英语学了近30年，一直纳闷的是为啥自觉满肚子翻江倒海的词汇，但总在需要用时觉得语屈词穷，近期听了一名教授的授课后顿悟了，一个人英语好不好，尤其是口语和写作，不是看他认识多少词汇，而在于多少词汇成为了他的嫡系，也就是真正记死了，掌握了，用活了。
再过一个月，我将长登多伦多，进入当地职场打拼，半吊子英语肯定不行。为此，我下定决心，从今天起，按计划学习与掌握属于自己的嫡系职场词汇。
选好教材是第一步，经过多方征询及深入调研，我最终选择了剑桥大学出版的business vacaubalary in use.
下面就开始我们的学习，有兴趣的伙伴一起参与，每个专题结束，有个“over to you”，会列出与本章相关的问题，希望大家都能用本章学到的词汇来参与互动，共同提高，让这些简单而有用的词汇成为你的嫡系，助你职场成功一臂之力!!!
2012.5.7. 我们成功完成了全部的篇章，感谢各位的全程参与。
2012.6.18.起，我们开始新的征程，学习职场中可能用到的俚语，这次我选的是McGrawHill出版的American Idioms Dictionary. 有兴趣的伙伴们继续参与哦---

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

1.work and jobs

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. What do you do?[/FONT]
I work for a large European car maker. I work on car design. In fact, I run the design department and I manage a team of designers: 20 people work under me. It's very interesting. One of my main responsibilities is to make sure that new model designs are finished on time. I'm also in charge of design budgets.
I deal with a lot of different people in the company. I'm responsible for co-ordination between design and production: I work with managers at our manufacturing plants.


B. Word combinations with "work"
If you work or have work, you have a job. But you don't say that someone has a work. Work is also the place where you do your job.


Here are some phrases with "work":

• Hi, I'm Frank. I work in a bank in New York City. I leave for work at 7.30 every morning.
  [*]I go to work by train and subway.
  [*]I get to/ arrive at work at about nine.
  [*]I'm usually at work till six.
  [*]Luckily, I don't get ill very much so I'm not often off work.

The economy is growing fast and more people are in work than ever before. The percentage of people out of work has fallen to its lowest level for 30 years.




C. Types of job and types of work

• A full-time job is for the whole of the normal working week; a part-time job is for less time than that.
• You say that someone works full-time or part-time.
• A permanent job does not finish after a fixed period; a temporary job finishes after a fixed period.
• You talk about temporary work and permanent work.

D. Over to you:（请大家用以上学到的词汇互动参与。要让这些词成为“嫡系”，唯有practice!!!）

If you work---
What do you do? What are you in charge of? What are your responsibilities?
What time do you leave for work? How long does it take you to get to work?
What time do you arrive at work? Do you take a lot of time off work?


If you don't work---
What sort of job would you like to do?
What routine would you like to have?

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

互动模拟练习：
I work for a well-know nation-owned real-estate company in China. I work on marketing. In fact, I run the marketing department and I manage a team of marketing staff: 10 people work under me. It's very interesting. One of my responsibilities is to make sure that our products, residential projects can meet the requirements of our clients. I'm also in charge of marketing budgets.
I deal with a lot of different people in the company. I am responsible for co-ordination among design, construction and sales department. I work with other department managers at our company.
I usually leave for work at 7 o'clock every morning by my car and arrive at work at about eight. I'm often at work till six. Luckily, I don't get sick very often so I'm seldom off work.

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

顶

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

顶

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

就是这样，你学多了自然会领悟到，顶

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

we normally use" what are you doing" instead of " what do you do"

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

写得挺好的， 那每个词汇都要自己这样造句么
或者是说按照场景来写段落

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

well-known; state-run, state-owned

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

谢谢了！

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

Mark,顶!

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

顶！

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

一定要顶，收藏了先。

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

多谢分享！不过应该是剑桥的，呵呵。

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

顶！

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

jianlin 说:

we normally use" what are you doing" instead of " what do you do"

点击展开...

thanks!

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

Maychristian 说:

well-known; state-run, state-owned

点击展开...

谢谢帮忙纠错与指导！

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

stones007 说:

多谢分享！不过应该是剑桥的，呵呵。

点击展开...

疏忽了，确实是剑桥的，马上改掉，谢谢！

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

littlewolf 说:

写得挺好的， 那每个词汇都要自己这样造句么
或者是说按照场景来写段落

点击展开...

都可以，关键是要逼迫自己不断practice，让这些词汇真正成为自己的！我感觉这本教材非常好，动词搭配细部掌握得很好，例句也选得非常好，我们可以充分模仿！不要怕出错，论坛有许多高手可以指导我们的！欢迎参与！

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

very good

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

mark

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

I work for an electric power bureau in china ,I work on trade union ,in fact ,I run the union department , I manage a team of union staff :7 people work under me .one of my main responsibilities is
collecting ,dealing ,responding all sorts of requests and suggestions from staff`s for company . I am also in charge of woman affairs.I deal with a lot of diffent people in the company .

哈哈照猫画虎了一篇，后面跟不下去了，因为有些不明白，比如：am responsible for co-ordination among 是“负责与哪些部门合作”的意思吗？work with 的汉语翻译是什么呢？不仅仅是简单的“与什么什么一起工作”吧，另外“arrive at work at”和“ at work till ”感觉很陌生，汉语确切是什么意思呢？可以这样用吗？

哈哈问题太多了，诚恳的欢迎热心朋友解答呀，特别是楼主，我会一直支持楼主的贴，很使用，我现在就在国外，感觉英语不懂真不行，楼主说的对，老外在会话中其实用的就是最基本的词汇

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

另外，“国营垄断企业”怎么翻译呢？谢谢呀

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

呵呵,支持一下

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

进来参观学习一下！

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

逆水行舟 说:

都可以，关键是要逼迫自己不断practice，让这些词汇真正成为自己的！我感觉这本教材非常好，动词搭配细部掌握得很好，例句也选得非常好，我们可以充分模仿！不要怕出错，论坛有许多高手可以指导我们的！欢迎参与！

点击展开...

等待新帖呢，继续

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

skq 说:

I work for an electric power bureau in china ,I work on trade union ,in fact ,I run the union department , I manage a team of union staff :7 people work under me .one of my main responsibilities is
collecting ,dealing ,responding all sorts of requests and suggestions from staff`s for company . I am also in charge of woman affairs.I deal with a lot of diffent people in the company .

哈哈照猫画虎了一篇，后面跟不下去了，因为有些不明白，比如：am responsible for co-ordination among 是“负责与哪些部门合作”的意思吗？work with 的汉语翻译是什么呢？不仅仅是简单的“与什么什么一起工作”吧，另外“arrive at work at”和“ at work till ”感觉很陌生，汉语确切是什么意思呢？可以这样用吗？

哈哈问题太多了，诚恳的欢迎热心朋友解答呀，特别是楼主，我会一直支持楼主的贴，很使用，我现在就在国外，感觉英语不懂真不行，楼主说的对，老外在会话中其实用的就是最基本的词汇

点击展开...

感谢你的支持与全情参与！我感觉模仿非常重要，我们常说“熟读唐诗三百首，不会作诗也会吟”，让我们一起疯狂模式这些常用而简单的用语。
对于你提出的问题，be responsible for是负责的意思，co-ordination是合作协调，among只是用于两者以上，否则用between;arrive at work是到达上班地点，后一个at只是引出后面的时间，till是直到的意思，即一直上班直到5点下班！
另外，你要模仿就用我最上面提供的原汁原味的范本，而不要用我自己写的东西，可能会有错。我看了你写的，有些小问题，如：work on trade union，似乎不妥，work on后面应该跟的是专业，而不是部门或单位；---from staff`s for company 应改为from staffs in our company；可能我说的不完全对，仅供参考！
让我们继续坚持，共同努力！！！

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

I love my dog 说:

等待新帖呢，继续

点击展开...

我也急，昨天网页始终打不开，刚打开，马上学习第二篇！

[FONT=微软雅黑]2. Ways of working[/FONT]
[FONT=微软雅黑][/FONT]
[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Old and new ways[/FONT]
I'm an office worker in an insurance company. It's a nine-to-five job（朝九晚五）with regular working hours. The work isn't very interesting, but I like to be able to go home at a reasonable time.
We all have to clock in and clock out every day. （每天打卡上下班）In this company, even the managers have to, which is unusual.
Note: You also say clock on and clock off.
I'm in computer programming. There's a system of flexitime（美国英语：flextime) in my company, which means we can work when we want, within certain limits. We can start at any time before eleven, and finish as early as three, as long as we do enough hours each month. It's ideal for me as I have two young children.
I work in a car plant. I work in shifts（翻班）. I may be on the day shift one week and the night shift the next week. It's difficult changing from one shift to another. When I change shifts, I have problems changing to a new routine for sleeping and eating.（倒时差）
I'm a commercial artist in an advertising agency. I work in a big city, but I prefer living in the country, so I commute to work every day, like thousands of other commuters. Working from home using a computer and the Internet is becoming more and more popular, and the agency is introducing this: it's called teleworking or telecommuting. But I like going into the office and working with other people around me.


B. Nice work if you can get it
All these words are used in front of "job" and "work":

• satisfying, stimulating, fascinating, exciting: the work is interesting and gives you positive feelings.
• dull, boring, uninteresting, unstimulating: the work is not interesting.
• repetitive, routine: the work involves doing the same things again and again.
• tiring, tough, hard, demanding: the work is difficult and makes you tired.

C. Nature of work
My work involves---(+noun, 如：human contact, long hours, team work);
My work involves---(+ing, 如：solving problems, travelling a lot, dealing with customers);


Over to you
If you work---
Do you have a nine-to-five job?
Do you have to clock on and off? Is there a flexitime system in your organization?
Are there people who do shiftwork in your company?
Could you do your job working from home? If so, would you like to?


If you don't work---
What sort of working hours would you like to have if you worked?
Would you like to work from home?

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

互动模拟练习： （欢迎各位指正）
I'm a marketing director in a real estate company. Although I don't like to clock in and clock out everyday, I do want a nine-to-five job with regular working hours as it makes me go home at a reasonable time every day. Due to the nature of my vocation, I have to face a system of flexitime in my company. We start and finish any time each day according to our projects, some people like it but not me.
In our company, there are no people do shiftwork. In my point of view, shiftwork is unacceptable. When shifts are changed, it's hard for people to change to a new routine for sleeping and eating.
I like teleworking or telecommuting which means we can work from home using a computer and Internet. But many of our colleagues hate it since they like going into the office and working with other people.
On the whole, I like my job. I think it's stimulating and challenging.（建议大家多用stimulating来代替interesting）

[FONT=微软雅黑]3.Recruitment and selection[/FONT]
[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Recruitment[/FONT]
The process of finding people for particular jobs is recruitment or, especially in American English, hiring. Someone who has been recruited is a recruit or, in American English, a hire. The company employs or hires them; they join the company. A company may recruit employees directly or use outside recruiters, recruitment agencies or employment agencies. Outside specialists called headhunters may be called on to headhunt people for very important jobs, persuading them to leave the organizations they already work for. This process is called headhunting.


B. Applying for a job
Fred is a van driver, but he was fed up with long trips. He looked in the situations vacant pages of his local newspaper, where a local supermarket was advertising for van drivers for a new delivery service. He applied for the job by completing an application form and sending it in.


Harry is a building engineer. He saw a job in the appointments pages of one of the national papers. He made an application, sending in his CV(curriculum vitae- the "story" of his working life,美国英语：resume) and a covering letter (美国英语：cover letter) explaining why he wanted the job and why he was the right person for it.
Note: Situation, post and position are formal words often used in job advertisements and applications.


C. Selection procedures
Dagmar Schmidt is the head of the recruitment at a German telecommunications company. She talks about the selection process, the methods that the company uses to recruit people:
"We advertise in national newspapers. We look at the backgrounds of applicants: their experience of different jobs and their educational qualifications. We don't ask for handwritten letters of application as people usually apply by email; handwriting analysis belongs to the 19th century.
We invite the most interesting candidates to a group discussion. Then we have individual interviews with each candidate. We also ask the candidates to do written psychometric tests to assess their intelligence and personality.
After this, we shortlist three or four candidates. We check their references by writing to their referees: previous employers or teachers that candidates have named in their applications. If the references are OK, we ask the candidates to come back for more interviews. Finally, we offer the job to someone, and if they turn it down we have to think again. If they accept it, we hire them. We only appoint someone if we find the right person.


over to you:
If you work---
How did you get your job? Was it advertised? Were you interviewed for it? Was the selection process very long?


If you don't work---
Have you applied for any jobs? Were you interviewed? How did it go? What's the usual process for getting your first job in your country?

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

互动模拟练习： （欢迎各位指正）
I used to be a HR manager, but I was fed up with the repetitive and routine job. I looked in the situations vacant pages of the local newspaper, where a well-known multi-national company was advertising for a marketing manager. Althougt it was not my major, I did have a lot of interest in marketing. In fact, I have gotten the master degree of MBA three years ago. So I decided to have a try. I applied for the job by completing an application form and sending it in. Fortunately, I was arranged to attend an individual interview and at last I got the offer unexpectedly! It's amazing!

[FONT=微软雅黑]4. Skills and qualifications[/FONT]
[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Education and training[/FONT]
Margareta: The trouble with graduates, people who've just left university, is that their paper qualifications are good, but they have no work experience. They just don't know how business works.
Nils: I disagree. Education should teach people how to think, not prepare them for a particular job. One of last year's recruits had graduated from Oxford in Philosophy and she's doing very well.
Margareta: Philosophy is an interesting subject, but for our company, it's more useful if you train as a scientist and qualify as a biologist or chemist - training for a specific job is better.
Nils: Yes, but we don't just need scientists. We also need good managers, which we can achieve through in-house training courses within the company. You know we have put a lot of money into management development and management training because they are very important. You need to have some management experience for that. It's not the sort of thing you can learn when you're 20!

Note: 美国英语：You also say that someone graduates from high school (the school that people usually leave when they are 18)


B. Skilled and unskilled
A skill is the ability to do something well, especially because you have learned how to do it and practised it.
Jobs, and the people who do them, can be described as:

• highly skilled: (e.g. car designer)
• skilled: (e.g. car production manager)
• semi-skilled: (e.g. taxi driver)
• unskilled: (e.g. car cleaner)

You can say that someone is:
skilled at, or skilled in---(+noun customer care, electronics, computer software)
skilled at, or skilled in---(+-ing communicating, using PCs, working with large groups)

You can also say that somebody is:
good with ----(computers, figures, people)


C. The right person
These words are often used in job advertisements. Companies look for people who are:

• self-starters, proactive, self-motivated, or self-driven: good at working on their own
• methodical, systematic and organized: can work in a planned, orderly way
• computer-literate: good whth computers
• numerate: good with numbers
• motivated: very keen to do well in their job
• talented: naturally very good at what they do
• team players: people who work well with other people

Over to you
If you work---
What sort of people does your organization look for in its recruitment?
What sort of person are you?


If you don't work---
Does your educational institution prepare people for specific jobs?

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

互动模拟练习： （欢迎各位指正）
Our company likes to look for graduates in its recruitment. Although some people hold the view that graduates only have paper qualifications and lack of work experence. They don't know how business works. But I disagree. I think most of graduates learn how to think from education and it makes them self-motivated and methodical. As for me, I am also a man of self-starter. So I would rather choose some proactive young graduates.

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

楼主真棒！

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

非常实用哦

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

I love my dog 说:

非常实用哦

点击展开...

再实用的东西只有不断practice才可能成为自己的，大家一起来坚持和努力！

[FONT=微软雅黑]5. Pay and benefits[/FONT]
[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Wages, salary and benefits[/FONT]
My name's Luigi and I'm a hotel manager in Venice. I get paid a salary every month. In summer we're very busy, so we work a lot of extra hours, or overtime; the money for this is quite good. Working in a hotel, we also get nice perks, for example free meals.


I'm Ivan and I work as a waiter in Prague. I like my job even if I don't earn very much: I get paid wages every week by the restaurant. We get the minimum wage: the lowest amount allowed by law. But we also get tips, money that customers leave for us in addition to the bill. Some tourists are very generous.


I'm Catherine and I'm a saleswoman based in Paris. I get a basic salary, plus commission: a percentage on everything I sell. If I sell more than a particular amount in a year, I also get extra money - a bonus, which is nice. There are some good fringe benefits with this job: I get a company car, and they make payments for my pension, money that I'll get regularly after I stop working. All that makes a good benefits package.


B. Compensation 1
My name's Alan. I'm a specialist in pay and benefits. Compensation and remuneration are formal words used to talk about pay and benefits, especially those of senior managers. Compensation package and remuneration package are used especially in the US to talk about all the pay and benefits that employees receive. For a senior executive, this may include share options(美国英语：stock options): the right to buy the company's shares at low prices. There may be performance-related bonuses if the manager reaches particular objectives for the company.


C. Compensation 2
Compensation is also used to talk about money and other benefits that a senior manager (or any employee) receives if they are forced to leave the organization, perhaps after a boardroom row. This money is in the form of a compensation payment, or severance payment. If the manager also receive benefits, the payment and the benefits form a severance package.
In Britain, executives with very high pay and good benefits may be referred to as fat cats, implying that they do not deserve this level of remuneration.


Over to you
Do you think top executives are too highly paid? Or do they deserve what they earn?

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

互动模拟练习： （欢迎各位指正）
There is no denying the fact that top executives are most critical for the success of the company. They deserve to be paid highly. Most top executives get compensation package which may include stock options. It means they have the right to buy the companys' stocks at low prices. There may be performance-related bonuses if they reach the particular objectives for the company.

[FONT=微软雅黑]6.People and workplaces[/FONT]
[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Employees and management[/FONT]
The people who work for a company, all the people on its payroll, are its employees, personnel, staff, workers or workforce.（注意单复数的表达） But these words can mean just the people carrying out the work of a company, rather than those leading it and organizing it: the management.
Note: Workforce, work-force and work force are all possible.

B. Management and administration
A company's activities may be spread over different sites. A company's most senior managers usually work in its head office or headquarters(HQ). Some managers have their own individual offices, but in many businesses, most employees work in open-plan offices: large areas where many people work together. Administration or, informally, admin, the everyday work supporting a company's activities, is often done in offices like these by administration staff or support staff. For example, those giving technical help to buyers of the company's products are in technical support.


C. Labour
Labour is spelled labor in AmE(美国英语）. Labor unions, organizations defending the interests of workers(AmE) are called trade unions in BrE(英国英语).
When workers are not happy with pay or conditions, they may take industrial action:

• a strike, stoppage or walk-out: workers stop working for a time.
• a go-slow: workers continue to work, but more slowly than usual.
• an overtime ban: workers refuse to work more than the normal number of hours.

D. Personnel and human resources
In larger organizations there is a human resources department (HRD) that deals with pay, recruitment, etc. This area is called human resources (HR) or human resource management (HRM). Another name for this department is the personnel department.


Over to you
Think about the company you work for or one you would like to work for. Where is its head office? How many sites does the company have? Have many employees? Is it better to have everyone on one site or to have different sites with different activities? Do people have their own offices or are there open-plan offices?
Which type do you/would you prefer to work in?

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互动模拟练习： （欢迎各位指正）
Our company's head office is in Shanghai, China. The company has six sites all over the country. There are more than 10,000 employees working for our company by the end of 2011. Employees almost work in open-plan offices except senior managers who have their own seperate offices. As far as I am concerned, I prefer to work in open offices. It's easy for me to communicate with and oversee my colleagues all the time.

7.The career ladder
[FONT=微软雅黑]A. A job for life[/FONT]
Many people used to work for the same organization until they reached retirement: the age at which people retire, or end their working life. Career paths were clear: you could work your way up the career ladder, getting promotion to jobs that were more senior, with greater responsibility. You would probably not be demoted: moved to a less senior job.
To leave the company, you could resign or hand in your notice.


B. A job for now
Modco has downsized and delayered. The number of management levels in the company hierarchy has been reduced from five to three, and many managers have lost their jobs. Modco has reorganized and restructured in order to become flatter (with fewer layers of management) and leaner (with fewer, more productive employees).
They did this to reduce costs, and increase efficiency and profits. Employees said the company used words like "restructure" to make the situation sound positive and acceptable.


C. In-house staff or freelancers?
Modco has outsourced many jobs previously done by in-house personnel: outside companies clean the offices, transport goods and collect money from customers. This allows Modco to concentrate on its main business activities. Modco uses more freelancers, independent people who may work for several different companies, and they employ people for short periods on temporary contracts. Modco expects flexibility, with people moving to different jobs when necessary, but for many employees, this means job insecurity, the feeling that they may not be in their job for long. The way that they are doing their job is discussed at performance reviews: Regular meetings with their manager.
Note: You say freelancers or freelances


D. losing your job
If you do something wrong, you are---(dismissed, fired, sacked, terminated)
If you've done nothing wrong, you are---(laid off, made redundant, offered early retirement)
Employees who are made redundant may get advice about finding another job, retraining, etc. This is called outplacement advice.


Over to you
If you work---
Do you have performance reviews? What are the advantages and disadvantages? Has your organization been restructured? What aspects of the business does your company outsource?
If you don't work---
Would you prefer a job for life or a more flexible career? Would you like regular performance reviews?

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

互动模拟练习： （欢迎各位指正）
Most companies have performance reviews on their employees. The results of reviews contribute directly to the decision of human resources. Some staff may get promotion and others may be laid off, made redundant or offered early retirement. People's views on performance reviews vary from person to person. Most of them are for it, but I don't seem to agree. I think performance reviews shows no respect to staff.we should construct and develop believe system. All the managers should do are just trust your subordinates and let them go for work.

[FONT=微软雅黑]8.Problems at work[/FONT]
[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Health and safety[/FONT]
Here are some health and safety issues for people at work.
a. temperature
b. passive smoking
c. repetitive strain injury or RSI（重复性操作伤害）
d. dangerous machinery
e. hazardous substances
f. fire hazards

All these things contribute to a bad working environment. The government sends officals called health and safety inspectors to make sure that factories and offices are safe places to work. They check what companies are doing about things like:
g. heating and air-conditioning
h. first aid
i. fire precautions


B. Bullying and harassment
If someone such as a manager bullies an employee, they use their position of power to hurt or threaten them, for example verbally. Someone who does this is a bully.
Sexual harassment is when an employee behaves sexually towards another in a way that they find unwelcome and unacceptable. The related verb is harass.


C. Discrimination
If people are treated differently from others in an unfair way, they are discriminated against.
If a woman is unfairly treated just because she is a woman, she is a victim of sex discrimination. In many organizations, women complain about the glass ceiling that allows them to get to a particular level but no further.
If someone is treated unfairly because of their race, they are a victim of racial discrimination or racism. Offensive remarks about someone's race are racist and the person making them is a racist.
In the US, affirmative action is when help is given in education and employment to groups who were previously discriminated against. In Britain, affirmative action is known as equal opportunities.
Some companies have a dignity at work policy covering all the issues described in B and C.


Over to you
What are the main health and safety issues in your job, or a job that you would like to do?

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

互动模拟练习： （欢迎各位指正）

The main health and safety issues in my job are passive smoking and fire hazards. Lots of people hate smoking, but they tend to have to face passive smoking in daily work. When it comes to fire hazards, We always think fire precautions are not our business. Actually, That's totally wrong.

9.Managers, executives and directors
[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Managers and executives:UK[/FONT]
the top position: chairman/chairwoman; chief executive/managing director; non-executive dircetors
senior executives/top executives/executive directors: chief financial officer/finance director; marketing director; human resources director; IT director; research director
middle managers: accounts department manager; sales manager; customer services manager
line managers(in branches)


All the directors together are the board. They meet in the boardroom.
Non-executive directors are not managers of the company; they are outsiders, often directors of other companies who have particular knowledge of the industy or of particular areas.
The marketing director is the head of marketing, the IT director is the head of IT, etc. These people head or head up their departments. Informally, the head of an activity, a department or an organization is its boss.
An executive or, informally, an exec, is usually a manager at quite a high level (for example, a senior executive).


Note: "executive" can be used in other contexts to suggest luxury, as in "executive coach" and "executive home", even for things that are not actually used by executive.


B. Managers and executives: US
the top position: president; chief executive officer(CEO); chief operating officer(COO); non-executive directors
senior executives/ top executives/executive directors: chief financial(CFO); vice president (VP) marketing; vice president(VP) human resources; vice president (VP) research
In the US, the top position may be that of chairman, chairwoman or president. This job is often combined with the position of chief executive officer or CEO. Some companies have a chief operating officer to take care of the day-to-day running of the company. The finance dircetor may be called the chief financial officer.
In the US, senior managers in charge of particular areas are often called vice presidents(VPs)


Over to you
If you work---
Draw an organigram of your organization.
If you don't work---
Who are the most famous bosses in your country? Which companies do they head?

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

[FONT=微软雅黑]10.Businesspeople and business leaders[/FONT]
[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Businesspeople and entrepreneurs[/FONT]
A businessman, businesswoman or businessperson is someone who works in their own business or as a manager in an organization.
Note: The plural of businessperson is businesspeople. Businessperson and businesspeople can also be spelled as two words: business person, business people.
An entrepreneur is someone who starts or founds or establishes their own company. Someone who starts a company is its founder. An entrepreneur may found a series of companies or start-ups. Entrepreneurial is used in a positive way to describe the risk-taking people who do this, and their activities. Some entrepreneurs leave the companies they found, perhaps going on to found more companies. Others may stay to develop and grow their businesses.

Note: Found is a regular verb. Past tense and past participle: founded.
Establishment can also describe an action (e.g. the establishment of a successful business was his main aim in life).
Some English speakers believe it is not correct to use grow as a transitive verb in this context.


B. Leaders and leadership
A large company mainly owned by one person or family is a business empire. Successful businesspeople, especially heads of large organizations, are business leaders or, in journalistic terms, captains of industry.
There is a lot of discussion about whether people like this are born with leadership skills, or whether such skills can be learned.


C. Magnates, moguls and tycoons
People in charge of big business empires may be referred to, especially by journalists, as magnates, moguls or tycoons. These words often occur in combinations such as these:
magnate: media, press, shipping, oil
mogul: movie, media, shipping
tycoon: property, software


Over to you
Who are your country's most famous entrepreneurs? What are they famous for? In your opinion, are business leaders born or made?

11.Organizations 1
A. Business and businesses
Business is the activity of producing, buying and selling goods and services. A business, company, firm or more formally, a concern, sells goods or services. Large companies considered together are referred to as big business.
A company may be called an enterprise, especially to emphasize its risk-taking nature.
Businesses vary in size, from the self-employed person working alone, through the small or medium enterprise (SME) to the large multinational with activities in several countries.
A large company, especially in the US, is a corporation. The adjective, corporate, is often used in these combinations:
corporate culture; corporate headquarters; corporate image; corporate ladder; corporate logo; corporate profits


B. Commerce
Commerce is used to refer to business:
1. in relation to other fields: "literature, politics and commerce"
2. in relation to government departments that deal with business: the US Department of commerce.
3. in the names of organizations which help business: chambers of commerce.
4. on the Internet: electronic commerce or e-commerce.
The adjective commercial describes money-making business activities:
1. commercial airline
2. commercial artist
3. commercial television
4. commercial disaster
5. commercial land

Note: You can't say a commence.

11.Organizations 1
C. Enterprise
In 1970s Britain, there were state-owned or government-owned companies in many different industries such as car manufacturing and air travel. Some industries had been nationalized and were entirely state-owned, such as goal, electricity and telephone services. In the 1980s, the government believed that nationalized companies were bureaucratic and inefficient, and many of them were privatized and sold to investors.
Enterprise is used in a positive way to talk about business, emphasizing the use of money to take risks.


D. Word combinations with "enterprise"
1. free (private) enterprise: business activity owned by individuals, rather than the state
2. enterprise culture: an atmosphere which encourages people to make money through their own activities and not rely on the government
3. enterprise economy: an economy where there is an enterprise culture
4. enterprise zone: part of a country where business is encouraged because there are fewer laws, lower taxes, etc


Over to you
Is the public sector in your country very big? Do people who work in it have good working conditions compared to those in the private sector?
In your country, which of these industries are in the public sector, and which are in the private sector? Which have been privated?
1. bus transport; 2. ecectricity supply; 3. postal services; 4. rail transport; 5. telephone services; 6. water supply

12.Organization 2
[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Self-employed people and partnerships[/FONT]
I'm a freelance graphic designer, a freelancer. That means I work for myself-----I'm self-employed. To use the official term, I'm a sole trader.
Note: You usually describe people such as designers and journalists as freelancers, and people such as builders and plumbers as self-employed.
We have set up our own architecture partnership. There are no shareholders in the organization apart from us, the partners. A lot of professional people like lawyers, accountants and so on, work in partnerships.


B. limited liability
1. I'm the managing director and main sharehold of a small electronics company in Scotland called Advanced Components Ltd. "ltd"means limited company. The other shareholders and I have limited liability: we do not have to use our personal property, such as a house or car, to pay the company's debts.


2. I'm the chief executive of a British company called Megaco PLC. "PLC" means public limited company, so anybody can buy and sell shares in Megaco on the stock market.


3. I'm CEO of Bigbucks Inc. "Inc" stands for Incorporated. This shows that we are a corporation, a term used especially in the US for companies with limited liability.


C. Mutuals
Some companies, like certain life insurance companies, are mutuals. When you buy insurance with the company you become a member. Profits are theoretically owned by the members, so there are no shareholders.
In Britain, another kind of mutual is building societies, which lend money to people who want to buy a house. But a lot of building societies have demutualized: they have become public limited companies with shareholders. This process is demutualization.


D. Non-profit organizations
Organizations with "social" aims such as helping those who are sick or poor, or encouraging artistic activity, are non-profit organizations (BrE) or not-for-profit organizations (AmE). They are also called charities, and form the voluntary sector, as they rely heavily on volunteers (unpaid workers). They are usually managed by paid professionals, and they put a lot of effort into fund-raising, getting people to donate money to the organization in the form of donations.


Over to you
Is self-employment common in your country? Does the government encourage it? Name some mutual companies. What sort of reputation do they have? Are charities important? Which are the most active in your country?

13.Manufacturing and services
[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Industry[/FONT]
Industry (uncountable) is the production of materials and goods. The related adjective is industrial. An industry (countable) is a particular type of business activity, not necessarily production.


B. Manufacturing---
Here are some of the manufacturing industries that make up the manufacturing sector:
aerospace: planes and space vehicles
cars(BrE), automobiles(AmE): cars
computer hardware: computers, printers, etc.
construction: buildings
defence(BrE), Defense(AmE): arms, weapons
food processing: canned, frozen foods, etc
household goods: washing machines, refrigerators, etc
pharmaceuticals: medicines
steel: a stronger, more useful, metal than iron
textiles: cloth and clothes


---and services
Here are some of the services or service industries that make up the service sector:
catering: restaurants, bars, etc.
computer software: programs for computers
financial services: banking, insurance, etc
healthcare: medical care
leisure: sport, theme parks, etc.
media: books, newspapers, film, television
property(BrE): buying, selling and managing buildings
retail: shops
telecommunications: phone, Internet services
tourism: travel and holidays


Note: You use all these words in front of "industry" to talk about particular industries, but you usually drop the 's' from 'cars', 'automobiles', 'pharmaceuticals' and 'textiles': 'the automobile industry'.


C. Countries and their industries
Here is how industry has developed in South Korea:
1. In 1950, South Korea was a poor country, with most people living and working on the land. The government decided to industrialize, and the new emerging industries were textiles, and heavy industries like steel and shipbuilding.
2. Then South Korea turned more and more to light industries like electronics, making ecectrical goods such as televisions cheaply. It also started producing cars.
3. South Korea moved into specialized electronics in the 80s. This was the one of the growth industries of the 1990s: making specialized parts for computers and telecommunications equipment.


Over to you
Is your organization, or one you would like to work for, in manufacturing or services or a combination of both?
Where are industries in your country based? Are companies in different industries grouped in different areas?

[FONT=微软雅黑]14.The development process[/FONT]
[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Market research[/FONT]
The original concept is the basic idea for something. In designing products and services, market research--finding out what people want - is of course very important. This may involve questionnaires or surveys, with questions about what people buy and why, perhaps with interviews in the street or by telephone.
There may be consumer panels and focus groups, where ondinary people meet to discuss product ideas informally. Perhaps the researchers will make sales froecasts, estimates of how many products will be sold.


B. Development and launch
In software, developers often produce a final test version, the beta version, where users are asked to point out bugs (problems) before the software is finalized.
Car designers use CADCAM (computer-assisted design/computer-assisted manufacturing) to help develop and make products and test different prototypes.
Researchers in laboratories may take years to develop new drugs, testing or trialling them in trials to show not only that they are effective, but also that they are safe. Drugs need to be made on an industrial scale before they can be sold.
Rollout is the process of making a product available, perhaps in particular places, to test reaction.
Product launch is the moment when the product is officially made available for sale. This is the 'big moment'.
If a design defect or design fault is found in a product after it has been launched, the company may have to recall it, asking those who have bought it to return it, perhaps so that the defect can be corrected.


Over to you
What sort of market research does your company, or one you would like to work for, do?
Have you ever taken part in market research as a consumer?

[FONT=微软雅黑]15.Innovation and invention[/FONT]
[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Innovation and invention[/FONT]
design: to make plans or drawings for how something is to be made
develop: to make a new idea successful, for example by making or improving a product
innovate: to think of new ideas, methods, products, etc
invent: to design and make something for the first time
technology: the practical or industial use of scicentific discoveries


B. Research and technology
Hi, I'm Ray and I'm head of product development at lightning Technologies. Lightning makes semiconductors, the components at the heart of every computer. I'm in charge of research and development (R&D) at our research certre just outside Boston. Our laboratories are some of the most innovative in the computer industry, and we have made many new discoveries and breakthroughs.
I love technology, using scientific knowledge for parctical purposes. The technology of semicnoductors is fascinating. We are at the cutting edge or leading edge of semiconductor technology: none of our competitors has better products than us. Everything we do is state-of-the-art, using the most advanced techniques available.
Of course, the hi-tech products of today become the low-tech products of tomorrow. Products that are no longer up-to-date because they use old technology are obsolete. It's my job to make sure that lightning's products never get into that situation.
(BrE: research centre; AmE: research center)


C. Patents and intellectual property
Information or knowledge that belongs to an individual or company in proprietary. A product developed using such information may be protected in law by patents so that others cannot copy its design.
Other companies may pay to use the design under licence in their own products. These payments are royalties.
In publishing, if a text, picture, etc. is copyright, it cannot be used by others without permission. Payments to the auther from the publisher are royalties.
The area of law relating to patents and copyright is intellectual property.


Over to you
For you, which is the most important invention of the last 100 years?
Which one do you wish had not been invented?

16.Making things
A. Products
A product can be:
1. something natural；2.something made to be sold；3.a service.
Produce refers to agricultural procucts such as crops or fruit.
For example, you can buy fresh produce at a farmers' market.
Something that is made is produced or manufactured.
A country or company that produces something is a producer of it.
A company that manufactures something is a maker or manufacturer of manufactured goods.


B. Mass production
I'm Steve and I'm head of car production at a manufacturing plant. 'Plant' sounds more modern than factory or works. On the assembly line we mass-produce cars. The plant is highly automated: we use a lot of machinery. These machines are expensive to buy but very cost-effective -- we don't have to pay them wages! We use industrial robots. These robots are part of the CADCAM system of computer-assisted design and manufacturing.
My name's Luke. I have a little workshop where I produce funniture ordered by individual customers. We don't use machinery: the furniture is hand-made. Producing furniture like this is a craft industry. It's very labour-intensive: it takes a lot of work to produce each piece. Many people dislike the furniture that big companies churn out in large numbers on their production lines, so we have a lot of customers.


C. Capacity and output
Output is the number or type of things that a plant, company, industry or country produces.
Productivity is a measure of how much is produced in relation to the number of employees.
High output per employee = high productivity
The maximum amount that a particular plant, company or industry can produce is its capacity. If it is producing this amount, it is working at full capacity. If it is producing more than what is needed, there is overproduction or:
1. excess capacity; 2. overcapacity; 3.spare capacity; 4. surplus capacity
These expressions can also be used in service industries.
If far too many things are produced, there is a glut of these things. If not enough goods are being produced, there is a shortage.


Over to you
Are hand-made goods necessarily better than factory-made ones?
What about cars, clothes, computers and shoes?

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

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17.Materials and suppliers
[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Inputs[/FONT]
Dryden makes vacuum cleaners. It takes raw materials like steel and plastic and makes some of the components or parts used in its products.
Other components are made by other companies.
Materials and parts are just some of the inputs.
The others are labour (workers and managers) and capital (money). Knowledge is also important because Dryden is a leader in vacuum technology.
Vacuum cleaners that are being made are work-in-progress. At any one time, Dryden has goods worth millions of dollars in its factories and warehouses: the products that have been made - its finished goods - and materials and components.
Quantities of raw materials, components, work-in-progress and finished goods in a particular place are stocks.
Note: Goods is rarely used in the singular.
BrE: work-in-progress; AmE: work-in-process
BrE: stocks; AmE: inventories


B. Suppliers and outsourcing
Dryden receives materials and components from about 20 companies, its suppliers or partners.
The company is doing more subcontracting: using outside suppliers to provide components and services. In other words, it is outsourcing more, using outside suppliers for goods or services that were previously supplied in-house: within the company.


C. Just-in-time
Of course, it costs money to keep components and goods in stock: stocks have to be financed (paid for), stored (perhaps in special buildings: warehouses) and handled (moved from one place to another). So Dryden is asking its suppliers to provide components just-in-time, as and when they are needed.
This is part of lean production or lean manufacturing, making things efficiently: doing things as quickly and cheaply as possible, without waste.

Over to you
What are the advantages and disadvantages of: outsourcing? using outside suppliers? asking for components 'just in time'? lean production?

18.Business philosophies

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Total quality management[/FONT]
Tom Dryden, of Dryden Vacuum Cleaners, believes in quality: 'The specifications or specs of a product are exact instructions about its design, including its dimensions(size), how it is to be made, the materials to be used, etc. The objective of quality control is conformity to specifications, the idea that the product should be made exactly as it was intended, with zero defects: no faults at all. Things should be done right first time so we don't have to correct mistakes later in a process of reworking. We do spot checks every few minutes during production to ensure everything is going well.
We have a system of total quality management (TQM), including quality circles: groups of employees who meet regularly to suggest improvements.'


B. Continuous improvement
Ray, at Lightning Technologies:'We are always making small improvements or enhancements; this is continuous improvement. We refer to it by its Japanese name: Kaizen.'
Silvia Chavez, Aerolineas Latinas: ' We use continuous improvement in our service industry. We look carefully at the overall customer experience. In retailing, they use mystery shoppers, who pretend to be shoppers to check service in shops. We use "mystery travellers" to report on the standard of service in shops. We use "mystery travellers" to report on the standard of service before, during and after the flight.'


C. Benchmarking
Jim, production manager at an electricity power station in the UK: 'We use a system called benchmarking to compare our performance to other power stations. We're recently been to the US to see how the best power stations operate - best practice - and try to copy it. We've managed to halve the number of workers, and increase productivity.'


D. Business process re-engineering
Susanna, head of personal banking at an international bank: 'Business process re-engineering, or BPR, applies in sercice industries as well as in manufacturing. We didn't want to change existing things in small ways. We completely redesigned all our processes in management, administration and customer service. We eliminated three levels of management and installed a completely new computer system. The gains in productivity have been very good.'


Over to you
Do you try to continuously improve your own work? If so, in what ways?
In what ways does your company or the place where you study improve its efficiency?
What should it be doing?

19. Buyers, sellers and the market
[FONT=微软雅黑][/FONT]
[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Customers and clients[/FONT]
People who buy 'everyday' services such as train travel or telephone services are called customers. You can also talk about the users or end-users of a product or service, who may not be the people who actually buy it. For example, when a company buys computers for its staff to use, the staff are the end-users.
People who buy products or services for their own use are consumers, especially when considered as members of large groups of people buying things in advanced economies.


B. Buyers and sellers
A person or organization that buys something is a buyer or purchaser. These words also describe someone in a company who is responsible for buying goods that the company uses or sells. These people are also buying managers or purchasing managers.
A person or organization that sells something is a seller. In some contexts, for example selling property, they are referred to as the vendor. People selling things in the street are street vendors.


C. The market
The market, the free market and market economy describe an economic system where prices, jobs, wages, etc. are not controlled by the governoment, but depend on what people want to buy and how much they are willing to pay.


D. Word combinations with 'market'
market forces (pressures): the way a market economy makes sellers produce what people want, at prices they are willing to pay
market place: producers and buyers in a particular market economy, and the way they behave
market prices: prices that people are willing to pay, rather than ones fixed by a government
market reforms: changes a government makes to an economy, so that it becomes more like a market economy
Note: Marketplace is written as a single word


Over to you
What goods or services does your company, or one you would like to work for, sell?
Does it sell to the public, or to other companies?

20.Markets and competitors
[FONT=微软雅黑][/FONT]
[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Companies and markets[/FONT]
You can talk about people or organizations who buy particular goods or services as the market for them, as in the 'car market', 'the market for financial services', etc. Buyers and sellers of particular goods or services in a place, or those that might buy them, form a market.
If a company:
enters (penetrates) a market: it starts selling there for the first time.
abandons (gets out of, leaves) a market: it stops selling there.
dominates a market: it is the most important company selling there.
corners (monopolizes) a market: it is the only company selling there.
drives another company out of a market: it makes the other company leave the market, perhaps because it can no longer compete.


B. More word combinations with 'market'
'Market' is often used in these combinations:
market growth: In the late 1990s, Internet use was doubling every 100 days. Market growth was incredible.
market segment: Women are a particularly interesting target for the Volvo V70. They are an important market segment for Volvo.
market segmentation: The softco software company divides the software market into large companies, small companies, home office users, and leisure users. This is its market segmentation.
market share: Among UK supermarkets, Tesco sells more than any of the other chains. It has the highest market share.
market leader: Tesco is the market leader among UK supermarkets as it sells more than any of the other chains.


C. Competitors and competition
Companies or products in the same market are competitors or rivals. Competitors compete with each other to sell more, be more successful, etc.
The most important companies in a particular market are often referred to as key players.
Competition describes the activity of trying to sell more and be more successful. When competition is strong, you can say that it is intense, stiff, fierce or tough. If not, it may be described as low-key.
The competition refers to all the products,businesses, etc. competing in a particular situation, seen as a group.


Over to you
Talk about a market that you know, for example the market that your company, or a company you would like to work for, is in.

21.Marketing and market orientation
[FONT=微软雅黑][/FONT]
[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Marketing[/FONT]
Marketing is the process of planning, designing, pricing, promoting and distributing ideas, goods and services, in order to satisfy customer needs, so as to make a profit.
Companies point out how the special characteristics or features of their products and services possess particular benefits that satisfy the needs of the people who buy them.
Non-profit organizations have other, social, goals, such as persuading people not to smoke, ot to give money to people in poor countries, but these organizations also use the techniques of marketing.
In some places, even organizations such as government departments are starting to take about, or at least think about their activities in terms of the marketing concept.


B. The four Ps
The four Ps are
product: deciding what to sell
price: deciding what prices to charge
place: deciding how it will be distributed and where people will buy it
promotion: deciding how the product will be supported with advertising, special activities, etc.
A fifth P which is sometimes added is packaging: all the materials used to protect and present a product before it is sold.
The four Ps are a useful summary of the marketing mix, the activities that you have to combine successfully in order to sell. The next four units look at these activities in detail.
To market a product is to make a plan based on this combination and put it into action. A marketer or marketeer is someone who works in this area.
(Marketer can also be used to describe an organization that sells particular goods or services.)


C. Market orientation
Marketers often talk about market orientation: the fact that everything they do is designed to meet the needs of the market. They may describe themselves as market-driven, market-led or market-oriented.


Over to you
Can a poor product be made successful by clever marketing techniques?
Can you think of any examples?

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22.Products and brands

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Word combinations with 'product'[/FONT]
product catalogue(BrE)、catalog(AmE)、mix、portfolio: a company's products, as a group
product line、product range: a company's products of a particular type
product lifecycle: the stages in the life of a product, and the number of people who buy it at each stage
product positioning: how a company would like a product to be seen in relation to its other products, or to competing products
product placement: when a company pays for its products to be seen in films and TV programmes（原来植入广告是翻译过来的，呵呵）

B. Goods
Goods can refer to the materials and components used to make products, or the products that are made.
Here are some examples of these different types of goods:
Consumer goods that last a long time, such as cars and washing machines, are consumer durables.
Consumer goods such as food products that sell quickly are fast-moving consumer goods, or FMCG.


C. Brands and branding
A brand is a name a company gives to its products so they can be easily recognized. This may be the name of the company itself: the make of the product. For products like cars, you refer to the make and model, the particular type of car, for example, the Ford(make) Ka(model).
Brand awareness or brand recognition is how much people recognize a brand. The ideas people have about a brand is its brand image. Many companies have a brand manager.
Branding is creating brands and keeping them in customer's minds through advertising, packaging, etc. A brand should have a clear brand identity so that people think of it in a particular way in relation to other brands.
A product with the retailer's own name on it is an own-brand prodcut(BrE) or own-label product(AmE).
Products that are not branded, those that do not have a brand name, are generic products or generics.


Over to you
Have you seen any examples of product placement?
Do you know any products with strong brand images?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of brand name products, own brands and generics? Which do you prefer to buy?

23. Price

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Pricing[/FONT]
Our goods are low-priced. Permanently low pricing means we charge low prices all the time.
You mean cheap: your goods are poor quality. Our goods are high-priced, but we give customer service. And a lot of our goods are mid-priced: not cheap and not expensive.
Your goods are expensive. Customers don't need service.
You must be selling some goods at cost (what you pay for them) or at a loss (even less).
Yes. We have loss leaders - cheap items to attract customers in. But it's all below the 'official' list price or recommended retail price. We have a policy of discounting, selling at a dicount to the list price.
If he goes on undercutting us, we can't stay in business.


B. Word combinations with 'price'
price boom: a good period for sellers, when prices are rising quickly
price controls: government efforts to limit price increases
price cut: a reduction in price
price hike: an increase in price
price war: when competing companies reduce prices in response to each other
price leader: a company that is first to reduce or increase prices
price tag: label attached to goods, showing the price; also means 'price'


C. Upmarket and downmarket
Products, for example skis, exist in different models. Some are basic, some more sophisticated. The cheapest skis are low-end or bottom-end. The most expensive ones are high-end or top-end products, designed for experienced users (or people with a lot of money.) The cheapest entry-level skis are for beginners who have never bought skis before. Those in between are mid-range. If you buy sophisticated skis to replace basic ones, you trade up and move upmarket. If you buy cheaper skis after buying more expensive ones, you trade down and move downmarket.
Downmarket can show dispproval. If a publisher takes a newspaper downmarket, they make it more popular, but less cultural, to increase sales.


D. Mass markets and niches
Mass market describes goods that sell in large quantities and the people who buy them. For example, family cars are a mass market product. A niche or niche market is a small group of buyers with special needs, which may be profitable to sell to. For example, sports cars are a niche in the car industry.


Over to you
What is the range of products or services offered by your company or one you admire?
How are they priced?
Are there price wars or government price controls in your country?

24. Place
[FONT=微软雅黑][/FONT]
[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Distribution: wholesalers, retailers and customers[/FONT]
A wholesaler or shop selling a particular product, such as cars, is a dealer. A reseller sells computers. Wholesalers and retailers are distributors. Wholesalers are sometimes disapprovingly called middlemen.


B. Shops
A shop (BrE) or store (AmE) is where people buy things. Companies may call it a retail outlet or sales outlet. Here are some types of shop:
chain store: part of a group of shops, all with the same name.
convenience store: small shop in a residential area and open long hours.
deep discounter: a supermarket with very low prices.
department store: very large shop with a wide variety of goods, usually in a town centre.
drugstore: shop in a town centre in the US which sells medicines; you can also have coffee and meals there.
hypermarket: very large shop with a wide variety of goods, usually outside a town.
supermarket: very large shop, selling mainly food.
In Britain, a shopping centre or shopping precinct is a purpose-built area or building in a town centre wiht a number of shops. Outside towns, there are shopping malls, where it is easy to park. Franchises are owned by the people that run them (franchisees), but they only sell the goods of one company. That company (the franchisor) provides goods, organizes advertising, and offers help and support. In return it takes a percentage of the profits of each franchisee. Many restaurants are also run like this.


C. Direct marketing
Hi, I'm Beatrice and I work in a direct marketing company in Brussels. We organize mailings for many different products and services. This is direct mail but people often call it junk mail. We target our mailing lists very carefully: for example, we don't sent mailshots for garden tools to people who live in a apartments!
We also do telemarketing, selling by telephone, including cold calls to people who have dad no contact with us before. People are often rude to the workers in our call centres when they do this.


Over to you
Which types of shops do you use to buy different things? Why?
Do you like getting direct mail? Have you ever bought anything this way?
Do you receive cold calls? How do you react?

25.Promotion
[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Advertising[/FONT]

Different advertising mediums are as follows:
Classified advertisements;
Open air boardings (BrE)/ Billboards(AmE);
Neon signs;
Display advertisements;
TV commercial;
Special display;
The Internet is a new advertising medium.
Product endorsements are when famous people recommend a product.
A serious of advertisements for a particular company or product is an advertising campaign.
A person or business that advertises is an advertiser. An organization that designs and managers advertising campaigns is an advertising agency.
Sponsorship is where companies sponsor (pay some of the costs of ) events like concerts and sports events.
Note:
BrE: ad, advert, advertisement
AmE: ad, advertisement


B. The sales force
A company's salepeople (its salesmen and saleswomen) visit customers and persuade them to buy its products. Each member of this salesforce may be responsible for a particular region: his or her sales area or sales territory.
The head of the sales force is the sales manager.


C. Promotional activities
Promotion (uncountable) is all the activities supporting the sale of a product, including advertising. A promotion (countable) describes:
a special offer such as a discount or reduced price (See Unit 23)
a free gift: given with the product
a free sample: a small amount of the product to try or taste
competitions with prizes
Supermarkets and airlines give loyalty cards to customers: the more you spend, the more points you get, and you can exchange these points for free goods or flights.
Cross-promotion is where you buy one product, and you are recommended to buy another product that may go with it.


Over to you
What advertisements and promotional activities does your company or school use?
What advertising campaigns are famous in your country?

26.The Internet and e-commerce

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. The Internet[/FONT]
The Internet service provider or ISP is the organization that provides you with Internet access.
You register and open an account, then they give you an email address so that you can communicate by email with other users. Some ISPs have their own content - news, information and so on - but many do not. After you log on by entering your user name and password ( a secret word that only you know), you can surf to any site on the World Wide Web. If you're looking for a site about a particular subject, you can use a search engine like Google or Yahoo. When you've finished, remember to log off for security reasons.


B. Clicks- and- mortar
My name's John, and I own a chain of sports shops. Last year, I started an e-commerce operation, selling goods over the Internet. We've done well. Visitors don't have trouble finding what they want, adding items to their shopping cart and paying for them securely by credit card. Last year we had two million unique users (different individual visitors) who generated 35 million hits or page views. That means our web pages were viewed a total of 35 million times!
E-commerce or e-tailing has even acted as a form of advertising and increases levels of business in our traditional bricks-and-mortar shops! Pure Internet commerce operations are very difficult. To succeed, I think you need a combination of traditional retailing and e-commerce: clicks-and-mortar. In our case, this has also helped us solve the last mile problem, the physical delivery of goods to Internet customers: we just deliver from our local stores!


C. B2B, B2C and B2G
Selling to the public on the Internet is business-to-consumer or B2C e-commerce. Some experts think that the real future of e-commerce is going to be business-to-business or B2B, with firms ordering from suppliers over the Internet. This is e-procurement.
Businesses can also use the Internet to communicate with government departments, apply for government contracts and pay taxes: business-to-government or B2G.


Over to you
Do you use email? Do you surf the Internet?
Do you shop on the Internet? What are the advantages and disadvantages?
Do you have any experience of B2B o B2G?

27.Sales and costs

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Sales 1[/FONT]
Sales describes what a business sells and the money it receives for it. Denise van Beek of Nordsee Marine is having a sales meeting with her sales team:
'Our sales figures and turnover (money received from sales) in the last year are good, with revenue (money from sales) of 14.5 million euros, on volume of 49 boats. This is above our target of 13 million euros. We estimate our sales growth next year at ten per cent, as the world economy looks good and there is demand for our products, so my sales forecast is nearly 16 million euros for next year. I'm relying on you!"


B. Sales 2
Here are some more uses of the word 'sale':
a. make a sale: sell something
b. be on sale: be available to buy
c. unit sales: the number of things sold
d. Sales: a company department
e. A sale: a period when a shop is charging less than usual for goods
f. The sales: a period when a lot of shops are having a sale


C. Costs
The money that a business spends are its costs:
a. direct costs are directly related to providing the product (e.g. salaries).
b. fixed costs do not change when production goes up or down (e.g. rent, heating, etc)
c. variable costs change when production goes up or down (e.g. materials)
d. cost of goods sold (COGS): the variable costs in making particular goods(e.g. materials and salaries)
e. indirect costs, overhead costs or overheads are not directly related to production(e.g. adminstration).
Some costs, especially indirect ones, are also called expenses.
Costing is the activity of calculating costs. Amounts calculated for particular things are costings.


D. Margins and mark-ups
Here are the calculations for one of Nordsee's boats:
a. selling price = 50,000 euros
b. direct production costs = 35,000 euros
c. selling price minus direct production costs = gross margin =15,000 euros
d. total costs = 40,000 euros
e. selling price minus total costs = net margin, profit margin or mark-up = 10,000 euros
The net margin or profit margin is usually given as a percentage of the selling price, in this case 20 percent.
The mark-up is usually given as a percentage of the total costs, in this case 25 percent.


Over to you
Think of the company you work for or one you would like to work for. Which of its products or services has the highest sales? What are its biggest costs?

28.Profitability and unprofitability

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Profitable and unprofitable products[/FONT]
A supermarket manager talks about the costs and prices for some of its products.
a. We make a profit: the product is profitable or profit-making.
b. We break even: we reach break-even point.
c. We make a loss. The product is loss-making, but we use Product C as a loss leader to attract people to the store, as we know they will then also buy profitable products.
d. Product D is very profitable and we sell a lot of it. It's one of our money-spinners or cash cows, products that have very good profitability.


B. Budgets and expenditure
Like all companies, Nordsee and Vaclav have to budget for, or plan, their costs, and have a budget. Look at the graphs comparing their planned budgets with their actual expenditure (what they actually spent0.
a. Nordsee went over budget and overspent by 200,000 euros.
b. Vaclav underspent by 50,000 euros, He was under budget.
c. On advertising, Vaclav's spend was only 200,000 euros, while Nordsee's advertising spend was 700,000.
Note: Spend is usually a verb, but it can also be a noun, as in advertising spend.


C. Economies of scale and the learning curve
Ford is one of the biggest car companies in the world. It benefits from economies of scale. For example, the costs of developing a new car are enoumous, but the company can spread them over a large number of cars produced and sold. In dealing with suppliers, it can obtain lower prices, because it buys in such large quantities.
The company also benefits from the experience curve or learning curve: as it produces more, it learns how to do things more and more quickly and efficiently. This brings down the cost of each thing produced, and the more they produce, the cheaper it gets.


Over to you
Does your company, or one you would like to work for, have a cash cow or a loss leader?
Does your company, or one you would like to work for, benefit from economies of scale?

29.Getting paid

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Shipping and billing[/FONT]
When you ask to buy something, you order it, or place an order for it. When the goods are ready, they are dispached or shipped to you.
An invoice is a document asking for payment and showing the amount to pay.
The activity of producing and sending invoices is invoicing or billing.


B. Trade credit
Vaclav is talking about his furniture business:
'Of course, we don't expect our business customers to pay immediately. They are given trade credit, a period of time before they have to pay, usually 30 or 60 days. If a customer orders a large quantity or pays within a particular time, we give them a discount, a reduction in the amount they have to pay.
But with some customers, especially ones we haven't dealt with before, we ask them to pay upfront, before they receive the goods.
Like all businesses, we have a credit policy, with payment terms: rules on when and how customers should pay. This is part of controlling cash flow, the timing of payments coming into and going out of a business.'


C. Accounts
Jennifer and Kathleen are businesswomen. Jennifer has her own company in Britain and Kathleen owns one in the US.
a.I'm waiting to be paid by some of my customers. These are my debtors. They owe me money.
b.The people and organizations we sell to are our customers or accounts. The most important ones are key accounts.
c.The customers that I'm waiting to be paid by are my accounts receivable or receivables.
d.The suppliers and other organizations that I owe money to are my creditors. I must remember to pay tax to the Inland Revenue on time!
e.The suppilers and other organizations that I owe money to are my accounts payable or payables. I must remember to pay tax to the Inland Revernue on time.
f.The are some companies that owe me money, but I get the feeling I'm never going to get paid: they're bad debts and I've written them off.


Over to you
What are the normal payment terms in your company or the company you are interested in?
Do small companies have problems getting paid in your country? Do some businesses offer discounts to the public?

30. Assets, liabilities and the balance sheet

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Assets[/FONT]
An asset is something that has value, or the power to earn money. These include:
a. current assets: money in the bank, investments that can easily be turned into money, money that customers owe, stocks of goods that are going to be sold.
b. fixed assets: equipment, machinery, buildings and land.
c. Intangible assets: things which you cannot see. For example, goodwill: a company's good reputation with existing customers, and brands: established brands have the power to earn money.
If a company is sold as a going concern, it has value as a profit-making operation, or one that could make a profit


B. Depreciation
Joanna Cassidy is head of IT(Information Technology) in a publishing company:
'Assets such as machinery and equipment lose value over time because they wear out, or are no longer up-to-date. This is called depreciation or amortization. For example, when we buy new computers, we depreciate them or amortize them over a very short perid, usually three years, and a charge for this is shown in the financial records: the value of the epuipment is written down each year and written off completely at the end.
The value of an asset at any one time is its book value. This isn't necessarily the amount that it could be sold for at that time. For example, land or buildings may by worth more than shown in the accounts, because they have increased in value. But computers could only be sold for less than book value.


C. Liabilities
Liabilities are a company's debts to suppliers, lenders, the tax authorities, etc. Debts that have to be paid within a year are current liabilities, and those payable in more than a year are long-term liabilities, for example bank loans.


D. Balance sheet
A company's balance sheet gives a picture of its assets and liabilities at the end of a particular period, usually the 12-month period of its financial year. This is not necessarily January to December.


Over to you
Obtain a copy of your company's balance sheet, or a copy of the balance sheet of a company that you are interested in. What are its main assets and liabilities?
You can find this information for companies all over the world at www.carol.co.uk(Company Annual Reports Online).

31.The bottom line

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Accounts[/FONT]
Hi, I'm Fiona and I'm an accountant. I work in Edinburgh for one of the big accountancy firms. We look at the financial records or accounts of a lot of companies. We work with the accountants of those companies, and the people who work under them: the bookkeepers. I like my profession: accountancy.
Sometimes we act as auditors: specialist outside accountants who audit a company's accounts, that is, we check them at the end of a particular period to see if they give a true and fair view (an accurate and complete picture). An audit can take several days, even for a fairly small company.
When a company's results are presented in a way that makes them look better than they really are, even if it follows the rules, it may be accused of creative accounting or window dressing. Of course, I never do this!


Notes: The professor is called accountancy (BrE) or accounting(AmE). The activity is called accounting(BrE and AmE).


B. Results
'A firm reports its performance in a particular period in its results. Results for a particular year are shown in the company's annual report. This contains, among other things, a profit and loss account.
In theory, if a company makes more money than it spends, it makes a profit. If not, it makes a loss. But it's possible for a company to show a profit for a particular period because of the way it presents its activities under the accounting standards or accounting rules of one country, and a loss under the rules of another. My firm operates in many countries and we are very aware of this!
A pre-tax profit or a pre-tax loss is one before tax is calculated. An exceptional profit or loss is for something that is not normally repeated, for example the sale of a subsidiary company or the costs of restructuring. A company's gross profit is before charges like these are taken away; its net profit is afterwards.
The final figure for profit or loss is what people call informally the bottom line. This is what they really worry about!
If a company is making a loss, commentators may say that it is in the red. They may also use expressions with red ink, saying, for example, that a company is bleeding red ink or haemorrhaging red ink.'


Over to you
Obtain a copy of your company's annual report, or the annual report of a company that you are interested in. Look at its profit and loss account (or income statement).
What is the bottom line?
You can find this information for companies all over the world at www.carol.co.uk
(Company Annual Reports Online).

32.Share capital and debt

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Capital[/FONT]
Capital is the money that a company uses to operate and develop. There are two main ways in which a company can raise capital, that is find money it needs: it can use share capital or loan capital, from investors.
These are people or organizations who invest in the company; they put money in hoping to make more money.


B. Share capital
Share capital is contributed by shareholders who put up money and hold shares in the company. Each share represents ownership of a small proporation of the company.
Shareholders receive periodic payments called dividends, usually based on the company's profit during the relevant period. Capital in the form of shares is also called equity.
A venture capitalist is someone who puts up money for a lot of new companies.


C. Loan capital
Investors can also lend money, but then they do not own a small part of the company. This is loan capital, and an investor or a financial institution lending money in this way is a lender. The company borrowing it is the borrower and may refer to the money as borrowing or bebt. The total amount of debt that a company has is its indebtedness.
The sum of money borrowed is the pricinpal. The company has to pay interest, a percentage of the principal, to the borrower, whether it has made a profit in the relevant period or not.


D. Security
Lending to companies is often in the form of bonds or debentures, loans with special conditions. One condition is that the borrower must have collateral or security: that is, if the borrower cannot repay the loan, the lender can take equipment or property, and sell it in order to get their money back. This may be an asset which was bought with the loan.


E. Leverage
Many companies have both loan and share capital. The amount of loan capital that a company has in the relation to its share capital is its leverage. Leverage is also called gearing in BrE. A company with a lot of borrowing in relation to its share capital is highly leveraged or highly geared. A company that has difficulty in making payments on its debt is overleveraged.


Over to you
Would you like to start a business? What sort? Where would you get the capital?
Where do people in your country normally get capital? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the different methods?

33.Success and failure

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Cash mountains and surpluses[/FONT]
Predaco is a successful company. Over the years, it has distributed some profits or earnings to shareholders, but it has also kept profits in the form of retained earnings and built up its cash reserves; it is sitting on a cash pile or cash mountain. These reserves may be used for investment or to make acquisitions: to buy other companies.


B. Debt and debt problems
Here are some expressions that can be used to talk about a company's debts, or a country's foreign debts:
debt repayment(servicing): when a company repays its debt and/or interest on it; 'debt repayment' describes a particular amount repaid
debt burden: a company's debt, especially when considered as a problem
debt crisis: when a company has serious difficulty repaying its debt
debt rescheduling( debt restructring): when a company persuades lenders to change repayment dates and terms
debt default: when a company fails to make a debt repayment


Note:
to reschedule (restructure) a debt
to repay (default on; service) a debt


C. Turnarounds and bailouts
Doomco is in financial trouble and it is being described as sick, ailing and troubled. They've called in a company doctor, Susan James, an expect in turning round companies. There may be a turnaround and Doomco may recover. But if there is no recovery, the company may collapse completely. Ms James is currently looking for another company to bail out Doomco by buying it. This would be a bailout.


D. Bankruptcy
If a company is in serious financial difficulty, it has to take certain legal steps.
In the US, it may ask a court to give it time to reorganize by filling for bankruptcy protection from creditors, the people it owes money to.
In Britain, a company that is insolvent, i.e. unable to pay its debts, may go into administration, under the management of an outside specialist called an administrator.
If the company cannot be saved, it goes into liquidation or into receivership. Receivers are specialists who sell the company's assets and pay out what they can to creditors.
When this happens, a company is wound up, and it ceases trading.
A company in difficulty that cannot be saved goes bankrupt.


Over to you
Do you think the government should bail out loss-making companies to avoid making people unemployed?

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谢谢家园给予此帖置顶！事实上我只是想借用家园这个平台一方面给自己压力，让自己坚持下去，人没有压力往往就得过且过了；另一方面能和像无终书生、开心每一天、生命的狂想、狗狗凡、cindyycm等家园中的英语达人们互动切磋，提高英语，事实上我从这些帖子中学到了不少，谢谢以上各位以及其他所有光顾英语世界的伙伴们！我们在加拿大要翻身，就靠英语了！大家一起努力！

34.Mergers, takeovers and sell-offs

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Stakes and joint ventures[/FONT]
a stake (an interest/ a holding) in a company: the shares that one investor has in a company
a majority stake (interest/holding) when more than 50 percent of the shares of a company are owned by one investor, giving them control over how it is run
a minority stake (interest/holding) when an investor owns less than 50 percent of the shares of a company
Two companies may work together in a particular area by forming an alliance or joint venture; they may remain separate companies, or form a new company in which they both have a stake.


B. Mergers and takeovers
General Oil and PP have announced they are going to merge. It will be the biggest ever merger in the oil industry.
Blighty Telecom is to split into two, and demerge its fixed -line and mobile businesses as part of 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 euros. This is a friendly bid, as RSI are likely to welcome in and agree to it. But the takeover comes only a year after RSI rejected a hostile bid, an unwanted one.
Abbot Bank is doing badly, and may become the victim of a predator.（掠夺者） There were rumours of a possible takeover by Bullion, but it says it won't play the white knight for Abbot by coming to its defence. This leaves Abbot exposes 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.


C. Conglomerates(综合性大企业）
Cotton makes a series of acquisitions of retail and non-retail businesses, and becomes the parent company in a conglomerate or combine, with the other businesses as its subsidiaries.
Low-price general retail Cotton Stores acquires Bestco supermarkets and diversifies into food retailing.
Shareholders complain that Cotton Group is unfocused. They demand that its CEO should dispose of non-retail companies, which they describe as non-core assets, and reinvest the money in its main, core activity: retailing. They say that this divestment and restructuring is necessary for future growth and profitability.


Over to you
Are mergers and takeovers common in your country?
Think of a famous merger or takeover that you found interesting. Was it successful?

35.Personal finance

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Traditional banking[/FONT]
'I'm Lisa. I have an account at my local branch of one of the big high-street banks. I have a current account for writing cheques, paying by debit card and paying bills. It's a joint account with my husband. Normally, we're in the black, but sometimes we spend more money than we have in the account and we go into the red. This overdraft is agreed by the bank up to a maximum of 500$, but we pay quite a high interest rate on it.
I also have a deposit account or savings account for keeping money longer term. This account pays us interest (but not very much, especially after tax!)
We have a credit card with the same bank too. Buying with plastic is very convenient. We pay off what we spend each month, so we don't pay interest. The interest rate is even higher than for overdrafts!
Like many British people, we have a mortgage, a loan to buy our house.'
BrE: current account, cheque account
AmE: checking account


B. New ways of banking
'My name's Kevin. I wasn't happy with my bank. There was always a queue, and on the bank statement that they sent each month they took money out of my account for banking charges that they never explained. So I moved to a bank that offers telephone banking. I can phone them any time to check my account balance( the amount I have in my account), transfer money to other accounts and pay bills.
Now they also offer Internet banking. I can manage my account sitting at my computer at home.'


C. Personal investing
Lisa again:
' We have a savings account at a building society which is going to be demutualized and turned into a bank with shareholders. All the members will get a windfall, a special once-only payment of some of the society's assets to its members.
We have some unit trusts, shares in investment companies that put money from small investors like me into different companies. My cousin in the US calls unit trusts mutual funds.
I also pay contributions into a private pension, which will give me a regular income when I stop working. I've never joined a company pension scheme and the government state pension is very small.


Over to you
What type of bank accounts and personal investments do you prefer?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of the different types?

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逆水行舟 说:

谢谢家园给予此帖置顶！事实上我只是想借用家园这个平台一方面给自己压力，让自己坚持下去，人没有压力往往就得过且过了；另一方面能和像无终书生、开心每一天、生命的狂想、狗狗凡、cindyycm等家园中的英语达人们互动切磋，提高英语，事实上我从这些帖子中学到了不少，谢谢以上各位以及其他所有光顾英语世界的伙伴们！我们在加拿大要翻身，就靠英语了！大家一起努力！

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36.Financial centres

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Financial centres[/FONT]
Financial centres are places where there are many banks and other financial institutions. London as a financial centre is called the City or the Square Mile, and New York is Wall Street.
Financial centres bring together investors and the businesses that need their investment. A speculator is an investor who wants to make a quick profit, rather than invest over a longer period of time.
Brokers, dealers and traders buy and sell for investors and in some cases, for themselves or the organizations they work for.


B. Stock markets
Heather Macdonald of Advanced Components:
'We needed more capital to expand, so we decided to float the company (sell shares for the first time) in a flotation. Our shares were issued, and listed (BrE and AmE) or quoted (BrE only) for the first time on the stock market. Because we are a UK-based company, we are listed on the London stock exchange.
Stock markets in other countries are also called bourses. Maybe when our company is really big, we'll issue more shares on one of the European bourses!'
Note: You can write stock market or stockmarket;
BrE: shares/stocks (countable) and shares
AmE: stock (uncountable)


C. Other financial markets
Other financial products include:
commercial paper: short-term lending to businesses
bonds: longer-term lending to businesses and the government
currencies( foreign exchange or forex): buying and selling the money of particular countries
commodities: metals and farm products
These are traded directly between dealers by phone and computer. Commodities are also trades in a commodities exchange. Shares, bonds and commercial paper are securities, and the financial institutions that deal in them are securities houses.


D. Derivatives(衍生物）
A future contract is an agreement giving an obligation to sell a fixed amount of a security or commodity at a particular price on a particular future date.
An options contract is an agreement giving the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a security or commodity at a particular price at a particular future time, or in a period of future time.
These contracts are derivatives. Dealers guess how the price of the underlying security or commodity will change in the future, and use derivatives to try to buy them more cheaply.


Over to you
What is your country's main financial centre? Is it in the capital or another city?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of different securities and commodities, and ways of dealing?

37.Trading

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Market indexes[/FONT]
If there is demand for shares in a company, for example because it is doing well, its share price goes up. If not, its prices goes down. The overall value of shares traded on a stock market is shown by an index (plural: indexes or indices). Some of the main ones are:
1. London: FTSE(pronounce'Footsie'): the Financial Times Stock Exchange index.
2. New York: the Dow Jones Industrial Average ('the Dow'). Especially long-established ' old economy' companies.
3. New York: NASDAQ. Especially hi-tech 'new economy' companies.
4. Paris: CAC40
5. Frankfurt: DAX
6. Hongkong: Hang Seng
7. Tokyo: Nikkei


B. Market activity: good times---
Trading has been heavy on the New York Stock Exchange, with very high turnover of one and a half billion shares changing hands.（换手） We've seen spectacular gains, especially among blue chips.（蓝筹股）
This bull market （牛市） seems set to continue, after yesterday's record high at the close(收盘）. Dealers seem bullish and expect the Dow to go through the 15,000 barrier soon.


C. ---and bad times
There was panic selling （恐慌性抛盘） on the New York stock Exchange today as prices fell to new five-year lows. We've seen some spectacular declines, with billions of dollars wiped off the value of some of America's best-known companies, and more than 10 percent of total market capitalization.
The best market continues , with prices set to fall further in the next few days. Dealers are bearish, with many saying there is no sign of a rally. If prices continue to fall, there may be another stock market collapse or crash, like the ones in 1929 and 1987.


Over to you
Is it usual in your country for ordinary people to own shares? Do people follow the stock market closely?

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路过帮顶！
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赞楼主的分享, 送鲜花！

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AMYER 说:

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38.Indicators 1

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Finance and economics[/FONT]
Finance is
1. money provided or lent for a particular purpose.
2. the management of money by countries, organizations or people.
3. the study of money management.
High finance involves large amounts of money used by governments and large companies. A person's or organizaion's finances are the money they have and how it is managed, etc. The related adjective is financial.


Economics is:
1. the study of how money works and is used
2. calculations of whether a particular activity will be profitable.
Related adjectives: a profitable activity is economic; an unprofitable one is uneconomic. If something is economical, it is cheap to buy, to use or to do. If not, it is uneconomical.
Economic indicators (see B, C and D below) are figures showing how well a country's economy (economic system) is working.


B. Inflation and unemployment
Inflation is rising prices, and the rate at which they are rising is the inflation rate.
The related adjective is inflationary.
The unemployed are people without jobs in a particular area, country, etc. The level of unemployment is the number of people without a job. Unemployed people are out ot work, and are also referred to as jobless (adj.) or the jobless.


C. Trade
The balance of payments is the different between the money coming into a country and that going out. The trade balance is the difference between payments for imports (goods and services from abroad) and payments for exports (products and services sold abroad). When a country exports more than it imports, it has a trade surplus. When the opposite is the case, it has a trade deficit. The amount of this surplus or deficit is the trade gap.


D. Growth and GDP
Economic output is the value of goods and services produced in a country or area. Gross domestic product or GDP is the value of all the goods and services produced in a particular country.
The size of an economy is also sometimes measures in terms of gross national product or GNP. This also includes payments from abroad, for example, from investments.
Growth is when output in the economy increases. The growth rate is the speed at which a company's economy grows and gets bigger.


Over to you
What is the current economic situation of your country? In what ways is the government trying to influence it ?

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39. Indicators 2

A. Going up
You use a number of verbs to describe amounts or figures going up.
1. BT SHARES ADVANCE IN ACTIVE TRADING = Shares in BT increased in value.
2. TRADE SURPLUS JUMPS TO RECORD LEVEL = The value of exports over imports has gone up quickly.
3. PETROL PRICES SET TO SKYROCKET = Petrol prices are going to rise by a lot.
4. UNEMPLOYMENT LEAPS TO TEN-YEAR HIGH = The number of people without work has gone up quickly.
5. YHAOO! SOARS AS INTERNET EXPLOSION CONTINUES = Shares in Yahoo have increased greatly in value.
6. VW PROFITS UP AS CAR SALES CONTINUE TO SURGE = Profits in VW have increased thanks to rapidly rising car sales.


B. Going down
You also use a number of verbs to describe amounts or figures going down.
7. 1000 JOBS AXED AS DEFENCE PLANT CLOSES = A defence company has told 1,000 factory employees that they are to lose their jobs.
8. EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK CUTS RATE IN SURPRISE MOVE = The ECB has reduced interest rates.
9. MEGACORP EASES ON PROFITS WARNING = Megacorp's share price has gone down slightly after they said that profits would be lower than expected.
10. SEPTEMBER RETAIL SALES PLUMMET = Sales in shops have fallen a lot in September.
11. GOVERNMENT SLASHES INCOME TAX TO TEN PER CENT = The government has reduced income tax by a large amount.
12. EURO DIVES TO NEW LOWS = The euro currency has fallen to its lowest value ever.


C. Peaks and troughs
If a figure rises to a level and then stops rising, remaining at that level, it levels off and remains steady or stable.
If a figure reaches its highest level - a peak - and then goes down, it peaks at that level, if it reaches its lowest level - a trough - and then bottoms out, it falls to that level and then starts rising again.


D. Boom and bust
Demand is the amount of goods and services that people want in a particular period.
A boom is when there is rising demand, and other indicators are strong.
Stagnation is when the economy is growing slowly, or not at all.
Stagflation is when slow growth is combined with prices that are increasing fast.
Recession is a period when there is negative growth, a period when the economy is producing less. A slump is a very bad recession. A depression is a very bad slump.


Over to you
Think about a company or country that you know. How well has it performed in the last few years?

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谢谢！欢迎加入！我也回馈你SW!

40.Wrongdoing and corruption

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Wrongdoing[/FONT]
We regulate financial services; out job is to prevent financial wrongdoing and punish the wrongdoers.
Insider dealing or insider trading: someone buys or sells securities using information that is not publicly available. Chinese walls are measures that you can take to stop knowledge in one department of your company being illegally used by another department, to buy or sell shares for example.
Price fixing: a group of companies in the same market secretly agree to fix prices at a certain level, so they do not have to compete with each other.
Market rigging: a group of investors work together to stop a financial market functioning as it should, to gain an advantage for themselves.


B. Bribery and Corruption
An illegal payment to persuade someone to do something is a bribe, or informally a backhander (BrE only), kickback or sweetener. To bribe someone is bribery. Someone who receives bribes is corrupt and involved in corruption. This is informally known as sleaze, especially in politics.


C. Fraud and embezzlement
'I'm Sam Woo. I've been a fraud squad detective for 20 years and I've seen a lot!
Once, a gang counterfeited millions of banknotes in a garage. We found US$10 million in counterfeit notes. They were very good quality. Counterfeiting or forgery of banknotes was a problem, but now all the forgers are in jail.
Faking luxury goods like Rolex watches was also a problem, but we're working hard to close workshops where fakes are made.
There have been bad cases of fraud where someone offers to lend money, but demands that the borrower pays a "fee" before they get the loan. People can be stupid.
And there's embezzlement, a type of fraud where someone illegally gets money from their employer. One accountant sent false invoices to the company he worked for, and paid money from his company into bank accounts of false companies he had "created". He embezzled $2 million - quite a scam.
There used to be a lot of racketeers demanding "protection money" from businesses. If they didn't pay, their businesses were burnt down.
Money laundering, hiding the illegal origin of money, is common - gangsters buy property with money from drugs. When they sell the property, the money becomes "legal". But banks now help by telling us when someone makes a large cash doposit.'


Over to you
Which act of wrongdoing is this unit do you think is the most serious?
Which do you think is the least serious?
Is financial wrongdoing a "victimless crime"?

41.Ethics

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Code of ethics[/FONT]
Ethics are moral beliefs about what is right and wrong, and the study of this.
Some actions are not criminal, but they are morally wrong: Unethical. Areas where choices have to be made about right and wrong behaviour are ethical issues. Some organizations have a code of ethics or code of conduct where they say what their managers' and employees' behaviour should be, to try to prevent them behaving unethically.


B. Ethical standards
Ten years ago, Zoe Fleet and Lena Nimble founded FN, which makes trainers (running shoes). Aoe explains:
We want FN to be socially responsible and behave ethically. We don't run plants directly: we buy trainers from plants in Asia. We often visit the plants to check that they don't exploit workers by underpaying them or making them work long hours: sweatshop labor. （原来血汗工厂出自这里！） In management in the US, we have an affirmative action program, to avoid racial or sex discrimination. Every year, we ask an independent expert to do a 'social performance audit' to see how we are doing in these areas. We always publish it, even if we don't like everything in it!


Note:
BrE: labour; AmE: labor
BrE: programme; AmE: program


C. Ethical investment
Sven Nygren is CEO of the Scandinavian Investment Bank. 'Investors are more and more concerned about where their money is invested. We take ethical investment very seriously. We don't invest, for example, in arms companies or tabacco firms. Environmental or green issues are also very improtant.
Recently we were involved in a project to build a large dam in the Asian country of Paradiso. We discovered that large numbers of farming people would be forced to leave the area flooded by the dam, and the dam would also be environmentally damaging, reducing water supplies to neighbouring countries. It was green activists from the environmental organization Green Awareness who told us this. We withdrew from the project and tried to persuade other organizations not to invest in it. We didn't want to damage our reputation for ethical investment.'


Over to you
Do you know of any companies that are famous for their ethical behaviour?
Do you choose to buy from them because of this?
What environmental movements are there in your country? What environmental projects are they involved in?

42.Time and time management

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Timeframes and schedules[/FONT]
'Time is money,' says the famous phrase. The timescale or timeframe is the overall period during which something should happen or be completed.
The lead time is the period of time it takes to prepare and complete or deliver something.
The times or dates when things should happen is a schedule or timetable.
If work is completed at the planned time, it is on schedule; completion before the planned time is ahead of schedule and later is behind schedule. If it happens later than planned it is delayed; there is a delay. If you then try to go faster, you try to make up time. But things always take longer than planned.
A period when a machine or computer cannot be used because it is not working is downtime.


B. Projects and project management
A project is a carefully planned piece of work to produce something new.
Project management is the managing of some stages. Big projects often include bonus payments for completion early or on time, and penalties for late completion.


C. Time tips
Lucy Speed runs seminars on how to manage time:
Everyone complains that they never have enough time. Lots of employees do my time management courses, to learn how to organize their time. Here are some ideas:
a. Use a diary (BrE) or calendar (AmE) to plan your day and week. Personal organizers (small pocket-size computers) are good for this.
b. Plan your day in advance. Make a realistic plan (not just a list) of the things you have to do, in order of importance: prioritize them. Work on things that have the highest priority first.
c. Avoid interruptions and distractions, which stop you doing what you had planned.
d. Do jobs to a realistic level of quality in the time available, and to a level that is really necessary. Don't aim for perfectionism when there is no need for it. Try to balance time, cost and quality.


Over to you
Do projects usually finish on schedule in your company or country?
How well do you organize your time? What are your secrets of time management?

43.Stress and stess management

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. When work is stimulating[/FONT]
'My name's Patricia and I'm a university lecturer. I chose this profession because I wanted to do something rewarding: something that gave me satisfaction. Ten years ago, when I started in this job, I had lots to do, but I enjoyed it: parparing and giving lectures, discussing students' work with them and marking it. I felt stretched: I had the feeling that work could sometimes be difficult, but that it was stimulating, it interested me and made me feel good. It was certainly challenging: difficlut, but in an interesting and enjoyable way.'


B. When stimulation turns to stress
'In the last few years there has been more and more administrative work, with no time for reading or research. I felt pressure building up. I began to feel overwhelmed by work: I felt as if I wasn't able to do it. I was under stress; very worried about my work. I became ill, and I'm sure this was caused by stress: it was stress-induced.
Luckily, I was able to deal with the stresses and strains (pressures) of my job by starting to work part-time. I was luckier than one of my colleagues, who became so stressed out because of overwork that he had a nervous breakdown; he was so worried about work that he couldn't sleep or work, and had to give up. He's completely burned out, so stressed and tired by his work that he will never be able to work again. Burnout is an increasingly common problem among my colleagues.'


C. Downshifting
'Many people want to get away from the rat race or the treadmill, the feeling that work is too competitive, and are looking for lifestyles that are less stressful or completely unstressful, a more relaxed ways of living, perhaps in the country. Some people work from home to be near their family and have a better quality of life, such as more quality time with their children: not just preparing meals for them and taking them to school, etc.
Choosing to live and work in a less stressful way is downshifting or rebalancing, and people who do this are downshifters.'


Over to you
Do you sometimes get stressed at work or college? What do you do about it? Is stress-related illness common in your country?

44.Leadership and management styles

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Leadership[/FONT]
Ken Manners is an expert on leadership and management styles. Can leadership be taught? Or are the only real leaders born leaders?
'Traditionally, the model for leadership in business has been the army. Managers and army officers give orders and their subordinates (the people working below them) carry them out. Managers, like army officers, may be sent on leadership courses to develop their leadership skills, their ability to lead. But they still need a basic flair or talent for leadership
Who makes a great leader?
'The greatest leaders have charisma, an attractive quality that makes other people admire them and want to follow them. A leader may be described as a visionary, someone with power to see clearly how things are going to be in the future. People often say leaders have drive, dynamism and energy.'


B. Mordern management styles
How have management styles changed in the last few years?
'Before, leaders were distant and remote, not easy to know or communicate with. Today, managers are more open and approachable: you can talk to them easily. There is more management by consensus, where decisions are not imposed from above in a top-down approach, but arrived at by asking employees to contribute in a process of consultation.'
Do you think this trend will continue?
'Yes. There are more women managers now, who are often more able to build consensus than traditional military-style authoritarian male managers.'


C. Empowerment
What, exactly, is empowerment?
'Encouraging employees to use their own initiative, to take decisions on their own without asking managers first, is empowerment. Decision-making becomes more decentralized and less bureaucratic, less depentent on managers and systems. This is often necessary where the number of managerment levels is reduced.
To empower employees, managers need the ability to delegate, to give other people responsibility for work rather than doing it all themselves. Of course, with empowerment and delegation, the problem is keeping control of your operations: a key issue of modern management.'


Over to you
What are the characteristics of a true leader? Do you think you have the qualities of a good manager/leader? Would you be authoritarian or approchable?

45.Business across cultures 1

A. Cultures and culture
Alexandra Adler is an expert in doing business across cultures. She is talking to a group of British businesspeople.
'Culture is the "way we do things here", "here" may be a country, an area, a social class or an organization such as a company or school. You often talk about:
company or corporate culture: the way a particular company works, and the things it believes are important.
Canteen culture: the ways that people in an organization such as the police think and talk, not approved by the leaders of the organization.
long-hours culture: where people are expected to work for a long time each day.
macho culture: ideas typically associated with men: physical strength, aggressiveness, etc.
But you must be careful of stereotypes, fixed ideas that may not be true.'


B. Distance and familiarity
Distance between managers and the people who work under them varies in different cultures. Look at these two companies.
In Country A, managers are usually easy to talk to - accessible and approachable - and there is a tradition of employees being involved in decision-making as part of a team of equals. This company is not very hierarchical, with only three management layers.
In Country B, managers are usually more distant and remote. Employees may feel quite distant from their managers and have a lot of deference for them: accepting decisions but not participating in them. Companies in Country B tend to be more hierarchical than those in Country A, with more management layers.
Deference and distance may be shown in language. Some languages have many forms of address that you use to indicate how familiar you are with someone. English only has one form,'you', but distance may be shown in other ways, for example, in whether first names or surnames are used.


Over to you
Is your organization more like ABC or SBC above? Which type of company would you prefer to work for? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each type of company?

46.Business across cultures 2

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Names:[/FONT]
In the English-speaking business world, people use first names, even with people they do not know very well. But if you aren't sure, use Mr and the family name for men, and Mrs or Miss and the family name for women, depending on whether they are married or not. Ms often replaces Mrs and Miss. You don't use Mr, Mrs, Miss or Ms with only a first name or by itself.


B. Dress
In Alphaland, businesspeople dress quite formally. The business suit is common, but for men, wearing non-matching jacket and trousers is also a possibility.
In Betatania, the dark business suit is obligatory for men. Some companies allow women to wear trousers suits.
In Gammaria, the business suit is almost as necessary as in Betatania, but with more variation in colours. Some companies require employees to wear formal colthes from Monday to Thursday, and allow less formal ones on what they call casual Fridays or dress-down Fridays. In some places, many banks and shops require people dealing with customers to wear uniforms so that they all dress the same.
In Deltatonia, people dress more casually at work than in the other countries. For men, suits and ties are less common than elsewhere. This is smart casual.


Over to you
How are names used in business in your country?
How do people dress at work? Do any companies have dress-down days in your country?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of how people dress?

47.Business across culture 3

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Entertainment and hospitality[/FONT]
Alexandra Adler continues her seminar on cross-cultural issues. Entertaining and hospitality vary a lot in different cultures.
a. In Alphaland, entertaining is important. There are long business lunches in restaurants, where deals are discussed. Professional and private life are separate, and clients are never invited home.
b. In Betatania, evenings are spent drinking and singing in bars with colleagues and clients.
c. In Gammaria, lunch can be important, but less so than in Alphaland. Important contacts may be invited to dinner at home. Corporate hospitality is a big industry, with clients invited to big sports events.
d. In Deltatonia, restaurants are rare outside the capital. Some entertainment takes place when important clients are invited to people's houses for dinner, or go sailing or to country houses for weekend, etc.


B. Time
Attitudes towards time can vary enormously.
In Busyille, people start work at eight, and officially finish at six, though many managers stay much longer. There is a culture of presenteeism: being at work when you don't need to be.
There is a two-hour lunch break, and a lot of business is done over restaurant lunches. (Lunch is the main meal. The working breakfast is rare.) There are no snacks between meals, just coffee, so eat properly at meal times.
As for punctuality, you can up to 15 minutes 'late' for meetings. If invited to someone's house (unusual in business), arrive 15-30 minutes after the time given.
Don't phone people at home about work, and don't phone them at all after 9 pm.
There are a lot of public holidays (about 15) during the year. Busyville is empty in August, as many companies close completely for four weeks. Employees have five weeks' holiday a year and they usually take four of them in August.


C. Cross-cultural communication
Here are some other areas of potential cultural misunderstanding:
a. distance when talking to people: what is comfortable?
b. eye contact: how much of the time do people look directly at each other?
c. gesture: do people make lots of facial gestures? How much do they move their arms and hands?
d. greetings/goodbyes: do people shake hands every time? Are there fixed phrases to say?
e. humour: is this a good way of relaxing people? Or is it out of place in some contexts?
f. physical contact: how much do people touch each other?
g. presents: when should you give them? When should you open them? What should you say when you receive one?
h. rules of conversation and the role of silence: how long can people be silent before they feel uncomfortable? Is it acceptable to interrupt when others are speaking?


Over to you
What should visitors to your country know about the points in A, B and C opposite?

48.Telephone 1: phones and numbers

a. public telephone/payphone: phone in a public place operated with money, a credit card or a phone card.
b. mobile phone, mobile (BrE)/cellphone, cellular phone, cellular (AmE); a phone you can take with you and use anywhere.
c. WAP phone: a mobile phone with access to the Internet (WAP=wireless application protocol).
d. extension: one of a number of phones on the same line, in a home or office.
e. cordless phone, cordless: an extension not connected by a wire, so you can use it around the house or in the garden.
f. pager: allows you to receive written messages
g. webcam: a camera attached to a computer and phone line, so two people talking on the phone can see each other.
h. videophone: a special phone with a screen so you can see the other person.
Webcams and videophones enable videoconferencing: holding a meeting with people in different locations.


B. Phone, call and ring
to call (phone, telephone) someone
to give someone a call
BrE: to ring someone, to ring up someone, to ring someone up, to give someone a ring
Informal BrE: to give someone a bell, to give someone a buzz
AmE: to call someone, to call up someone, to call someone up


C. Numbers
When saying numbers, use rising intonation for each group, except for the last group, when you should use a falling tone. This shows you have reached the end of the number.


D. Doing things over the phone
Phone number where you can get information or advice, buy things, make reservations, etc. may be called: helpline, hotline, information line, reservation line
People who answer and deal with calls like these work in call centres (AmE: call centers).

49.Telephoning 2: getting through

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Phoning scenario[/FONT]
You want to phone someone in a company. You pick up the phone. You hear the dialling tone and dial the number on the keypad. You don't know the person's direct line number, so you dial the number of the company's switchboard. One of these things happens:
a. The number rings but no one answers.
b. You hear the engaged tone (BrE)/ busy tone (AmE) because the other person is already talking on the phone. You hang up and try again later.
c. You get through, but not to the number you wanted. The person who answers says you've got the wrong number.
d. The operator answers. You ask for the extension of the person you want to speak to.
e. You are put through to the wrong extension. The person offers to transfer you to the right extension, but you are cut off - the call ends.
f. The person you want to speak to is not at their desk and you leave a message on their voicemail. You ask them to call you back or to return your call.


B. Asking to speak to someone 1
a. Can you put me through to extension 123, please?
Can I have extension 123, please?
Extension 123, please.
123, please.
James Cassidy in Sales, please.

b. One moment, please.
I'm putting you through.
The extension/Line is ringing for you.

c. Sorry to keep you waiting.

d. I think you've got the wrong extension.
I'll try and transfer you.

e. I phoned a moment ago, but I was cut off.

f. I'm afraid the line's/extension's busy/engaged.
I'm sorry, but there's no reply.

g. Do you want to hold or would you like to call back later?

f. I'll hold.
I'll call back later.


C. Voicemail
a. If the person you want to speak to is not there, you may hear this:
You're through to the voicemail of James Cassidy. I'm not at my desk right now, but if you leave a message, I'll get right back to you. To leave a message, press 1. To speak to the operator, please hold.

b. After you leave your message, you may hear this:
To listen to your message, press 2.

c. After you listen to your message, you may hear this:
If you'd like to change your message, press 3. If you'd like to erase your message, press 4. Otherwise, please hang up.


Over to you
Have you ever had these problems on the phone, in your language or in English?
Do you use voicemail yourself? what are its advantages and disadvantages?

50.Telephoning 3: messages

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Asking to speak to someone 2[/FONT]
It's X here./ This is X here.
Can (could) I speak to Y, please?
Is that Y?
Y speaking. (Speaking)
Is this a good/ convenient time to call?
I'm (rather) tied up at the moment.
Could you call back later?
I'm afraid Y isn't at his desk. / not in the office.
I'm afraid Y is on another line. /out of the office.
I'm afraid Y is with someone right now. /off sick today.
I'm afraid Y is in a meeting. / on holiday (until ---)


B. Giving and taking messages
I'm calling about---
I'm calling to confirm that---
Could I leave a message?
Could you tell Y that---?
Could you ask Y to call me back? My number's ---
I wonder if you could call back later?
Can I ask who's calling?
who's calling please?
Which company are you calling from?
May/Can I ask what it's about?
May/Can I take a message?
Would you like to leave a message?
I'll ask him/her to call you (when he/she gets back).


C. Spelling names
If you want to spell a name, you can say, for example, ' A for Alpha', ' B as in Bravo' , etc.
You may also need these expressions:
capital A/ small a/ all one word/ new word/ dash or hyphen/ slash/ dot/ at(@)


D. Taking messages: checking information
a. I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name. Could you spell it, please?
b. Is that with a D at the end, D for David?
c. Did you say your number is 624426?
d. Is that with B for Bravo or V for Victor?
e. Where did you say you're calling from?
f. Is that with one M in the middle or two?
g. The code for Sweden is 49, right?
h. Is that like the football player?


Over to you
What is the most difficult thing when you phone someone in another language? Practise words you often have to spell on the phone, using the alphabet above.

51.Telephoning 4: arrangements

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Making arrangements[/FONT]
You get through to the person you want to speak to and fix a meeting.
a. Can/Shall we fix/arrange an appointment/ a meeting?
Would it be useful to meet up soon?
b. I'll (just) get/ check my diary.
c. How about Monday?
What about Tuesday?
Would Wednesday be suitable?
Would Thursday suit you?
Shall we say Friday?
d. That's fine.
I can't /won't be able to make Monday.
I've got to (+infinitive)/a (+noun)---


B. Closing the conversation
Here are some ways of finishing a conversation without sounding abrupt (rude).
See you on Friday then.
Yes, I'll look forward to seeing you on Friday.
I'm going to have to go now.
I've got to go to meeting.
I've got to go and see someone.
Nice talking to you.
(It's been) nice talking to you.
(It's been) good talking to you.
Talk to you soon, no doubt.
Thanks for calling (phoning).
Talk to you soon, no doubt.
We'll be (back) in touch soon.
Look forward to hearing from you soon.


C. Changing arrangements
Here are some ways of changing arrangements.
a. I can't make Tuesday (Tuesday is not possible). Something has come up (has occurred to prevent our meeting). I've got to go over to Berlin to see a client. How about Wednesday?
b. I think we said Thursday at 11. Can you make the afternoon instead? (Is it possible for you to meet in the afternoon?)
c. We're going to have to change our arrangement for the 15th. Can we put it off (delay it ) till the 22nd? I'd completely forgotten we have a departmental meeting that day.
d. I'm afraid Monday won't be possible after all. I'm going to be very busy that day. What about the following week?
e. We're going to have to put back (delay) our meeting. I'm completely snowed under (very busy) at the moment. Can we leave it open (decide not to fix a day) for the time being? I'll get back in touch (contact you again) when I'm not so busy.


Over to you
Do you make arrangements on the phone?
Do you find it difficult to end phone calls?

52.Faxes

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Sending faxes[/FONT]
Jaime Vasconcelos in Los Angeles, USA is on the phone to Anna Friedman in Sydney, Australia.
Anna: Yes, I think you'll be interested in our latest designs.
Jaime: Can you send them by fax?
Anna: Sure. I'll fax you right now. What's your fax number?
Jaime: 1 for the US, then 213 976 3421.
Anna: OK. I've got that.
Jaime: Can you fax the information you think we need?
Anna: I'll fax you everything we have. There are about 30 pages.
Jaime: If you could fax it all over to us, that would be great!


B. Fax layout
a. cover sheet: the first page of a fax showing who it's from, who it's to, etc.
b. confidential information: things that others should not know
c. intended recipient: the person who should receive the fax
d. advise the sender: tell the person who sent it


C. Receiving faxes
Anna: Did you get my fax?
Jaime: You're not going to believe this, but the paper got stuck and the machine jammed.
Anna: No problem. I'll send it through again.
15 minutes later---
Anna: Did the fax go through OK this time?
Jaime: Yes, but pages two and three weren't legible: I couldn't read them.
Anna: No problem. I'll resend them.


Over to you
Do you send and receive many faxes or do you rely mainly on email?
What are faxes particularly useful for?

53.Emails

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Email[/FONT]
Email is electronic mail. You can send an email to someone, or email them. They will reply to your email or email you back.
reply to all: send an answer to the person who sent an email, and everyone who received a copy of it.
reply: send an answer to the person who sent an email
delete: get rid of an email you don't want
cc: send a copy to ---
bcc: send a blind copy to ---(the other people don't know you're sending this copy)
forward: send an email you have received to someone else
attach: send a document, for example a picture, with an email
send and receive: send all the emails you've written and receive all the ones that are waiting for you


B. Email expressions
Robert,
Thanks for your email asking for ways of reducing the sales force. Please find attached a Word document with specific plans for this. Please let me know if you can't read this attachment. I'm copying Ruth Mitchell in on this. Do forward it to the rest of the board if you feel that's appropriate. Looking forward to your reaction.
Best wishes,
Tina

Note:
You can end with:
Best wishes/All best wishes/Regards/Best regards
To people you know well, you can end with:
All the best/Best

C. Email abbreviations
These abbreviations are sometimes used in emails
Simon, Have you heard about Tina's plans for sacking salespeople?AFAIK
She's not referring to us, but we'll see. HTH
Best, Kate

Note:
AFAIK: As far as I know
HTH: Hope this helps

Over to you
What do you use email for? Does email save time, or does it just make more work?
Should employees send and receive personal emails at work?

54.Meetings1: types of meeting

A. Word combinations with 'meeting'
arrange/set up/fix a meeting: organize a meeting
bring forward a meeting: make a meeting earlier than originally decided
put back/postpone a meeting: make a meeting later than originally planned
cancel a meeting: not have a meeting after all
run/chair a meeting: be in charge of a meeting
attend a meeting: go to a meeting
miss a meeting: not go to a meeting


B. Types of meeting
Meetings come in all shapes and sizes, of course. Here are some types:
a. chat (informal discussion) with colleagues at the coffee machine.
b. brainstorming among colleagues: where as many ideas as possible are produced quickly, to be evaluated later.
c. project meeting/ team meeting of employees involved in a particular activity.
d. department/departmental meeting.
e. meeting with suppliers, for example to negotiate prices for an order.
f. meeting with a customer, for example to discuss a contract.
g. board meeting: an official, formal meeting of a company's directors.
h. Annual general meeting/AGM(BrE); annual meeting (AmE): where shareholders discuss the company's annual report.
i. EGM: extraordinary general meeting: a shareholders' meeting to discuss an important issue such as a proposed merger.


C. How was the meeting?
Some colleagues are discussing a meeting they have just come out of.
Anil: I thought it was very productive.
Juliet: Well, I thought it was a complete waste of time. I didn't hear anything I didn't already know.
Barbara: I agree with Anil. I felt we had some very useful discussions, and that we reached an agreement that was good for both sides. We certainly covered a lot of ground. It was incredible the number of things we got through.
Juliet: But there were too many digressions. John was rambling and kept wandering off the point. He just uses meetings as a chance to show off. Just like a lot of men: he just wanted to show how powerful he is and what a good talker he is.
Anil: But to be fair, the chair really kept things moving: she encouraged people to be brief and to stick to the point and we achieved a lot in a short time. Anyway, I learned a lot and I think they listened to what we had to say.


Over to you
What sort of meetings do you go to in your school or organization? Are they useful?

55.Meeting2: the role of the chairperson

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Before the meeting[/FONT]
Hilary Rhodes is a management consultant who specializes in meeting skills:
'A good chairperson has to be a good organizer. What they do before the meeting is as important as the meeting itself. They should make sure the agenda (the list of things to be discussed) is complete by asking those involved what should be on it and then circulating (distributing) it to everyone concerned. They should check the venue, making sure the room will be free, without interruptions, until the end of the meeting.'


B. During the meeting
The chairperson should be a good timekeeper. They should start the meeting on time, without waiting for latecomers.
They should appoint a minute-taker to take the minutes, making sure that opinions and action points (where participants agree to do something) are noted.
They should make sure each point on the agenda is allocated the time it deserves and should keep to the timetable. When the time allocated to one point is up, the chair should make sure that discussion moves on to the next point, even if the issue has not been completely covered or resolved (decided).
The chair should make sure that each participant has the chance to make their point, and should deal tactfully with disagreements, making sure that each side feels their point of view has been noted. They should also try to avoid digressions, where people get off the point.
Finally, they should ensure the meeting finishes on time, or early.


C. Follow-up
After some meetings, it's necessary for the minutes to be circulated, especially if there are action points that particular people are responsible for.
At the next meeting, the chair should ask for the minutes to be read out and see if all agree that it is an accurate record of what happened, and see if there are any matters arising (any points from the last meeting that need to be discussed). And they should check what progress has been made on the action points from the previous meeting.


Over to you
What do you think are the most important skills for someone chairing a meeting?

56.Meetings 3: points of view

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Opening the meeting[/FONT]
Carla Eagleton, chief executive of Creative Advertising, is opening a meeting. She could also have said:
It's about time we got started.
Let's begin, shall we?
Shall we make a start?
Let's make a start.
Let's get down to business.
Ok, let's get started.

Then she says 'As you know, I've called the meeting to discuss the situation in the design department. The designers have a lot of freedom to work as they wish, but it seems that things are getting our of control---'
She could also have said:
As you are aware ---
I've arranged this meeting to ---
The purpose of this meeting is to ---
The main objective is to ---


B. Inviting people to speak
Carla then uses some of these expressions.


Inviting someone to start:
Would you like to open the discussion, Greta?
Greta, would you like to kick off?
Perhaps you'd like to get the ball rolling, Greta.


Asking for one person's opinion:
What about you, Keith?
What do you think about this, Keith?
What are your feelings on this, Keith?
What are your views on this, Keith?


Asking for everyone's opinion:
What's the general feeling on this?


C. Making your point
The other participants use some of these expressions.
a. Head of human resources: I believe the design department needs a certain amount of freedom, but there are limits.
b. Head of design: As I see it, I can't run the design department as if it was the accounts department.
c. Chief financial officer: In my opinion, they're going much too far. I can't bear to think of the costs involved.
d. Senior designer: Of course, we are sensitive types and need to be given the freedom to work how we like.


Other ways of making your point include:
The way I see it ---
Personally, I think ---
It's clear to me that ---
It looks to me as if ---
Obviously ---
Note: You use Of course and Obviously to introduce an idea, but also to show that you think other people will be aware of it already. Be careful, as this can sound rude.


Over to you
How freely can people express their feelings in your school or organization? Are people at all levels encouraged to say what they think? Are new employees asked for their opinions?

57.Meetings 4: agreement and disagreement

[FONT=微软雅黑]A[/FONT]. Discussion without argument?
Hilary Rhodes is talking about the importance of keeping calm in meetings:
'In a meeting, you discuss things. In the discussion, some people may agree with you. Others may disagree. They may have differences of opinion with you, but the important thing is to keep calm and remain courteous. It's OK to disagree, but it's not OK to be impolite or rude or to lose your temper.
An argument is when people disagree about something, perhaps becoming angry. Your argument is also the set of ideas that you use to prove your point: to show that what you are saying is true.'


B. Agreeing
Strong agreement:
a. You're perfectly right. The costs involved must be incredible.
b. I couldn't agree more. We got our latest recruits after we won the industry award for best advertisement.
c. Precisely. Creativity comes to some of our people in the middle of the night.
d. Exactly. We have to look at the company as one unit.
e. Absolutely. It's the output, not the input, that counts.


Mild agreement:
f. You may be right there. We're already ten percent over budget.
g. That's true, I suppose. There must be some limits on when they work.
h. I suppose so. They seem to arrive and then go straight out again to eat.


C. Disagreeing
Mild disagreement:
a. That's not really how I see it. Everyone should be allowed to work in the way that's best for them.
b. I don't really agree. The prizes are important, but people would come to work for us anyway.
c. I can't really go along with you there. I think we need to see people at their desks actually working.
d. I think you're mistaken. If the designers get to work late, they don't go out for lunch.
e. I'm afraid I can't agree with you there. All you financial people do is worry about costs.


Strong disagreement:
f. I'm sorry, but that's out of the question. You can't expect people to go home at ten and come back at nine in the morning.
g. I think you're wrong. The design department's costs are justified because of our high quality work. The costs of the other departments are not justified.
h. Of course not. The latest figures I've seen show that the project is within budget.
i. That's absurd. There must be some sort of control on when people work.
j. That's ridiculous. Each department has very specific needs.
Note: Be careful with That's absurd and That's ridiculous. These expressions are very strong and can be offensive.


Over to you
What are you like in meetings? Do you often disagree with other people? Or do you prefer to avoid arguments?

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

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回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

chwcau 说:

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谢谢参与，其实此贴非常实用，我个人感觉受益菲浅！

58. Meetings 5: discussion techniques

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Hedging[/FONT]
Hedging is when you avoid disagreeing directly. To hedge, you could say:
a. I take your point about punctuality, but clocking in and out would not be very popular.
b. I understand what you're saying about the needs of each department, but each department must be treated in an appropriate way.
c. I see/know what you mean, but we must look at the human factors as well as the numbers.
d. I hear where you're coming from on this, but we must remember this is an advertising agency, not a car factory.


B. Checking understanding, interrupting, referring back
To interrupt someone politely:
Can I come in here?
Sorry to interrupt you, but ---
If I can just stop you for a moment ---


To refer back to what was said earlier:
As we were saying earlier ---
To go back to what I was just saying ---
To go back to what X was saying earlier ---


To check that you understand what someone has said:
Are you saying that ---?
If I understand (you) correctly, ---
Are you suggesting that ---?
If I follow you ---
Are you implying that ---?


C. Agreement, consensus or compromise?
Hilary Rhodes is talking about how to deal with agreements and disagreements:
'It may be possible to reach agreement or to reach an agreement about something, or at least come to a consensus: something that most people can agree with. It may be possible to compromise or to find a compromise: an agreement where people accept less than they wanted at first. Or perhaps the differences are so great that there will just be disagreement. Something in particular that you disagree about is a disagreement.'


D. Concluding
Carla Eagleton sums up and brings the meeting to a close:
' Right. I'm afraid we're running out of time so we're going to have to stop there. To go over what's been said, there is a disagreement about timekeeping and budgets in the design department. I've listened to both sides of the argument. I think I can sum it up by saying that it's a problem of creativity versus control. I think you'll just have to agree to disagree. I'll let you know my decision about the solution to this problem by the end of the month. So unless anyone has anything else to add, I think that's it. Thank you all for coming.'


Over to you
Are compromises always possible? In your organization or school, are decisions based on compromise and consensus or are they imposed by the management?

59.Presentations 1: preparation and introduction

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Types of presentation[/FONT]
Melanie Kray is an expert in giving presentations. Here, he gives some examples of different presentations:
a. press conference: two chief executives tell journalists why their companies have merged.
b. briefing: a senior officer gives information to other officers about a police operation they are about to undertake.
c. demonstration: the head of research and development tells non-technical colleagues about a new machine.
d. product launch: a car company announces a new model.
e. lecture: a university professor communicates information about economics to 300 students.
f. talk: a member of a stamp-collecting club tells other members about 19th century British stamps.
g. seminar: a financial adviser gives advice about investments to eight people.
h. workshop: a yoga expert tells people how to improve their breathing techniques and gets them to practise.


B. Dos and don'ts: preparation
Here are some tips for a stand-up presentation (one person talking to an audience).
a. Find out about the audience: how many people there will be, who they are, why they will be there, and how much they know about the subject.
b. Find out about the venue and the facilities: the room, the seating plan, the equipment, etc.
c. Plan the content and structure, but don't write the complete text of the presentation.
d. Write notes on sheets of paper, not on cards.
e. Try to memorize the first five sentences of your talk.
f. Prepare visual aids: pictures, diagrams, etc.
g. Rehearse your presentation (practise it so that it becomes very familiar) with friends or colleagues.


C. Key phrases: introduction
Melanie is advising Anne-Marie Duval on giving a presentation at a conference.
h. Introduce yourself and your subject: My name's Anne-Marie Duval and I work for Gem Consultants. My talk is called 'Consultantcy Skills for the 21st Century'.
i. Outline what you're going to talk about: describe the different sections of your talk: There are three main skills areas I want to talk about today---
j. Say whether people should ask questions during the talk, or at the end: If you have any questions, I'll be very happy to answer them at the end of the session.


Over to you
Have you ever given a presentation? What type was it ?
In your experience, what makes a good/bad presentation?

60.Presentations 2: main part

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Dos and don'ts: timing[/FONT]
Melanie Kray is giving more advice about presentations.
a. Start on time. Don't wait for latecomers.
b. Plan how long you're going to spend on each point and keep to these timings.
c. Don't labour a particular point (spend too long on something).
d. Don't digress (talk about things that have nothing to do with the subject), unless you have a particular purpose in mind.
e. Finish on time. Don't run over. It looks bad if you don't have time to finish all your points and answer questions.


B. Dos and don'ts: voice
f. Project your voice to the back of the room, but don't shout. Don't ask if people at the back can hear. Check the volume (loudness) of your voice beforehand.
g. Use a microphone if you need one. Don't hold it too close to your mouth.
h. Whether using a microphone or not, speak in a natural tone of voice. Don't speak in a monotone (on the same level all the time). Vary the pitch (level) of your voice.


C. Rapport with the audience
Experts say that you can gain the audience's attention in a presentation by:
a. telling an anecdote ( a story, perhaps a personal one).
b. mentioning a really surprising fact or statistic.
c. stating a problem.
d. asking a question.
Of course, it is important to respect the cultural expectations of your audience.


D. Key phrases: main part
Anne-Marie continues her presentation:
'OK. To begin, let's look at the first type of skills that consultants need: technical skills. Of course, related to technical skills is a good general knowledge of management subjects---
But I'm digressing: let's get back to the technical skills themselves--- That's all I have time for on technical skills.
Let's move on to the second area: interpersonal skills. As you can see on this transparency, there are two key areas in relation to interpersonal skills--- I think that covers everything on interpersonal skills.
Time is moving on, so Let's turn to the third area: people management issues.'


Over to you
How are people expected to dress for different types of presentation in your country?
What do people think about humour in presentations?

61.Presentations 3: closing and questions

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Dos and don'ts: body language[/FONT]
Melanie gives these tips on body language.
a. Make eye contact: look at each person in the audience for about a second, before moving on to the next person. Don't concentrate on just one or two people.
b. Don't speak to the equipment or the screen: face the audience at all times.
c. Smiling is fine at appropriate moments, but not too much.
d. Use gesture (hand movements) to emphasize key points.
e. Stay more or less in one place: don't move around too much.
f. Avoid mannerisms (ways of moving and speaking which you do repeatedly without realizing).


B. Visual aids
Melanie sometimes uses these visual aids when giving presentations:
bullet, screen, projector, overhead projector, computer screen, whiteboard, blackboard, handouts


C. Key phrases: closing and dealing with questions
Anne-Marie is bringing her presentation to a close:
'let me sum up. Firstly, we looked at technical skills, secondly, at management skills and last, but by no means least, at interpersonal skills. In my view, the secret for success in the future is going to be interpersonal skills. That brings me to the end of my presentation. Are there any questions?'
Here are some phrases which can be useful when answering questions:
a. That's fair point. I know that some consultants don't have a very good image. But I think that Gem Consultants have helped companies reduce costs and increase profits enormously.
b. That's confidential. I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to tell you.
c. That's not really my field. But I can put you in touch with someone in my organization who is working on Internet applications.
d. The questioner would like to know what sort of background the people we recruit usually have. Is that right?
e. Well, I think that goes beyond the scope of today's presentation. Today I wanted to concentrate on consultants' skills, not go into particular case studies in consultancy.
f. I'm afraid we've run out of time. But if you'd like to come and discuss that with me now, I'll try and give you an answer.
If a member of the audience didn't hear a question, they might say:
'Sorry, I didn't catch the question - could you repeat what the questioner said?'
Anne-Marie ends the presentation by saying:
'I think that's a good place to stop. Thank you for listening.'


Over to you
How is body language used in presentations in your country? Which gestures are acceptable and which are not?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of using different types of equipment?
What are some of the potential problems?

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

追到这里,跟着楼主学英语。

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

1

回复: 让基础职场词汇成为你的“嫡系”（欢迎全程参与互动）

helenbaby 说:

追到这里,跟着楼主学英语。

点击展开...

helenbaby 说:

1

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热烈欢迎！其实这本教材绝对是商务英语的经典，我坚持了两个月收益颇丰。
我一直认为，没有压力，就没有坚持，就不会有成果。我坚持按学习进度上贴，就是给自己压力，现在厚厚的一本书就快学完了！若当初我只是把书放在床头，有空看两页的话，估计早就半途而废了。
所以非常赞成你晒进度的方式，不要放弃哦！加油！

62.Negotiations 1: situations and negotiators

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Types of negotiation[/FONT]
If people negotiate (with each other), they talk in order to reach an agreement which is to their mutual advantage (good for them both). For example:
a. customer-supplier negotiations
b. merger or takeover negotiations
c. wage negotiations
d. trade negotiations
Negotiations also take place to settle disputes (decide arguments) such as:
a. contract disputes
b. labour disputes
c. trade disputes


B. Word combinations with 'negotiations'
a. Intense (Intensive) negotiations are very difficult and tiring, with a lot being discussed.
b. Delicate (Tense) negotiations are very difficult and could easily fail.
c. Eleventh-hour (Last-minute) negotiations take place at the last possible moment of the time available.
d. Protracted negotiations take a very long time.
Someone who takes part in negotiations is a negotiator, and someone who is good at getting what they want is a tough negotiator.


C. Bargaining
Another word for 'negotiate' is bargain. This is also used to talk specifically about discussing and agreeing the price of something. Another name for 'negotiator' is a bargainer.
Another word for 'negotiation' is bargaining, used especially in phrases like:
a. collective bargaining
b. pay bargaining
c. wage bargaining (discussions between groups of employees and their employers about pay and conditions)
'Bargaining' is often used in these combinations:
bargaining ploy (tactic): a particular technique used by a negotiator
bargaining chip (tool): an issue that a negotiator uses in order to gain an advantage
bargaining point: a particular issue that a negotiator discusses
bargaining power: the degree to which one side is strong enough to obtain what it wants
bargaining process: the way that negotiations develop


Over to you
What qualities make a good negotiator?
Do you have to negotiate? Do you like negotiating? Why/ why not?

63.Negotiations 2: preparing

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Preparing to negotiate[/FONT]
John Rix is an expert on negotiation:
'Before negotiations begin, preparing and planning are very important.
a. Get as much information as possible about the situation. If dealing with people from another culture, find out about its etiquette and negotiating styles: the way people negotiate, what they consider to be acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, and so on.
b. Work out your initial bargaining position: what are your needs and objectives ( the things that you want to achieve)? Decide your priorities (the most important objectives).
c. Try to estimate the needs and objectives of the other side.
d. Prepare a fallback position: conditions that you will accept if your original objectives are not met.
e. Perhaps you are in a position to influence the choice of venue: the place where you are going to meet. If so, would you prefer to:
be on your own ground/ on home ground (in your own offices)
go to see the other side on their ground (in their offices)
meet on neutral ground, for example in a hotel?
f. If you are negotiating as part of a negotiating team, consult your colleagues about points a to e, and allocate roles and responsiblities.'


B. Negotiating scenario
At the beginning of a negotiation, follow these steps:
a. Meet and greet representatives of the other company and introduce your colleagues.
b. Offer coffee and small talk. Try to create a relaxed atmosphere.
c. Go to the meeting room and suggest that you get down to business.
d. Have a clear agenda and a timetable.
e. First, give the background to the negotiations. Talking about the situation is a good way of reminding people of key facts and issues.
f. Then kick off the negotiations themselves, perhaps by finding out more about the priorities of the other side (the things they think are most important) or talking about your own requirements.


C. Negotiating styles
When you're negotiating with people from other cultures, it's important to think about what they consider as 'normal' behaviour. You'll need to think about the following:
body language
conversational rules
hierarchy
physical contact
relationship building
attitudes to time


Over to you
What are the normal social 'rules' in your country in the context of a buyer-customer negotiation?

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64.Negotiations 3: furthering negotiations

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Win-win[/FONT]
In a successful negotiation, everyone should leave the negotiating table happy with the outcome: there shouldn't be winners and losers. The negotiators should try to reach a win-win solution: an agreement of equal benefit to both sides. This can be achieved in a number of ways.


B. Probing
One way of furthering negotiations is probing (asking the right questions and listening carefully to the answers). Here are some probing questions:
a. What is the situation on production at your plant at the moment?
b. What sort of quantities are you looking for?
c. What are we looking at in the way of discount?
d. What did you have in mind regarding specifications?
e. What were you thinking of in terms of delivery dates?
f. How important to you is the currency for payment?


C. Proposal and counter-proposal
Through a series of proposals or offers from one side and counter-proposals or counter-offers from the other side, the two sides work towards an agreement which will benefit them both.
Here are some ways of making offers:
a. If you offer more flexible payment conditions, then we will be able to ---
b. As long as engine performance improves by ten per cent, then we can agree to ---
c. On condition that you deliver 20 engines by May, then we could consider ---
d. Supposing that you provide good technical support, then we may offer ---
e. Providing that you supply documentation in Portuguese, then we may offer ---
f. Providing that this contract works out OK, then we might offer to ---


D. Trade-offs
When you offer to change your position to one that is less favourable to yourself, you make a concession. Perhaps this is in exchange for a concession from the other side, although there is no guarantee of this. Your concession may be a goodwill gesture: a concession that you make hoping that the other side will see this as friendly and make a concession in return.
Even in a friendly negotiation, there may be horse-trading, with each side making a series of concessions in return for concessions from the other side. (This expression is often used to show disapproval.) If you argue about something for a long time, especially about the price of something, you haggle.
A series of concessions in exchange for concessions from the other side is a series of trade-offs. If you make a concession, you may not get anything back. If you make a trade-off, you give something away and get something in return.


Over to you
Is every negotiation potentially a win-win one?
Do you think that making goodwill gestures is a good idea, or should you always demand concessions in return for the concessions that you make?

65.Negotiations 4: difficulties

A. Confrontation
Sometimes one side is in a stronger position than the other: they have more bargaining power. For example, during a recent strike at Lamda Inc., the company was in financial difficulty and the public was on the workers' side, so Lamda was negotiating from weakness. The strikers' union knew this: they were negotiating from strength.
The union made demands: objectives that were so important that they were unwilling to change them. They wanted a 15 per cent pay increase. Later they moderated these demands, and said they would accept ten per cent. However, their demand for a week's extra holiday was non-negotiable: they would not accept less.
Lamda said they were being forced to accept something that they did not want. They accused the union of making them negotiate under duress.
Eventually Lamda conceded to most of the union's demands and gave them what they wanted. The media said that Lamda had backed down, climbed down and given in.
The feelings had been very strong on each side: the dispute was bitter, and the negotiations were confrontational and adversarial.


B. Confrontational negotiating tactics
Although using tricks isn't recommended, there are negotiators who:
a. issue threats, final offers or ultimatums: they say that the other side must accept something, with very bad consequences for them if they refuse.
b. lie and bluff: they threaten to do something that they do not intend to do, or are not able to do.
Of course, you can always call someone's bluff: pretend to believe them, when you know they are bluffing.


C. Dealing with problems
When negotiations get stuck, and don't progress, there are a number of things you can do.
a. Underline common ground: the areas where agreement has been reached.
b. Reassure the other side on key points that have been decided: confirm that you have not changed your mind.
c. Be willing to compromise on your original objectives: be ready to accept less than you wanted in exchange for compromises from the other side.
d. Identify the exact obstacles or sticking points: the problems that are causing negotiations to become difficult.
e. Postpone discussions until later so that each side can reconsider its position.


Over to you
Do you think people should tell the complete truth when negotiating?

66.Negotiations 5: reaching agreement

[FONT=微软雅黑]A. Deadlock and mediators[/FONT]
BASEBALL STRIKE IN BASELAND
Every year in Baseland there are negotiations between the baseball players' union and the baseball team owners about pay and conditions for the coming season. Last year, after months of negotiations, there was deadlock: the negotiations broke down. Some commentators said there was stalemate; and impasse: a situation where no progress could be made. There were irreconcilable differences between the two sides and it was impossible differences between the two sides and it was impossible to reach an agreement. The baseball players went on strike.
The two sides agreed to bring in a mediator, someone from outside to help restart the negotiations and bring the two sides closer together in a process of mediation. The person they chose was a respected retired politician. He recommended a cooling-off period where each side would take no action. The players ended their strike for the time being.
Another month passed, and still there was no progress. The two sides agreed to accept an agreement imposed by an arbitrator. A judge was chosen. She looked at the claims of each side and imposed a settlement or resolution to the dispute, fixing the salaries and the working conditions of the players. In this case, arbitration had settled the dispute.


B. Agreements and contracts
An agreement of any kind is a deal. When you reach an agreement, you can talk about clinching a deal or closing a deal.
A bargain is also an agreement reached through negotiation. People who get what they want in a negotiation are said to drive a hard bargain.
An agreement may be in the form of a contract. 'Contract' is used in these combinations:
a. An employment contract is about what someone has to do in their job, or about what a particular group of employees have to do.
b. An oral/verbal contract is not written down.
c. A binding contract forces both sides to carry out the actions.
d. A legal contract that they had promised to carry out, by law.
e. A commercial contract is about buying or selling a product.


C. Checking the deal
It's important to check the points of an agreement to avoid misunderstandings. You could say:
a. Let me just go over/run over (repeat and summarize) the main points.
b. On A, we agree that ---
c. As far as B is concerned, we agreed ---
d. We still have the question of C to settle (decide and agree on).
e. And there's still the outstanding (remaining undecided) issue of D.
f. We'll send you a written proposal.
g. We'll draw up (write) a contract based on those points.
h. I think that covers everything.


Over to you
What sort of agreements or contracts does your organization or school have with others?
Who draws them up?
Think of some recent negotiations in your country. What stages did they go through?

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Marke

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Marke

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休息了一个月，我们需要开始新的学习了，从今天起，我们开始学习职场中可能用到的俚语。我选的教材是《American idioms dictionary》一天三个俚语，有兴趣的伙伴们一起参与哦！

1. abandon ship
a. to leave a sinking ship
The captain ordered the crew and passengers to abandon ship.
b. to leave a failing enterprise.
A lot of the younger people are abandoning ship because they can get jobs elsewhere easily.

2. able to cut sth
a. to be able to manage or execute something.(Often negative.)
We thought he could handle the new account, but he is simply not able to cut it.

3. able to fog a mirror
a. alive, even if just barely. (Usually jocular. Refers to the use of a small mirror placed under the nose to tell if a person is breathing or not.)
Look, I don't need an athlete to do this job! Anybody able to fog a mirror will do fine!

4. able to take a joke
a. to be able to accept ridicule good-naturedly; to be able to be the object or butt of a joke willingly.(Able to is often can.)
Better not tease Ann. She can't take a joke.

5. above par
a. better than average or normal
His work is above par, so he should get paid better.

6. above the fray
a. not involved in the fight or argument; aloof from a fight or argument
The president tried to appear above the fray, but he couldn't keep out of things, no matter how nasty they got.

7. above the law
a. not subject to the law; immune to the law.
None of us is above the law. We have to obey all of them.

8. according to Hoyle
a. according to the rules; in keeping with the way something is normally done.
That's wrong. According to Hoyle, this is the way to do it.

9. Ace in(to sth)
a. to be lucky in getting admitted to something.
I aced into the history class at the last minute.

10. ace out
a. to be fortunate or lucky.
Freddy aced out at the dentist's office with only one cavity.

11. ace out of sth
a. to get out of something through luck; to evade or avoid something narrowly.
I just aced out of having to take the math test!

12. Achilles' heel
a. a weak point or fault in someone or something otherwise perfect or excellent.
(From the legend of the Greek hero Achilles, who had only one vulnerable part of his body, his heel. As an infant his mother had held him by one heel to dig him in the River Styx to make him invulnerable.)
He was very brave, but fear of spiders was his Achilles' heel.

13. an act of faith
a. an act or deed demonstrating religious faith; an act or deed showing trust in someone or something.
For him to trust you with his safety was a real act of faith.

14. Act your age!
a. Behave more maturely!
Child: Aw, come on! Let me see your book!
Mary: Be quiet and act your age. Don't be such a baby!

15. afraid of one's own shadow
a. easily frightened; always frightened, timid, or suspicious.
After Tom was robbed, he was even afraid of his own shadow.
（与我们“一朝被蛇咬十年怕井绳”有异曲同工）

16. after hours
a. after the regular closing time; after any normal or regular time, such as one's bedtime.
John got a job sweeping floors in the library after hours.

17. after the fact
a. after something has happened; after something, such as a crime, has taken place.
John is always making excuses after the fact.

18. against the grain
a. across the alignment of the fibers of a piece of wood.
You sawed it wrong. You sawed against the grain when you should have cut with the grain.
b. running counter to one's feelings or ideas.
The idea of my actually taking something that is not mine goes against the grain.

19. Age before beauty
a. a jocular way of encouraging someone to go ahead of oneself; a comical, teasing, and slightly grudging way of indicating that someone else should or can go first.
"No, no. Please, you take the next available seat," smiled Tom. "Age before beauty, you know."

20. agree to disagree
a. (for two or more parties) to calmly agree not to come to an agreement in a dispute.
We have accomplished nothing except that we agree to disagree.

21. ahead of the game
a. being early; having an advantage in a competitive situation; having done more than necessary.
Without the full cooperation of my office staff, I find it hard to stay ahead of the game.

22. aid and abet
a. so cliche to help someone; to incite someone to do something, possibly something that is wrong.
He was scolded for aiding and abetting the boys who were fighting.

23. all agog
a. surprised and amazed
He sat there, all agog, as the master of ceremonies read his name as the winner of first prize.

24. all and sundry
a. cliche everyone; one and all.
Cold drinks were served to all and sundry.

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非常有用,多谢!

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客气，大家一起提高！

25. all around Robin Hood's barn
a. going somewhere by an indirect route; going way out of the way (to get somewhere); by a long and circuitous route.
We had to go all around Robin Hood's barn to get to the little town.

26. all ears
a. listening eagerly and carefully
Well, hurry up and tell me. I'm all ears.

27. all eyes and ears
a. listening and watching eagerly and carefully.
Be careful what you say. The children are all eyes and ears.

28. all hours (of the day and night)
a. very late in the night or very early in the morning.
Why do you always stay out until all hours of the day and night?
I like to stay out till all hours.

29. all in a day's work
a. part of what is expected; typical or normal
I don't particularly like to cook, but it's all in a day's work.

30. (all) in one breath
a. spoken very rapidly, usually while one is very excited.
Jane was in a play, and she was so excited that she said her whole speech in one breath.

31. (all) in the family
a. restricted to one's own family or closest friends, as with private or embarrassing information
Don't tell anyone else. Please keep it all in the family.

32. all of the above
a. everything named in the list of possibilities just listed or recited
What's wrong, Sally? Are you sick, tired, frightened, or what? All of the above. I'm a mess!

33. all or nothing
a. everything or nothing at all.
Sally would not accept only part of the money. She wanted all or nothing.

34. all over town
a. in many places in town;
Jane looked all over town for a dress to wear to the party.
b. known to many; well known
In a short time the secret was known all over town.

35. all sweetness and light
a. very kind, innocent, and helpful
At the reception, the whole family was all sweetness and light, but they argued and fought after the guests left.

36. all systems (are) go
a. Everything is ready.(Originally said when preparing to launch a rocket.)
The rocket is ready to blast off - all systems are go.

37. all talk (and no action)
a. talking often about doing something, but never actually doing it.
The car needs washing, but Bill is all talk and no action on this matter.

38. all thumbs
a. very awkward and clumsy, especially with one's hands.
Poor Bob can't play the piano at all. He's all thumbs.
Mary is all thumbs when it comes to gardening.

39. all to the good
a. for the best; to one's benefit
He missed the train, but it was all to the good because the train had a wreck.

40. all told
a. totaled up; including all parts.
All told, he earned about $700 last week.
All told, he has many fine characteristics.

41. all walks of life
a. all social, economic, and ethnic groups.
The people who came to the street fair represented all walks of life.

42. all wool and a yard wide
a. trustworthy and genuinely good. (A description of good quality wool cloth.)
I won't hear another word against Bill. He's all wool and a yard wide.

43. an all-out effort
a. a very good and thorough effort
We need to make an all-out effort to get this job done on time.

44. the almighty dollar
a. the U.S. dollar, or the acquisition of money, when viewed as more important than anyting else.
It's the almighty dollar that drives Wall Street thinking.

45. alpha and omega
a. the essentials, from the beginning to the end; everything, from the begginning to the end.
He was froced to learn the alpha and omega of corporate law in order to even talk to the lawyers.

46. alphabet soup
a. initialisms and acronyms, especially when used excessively.
Just look at the telephone book! You can't find anything, because it's filled with alphabet soup.

47. ambulance chaser
a. a lawyer who hurries to the scene of an accident to try to get business from injured persons.
The insurance companies are cracking down on ambulance chasers.

48. American as apple pie
a. quintessentially American.
A small house with a white picket fence is supposed to be as American as apple pie.

49. the American dream
a. financial stability as well as physical and emotional comfort.(From the notion that Americans are preoccupied with obtaining certain materialistic goals.)
The American dream of home ownership with a car in the garage and a chicken in every pot started in the early 1930s.

50. ancient history
a. someone or something from so long ago as to be completely forgotten or no longer important, as a former relationship.
Bob? I never think about Bob anymore. He's ancient history.

51. and change
a. plus a few cents; plus a few hundredths. (Used in citing a price or other decimal figure to indicate an additional fraction of a full unit.)
The New York Stock Exchange was up seven points and change for the third broken record this week.

52. and what have you
a. and more things; and other various things
The merchant sells writing paper, pens, string, and what have you.

53. answer for sb
a. to vouch for someone; to tell of the goodness of someone's character.
Mr. Jones, who had known the girl all her life, answered for her. He knew she was innocent.
b. to speak for another person; to speak for oneself.
I can't answer for Chuck, but I do have my own opinion.

54. answer for sth
a. to explain or justify the actions of someone or something; to take responsibility or blame for someone or something.
I will answer only for my own misdeeds.

55. answer the call
a. to die
Our dear brother answered the call and has gone to his eternal rest.
b. answer the call (of nature): to find and use the toilet.
We stopped the car long enough for Jed to answer the call of nature.

56. answer to
a. explain or justify one's actions to someone.(Usually with have to.)
If John cannot behave properly, he'll have to answer to me.
b. (in the hierarchy of the workplace) to be under the supervision of someone; to report to someone.
I answer only to the boss.

57. ants in one's pants
a. the imaginary cause of nervousness and agitation. (From the image of someone suffering great discomfort as if having actual ants in the pants.)
I always get ants in my pants before a test.