Post-Reading

1. Find the correct response to the questions.

1. How are you today?

2. So, what do you do exactly?

3. How’s it going?

4. Long time no see.

5. Is life treating you well?

6. What are you working on at the moment?

7. How do you do?

1. How do you do?

2. Things could be better, but I can’t complain.

3. It’s good to see you again.

4. At the moment I’m working on a project in Wales.

5. It’s going well. And with you?

6. I’m fine. And you?

7. I’m a risk analyst.

2. Complete the sentences with the correct prepositions.

• How do you do, Mrs. Smith? It’s nice ___ meet you.

• Welcome ___ our company.

• This is my cousin. Let me introduce you ___ her.

• Which hotel are you staying ___?

• It will be a long meeting. Which topics are you most interested ____?

• Have you met Ms Jones? She is responsible ___ the finance department.

Personal Questions

Traditionally, in Britain, most direct questions are rude. For example, you don’t say, ‘How old are you?’ Nor do you search for someone’s age by asking her children’s ages. Direct and indirect questions designed to discover other people’s income, parentage, education or the costs of any possession are equally taboo.

If someone says he’s been in hospital you don’t ask what was wrong; you say ‘I do hope it was nothing serious’ and leave it to him to elaborate if he wishes. Generally, it isn’t considered good form to say anything very personal unless you are really close friends. However, the under-30s are increasingly open about all these questions.

Pointing at monuments and landscapes is fine. Pointing at people is rude because it embarrasses others to realise they are talked about.

Answer the questions below.

• What questions are personal in Britain?

• Is it polite to ask direct questions?

R eading and Speaking (2)

1. What does it mean ‘communication skills’?

2. How can you define Time Management?

3. Scan the text and write out all the combinations with the word ‘time’.

Time Management and Organization

Communication skills. The ability to construct an argument and make your case forcefully and clearly to your boss, client or coworkers will move your ideas to fruition. Communication is the activity of conveying information through the exchange of ideas, feelings, intentions, attitudes, expectations, perceptions or commands, as by speech, gestures, writings, behaviour and possibly by other means. It is the meaningful exchange of information between two or more participants.

Personal Time Management. The ability to stay organised and prioritise tasks will go a long way to moving you and your team forward. Personal Time Management is controlling the use of your most valuable resource. The absence of Personal Time Management is characterized by last minute rushes to meet deadlines, meetings which are either double booked or achieve nothing.

In Personal Time Management there is the simple concept of keeping a well ordered diary and the idea of planned activity. It is a tool for the systematic ordering of your influence on events. Personal Time Management allows you to eliminate wastage, be prepared for meetings, refuse excessive workloads, and plan each day efficiently.

There are various sources of waste. The most common are social: telephone calls, friend conversations around the coffee machine. It would be difficult to eliminate all non-work activity (we need a break) but if it’s a choice between chatting to someone in the afternoon and meeting the next pay-related deadline. Your time log will show you if this is a problem, and decide how much time each is worth to you. If you have a task to do, decide beforehand how long it should take and work to that deadline – then move on to the next task.

One thing you can’t recycle is wasted time. The most important type of activity is that which will save you time: allocate time to save time, a stitch in time (своевременная мера) saves days. And most importantly of all, always allocate time to time management: at least five minutes every day. Finally, for each activity you should estimate how much time it is worth and allocate only that amount. But Personal Time Management does not solve your problems; it reveals them and enables you to take control of your own time – how you use it is up to you.

Time Management Skills. Time. We make it, waste it, kill it. It stands still, it flies, it’s infinite. It runs out. Learning how to manage time is a skill essential to a successful career in any field.

Successful time management means you should be able to avoid working harder or longer to achieve your goals; you’ll get there by working more effectively. First identify areas where you waste time. Then make a list of all the research you have to do, make notes, arrange a meeting etc. Make ‘To do’ lists for today, this week and this month. Start by making a plan / keeping a diary. That’ll help you reach your final goal.

When training yourself to work more effectively it is important to give yourself rewards (you can watch a film, have a game of tennis etc.). Michael Morris, a tutor for the Open University Business School, believes “The best reward of all is to take a big fat marker pen and cross the item off the list.”

No business operation will get anywhere without a vision of the end result. Nothing helps lay the groundwork for advancement more than cultivating and maintaining good relationships. Nothing makes a business a great place to work more than mutual respect and politeness.