Vocabulary. Part II

1. ___________ financing helps to improve the overall financial structure of a business by providing unfunded fee based finance to meet clients' commitments with third parties. We offer a range of ______________ products for clients who wish to create liquidity for their businesses: - Financial guarantees and commitments; - Performance bonds; - Bid bonds; - Advance  payments; - Acceptances; - Confirmations. (adj)

2. When the project launched four years ago a city councilor criticized NHS Hull for funding the yacht. Steve Brady, from Hull City Council, said it was a "disgraceful" misuse of public money. In 2009, David Cameron described the purchase of the yacht as "extravagant". NHS Hull defended its decision and said it was an investment in the future of local young people. Christopher Long, chief executive of NHS Hull, said the project was an "exciting opportunity for Hull to do something different" and to make a difference to the "health, skills and __________ of our young people." (n)

3. A former Goldman Sachs board member has been found guilty of four criminal counts of __________ by a federal court in New York. Rajat Gupta, 63, denied illegally leaking boardroom secrets to Raj Rajaratnam, a former hedge fund manager now serving 11 years in prison. (2 words)

4. It was the leader of the group who arrested Sudbury and dragged him to the chopping block, ordering that he be beheaded. Her name was Johanna Ferrour. In court documents she was described as "chief ________ and leader of rebellious evildoers from Kent". She also ordered the death of the treasurer, Robert Hales. (n)

5. A. Fred is__________, there is a lot less criticism about how things are being done. B. Joan can't wait to get into __________ and do what she can to turn things around. C. Huge consumer demand for electricity has put energy companies ___________. (idiom)

6. Observers say that the demand for Ford's pick-ups was no surprise, with 4x4 vehicles more fuel-efficient than they used to be. Also, since petrol prices in the US have dropped to a national average of about $3 a gallon, driving such vehicles has become much more affordable. "The revival of the American people's love affair with the _________ has been good news for Ford and America's other two big carmakers - General Motors and Chrysler." (n)

7. Despite Android's advances, Apple still dominates the _______ of the smartphone market. This is less a function of the many Apple fans amongst tech journalists. It's more a question of first-mover advantage and, most importantly, branding. Dozens of manufacturers are now selling numerous Android phones, ranging from the cheap and cheerful to the high end of the market. Apple and its network partners can focus all marketing around a single brand and - now - two devices. (n)

8. Mr. Hari was suspended in July while an internal investigation by Independent co-founder Andreas Whittam Smith into the claims against the journalist was carried out. The newspaper said Mr. Hari admitted "__________ of quotations/plagiarism" and to using a pseudonym to attack critics online. Mr. Hari went to the US for retraining and in September returned his Orwell Prize for writing. (n)

9. Under these regulations, a pricing system has developed that is so badly structured at the critical retail level that if it were replicated throughout the economy, we would all be as poor as the proverbial church mouse. Retail customers pay averaged rates, making their demand ___________ to changes in supply cost. Without dynamic retail pricing, no one can determine whether, when, where or how to invest in energy infrastructure. Impulsive proposals to incentivize transmission investment, without retail demand response, puts the cart before the horse and risks expensive and unnecessary investment decisions, costly to reverse. (adj)

10. Last week ratings agency Fitch cut its outlook for the Indian economy to negative, saying there were "heightened risks" to its growth. It said that India's growth potential: "will gradually ________ if further structural reforms are not hastened". Another ratings agency, Standard & Poor's, has also warned that India may lose its investment-grade status. (v)

11. I have a small business in Limassol, a souvenir shop in the old town area where there are tourists always around. If it wasn't for Russian tourists I would be out of business. I can tell you with certainty that if it wasn't for Russian tourists I would be out of business. I'm just about managing to survive because of the increase in Russian tourism. One costly expense here is the high interest rate banks charge to give loans or a ____________to businesses, from 7% to 9%. It's hard to feel sorry for the banks - they will be bailed out with the help of the government here or the EU. Who will bail us out? There will be no help from anyone, we will simply be out of business. (3 words)

12. With 434,000 staff, the civil service is the smallest it has been since the Second World War. That's down from half a million when the coalition came to power. Allies of Steve Hilton believe this still represents a ________ bureaucracy - a hundred times larger than the number of staff that ran the Raj. (adj)

13. He said while more robberies occurred overall during Ken Livingstone's second term as mayor, Mr Johnson's figures obscured the fact that robberies had gone up every year since he took office. "It's an _______ of the truth," said Prof Brimicombe. "He hasn't told a lie, but he has definitely put an unfortunate spin on things. "It's about being upfront about where your statistics come from, which in this case he hasn't done." (n)

14. An emotional Redknapp said his "nightmare" was over after being cleared of two charges of __________ on 8 February following a trial at Southwark Crown Court. The 65-year-old had denied accepting secret untaxed bonus payments from former Portsmouth chairman Milan Mandaric, while he was manager at Fratton Park. Former England bosses Graham Taylor and Sven-Goran Eriksson said the verdict opened the way for Redknapp to take charge of the national team in the future. (2 words)

15. You might ask after all this background on why it can’t be recorded in predictable figures how to manipulate the earnings and other balance sheet ratios crucial for analysis. It is quite simple; the management would simply have to cut-back on their expenses in R&D and most possibly in advertising too thus creating an artificial rise in their earnings. While this may look good for the bottom line in a short term focus, this will undoubtedly be detrimental to the business in the long term because sooner or later competitors will come up with new and innovative products and steal your company’s market share. This might benefit the management who are simply concerned with their paychecks and bonuses which they don’t deserve but will ruin the poor investor who is unwary of the possible aggressive __________ engaged by unscrupulous executives. (2 words)

16. The agency said that more than half a million payment card accounts were compromised as a result, many of which subsequently appeared on a domain registered in Russia. Despite the attack the FTC said that Wyndham had failed to remedy the vulnerabilities and had been breached a further two times in 2009, leading to tens of thousands more accounts being affected. It added that the intruders had been able to make more than $10.6m (£6.8m) of _________ purchases as a consequence. (adj)

17. A. "And given the fiscal realities, there is in my view simply no credible alternative to commercial crew transportation services, because trying to maintain a government-only ISS crew taxi will just break the budget”. "But competition is the key element in that strategy. Single-sourcing space transportation capability will just result in a new monopoly and will evolve the same __________ as the old. "Competition is the only tool we have to keep that from happening." Since the shuttles were retired last year, America has no means currently of launching its own astronauts into space - seats must be bought for them on Russian Soyuz rockets. B. "They have a big disadvantage to the internet retailers because they have a big _________. So they need a guy who can fix that rather than trying to sell more stuff." (2 words)

18. The era of the 'on-all-night' illuminated high street could end, the Environment Agency is predicting. The agency says new rules will force businesses to switch off lights and displays at night to meet new limits. The Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) scheme requires businesses to cut consumption or face_____. (2 words)

19. South Korea's largest pension fund, the National Pension Service (NPS), has received approval from authorities to invest in Chinese securities. The company said in a statement that it was the first pension fund in the world to win the qualified foreign ____________ (QFII) status. NPS will now be able to trade yuan-denominated mainland stocks and bonds. (2 words)

20. Our state should be able to guarantee that every child has access to a good education as well as a state of the art health service. Our political elite should not be allowed to _______ public funds with impunity or be shielded by the law. Nigeria produces gallons of crude oil and liquefied natural gas that is shipped to nations across the world. This country makes billions of dollars every year. Where does the money go? (v)

21. One of the best indicators of the declining optimism about the big emerging economies, in particular China, has been the decline in the mining sector: the Bloomberg World Mining Index peaked at the end of January and has since fallen 22%. Gold, which is historically the last refuge of the desperate, is 14% below its highs and - ________ its dismal performance - appears to have lost its safe-haven status. No refuge there, then. The only equity market with any resilience appears to be India, but its story is hardly an inspiring one. (prep)