Dilemma: Selling up or selling out?

Brief
Milton S Hershey founded Hershey Foods, the USA's biggest chocolate maker, in 1903. Mr Hershey
was a model employer who built a town for his employees with comfortable homes, inexpensive
public transport and good schools. In 1909 he established a school for disadvantaged children. Many
of the company's managers, including a former chief executive, are graduates from the school. In
1918 he gave the school his entire fortune of Hershey company shares. He put a board of trustees in
charge of the school and its finances.

In July 2002 the school's trustees announced their plan to sell the chocolate factory to one of its
competitors. Campaigners from the school. the company and former trust members joined residents
of the Hershey town, to protest against the sale. They were also supported by the Pennsylvania state
legal department. The board, who had never expected such a reaction, were faced with a serious
dilemma. To sell or not to sell.

Decision:
Turn to page 146 to find out what decision the Hershey trustees reached and how The Economist
reported it.

Task 1
Work in pairs. Student A you are a member of the trust. Turn to page 142. You are convinced of the
sound financial reasons for selling. Student B you are a resident of Hershey. Turn to page 139. You
want to persuade a trustee member that they should not sell the company.

Task 2
Look at the information at the back of the book and prepare your arguments. Think what points the
other person will agree with and build on these points to make your case.

Task 3
Discuss the case with your partner and try to reach a decision on whether or not the company
should be sold.

Write it up
Write a formal letter to the local newspaper explaining what the board of trustees should do and
why. (See Style guide, page 16.)
Language Check
Conditionals 1-3

Complete the sentences with the correct form of the verbs in brackets.

1. If I find one on eBay, I won’t buy this, which probably costs twice as much as it should.
2. More consumers would shop on the internet if there were better security.
3. If I’d seen the fake version, I wouldn’t had bought the genuine brand – but I didn’t.
4. If electronic markets didn’t exist consumers would have less choice.
5. If we don’t patent the design soon, someone else will do before us.
6. If you want this meeting finished by three o’clock we’ll have to hurry.
7. The protest won’t be as effective if it doesn’t appear on the news tonight.
8. People would buy far more branded goods if they weren’t so expensive.
9. The supermarket would have sold the grey imports if we hadn’t taken legal action as quickly
as we did.
10. If I were you, I wouldn’t buy a fake watch as you’ve no guarantee it will work.

Gerunds and infinitives

Complete the sentences below with the following verbs in the correct form.

organise imagine develop come save help buy find

1. Would you consider coming on a demonstration with me next weekend?

2. I offered to help them finish the project but they refused.
3. Developing new markets is our main objective for next year.
4. The department head proposed to organise a meeting for tomorrow.
5. They are very interested in buying our new range of products.
6. I hope to find a job in Public Relations.
7. I got them on the internet, to save money.
8. It's hard to imagine a more efficient business model than eBay's.

Modal verbs of obligation

Which verb is the odd one out in each set?

1. Must should have to can

2. Can able to must allowed to
3. May will might can
4. Mustn’t can’t shouldn’t don’t have to
5. Ought to need to should could

Consolidation

Underline the correct forms of the words in italics.

CAMPAIGNERS for urgent debt relief say that poor countries 1 can / could feed their children, if they
2 didn't have / won't have to pay huge sums of money back to wealthy countries in debt repayments.
The money, originally borrowed in the 1970s and 1980s, was often badly invested instead of 3 to be /
being used for worthwhile projects. 4 Repaying / To repay the debt is going to be a huge millstone
around the neck of the poorest countries who 5 should / must be concentrating their resources on
sustainable projects. So who is this money they can't afford 6 to pay / paying back owed to?

The debts are mainly owed to two groups, Western governments and global financial institutions
including the IMF and World Bank. They argue that if they 7cancelled / had cancelled debt altogether,
which is not the case, it 8 would encourage / would have encouraged wealthy countries to be against
9 to lend / lending and to insist on 10 to cut / cutting aid budgets. They also insist that they 11
shouldn't / don't have to be blamed for the debt problem. But activists will never agree 12 to stop /
stopping their campaign. They insist that most wealthy governments 13 have had to / must write off
debts owed to them already as they know developing countries will simply never succeed in I 14
gathering / to gather enough funds to pay off their debts.

Vocabulary check
1)Complete the text with the correct option A-C.

1 Merchandisers of real brands or 2 genuine goods in China are facing a smaller challenge than you
might expect. Given that the country is one of the biggest and best producers of 3 fakes and China's
awful record on the protection of intellectual 4 property rights, you might expect foreign 5 luxury
brand makers to stay well away. However, the Swiss brand Omega is currently in 6 negotiations with
China to set up shops in big hotels there. They expect the 7 demand for their products to be high,
based on sales to Chinese people in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, Western consumer 8 pressure groups
are calling on people to 9 boycott cheap imports and copies from less developed economies due to
growing concern about the working conditions of people who make them. 10 protesters regularly
gather outside these countries embassies around the world in an effort to put pressure on
governments to improve human rights conditions in their countries.

1. A Merchandisers B Dealers C Sellers

2. A genuine B valid C proper
3. A fabrications B fakes C falsifications
4. A possessions B property C ownership
5. A luxury B elegant C classic
6. A chats B discussions C negotiations
7. A supply B demand C flow
8. A demonstration B campaign C pressure
9. A disapprove B boycott C dismiss
10. A protesters B opponents C challenges

2) Complete the sentences below with the correct form of the following words.

Demonstrate forge fraud bribe deceive

1. Appearances can be very deceptive and sometimes fake products look like the real thing.
2. The police advised retailers that a large number of forged €50 and €100 notes are in
circulation.
3. A senior government official has been arrested and accused of seeking bribes from
companies competing for government contracts.
4. The protesters are organising a major demonstration in the city centre at the weekend.
5. Overcharging customers is a common example of fraudulent business activities.
Career skills
Giving reasons

Complete the sentences below with the following. Use each one only once.

so that is to because as given

1. The reason we want to take them to court is to stop them counterfeiting our products.
2. Developed economies pay more than they should for food because of protectionist barriers
against cheaper producing countries.
3. As they have many rivals, e-bay needs to keep a close eye on competitors.
4. Counterfeiting will be hard to stop given the profits to be gained from it.
5. We need to cancel the third world debt so that they can feed their children.

Making and responding to proposals

Find and correct the mistake in each sentence.

1. I'm afraid I don't can make it tomorrow morning. (I can’t make it)
2. That's fine. I see you at five tomorrow. (I’ll see you)
3. We can meet as late on Monday how you want. (as you want)
4. How about sometime on the afternoon? (in the afternoon)
5. That's great. Can five o'clock be OK? (would five o’clock be OK)
6. I'm not sure. What time do you think of? (are you thinking of)
7. Would you be interesting in a 20 per cent discount? (interested)
8. There's not a way we can accept those terms. (There’s no way)

Making a case

Match the sentence halves.

1. It's obvious that demonstrations (D)

2. You have to remember that last time (E)
3. I'm sure you agree that he (C)
4. We all know the solution (B)
5. Don't you think (A)
a. we should stop now and resume tomorrow?
b. is to act now and get things done.
c. is the obvious man for the job.
d. do work, look at the success we've had so far.
e. we had two extra weeks to complete the project.