Advanced Business English

1. Advanced Business English Group Y7 John Silberstein Lesson 5 – February 18, 2009

2. Vocabulary Review Mull – dict.com: to study or ruminate; ponder. to think about carefully Meaningfully – dict.com: in a significant manner; so as to be significant; Sparked – dict.com: 1. To give an enthusiastic response. 2. To set in motion; activate: The incident sparked a controversy. Poking – dict.com: to search curiously; pry (often fol. by around or about). Consolidation – dict.com: an act or instance of consolidating; the state of being consolidated; unification: consolidation of companies. John’s Def.: The act of bringing together or unifying two more things – in our context, companies.

3. Vocabulary Review Gobbled – dict.com: 1. to swallow or eat hastily or hungrily in large pieces; gulp. 2. to seize upon eagerly (often fol. by up): After being gone for so long, they gobbled up all the local news. Cater – dict.com: 1. to provide food, service, etc., as for a party or wedding: to cater for a banquet. 2. to provide or supply what is desired or required: to cater to popular demand; to cater to an invalid. Vast – dict.com: very great in number, quantity, amount, etc.: vast sums of money. Midst – dict.com: he position of anything surrounded by other things or parts, or occurring in the middle of a period of time, course of action, etc. (usually prec. by the): a familiar face in the midst of the crowd.

4. Vocabulary Review Endeavor: dict.com: –(used without object) 1. to exert oneself to do or effect something; make an effort; strive: We must constantly endeavor if we are to succeed. (used with object) 2. to attempt; try: He endeavors to keep things neat in his apartment. Novel – dict.com: of a new kind; different from anything seen or known before: a novel idea. Tackle – dict.com: to undertake to handle, master, solve, etc.: to tackle a difficult problem. Load – dict.com: anything put in or on something for conveyance or transportation; freight; cargo: The truck carried a load of watermelons. Glitches - dict.com: A minor malfunction, mishap, or technical problem; a snag

5. Vocabulary Review Precautionary – dict.com: 1. of, pertaining to, or characterized by precaution: precautionary measures. 2. expressing or advising precaution: precautionary warnings against possible tornadoes. Facilitated – dict.com: to make easier or less difficult Pace – dict.com: a rate of activity, progress, growth, performance, etc.; tempo. Cites – dict.com: To mention or bring forward as support, illustration, or proof: cited several instances of insubordinate behavior. Negligence – dict.com: Law. the failure to exercise that degree of care that, in the circumstances, the law requires for the protection of other person Constraint – dict.com: limitation or restriction.

6. Current Events Oil majors mull mega-mergers as they eye minors Where is the new middle class developing? In this article, how is middle class defined? How do people who are middle class behave differently? How are Democracy and the Middle Class linked?

7. Collocations An arrangement or juxtaposition of words or other elements, especially those that commonly co-occur, as rancid butter, bosom buddy, or dead serious. Complete the project management sentences using the correct form of the verbs from the list which collocate with the nouns in bold. In some sentences, more than one verb is possible. Miss reach establish achieve meet stick to set fix The major risks usually involved in managing a project like T5 (para 6):

8. Collocations Miss reach establish achieve meet stick to set fix Unless the team really pulls together, we’ll never ______ the deadline on the Malaysian order. Meet reach The project has been difficult so far. However, once we ______ the next milestone, evething should get easier. To make sense of our tasks, we need to _________ a timeframe within which we can all work. establish Frank is such an unreasonable boss: he always ______ our targets for overseas sales too high. sets Congratulations! We’ve __________ our targets for quality this year due to all your hard work. achieved We’ve been vague about the schedule for too long. It’s time we _____a date for definite and move on. fixed In the end, I ________ my deadline for my accountancy project, but it didn’t matter: everybody else was late too. missed Sam’s excellent at getting things done on time, but she finds it impossible to _________ her budget. Sam’s excellent at getting things done on time, but she finds it impossible to _________ her budget. Sam’s excellent at getting things done on time, but she finds it impossible to _________ her budget. Sam’s excellent at getting things done on time, but she finds it impossible to _________ her budget. Stick to Stick to Stick to Stick to

9. Business Vocabulary in Use - Stakes A Stake in a company. An Interest in a company. A holding in a company. A Stake in a company. An Interest in a company. A holding in a company. A Stake in a company. An Interest in a company. A holding in a company. The shares that one investor has in a company The shares that one investor has in a company The shares that one investor has in a company A Majority stake. A majority interest. A Majority holding. A Majority stake. A majority interest. A Majority holding. When more than 50% of the shares of a company are owned by one investor, giving them control over how it is run. A minority stake. A minority interest. A minority holding. When an investor owns less than 50% of the shares of a company.

10. Business Vocabulary in Use – Mergers and Takeovers Explain the topic for each passage and define the highlighted word(s). Abbott Bank is doing badly and may become the victim of a predator. There were rumors of a possible takeover by Bullion, but it says it won’t play the white knight for Abbot by coming to its defense. This leaves Abbot exposed to acquisition and it may be prey to a big international bank. Abbot does have a poison pill however, in the form of a special class of shares that will be very expensive for a predator to buy. General Oil and PP have announced they are going to merge. It will be the biggest ever merger in the oil industry. Blightly Telecom is to split into two and demerge its fixed-line and mobile businesses as part of an on-going restructuring. The aim of the demerger is to cut debt by £10 billion. Ciments de France, the French building group, is to acquire Red Square Industries of the UK for €3.1 billion. This is a friendly bid, as RSI are likely to welcome it and agree to it. But the take comes only a year after RSI rejected an unwanted hostile bid.

11. Business Vocabulary in Use – Mergers and Takeovers Define the highlighted word(s). 1985 – Low-price general retail, Cotton Stores acquires Bestco supermarkets and diversifies into food retailing. 1990’s – Cotton makes a series of acquisitions of retail and non-retail businesses and becomes the parent company in a conglomerate or combine with other businesses as its subsidiaries. 2000 – Shareholders complain that Cotton Group is unfocused. They demand that its CDEO should disposeof non-retail companies, which they describe as non-core assets and reinvest the money in its main, core activity; retailing. They say that thisdivestment and restructuringis necessary for future growth and profitability.