1. Neutral

In my opinion...

From my point of view...

It seems to me that...

1. think/believe/feel/considerthat...

As I see it,...

As far as I’m concerned...

Weak

I'm inclined to think that...

1. tend to think that...

2. Do you really think / believe that...?

Don’t you think that...?

Are you absolutely sure / convinced / positive that...?

These phrases can be very useful if the speaker is trying to persuade others.

3. You’re absolutely right!

Exactly!

1. completely agree.

4. Really? Do you think so? W

I’m afraid I don’t agree, (polite) S Nonsense! / Rubbish! (not at all polite) S I’m not totally convinced, because... W

1. totally / completely disagree with you / with that. S

I’m afraid I can't agree with that. W I’m against that, because... S

1. can’t support that, because... S

1. don’t agree. S

NOTES

’o report other people’s opinions, we can say According to (John / Mrs X/ the Financial Times,...). However,

«e do nfit use According to me,... to report personal

opinions.

n afraid I don't agree is strong but polite and sounds more direct, whereas I’m afraid I can’t agree with thot s weaker and sounds less direct because of the use of the modal verb (con).

Practice 1

See pages 119 and 128 of the Student’s Book for the

•ile cards. This exercise is designed to practise phrases for asking for and giving opinions, and agreeing and disagreeing, and not to comment on learners' actual

opinions. There are opinions here that various learners might agree, strongly agree or disagree with. There are others about which they may have no opinions. Divide the class into pairs anc assign each learner a role (A or 8). Learners will take turns to give their opinions and agree or disagree with their partner. You can stress that this is to help them practise the language and it is not a test of their real opinions.

At the end of the activity, you can ask learners to report back to the rest of the class about their partners’ (real or pretend) opinions.

Listening: Concluding a meeting

With books closed, asklearners what the chair of a meeting usually needsto do at the end, and ask them if they know any phrases for these functions. There is a list of functions in Exercise 1, and a list of phrases in Exercise 2.

Play the meeting once to allow learners to get the gist. You can then play it again for them to pick up more details. Play the meeting again so that learners can check their answers.

CZBtapescript

Chair: I’m sorry, John, but I’m afraid we'll have to

bring this point :o a close. I think we've covered everything, and it seems that we all agree on the way ahead, so I'd like to go over the decisions we’ve taken.

We're going ahead with the plan to redesign and refurbish some of our branches and to relocate the others. John is going to look into the question of -'inding more suitable premises for the branches in List B, possibly in shopping centres, and contact property agencies. Julie will contact the company that designed our most recent branches, and also investigate their main competitors in the refurbishment business. Remember, we need a company that specializes in banks because of the security aspects, and preferably one that can arrange to do the building work out-of hours - in the evenings and at weekends - so that normal trading can continue. Alan, you’re going to see if any more market research data is available about customer expectations. Claire, you’re responsible for getting more information about what facilities the back office staff in

the branches in List A would like from a major modernization or upgrading.

Is that all clear? Does everyone agree with that? Good. Kirsten, you’ll let us have a copy of the minutes by when - Wednesday? Good, thank you. Can we fix a date for our next meeting?

1. expect we need about three weeks. Can we say Monday the twenty-second, at nine?

Well, thank you, everybody, it’s been a very productive morning, and I look forward to our next meeting.

ANSWERS

2. 1 I’m sorry John, but I'm afraid we’ll have to

bring this point to a close.

2. I’d like to go over the decisions we’ve taken.

3. Is that all clear?

4. Can we fix a date for our next meeting?

Can we say Monday 22nd, at nine?

5. Well, thank you everybody, it’s been a very productive morning, and I look forward to our next meeting.

3. al b4 c2 d2 e5 f3 gl

4. 1 property

2. Look into, evening

3. Look for

4. back office

5. Circulate

5. 1 John

2. Julie

3. Alan

4. Claire

5. Kirsten

POSSIBLE ANSWER

From: Pat Brady

To: John.HenryB?.... Julie.Hoyte@Alan.

Walcott@..., Claire.Connolly@...

Cc: Kirsten.Olson@...

Subject: Action points from yesterday's meeting

Kirsten will be circulating the minutes of

yesterday’s meeting shortly, but meanwhile,

here's a summary of the action points and who

is responsible for them.

• John will try to find shopping centre locations for the branches in List В and contact property agencies.

• Julie will look into bank redesign specialists, preferably ones that can do evening and weekend building work.

• Alan will look for market research data about what customers expect from a bank.

• Claire will find out what facilities the back office staff want.

• Kirsten will circulate the minutes by Wednesday.

Practice 2

See pages 119,122,128.133 and 135 of the Student’s Book for the file cards.

Divide the learners into groups of five, giving each memt of the group a different role. As usual, give learners time¹ prepare their role and select a good speaker for the role с the Chief Executive, who chairs the meeting. He or she h= to explain the meetings objective, decide who can speak and when, and prevent any interruptions and digressions He or she can also summarize other people’s arguments, and decide when the meeting should come to an end. The meeting should reach a decision.

Ensure that the learners do not simply read out what is written on their role cards, or say that they disagree with an idea before it has even been suggested. The group’s decision is unpredictable, and may depend on how persuasive the speakers are, or on the learners' owr opinions. (However, irrespective of what your learners decide, the National Union Bank will return in Unit 20, negotiating with an Indian company!)

Foreign exchange

T

13

o learn about: exchange rates; foreign exchange trading; key vocabulary of exchange rates

2. To learn how to: talk about graphs and charts

To practise: describing a graph related to your work