below

Action points What need to be done after the meeting and

by whom

Chairperson The person who charges the meeting

To send your apologies To say that you cannot go to a meeting

Any other business (AOB) The last topic on the list

Participants The people at the meeting

Minutes An official record of what was said and/or

decided

E-learning training center Learning opportunity for All

Here is some useful language that you need to manage a meeting

Dealing with interruptions

- Could you let him finish, please?

- Could you just hang

on a moment, please?

Slowing down

- Hold on, we need to look at this in more detail

- I think we should discuss this a bit more

Keeping to the point

- I’m not sure that’s relevant

- Perhaps we could get back to the point

Summarizing

- OK, let’s go over what we’ve agreed

- Right, to sum up then…

Asking for reactions

- How do you feel

about…?

- What do you think?

Speeding up

- I think we should move on now

- Can we come back to that?

Exercise 7.5

A group of managers are discussing whether to offer an employee a full-time

contract Listen and tick the expressions in the Useful language that you hear

E-learning training center Learning opportunity for All

IV LANGUAGE WORK

IV.1 Vocabulary:

The recruitment process

- To train new staff

- To shortlist the candidates

- To advertise a vacancy/ post

- To assemble an interview panel

- To make a job offer

- To check references

Exercise 7.6

Complete the text using words or phrases from the box

Curriculum vitae (CV)/ resume probationary period interview

application form psychometric test covering

letter

These days many applicants submit their ………1 speculatively to

companies they would like to work for In other words, they do not apply for an

advertised job but hope the employer will be interested enough to keep their CV on file

and contact then when they have a vacancy When replying to an advertisement,

candidates often fill in a / an ………2 and write a/an

………3 The employer will then invite the best candidates to attend

a / an ………4 Sometimes candidates will take a/ an

E-learning training center Learning opportunity for All

………5 before the interview to assess their mental ability and

reasoning skills These days it is normal for successful candidates to have to work a / an

………6 in a company This is usually three or six months after that

they are offered a permanent post

IV.2 Grammar

Relative Pronouns

We use the relative pronouns which, that, who, whom, whose to give additional

information about somebody or something already mentioned There are two

different types

1 Defining clause give information which defines or differentiates the person

or thing that they refer to They have the following forms

 who, which, or that

- Simon is the person who has most experience

- It’s the interview that/which take time

 No pronoun (if the object of the verb is in the clause)

- The people (who) we interviewed were good

- They ignored the advice (that) we gave them

 Whose

- We ignored those whose applications were late

2 Non defining relative clauses only give extra information and do not define

what they refer to They have the following forms

Who, which, whom, that, whose (within commas)

- The interviews, which were held at the hotel, lasted exactly thirty minutes

E-learning training center Learning opportunity for All

- This technology would give them hire and fire responsibility, which they say

they want, and complete authority, which they rarely get

Exercise 7.7

Look at the sentences below Are the clauses defining or non-defining?

Which pronouns can be deleted?

1 A major problem that we face is finding replacements for key personnel

2 The latest survey, which was published last week, shows that there is a

shortage fo skilled workers

3 We selected five of the twenty candidates who initially applied

4 The applications that we have received so far are mostly from candidates

with little or no experience

5 We’ve rejected all applicants whose CVs had basic spelling mistakes

6 Lyn Jackson, whose contribution to this project has been exceptional,

will be leaving us in June

Exercise 7.8

Complete the extract from a company newsletter with appropriate relative

pronouns In some cases more than one answer is possible Where could

the relative pronouns be omitted?

SAMMY MORENO

Sammy Moreno has been appointed Human Resources Director for Europe

and takes over from Rosa Wasserman 1……… retires at the end of

April Sammy, 2……… career has included key strategic assignments

E-learning training center Learning opportunity for All

in both Latin America and Asia, doesn’t underestimate the challenges

3……… lie ahead ‘This is a difficult time for organisations like ours

4……… are working to consolidate positions of the European market.’

he says ‘The new regulations and legislation 5……… have been

introduced recently, will complicate the task for co-ordinating the policies

6……… the group can apply in individual countries o the continent.’

Sammy, ……… responsibilities will include providing poliicies,

assistance and guidelines to regional HR directors is nonetheless optimistic:

‘I’m hoping that with the new guidelines 8……… we will shortly be

introducing, HR will be better positioned to do the job 9……… it’s

supposed to do – looking after the interests of the group as a whole and also

of all our staff 10……… dedication and professionalism have put us in

the leading position 11……… we are in today.’

V WRITING – FAXES

Despite the widespread use of emails today, the fax still remains a preferred means

of communication for various business functions in a large number of cultures

throughout the world Faxes are sent on numerous situations – to place and confirm

orders/bookings, make and answer enquiries, request and confirm payment, request

action, give orders, etc faxes are also used to send documents such as fliers,

prospectuses, invoices, order forms and other business documents In many cases,

documents are faxed first to save time, and the original and/or legal document is

sent by post later

Layout

E-learning training center Learning opportunity for All

When writing faxes, you should follow the standard format The fax below shows

where the following different components should appear on the page

a letterhead

b name of the person/people who will receive the fax

c name of the person/people sending the fax

d sender’s fax number

Faxes can be formal or semi-formal depending on their context and form They can

take the form of business letters or emails, or be in note form like memos The

style of language used should be adapted to each situation

E-learning training center Learning opportunity for All

Useful phrases

Placing orders and bookings

We wish to place an order for/ to book…

Thank you for sending the order for…

Please let me know by return fax if you can meet our order/ accept our booking

We look forward to receiving your acknowledgement/ shipment/ confirmation

Confirming orders and bookings

Thank you for your order no.000/booking dated 5th March…

Your order/booking is receiving our immediate attention…

We trust the quality of our products will meet with your requirements…

Making requests and enquiries

We would be interested in learning more about your products

Would you mind faxing us your latest price list?

Could you send us, by fax, your conditions and terms of payment

Giving information and answering enquiries

We thank you for your enquiry

In accordance with your request for information…

We are happy to fax you the information you require

Please find herewith the required price list

After much reflection and discussion, we have decided to do the following…

Requesting action

Cancel…

Send…

E-learning training center Learning opportunity for All

Make arrangements for…

Sample fax

194 Eastern Avenue London, WC 1 4AT Tel: 020 289 456

Fax transmission

b TO: Christopher Hardy, PA

c FROM: Lynda Martel, Purchasing Manager

d FAX NUMBER: 020 755660

e DATE: Wednesday, 3rd April

f NUMBER OF PAGES: (including this): 3

g Dear Christopher,

h Thank you for your fax and thank you for looking after things so well

while I’m out of the office

I’ve decided to stay on an extra day to catch another fashion show and

I’d like you to do the following

 Cancel tomorrow’s taxi and arrange for one same time Friday morning

 Send reminders about Friday afternoon’s Product Managers’

meeting to all participants

E-learning training center Learning opportunity for All

 Photocopy one copy of the attached price list and catalogue for each participant

 Contact Jeff Murrey form Finance and ask him if he can come

Tell him I’m bringing samples and prices of the new lines I think

we should buy

 Email Mr Cameron and explain why I’m coming back a day late

 See you Friday around 10am

99 Craft Road, PARRAMAITA 2150 TEL: 030 234344 Fax: 069 567 297

Fax Transmission

E TO: Harry Well, Managing Director

F NUMER OF PAGES: (including this): 3

G FROM: Kitty Finch, Chief Buyer

H DATE: Friday, 21st February

I Kitty Finch (Ms)

E-learning training center Learning opportunity for All

J ZX99 Laptop Computers

I refer to your advertisement in the January issue of the Laptop Users’

Journal regarding the above computer

We are a dealership chain specializing in personal computers We were

first established in N.S.W in 2012 We now have a steady clientele in

both the business and educational sectors From your advertisement, the

ZX99 seems to have immense potential with our clients

I wish to make a preliminary dealership enquiry about the ZX99 I

wonder if you could let me know about the following

 Dealership application requirements

 Dealership application procedure

 Your wholesale prices and

 Terms of business

I would greatly appreciate it if you could also furnish us with fact

sheets, brochures and catalogues about the ZX99 We are looking

forward to your reply

TRANSCRIPTS

Exercise 7.4 (CD Track 7.1 )

I see that you’re currently employed as assistant marketing manager at Phoenix Media

Now, as part of your job, I see you have to conduct in depth market surveys Can you

E-learning training center Learning opportunity for All

give me an example of a recent survey that you have done and explain how you went

about it?

Could you tell me a little more about exactly what you did at the media events? You say

that you made presentations of company products Was this just to customers visiting

your stand or was this to a larger audience?

During your time with MSV you were responsible for some quite routine tasks like order

processing Did you enjoy doing this type of work?

At university I see that you choose to study sociology and politics as options Can you

tell me why?

You seem to be quite at home with computer technology and programming in several

applications such as HTML What sort of web based material have you actually

developed?

When you say that your level in Italian us proficient, does that mean that you would

actually be able to conduct business in that language?

You obviously like sports But I see that your interests such as horse riding and

snowboarding are solitary activities, aren’t they? Do you play any team sports at all?

E-learning training center Learning opportunity for All

Exercise 7.3

1 24 weeks - The time available for recruiting new staff

2 740 – the number of interviews carried out

3 20 per cent – the number of applicants who were weeded out when they

complete their application forms

4 30 minutes; the standard length of interviews

5 8 per cent: the number of applicants who were rejected when their CVs

E-learning training center Learning opportunity for All

Exercise 7.5

- Right, can we start, please?

- How do you feel about…?

- Could you let him finish, please?

- I’m not sure that’s relevant

- I think we should move on now

- I think we should discuss this a bit more

- OK, let’s go over what’ve agreed

E-learning training center Learning opportunity for All

UNIT 8 – TRADE

I READING

FAIR TRADE

Exercise 8.1 Before you read the article, answer the questions:

1 Which countries traditionally export: a) bananas? b) coffee? c)sugar?

2 What typical problems do these exporters face when selling abroad?

Exercise 8.2 Read the article and answer these questions

1 What does the article say about:

a) Denise Sutherland?

b) Juan Valverde Sanchez?

c) Nicaraguan farmers?

d) Sainburry’s, Starbucks and Carrefour?

e) The World Trade Organisation (WTO)?

2 What do these numbers from the article refer to?

3 Why are Denise and Juan having problems selling their products?

4 What are the benefits to local producers of fair trade?

5 How did fair trade begin?

Exercise 8.3 Choose the word a), b), or c) that is the odd one out in each group

and match the definitions

1 State of continuing to live or exist a) ruin b)

3 To make sure people know about a

new product

a) prohibit b)ban c) promote

4 An official limit on the quantity of

goods

a) tariff b) quota c) subsidy

5 People or companies that make or

grow goods, foods, or materials

a) consumers

b) clients c)

producers

6 All the people who buy a particular

product or use a particular service

a) products

8 The situation of being poor a)

prosperity

b) poverty c) wealth

UK DEVELOPS TATSE FOR FAIR TRADE

The UK has a taste for guilt-free food – sales are growing by 100% a year

Along with tens of thousands of other banana growers in the Windward Sutherland

faces ruin The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has forced the European Union

to phase out its old quota system that guaranteed West Indian growers market

access, and there’s no way she can match the prices of the giant US corporations

that dominate the market for the world’s favourite fruit

In Costa Rica, Juan Valverde Sanchez, a sugar cane grower who sells to a local

farmers’ association, is unsure if he and his colleagues will survive another year

Most of the world’s sugar producers cannot break into the European or US

markets because of high tariffs and the heavy subsidies that western farmers enjoy

But there is now hope for Denise and Juan – they are selling some or all of their

produce to the growing ‘fair trade’ market that protects them form depressed

world commodity markets and the price wars between giant multinationals

For its supports, fair trade is an example of how world trade can and should be run

to tackle poverty Producers are all small scale and must be part of a cooperative

or democratically-run association of workers who observe high social and

environmental standards

Their groups deal directly with first-world companies that pay well over the world

market price They also get an added premium, which goes directly to the group of

farmers to be shared out in any way they choose

The price difference can be as much as 100% and can save a farmer from

bankruptcy or mean a family has the money to send their children to school

At the other end of the chain, the first-world consumer pays about a penny extra

for a cup of coffee or teaspoon of sugar, or a few pence more for a banana

Fair-trade food is booming What started as a way for Dutch consumers to support

Nicaraguan farmers in the 60s has grown into a $500m a year global niche market

with more than 400 northern companies now importing fruit, coffee, tea, bananas,

nuts, orange juice and other foods

Around 500,000 small-scale farmers and their families are thought to be benefiting

in 36 of the world’s poorest countries, and the largest figures suggest it is worth

$40m extra to producers Meanwhile, demand for other ‘fairly traded’ but

unlabelled non-food goods, such as handicrafts and textiles, is growing

Fair trade food sales are growing by more than 25% a year internationally and

almost 100% a year I Britain, now the largest market after Switzerland This

market is one of the most remarkable consumer success stories of the past decade,

promoted quietly in Britain, and now attracting multinationals such as Sainburry’s,

Starbucks and Carrefour

It is ironic, though, that fair trade, which was designed to reduce the injustices of

the world trading system, could itself become a victim of the WTO Technically, it

could be banned because WRO rules prohibit ‘’differentiation between products

on the basis of their means of production

In the meantime, fair trade shows that charity is not needed to lift people out of

poverty and that social and environmental standards can be put into trade

II LISTENING

FREE TRADE

free trade international buying and selling of goods, without limits on the

amount of goods that one country can sell to another, and without special taxes on the goods bought from a foreign country:

tariff a tax on goods coming into or going out of a country

quota a fixed, limited amount or number that is officially allowed:

Bureaucracy a system for controlling or managing a country, company, or

organization that is operated by a large number of officials employed to follow rules carefully

dump to sell goods so cheaply in another country that companies in

that country cannot compete fairly:

barriers something that prevents something else from happening or

makes it more difficult

subsidise to give money to a person or an organization in order to pay

part of the cost of something that they do or make

liberalise to allow more freedom in laws, systems, or opinions

deregulation the process of removing government controls or rules from a

business or other activity:

laisser-faire the idea that businesses should be free to develop without the

involvement or control of government:

EXERCISES

You are going to listen to an expert on international trade talk about free trade

and its benefits

Exercise 8.4 Listen to the first part of a radio interview with Ian McPherson,

an expert on international trade Complete the definition of free trade he gives

(CD Track 8.1)

It is a situation in which goods come into and out of a country without any

……… 1 or ……… 2 Countries which truly believe in free trade

try to ……… 3 their trade, that’s to say, they take away ……… 4 to

trade They have open ……… 5, and few controls of goods at

……… 6

Exercise 8.5 Listen to the second part of the radio interview Note down five

things which stop people trading freely Explain briefly the meaning of each

1 When there is a policy of deregulation:

a companies compete freely

b there are a lot of government controls

c companies must follow regulations

2 According to Ian McPherson, what is the greatest benefit of free trade?

Choose the best answer

a more choice of products

b better-made products

c more expensive products

d higher salaries

e a wider choice of jobs

1 Complete this sentence

Some countries do not practice free trade because they wish to:

 Fight against ……… 1 competition, for example, dumping;

 Protect their ……… 2 industries, because they are important to the economy

 Be less ……… 3 on foreign imports, because their economies need developing

2 What trend in international trade does Ian McPherson mention? Why does

he think the trend is a good one?

III SPEAKING

SHORT PRESETATION

The ability to make a short presentation of your ideas is a key business skill that

enables you to communicate statistical information, present ideas and persuade

people to the strengths of your argument To do this effectively you need to

2 Write detailed notes of what you will say, showing:

- Key points and keywords

- Transitions between the different sections

- Visual aids you will refer to

- The action points you will stress

3 Practice your presentation to make sure that

- You use simple and clear language

- Your talk does not go over the time available

- You will not need to read from your notes USEFUL LANGUAGE

 Introducing yourself

- Good morning, everyone…

- Hello everyone, welcome to…

 Structuring the presentation

- I’m going to divide my talk into four parts…

- First, I’ll give you…After that,… Finally,…

 Inviting questions

- If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask…

- I’ll be glad to answer any questions (at the end of my talk)

 Giving background information

- I’ll give you some background

- Let’s start with the background

 Refer to the audience’s knowledge

- As you know,…

- As you are aware,…

 Changing the topic

- Right, let’s move on to…

- OK, I’ll now look at…

 Concluding

- To sum up,…

- To summarise,…

 Ending

- Thanks very much Any questions?

- Well, that’s all I have to say

- Thank you for listening

Exercise 8.7

Listen to a presentation addressed to a company’s sales team about the

launch of their new chocolate bar Tick the expressions in the Useful

Language box that you hear

Exercise 8.8

Look at these expressions In which part of a presentation would you expect them

to be used?

1 Finally I’d like to remind you that we…

2 If you have any questions I’ll be happy to answer them at the end

3 On this next slide you can see how our results have improved…

4 Before I start my talk I’d just like to thank…

5 This brings me to the next point…

6 I’ll discuss each point briefly and then give you my recommendations

7 I hope you have found my comments useful and…

8 This chart gives a comparison of potential returns of investment…

IV LANGUAGE WORK

IV.1 Vocabulary

TRADE

Exercise 8.9

Complete this text about free trade by completing sentences 1-6 with a - f below

1 Free trade exists when goods can be sold freely and flow between

countries…

2 Protectionism is where countries try to protect home producers

3 One way they do this is by using tariffs…

4 Another way is by using quotas which limit…

5 Domestic manufactures often complain that foreign competitors…

6 Exporters on the other hand, often complain about…

a… from foreign competition and cheap imports

b …complicated bureaucracy and complex customs regulations

c …without restrictions

d …the number or quantity of goods that can be imported

e …which are a kind of tax on imported goods

f …try to destroy them by dumping their goods at very low prices

Exercise 8.10 Complete these sentences with the words in italics from

exercise 8.9

1 This ……… is awful; just look at all these forms we’ve got to fill in

2 Government ………limit the import of luxury cars to just 200 each

year

3 We can’t compete with their prices; they must be ………their goods

to put us out of business

4 These new import ………make out products fifty per cent more

expensive than before

5 ………is a very good idea in principle, but in practice we

need………to help domestic manufacturers to survive

Exercise 8.11 Use the words and phrases in the box to complete the table

Barriers open borders free port developing industries dumping

Tariffs Strategic industries restrictions quotas

laisser-faire

liberalise customs Deregulation subsidise regulation

IV.2.Grammar

INDIRECT QUESTIONS AND STATEMENTS

1 Indirect questions are often used to ask for possibly sensitive

information politely

- Could you tell me what your salary is?

- May I ask why you want to leave your current post?

2 We also use indirect questions and statements to sound generally more

polite and less abrupt

- Do you know why the e-mail system is down?

- I wonder he doesn’t want to be disturbed right now

- I think he doesn’t want to be disturbed right now

- She feels it’s not a good time to raise the issue

3 Indirect questions have the same word order as statements

- You want to work abroad (statement)

- Could you tell me why you want to work abroad?

4 We can use the following expressions to introduce indirect questions

and statements

I wonder…

I can’t remember

I have no idea…

I’d like to know…

I’m not sure when… the interview starts/

5 For yes/ no questions we use if or whether

- Will he apply for the job (direct questions)

- I don’t know if he’ll apply for the job?

- I wonder whether he’ll apply for the job

Exercise 8.12

In which of these questions and statements is the word order correct? Rewrite the

incorrect ones

1 Could you tell me what your strengths are?

2 I’d like to know what would your colleagues say about you?

3 Could you tell me how have you changed in the last five years?

4 Do you happen to know what salary I will start on?

5 I am not sure where want I to be in five years’ time

Exercise 8.13

Put the words in the right order to form indirect questions or statements

1 do know where you the room interview is?

2 I ask you old are you how could?

3 I wonder you if could me tell what time is it?

4 I’d like why to know we you should hire

5 Do you mind I ask if your weaknesses are what?

6 Could you ask why left you your last job?

WRITING

SENDING AN INVOICE

Exercise 8.14

I Carrie sends a covering letter with her invoice to Elena Furia

1 Put the paragraphs of the letter in the right order

2 Read the letter again

a Why can’t Carrie offer a discount in the gloves?

b How long is the invoice valid?

c What free gifts does Carrie offer?

3 What words and expressions mean

purchase of three starter kits

they are not made by us

further details

showing how the game is played if you decide to proceed with the order

proforma invoice for the Bolo Bike Polo equipment we discussed This

invoice is valid for two months

and freight We will dispatch the goods as soon as we receive your

Exercise 8.15 Now read Carrie’s proforma invoice

1 What is the list price (usual price) of the starter sets?

2 How good is the offer? would you proceed with the order of you

Incoterms are terms concerning transport and insurance costs They are used in

international trade contracts These are two of the most commonly used ones

FOB (Free on Board): the seller agrees to deliver the goods on to the buyer’s

chosen means of transport

CIF (Cost, Insurance, Freight): The price includes cost of the goods, insurance,

and freight (transport)

Exercise 8.16 Write a similar covering letter and create a proforma

invoice based around the information below

Mrs Hills, a high school swimming coach, wants to start up a water polo team at

her school She would like a quotation for the following:

- 2 sets of nylon caps with ear guards

- 2 waterproof stopwatches

- 2 water polo balls (one for women and one for men) Team sets of caps are available in blue or white Caps are numbered 2-18 and the

goalkeeper’s cap is red The cost is $249 per set of 18

Men’s regulation size 5 ball (yellow) is $35 Women’s regulation size 4 ball (pink)

is $29

Stopwatches are $75 each

Offer a free video The Rules of Water Pole

Offer a 10% discount on the caps

Terms are CIF

TRANSCRIPTS

(Track 8.1) (I = Interviewer, IM = Ian McPherson)

I Perhaps you could summarise for our listeners the points you’ve

made so far, Ian You started by telling us what free trade is

IM Right, I defined it as a situation in which goods some into and out

of a country without any controls or taxes Countries which truly believe in free trade try to liberalise their trade, that’s to say, they take away barriers to trade, they remove things which stop people trading freely They have open borders and few controls of goods

at customs

(Track 8.2) (I = Interviewer, IM = Ian McPherson)

IM OK, then you gave several examples of barriers to trade

I Yes, I said that there are two main barriers: tariffs and subsidies

Tariffs are taxes on imported goods, so that the imports cannot compete so well against domestic products Subsidies are money paid to domestic producers so that they can sell their goods more cheaply than foreign competitors Tariffs and subsidies are barriers

to trade because when people are given a choice, generally they

will buy the cheapest product

IM You mentioned other barriers, less important ones, perhaps

Uh huh I talked about quotas, which limit the quantity of a product which can be imported, and I discussed other restrictions

on trade such as expensive licences for importers, which add greatly to costs; and regulations relating to documents which a company must have to export its goods to certain countries – the documents can be very complicated and difficult to complete, so they slow down trading

(Track 8.3) (I = Interviewer, IM = Ian McPherson)

I I asked you if free trade was always a good thing

IM And I answered, in principle, yes, it is a good thing It’s beneficial

to countries

IM Countries which open their markets usually have a policy of

deregulation, that’s to say, they free their companies to compete in markets, without government control or subsidies Because of this, consumers in free trade areas are offered a wider range of high-quality products at lower prices People in those areas can move to the most productive parts if the economy and get better jobs with higher wages or salaries OK?

I So why do so many countries protect their industries and not allow

free markets?

IM I gave three reasons, if you remember

Firstly, some people say, why should we practice free trade if other

nations compete unfairly? For example, dumping is fairly common

in international trade When companies dump their goods in overseas markets, they sell goods at very low prices, usually for less than it costs the company to produce the goods Companies can usually only do that when they are heavily subsidized by their governments Secondly, many people believe that strategic industries must be protected These are industries that are very important to the economy: steel, power, communications and so

on In the United States, many Americans think that the steel industry should be protected against cheap imports from Brazil and other countries If the US depends too much on foreign-made steel, they argue, this could be bad in a time of war

Finally, some say that in developing countries, industries need to

be protected until they’re strong enough to compete in world markets This is the infant industry argument; certain industries have to be protected until they can stand on their own feet, as it were

My final point was that throughout the world, there is a trend towards liberalizing trade and removing trade barriers The most successful economies tend to have open markets, and most of their industries have been deregulated

Answers:

Exercise 8.1 Central America and Caribbean countries tend to export one or more

of these products

3 Import restrictions and widely fluctuating prices on world markets

Exercise 8.2 Read the article and answer these questions

1

b) She’s a banana grower in the Windward Islands facing ruin

c) H’s a sugar cane grower in Costa Rica ho sells to a local farmers’

association and is unsure whether he will survive another year

d) They were among the first producers to benefit from Fair Trade

organizations in the 1960s

e) They are multinational companies interested in fair trade products

Starbucks is a US-based international coffee shop chain Carrefour is a

French-based international supermarket chain

f) It has forced the European Union to phase out its quota system for bananas

it may ban fair trade products because it prohibits differentiation between

products on the basis of their means of production (WTO is an

organization that promotes fairer, freer trade.)

2

a) The annual value of the market for fair trade products

b) The number of companies that import fair trade products

c) The number of small-scale producers in poor countries who benefit from

the sale of their products through fair trade organizations

d) The number of poor countries where the 500,000 small producers live

e) The annual percentage increase in sales of fair trade products around the

world

3 Denise is having problems selling her bananas because she is no longer

guaranteed access to European markets and she cannot match the prices of the

US corporations that dominate the market

Juan, along with most of the world’s sugar produces cannot sell into European

or US markets because of high tariffs and the heavy subsidies that western

farmers enjoy

4 They are protected from depressed world commodity markets and the price

wars between giant multinationals; they are paid well over the market price for

their products and also receive a premium

5 With Dutch consumers wanting to help Nicaraguan farmers in the 1960s

1 Tariffs: a tariff is a tax on imported goods

2 Subsidies: to domestic producers a subsidy is a sum of money paid

3 Quotas: a quota is a limit on the quantity of a product that can be imported

4 Expensive import licences: an import licence is a document that is required

by a company before it can import goods

5 Complicated regulations for documents: this refers to number and

complexity if documents required to import goods and what has to be done

with them