Lesson 1

UNIDAD DE MUESTRA DE LA ASIGNATURA: ENGLISH FOR SOCIAL SCIENTISTS.
CDIGO: 69904028 GRADOS: Ciencia Poltica y de la Administracin, Sociologa, Economa y Administracin y Direccin de Empresas.
LESSON 1.
DESCRIBING AND PRESENTING PRODUCTS AND SERVICES: PRICES, QUALITY, WEIGHT AND SIZE.
General Objectives Specific objectives. PART 1. USE OF LANGUAGE
Introduction. 1.1. Word order in English. Basic writing skills. 1.1.1. The sentence 1.1.2. The paragraph Practice. 1.2. Relative clauses. Practice. 1.3. The use of adjectives and adverbs. Comparatives and superlatives. Practice. 1.4. Present simple and present continuous. Practice. 1.5. Numbers and measures. Practice. PART 2. READING AND WRITING SKILLS. Reading Comprehension 1. Reading comprehension 2 + writing skills. Check your progress. Extra activities. Bibliography Glossary.
Autoras Margarita Goded y Lourdes Pomposo
UNIDAD DE MUESTRA DE LA ASIGNATURA: ENGLISH FOR SOCIAL SCIENTISTS. CDIGO: 69904028 GRADOS: Ciencia Poltica y de la Administracin, Sociologa, Economa y Administracin y Direccin de Empresas.
How to work with each unit. Punctuation and language use are important components of spoken and written English. Each unit will be divided into two parts: use of language and contents. o In the use of language part you will always have a theory section that consists of a short reminder of basic aspects of grammar, and a practice section with short exercises to check that you have understood the theory. All this practice will also work as a self-evaluation section. The content part consists of reading and writing practice in order to improve your formal academic English. This will involve reading different types of texts, linking words, expressions, introductions and conclusions. At the end of each unit you will have to read a long scientific text and answer some comprehension exercises that you will send to your tutor.
LESSON 1. Describing and presenting products and services: prices, quality, weight and size.
General objectives In this lesson you will first learn how to describe products and services and then you will learn how to measure them.
Specific objectives 1. 2. 3. Describe objects and services. Revise basic writing skills. The sentence and the paragraph. Review of basic grammar aspects related to the main general objectives: Word order, use of present tenses, adjectives and comparative forms and relative clauses. Numbers: how to write them. Differences between American and British English.
PART 1. USE OF LANGUAGE.
Remember that the Language that you are going to practice in each unit is just a review or reminder of the general grammar that you already know but related to the topic of each lesson. This symbol will be used for THEORY This symbol will be used for PRACTICE.
Describe objects and services. Introduction.
Describing objects and services follow a similar pattern in both cases. Answering the following questions will help the description of both. Write the name of the product or service you wish to describe filling in these boxes. Name of product/ object Whats it like? What shape is it? How big is it? What colour is it? Whats it made of? Who is it made by What is it for? How much does it cost? Describing objects Describing products
1.1. Word order in English. Basic writing skills THE SENTENCE
1.1.1.
El texto que viene a continuacin hasta la pg. 7 est sujeto a la legislacin vigente en materia de derechos de autor. As you know, a sentence is a set of words that make sense. There are sentences with one word: Come! Two words: She runs Or more: I love you.
Most of the sentences in English can be written like in Spanish. The problem comes where there are several words in a sentence and the order differs from the Spanish word order. Remember that in English the word order in a simple declarative sentence is normally:
Subject + Verb Anne is walking. Subject + Verb+ Complement John is ugly. Subject + Verb+ Object My father repairs his car.
Subject + Verb+ Direct Object+ Object complement She made me happy. Subject + Verb+ Indirect Object + Direct Object He bought me a ring. Subject + Verb+ Direct Object + Adverb Mary cooks the fish carefully.
Regarding adverbs, you should keep in mind the following points:
Adverbs of frequency are normally placed before the verb: He never goes to his mothers place, except with the verb to be and the auxiliary and modal verbs: Anne is always late, Ive never been there, you could always go there. Adverbs of time can be placed both at the beginning or at the end of a sentence: Yesterday, I went to bed at 11. / I went to bed at 11 yesterday. With several adverbs, the order is : Manner + Place+Time: Anne cooked dinner very carefully at her mothers place yesterday. A simple sentence has a meaning on its own (usually with one subject and one predicate. A sentence is marked by a capital letter and finishes with a full stop, a question mark or an exclamation point. The number of verbs gives a clue to check out the number of existing sentences. Have a look at this example: The man, who seemed very handsome, was called Peter. How many sentences are there? How many verbs can you see? You see two verbs: was called and seemed, that means there are two sentence structures forming a compound sentence. In the following sentences, The man was called Peter / who seemed very handsome,
consider which one has a meaning on its own, you see that who seemed very handsome is less important, equivalent to a qualifying adjective while, the sentence The man was called Peter makes sense on its own. A subordinate sentence, thus, depends on the main clause to complete its meaning. However, two simple sentences united by coordinating conjunctions both have a full meaning. These conjunctions are: And, but, or, nor, for, yet only I like tea and you like coffee John likes meat but Jane likes fish Remember that if you use these sentences, the verbal tenses used in the sentences have to be the same. Complex sentences contain a main clause and one (or more) subordinate clauses. There are many types of subordinate clauses, such as: Nominal: wins will become famous. Whoever John told me that he loved me. Why he came is still unknown. Do you know if she speaks English? For Jane to leave John that way is unethical. Littering is forbidden. Adjective: The man who wears a black coat is may neighbour. My neighbour, whom I invited to my party, is very handsome. Adverbial: Clauses of time (after, as, before, since, once, until, when, whenever, till, while, whilst, now (that), as long as, as soon as, immediately (that), directly (that). When I went to bed, she was still working. Clauses of place (where, wherever) Put your suitcase wherever you like. Clauses of condition (if, although, even if, even though, unless, provided that, if only ) If I had enough money, I would buy a boat. Clauses of concession (although, though, however, no matter (that), even though, while, whereas) No matter how important it is, you can leave it for tomorrow. Clauses of reason (because, since, as, seeing that) I went to Italy because I like monuments. Clauses of purpose (that, so that, in order that)
I finished earlier so that I could catch the bus. Clauses of result (that, so that) She was so pretty that she became a top model. Clauses of manner (as, as if, how) She does just as she likes. Clauses of proportion (as) As I had more experience, I learnt to cope with difficult clients. Clauses of preference (rather than, sooner than) Rather than stay in Spain, Id prefer to work abroad. 1.1.2. THE PARAGRAPH
There are two important aspects here. How to organize information inside a paragraph which is, in fact, a pre-writing activity, and how to structure and organise the sequence of paragraphs in a text. Firstly, we should learn to list ideas, select which of them are more relevant to what we are trying to say, and how to grade them according to their importance or their more or less direct relation to the main topic. Reflecting on the role that main and subordinate clauses play in English will help in organizing ideas. Secondly, it is important to understand that a paragraph is a block of writing that expresses a main idea. This main topic or idea is expressed by means of a series of sentences. Normally there is a topic sentence, which is syntactically a main sentence, and one or more supporting sentences that are either main or subordinate clauses. Most probably each selected idea will need a complete paragraph for its exposition and development.
a) Connecting paragraphs. Any written presentation needs to be structured so description of an artcraft should be preceded by a sentence explaining what this artcraft is for. Imagine a twelve year old boy that has been asked by his teacher to describe a bicycle to extraterrestrial aliens about to land on the Earth. Maybe his first introductory paragraph would include a comment explaining what bicycles are for and, this first paragraph might also mention the fact that we humans have two arms and two legs. This way he would be able to connect both ideas with a cause-effect connector. One possible design of the paragraph could be: A bicycle is a means of transport used by people to move from one place to another faster than walking. As humans have two arms and two legs this machine can be propelled by using the legs to push the pedals down and can be steered by using the two arms and hands to hold the handlebars and control the machine. Try your own alternative organisation. ............................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................... ........................................................................................................................................................................ .................................................
b) Cohesive devices. Connecting ideas is possible by using cohesive resources. But the use of cohesive devices depends on what you want to do with your text. If what you wish to do is simply add an element to an already existing list, you can use an additive logical connector such as, and, furthermore, in addition, oreover etc. If one prefers to make a contrast in the list of elements, neither, nor, whereas, is like, is unlike, in addition, etc., can be used. In all cases connectors should not be inserted mechanically. A well organized sequence of ideas in a composition requires the ideas to be relevant in the first place.
c)
Paragraph organization.
The paragraphs which make up an essay should be organized in three groups. The first one is usually made up of one- or a maximum of two paragraphs. This introductory paragraph should contain the topic sentence mentioning the main issue to be debated or studied or described. Sometimes this topic sentence is just a paraphrase of the title but that is not always the case. The second group of paragraphs is called body paragraphs where the writer develops his ideas. Finally, a concluding part of the essay is made up of a last paragraph where some kind of conclusion is put forward. This final paragraph should be easily identifiable because it should begin with a connector like finally, to sum up, to conclude etc.
As we have mentioned before, a paragraph consists of a sentence or group of sentences which have a relation in meaning, and which are somehow complementary in illustrating one point or another of the whole piece of writing. Paragraphs are formally marked by double spacing among one and the next, or indenting the first line of each paragraph, or with both. Remember that to write an essay you need to take into account at least three types of paragraphs: Introductory paragraph. There is at least one main sentence that shows the main topic of the essay. It has to state the thesis of the whole composition. Body paragraphs. One or more paragraphs where the author develops the main idea or ideas stated in the introductory paragraph. Its length varies. For a 1000 word essay, we can have approximately six or seven body paragraphs. All these paragraphs have to be well connected with the necessary linking words and expressions. Concluding paragraph. This summarizes the possibilities or opinions of the former body paragraphs, retakes the subject mentioned in the introductory paragraph, and draws the conclusion of the author towards the topic of the essay. It should start with words or expressions such as:
All in all All things considered Finally Having taken all these considerations into account, we could conclude that In conclusion Lastly The obvious conclusion to be drawn is that To conclude
To sum up We therefore conclude that
Practice 1. Put these words into the correct order to make sentences: a) Month / we / try / did / not / last / giving / up b) Japan / ever / you / have/ to / been / ? c) I / ever / hardly / come / see / to / my / girlfriend / Fridays /on d) Bought / I / Sally / for / bunch / of / on / her / flowers / birthday e) Never /done / he / has / it f) The / cinema / cannot / tonight / I / to / go g) Told / drink / the / wine / not / doctor / me / to h) Tom / give / I / bottle / a/ when / cries / he i) Is / very / person /she / a / suspicious j) Please/ you / and / help / come /can / me/ ? k) Tomatoes / taste / like / do / not / the / like/ I / of
1.2. Relative clauses A relative pronoun links two clauses into a single complex clause. It is called a relative pronoun because it relates to the word that it modifies. In English, relative pronouns are who, whom, which, whose, and that.
(1) This is a house. Jack built this house. (2) This is the house that Jack built.
Pronoun that who which whom whose
Use When we talk about things and people When we talk about people When we talk about things When we talk about people and use a preposition Instead of a possessive.
TIP In American English whom is not used very often. It is more formal than who and it is very often omitted in speech. Eg: The woman (who) you have spoken to is the waiter. The relative pronoun is sometimes omitted. When?
A. You can omit the relative pronoun if this is the OBJECT of the verb
Eg: The woman
who I wanted to see has not come yet.
The woman I wanted to see has not come yet.
B. You cannot omit the relative pronoun if this is the SUBJECT of the verb
Eg: I like the people
go to who vegetarian restaurants.
PRACTICE 1. Read the following sentences and cross out the pronoun if it can be omitted. a. I gave my boss all the documents that I had written. b. This is the company whose workers do not accept shifts. c. What happened to the report that was on the table? d. This is the worst country that I have ever lived. e. I like the people who like working hard. f. The supplier who comes to this company is normally on time. g. Have you finished all the homework that the teacher told you to do? h. People who work here are very professional. PRACTICE 2. 1. Fill the gaps with the right relative pronoun. 1. 2. 3. 4. I talked to the customer __________ daughter comes to see me every day. Mr. Richards wants to book the table ___________ he always books. We often go to the hotel___________ is in the square. Thats Peter, the product manager ___________ was very impolite to me.
5. 6. 7. 8.
The report ____________ you gave me was full of mistakes. The public ____________ is waiting outside are annoying me. This is the table ____________ I always sit at. It is next to the window. The man ___________ you were talking to is a famous sociologist.
1.3. The use of adjectives and adverbs. Comparatives and superlatives. ADJECTIVES give more information about nouns or pronouns. They can describe a person or thing, or they can tell you about the class or group something belongs to. Ex: The new manager is effective and flexible. ADVERBS add information about verbs, adjectives and adverbs. They tell us how, where, when or how often something happens, r about the speakers attitude. Ex: We need to look at this carefully. FORMING COMPARATIVE ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBS. add -er more drop -y and add -ier more cheap: cheaper; fast: faster expensive: more expensive easy: easier easily: more easily
One-syllable adjectives and adverbs Adjectives and adverbs of two or more syllables Two-syllable adjectives ending in -y Adverbs ending in -ly
FORMING SUPERLATIVE ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBS. add -est most drop -y and add -iest cheap: cheapest; fast: fastest expensive: most expensive easy: easiest
One-syllable adjectives and adverbs Adjectives and adverbs of two or more syllables Two-syllable adjectives ending in -y
Some adjectives and adverbs have irregular comparative and superlative forms.
Good/ well: better/best; bad/badly: worse/worst; far/far: further/furthest Remember to use than before the second person or thing you compare.
Ex: Smaller companies are better payers than large corporations. Remember to use thein when you use the superlative.
Ex: This is the most comfortable office in the whole building. You can compare measures with twice/ three times asas, and three/four times more / -er.
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Ex: My new laptop was twice as expensive as my old computer, but its four times faster. PRACTICE 1. Look at this graph about populated cities in the world and write five sentences with superlatives and comparatives.
Million
Madrid London Buenos Aires New York Sao Paulo Mexico Tokio 0 10 20 30 40 Million
1.Tokio is _____________________________________________. 2. Madrid is ___________________________________________. 3. Mexico is ___________________________________________. 4. London is ___________________________________________. 5. Buenos Aires is ______________________________________.
PRACTICE 2. Fill the gaps with the right comparative or superlative form. 1. 2. This is ____________student Ive ever had. (bad) The populations of Portugal and Belgium are similar, but the population of Portugal is ___________. (big) 3. I used to hate my old job, but I feel much ____________ in this one. (happy) 4. You are going ___________ than anyone in the road. (fast) 5. Do you mind driving a bit _____________? Im scared. (slowly) 6. It was one of the ____________ companies I have ever worked. (good) 7. The exercise was ____________ than I expected. (easy) 8. This is __________ Mobile Company in Europe. (large) 9. Citizens feel __________ here than in other cities. (secure) 10. I do not want to study at Manchester University because is _____________ than Canterbury University. (far)
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PRACTICE 3. Choose the correct answer. 1. As chairperson, shes the ______ person on the committee. a) strongest b) stronger c) most stronger d) most strong
2. Our sons are _______, they need new beds. a) more high b) higher c) taller d) more tall
3. Cats are much __________than dogs. a) quieter b) more quietly c) quietier d) quiet
4. This exercise is too easy. I want to try a __________ one. a) difficulter b) more difficult c) more difficulty d) difficulty
5. Shes _______than me. We always buy the lottery together but she always wins. a) luckily b) lucky c) more luckier d) luckier
1.4. Present simple and continuous tenses. Choosing between present simple and present continuous. You can use the present continuous: to describe activities in progress. Ex: Im writing an email to our manager. to describe temporary situations. Ex: Hes using my phone because his doesnt work. to refer to future arrangements. Ex: Hes starting a new business next month.
You can use the present simple: to give information about permanent activities. Ex: This factory makes luxury watches. to describe a state that doesnt change. Ex: He looks like his older sister talk about routines or habits. Ex: I often travel to Valencia on Thursdays. PRACTICE 1.
Make questions with you. Put the verbs in brackets in the Present Simple or Present Continuous. _______________ (feel) tired now? _______________ (usually write) a lot of emails a day? _______________ (study) every day? _______________ (try) to stop working overtime? _______________ (ever use) this laptop? _______________ (want) to learn how to calculate that? _______________ (look) for someone to sell your house? _______________ (do) an evening course at the moment? _______________ (understand) what Im explaining? _______________ (eat) healthy these days? Remember you were very ill. PRACTICE 2. Complete the following job interview filling the gaps with the verbs in brackets.
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Interviewer: - Good morning. Please, take a seat. Is this the first time you __________ (be) in this city? Candidate: - I have been here four times but I ________________ (plan) to live here. In fact, I ____________(be/already) moving this week. I __________ (love) this city. Interviewer: - Perfect. I would like to know why you __________ (want) to work in this company. Candidate: - I ___________ (want) to work here because I _____________ (finish) my studies in a couple of weeks and this ________ (be) the best company in this city. Interviewer: - _____________ (have) any experience in the field? Candidate:- I _____________ (collaborate) with a big company but they _____________ (not/pay) anything at the moment. It is just to get some experience. Interviewer: - We _____________ (not/hire) people without real experience at the moment. We ____________ (need) experts because we ________________ (not/have) time to train anyone. I am very sorry. Candidate: - But you ___________(not /mention) this in the newspaper ad. Interviewer: - Yes, we did. Read the job advertisement carefully. PRACTICE 3. Complete this job advertisement with either the present simple or the present continuous forms of the verbs in the box. be need want look for offer open offer grow
We ____________ one of the largest manufacturing companies in Europe. We ____________new branches in different countries every year. That is why we ______________new workers in order to ______________ more quality to our clients. We ____________ reliable and enthusiastic candidates with experience who ______________to work hard to expand the company. We __________a competitive salary and long holidays.
1.5. Numbers and measures.
El texto que viene a continuacin est sujeto a la legislacin vigente en materia de derechos de autor.
Now you will practice two things. How to say numbers in English and describing trends in graphs. Most people working in business need to spend a lot of time dealing with numbers. In this section you will learn how to say numbers in English. You will be able to practice this in a number of exercises.
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a)
Numbers Most people working in business need to spend a lot of time dealing with numbers. You will learn now how to say numbers in English. You will be able to practice this in a number of exercises.
Words for numbers: figures, digits
b) Different ways of saying 0 in English.
ZERO, OH, NAUGHT, LOVE, NIL
* For the number 0 we say: zero
* We say oh[, as in the following examples
in years after a decimal point in telephone numbers in bus numbers in hotel room numbers
1901 5.04 638 25 09 3205 Room 406
nineteen oh one five point oh four six three eight two five oh nine three two oh five room four oh six
* We say naught before the decimal point
0.003
naught point oh oh three
We say nil in football scores Real Madrid won five nil
Real Madrid won 5-0
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* We say love in tennis The score is 15-0 The score is fifteen love
c)
Points and commas
This is an important difference between English and Spanish. In English, we use a point (.) and not a comma (,) for decimals. In Spanish, it is the other way round. 12,002 12.002 12002 twelve thousand and two twelve point oh oh two Note that when accounts are prepared on computers, commas are not used
d) Decimals En English, we say all the numbers after a decimal point, separately. It is particularly important that you get this right if you are doing business over the phone, as you may lose a lot of money if you dont. The number 0.325 is said naught point three two five and not *naught point three hundred and twenty five . If you say zero point three hundred and twenty five , an English speaker is most likely to ignore the zero point part, thinking that you have made a mistake and you might lose (or gain) a lot of money.
12.55
Twelve point five five and not twelve point fifty five naught point six two eight naught point oh oh six naught point oh oh three
0.628 0.006 0.003
If the number after the decimal point represents a unit of money or measurement, it is read like a normal number:
5m70 12.5
five metres seventy twelve pounds fifty
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24,5
twenty four euros five
Note the different spelling in British and American English B English: metre Am English: meter
That is, * We say naught before the decimal point * We say nil in football scores * We say love in tennis
e)
Points and commas
This is an important difference between English and Spanish. In English, we use a point (.) and not a comma (,) for decimals. In Spanish, it is the other way round.
f) Per cent It is pronounced stressing the cent part of per cent
0.5%
half of one per cent
When talking about interest rates, percentages are said as follows 0.25% 5% p.a. a quarter of a percentage point five per cent per annum
g)
Hundreds, thousands and millions
In English, years and numbers are said differently
2001 2002
year: year two thousand and one number: two thousand and one year: year two thousand and two number: two thousand and two year: nineteen ninety nine number: one thousand nine hundred and ninety nine year: year two thousand
1999
2000
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number: two thousand
* British and American English also differ in how to say hundreds 142 a hundred and forty two (British English) hundred and forty two (American English)
* Another important difference between English and Spanish is in how to refer to billions. * Note that 1,000,000 is a million, but 1,000,000,000 is a billion in American English and now in British English too, whereas in Spanish it is a thousand million * 1,000,000 is a million * 1,000,000,000 is a billion in American English and now in British English too, whereas in Spanish it is a thousand million
h) Trends To go up (a little) VERBS NOUNS to increase an increase to rise a rise to grow a growth To go down (a little) VERBS NOUNS to decrease a decrease to fall a fall to drop a drop to decline a decline to go down a downturn to slip a barely noticeable decline
an upward trend
To go up (a lot) VERBS to surge to take off to shoot up to jump to leap a dramatic rise a steady growth
NOUNS a surge an upsurge a jump a leap
To go down (a lot) VERBS to plummet to plunge to crash to sink
NOUNS a plunge a crash
a sudden drop
* To express no change you use:
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No change a stable situation to remain stable to level off to stay at the same level to remain constant to stabilize
Change of direction a fluctuating performance to peak to reach a peak to reach a low point to bottom out to recover to revive
PRACTICE 1. Complete the following cheques.

Pay to: xxx 2,555,823 ______________________________________________
Pay to: xxx ______________________________________________ $10,036.26
Pay to: xxx ______________________________________________ 342.50
PART 2. READING AND WRITING SKILLS.
READING COMPREHENSION 1. Exercises 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Read the following text. Make a list of all expressions showing a measure of quantity. Underline different expressions used to mark an increase or decrease in quantity. Write two comparative sentences and two superlative sentences related to the content of the text. Send the answers to your tutor.
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UBS Earnings Sink, Following a Trend in Europe By JULIA WERDIGIER Sergio P. Ermotti, chief of UBS, which is trying to cut jobs and focus on more lucrative parts of its investment banking operation. UBS said on Wednesday that its profit slumped 54 percent in the first three months of the year after investment banking income dropped and the bank took an accounting charge on the value of its own debt. The bank might also face a shareholder revolt over executive pay at its annual meeting in Zurich on Thursday. Some investors have raised concerns about the levels of compensation after a year in which the bank was hit by a trading scandal and its shares plummeted. Net profit at UBS fell to 827 million Swiss francs ($911 million) in the first quarter from 1.8 billion francs in the period a year earlier. Operating income fell 22 percent, to 6.5 billion francs. Given challenging market conditions, I am proud of what our employees have achieved, Sergio P. Ermotti, the chief executive, said in a statement. UBS is the latest European bank to report a drop in first-quarter earnings. Like its rival Credit Suisse, UBS is seeking to cut jobs and focus on the more lucrative parts of its investment banking operation, while adhering to stricter capital requirements. The sovereign debt crisis in Europe, broader concerns about the stability of the banking system and government budget deficit issues in the United States are likely to continue to weigh on client activity in the second quarter, UBS said. But the bank also said it expected the wealth management unit to continue to attract net inflows of new money. Jon Peace, a banking analyst at Nomura, said it was not a bad result given a tough quarter and after the results from Credit Suisse last week, investors were prepared for a worse margin performance in the private bank. UBS shares rose 3.7 percent in Zurich on Wednesday. Some shareholders remained less impressed with how much UBS was paying senior executives and its bankers. Like Barclays, Credit Suisse and Citigroup, UBS is facing some opposition from shareholders for its pay practices. George Dallas, director of corporate governance at F&C Investments, gave UBS credit for cutting its 2011 bonus pool for the investment banking unit by 60 percent from a year earlier, but he said that may not have been enough. It was a year in which profit diminished, it had a major fraud scandal and the market ca pitalization dropped, Mr. Dallas said. Those facts should be taken more into account. UBS uncovered a $2.3 billion loss from unauthorized transactions at its London equity unit in September, and a trader, Kweku M. Adoboli, was charged with fraud and false accounting. He is in custody awaiting trial this year. The trading loss led to the resignation of Oswald J. Grbel as chief executive. UBS shareholders are to vote on the companys compensation report on Thursday. The vote is nonbinding, but a rejection of the report would still put pressure on the bank to reconsider its compensation policy.
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Thomas C. Naratil, the chief financial officer, said in a conference call that he was pleased with our progress and that the bank was on track with its program t o reduce costs by 2 billion francs. The earnings included an accounting charge of 1.2 billion francs on the value of the banks own debt and costs of 126 million francs related to the restructuring effort. Excluding the credit charge, the investment banking operation had a pretax profit of 730 million francs in the quarter, down from 965 million francs in the period a year earlier. Total income at the unit fell as an increase in revenue from capital markets services and products, including equities, was unable to offset a drop in income from the debt, commodities and currencies business and a decrease in fees from advising on mergers and acquisitions. Net new money in the wealth management business was 10.9 billion francs in the first quarter, mainly because of an increase from clients in the Asia-Pacific region and emerging markets. That was more than in the previous three months but less than in the first quarter of 2011. The bank also attracted more client money in its wealth management business in the United States. May 2, 2012, 3:09 am Investment Banking | Wall Street Earnings
READING COMPREHENSION 2 + Writing . Exercises. Read the following descriptions or definitions taken from Wikipedia, (www.es.wikipedia.org) and notice that they are written in present tenses, with adjectives and some comparative sentences. Do the following exercises and send them both to your tutor. 1. 2. Make a list with all the adjectives and another one with comparative sentences that you have found in all the texts. Write two similar descriptions of the items that you have in the blank charts. Please, do not copy the descriptions and try to use your own words.
1. A risk premium is the minimum amount of money by which the expected return on a risky asset must exceed the known return on a risk-free asset, or the expected return on a less risky asset, in order to induce an individual to hold the risky asset rather than the risk-free asset. Thus it is the minimum willingness to accept compensation for the risk. The certainty equivalent, a related concept, is the guaranteed amount of money that an individual would view as equally desirable as a risky asset
2. A graph or chart is a diagrammatical illustration of a set of data. If the graph is uploaded as an image file, it can be placed within articles just like any other image. Graphs must be accurate and convey information efficiently. They should be viewable at different computer screen resolutions. Ideally, graphs will also be aesthetically pleasing. Please note: "graph" and "chart" are ambiguous terms, sometimes used equivalently.
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3. An appellate court, commonly called an appeals court or court of appeals (American English) or appeal court (British English), is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In most jurisdictions, the court system is divided into at least three levels: the trial court, which initially hears cases and reviews evidence and testimony to determine the facts of the case; at least one intermediate appellate court; and a supreme court (or court of last resort) which primarily reviews the decisions of the intermediate courts.
4. A polygraph (popularly referred to as a lie detector) is a machine that measures and records several physiological indices such as blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and skin conductivity while the subject is asked and answers a series of questions. The belief is that deceptive answers will produce physiological responses that can be differentiated from those associated with non-deceptive answers. According to Encyclopdia Britannica, the polygraph was on its 2003 list of greatest inventions, described by the company as inventions that have had profound effects on human life for better or worse.
Supplier
Foreclosure
CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
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Now you should think about what you have learnt in this unit and what you need to revise. Please, tick () the appropriate box.
Vocabulary I can use new vocabulary and expressions about measures, numbers, sizes and descriptions in general. I can make a difference between American and British way of writing them.
I can do it very well
I can do it well
I need to improve
Grammar I can use sentences. relative
I can do it well
I need to improve
I know when to omit the relative pronoun. I know how to use the present simple and the present continuous. I know how to form comparatives and superlatives. I recognize the different parts of a clause (subject, verb, indirect object and direct object) I know how to order the words in English.
Reading I can understand
I can do it well
I need to improve
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scientific texts related to descriptions. I can understand scientific texts related to measures and sizes.
Writing I can write formal descriptions related to scientific topics. I understand how to organize the elements in a clause. I understand how to organize the different parts of a paragraph and I can use this knowledge. I understand how to organize the different paragraphs in an essay and I can use this knowledge.
I can do it well
I need to improve
EXTRA ACTIVITIES. Read extra bibliography. Browse the links and complete the grammar and vocabulary exercises you find more useful.
BIBLIOGRAPHY Collins Cobuild Students Grammar. Harper Collins Publishers. Goded, M. 2005. All about Writing. Madrid. UNED. Goded, M. 2002. English for Business. Madrid. UNED Guffey, M.E. & Loewy, L. (2011) Business Communication. Process and Product. USA. Cengage Learning.
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Hughes, J. & Ceri, J. (2011) Practical Grammar. UK. Heinle Cengage Learning. Johnstone, W. (1998) For Good Measure: The Most Complete Guide to Weights and Measures and Their Metric Equivalents. Pensylvania. NTC Publishing Group. Leber, S. (1997) Writing to describe. USA. Zaner Bloster. MacKenzie, I. 1996. English for Business Studies. CUP. McCarthy, M., McCarten, J., Clark, D. & Clark, R. (2009) Grammar for Business. Cambridge. CUP. Palmer, J.C. & Prez, M. (2000) Learning English to Trade. Castelln: Universidad Jaume I. Universitas.
LINKS to further references http://www.blairenglish.com/exercises/numbers_figures/numbers_selectionpage.html http://esl.about.com/library/listening/blnumbers2.htm http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises_list/alle_grammar.htm http://www.nonstopenglish.com/allexercises/vocabulary/vocabulary-numbers.asp http://www.jamesabela.co.uk/exams/Describinggraphs.pdf http://www.mtsac.edu/~kgolestaneh/40_B_SigfigRules_Excercises.pdf http://www.eslflow.com/describinggraphstables.html http://www.nwoinnovation.ca/article/-380.asp
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UNIDAD DE MUESTRA DE LA ASIGNATURA: ENGLISH FOR SOCIAL SCIENTISTS.

General Objectives Specific objectives. PART 1. USE OF LANGUAGE

Autoras Margarita Goded y Lourdes Pomposo

Autoras Margarita Goded y Lourdes Pomposo

PART 1. USE OF LANGUAGE.

Describe objects and services. Introduction.

1.1. Word order in English. Basic writing skills THE SENTENCE

Autoras Margarita Goded y Lourdes Pomposo

Regarding adverbs, you should keep in mind the following points:

Autoras Margarita Goded y Lourdes Pomposo

Autoras Margarita Goded y Lourdes Pomposo

Autoras Margarita Goded y Lourdes Pomposo

Autoras Margarita Goded y Lourdes Pomposo

To sum up We therefore conclude that

Pronoun that who which whom whose

Autoras Margarita Goded y Lourdes Pomposo

Eg: The woman

who I wanted to see has not come yet.

The woman I wanted to see has not come yet.

Eg: I like the people

go to who vegetarian restaurants.

Autoras Margarita Goded y Lourdes Pomposo

Autoras Margarita Goded y Lourdes Pomposo

Autoras Margarita Goded y Lourdes Pomposo

Autoras Margarita Goded y Lourdes Pomposo

1.5. Numbers and measures.

Autoras Margarita Goded y Lourdes Pomposo

Words for numbers: figures, digits

b) Different ways of saying 0 in English.

ZERO, OH, NAUGHT, LOVE, NIL

* For the number 0 we say: zero

* We say oh[, as in the following examples

1901 5.04 638 25 09 3205 Room 406

* We say naught before the decimal point

naught point oh oh three

We say nil in football scores Real Madrid won five nil

Real Madrid won 5-0

Autoras Margarita Goded y Lourdes Pomposo

Points and commas

0.628 0.006 0.003

five metres seventy twelve pounds fifty

Autoras Margarita Goded y Lourdes Pomposo

twenty four euros five

Points and commas

f) Per cent It is pronounced stressing the cent part of per cent

half of one per cent

Hundreds, thousands and millions

In English, years and numbers are said differently

Autoras Margarita Goded y Lourdes Pomposo

number: two thousand

NOUNS a surge an upsurge a jump a leap

To go down (a lot) VERBS to plummet to plunge to crash to sink

NOUNS a plunge a crash

* To express no change you use:

Autoras Margarita Goded y Lourdes Pomposo

PRACTICE 1. Complete the following cheques.

Pay to: xxx ______________________________________________ $10,036.26

Pay to: xxx ______________________________________________ 342.50

PART 2. READING AND WRITING SKILLS.

Autoras Margarita Goded y Lourdes Pomposo

Autoras Margarita Goded y Lourdes Pomposo

Autoras Margarita Goded y Lourdes Pomposo

CHECK YOUR PROGRESS

Autoras Margarita Goded y Lourdes Pomposo