UNIT 7. MONEY

 

7.1 Wealth and Poverty

 

7.1.2         A

 

1. A self-made woman:

I come from a very poor background. My parents never had any money so we literally lived from hand to mouth. That’s probably why I set out to become rich before I was 30. I found a job in a company, and when I’d saved up enough money I started my own business. What do I put my success down to? Hard work. You have to work hard for what you want in this life.

2. A rich woman:

I’m fortunate because I came into a lot of money when my aunt died and left me everything. I invested the money and now I live off the interest. I suppose I’m what you would call well-off – but money isn’t everything. Sometimes it creates more problems than it solves.

3. A bankrupt businessman:

At one time I was extremely well-off, but then came the stock market crash and I lost everything. I had no money to pay off my debts and I was declared bankrupt. What did I learn from this experience? Firstly, money doesn’t grow on trees, and secondly, when you lose everything you find out who your real friends are – they’re the ones who stay with you when you come down in the world.

4. Unemployed person:

The last job I had was so badly paid that I couldn’t make ends meet on my salary, and as a result I was always getting into debt. Everything was becoming more expensive all the time but my salary stayed the same, so I couldn’t keep up with the cost of living. My bank account was in the red, and I had no savings to fall back on. And then I lost my job. Now things are really hard and I have to get by on less than 50 pounds a week. I know they say money can’t buy happiness, but I’d rather be rich and unhappy than poor and unhappy.

5. A middle-aged regular saver:

Some people spend money like water, but not me – I believe in saving up for a rainy day. I put by a little money every week. You see, you have to think about the future when you are my age. When you’re young you don’t need money but when you’re old, you can’t live without it.

 

7.1.2

C

Listen to the sentences. Then say the sentences again using the multi-word verb prompts. The first one has been done for you.

 

1. I’ve repaid all my debts. (pay off)

2. I save a little money every week. (put by)

3. He inherited a fortune when his father died. (come into)

4. She survives on a very small income. (get by on)

5. She gets all her money from her parents. (live off)

6. My salary isn’t rising as fast as inflation. (keep up with)

7. We thought her bad behaviour was the result of stress. (put something down to)

8. I know I can always ask my parents for help if I’m ever in trouble. (fall back on)

9. She intended to become the best tennis player in the world. (set out to)

 

7.3 Shopping

 

7.3.3

      

Introduction: In Los Angeles some 1,200 people are doing their weekly grocery shopping in record time without the grocery carts or without the check-out lines. NPR’s America Rodriguez prepared this report on a new drive-in supermarket that can accommodate 300 cars an hour.

Man: It’s a great time-saver. The idea that I can drive up and get my groceries and be on my way in six minutes is fantastic.

Rodriguez: How long does it usually take you at a regular grocery store to do your grocery shopping?

Woman: Oh, at least a couple hours, you know, until then after that you’re waiting in line … it’s a hassle for me; I’m not real big on it.

Rodriguez: Near the intersection of two major Los Angeles freeways is a sign of the times and perhaps of the future: a supermarket where you don’t have to fight for a parking space, where you don’t have to stand in line, and where you don’t even have to get out of your car.

Dave Burstein: We took two proven, successful ideas. One was the success of drive-through convenience – which has been proven to be successful with banks and fast food, and I believe in California we even have drive-through chapels and mortuaries – and then we took the proven success of catalogue shopping, applied both of those to the grocery industry.

Rodriguez: Dave Burstein, vice-president for marketing of the Phone-In Drive-Through Market. Butter and broccoli, bubble-bath and bird food, all are available from this high-tech, fully computerized grocery store. Customers make up their grocery lists from 4,000-item catalogue and then phone in the item numbers.

Woman: OK, can I have your home telephone number?

Rodriguez: Once the order is in, the computer takes over. The computer turns your grocery list into a print-out. Workers then follow the numbers through a warehouse. The computer even tells them how to pack the bags, so a can of beans doesn’t crush a loaf of bread. Meanwhile you go about your business and, three hours later, drive up to the market, punch your code into a terminal, and write a check while your groceries are loaded into your car.

Burstein: Our pitch is very simple. Our reason for being is to save time. We feel we can get you in and out of here from the time you announce that you’re here in less than two minutes.

Man: Hi.

Man: I got your order all ready.

Man: By this time I’d probably get a parking space at another place.

Rodriguez: There are disadvantages to this fast-line grocery shopping. You can’t stop and sniff the fish or squeeze the melon. The store stocks only fancy-grade produce and keeps perishable items in freezers or refrigerators until you come and pick them up. I heard no complaints about the freshness of the food. And you pay a $1.50 service charge on each order, but prices are comparable to traditional grocery stores. And as one customer put it, ‘My time is worth more than a dollar-and-a-half an hour.’

Woman: I phone in the order from work, and on my way home I can pick it up. It’s an idea whose time has really come. I’ve been wondering for a long time why I can’t order groceries more efficiently. There seems no reason to have so many bodies walking around a grocery store.

Woman: I’m sure it’s the new and incoming way of doing things in the future.

Rodriguez: If the idea of a drive-through supermarket catches on – and it’s now doing better than expected – its owners hope to franchise phone-in, drive-through markets throughout the country and someday hook up grocery store computers to home computers and two-way TV sets.

Man: Can you believe it’s a grocery store?

Rodriguez: I’m America Rodriguez in Los Angeles.

 

7.3.5          B 

 

P – Presenter, S – Sally (radio reporter), J – Joanne (a company director)

 

P: In today’s programme, we’ll be looking at how companies are doing during these difficult times of recession. Our reporter, Sally Green, went to talk to Joanne Wade, director of a soft drinks company.

S: So, Joanne, can you tell me how your individual products are doing?

J: Well, we brought out Bubble Up over a year ago and initially it got off to a bad start, but after an intensive advertising campaign the idea of the drink caught on and then sales picked up very quickly. It’s now our most successful product and is selling like hot cakes.

S: I understand you’re planning to bring out a new drink called Fizzy Cola.

J: Yes, that’s right. It should be on the market next summer, though we’re a little behind schedule at the moment. We were going to build the advertising campaign around a famous pop star, but unfortunately that fell through. So we had to abandon the whole idea and start from scratch.

S: What will the new approach be?

J: We’ve come up with the idea of using a successful athlete instead. That way we should attract people who like sports.

S: And how is the company itself doing in these difficult times of recession?

J: Well, last year our annual turnover was £25 million and we took on extra staff, but this year sales have fallen off, so we’ve had to lay off a hundred workers. We’ve also decided to back out of an expensive project to produce a new kind of chocolate drink.

S: A lot of companies have gone to the wall because of the downturn in the economy. Do you think your company is in any danger?

J: No, I don’t. Things are difficult for everyone at the moment, but we’re managing to keep our heads above water. In fact, if things improve a little we may take over another company.

S: And what about the future?

J: We’re hoping for an upturn in the economy. If this happens, then sales might start to pick up, but no one can be certain. At the moment it’s a question of wait and see.

 

7.3.5

D

Listen to the sentences. Then say the sentences again using the multi-word verb prompts. The first one has been done for you.

  

1.  We employ extra staff at Christmas. (take on)

2. She produced several excellent ideas. (come up with)

3. He gained control of the company. (take over)

4. The economy is improving. (pick up)

5. The demand for our product is decreasing. (fall off)

6. The government has withdrawn with the project. (back out of)

7. The company has temporarily dismissed three hundred workers. (lay off)

8. The plan to build another airport was abandoned. (fall through)

9. Her ideas have become really popular. (catch on)

 

7.4 Business

 

7.4.1  

 

PRESENTER: I have with me Sarah Williams. Let me introduce her and say what we’re going to talk about. She and her husband, some ten years ago, gave up their careers with established business organizations and set about creating their own business. Hence the title of the book she’s written, called ‘Breakout – Life Beyond The Corporation’. And she says they’ve been elated by their successes, often driven to tears by near failure, but never have they wanted to return to work in someone else’s large company. Sarah, welcome.

SARAH: Nice to be here.

PRESENTER: Not a single glance back?

SARAH: Not a glance backwards. Occasionally a glance sideways, thinking I wish I was over there, but never backwards. No, I don’t think either of us has ever wanted to go back working for employers. I think, gradually, as you do your own thing, you actually become more and more arrogant and I’m not sure we’re employable any more.

PRESENTER: So you’ve no wish to go back and rest your head on the bosom of somebody else’s company?

SARAH: No, not at all … in fact, in the book I did talk to a fair number of entrepreneurs, about 35, 36, something like that, a lot of people, and they didn’t all succeed, a few of them did fail and that’s obviously sad, but of the ones that have failed some have actually gone off and started new ventures, so I think it’s like a drug actually, I think once you are on it, I’m not sure you can ever get off it.

PRESENTER: Now why did you decide to break out, because you had comfortable jobs, secure jobs, did you not?

SARAH: Yes. It’s very much a desire just to do your own thing and perhaps not necessarily fitting in and not particularly liking to be told what to do and always feeling, well maybe you could do it slightly better yourself, and wanting, just really, independence. And people have very different motives for wanting to break out. For some people it’s money, which of course is attractive and I’m not saying no to the money, um … but independence was the key thing.

PRESENTER: Now as you presumably sat down ten years ago and discussed it – I don’t know quite how the circumstances arose – what, did you … you sat down with your husband and you said ‘what are we going to do?’ What considerations were there, what were the arguments you had about whether or not to?

SARAH: It really hinged on whether or not we were going to be happy carrying on doing what we were doing, working for large companies, and if we weren’t going to be happy doing that, we should try the other, which was to start up a business ourselves. So it was really a question of happiness and being interested and enjoying what we were doing, and once we’d got that far and decided we were just going to do our own thing, then it came down to real nitty gritty practicalities like, you know, how would we find the money, would we be able to survive while we were doing it, would we be able to raise the money, and obviously really really important, what were we going to do, what was the business we were going to start?

PRESENTER: And how did that resolve itself, the last question?

SARAH: The last question resolved itself, I mean, we were looking for a particular sort of business, looking for a business that we had some sort of experience in because that’s very important, I think. If I’m giving advice to other people, it’s to try and do something you know about.

PRESENTER: Mmm, I was going to ask you that. The jobs that you were in gave you some preparation for what you were going to do by yourselves, so you weren’t completely branching into totally alien territory.

SARAH: No, no, my husband had been working in the computer industry, which is in fact where the business is that we started, so he was very knowledgeable about distribution structures, about the way the business worked … um … so there was a lot of experience already there.

PRESENTER: So you made your decision, bearing all these things in mind and you decided to go ahead. Was there a sense of danger, a sense of fear, a sense of the unknown?

SARAH: Oh yes, and well, it wouldn’t have been any fun if there hadn’t been, would it?

PRESENTER: So clearly you like a challenge.

SARAH: We don’t like being bored, that’s quite true. If life is boring and going along in a very humdrum fashion, I think the temptation is for us to say, ‘well let’s throw all the cards up in the air again and see what happens when they fall down’. So perhaps we have a low boredom threshold, I’m not quite sure.

PRESENTER: OK, well we have to take an ad break just at the moment. If you want to join in this discussion and talk to Sarah, the number is 6523476. We’ll be back in a moment.