1. Read paragraph 3 and say which two sectors Marks & Spencer deals in. Which one is doing well?

2. On the retailing side m&s is involved in various product ranges. Read paragraphs 3-5 and say which of the following are mentioned:

1. home furnishings

2. jewellery

3. food

4. clothing and footwear

5. newspapers and magazines

6. sports goods

Which area of business is M&S going to expand?

3. Read paragraphs 6, 7, 8, then answer the questions:

1. Which three markets do paragraphs 6, 7 and 8 describe?

2. Are profits up or down in all three markets?

3. Which word describes the trend for each market? Match a phrase with the correct market.

Markets Trends

1. Far East a) profits were hit

2. Europe b) profits fell

3. North America c) suffered a downturn

4. Which factor in the business environment affected sales in each market?

4. The text describes the trends for m&s's profits in key markets. Put each word from the box in the table:

improvement (n) (para 1)

fell (v) (para 2)

rose (v) (para 2)

decline (n) (para 3)

increase (n) (para 3)

maintained (v) (para 4)

rising		no	change	falling
verbs	nouns	verbs	nouns	verbs	nouns
to imrove	an improvement	-		-	-
-	-	-		-	-
-	-			-	-
-				-	-

Now add the following words to the table.

a fall	a rise	a decrease	a drop
to increase	to grow	to decline
to decrease	to drop	to stabilise

400. E) Listen to how the verbs and nouns are pronounced:

verb	noun
to increase	an increase
to decrease	a decrease
to import	an import
to export	an export

(CD) f) Listen to the sentences. Do you hear the noun or the verb?

5. Describing trends

The table shows car sales from 1991 to 2000. Look at it and then read the sentences.

European car sales 1991 - 2000

Year	Cars sold (in millions)
1991	13.5
1992	13.5
1993	11.2
1994	11.9
1995	12.0
1996	12.8
1997	13.1
1998	13.1
1999	13.0
2000	12.4

Notice how the verbs + prepositions are used.

1. From 1992 to 1993 car registrations decreased from 13.5 million to 11.2 million.

2. Car registrations increased from 11.2 million in 1993 to 11.9 million in 1994.

3. They decreased by about three hundred thousand (300,000) from 1991 to 1997.

4. There was a decrease of about half a million from 1991 to 1996.

1. Now complete these sentences using the table:

1. a) _ 1993 b) _ 1994 registration rose c) _ about seven thousand.

2. There was a decrease d) _ about 2.3 million from 1992 to 1993.

3. Car registration rose e) _ about 11.2 million in 1993 f) _ about 12.8 million in 1996.

2. Look at the table again. When was:

1. the biggest decrease?

2. the smallest increase?

3. the biggest increase?

4. the smallest decrease?

We can use verb + adverb to describe a trend.

Verb + adverb

Car sales fell dramatically from 1992 to 1993.

They rose steadily from 1993 to 1997.

They dropped slightly from 1997 to 1999.

Sales increased considerably.

Sales fell sharply from 1999 to 2000

400. c) Listen to the sentences describing the information from the table. Are the sentences true or false?

d) Work in pairs. Choose a year from the table and describe it. Your partner has to guess which year it is.

6. Work in pairs.

Student A: Look at the graph below which shows cinema attendance for Poland, Germany and Britain.

• Describe the trend to your partner.

• Ask him /her about attendance in France and Italy.

Student B: Look at the information in the Appendix.

1. Discuss the possible reasons for the trend:

• Free time

• Ticket price

• Quality of films

• Advertising

• How much money people have

• Number of different films

2. Write a short report about cinema-going in Europe.

7. Self-study task

To find out more information about the topic go to:

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business/

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2011/01/110119_witn_uschina_business_page.shtml

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newsenglish/witn/2009/01/090123_sony.shtml