Match the following phrases from the text (sometimes more than one combination is possible)
| 1) facing | a) goodbyes |
| 2) million-dollar golden | b) a different set of rules |
| 3) lost their homes in America’s | c) plummeted |
| 4) live in a world where economic | d) are highly overpaid |
| 5) executives seem to live by | e) housing collapse |
| 6) their decisions led to huge | f) tough questions |
| 7) CEOs were being targeted | g) billion-dollar losses |
| 8) share values | h) from 1980 levels |
| 9) Americans believe their business leaders | i) security is uncertain |
| 10) This figure has rocketed | j) as “bad guys” |
9. Put the correct words from a–d below in the article.
| 1. | (a) | giant | (b) | giant-sized | (c) | gigantic | (d) | giants |
| 2. | (a) | under | (b) | inside | (c) | over | (d) | outside |
| 3. | (a) | poverty | (b) | poorly | (c) | poor | (d) | poorest |
| 4. | (a) | despite | (b) | spite | (c) | in spite | (d) | despise |
| 5. | (a) | inequality | (b) | equals | (c) | unequal | (d) | equity |
| 6. | (a) | settings | (b) | setting | (c) | sets | (d) | set |
| 7. | (a) | in | (b) | on | (c) | with | (d) | as to |
| 8. | (a) | fail | (b) | fall | (c) | feel | (d) | fault |
| 9. | (a) | themselves | (b) | own | (c) | them | (d) | owners |
| 10. | (a) | suffers | (b) | suffering | (c) | suffered | (d) | sufferable |
| 11. | (a) | highly | (b) | higher | (c) | height | (d) | highest |
| 12. | (a) | figurine | (b) | figured | (c) | figures | (d) | figure |
Three former CEOs of U.S. banking (1) ____ are currently facing tough questions by American lawmakers (2) ____ the size of their salaries. In particular, why their earnings, bonuses and leaving packages were so high when the companies they headed were doing so (3) ____. Ex-Merrill Lynch CEO E. Stanley O’Neal and Citigroup’s Charles O. Prince III resigned from their companies in late 2007 with million-dollar golden goodbyes. This is (4) ____ the fact that the corporations they headed lost billions of dollars and low-income homeowners lost their homes in America’s housing collapse. Democrat Henry A. Waxman said America was an (5) ____ society. “Most Americans live in a world where economic security is [uncertain] and there are real economic consequences for failure. But our nation’s top executives seem to live by a different (6) ____ of rules, he said.
Many Democrat politicians focused (7) ____ why top executives were paid so well when their decisions led to huge, billion-dollar losses. One concerned committee member asked: “When companies (8) ____ to perform, should they give millions of dollars to their senior executives?” Republicans defended the executives and asked questions of their (9) ____. Darrel E Issa from California wondered why the CEOs were being targeted as “bad guys”. Mr Issa said the executives also (10) ____ because the value of the hundreds of millions of dollars they received in stocks went down when share values plummeted. A majority of Americans believe that their business leaders are (11) ____ overpaid. CEOs earn about 600 times more than the average American worker. This (12) ____ has rocketed from 1980 levels, when CEOs earned just 40 times more than Jo Public.
10. Which job should get the highest salary / benefits? With your partner(s), fill in this table. Change partners and share your ideas.
| Job | Salary | Holidays | Working hours | Overtime |
| Bank CEO | ||||
| Nation’s president | ||||
| English teacher | ||||
| Movie star | ||||
| Heart surgeon | ||||
| Farmer |
11. What should happen to CEOs who mess up big time? Talk with your partner(s) about these cases. Do they happen in real life? Make up some stories about them. Change partners and share your ideas.
1) CEO loses company billions of dollars
2) CEO caught putting company profits into own bank account
3) CEO gives jobs to friends
4) CEO tells company secrets to biggest rival
5) CEO has relationship with a married employee
6) CEO lies about a decision that caused an environmental disaster
Students A strongly believe that there should be no limit on CEO salaries; Students B strongly believe it is wrong for a CEO to be paid millions of dollars. Change partners again and talk about your roles and conversations.
13. Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.
14. Search the Internet and find out about America’s sub-prime crisis and housing collapse. Share what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson.
15. Make a poster about two CEOs. Show your work to your classmates in the next lesson. Did you all have similar things?