1. Find the words or expressions which mean the following.
1. to place money in a bank; or money placed in a bank
2. the money used in countries other than one's own
3. how much money a loan pays, expressed as a percentage
4. available cash, and how easily other assets can be turned into cash
5. the date when a loan becomes repayable
6. to guarantee to buy all the new shares that a company issues, if they cannot be sold to the public
7. when a company buys or acquires another one
8. when a company combines with another one
9. buying and selling stocks or shares for clients
10. taking care of all a client's investments
11. the ending or relaxing of legal restrictions
12. a group of companies, operating in different fields, that have joined together
13. a company considered to be without risk
14. ability to pay liabilities when they become due
15.anything that acts as a security or a guarantee for a loan
2. Match up the verbs and nouns below to make common collocations.
charge advice
do bonds
exchange business
issue currencies
make deposits
offer funds
pay interest
raise loans
receive profits
underwrite security issue
3. Match up the words or phrases on the left with the corresponding ones on the right.
1. investors
A. the amount of a loan
B. borrowing money
C. date at which the money will be returned
D. fall in interest rates
E. keep their bonds till maturity
F. default
G. profits on the sale of assets
H. providers of funds
I. retirement money
J. rise in interest rates
2. issuing bonds
3. principal
4. maturity
5. pension funds
6.buy-and-hold investors
7. non-payment
8. price appreciation
9. price depreciation
10. capital gains
4. Which of the following words mean the same as to employ someone, and which mean the same as to dismiss someone?
appoint engage fire hire lay off make redundant sack take on
5. Match up the words on the left with the definitions on the right.
1. job insecurity A. decreasing the number of permanent employees
2. tenure B. generally held beliefs (that are probably false)
3. employability C. language used to persuade people to believe something
4. downsizing D. temporary jobs in companies, arranged by employment agencies
5. agency employment E. the central part of something (e.g. a company's workforce)
6. core F. the extent to which a person has skills that employers want
7. rhetoric G. the fear that you might lose your job
8. received wisdom H. the period of holding a job
6. Here is a definition of marketing. Complete it by inserting the following verbs in the gaps.
design develop identify influence modify persuade
Marketers have to (1).................................. or anticipate a consumer need; (2) .................................. a product or service that meets that need better than any competing products or services; (3) .................................. target customers to try the product or service; and, in the long term, (4) .................................. it to satisfy changes in consumer needs or market conditions. Marketers can (5) .................................. particular features, attractive packaging, and effective advertising, that will (6) .................................. consumers' wants. Marketing thus begins long before the product or service is put on the market; it combines market research, new product development, distribution, advertising, promotion, product improvement, and so on.
7. Fill the blanks with a correct word.
A .................................................................. is a person who holds a share in a property.
When you assume control or possession of a company you ................ the company ......................... .
A ........................................ is a one-person business where the individual is responsible for starting the business.
Combining two or more organizations is called a ........................................ .
A ................................. is an organization or a company which has the sole control at the market.
A ................................................... deals with the company's relationship with the outside
world, while the .................................................. deal with the internal relationship of the company.
Jake established a ................................................................................ although he knows that if his business fails he will loose all his possessions.
The other name for privatization is .............................................................................. .
A ............................................... leadership is one which leaves the workforce with little control from the management.
Money which has been earned as a profit in the past and then saved for the future is called ................................................................................. .
If the parts making up a product are delivered before they are demanded we have to do with the ................................... or the ....................................................................... .
If you ............................... a piece of equipment you do not intend to own it in the future.
.................................. is a special kind of deal where you exchange goods for goods and not for money.
With a ...................................... card you can only spend as much money as you have in your account. They do not have any limits.
8. Where possible, make nouns of the words or underlined words if they appear in an expression. Remember to change the whole expression so that it is grammatically correct.
to declare someone bankrupt
to liquidate a company
to dispose of waste products
to appraise
to recruit
to delegate responsibilities
to dismiss 20 employees
to retain profits
to underrate
to levy charges
9. Match the words from the left-hand column with the words from the right-hand column. PUT THE CORRECT NUMBER NEXT TO EACH LETTER.
bad A. market
batch B. rate
capital C. production
consumer D. debts
fringe E. durables
hold up F. in a market
niche G. employed
share H. on credit
to sell I. capital
turnover J. the production process
working K. benefits
10. Read the text and answer the questions. Some answers cannot be found in the text.
Why Your Boss Is Overpaid
It is a typical "Dilbert" strip. The boss announces, "Our CEO has voluntarily slashed his pay. [...] In a written statement, he said he wants to 'share the pain.' Do you feel better now?" A downtrodden intern replies, "I make my underpants from sandwich bags."
But that's office life, is it not? Bosses make obscene sums of money while downtrodden cubicle slaves toil almost without reward. It might seem insane, but economists have a surprise for us: The insanity reflects nothing more than cool economic logic. There is method in the madness.
The ugly truth is that your boss is probably overpaid--and it's for your benefit, not his. Why? It might be because he isn't being paid for the work he does but, rather, to inspire you. In other words, we work our socks off [...] in the hope that one day we'll win the rat race and become overpaid fat cats ourselves. Economists call this "tournament theory." [...]
The economists Edward Lazear [...] and the late Sherwin Rosen argued [...] that tournaments are an integral and often invisible part of the workplace. Workers are frequently ranked relative to each other and promoted not for being good at their jobs but for being better than their rivals. It is a natural response to the difficulty of true performance pay. [...]
Promotion tournaments sound sensible: Good workers are promoted, less capable workers are not. Yet the widespread use of tournaments also goes a long way toward explaining the frustrations of office life.
First, one way for you to win is for your colleagues to lose. Companies that rely too heavily on competition to determine promotions may find their employees discover that the most efficient way of winning a promotion is by sabotaging the efforts of their rivals. You don't need economic theory to spot that risk. [...]
Tournaments also demand increasingly absurd pay packages as workers get higher up the hierarchy. At the lowest level, a promotion may not need to carry much of a pay increase, because it opens up the possibility of future, lucrative promotions. Nearer the end of your career, only a fat check is likely to spur you on.
Lazear and Rozen's tournament theory has stood the test of time and been supported by many subsequent pieces of empirical research. It also passes the smell test: The more grotesque your boss's pay and the less he has to do to earn it, the bigger the motivation for you to work for a promotion. As Lazear wrote in his book, Personnel Economics for Managers, "The salary of the vice president acts not so much as motivation for the vice president as it does as motivation for the assistant vice presidents.
Economists don't even pretend that your boss deserves his salary. Suddenly, everything is clear.
What does CEO stand for?
What does it mean “to slash one's pay”?
What is the one-word antonym to “overpaid”?
Explain the expression “rat race” in a few words
Explain in a few words what the “tournament theory” is about.
Replace the word “hierarchy” with another one meaning “informal hierarchy”.
Give a synonym to the expression “spur someone on”.
underwrite security issues
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