PART ONE.  Vocabulary and Structure (20 points)

I. Match the words on the left with their definitions on the right. (8 points)

KEY

1. E   2. F   3. A   4. B   5. D   6. C   7. H   8. G

II. Choose a word from the list for each space in the passage bellow. Make changes if necessary. (22 points)

Successful, relationship, employment, mutual, consideration,

administrative, benefit, venture, reach, ahead, see

Dear Mr. Wang,

Now I understand that way we do business is not a universal one. If somebody wants to be 1___ in business, he or she has to understand his or her counterpart’s culture. Now I do!

Even though there are certain requirements we have to 2___ agreement on, our  project is likely to move 3___. Our decision has been based on a 4___ of the pros and cons. One important thing is that we are going to have the opportunity to learn to know each other’s culture, in order to build a long-lasting 5___. This will give us the opportunity to obtain 6___ benefits.

On our part, in spite of the sizeable expenditures from rent, completion of the buildings, feeding and housing employees, 7___ fees, etc., we feel we will obtain 8___ that encourage us to persevere in the 9___.

On your side, you are going to have compensation in the form of rent, taxes, and the creation of 10___.

I can anticipate that our venture will be beneficial for both parties, and will be a conduit to build good personal relations. We look forward to 11___ you in three weeks.

Sincerely,

George Smith, VP

Overseas Operations

KEY

1. successful  2. reach  3. ahead  4. consideration  5. relationship  6. mutual 

7. administrative  8. benefits  9. venture  10. employment  11. seeing

PART TWO: Short-answer Questions (15 points)

III. Answer the following questions based on what you have learned from the textbook. You should use complete sentences. (15 points)

1. What are the advantages of working in teams?

2. What is STEEP analysis?

3. What are the most frequent symptoms of cultures shock?

KEY

1. Woking in teams may be motivating, give workers the opportunity to work with different people and a sense that they are doing something useful, allow different abilities to be used on a projet, be educational, be interesting, make workers feel more valuable or important and produce better solutions to problems more quickly.

2. STEEP stands for sociological, technological, economical, ecological and political. They represent five general categories of external factors that may affect businesses. By STEEP analysis, companies can have a clear perspective of the environment in which they operate and come up with proper strategies and tactics.

3. The most frequent symptoms of culture shock are feelings of isolation, anxiety, worry, a drop in performance at work and helplessness.

PART THREE: 4 Reading (25 points)

IV. There are two passages in this item. Read the following passages and then do as required.

Passage 1 (15 points)

You may have heard that doing business on the Internet is in some way ‘insecure’. Don’t let that put you off -- if you stop to think about it, your everyday business dealings aren’t exactly without hazard. If you fret about ‘Internet security’ you might be better off visualizing an American-style mall, full of outlets, the majority of which you have never visited. Should you do business there? Of course you should. Remember, it’s just like doing business in the local high street. Anyone can look into your shop window and enter your shop -- after all, that’s what you want them to do, isn’t it?

Perhaps you are worrying about losing customers through credit card fraud. With a little care, you really needn’t be. Credit card fraud existed long before the Internet arrived. If your customer provides their credit card details over the Internet then in some sense you are already trusted as a business, although you do, of course, need to protect your customer against an ill-intentioned third party. So advise your customer to keep a record of what he or she has ordered and for how much.

Another common worry is that linking your business to the Internet will somehow allows rivals to get at your computers and your information. Well, in one sense, this is the whole point of linking your business to the Internet; you want people to get at your computers and all the information they contain. However, just because I invite members of the public to enter my shop, I needn’t give them permission to enter my head office. A security guard stops unwanted visitors from getting in -- and it’s just the same in cyberspace. I don’t connect our internal network to the Internet, I use a firewall that works just like my security guard -- except it doesn’t have a day off.

Use the Internet in the same way you conduct business in the local high street, restaurant or pub. Display your products with abandon on the World Wide Web. Of course, you should exercise caution when dealing with sensitive information on things like credit cards, but you’ve got more to lose by not taking advantage of ‘electronic commerce’ than by being on it.

Answer the following questions according to the information provided in the passage.

1. This passage discusses three common worries that people have about doing business on the Internet. What are these worries?

2. Doing Internet business is like doing what in his opinion?

3. If your customers give you their credit card numbers, what does it indicate?

4. What advice should you give your customers to protect themselves?

5. How do you ensure that your company is protected against rivals?

KEY (3 points for each correct answer.)

1. The three worries mentioned are:

1) doing business on the Internet is insecure;

2) losing customers through credit card fraud;

3) the fear of rivals having access to your computers and information.

2. It’s like doing business in the local high street.

3. It indicates that the customers trust you or that your are trusted as a business.

4.. You should advise your customers to keep a record of what they have ordered and for how much.

5. You don’t connect your internal network directly to the Internet; you use a firewall.

Passage 2 (10 points)

Despite the attention paid within advertising agencies to the whole business targeting specific groups, there have been some spectacular failures to get it right when companies have tried to go international or global with their products. This has been for a variety of reasons. Sometimes, the brand name of the product has unfortunate associations when translated into foreign languages. Looking at this area can illustrate how powerful the operation of connotation is -- the way in which words can call up associations in our minds. Because of the way we make connections between words and particular ideas, feeling and experiences, brand names are crucial for advertisers. They are very economic, acting as little concentrated capsules of meaning. Where advertisers get it right, readers will do the work to generate all the intended connotations.

There are whole companies who specialise in offering research on brand-name connotations to product manufacturers looking for a name for a new product, or looking at how best to market an existing product to new, foreign audiences. These companies -- for example Interbrand, and The Brandnaming Company typically organise brainstorming sessions where they ask groups of people to let their imaginations ‘roam free’, from which meetings they arrive at shortlists of names whose suitability is then researched further. Names on the shortlists have to pass certain tests: for example, that they are not too close to existing names; that they are pronounceable in all the world’s major languages; that they have the right connotations. The latter, however, is a complex area. Even within one language, connotations can be about quite subtle distinctions. For example, when Pickfords Travel merged with Hogg Robinson two years ago, the shortlist for the new company had two main contenders: ‘Destinations’, and ‘Going Places’. The new company chose the latter, deciding that ‘destinations’ tended to suggest long-haul flights to farflung places -- travel for the privileged. ‘Going Places’, on the other hand, was thought to describe all sorts of travel and therefore be more suitable for the mass market, which was the company’s target.

Mark the following statements T(true) or F(false) according to the information provided in the text above.

1. This passage is mainly about how to choose names for companies wishing to go global.

2. Good names make the right connection between words and ideas.

3. ‘Going Places’ is used as an example to show how hard it is to choose a name for a company.

4. ‘Destinations’ is likely to appeal to wealthy travelers.

5. One technique brand-name consultants often use is to invite people to freely suggest any names on their mind.

KEY (2 points for each correct answer)

1F  2T  3F  4T  5T