When you meet someone

for the first time, what should you do?

True (T) or False (F)?

1. It`s usual to shake hands the first time you meet a British colleague.

2. It`s not a good idea to call German colleagues by their first names at work.

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3. When a Japanese business person gives you his/her business card, it`s polite to say thank you and put it in your pocket.

4. Take off your shoes when you visit someone`s house in Poland.

5. In Saudi Arabia it is rude to refuse a cup of coffee.

6. In Asian countries, it is rude to look people in the eyes.

7. British people like to talk about their salaries.

Grammar (Adjectives and Adverbs)

Exercise 1. Complete the second sentence so it has a similar meaning to the first sentence:

1. There was a slight fall in profits in April.

In April profits fell slightly.

2. There was a dramatic improvement in our share price last month.

Last month our share price _________________________ .

3. There has been a significant drop in demand for oil over the last few months.

Demand for oil ____________________ over the last months.

4. Let`s have a brief pause for coffee.

Let`s _________________ for coffee.

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5. There has been a steady improvement in the inflation figures.

The inflation figures ____________________ .

6. There was a slow recovery in consumer confidence last year.

Consumer confidence ______________________ last year.

7. There has been a gradual rise in unemployment.

Unemployment ________________________ .

8. There has been considerable growth in Korean GDP over recent years.

Over recent years Korean GDP _______________________ .

Exercise 2. Underline the correct adjective:

1. I couldn`t do any more work last night. I was just so tired/tiring.

2. I don`t think the audience liked the talk. They looked bored/boring.

3. I don`t think the audience liked the talk. It was a bit bored/boring.

4. Your new multimedia project sounds really excited/exciting.

5. You look worried/worrying. Is anything the matter?

6. Their profits last year were extremely large/enormous.

7. Their profits last year were absolutely large/enormous.

8. The sales figures last month were very bad/terrible.

9. Warsaw is absolutely cold/freezing at this time of year.

Exercise 3. Complete the sentences with one word from the list A and one word from list B:

A:badly completely easily extremely heavily quite unexpectedly well

B:delayed designed helpful illegal late made promoted recognizable

1. This suitcase is very _____well made_____ . It will last for years and years.

2. The new product is being _______________ . You see the adverts everywhere.

3. This website is very _______________ . I can`t find the information I need.

4. You`ve been _______________ . I really appreciate it.

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5. Our offices are ______________ . Look out for the large flags at the front.

6. I`m sorry, my flight has been _______________. I`ll call you when I arrive.

7. Taking bribes is ________________ . You`ll lose your job if they catch you.

8. I arrived at the presentation _________________and missed the first part.

Exercise 4. Put each group of words into the best order:

1. old-fashioned a large machine cutting a large old-fashioned cutting machine

2. wooden square two cartons __________________________

3. new package an amazing software __________________________

4. period a transition three-month difficult __________________________

5. chips computer Taiwanese high-quality __________________________

6. a strategy well-planned investment __________________________

7. access cheap Internet high-speed __________________________

8. a new revolutionary computer handheld __________________________

9. a powder washing new wonderful __________________________

10. awful plastic cheap souvenirs __________________________

Exercise 5. Complete the sentences with a word from the list below. At the end of each sentence write adj.(adjective) or adv. (adverb) to show how the word in the gap is being used:

good well fast fast hard hard hardly late late monthly

1. We`re going to introduce a monthly newsletter for all employees. adj

2. I`m sorry, your goods are going to arrive about a week _____ . ___

3. That flight time is too ______ . Haven`t you got anything earlier? ___

4. Everything`s fine. The meeting is going very _____ . ___

5. I was so tired that I could _____ keep my eyes open. ___

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6. The hotel was ______ , but we didn`t like the food in the restaurant. ___

7. It`s a ______ choice, but I think Carla is the better candidate. ___

8. I had to work very ______ to get everything finished on time. ___

9. I`m sorry, I don`t understand. You`re talking too _____ . ___

10. We`ll have to make a ______ exit if things start going wrong. ___

Grammar: ( Comparatives and Superlatives)

Exercise 1. Underline the correct words:

1. The new line should be so profitable as/as profitable as the old one.

2. This handset is the most profitable/the more profitable we`ve ever made.

3. This version of the programme is the most recent/recenter.

4. The guarantee is a year longer than/that with our older models.

5. Nothing is worse/worst than missing a flight because of traffic.

6. This printer is one of the best/better on the market.

7. The meeting wasn`t long as/as long as I thought.

8. Today the share price is more bad/worse than it was yesterday.

9. I`m sorry, the journey took longer than/the longest we expected.

10. We`ll be there soon. It`s not much farer/further.

Exercise 2. Complete the sentences with a comparative or superlative form of the adjective in brackets. Include any other necessary words like the, more, less or than:

1. Coca-Cola is __the biggest__ (big) soft drinks manufacturer in the world.

2. This keyboard is quite difficult to use. It`s ____ (small) the one I`m used to.

3. The conference was a little disappointing. It was _____(interesting) I expected.

4. Yesterday was one of _____(hot) days of the year.

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5. I think this suggestion is _____ (good) the other one.

6. It`s impossible to choose between these two products. One is _____ (good) the other.

7. The first round of negotiations was easy. The next will be _____(difficult).

8. We`re only a small company. We`re not _____ (large) the market leader in our sector.

9. This year our sales figure are _____(bad) last year.

10. This is _____(bad) case of corruption we`ve seen for years.

Exercise 3. Put one suitable word in each space:

1. We aew bigger _than_ GNC, but Satco are _the_ biggest in the market.

2. I can see you either day. One day is _____ good _____ the other.

3. Nobody knows more about electronics _____ Tina _____ .

4. Of course I`ll speak to him. It`s the _____ I can do after all your help.

5. Sorry, 5% discount is my best offer. It`s the _____ I can do.

6. He is one of the _____ difficult customers I have ever dealt with.

7. Everyone else had worked a lot longer on the project _____ I _____ .

8. I don`t think that this market is _____ risky _____ it was.

9. The restaurants are the same. This one is ____ as expensive _____ that one.

10. This restaurant is better for us. It`s _____ as expensive _____ that one.

Exercise 4. Complete the second sentence so it has a similar meaning to the first sentence:

1. David is a better technician than Paul.

Paul is not as good a technician as David.

2. Nobody at KBN is a better investment analyst than Carol.

Carol is the ______ at KBN.

3. I haven`t read as many sections of the report as you.

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You`ve read _____ .

4. I expected the meeting to last longer.

The meeting didn`t last _____ .

5. Our training budget isn`t as big as yours.

Your training budget is ______ .

6. No presentation I`ve given is more important than this one.

This is the _______

7. This speaker is more interesting than the last one.

The last speaker was not ______ .

8. I ate less than George did.

I didn`t ________ .

9. No one in the team has better communication skills than Jane.

Jane has _______ in the team.

10. I have rarely met a more interesting person.

He is one of ______ .

Lesson 13. Business and environment

BUSINESS AND ENVIRONMENT

Exercise1. Read and translate the following text:

A lot of people argue that we have to choose between environmental protection on the one hand and economic prosperity on the other. That is a false choice. Good environmental policy is identical to good economic policy, unless we want to do what the polluters and sometimes their servants in the political process urge us to do, which is to treat the planet as if it were a business in liquidation, convert our natural resources to cash as quickly as possible and have a few years of pollution-based prosperity. We can generate an instantaneous cash flow and the illusion of a prosperous economy, but our children will get polluted landscapes, poor health and huge clean-up costs.
Environmental injury is deficit spending; it is a way of loading the cost of our generations prosperity onto the backs of our children. And if you don't believe that, look at the nations that didn't invest in their environment back in the 1970s the way we did in the US and Canada and many other countries. Lake Erie, one of the five Great Lakes, was declared dead. People couldn't swim in the Hudson. What the air was like in Washington. Some days you couldn't see down the block for the smog. There was dust in our home every day. There were thousands of Americans dying in the cities every year during smog attacks.
But a lot of countries didn't do that. Invariably they were countries that didn't have strong democracies, because democracy and the environment are intertwined. The best measure of how a democracy is functioning is how it preserves and distributes the goods of the land, the commons, those assets that are not subject to private ownership, but by their nature are owned by the whole community: air, water, wildlife, fisheries, public lands. Do we allow those things to be concentrated in the

Lesson 13. Business and environment

hands of a few powerful people or corporations? Or do we make sure they stay in the hands of all the people? That's really the best measure of how a democracy is functioning.
Russia is a great example. The Soviet Union didn't have democracy, so it had no environmental laws. It didn't, for example, have the law that requires the government to do an environmental review before it distributes or disposes of a public-trust assets. As a result of that the Aral Sea is now a desert. It didn't have a clean water act in Russia and the Sea of Isok, as a result, is now a biological wasteland. It didn't have nuclear regulatory review requirements, and because of that one-fifth of Belarus is now permanently uninhabitable due to radiation.
In those nations and many others environmental injury has matured into economic catastrophe, and that's what would happen in the US or Canada or Australia or any other country that failed to invest in its environmental infrastructure. One of the things that we've been doing, particularly with the Congress that we have right now, is confronting the argument that an investment in our environment is going to diminish some of our nation's wealth. It doesn't diminish our wealth; it's an investment in infrastructure, the same as investing in telecommunications or road construction. It's an investment we have to make if we're going to ensure the economic prosperity of our generation and the next.
There is no stronger advocate for free-market capitalism than myself. We believe that the free market is the most efficient and democratic way to distribute the goods of the land. It's also the best thing that could happen to the environment because the free market encourages efficiency, and efficiency means the elimination of waste, and pollution, of course, is waste. Polluters make themselves rich by making everybody else poor. They raise standards of living for themselves by lowering quality of life for everybody else. And they do that by escaping the discipline of the free market.
The constitution of the state of New York, like the constitution of every state, says the people of the state own the waterways. Everybody has the right to use them. Nobody has the right to use them in a way that would diminish or injure or reduce the

Lesson 13. Business and environment

enjoyment by others. This is an ancient law. In ancient Roman law the public-trust assets' air, water, wildlife, fisheries, dunelands, wetlands and oceans' belonged to the public. If you were a citizen of Rome, rich or poor, humble or noble, European or African, you had an absolute right to cross a beach, throw in a net and take out your share of the fish. The Emperor himself couldn't stop you. But when Roman law broke down and Europe entered the Dark Ages, the local lords and feudal kings began reasserting control over the public-trust assets.
That's what always happens when democracy breaks down powerful entities will assert themselves and the first thing they will do is try to privatise the common, steal it from the public. The reason are protecting the environment is not for the birds or fishes but for our sake, because we recognise that nature enriches us. It's the basis for our economy and we ignore that at our peril. The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment. But it also enriches us aesthetically and recreationally, culturally and historically and spiritually. We must believe our life will be richer and ourchildren will become richer.

Exercise 2. Translate the following words and word-combinations:

Environmental protection, polluters, prosperity, prosperous economy, smog, dust, to preserve, landscapes, uninhabitable, to diminish, to waste, to reduce, assets, wildlife, wetlands, peril.

Exercise 3. Find the words in the text that mean the same:

Surroundings, success, money, contamination, danger, property, to interact, to deliver, to decrease, to make rich.

Lesson 13. Business and environment.

Exercise 4. Answer the following questions:

1. What can we get if we if we convert our natural resources to cash as quickly as

possible?

2. What does it mean “good environmental policy”?

3. What happened to the nations which didn't invest in their environment?

4. How are democracy and environment interwined?

5. Did Russia have environmental laws? What is the result of it?

6. What happened to the countries that failed to invest in their environmental

infrastructure?

7. Is the free market the most efficient and democratic way to distribute the goods

of the land?

8. What was the attitude to nature and natural resources in the past?

9. How can we preserve our environment in the conditions of the free market?

Exercise 5. Choose the proper term for the following definitions:

1. The circumstances that surround an organism or group of organisms is….

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 2910