"Borrow money from pessimists- they don't expect it back"
Steven Wright ( American Actor)

A- Answer these questions individually. Then compare your answers with a partner.


B - What do your answers to the q uestions in Exercise A say about your attitude to money? Are your attitudes typical? What do they say about your culture?

Vocabulary

Financial terms

A- Match the words in the box to the definitions
equity stake - recession - shares - debt - stock market - forecast

1 equal parts into which the capital or ownership of a company is divided   
2 a period of time when business activity decreases because the economy is doing badly   
3 money risked when a business owns part of another company 
4 a place where company shares are bought and sold 
5 a description of what is likely to happen in the future   
6 money owed by one person or organisation to another person or organisation 

B- Match the sentence halves

1 Profit margin is   a) a part of a company's profits paid to the owners of shares.
2 Investment is    b) the difference between the price of a product or service and the cost of producing it.
3 Bankruptcy is   c) money which people or organisations put into a business to make a profit.
4 A dividend is   d) the amount of money which a business obtains (in a year) from customers by selling goods or services.
5 Pre-tax profits are    e) when a person or organisation is unable to pay their debts.
6 Annual turnover is     f) the money a business makes before payment to the government.

C- Complete this news report with the following words

stock market - equity stake - recession - debt - forecast - pre-tax profits - investment - annual turnover - dividend - bankruptcy

And now the business news ...
There was a further downturn in the economy this month as the   in the United States and Asia-Pacific region continues. Yesterday was another day of heavy trading on the    with big losses in share values. The    for the near future is not good. as market confidence remains low.
Paradise Lane. the struggling luxury hotel group. is seeking new    to try and avoid  following the announcement of disastrous interim results. It currently has a   of nearly $5 billion. There are rumours of rivals GHN taking a large   in the troubled hotel group. Phoenix Media announced a 15% increase in . S on an  9 of $4.5 million.
Added to the strong performance in the last quarter. this is likely to result in an increased    of over 14 cents per share. well up on last year. which will certainly please shareholders·. Following a rise in sales in the emerging markets of the people who own shares in a business

Managing investments

A- Darrell Mercer is Investment Director at PSigma Investment Management. listen to the first part of the interview and complete the gaps



The aim of the business is to provide    for private individuals who have  that they wish to employ to achieve a certain .
My role as the Investment Director is to both    for the client with the intention of meeting that aim, that return, and also then manage that strategy on an ongoing basis.

An inspirationalstory

Find idiomatic expressions in the article heading which mean:


1 someone who does a lot of complicated business transactions 
2 a young person who is very skilled or successful at something.

Find words in bold in the text that mean the following.

1 a financial market in which prices are falling   
2 people who deal in shares and bonds   
3 someone who carefully examines Ihe financial state of a company   
4 sudden and quick change   
5 the area of a financial market where a particular company does business 
6 the capital that a company has from shares rather than from loans   
7 the careful examination of the performance of companies and stocks 
8 the part of the economy made up by companies   
9 the profit that a company makes in a particular period of time 
10 things such as options or futures based on underlying assets such as shares, bonds and currencies.  

In groups, discuss which of the following sectors you think are likely to be volatile in an economic recession.

• telecommunications                                                     • cars
• advertising                                                                      • budget supermarkets
• healthcare                                                                       • steel
• food                                                                                  • travel 
• biotechnology                                                                 • construction

LANGUAGE REVIEW  : Describing trends

We can describe trends in English in different ways.
1 Verbs of change

Demand for BlackBerries has soared in recent years.
Sales are falling.
Prafits improved in July.

2 Prepositions
Prafits rase 5% to $1.4 billion.
The sales of Dupont have gone up from $19.6 billion to $27.4 billion.
Sales rase by 20% aver the holiday period.
This represents a decrease of 16.4% from the first quarter.
The average retail gasoline price stood at $4. 1 1 a gal/on yesterday.

3 Different verb forms

The figures paint a gloomy picture for Japanese growth. (present simple)
The unemployment rate is rising. (present continuous)
Last summer, our market share fell. (past simple)
This year, orders fram Brazil have levelled off. (present perfect)
If the price of petral rises further, we'll make a loss. (first conditional)

look at the graphs below. Complete the sentences about them with
appropriate prepositions.

1 Sales have increased     €5m     €7m.
2 Sales have increased     €2m.
3 There has been an increase   €2m in our sales.
4 Sales now stand     €7m.
5 Sales reached a peak     €7m in July.
6 Sales reached a low point     €1m in April.