These pairs of words often cause problems. Choose the correct alternative for each.
1. INTERVIEWEE / INTERVIEWER
a) The person who usually asks most of the questions at an interview is the ……… .
b) The person who usually answers most of the questions at an interview is the ……… .
2. BASIS / BASIC
a) He only speaks ……… English: it's sometimes difficult to understand what he is trying to say.
b) Well, I think we now have a good ……… for discussion after lunch.
3. FOREIGNERS / STRANGERS
a) Our company has been bought by a German multinational. More and more .................. are coming from abroad to work in our office.
b) There were two ……… at the corner table in the restaurant where we usually go for lunch: no one had ever seen them before.
Match the words with their meanings.
| 1) customer | a) a company which makes something in large quantities |
| 2) competitor | b) a person or company who transports or sells the goods |
| 3) distributor | c) a person or a company who buys your products or services |
| 4) manufacturer | d) a person who promotes an organization or sells its products |
| 5) representative | e) another company which sells the same products or services as you |
Choose a pair of words from the list to complete the spaces in the two sentences. Decide which of the two words you need for each space.
| salesman/retailer sells/buys education/training | consists/divided produce/products manufactures/factory | accountant/accounts share/subsidiary |
1. A ……… has a shop which sells directly to the public.
A ……… is a person who sells to shops or companies.
2. Our electronics division is ……… into a number of autonomous companies.
The company ……… of five operating divisions.
3. There are 300 machine operators in our ……… .
The company ……… children's toys.
4. The Purchasing department ……… products.
Guinness ……… its beer all over Europe.
5. The ……… of staff in our company is the responsibility of the Human Resources department.
... Schools are responsible for children's ……… .
6. We ……… 300 units per hour in our factory.
... Bell's Whisky is one of our most profitable ……… .
7. We can't give you exact sales figures now because our ……… is on holiday.
... The tax inspector came last month to look at our ……… .
8. ICL is a ……… of the Japanese Fujitsu company.
... LVMH has a large ……… of the perfume market.
Complete each sentence with a word from the box.
| profit loss customers | lend shares invested | borrow owe save |
1. If you want to ……… money, you can put it in a deposit account.
2.If you buy something for $100 and sell it for $150, you make a ……… .
3. Banks ……… money to their ……… .
4.If a company spends more than it earns, it makes a ……… .
5. You can buy and sell ……… on the Stock Exchange.
6. To buy a house you usually need to ……… money from a bank.
7. We ……… $2000 in company shares.
8. I ……… you $ 100. When do you want me to pay it back?
Complete this dialogue by putting the verbs in brackets into the correct form of the past simple or present perfect. Use contractions where possible.
| VICTORIA: | Hi, Sue. I (1) ………… (not/see) you for ages! |
| SUE: | Hi. No, I'm sorry that I (2) ………… (not/be) in touch with anyone recently... I really (3) ………… (be) busy. |
| VICTORIA: | Oh, what (4) ………… (be) up to then? |
| SUE: | Well, you know I (5) ………… (leave) my job in January so that I (6) ………… (can) go freelance as a graphic designer? |
| VICTORIA: | Yes, I remember, you (7) ………… (talk) a lot about that last year. How's it going? |
| SUE: | Well, it (8) ………… (be) a really difficult year so far. I (9) …………. (never/do) anything like this before ... it's much harder work than I (10) ………… (imagine). (11) ……… (you/ever/be) self-employed? |
| VICTORIA: | No, never, although I (12) …………… (often/think) about it. So, why has it been so difficult? |
| SUE: | Well, at the beginning I (13) …………… (have) two or three good clients – you know, people that I (14) …………… (know) for many years, like Tom Pierce. And since then I (15) …………… (have) a lot of interest from different companies, but none of them (16) …………… (become) regular customers. |
| VICTORIA: | What about advertising in the specialist magazines? |
| SUE: | I (17) …………… (already/do) that. I (18) …………… (put) an advert in Design Monthly a couple of months ago but I (19) …………… (not/get) any replies. |
| VICTORIA: | Oh, dear, well, (20) …………… (put) up a website with examples of your work? |
| SUE: | Yes, I (21) …………… (just/finish) it. Would you mind having a quick look at it and tell me what you think of it? |
Decide if the speaker is talking about routine activities or activities going on at the moment of speaking. Put the verbs into the present simple or the present continuous.
Our company was founded fifteen years ago, and we (1)_____________ (manufacture) and (2)_____________ (supply) clothing to large organizations such as the police, hospitals, and so on. We always (3)_____________ (spend) a long time talking to the customers to find out their needs. At the moment we (4)_____________ (produce) an order for 18,000 shirts for the police. The next order is for a local electronics factory, and our head designer (5)_____________ (have) discussions with them to find out what sort of clothes they (6)_____________ (require).