EXPANDING
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Glossary: General business vocabulary Language Practice: Talking about facts and actions Doing Business: Modifying business information (expanding) Social Skills: Giving opinions |
Expanding can be seen as the opposite of summarising. It is extremely useful in giving a talk in front of (almost) total strangers, no matter the topic. Instead of just giving a talk, we suggest the following:
Businessmen or businesswomen could have in front of them a series of prompting cards (memory aids and prompters) with key words and/or phrases related to the talk he/she is to give written on them, meant to lessen the burden of a talk and to make it more dramatic;
The prompting cards should be shuffled into the order he/her prefers, which should be the right one;
Businessmen or businesswomen should rely on the reaction of the audience to the intrusion of a single word;
Businessmen or businesswomen should rely on the word associations in the people's minds.
Whenever a person involved in business is faced with the task of expanding, he/she should rely on the same nine-stage method based on the words TRACK DICE (see UNITS 5 and 6). In this method, the use of key words and/or phrases remains as the recommended technique. The nine-stage method can be further adapted and improved: instead of a draft written on a piece of paper (as is the case for summaries and minutes), the businessman or the businesswoman could first 'perform' his speech in front of a mirror, and then record it on magnetic tape, so that he can make the necessary changes after hearing and re-hearing it several times; as he/she is to give a talk in front of people standing up and waiting for some 'big talk', the businessman or the businesswoman should pay a great deal of attention to the way he/she dresses his/her hair, to the outfits he/she wears, to every gesture he/she makes, and, as a general rule, to every single detail meant to 'capture' the audience's good will and entire attention. (After Joseph Chilver, English for Business: A Functional Approach
& Glossary
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a great deal of = mult(a) aid = ajutor, asistenta, sprijin audience = audienta, public burden = īncarcatura, povara dress one's hair (v.) = a se coafa, a-si aranja parul expand (v.) = a creste īn marime, volum, scop further = ulterior give a talk (v.) = a tine o cuvāntare good will = bunavointa instead of = īn loc sa intrusion = introducere, patrundere key words = cuvinte cheie lessen (v.) = a micsora, a reduce, a usura meant to = menit(a) sa mind = minte mirror = oglinda outfit = īmbracaminte perform (v.) = a interpreta (o piesa de teatru, o melodie etc.) prompter = sufleur prompting cards = cartonase ajutatoare record (v.) = a īnregistra rely on (v.) = a se baza pe shuffle (v.) = a amesteca / face cartile stranger (s.) = strain(a) topic = subiectul unei conversatii / dezbateri / discutii whenever = ori de cāte ori |
L Language Practice
1. Answer the following.
How can expanding be seen?
Where is it extremely useful?
What should business(wo)men do instead of just giving a talk?
What should be written on the prompting cards?
What are the prompting cards meant to?
How should they be shuffled?
What should business(wo)men rely on?
Why should they record the speech?
What should they pay attention to when they are to give a talk?
2. Match the following words with their definitions.
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1. expand (v.) |
a. a person or thing that expands |
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2. expanded |
b. a representation of the universe, based on the observed red-shifts of distant galaxies, in which the galaxies are assumed to be receding from each other at a speed proportional to their separation as the result of the expansion of the universe |
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3. expanded code |
c. increased in area, bulk, or volume; enlarged |
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4. expanded metal |
d. plastic that is made light and spongy by the introduction of pockets of gas or air; foamed plastic, plastic foam |
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5. expanded plastic |
e. sheet metal slotted and stretched to make a stiff network with openings of various patterns, used for lathing, wastebaskets, and various decorative and semi-structural applications |
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6. expander |
f. to increase in extent, size, volume, scope, etc. |
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7. expanding universe |
g. zip code |
3. Fill in the following verbs, paying attention to the differences in meaning.
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to dilate = to increase the width or circumference (applying to space enclosed within confines or to hollow bodies to distend = to stretch, often beyond the point of natural expansion to expand = to spread out, usually in every direction to inflate = to blow out or swell a hollow body with air or gas |
Belladonna . the pupils of the eyes.
He hopes to . his company.
Heat . most metals.
In flying, a bird . its wings.
Later on, the President .on his statement.
Most metals . with heat.
The buds are not yet to .
The doctors had to . the patient's arteries to keep him alive.
The mind . with experience.
The writer chose to . his short story into a novel.
While making an effort, an athlete . his chest.
You need to . a balloon if you want it to rise in the air.
4. Find synonyms and antonyms for the following words and then make sentences with them.
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to aid - to act - big - burden - to capture - dramatic - every - expanding - first - general - to lessen - to recommend - right - to shuffle - stranger |
Doing Business: Expanding
1. Expand the text below bearing in mind the following.
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T |
= Task Make sure you talk about the subject you have been asked to. |
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R |
= Read Read the prompting cards with key words and/or phrases you have prepared for your talk. |
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A |
= Ask Ask yourself questions such as 'Have l chosen the right words?' 'Are they in the right order?' |
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C |
= Clarify Look at the key words and/or phrases you have chosen. Make sure their meaning fits your purpose. |
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K |
= Key words and phrases Which are the vital parts of the speech? |
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D |
= Draft Try to give the talk in a 5-10 minute form. Make it in front of a mirror. Record it on a tape. |
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I |
= Improve Listen to the recorded talk. Refer back to the instructions. Listen the passage once more and make any necessary amendments possible. |
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C |
= Count Is there a limit to the number of words and/or phrases you are allowed to use in your speech? How many words and phrases have you used in your recorded speech? Add or subtract words and phrases according to their degree of importance. |
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E |
= Edit Listen to the recorded talk once more before giving it in front of a mirror and then in front of the audience. |
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I'm a business(wo)man. I am anything I need to be at any time. Tell me, what exactly are you? |
2. You are asked to speak about the nine Ps a business(wo)man needs to be when dealing with customers. Here are the words written down on your prompting cards. Use antonyms as in the model.
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patient → A businessman needs to be patient particularly with impatient customers. |
patient
persistent
persuasive
polite
positive
practical
precise
prepared
punctual
3. Write three prompting cards you need to explain your teacher of English your absence from class last week.
I Social Skills: Giving Opinions
You are asked to give your opinion about the speech of a famous manager. Use the following.
As far as I'm concerned .
As I see it .
From my point of view .
I believe / feel / guess / think (that) .
I feel very strongly that .
I tend to think that .
I would say / suggest that .
I'm confident / sure that .
I'm in favour of...
I'm totally opposed to .
If you ask me .
In my opinion .
It seems to me (that) .
It was a crashing bore / a perfect success / a total failure.
On balance, I'd say that .
Speaking personally.
The point is (that) .
J Supplementary
Throughout history, every society has faced the fundamental economic problem of deciding what to produce, and for whom, in a world of limited resources. In the 20th century, two competing economic systems, broadly speaking, provided very different answers: command economies directed by a centralised government, and market economies based on private enterprise. At the dawn of the 21st century, it is clear that, for people throughout the world, the central, command economy model has failed to sustain economic growth, to achieve a measure of prosperity, or even to provide economic security for its citizens.
Yet for many, the fundamental
principles and mechanisms of the alternative, a market economy, remain
unfamiliar or misunderstood. Despite its demonstrable successes in raising
living standards in societies as diverse as Western Europe to North America and
Market economies may be practical, but they also rest upon the fundamental principle of individual freedom: freedom as a consumer to choose among competing products and services; freedom as a producer to start or expand a business and share its risks and rewards; freedom as a worker to choose a job or career, join a labour union or change employers.
It is this assertion of freedom, of risk and opportunity, which joins together modern market economies and political democracy.
Market economies are not without their inequities and abuses - many of them serious - but it is also undeniable that modern private enterprise and entrepreneurial spirit, coupled with political democracy, offers the best prospect for preserving freedom and providing the widest avenues for economic growth and prosperity for all. (After Michael Watts, What is a Market Economy?)
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