These exercises focus on business / economics / finance.

Listen to me:

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The language used is required by any educated speaker of English – it is not a separate language.

Therefore, I recommend anyone who has the goal of becoming a high level user of English to do as many exercises as possible.

For people who want to build their language skills in the area of business / finance / economics, and build their knowledge about the stories in the news.

Listen to me:

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Key Language:

1. US based credit rating agencies
2. on negative outlook
3. that means effectively that there is
4. a very poor track record
5. they failed completely to spot the
6. they have a very bad track record of getting things right
7. government’s seem to attach a lot of importance to what they say
8. prior to that
9. markets have a more realistic view
10. don’t take these ratings quite as seriously as the politicians

Posted in Business | Comments: none

For people who want to build their language skills in the area of business / finance / economics, and build their knowledge about the stories in the news.

Listen to me:

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When you are listening to the audio you will hear the phrases below – they are listed in the order in which they occur.

Key language:

1. appealing to young people
2. have decided to source more of their products in the UK
3. without committing to a large order in the beginning
4. this is following a model used by Zara
5. this is likely to be a small fraction of the total
6. the advantages of lower coat production are going to outweigh any advantage of production closer to home
7. all quotas and tariffs were removed in 2205
8. switching production to still lower cost countries
9. producing in the most cost efficient location has benefits for everyone
10. globalisation ultimately creates jobs and prosperity
11. it would damage the prosperity of everyone, rich countries and poor countries alike

Tags: listening
Posted in Business | Comments: none

For people who want to build their language skills in the area of business / finance / economics, and build their knowledge about the stories in the news.

Listen to me:

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When you are listening to the audio you will hear the phrases below – they are listed in the order in which they occur.

Key language:

1. the austerity plans being discussed by the Greek government
2. uncontrolled chaos
3. threatened to arrest
4. is likely to miss its targets yet again
5. to implement this plan in full
6. there are various options
7. it depends on how long people are going to tolerant
8. to isolate Greece form other countries
9. in that case it can be safely ignored
10. to make agreements and then not implement them
11. the mechanism is that
12. whether this can be done in practice nobody really knows
13. is another matter completely

Tags: listening
Posted in Business | Comments: 2

For people who want to build their language skills in the area of business / finance / economics, and build their knowledge about the stories in the news.

Listen to me:

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When you are listening to the audio you will hear the phrases below – they are listed in the order in which they occur.

Key language:

1. to formulate general policy
2. another round of so-called quantitative easing
3. to help improve liquidity
4. the severity of any recession is going to be reduced
5. the mechanism is that
6. the cash flows in
7. bond interest rates are inversely related to prices
8. each bond has a nominal coupon or interest rate
9. the effective interest rate falls
10. one of the undesirable side effects of the policy is that
11. effectively the Bank of England is pushing down interest rates in the market
12. an annuity which is a guaranteed payment for the rest of their lives using the lump sum they have saved
13. a fall of approximately a quarter in a 3 to 4 year period
14. to inject liquidity into the market
15. has the undesirable effect that another group in society is going to suffer for it

Posted in Business | Comments: 2

For people who want to build their language skills in the area of business / finance / economics, and build their knowledge about the stories in the news.

Listen to me:

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When you are listening to the audio you will hear the phrases below – they are listed in the order in which they occur.

Key language:

1. effectively controlled by
2. it was originally started by
3. became a cash cow that fuelled the growth of
4. eventually moved on to the United Sates
5. take a controlling interest in
6. is seen as probably the most powerful media person in the English speaking world
7. it gave him a lot of access to politicians
8. connected with phone hacking
9. to find out what they were doing
10. there have been parliamentary enquiries
11. this is a major headache for him
12. his business is so US focused
13. revenues reached… and net profit rose strongly to … up from… in the same period
14. in the longer term
15. a sort of sentimental attachment to them
16. he’s in his early 80s
17. he has a controlling interest
18. she went to act as his interpreter
19. one of them is likely to take over when he eventually decides to retire

Posted in Business | Comments: none

Listen to me:

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When you are listening to the audio you will hear the phrases below – they are listed in the order in which they occur.

Key language:

1. reach an agreement for Greece to receive
2. a package of austerity measures beyond what they have previously agreed to
3. despite earlier agreements
4. a 20% reduction in the minimum wage
5. Greece is losing influence in the negotiation
6. in the event of a disorderly default
7. contagion would spread from Greece to Portugal
8. the believe that it might happen would lead to it actually happening
9. Greece is increasingly being seem as an exceptional case
10. Greece would be treated as sui generis – meaning one on its own
11. it has consistently failed to implement any kind of structural reform
12. it is in fact, in my opinion, doomed

Posted in Business | Comments: 2

For people who want to build their language skills in the area of business / finance / economics, and build their knowledge about the stories in the news.

Listen to me:

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Some useful collocations:

1. without any agreement so far
2. it would default on its debt
3. conditional on Greece implementing .. round of austerity and cuts
4. a lot of talk and very little action
5. a sudden disorderly default
6. extremely unlikely to risk Greece defaulting
7. the upshot is
8. there hand is a lot stronger than maybe they think
9. the last thing the EU wants is
10. the EU plan is not in place
11. the EU cannot afford to let chaos wash over the system

Posted in Business | Comments: none

Listen:

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Language:

These words/phrases are listed in the order you hear them on the audio – this is to help you understand better, and pick out elements you could use yourself.

1. issued a profit warning
2. to be wiped off its market capitalisation
3. have been revised down to
4. than were previously expected
5. 30% of all groceries
6. it also operates internationally
7. a chain in California
8. Philip Clark
9. Sir Terence Leahy
10. to become the third biggest retailer in the world
11. concentrate on revitalising their business here
12. tending to move towards the internet
13. out of town centres
14. all kinds of items
15. someone I admire hugely
16. will respond strongly to this setback
17. do a bit more of the same rather than something different

Posted in Business | Comments: none

This is a new section for business people – or people interested in business / finance / economics. Real news is used to introduce key language, and explain the context of the story.

Listen:

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Key language:

1. trade gap
2. a slight rise from £7.9bn the previous month
3. having a positive trade balance
4. exactly equal to
5. by definition this means that
6. notably, everybody talks about
7. if Britain eliminated its surplus
8. solve their economic difficulties by exporting more
9. should become more competitive
10. if they could actually do this, which is doubtful
11. competitiveness is relative
12. probably over time it will reduce
13. for America to close the trade gap
14. can borrow money at lower interest rates than in the last 50 years
15. as long as its sustainable, then there is no fundamental problem

Posted in Business | Comments: 2

 The focus is on listening for numbers .

Posted in Business | Comments: 6