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BEC HigherPRACTICE EXERCISES AND TEST

ML_BEC_Higher_CVR.indd 1 10/02/2015 09:34

Pearson Education LimitedEdinburgh GateHarlowEssex CM20 2JEEnglandand Associated Companies throughout the world.

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© Pearson Education Limited 2015

The right of Lizzie Wright to be identified as author of this Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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First published 2015ISBN: 978-1-4479-9950-8Set in MetaPlus 9.5/11ptPrinted in Slovakia by Neografia

AcknowledgementsWe are grateful to the following for permission to reproduce copyright material:

TextArticle on page 4 from The rule breaker at IWC on the move to go global (Elizabeth Paton), © The Financial Times Limited. All Rights Reserved; Article 5. from Overworked and uninspired the misery of the middle manager (Lucy Kellaway), © The Financial Times Limited. All Rights Reserved; Article 7. from What the best parents can teach us about management (Michael Sapinker), © The Financial Times Limited. All Rights Reserved; Article 12. from Dixons Carphone case study: the hard work after the merger fanfare (Andrew Hill), © The Financial Times Limited. All Rights Reserved; Article on page 27 from For teenage tycoons it is a case of jam today (Emma Jacobs), © The Financial Times Limited. All Rights Reserved; Article on page 28 from BUSINESS LIFE - Lessons from a corporate health scare in China (Josh Noble), © The Financial Times Limited. All Rights Reserved; Article on page 30 from The Lex Column - consumer goods: luxury prices (Lex’), © The Financial Times Limited. All Rights Reserved

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A00_MARK_CB_ADVGLB_8890_IMP.indd 1 14/05/2015 13:25

1

INTR

OD

UCTIO

N

Introduction

The Market Leader series is a fantastic resource

for students aiming to take the BEC exams as it

covers and practises the kind of language required

in an international business environment. When

working through the Market Leader Advanced units,

students should be encouraged to skim read, to

guess the meaning of unknown words and to find

synonyms and paraphrases for common words and

expressions as these are all skills which will help

with the BEC Higher exam.

BEC Higher Practice Exercises bookletThis booklet offers practice for BEC Higher exam

with a strong tie-in to Market Leader Advanced. It

provides Reading and Writing tasks that will help

familiarise students with the different task types

and give practice for the exam, as well as act as

revision practice for non-exam students. Each unit

has one Reading and one Writing task, which are

closely aligned to the vocabulary, grammar and

topic of the corresponding Market Leader unit.

Furthermore, each task has been aligned to the

Global Scale of English, developed by Pearson, to

ensure that it is at the appropriate level.

Speaking and Listening tests have not been

included in the practice booklet, but Market

Leader Advanced Course Book provides plenty

of BEC-relevant practice for these skills. Specific

information showing how the Course Book can be

used as practice for the Listening and Speaking

exams is included in the Teacher’s Notes, which can

be found on the Market Leader website.

How to use this practice bookletThe exam tasks can be used as both a teaching

and a testing device. A tip box at the beginning

of each task gives advice on how to approach the

task. Teachers can work through the tasks with

the students at first, helping them to analyse the

task closely in order to develop exam techniques

of speed and accuracy. Students will benefit

from the opportunity to develop techniques for

approaching the tasks, which will reduce the time

pressure many students feel when faced with the

real exam.

Reading tasksThe Reading tasks use some authentic FT articles,

slightly adapted to suit the level, as well as texts

specially written to match BEC exam tasks. These will

naturally have some unknown vocabulary and will

help students to practise finding the answers despite

not being familiar with some of the language. Where

possible, vocabulary and grammar from the units are

tested, but all the targeted language matches the

type of language tested in the BEC exam.

Writing tasksAll the Writing tasks are linked to the topic of

the corresponding Market Leader Advanced unit

and accurately reflect the exam task formats that

students will encounter. Once again, teachers

can work through the first few Writing tasks with

the students, guiding them on how to approach

each task, especially making sure that all the

content points required for the task are included in

responses. After that, the tasks will give students

an opportunity to practise answering the questions

within the time allowed as well as help them to

become familiar with the number of words required

for each task.

BEC Higher practice testAt the end of the booklet there is one full Reading

and Writing practice test for BEC Higher, which

should be carried out under exam conditions. This

allows both teachers and students to gauge how

ready they are to take the exam and to give them

an idea of what grade they could expect in these

two papers.

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1unit

TIPS

– Read the questions carefully first.

– The words in the questions are usually not the same as the words in the text so look for

paraphrases in the text. Words from the questions may well be in other texts.

– Make sure the text matches the question exactly.

• Look at the statements below from an article about first impressions.

• Which section (A, B, C, D or E) does each statement 1–8 refer to?

• For each statement 1–8, mark one letter (A, B, C, D or E).

• You will need to use some of these letters more than once.

Example

0 A decision to talk to someone is often made by just hearing their voice. D

1 Grooming and attire are extremely important for an initial contact. 2 First impressions often take precedence over factual knowledge. 3 Studies prove that initial impressions favour indications of knowhow

and honesty. 4 Quick assessments of people are counteracted by a more

thoughtful process. 5 The ability to do a job well is more important than self-assurance.

6 We judge people more favourably if contact with them could be

beneficial to us. 7 People have an instinctive reaction to vocal sounds heard for the first time.

8 The ability to maximise one’s best features is very useful in business.

A However hard we try, first impressions usually remain with us and affect every aspect

of business: meetings, presentations, interviews, demonstrations, advertising and web

design, for example. Research shows that it only takes a twentieth of a second for a

person to decide if they like a webpage or not. So, if a potential customer takes against

the site immediately, business will be lost, even if the product or service offered is second

to none. First impressions are so powerful that they will often override whatever people

may tell us to the contrary about a person.

B Experts believe there are two thought systems in our brains. The first is fast, intuitive and

emotional, and is involved in first impressions. The second is slower, more contemplative

and logical. The former comes into play in that split-second when first seeing or hearing

someone. Furthermore, we assess people according to our own social or business world,

so if we feel that they will be useful to us, we will focus more on their positive aspects

than their negatives. This is when the second system is brought into play so that snap

judgements are balanced out.

READING PART ONE

Reading and Writing


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UNIT 1 •• READING AND WRITING

C Nevertheless, it is appearance that tends to blot out all other aspects in the first instance

and, as people make up their minds about someone in the first four to seven seconds,

then it is a no-brainer to ensure you look the part. If someone fits in with our idea of

a trustworthy, good person, then we may lean towards a favourable view of them.

Successful movers and shakers are able to leverage all their attributes to their greatest

advantage when networking or making business deals.

D When presenting yourself or your company to a roomful of people, the intonation and

modulation of your voice can indicate how trustworthy people perceive you. For example,

the first greeting can seal that first impression and determine whether the listener will

want to continue the interaction. Research suggests that some voices just sound more

trustworthy and pleasant. Experts have discovered that our ability to judge whether to

approach someone is often based on the first utterance from them, has evolved over

millennia and is used by all mammals.

E Establishing credibility as quickly as possible is vital if business deals are to be

successfully negotiated and sealed. Appearance, voice, gestures and mannerisms are all

absorbed to create a first impression. Many people say that a strong handshake indicates

a confident professional and it helps to confirm a good first impression. However,

research has shown that confidence is not necessarily the most important characteristic

we seek. Instead it seems that we are concerned mainly with two traits which account for

between 80 and 90 per cent of first impressions: competence and trustworthiness.

TIPS

– Read all the instructions carefully and underline key words.

– Look at the graphs carefully to make sure you understand fully what they represent.

– Check the format required (email, letter, report, etc.).

– Write at least 120 words. If you write fewer you will lose marks. You do not get extra marks

if you write more than 140 words.

• A local networking group aims to help start-ups in the area. The first chart below shows the

unemployment situation in the local area and the number of applicants wanting financial

support. The second chart shows the amount of money available to help.

• Using the information from the charts, write a letter inviting companies to join the network

and support the investment.

• Write 120–140 words.

WRITING PART ONE

0

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50

60

applicantsunemployment2015201420132012

thou

sand

Local situation

0

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40

50

60

70

private investmentgovernment grants

2015201420132012

thou

sand

Funds available


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TIPS

– Read the text through quickly so you know what it is about.

– Think about the meaning of each missing word.

– The four options usually have similar meanings.

– Look carefully at the text before and after each gap.

– Make sure that the word fi ts with the grammar, collocations and phrases of the text.

– Read the whole text through again to see if it makes sense with your choices.

• Read the article below about graduates and apprentices.

• Choose the best word to fi ll each gap from A, B, C or D.

• For each question 1–10, mark one letter (A, B, C or D).

• There is an example at the beginning.

Reading and Writing

GRADUATES VERSUS APPRENTICESIn the past, school (0) B have been encouraged to (1) on a university education

because it would guarantee a quick route to a good job with security and

benefi ts. People spoke of apprenticeships in a particularly (2) way, rarely

applauding their value and suggesting this course to those who were considered

academically weak.

However, the business world has changed considerably since those days and the

current thinking is that recruiting apprentices is a better option for companies.

Furthermore, apprenticeships which provide both work experience as well as

giving them a(n) (3) for university study, seem to offer the best of both worlds

for companies and employees.

In today’s fast-changing world, it is imperative that companies have staff who

can connect the (4) and who have the ability to (5) opportunities when faced

with them. When employing graduates it can take quite a long time before they

understand the company and its work culture, whereas the apprentice not only

has sector-relevant skills as they have been (6) these ever since they started,

but they also (7) in much more quickly.

Research has shown that today many employers regard graduate skills as being

somewhat (8) from practice and the necessary industry knowledge so that they

are unable to make an immediate impact on the business. Employing graduates

can often mean having to (9) teams in order to accommodate them instead

of their being able to contribute effectively to the team. It is therefore widely

recognised that having an apprenticeship system within a company (10) several

invaluable benefi ts.

READING PART FOUR


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0 A finishers B leavers C enders D workers

1 A train B learn C embark D educate

2 A pejorative B indignant C offended D disrespected

3 A budget B account C leverage D allowance

4 A spots B dots C points D marks

5 A spot B dot C glance D glimpse

6 A rehearsing B reviewing C honing D appraising

7 A sit B set C fit D get

8 A separated B distanced C split D divorced

9 A familiarise B rejig C expose D accustom

10 A confers B educates C reveals D discloses

TIPS


– Check the format required (proposal, letter, report, etc.).

– Structure your answer with clear paragraphs.

– Use a range of business words and linkers.

– Keep checking the question to remember the purpose of writing.



• Your HR Director has asked you to summarise the benefits of two training courses which

staff attended in the past year as there was negative feedback from some staff. Suggest a

new course for the coming year.

• Write a proposal, including the following points:

– brief details of the two courses

– an evaluation of them

– suggestion for a new course

– description of benefits of the new course.


WRITING PART TWO


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unit 3

TIPS


– Think about what part of speech is missing.

– Think about the possible meaning of the missing word.

– Check the words before and after the gap so see if it is a common partnership or collocation.

– Read the whole text through again to see if it makes sense with your answers.

• Read the article below about green buildings.

• For each question 1–10, write ONE word.


READING PART FIVE

Reading and Writing

ENERGY EFFICIENT BUILDINGS(0) Due to international agreements on the need to reduce carbon emissions

and fossil fuel consumption, businesses have been forced to consider ways to

reduce them. The ultimate aim is (1) all businesses to operate (2) of

green buildings. These days designers have to (3) up with different ways

of incorporating energy effi ciency into the fabric of a building, using only clean

energy such as solar or wind power. These green buildings should then be easier

and cheaper to operate and maintain.

In the past many companies have been reluctant to engage (4) the idea

of green energy and buildings because initial costs have been so high. This

has therefore stifl ed any enthusiasm for change and, added to that, a lack of

incentive for them to (5) so has meant that the take-up has been rather

slower than anticipated. However, nowadays the buildings are as cost-effective

as conventional ones and companies are able to see a good return (6)

their investment in a relatively short time. These buildings also provide staff with

a much better environment in (7) to work, thus improving productivity and

the ability for companies to retain staff. (8) addition, it is proving easier to

attract tenants and command high rents in green buildings than in a traditional

building, thus proving that they can be a very good investment.

(9) a company is not in line for purchasing a new building, then older

buildings can be retrofi tted with resource-saving technologies. However, the

misconception that this investment is not fi nancially viable has meant that

once again, the take-up has not been as successful as governments might have

hoped it (10) be.


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TIPS


– Look at the bar chart carefully to make sure you understand fully what it represents.




• The bar chart below shows the current cost of energy consumption for your business and the

projected costs over the next five years comparing the current system to investing in solar or

wind power.

• Using the information from the chart, write a report for the Managing Director about the

comparative costs.


WRITING PART ONE

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120

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160

Wind powerSolar power Current system

20202019201820172016

£ th

ousa

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Projected energy costs


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unit 4

TIPS

– Read through the whole text fi rst.

– The extra word must be grammatically wrong or does not fi t in with the text. It cannot be

just unnecessary.

– One word may have several common partnerships so look carefully at the sentence before

making your choice.

– Look closely at verbs to see if they are in the correct tense and form.

– Look closely at relative pronouns, articles, qualifi ers, prepositions, linkers etc.

• Read the text below about customer-centric marketing.

• In most of the lines 1–12 there is one extra word. It is either grammatically incorrect or does

not fi t in with the meaning of the text. Some lines, however, are correct.

• If a line is correct, TICK ( ) the line.

• If there is an extra word in the line, write the extra word in CAPITAL LETTERS.

• The exercise begins with two examples.

READING PART SIX

Reading and Writing

CUSTOMER-CENTRIC MARKETING 0 How annoyed do you get by those pop-up ads that suddenly appear on your screen?

00 Today companies know that what we look at online, they can discover our THAT

1 interests, our likes, our needs and then use of this data and customer analytics to

2 put the customer at the centre of their marketing design and delivery. What that

3 means they have to think like their customers: how convenient is it the business

4 for customers? What extra value can be built in to keep up customers interested

5 and then fi nd a hook that appeals to them? The collected consumer data allows

6 companies to create tailor-made advertising which targeting the individual and to

7 build long-term relationships with customers, giving to them a reason to be

8 emotionally involved in the products. In fact, because fi nding new customers is

9 ten times more than expensive. So these days retaining existing customers just

10 makes no sense for companies to go the extra mile. With all this knowledge and

11 the multichannel relationships sellers have with their consumers, it is more

12 important than ever so to send the right message to each consumer, and pop-up ads may not be the way to go as they can annoy rather than encourage consumers just

as cold-calling and mailshots used to do.


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TIPS


– Look at the table carefully to make sure you understand fully what it represents.




• You are a Sales Director. The chain of department stores you work for wants to modernise

and refurbish its stores. Customers have completed a survey.

• Using the information from the survey, summarise the information in an email to the

Marketing Director.


WRITING PART ONE

To: Marketing Director

From: Sales Director

Subject: Customer survey

CUSTOMER SURVEY YES NO

The pricing is competitive. 62% 30%

The products are up-to-date. 46% 52%

I like the advertising campaigns. 30% 70%

Staff are helpful and courteous. 84% 10%

The after-sales service is very good. 75% 15%

The logo and image are old-fashioned. 85% 10%


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unit 5

TIPS

– Read through the whole text fi rst so you get an idea of how it fl ows and what it’s about.

– Make sure that the sentence you choose fi ts grammatically and in terms of the meaning of

the text both with the sentence before and the sentence after it.

– Remember there is always an extra sentence which does not fi t anywhere.

• Read the article below about employment trends and their effect on companies.

• Choose the best sentence (A–H) to fi ll each of the gaps.

• For each gap 1–6, mark one letter (A–H).

• Do not use any letter more than once.


READING PART TWO

Reading and Writing

Who will train the new generation of ‘plug and play’ workers?

Mary Barra is a lifer, born and bred to do the job she now holds. But as General Motors' Chief Executive pointed out

5 in an interview last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, few young Americans now anticipate spending their lives in the warm embrace of

10 a single employer, as she has. (0) H It is a prediction that

seems to transfi x chief executives, many of whom have themselves risen through the ranks after long

15 tenure at a single company, as they wonder how to engage younger staff. One way is ‘to make sure they have career development and meaningful work’, Ms Barra said.

20 However, I foresee tension between large employers’ offer oflong-range, deeply thought-out,but often costly, training and the short period of time most of

25 those staff will stay put. (1) One would be that

young workers turn out to be more loyal to single companies than they currently expect and

30 that employers will be more loyal to them. But I doubt it. A truism that executives trot out more frequently than any other is that the only constant of modern

35 business is rapid change. (2)

Another possibility is that employers will fi ght ever more fi ercely to acquire skilled workers from one another.

40 Opinions differ about whether this works. I heard one consultant last week extolling the way his company was now home to a bunch of tattooed millennials

45 following a takeover. (3)

I agree with the second consultant. But many companies, particularly in the US, are impatient for ‘plug and play’

50 staff – that is, the perfect person, made to order, ready for their position and ready to go. (4) If the average assignment length for individual employees could

55 be as short as three years, you cannot afford to waste too much time settling people in.

Vishal Sikka, Chief Executive

of India's Infosys, told me last60 week that he saw his main role as

providing the right ‘context’ for new staff. ‘It comes down to how quickly you can absorb the ability of a person to contribute to the

65 context you have created,’ he said. (5) He was appointed from

SAP last year. He is also a fan of ‘tours of duty’ – mutually benefi cial short-term agreements between

70 employer and employee. But this approach leaves unanswered the question of how companies will in future sustain the strong sense of purpose and values that young

75 employees fi nd attractive, if most of the long-serving employees, who used to provide the backbone of big companies, no longer stay on.

Infosys and other multi-80 nationals continue, rightly,

to set great store by their leadership institutes and training programmes. (6) For instance, can a project, staffed by short-term

85 contractors, connected virtually, and led by executives on two-year tours of duty, have a culture?

by Andrew Hill


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WRITING PART TWO

TIPS

– Read all the instructions very carefully and underline key words.


– Structure your answer with clear headings and paragraphs.

– Use a range of business words and linkers.

– Keep checking the question to remember the purpose of writing.



• The HR Director of your company is worried about the high turnover of managers in the

company, and has asked you to investigate the situation and suggest ways of improving

staff retention.

• Write a proposal for the HR Director, including the following information:

– outlining the purpose of the proposal

– describing the main reasons why managers are leaving the company

– suggesting ways in which the company can keep these managers

– proposing what the company should do next.


A Ms Barra herself forecast that her industry would change more in the next 5–10 years than it

has in the past 50.

B But as the form of companies changes to more collaborative networks it is increasingly hard

to see what the workers of 2075 will belong to.

C Even those chief executives who are trying to train workers internally have to be ready to

induct staff rapidly into their companies.

D Developing skilled employees for an ‘on demand’ age is an urgent priority.

E This contradiction could resolve itself in a number of ways.

F Unlike his predecessors, Mr Sikka was not one of the technology consulting group's

founding entrepreneurs.

G But another said companies put far too much weight on ‘talent acquisition’ and too little on

developing future leaders in-house.

H Ms Barra was not the only executive at Davos to point to surveys that suggest American

‘millennials’ (born 1980–1999) now expect to do between 15–20 jobs in their lifetime.


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unit 6

TIPS

– Read through the whole text fi rst to ensure you understand the main point of the text.

– Read the fi rst question and then read the fi rst part of the text to fi nd the answer.

– Underline key words in the question option.

– Question options usually use synonyms. Look for words in the text with similar meanings.

– Check that your choice refl ects exactly what is said in the text.

• Read the extract below about whistleblowers.

• For each question 1–6, mark one letter (A, B, C or D) for the answer you choose.

READING PART THREE

Reading and Writing

Whistleblowing is not for the faint-hearted – and especially not on Wall Street

On Wall Street, as everyone now knows, wrongdoing by bankers, traders and executives led to disaster in 2008 after

5 they were rewarded for taking risks with other people's money. Leading bankers and traders were motivated – by the hope of getting large bonuses – to package

10 up mortgages into securities and then sell them off as AAA-rated investments all over the world.

This happened even though one damning email after another

15 makes clear they knew some of the mortgages would probably default and that the securities should never have been sold in the fi rst place. But some people did try

20 to blow the whistle – the problem is they were not listened to. Worse than that, they were treated in a way that would discourage anyone from following in their footsteps.

25 I interviewed three whistle-blowers – from different periods of the recent crises that have befallen Wall Street. All three of them made allegations of

30 wrongdoing at their banks, made strenuous efforts to report what they had discovered through internal and external channels, and all three were either fi red from

35 their jobs after trying to share the information they had stumbled upon or quit in frustration.

Their testimonies and the details of what happened to

40 them are important. Not only do they illustrate the existential risks that whistleblowers take when they attempt to point out wrongdoing that they uncover

45 at powerful institutions. They also matter because their stories show just how uninterested these institutions genuinely remain – despite the lip service of internal

50 hotlines and support groups – in actually ferreting out bad behaviour. The stories of these three whistleblowers reveal, too, how little the regulators charged

55 with keeping watch over the Wall Street banks seem to care about holding them in any way accountable. Often the regulators seemed to be willing to ignore

60 the allegations presented to them. Towards the end of 2003,

Peter Sivere, a mid-level compliance offi cer at JPMorgan Chase, blew the whistle on the

65 Wall Street behemoth. In the course of his job, he had found emails and documents relating to a subpoena from the SEC, which was investigating ‘late

70 trading’ – Sivere believed the bank had failed to turn them over. In October 2004, he paid for his ‘insubordination’, as JPMorgan Chase executives referred to it,

75 with his job and nearly with his career. It's an old story that has happened repeatedly on Wall Street and in other industries: someone sees wrongdoing, tries

80 to alert his or her superiors as well as the authorities, and the thanks they get for trying to do the right thing is their notice and an overwhelming feeling

85 of helplessness. Although the events occurred nearly 10 years ago, Sivere still feels their effects.

He concedes, looking back, that he could have been more alert

90 to the warning signals. Soon after he fi rst raised his concerns, he was demoted and forced to report to people he once supervised, which was humiliating, but he

95 has no regrets about becoming a whistleblower. But he still wonders why JPMorgan Chase did not support him. He says, ‘I had no reason to believe what I

100 did was contrary to what senior management would expect from me and any JPMorgan Chase employee. You are taught at a young age right from wrong. Yet

105 as we grow older and have our own self-interests in sight many of us lose that feeling of right and wrong.’ The ordeal taught Sivere much about the way the world

110 works and the powerful forces aligned against whistleblowers.

by William C Cohen


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1 In the first paragraph we learn that financial executives

A denied financial irregularities prior to 2008.

B discovered that mortgages were a secure way of making money.

C received awards for the investment packages they produced.

D brought about their own demise in 2008.

2 According to the second paragraph, the financial industry

A sold off the mortgages when people defaulted on them.

B were unable to offload enough mortgages to minimise costs.

C dismissed the claims about financial irregularities when they were made.

D explained that whistleblowers’ accusations were incorrect.

3 The writer says that the people he interviewed

A risked their lives to blow the whistle.

B tried very hard to report irregularities to authorities.

C were all dismissed from their positions in the company.

D found themselves covering up wrongdoings.

4 The writer believes that their stories are important because they

A demonstrate how keen companies are to discover wrongdoing.

B highlight the failure of authorities charged with controlling the industry.

C show that support groups within companies are very effective.

D reveal that several companies have been found guilty by regulators.

5 In Peter Sivere’s experience, he

A found uncovering secrets ultimately a very traumatic event.

B helped his company to comply with the law.

C expected to be promoted for discovering irregularities.

D was disappointed at being unable to change anything.

6 According to Peter Sivere,

A his demotion made him even more determined to tell the truth.

B he believed that he had behaved in accordance with company policy.

C big organisations are always impossible to bring to account.

D he was ill-advised to try and warn the company about the problems.

TIPS



– Use clear headings and subheadings, and a range of business words and linkers.



• The company you work for has recently been accused in the press of sourcing products

unethically. Firstly, a range of clothes is produced overseas in sweatshops where the staff are

paid very little and have no benefits. Secondly, some so-called organic food products have

been found to be from non-organic farms. The CEO has asked you to investigate and write a

report about these situations and make recommendations.

• Write a report for the CEO, including the following information:

– explaining about the clothes range and describing conditions

– giving details of the food product which was sourced unethically and explaining why this

has happened

– recommending actions to avoid these problems in the future.


WRITING PART TWO


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unit 7

TIPS

– Read through the whole text fi rst so you get an idea of how it fl ows and what it’s about.

– Make sure that the sentence you choose fi ts grammatically and in terms of the meaning of

the text with both the sentence before and the sentence after it.

– Remember there is always an extra sentence which does not fi t anywhere.

• Read the article below about sustainable investment.

• Choose the best sentence (A–H) to fi ll each of the gaps.




Reading and Writing

READING PART TWO

PRIVATE BANKING – ALTERNATIVE INVESTING –Next generation of opportunities is sustainable and story-led

Clients are being steered to a range of non-traditional options. Wealthy clients of Swiss private bank Julius Baer gather in the

5 lobby of The Crystal, one of the world’s most ecologically friendly buildings, located in London’s Docklands. (0) H

The Julius Baer initiative, 10 supported by Boris Collardi,

its youthful chief executive, marks the start of a race among banks to be seen as relevant to a changing society, and willing

15 to invest outside the limits of traditional portfolios. (1)

Showing its wares at the Next Generation Conference was SenseCore, manufacturers

20 of wearable technology. (2) SenseCore has so far received €10m in investment from the bank’s clients.

Other Julius Baer projects 25 include supporting ‘smart cities’

and electric technology for Formula E races, the fi rst of which was held in Beijing in September. (3) ‘In the next few decades,

30 we are not just looking at the rise of China, India and Brazil,’ says Burkhard Varnholt, Julius

Baer’s chief investment offi cer. ‘We will favour those countries

35 that truly understand sustainable development, at a political and economic level. That idea embraces the responsibility we have as investment managers.’

40 This approach has been adopted by other private banks. With traditional portfolios expected to deliver only single-digit returns, recommending

45 a handful of smaller ventures has also been embraced by US bank Citi, which recently held a seminar in London where 12 start-ups pitched to its clients.

50 Bankers involved in the Citi event say the companies were not high-tech enterprises, and instead were well-managed ‘old economy’ companies

55 involved in oil exploration, car parts manufacturing and clothing retail. (4)

These story-led opportunities can be used to tempt clients out

60 of a cash-hoarding mentality. (5) But the cost of holding excessive cash will become starker as monetary policy and economic growth trends

65 potentially diverge in 2015. He continues, ‘This leaves scope for interesting opportunities for more trading-oriented investors.

For 2015, the bank thinks 70 clients should revisit emerging

market equities, particularly as Asian countries will benefi t from lower oil prices and the wealth this generates is likely to

75 spill over into greater consumer spending. However, Mr Kuehne recommends clients seek stock-picking opportunities rather than broad investments in a country

80 or sector equity tracking fund. (6) Their concerns relate to

risks of eurozone stagnation plus fears of liquidity-fuelled assets that could see violent corrections.

85 Investors must seek global companies less dependent on macro headlines, says Mr Duret. ‘In a hesitant recovery, industry matters more than geography.’

90 Yet Swiss private bankers such as Pictet say client memories are still raw from equity downturns of 2002 and 2008, and they are now ultra-cautious.

by Yuri Bender


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WRITING PART TWO

A Jazmin Sawyers, the UK’s long jump silver medallist in the 2014 Commonwealth Games,

demonstrated the clothing, which analyses respiratory, heart and temperature data, helping

improve performance and detect ailments.

B The ‘great rotation’ from bonds into equities has not happened, says Didier Duret, Chief

Investment Officer at ABN Amro Private Banking, who says investors are clinging to cash.

C However, they say that there are plenty of initiatives in the tech space, but that clients show

particular interest in investing in the nuts and bolts of the economy.

D Among markets he has recommended are allocations to the US, Japan, China and the rest

of Asia.

E Instead of the 60:40 equity-to-bonds formula so beloved of wealth managers, Julius Baer’s

focus on direct investments in smaller ventures is attracting clients.

F The Swiss bank believes these sustainable, futuristic investments make sense in a world of

low bond returns and unpredictable equity markets.

G ‘A modest exposure to cash for future investment opportunities makes sense in a client

portfolio,’ says Daniel Kuehne, Head of Investment Solutions and Markets at Julius Baer.

H They are attending a summit dedicated to new ideas, long-term profitability

and sustainability.

TIPS


– Check the format required (proposal, letter, report, etc.)


– Write at least 200 words. If you write fewer, you will lose marks. You do not get extra

marks if you write more than 250 words.

• Your bank has been asked by Mr Jones, a local businessman, for a €200,000 loan to extend

his jewellery workshop and employ two new people, as he cannot keep up with the online

orders he is now getting. The bank has asked you to write a letter to Mr Jones to explain why

it is only prepared to lend €50,000.

• Write the letter to Mr Jones:

– explaining why the bank can only offer €50,000

– describing the positive aspects of his business

– suggesting where Mr Jones could possibly get other investment.



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unit 8

TIPS

– Read through the whole text fi rst.

– The extra word must be grammatically wrong or does not fi t in with the text. It cannot be

just unnecessary.

– One word may have several common partnerships so look carefully at the sentence before

making your choice.

– Look closely at verbs to see if they are in the correct tense and form.

– Look closely at relative pronouns, articles, qualifi ers, prepositions, linkers, etc.

• Read the text below about management consulting.





• The exercise begins with two examples.

READING PART SIX

Reading and Writing

ARE MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS WORTH IT? 0 Management consultants can either be considered a costly waste of money or an

00 invaluable asset to an organisation. Whatever your view about them, any recent ANY

1 research confi rms that they provide with valuable expertise and knowledge,

2 techniques and methods to do fully analyse an organisation. Having an objective

3 perspective that is really necessary in business. If problems keep recurring, they

4 need to be hammered out and resolved as soon as possible, but long-standing,

5 deeply-entrenched members of a business may not be able to be detach themselves

6 emotionally from the business in order to do this. A good consultant should also

7 be up-to-date with such best practices within the industry and able to develop

8 into strategies to enable the business to successfully move forward as well as

9 overseeing the implementation of which those strategies. After weeks of minute

10 scrutiny of staff performance and operational effi ciency of a business, so many

11 staff breathe a sigh of relief when the experts pack them up their laptop and

12 leave the building out for the last time. However, business leaders are satisfi ed and that consultants saved the business from failure and helped it survive the economic

vicissitudes of global change.


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TIPS


– Look at the graph and table carefully to make sure you understand fully what

they represent.




• You are a Management Consultant working with a manufacturer of smartphone accessories

whose profits have fallen significantly over the past three years. The CEO of the company has

asked you for an interim report summarising the current situation.

• Using the information from the graph and table, write a report for the CEO summarising the

key costs and staff opinions.


WRITING PART ONE

£100,000

£500,000

£1m

£1.5m

£2m

Production costsStaffing costs Sales figures

2016201520142013

Key financials

STAFF OPINIONS

ISSUE Poor % Satisfactory % Good %

Salary 68 25 7

Work environment 54 43 3

Career prospects 85 5 10


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unit 9

TIPS

– Read the questions carefully first.

– The words in the questions are usually not the same as the words in the text so look for

paraphrases in the text. Words from the questions may well be in other texts.

– Make sure the text matches the question exactly.

• Look at the statements below and at the five extracts from an article about strategy.

• Which section (A, B, C, D or E) does each statement 1–8 refer to?



Example

0 Certain products were becoming cheaper C

1 Customers have changed their purchasing habits. 2 The regulatory body accepts that the industry has changed dramatically. 3 Many copycat companies had started very quickly. 4 New companies are providing niche products. 5 The riskiest strategy is to do absolutely nothing. 6 The authorities failed to recognise the advent of change. 7 A common industry strategy had been rendered useless. 8 Both positive and negative tactics can be learned from this sector.

A BUSINESS LIFE – ANDREW HILL – ON MANAGEMENTTake note: seven lessons in strategy from Staples’ desk

by Andrew Hill

In 1986, Tom Stemberg opened the first Staples superstore in Massachusetts. Stationery

retailers have not stood still since. By 1990, Mr Stemberg’s disruptive bright idea had

spawned dozens of lookalike office supply warehouses. Consolidation followed, but in

1997, regulators blocked Staples’ bid for Office Depot. Last week, Office Depot again

agreed to be bought by Staples, for $6 billion. Antitrust approval is not a given, but what

the US Federal Trade Commission deemed a potentially dominant position 18 years ago

now looks more like a defensive necessity. So is that it for the category-killing, big-box

retail trend of which Staples was part? Almost certainly not. The industry can still teach

others a few lessons about strategy – and they are not all gloomy.

B Do not count on staying dominant. As Rita Gunther McGrath noted in her book The End of Competitive Advantage, with few exceptions, ‘stability, not change, is the state that is

most dangerous in highly dynamic competitive environments’. Mr Stemberg and others

fired the staple-gun that launched a new era, in which the half-life of dominant companies

has shortened dramatically. A strategy that had served stationers and their customers

well for centuries withered in 1986, but Staples’ approach barely survived ten years

before it too was under attack.

READING PART ONE

Reading and Writing


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C Stay competitive on price. Staples and others launched at a point when the cost of office

machines was starting to fall. Sales of computer and printer equipment provided a solid

foundation for growth, underpinning the discounts on pens, paper and notepads and

other bulk supplies. It soon became clear, however, that in retail, your biggest competitor

is the Internet. Two years ago, when it approved a merger between Office Depot and

OfficeMax, number three in the market, the FTC conceded that customers now ‘look

beyond’ superstores.

D In fact, if the commissioners had glanced up in 1997, they would have seen Amazon,

which went public that year, on the horizon. At the time, Staples rightly argued the

Internet would increase price transparency. But it was still early days: the commission

concentrated instead on the deal’s impact on the fraction of the market served by

superstores. But do not ignore your offline competitors. Big suppliers proved susceptible

to death by a thousand paper-cuts on Main Street and in malls, as the likes of Costco, the

retail club, Target and Walmart’s supermarkets and Walgreens’ pharmacies extended their

stationery departments.

E Dominance opens a (small) space for specialists. Tablets and smartphones may have

cut bulk orders of printer ink and paper, and offered consumers alternatives to pad, pen

and pencil. But specialist stationers are starting to fill a niche for retail customers with

bespoke, high-end or quirky ranges of the same paperclips, ballpoint pens and notebooks

sold by the discounters.

TIPS




– Write at least 200 words. If you write fewer, you will lose marks. You do not get extra

marks if you write more than 250 words.

• Your company, a supermarket chain, is experiencing steadily falling sales in the domestic

market. Your boss has asked you to write a report to outline the problems and suggest a new

strategy to improve sales and for overseas expansion.

• Write the report for your boss, including the following:

– two reasons for falling sales

– strategies to deal with the above problems

– strategy for expansion overseas

– conclusion.


WRITING PART TWO


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unit 10

TIPS

– Read through the whole text fi rst to ensure you understand the main point of the text.

– Read the fi rst question and then read the fi rst part of the text to fi nd the answer.

– Underline key words in the question option.

– Question options usually use synonyms. Look for words in the text with similar meanings.

– Check that your choice refl ects exactly what is said in the text.

• Read the article below about Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM.


READING PART THREE

Reading and Writing

LUNCH WITH THE FT – GINNI ROMETTY – Corporate titan, computer geek

Virginia Rometty, or ‘Ginni’ as she is usually known, is arguably the most powerful female business leader in the world. She

5 runs IBM, a company with almost half a million employees. Its technology is found in 90 per cent of the world’s banks, 80 per cent of its airlines and 70 per cent of all

10 corporate enterprises. Last year it produced revenues of $93 billion. She is, in short, a corporate titan.

In 1981, after working at GM for two years, Rometty

15 joined IBM as a systems engineer, then spent the next 30 years diligently climbing the corporate ladder, doing a range of different computing, analytical,

20 management and fi nancial jobs. She became known for her focus, discipline and self-control – and loyalty to the gigantic corporate edifi ce. She never thought of

25 leaving, and explains that many senior IBM staff have been there for decades. ‘The network of talent around you is phenomenal, and the biggest reason we exist

30 is because of our mission, our purpose. We do the most critical things in the world,’ she says.

Her conviction is powerful. But in the fast-moving modern world,

35 is it really a benefi t to have this famous history and long-serving workforce? ‘One of the biggest lessons I have learnt at IBM is the importance of knowing what must

40 change and what must endure,’

she admits. ‘There’s this balance, which we need to fi nd.’ At IBM, the balance seems particularly hard. When the company was

45 founded, in 1911, it was a manufacturer of business goods, such as punch card tabulators, the fi rst commercial data processing machines. In the mid-20th

50 century it moved into mainframe computers with great success. But in the 1980s it slid into decline as personal computers eclipsed the mainframe computing business.

55 That changed in 1993, when Louis Gerstner took the helm and implemented one of the most dramatic turnaround stories in corporate history. He switched

60 the company from hardware to software, and dragged it on to the Internet. A decade on, Gerstner’s successor, Sam Palmisano, delighted investors by promising

65 to deliver $10 earnings per share by 2010 and $20 by 2015. Although IBM hit the fi rst of these targets, when Rometty took over earlier this decade, she abandoned

70 Palmisano’s other target. Her plan falls, essentially,

into three parts. First, she plans to take IBM out of unprofi table business lines, just as Gerstner did

75 in the 1990s. The second strand of her reform aims is to persuade her staff to reinvent themselves; instead of focusing on their traditional products and services,

80 she wants them to think about

client solutions. When she became chief, she decreed that IBM would conduct a mass cyber ‘learning experience’ on the fi rst Friday

85 of each month, called Think Academy. ‘It’s all interactive, it’s live and it’s mandatory for all IBM-ers,’ she says.

The third leg of Rometty’s90 revival campaign is a bold plan

to shift the company into new technologies. She is forging partnerships with groups such as Apple and Twitter to exploit

95 mobile technologies, and developing services such as cloud computing and cybersecurity, which provide a growing proportion of IBM’s revenues. It’s

100 clear, however, that what really excites her is artifi cial intelligence.

IBM has also built a centre housing a new supercomputer, known as Watson. This is

105 pioneering AI – or what Rometty calls ‘cognitive computing’, which she believes will help doctors make diagnoses, lawyers conduct legal discovery, or

110 journalists conduct investigations. ‘We are entering a new age of machines. In the fi rst era, machines could just count things. Then they were programmable,

115 and everything is programmable today. But this is the third era – it’s an era when the machine learns. You don’t just program it. It learns. That is what IBM does

120 now. We are leading the way.’

by Gillian Tett


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1 In the first paragraph, we learnt that

A Ginni Rometty is a very important presence in business.

B IBM controls several airline companies.

C Ginni Rometty could be a world leader.

D last year IBM earned more than some banks.

2 What does paragraph 2 tell us about Ginni Rometty?

A Originally she did not plan to stay in the company.

B She joined IBM with the intention of becoming the CEO.

C She holds her colleagues in great esteem.

D Her loyalty to the company is unusual.

3 According to Ginni Rometty, IBM

A was quick to adapt to the arrival of the personal computer.

B has suffered from an imbalance of power.

C has succeeded in knowing when to adapt.

D has failed to recover from some industry changes.

4 What does the article say about her predecessors?

A Gerstner struggled to bring the company up-to-date.

B Palmisano increased the number of company shares.

C Gerstner approved of Palmisano’s strategy.

D Palmisano increased the share value of the company.

5 What does the article say about Rometty’s plans?

A Unprofitable parts of the business will be sold.

B All staff have to participate in online training.

C IBM needs to focus on traditional products.

D An improvement in customer service is top of the list.

6 According to Rometty, the future of her business is to

A develop hardware with artificial intelligence.

B sell technology for medical purposes.

C follow what competitors are doing.

D improve the current system of programming.

TIPS






• You are the HR Manager of a company that has just appointed a Social Media Manager for

the first time.

• Write a letter to the successful candidate, Ms James:

– offering her the job

– describing the current situation without a manager

– outlining the role of Social Media Manager

– saying what you hope she will be able to achieve.


WRITING PART TWO


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unit 11

TIPS


– Think about the meaning of each missing word.

– The four options usually have similar meanings.

– Look carefully at the text before and after each gap.

– Make sure that the word fi ts with the grammar, collocations, phrases of the text.

– Read the whole text through again to see if it makes sense with your choices.

• Read the article below about being an entrepreneur.

• Choose the best word to fi ll each gap from A, B, C or D.



READING PART FOUR

Reading and Writing

HAVE YOU GOT WHAT IT TAKES TO BE AN ENTREPRENEUR?If you think you are prepared to (0)gamble on your ideas and have the ability to (1)

back from numerous (2) , then maybe you could be a successful entrepreneur.

However, it does take an inordinate amount of self-(3) and tenacity to succeed. In

fact, (4) is an essential quality found in those who have succeeded, as well as a large

dose of positivity and an optimistic outlook, particularly when the (5) gets tough.

The successful entrepreneur never gives up. Self-confi dence is vital, especially when

doing the rounds of potential investors. Each time you try to raise capital, you are doing

a sales (6) to those potential backers and, however many times you have to do it,

you must remain positive and enthusiastic as well as professional. Then to fi nd your

customers you must (7) your ideas around endlessly, and that can be soul-destroying

unless you have that innate ability to remain upbeat. Furthermore, you do not want

to present your business as a one (8) pony. Having one idea is not enough, so once

you have sold it you have to think about ways of improving or diversifying it. To make

matters worse, few start-ups make it past the fi rst year, but if you do survive, all the

diffi culties you have faced can be the (9) of you. And, when you are trading, one of

the biggest problems for the entrepreneur will be the fact that larger concerns often (10) payment for as long as they can, thus jeopardising cash fl ow. Challenges such as

these will now be part of your daily routine.


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TIPS


– Look at the graph carefully to make sure you understand fully what it represents.




• You are setting up a small cafe with a friend. You are in charge of the finances and have done

some research on the start-up costs and potential sales. Summarise the information for your

business partner.

• Using the information from the graph, write an email to your business partner summarising

the information.


WRITING PART TWOWRITING PART TWOWRITING PART ONE

0 A risk B gamble C chance D put forward

1 A return B jump C bound D bounce

2 A setbacks B drawbacks C breakdowns D crashes

3 A consideration B judgment C commitment D determination

4 A inflexibility B deliverance C perseverance D pressure

5 A doing B going C working D making

6 A proposal B pitch C proposition D proposal

7 A market B retail C trade D hawk

8 A idea B feature C trick D plan

9 A creating B making C forming D becoming

10 A settle B rebate C compensate D withhold

£ th

ousa

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Costs and sales forecasts over first three years

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

TurnoverStaffingcosts

Kitchenequipment

FurniturePremises

Year 3Year 2Year 1


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unit 12

TIPS


– Think about what part of speech is missing.

– Think about the possible meaning of the missing word.

– Check the words before and after the gap so see if it is a common partnership

or collocation.

– Read the whole text through again to see if it makes sense with your answers.

• Read the article below about project managers.

• For each question write ONE word.


Reading and Writing

READING PART FIVE

FINDING A GREAT PROJECT MANAGERChances (0) are your company has employed project managers, but how do they know

they have chosen the right manager for their project? Up until recently there has been

a template for the skills and characteristics required of a project manager, but in this

fast-moving world, project management jobs are becoming (1) specifi c and

niche than ever before, and the template is no (2) very reliable.

Good project managers today need to know a (3) about many things, (4)

than everything about one subject because the team will include the required

specialists. Project managers need to be able to bring teams (5) by clarifying

roles and understanding what is needed for each project, what to deal with and what to

ignore. They are capable (6) juggling different issues while motivating the team,

and they have a gift for foresight and are (7) to share their vision and inspire

their team. When problems occur, they can see (8) is clouding certain issues and

sort it out.

It goes without saying that good communication skills are essential, but perhaps it

should be noted that listening is probably the most important skill. Furthermore, once

the plan is in operation, the good PM will re-evaluate it frequently to ensure that it is (9) budget and schedule. Actions are far more important than words. People will

follow examples of what others do, not what they say, so integrity is of the essence as (10) as a commitment to ethical practices. With the right project management

team, companies can save money and increase productivity.


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TIPS


– Look at the graphs carefully to make sure you understand fully what they represent.




• The Gantt chart below outlines the main activities for building a new factory. It is now

15th March and your boss has asked you to write a report summarising the work already

done and the work still to be done, including the opening of the factory.

• Using the information from the chart, write a brief report for your boss summarising

the information.


WRITING PART ONE

Factory construction schedule

TASK Jan Feb Mar April May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec

Planning

Research

Final Design

Construction

Follow-up work

Factory opening


BEC H

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BEC HIGHER PRACTICE TEST

READINGPART ONEQuestions 1–8• Look at the statements below and the extracts about management books.

• Which extract (A, B, C, D or E) does each statement 1–8 refer to?



• There is an example at the beginning, (0).

Example

0 Problems that often accompany expansion. D

1 Holding onto target markets is not easy. 2 Ability to deal with mistakes head on. 3 A generous attitude towards others has led to great achievement. 4 New ideas often have unlikely origins. 5 The content is not only useful for new companies. 6 The writer tends to criticise large organisations. 7 The giant organisation has many features of a small new company. 8 Apparently insignificant modifications lead to success.

A MANAGEMENT BOOKSby Andrew Hill

Scaling up excellence: getting to more without settling for lessby Robert Sutton and Huggy Rao

Working out how to expand successfully – or at all – is one of the greatest challenges

for a business. Sutton and Rao lay out the lessons on how to avoid bureaucracy without

succumbing to unstructured chaos. The most important insight is that expansion is not a

big bang but a ‘ground war’ that ‘requires grinding it out, and pressing each person, team,

group, division or organisation to make one small change after another’. This is, for the

most part, a plainspoken guide with advice that is valid not only for ambitious start-ups

but also for established companies.

B Driving Honda: Inside the world's most innovative car companyby Jeffrey Rothfeder

Love of individualism, a flat hierarchy and a strategy that involves building ideas and

innovation from local insights sound like the characteristics of a start-up. But Rothfeder

says Honda has always had them. His book, while sometimes over-kind, makes a strong

case for considering Honda, rather than Toyota, as the best model of management for the

21st century. Rothfeder goes back to Honda's roots in pre-war Japan, when Soichiro Honda,

a gifted engineer, was scratching around for scrap to build his machines. His unselfish

partnership with salesman Takeo Fujisawa became one of the pillars of the group’s success.


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TBEC HIGHER PRACTICE TEST

27

C Absolute value: what really influences customers in the age of (nearly) perfect informationby Itamar Simonson and Emanuel Rosen

Simonson and Rosen deftly unravel the challenge of appealing to – and retaining – customers

in an age of transparency, user reviews and information exchange. Hotel chains, carmakers and

consumer electronics groups, they argue, must abandon the idea of a monogamous relationship

with customers. Instead, ‘open marriage’ is the norm, as customers decide between options

on their merits. Such a trend blunts traditional marketing tools. The authors offer alternative

weapons, but the book's real value is as an invitation to re-examine the marketing status quo.

D The hard thing about hard things: building a business when there are no easy answersby Ben Horowitz

Horowitz’s book, drawn from his experience as an entrepreneur and, in partnership with Marc

Andreessen, as a venture capitalist, is a sort of practical companion to Sutton and Rao's Scaling

Up Excellence (above). Whereas the latter offers lessons about avoiding the pitfalls of growth,

Horowitz describes what it is like to fall straight into them, pointing out, for instance, how

sloppiness, money-burning and time-wasting plague companies as they get larger. You could call

it a cautionary tale, but even in the worst of times, for true entrepreneurs ‘there is always a move’.

E The frugal innovator: creating change on a shoestring budgetby Charles Leadbeater

Building on other authors' works such as Jugaad Innovation and The Fortune at

the Bottom of the Pyramid, Leadbeater's book is notable mainly for examples of

how necessity can breed invention in places as unpromising as Brazil's favelas. His

disparagement of big-company innovation gets wearisome, but this is still mainly a

positive book about the potential of ‘convivial technology’ – which opens up possibilities

for its users rather than constraining them – and ‘radicant organisations’, which ‘put down

roots, draw in and create the resources to sustain themselves as they grow’.


28


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A ‘The hardest part is the fi rst £100,000 or £200,000,’ he says.

B This is especially true in drug development, given that fewer than 10 per cent of compounds

in early-stage clinical trials reach the market.

C Through this online fi nancing platform, he invited people to buy shares in his start-up

company, called Parkure, which is searching among existing medicines for one that could be

repurposed to tackle the degenerative brain disease.

D Some 300 people invested between £37 and £108,000 through the Crowdcube platform in

return for a combined stake of just under one per cent of the company, giving it a valuation

of about £75 million.

E He says his project is lower-risk and requires less money than typical biotech ventures.

Biotech start-ups look to crowdfunding For young biotech companies

starting on the long journey of drug discovery and development, cracking the science can be

5 the easy bit. (0) H Lysimachos Zografos, a Greek computational biologist at the University of Edinburgh, thinks he has found a modern solution to this perennial

10 challenge: crowdfunding. When the 32-year-old was

seeking money to research Parkinson's disease, he turned to a website called ShareIn which

15 connects entrepreneurs with willing investors. (9) So far, he has raised just over £60,000 from 47 individual investors and three charitable trusts

20 towards the target of £100,000. Mr Zografos says equity

crowdfunding can help bridge the notorious ‘valley of death’ that separates early-stages

25 enterprise from long-term funding – a challenge that is especially acute in the high-risk, capital-intensive world of life sciences. (10) ‘Once you are more

30 advanced and raising millions, more money follows. But getting to that stage is very diffi cult.’

Barry James, founder of

the Crowdfunding Centre, a35 research group, says there has

been scepticism about whether alternative fi nance would work in life sciences, given the high risks, heavy capital needs and

40 long development timescales. But he points out that biotech companies have the potential to tap investment from people with a personal stake in helping tackle

45 a particular disease that affects either the individual or their family.

Equity crowdfunding differs from charitable giving in that investors receive shares – and

50 the possibility of a future fi nancial gain – in return for their money. (11) And the prospect of ordinary people making emotionally-charged bets on

55 highly uncertain medical science is sure to increase nervousness among regulators about the risks involved in alternative fi nance.

The UK's Financial Conduct60 Authority last year issued a

warning to investors in equity crowdfunding that ‘it is very likely that you will lose all your money’. (12) Mr Zografos

65 says that, while most of the investors in Parkure have

some personal motivation for supporting Parkinson's research, they are also mainly people

70 with experience in business or fi nance, and with money to spare.

(13) This is borne out by the fact that the sums raised so far are a fraction of the tens of millions of

75 dollars needed to get a medicine into clinical trials and the hundreds of millions, or even billions, more to bring it to market. Moreover, while crowdfunding can help

80 entrepreneurs avoid ceding control to venture capital investors, it can also create its own problems by dispersing the shareholder base among many small investors.

85 Sophie McGrath, partner at Brown Rudnick, the law fi rm, says this could deter venture capital companies or big pharmaceuticals from coming

90 in later if larger-scale funding is needed – or if the founders want to exit. But Mr Zografos is convinced that crowdfunding has a role to play. (14) Parkure uses fruit

95 fl ies that have been genetically modifi ed to develop Parkinson's disease so as to identify potential benefi ts from medicines already in use for other conditions.

by Andrew Ward

PART TWOQuestions 9–14• Read the text below about crowdfunding for biotech start-ups.

• Choose the best sentence to fi ll each of the gaps.





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F This could create tensions if biotech companies begin competing for funding from the donor

communities that medical charities rely on for support.

G However, even enthusiasts for crowdfunding stress it is no panacea for cash-strapped

biotech companies.

H The hard part is raising the money to keep the experiments going.

PART THREEQuestions 15–20• Read the article below about changes in car manufacturing.


Detroit dinosaurs hit the road to Silicon Valley Established carmakers take on the

tech companies that are shaking up motor industry by moving into their backyard. They are often

5 cast as the dinosaurs, outdated companies left behind by the great disruption playing out across the worldwide motor industry. But established carmakers are

10 trying to turn the tables on the US technology companies shaking up the automobile world by tapping talent in their own backyard of Silicon Valley.

15 Ever since Daimler established its research centre in the San Francisco Bay area two decades ago, the big carmakers have been gravitating towards northern

20 California to harness some of the expertise that has propelled the region to its status as a hotbed of the latest technologies. However, the need to exploit this knowledge

25 has become urgent with the advent of the Internet-connected car and the rapid steps now being taken towards driverless vehicles – where sophisticated software acts

30 as the brain of the automobile. Furthermore, having a presence

in Silicon Valley may help ensure the established carmakers do not cede leadershipnof their

35 industry to new entrants, led by Google – which last year revealed a prototype self-driving car – and Tesla, the electric-vehicle manufacturer which has the

40 technology to produce auto-piloted vehicles. Stuttgart-based Daimler

underlined its determination to stay at the forefront of innovation by launching its

45 F 015 driverless-car concept at last month’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. ‘No automaker can afford not being in the valley any more –

50 even in times of an economic or market downturn – because IT and technology innovations will become part of the DNA of the future automobile,’ says

55 Thilo Koslowski of Gartner, the research and consulting fi rm.

A Silicon Valley research laboratory is therefore now a must-have for carmakers. Ford

60 was considered late on the scene when it set up an eight-person offi ce in the San Francisco Bay area in 2012. Last month the manufacturer based in Dearborn

65 outside Detroit strengthened its presence by cutting the ribbon on a new research centre in Palo Alto. In all, more than a dozen carmakers and suppliers have

70 set up in Silicon Valley, the 40-mile stretch from San Francisco to San Jose that has become synonymous with computing and the Internet. As part of the latest

75 moves in the area by carmakers, Honda opened a new studio in November – little more than a garage that will allow software developers to work with Honda

80 engineers on apps – to supplement its existing lab in Mountain View.

Ford’s site, on the campus of

Stanford University, is expected to employ only about 125 people

85 by the end of the year, compared with the 6,000 employed at the company’s River Rouge factory in Dearborn. It declines to put a fi gure on the investment it has

90 made in Palo Alto, and some analysts question the value of the carmakers’ Silicon Valley research hubs, dismissing them as window dressing to

95 show how they are supposedly in touch with innovation.

‘All car companies have a very strong resistance inside for what we’re facing,’ says the chief

100 of one car supplier, referring to the industry’s pace of change. But the carmakers strongly reject this statement. For them, one of the real draws is being close to a new

105 wave of unlikely suppliers, such as Nest, the Internet-connected home devices company owned by Google. ‘A lot of companies [here] are already our suppliers,’ says

110 Raj Nair, Ford’s Chief Technical Offi cer. ‘We’re increasingly seeing the car as being the biggest consumer electronics device you can have.’ The era of the

115 Internet-linked vehicle – in which the vehicle sends and receives data from as many as 17 points around the body structure – is putting carmakers at the heart of

120 the big data revolution, and calls for an entirely different skill set.

by Andy Sharman


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15 The first paragraph says that established carmakers

A have been at the forefront of automotive technology.

B are considered to be rather old-fashioned.

C believe that only technology companies are based in Silicon Valley.

D are looking for new technology from around the world.

16 We learn in the second paragraph that

A Daimler has just established a research centre in California.

B carmakers are creating the software for driverless cars.

C California may soon become the global hub of new technology.

D carmakers aim to take advantage of latest technology.

17 The third paragraph informs the reader that

A three companies are involved in producing driverless cars.

B a technology company is now the leading carmaker.

C it is an expensive strategy to set up in Silicon Valley.

D Daimler is now the leader in vehicle development.

18 Of the manufacturers that have moved to Silicon Valley

A Ford has been there the longest.

B Honda has the largest research facility.

C fewer than a dozen have a presence.

D the establishments tend to be quite small.

19 According to the fifth paragraph,

A Ford’s university site currently employs 125 staff.

B experts consider the move to Silicon Valley is for appearance only.

C Ford’s investment in its Silicon Valley site was considerable.

D the move to Silicon Valley indicates how forward-thinking carmakers are.

20 In the last paragraph we learn that

A many car company leaders are opposed to change.

B Ford’s main supplier is in Silicon Valley.

C being near to the technology suppliers is important.

D carmakers have revolutionised technology developments.

PART FOURQuestions 21–30• Read the article below about making presentations.

• Choose the best word to fill each gap from A, B, C or D.



SUCCESSFUL PRESENTATIONSMaking presentations can seem (0) B for some people, but you can’t get (21) with

being unprepared – good preparation is vital. Whatever the subject, the key skill is to

make people believe you are passionate about it. If you are not interested, how can

you expect others to be? You should start with an attention (22) – a surprising fact

or funny story that will (23) to the audience. Also be fully aware of how you present

yourself: no (24) because it makes you look as if you do not want to be there. It also

signals a lack of confidence and indicates that you do not care about your talk. Your (25) will tell the audience a great deal about you. Secondly, avoid (26) – there’s


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nothing worse than someone who keeps making small movements during a talk. And

fi nally, be aware of any annoying (27) you may have. However, you can use certain

gestures to emphasise elements of your talk – your hands do not have to be fi xed at

your side because this just looks unnatural. Good visual aids can make a huge impact

on your presentation, but do not use them just to avoid saying very much because

they can become boring and detract from you as the presenter. (28) an eye on your

audience to make sure no one is nodding (29) . And when it is time to fi nish, (30) up

your presentation positively and invite questions.

0 A pertinent B daunting C demotivating D indispensable

21 A off B out C over D away

22 A catcher B grabber C seeker D maker

23 A appeal B attract C embark D interest

24 A slipping B slouching C sliding D slithering

25 A position B pose C posture D posturing

26 A fi ddling B leaning C staring D fi dgeting

27 A mannerisms B norms C manners D customs

28 A Put B Take C Keep D Hold

29 A out B to C off D away

30 A pick B wrap C close D end

PART FIVEQuestions 31–40• Read the article below about current bank accounts in the UK.

• For each question 31–40, write one word in CAPITAL LETTERS.


CURRENT ACOUNTS – time right to abandon free banking, says Virgin Money

Britain’s free in-credit banking model is stifl ing competition and needs to change, Virgin Money said yesterday as it disclosed

5 it (0)would launch its current account across the UK. It will inject a rare dose of competition into the market (31) it rolls out its Essential basic bank account

10 across its entire branch network in England and Wales by April, (32) launching in Scotland and Northern Ireland last year.

But Jayne-Anne Gadhia,15 Chief Executive of Virgin Money,

believes Britain’s free in-credit banking model needs to change to stoke competition among banks

and prevent another mis-selling20 crisis. ‘The reason we don’t

have enough account switching (33) my view is not that customers have such a great deal with their existing bank,

25 (34) that there’s an obstacle to switching, but that there’s no differentiation (35) current accounts,’ she said.

‘(36) of the similarity30 of products from the incumbent

banks, they’ve got the market locked,’ she added. ‘It’s bad for pricing and innovation. If we want the UK banking system to thrive

35 in future, it needs to be addressed.’ Santander’s 123 account,

(37) pays cash back on household bills and interest on balances for £2 a month, stands

40 (38) ‘as the most different’, Ms Gadhia said. Britain’s big four banks, Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and HSBC, control 77 per cent of the

45 personal current accounts market, (39) to the Competition and Markets Authority.

The watchdog launched a probe last year into the current50 accounts market, warning that

complex overdraft charges were (40) it tough for individuals to shop around and fi nd the

best deal.

by Emma Dunkley


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PART SIXQuestions 41–52• Read the text below about Netiquette, a set of rules for Internet behaviour.





• The exercise begins with two examples, (0) and (00).

0 Netiquette is a set of rules which it has developed to govern online behaviour IT

00 and all employees should be made aware of them so as to avoid any serious

41 problems. For example, a lack of knowledge can lead to what we might be called

42 cyberbullying if a careless email is considered be offensive by the recipient.

43 However, serious cyberbullying is deliberate and can cause the victim so that

44 much stress that they are unable to continue to working. All companies have a duty

45 to protect their staff either when they are at work, but it is very diffi cult these days

46 with all the inter-connected devices that exist and where website information is

47 shared so much easily. They should have a policy to train staff in netiquette and

48 one outlining what to do if staff feel they are not being bullied at work. It is easy

49 for untrained staff to write a quick email without thinking what the effect it may

50 have on the recipient. The rules which have developed for email use in business

51 include about simple things such as: make sure you begin a message with a

52 salutation and sign off with your name; and be concise, but not ambiguous.

NETIQUETTE


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WRITINGPART ONEQuestion 1• The table below shows the percentage of managers who rated four different training courses.

• Write a report for the HR Director about the staff comments on the courses.


COURSE TITLE Very good Satisfactory Not useful Comments

Staff Appraisal 85% 10% 5%Excellent!Very interesting!

Communication and Presentation Skills 25% 30% 45%

About 30% was useful. Basic stuff!

Managing Teams 40% 35% 25%Some useful information. Waste of time!

IT Challenges 90% 10% 0%Really good – excellent trainer. Vital information.

Answer ONE of the Questions 2, 3 or 4 below.PART TWOQuestion 2• The company you work for has been trying to save energy and reduce costs over the

last year. The CEO has asked you to report the measures that have been taken and how

successful they have been.

• Write a report for your CEO, including the following:

– what changes were implemented

– any savings gained for each change

– the effect on staff.


Question 3• Recently several of your long-standing customers have complained about mistakes in their

orders and the fact that there are special promotions for new customers but none for them.

• Write a letter to all customers:

– apologising and explaining problems with recent orders

– giving details of a new loyalty reward system for existing customers

– outlining a new range of products/services.


Question 4• You are a management consultant working for a small company that wishes to expand its

business overseas.

• Write a proposal, including the following:

– reasons for the company to expand

– potential risks of expanding

– suitable markets

– recommendation of a market to aim for.



MARKETLEADER

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Market Leader 3rd Edition has been completely updated to reflect the fast-changing world of business using authoritative and authentic business sources such as the Financial Times©.

The 3rd Edition Course Book includes:

• All new reading texts from the Financial Times© and other authentic sources

• All new case studies with opinions on DVD-ROM from successful consultants who work in the real world of business

• All new listening texts reflecting the global nature of business, with interviews that can be viewed on the DVD-ROM

• New ‘Working Across Cultures’ spreads

• New Vocabulary Trainer www.marketleader.vocabtrainer.net

The DVD-ROM includes:

• Video interviews with business experts

• All Course Book audio

• New i-Glossary

• Practice exercises

www.market-leader.net

We recommend the Longman Business English Dictionary to accompany the course.

Learn about the Global Scale of English at www.englishscale.com

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