1. While working for a major insurance company, Pauline Portas …

a) kept constantly quarrelling with her colleagues.

b) was frustrated with her lack of career progress.

c) did not find her job interesting.

d) reached a high position.

2. Pauline found it difficult to be a woman manager in her company because …

a) the work was too hard.

b) the male staff left all the work to her.

c) other managers didn’t value her opinions.

d) her colleagues ignored her.

3. The survey described in the article found that …

a) companies don’t have enough women managers.

b) companies often fail to make the most of women’s skills.

c) companies often dismiss women if they don’t perform well.

d) companies hardly ever consider female workers for promotion.

4. Sue Birley suggests that women …

a) refuse to work longer hours.

b) often dislike rigid corporate structures.

c) prefer to work within a tightly controlled system.

d) are less good at adapting to a changing environment than men.

5. Women tend to start businesses which …

a) are in relatively safe business sectors.

b) have a high growth potential.

c) are based on high-tech products or ideas.

d) don’t need to employ many workers.

Read the passage and mark the following statements T (true) or F (false)

Text 2

Dan Beldy, a San Francisco venture capitalist, has seen thousands of snazzy business cards – with bright colours, weird shapes, maps and even mirrors. The problem is that none has ever really caught his attention. Mr Beldy says he'd rather skip the card altogether and simply key the contact information into a notebook computer. ‘Since I’ll be e-mailing that person within a day or two or so, I’d rather have electronic access than dig through business cards,’ he says.

Computer databases and personal digital assistants may soon replace business card wallets, but, paradoxically, many companies are spending more on creative business cards in order to make a good impression. Bob Popyck, author of Here's My Card: How to Network Using Your Business Card to Actually Create More Business, agrees that well-designed business cards are still important. ‘Business cards are personal, gracious and mark you as someone of world class,’ he writes. ‘They can differentiate you.’

‘We've noticed that people are being more creative. They use digital cameras and they are downloading a lot of their own graphics,’ says Eric Atwood, a public relations specialist for Iprint.com, an online printing company that caters mainly to small businesses and individuals.

However, the newest trend is digital cards – CD-Roms cut to business-card size that can contain a catalogue's worth of information. California-based Moon Global Network, one of many companies trying to tap this market, recently created a CD-Rom card for an electronics distribution company that included information on 3.000 products. It cost $3,200 for 1,000 cards.

‘But for the same information on printed material, development and production would have cost $30,000.’ says Roger Drews, senior account executive and director of operations for Business-CD.com, Moon Global's CD-Rom card division.

Still, digital business cards only work if the recipient has the technical know-how. Aaron Fineman, a New York-based freelance photographer, thinks that not many people are ready for digital cards yet. ‘Most editors I deal with are computer illiterate.’ he says.

Terri Henry, director of marketing for Icast.com, an entertainment industry site, agrees. She wonders how people could program the information into a notebook computer if they did not have a business card to begin with. ‘You can’t meet someone at a conference and sit there putting their phone number in,’ she says.

1. Den Beldy would agree that it is easier to access an address that is recorded digitally rather than using cards.

2. People often lack imagination to produce interesting printed business cards.

3. According to the information in the text, it is cheaper to produce company information on a card-sized CD-Rom.

4. Terry Henry and Bob Popyck have entirely opposed views on the importance of business cards.

5. In Aaron Fineman’s opinion, some people don’t have enough technical background to deal with digital business cards.

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