Advanced Business English

John Silberstein

Group Y3

Lesson 4 – February 16, 2009

Amid-dictionary.com: 1.in the middle of; surrounded by; among: to stand weeping amid the ruins. 2.during; in or throughout the course of.

Wholesalers-dictionary.com: the sale of goods in quantity, as to retailers or jobbers, for resale. John’s Definition: aggregator manufacturer’s products for sale/distribution to retailers.

Plunged-dictionary.com: 1.to cast or thrust forcibly or suddenly into something, as a liquid, a penetrable substance, a place, etc.; immerse; submerge: to plunge a dagger into one's heart. 2.to bring suddenly or forcibly into some condition, situation, etc.: to plunge a country into war; to pull a switch and plunge a house into darkness.

Stockpiles Consecutive

Vacabulary Review

Stockpiles-dictionary.com: A supply stored for future use, usually carefully accrued and maintained. John’s Definition: A supply, such as inventory that is being stored for future use. It can also be used to connote overstocked inventory that will not be easily moved.

Consecutive-dictionary.com: following one another in uninterrupted succession or order; successive: six consecutive numbers, such as 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

Vocabulary Review

Oil majors mull mega-mergers as they eye minors

Current Events

What is an example of an oil major?

Why are oil minor attractive acquistions for the majors?

What is an equity deal?

What are the biggest IOCs?

What might be some obstacles to these mergers?

Up, up and away

Reading

How has the T5 agreement facilitated the management of the T5 project?

What is the major constraint to construction of the project?

How did BAA take on all the risk for conflicts during the construction of the terminal?

How might this point to other core competencies for BAA?

Up, up and Away

The principal problem related to building airports:

Tricky building techniquesNeed to interface with other transport linksComplex electronic systems

BAA’s options for managing the project:

Managing the project itselfOutsourcing to a project management group

The specific constraints inposed by the nature of the site:

Limited access to the building siteLimited storage

The major risks usually involved in managing a project like T5 (para 6):

Delays/Glitches – causing increased costs.Legal problems and hagglingWork shut downs; therefore, time runs short.

CollocationsAn arrangement or juxtaposition of words or other

elements, especially those that commonly co-occur, as rancid butter, bosom buddy, or dead serious.

Complete the project management sentences using the correct form of the verbs from the list which collocate with the nouns in bold. In some sentences, more than one verb is possible.

Miss reach establish achieve meet stick to set fix

The major risks usually involved in managing a project like T5 (para 6):

Delays/Glitches – causing increased costs.Legal problems and hagglingWork shut downs; therefore, time runs short.

Delays/Glitches – causing increased costs.Legal problems and hagglingWork shut downs; therefore, time runs short.

CollocationsMiss reach establish achieve meet stick to set fix

Unless the team really pulls together, we’ll never ______ the deadline on the Malaysian order.

Meet

The project has been difficult so far. However, once we ______ the next milestone, evething should get easier.

reach

To make sense of our tasks, we need to _________ a timeframe within which we can all work.

establish

Frank is such an unreasonable boss: he always ______ our targets for overseas sales too high.

sets

Congratulations! We’ve __________ our targets for quality this year due to all your hard work.

achieved

We’ve been vague about the schedule for too long. It’s time we _____a date for definite and move on.fixed

In the end, I ________ my deadline for my accountancy project, but it didn’t matter: everybody else was late too.

missed

Sam’s excellent at getting things done on time, but she finds it impossible to _________ her budget.

Stick toSam’s excellent at getting things done on time, but she finds it impossible to _________ her budget.

Stick toSam’s excellent at getting things done on time, but she finds it impossible to _________ her budget.

Stick toSam’s excellent at getting things done on time, but she finds it impossible to _________ her budget.

Stick to