Services

1. Pre-text Assignments
Exercise 1. Practice the reading of the following words and translate them into Russian:
item lifespan consumer to update
replacement durables to fasten access
complete (adj.) to advance available secure
to assemble supplier accurate to dismantle
cost-effective ensure to handle warehouse

Exercise 2. Answer the following questions:

Exercise 3. a) Read these website reviews. Which of the extracts is about a website for:
• an online travel agency Expedia.com
• a bank Lloyds TSB
• a newspaper The Guardian ?
b) Would you be interested in these
services? Why / why not?
1) This service is free and gives you
immediate access to your accounts when
it's convenient for you. The system also
protects your personal financial
information and ensures that you stay
secure.
2) Instead of continuously visiting
websites to see if there are new articles
and updates, you can have them
delivered directly to you. Its user-
friendly service gives you access to all
the most up-to-date and accurate news
and information on the web.
3) This system is really time-saving and
efficient, because consumers can
combine multiple flights, hotel bookings,
car rentals, and local activities all from
just one website. Users can customize
their bookings to fit their needs and there are many discounts and special prices, so it's really
cost-effective.

Exercise 4. Write out the adjectives in the reviews in Ex.3 that would attract the three speakers.
Exercise 5. Listen to three speakers. Which website in Ex.3 would they be interested in?

Exercise 6. Look at the following pictures. What kind of services are there? Name them.
Which of the adjectives you wrote out from the texts in Ex.3 might describe these services? Do
you use services like these?
 Exercise 7. Listen to four people talking about a service from Ex.6.
a) Which service is each person talking about?
b) How does the service make their life easier or what does it allow them to do?
Exercise 8. Make sentences using the words in this table.
Example: Search engines allow people to find relevant websites.
Search engines help me to … (infinitive)
Telecommunication allow you
companies make it easier for organizations
Financial advertisers companies verb (without to …)
Call centres let people
Consultants the world
Legal services
Exercise 9. Replace the words in italics with words from the list.
accurate user-friendly up-to-date cost-effective convenient time-saving
secure immediate efficient easier customized
1. All our cars are changed to suit a customer's personal needs and requirements. customized
2. You'd think that keeping work in-house would be saving us money, but in fact outsourcing
can really reduce spending. ________
3. That new café round the comer is a bit expensive, but it’s really near for lunch. ________
4. Very few jobs are guaranteed for life these days. You never know when you'll be out of
work. ________
5. You take a number at the bank now instead of queuing. It's really good for reducing the long
wait. ________
6. We seem to have three people standing in one place all doing the same job. There must be a
more effective way of using them. ________
7. This new software has made doing the monthly payroll much less complicated. ________
8. They've redesigned the controls to make it easy for the operator. ________
9. I'd like a report on the situation which is detailed and says what's happening now! ________
 10. How correct are these figures? They don't appear to add up. ________
11. I'm sorry, but we can't give you an instant answer. We'll need a few days to discuss it first.
________
Exercise 10. What are these people talking about? Match a word from the list to comments 1-4.

online banking business class consultant financial adviser

1. “They help the company to look at problems objectively and consider all the possibilities”.
_________
2. “Having him allows me to concentrate on earning it and not what to do with it” - __________
3. “It makes it so much faster than having to go to an actual building and wait behind everyone
else.” _________
4. “I don't have to worry about turning up so early, which allows me to get a decent night's sleep
before I arrive.” _________

Reading
Exercise 11. Read the text and be ready to discuss it.
Travelling responsibly at Nike HQ
When Nike World Headquarters relocated spend in the cafeterias at work and at Nike
to a suburb outside Portland, Oregon in the stores. It was a popular programme, but it
USA, the management decided to save was expensive and difficult to monitor. They
money by building fewer car parking then introduced a new system called TRAC
spaces at the new site. At this time, 98% of — Travelling Responsibly Accept the
Nike's employees drove alone to work, and Challenge. TRAC gave employees
there were too many cars for the number of information about public transport, cycling
parking spaces. routes, and car-sharing and offered monthly
Management soon realized they needed to prizes to employees. The company also
encourage fewer people to drive to work started to pay 72% of the cost of bus and rail
alone. They started an incentive-based passes.
programme — employees who shared car The percentage of employees driving alone
journeys, cycled to work or used public to work is now 78%. However, the company
transport received money towards their would like to reduce this figure still further.
travel costs, or vouchers that they could
Answer the questions:
1. What are the advantages of not driving to work for:
a) the employees? b) the company? c) the local community?
2. What could the company do to reduce the number of employees driving alone to work even
further?
3. What alternative means of transport would you consider using to get to work? Give your
reasons.
4. Make a list of ways how you could improve the situation. (Will you need to change the
system of parking? Can you change the working hours?)

Communication Skills
Exercise 12. Why do companies need databases? What sort of information do they keep?
Do you use a database? If you do, is the system easy to use?

Exercise 13. A hotel chain has a new customer database for all its hotels. It is being presented
to the hotel manager and her staff for the first time. Listen and answer questions a-e.
a) What was one of the disadvantages with the old database?
b) When can they use the new database?
 c) How is it similar to the old database?
d) What is new about it?
e) What does the hotel manager suggest is a problem with the new system?

Exercise 14. Match 1-8 below to a-h to make pairs of phrases. Then listen again and check your answers.
1. The good news is …, ________ a but what's different is ...
2. It might seem a bit difficult to use at first …, ________ b it also …
3. It looks very similar to …, ________ c but the bad news is ...
4. As soon as you …, ________ d but on the other hand
5. In other words, as well as (-ing) …, ________ e but in fact it's very simple.
6. The more …, ________ f the (better) …
7. On the one hand …, ________ g but on the plus side …
8 One downside is …, _________ h it starts to …
Exercise 15. A hotel manager has received these comments from staff on using the new
customer database. Complete their comments with the correct form of the adjectives in
brackets.
1. “It takes a little ______ (long) to learn how to use it”.
2. “When customers call, it's slightly _______(easy) to find their information”.
3 “It's definitely not as _____ (slow) as the old system was.”
4. “Even the customers seem to be noticing the differences. They are far ______ (positive)”.
5. In general, I think it's a great deal _______ (good)”.
Exercise 16. Correct the mistakes in this dialogue about a new office.
A This office is more noisier than the last one.
B Yeah, but at least it's not as darker as the old one.
A That's true. I just wish it was biger.
B It's much convenienter for teamwork though.
A Yes, but it's much more worse for concentration.
B I think it's as good than the last office, but in different ways.
A Well, you've always been more tolerant that me.
Exercise 17. Decide if these intensifiers indicate a big (B) or small (S) difference.
slightly ______; a great deal ______; nearly as ... as ______; not anything like as … as ______;
a little ______; significantly ______ ; far more ______; much less ______; marginally ______;
not nearly ______; a lot ______.
Exercise 18. Complete the sentences with the pairs of words from the list.
as well as + also more + better one + other whereas before + now good + bad
similar +different difficult + simple downside + plus side benefit + drawback
1 The good news is he's changing jobs, but the bad news is he'll be your new line manager.
2. The body looks very _______ to the old model, but what’s ________ is the engine.
3. One ________ is that the merger will expand the company, although a ________ might be that
we lose our character.
4. _________ improving service to the external customer, the new network will _________ help
our staff.
5. One _________ is that this machine needs two people, but on the __________ it’s safer.
6. _________ we wrote it by hand, we _________ ask customers to type in their details.
7. On the _________ hand he's slow, but on the ________ hand he never makes a mistake.
8. It might seem a bit _________ to use at first but in fact it's very _________.
9. The _________ people get to know it, the _________ it will work.