7 At work: careers

A A career in sales

When Carl left school, he took the first job he was offered – in telesales1. He thought
telemarketing2 sounded quite glamorous but soon found that most of the people he phoned
hated cold calling3 and put the phone down when he tried the hard sell4. However, he persevered
and found he became quite skilled at persuading customers to part with their money5. He then
moved into a job on a TV shopping channel6, where he specialised in selling merchandise7 for
the leisure market. He did so well at this that he set up his own sportswear company and hasn’t
looked back8 since.

1
+ 2 selling or marketing goods and services by phone 5
spend money
3 6
phoning people who have not requested a call in a TV channel devoted to selling products
order to try to sell them something 7
products that are bought and sold
4
attempt to sell something by being very forceful or 8
has moved forward successfully
persuasive

B Buying and selling

A person’s purchasing power is the ability they have to buy goods, i.e. the amount of money they
have available.
If you shop around, you try different companies or shops to see which offers best value.
If you want to buy something, you need to find a shop that stocks it. [keeps a supply of it = keeps it in stock]
If you trade something up, usually a car or a house, you buy one that is of higher value than the one
you had before. (opp. = trade down)
People sometimes make a purchasing decision based on brand loyalty. [confidence in that particular
make and a tendency always to choose it]
Supermarkets sometimes sell an item for less than it costs them in order to attract a lot of people
into the shop, where they will also buy more profitable items – the item being sold at a low price is
called a loss leader.
For a company to sell its products, it has to price them appropriately. [give them a price]
If a company finds a niche market, it finds a specialised group of customers with particular interests
that that company can meet.
If an item is said to come/go under the hammer, it is sold at an auction. [sale of goods or property
where people make gradually increasing bids and the item is then sold to the highest bidder]

C A career in business
A few years ago Tina started her own software development business, which turned out to be
very lucrative1. However, she got increasingly irritated by all the red tape2 involved in the
administration3 of a business and when a larger company contacted her with a proposition4,
suggesting a takeover5, she was interested. At first, the two companies could not agree on all the
details of the agreement but they managed to reach a compromise6 and hammer out a deal7
without too much delay. In many ways Tina was sad that her company had been swallowed up8
but she has used the money raised by the sale of her capital assets9 to invest in10 a business
start-up11: an online holiday property letting agency12.

1 7
producing a lot of money talk in detail until a business agreement is made
2 8
bureaucracy (negative) taken over by a larger company
3 9
organisation and arrangement of operations buildings and machines owned by a company
4 10
formal offer put money into
5 11
agreement in which one company takes control of new company
another one (compare with merger, in which two 12
a business organising the rental of holiday houses
companies join together to become one company) and flats
6
come to an agreement in which both sides reduce
their demands a little

20 English Vocabulary in Use Advanced

 Exercises
7.1 Match the two parts of these business collocations from the opposite page.
1 loss C a agency
2 capital G b channel
3 purchasing E c leader
4 shopping B d tape
5 hard H e power
6 letting A f loyalty
7 brand F g assets
8 niche I h sell
9 red D i market
7.2 Look at A and B opposite. Fill the gaps in these sentences.
1 A world-famous painting will go UNDER the hammer in London tomorrow.
2 It’s a sensible idea to shop AROUND a bit before buying a computer.
3 Sally made the right decision when she quit her old job and set up her own business – she hasn’t
looked BACK since the day it opened.
4 I don’t mind trying a hard sell on a person who has already expressed an interest in our products,
but I hate COLD calling.
5 It can be quite hard to persuade my dad to PART with his money.
6 I’m going to make a BID for the dining table that is up for auction tomorrow.
7 My current job is in TELESALES. I spend all the day on the phone.
8 They produce special clothes for people who practise yoga and have really cornered this
NICHE market.
9 The shop I went to didn’t STOCK the printer I wanted so I’m going to order it online.
7.3 Replace the underlined words with a word or phrase from C with a similar meaning.
1.HAMMER OUT A DEAL 1 As their business interests were quite different, it took them a long time to come to an agreement.
2.RED TAPE 2 If you want to go into the import and export business, you had better be prepared for a lot
3.TAKEOVER of bureaucracy.
4.LUCRATIVE 3 At the moment they are discussing the possibility of buying up another company.
5.START-UP
6.SWALLOWED UP 4 Sportswear is a very profitable business to be in at the moment.
7.PROPOSITION 5 Banks will only lend a new business money if they have a realistic business plan.
8.ADMINISTRATION 6 A number of small companies have been taken over by that huge multinational in the last
six months.
7 Hassan has made a rather interesting suggestion about setting up a business together.
8 Chloe is much better at the creative side of business than the organisation involved in
running a company.
7.4 Choose the best word to complete each sentence.
1 I hope we’ll be able to keep / reach a compromise when we meet tomorrow.
2 I think those new games consoles are priced / purchased too high at the moment.
3 The shops are hoping to sell a lot of capital assets / merchandise connected with the
royal wedding.
4 My sports car was so expensive to run that I decided to trade it down / up for something
much cheaper.
5 Helga has never looked back / out since she started her own business ten years ago.
6 There’s a lot of loss leader / red tape involved in setting up a new business.

English Vocabulary in Use Advanced 21

 Describing people: positive and
8 negative qualities
A Character and personality
Chinese astrology organises years into cycles of 12, and asserts that the year you are born in affects
your character. Each year is named after an animal.
1
animal year characteristics using situations for own benefit
2
RAT 1972, 1984, imaginative, charming, generous, quick- systematic, careful
3
1996, 2008 tempered, opportunistic1 too patriotic
4
BUFFALO
become too excited and lose control
5
1973, 1985, conservative, methodical2, conscientious, ready to help
1997, 2009 chauvinistic3, a born leader 6
not caring about serious things
7
not confident, uncertain about your own
TIGER
abilities
1974, 1986, sensitive, emotional, tends to get carried 8
someone who is not satisfied if things are
1998, 2010 away4, stubborn, rebellious, courageous
not 100% perfect
9
inclined to say things that upset or offend
RABBIT 1975, 1987, affectionate, obliging5, sentimental,
people
1999, 2011 superficial6, often insecure7 10
understanding instinctively
DRAGON
1976, 1988, fun-loving, popular, a perfectionist8, 11
hard-working
2000, 2012 gifted, may sometimes be tactless9 12
calm, does not easily become excited or
angry
SNAKE 1977, 1989,
charming, intuitive10, stingy 13
personality that attracts people to you
2001, 2013 14
not trusting, suspicious of others
HORSE 1978, 1990, diligent11, independent, placid12, 15
having good judgement
2002, 2014 outgoing, can be selfish and cunning 16
gives help or encouragement
17
GOAT 1979, 1991, elegant, artistic, always ready to complain, spends too much money or uses too much
2003, 2015 over-anxious of something
18
practical and sensible
MONKEY
1980, 1992, witty, magnetic personality13, good 19
thinking of others rather than yourself
2004, 2016 company, can be distrustful14 20
gloomy
ROOSTER 1981, 1993, industrious, shrewd15, supportive16, 21
inclined to speak in a severe and critical way
2005, 2017 decisive, extravagant17 22
without enough experience of life, trusting
DOG 1982, 1994, down-to-earth18, altruistic19, morose20, too easily
2006, 2018 sharp-tongued21
PIG
1983, 1995, intellectual, tolerant, naive22, often
2007, 2019 materialistic

B Positive and negative associations

Charming, generous – is that how you think of yourself? Selfish, cunning – that can’t be me!
Some words in the chart above have positive associations, others negative ones. Here are some
words from the chart, together with other words that share some aspects of their meaning. The table
shows which have positive and which have negative associations.
positive negative positive negative
generous, unstinting extravagant, immoderate shrewd, astute cunning, sly
resolute, dogged stubborn, obstinate sober, serious morose, sullen
thrifty, frugal stingy, parsimonious witty, pithy brusque, terse
diligent, industrious work-obsessed, (a) tolerant, open-minded unprincipled,
workaholic (noun) unscrupulous
idealistic, principled dogmatic, inflexible chatty, talkative verbose, garrulous

22 English Vocabulary in Use Advanced

 Exercises

8.1 Read the comments and then answer the questions.

I wish Tatyana would calm Tom thinks his country is better

down and not get so over- than any other country and
excited about things. doesn’t listen to reason.

Alice can always be relied

upon to make the right Sophie is always so calm.
decision.

Harry is such a practical Andrey has a tendency to say

and sensible person. things that upset people.

SOPHIE TATYANA ALICE

1 Who is placid? 3 Who tends to get carried away? 5 Who is shrewd?
2 Who is down-to-earth? 4 Who is often tactless? 6 Who is chauvinistic?
HARRY ANDREY TOM
8.2 Which colleagues does the speaker have a positive opinion of and which a negative one?
‘Ellie, my boss, is very astute and she can be very witty, but I find her assistant, David, a bit sullen and
obstinate. Julia, who I sit next to, is a bit stingy and extremely work-obsessed. I do a lot of work with Marco,
who’s very obliging, supportive and tolerant.’ POSITIVE: ELLIE,MARCO
NEGATIVE: DAVID, JULIA
8.3 Fill the gaps with words from the opposite page. You are given the first letter(s) and
clues to the meaning in brackets.
1 He’s rather o OPPORTUISTIC . He always tries to use situations to his own advantage. (devious)
2 She has an i NTUITIVE approach to life rather than a rational one. (instinctive)
3 My father was a somewhat quick-tempered and m OROSE sort of person. (gloomy)
4 He was a very altruistic person, almost to the point of being n AIVE . (too trusting)
5 Aisha has a m AGNETIC personality. Everyone is drawn to her. (attractive)
6 Rob is a very conscientious and m ETHODICAL worker. (careful, systematic)
7 I find Eva a bit b RUSQUE and rude. (speaks in a quick and rude way)
8 She’s fun-loving but she can be a bit s UPERFICIALat times. (doesn’t care about serious things)
9 I think Max is i NSECURE . (doesn’t have much confidence, not really sure of himself)
10 I’m always happy to go out for a meal with Kerstin. She’s such g OOD c OMPANY .
(pleasant and entertaining to spend time with)
11 She was very c OURAGEOUS in speaking out against corruption. (brave, unafraid to speak or act)
12 Owen’s a p PERFECTIONIST . He’s never happy if he doesn’t get an A-grade in every test.
8.4 Find adjectives on the opposite page related to these abstract nouns.
1 altruism ALTRUISTIC 4 placidity PLACID 7 distrustDISTRUSTFUL 10 unscrupulousness
INDUSTRIOUS
2 parsimony PARSIMONIOUS5 industriousness 8 terseness TERSE UNSCRUPULOUS

3 diligence DILIGENT 6 rebellion REBELLIOUS 9 naivety NAIVE

8.5 The adjectives you found in the exercise above are more common in formal contexts.
Give a synonym for each word that would be more likely to be used in informal
situations (e.g. a friendly, informal conversation). Use a dictionary if necessary.

8.6 Over to you

Which adjectives from this unit could you use to describe you, your friends and your family
members?

English Vocabulary in Use Advanced 23