Nome___________________________________________Matricola_________________

B2 Triennio 30301 April 2015

Listening Section
Listening (Exercise 2)
Listen to a talk about writing cover letters and complete the spaces with the words that you hear
(no more than 3 words).

It certainly isnt easy to come up with a good cover letter. You need to capture the reader's
attention without 1._________________________. There is a lot of advice out there about how to
write a compelling cover letter, a cover letter that convinces the employer that you can help them 2.
_________________________ but maybe there should be more advice on how to avoid writing a
stupid cover letter, a cover letter that dooms your CV to the trash bin.

One thing you should never do is claim that you are 3. _________________________ for the job.
You dont know who the other applicants are, and you certainly dont know what 4.
_________________________ they offer, so dont presume. Limit yourself to explaining how your
experience and your skills set 5. _________________________ for the position, and the company.
According to many HR specialists, another non-starter is referring to yourself as a hard worker. So
what? Its hardly 6. _________________________ these days. After all, no one is out there
referring to themselves as a soft-worker. What you should do instead is 7.
_________________________. Demonstrate that you are the sort of person who takes initiative in
the beginning and sees things through to the end.

Next, dont be generic in your cover letter. 8. _________________________ your company and
your industry and you make it seem that you 9. _________________________ to write a fresh
letter to that company. And, never, ever, send a non-personalized cover letter. A letter addressed
To Whom It May Concern or Dear Sir is addressed, in reality, Dear Trash Bin. Take the time to
find out the name of the hiring manager 10. _________________________ you should be writing
to. It is, after all, what your competition is doing.

Reading Section
Exercise 1
Complete the spaces with the best word or phrase (a,b,c,d) below
Many businesses in the UK now rely heavily on foreign workers. With an increasingly diverse workforce,
employers may find (1) _____________ having to deal with language issues that arise in the workplace and
their legal implications.
In recent years, the arrival of migrant workers from Eastern European countries in particular (2)
_____________ in a highly diverse range of cultures and identities within the United Kingdom's labour force.
In certain (3) _____________ paid sectors such as agriculture and hospitality, there is a particular reliance
on people whose first language is not English. Most employers recognise the benefits of a diverse workforce
and want to (4) _____________ equality. Compliance with discrimination legislation in the workplace is
therefore necessary (5) _____________ of the significant financial penalties and negative publicity involved
where an employee brings a discrimination claim.
Furthermore the Equality Act of 2010 protects employees and others against discrimination on (6)
_____________ grounds including that of race. Race includes colour, nationality and ethnic or national
origins. However, less favourable treatment because of race can be difficult to recognise. Can an employer
require its employees to have excellent English (7) _____________? This would seem to be discriminatory
because non-native English speakers are less likely (8) _____________ conform to it. However, if the
employer can show that excellent English is necessary to perform the job they should be able to (9)
_____________ the requirement. For example, a job which requires customer facing, (10) _____________
require a higher level of English than may be necessary to work on a production line.

1.

themselves

their

them

ourselves

2.

has seen

has resulted

has shown

has lead

small

lowering

huge

lower

promote

raise

lift

reduce

5.

despite

because

in spite

therefore

6.

various

valuable

differently

favourably

7.

speech

tongue

skills

talk

8.

can

able

will

to be able to

9.

show

justify

confirm

claim

10

ought

have

will

mustnt

Exercise 2
Look at the text below. You must provide the missing word in each gap.

Do you think your employees can balance their personal and (1)_______________ lives working
for your company? According to a new survey by HR research and advisory service
WorkplaceTrends.com and global recruitment firm CareerArc, 67 percent of employers say their (2)
_______________ have a good work-life balance. If you (3) _______________ to ask your staff to
confirm this, however, the answer might surprise you. The survey found that nearly (4)
_______________ of employees (48 percent) say they don't have enough time in the week for
personal activities, and one-fifth spend more than 20 hours a week (5) _______________ outside
the office during their personal time.
Dan Schawbel, founder of WorkplaceTrends.com, said that technology is responsible for
(6) _______________ work-life balance. Mobile devices and constant connectivity have stretched
the traditional 9-to-5 workday into a 24-7 workday, with employees finding it (7) _______________
to really leave the office behind, he said
Managers aren't helping the situation, either: 64 percent of HR professionals questioned said they
expect employees to be contactable outside of office hours by (8) _______________ or phone.
Approximately the same percentage of employees said their managers expect them to respond to
work communications during their personal time.
As many companies have discovered, workplace flexibility programs seem to be some of the
biggest aids to achieving work-life balance. Nearly 90 percent of HR leaders said flexibility
(9) _______________ employee satisfaction, and they're right: Three-quarters of employees
view flex-work programs as their top company perk. Employees also value paid and unpaid time
off as important (10) _______________.

Exercise 3
Read the text below. Each line contains an additional or unnecessary word. Identify the word and
write it in the space provided.

Eg

75% of Bocconi students are from the Italy

___the___

We all rely on answering machines and voicemail. However, a research shows that

_________

most people in business hate them all. As well as this, you can easily upset callers

_________

with a bad message. In this report, we show it is how to improve your messages.

_________

First, always state your name or company. It is already frustrating not to have speak to

_________

someone without wondering if you have even yet reached the correct person. Ask

_________

callers to leave their details: name, reason for calling and phone number. Thirdly, if you to

_________

leave an alternative number, say it too slowly. It is also a good idea to let people

_________

know when you will pick up your messages. Finally, researchers say always that 7 out of 10

_________

callers do not leave messages, so far it may be better to get a professional phone

_________

10

answering service to manage your calls as it can cost you much more less to pay an

_________

agency.

Exercise 4
Match the words in the box with their definitions below
Dismiss
Deal with
Attend

challenging
click
incentives

back up
set the agenda
call centre

entrepreneur
go along (with you)
commission

1. Arrive and participate in a meeting

2. Manage
3. Subsidiary / division of a company
4. Office for sending or receiving information by telephone
5. Someone who starts and develops businesses
6. Cost or remuneration for doing some work
7. Job benefits to encourage workers
8. Money an employee earns for selling something
9. Agree
10. Make a copy for security

fee
branch
walk out

_________________________
_________________________
_________________________
_________________________
_________________________
_________________________
_________________________
_________________________
_________________________
_________________________

Writing Section
You are the sales manager of an international company and you want to organise a meeting with
your sales team.
Write an email to all the members of the sales team:

provide details of where and when the meeting will take place

explain that the reason for the meeting is that a new product is going to be launched
-

describe the product

why you think it will be successful

give details of the market

give details of an additional point for the agenda

Write 180-200 words

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