Reading_for_the_Real_World_1_2nd_Ed

Summary

Fill in the blanks in the table with the phrases below according to the category they belong to. Use each phrase only once.

Adventure Tours for Charity

Adventure Activity	Fundraising Activity

1.Asking guests for donations to buy a plot of farm land for a “cow patty”

2.Raising the minimum donation after putting down a deposit for the tour

3.Taking part in a bike tour across the lava fields of Iceland

4.Writing letters to friends and relatives to ask for money

5.Hiking across the Namib Desert

6.Taking a motorcycle trip over a mountain

Vocabulary Extension

Here are six words that are related to the topic but are not in the reading. Fill in each blank with the best word from the list. Use each word only once.

risk

challenge

journey

telethon

worthy

volunteer

1.A long and adventurous trip is sometimes called a(n) __________.

2.The biggest __________ in this trip will be to cross the Sahara Desert during the day.

3.There’s a(n) __________ of falling when bungee jumping, but some people think that makes it more exciting.

4.If you have some extra time, you should __________. Although you won’t get paid, you will feel rewarded in other ways.

5.“What are you watching on TV?” “I’m watching the __________ for the flood victims. I think that I’ll phone in and donate some money.”

6.“Do you know of any good charities I could donate something to?” “How about the Women’s Center? Helping out battered women is always a(n) __________

cause.”

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Supplemental Reading

Helping Charities Can Help You, Too!

Track 46

There are lots of people in the United States who give donations to charities just because they believe strongly in what the charity is doing. However, what some of these people don’t realize is that all of the

donations they make to these charities can help them save money on their taxes

5each year, too! The average American pays about 33 percent of her or his yearly income in taxes, so any way to save money on the taxes a person has to pay each year is a welcomed benefit. And these donations to charities are not limited to cash only. If a person donates an old stereo or clothes, the estimated value of these items can help lower a person’s taxes as long as they get a receipt from the

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charity.

Other than the usual small items that people usually give to charities, big things can help charities make money, too. For example, if you have a really old car that you want to get rid of, a car dealer might only offer you a few hundred dollars for it. A charity might be able to match what the car dealer would give you, and then the charity can fix up the car and sell it at an auction. The charity gets needed funds from selling the car, and you get a break on your taxes for the value of the car when

20the charity took it! Other things that people don’t often think of as possible donations to charities include computers, stocks, and even land.

Discussion

Discuss the following questions.

1.In your country, can you save money by donating to charities?

2.Have you ever helped a charity? How?

U N I T 12 Business & Economics 2

Rating Companies

Pre-Reading Questions

Think about the following questions.

1.What company is rated #1 in your country? How do you know?

2.Who do you think rates companies?

3.How do you think companies are rated?

Vocabulary Preview

Match each word or phrase with the correct definition.

1.	assign	a. a business manager
2.	criterion	b. a number
3.	executive	c. the opinion people have about something; the good name
4.	figure	d. a standard of judgment
5.	financial	e. to designate
6.	reputation	f. related to managing of money

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Rating Companies Track 47

Publications such as Business Week and Fortune are two of the several publishers that produce

ratings of different American and international

5companies. These ratings not only concentrate on public or private companies, but many other kinds as well. Companies are assigned two

main types of ratings. One of these can be summarized as the company’s actual performance. The other type of rating pertains to the results of publishers’ surveys.

There are several reasons why publishing companies rate companies. One is

10for the companies that are ranked to know where they stand in their industry. Investors and lenders of the rated company also use the ratings to decide the risk associated with doing business with the company. Consumers also use ratings to learn about the company’s reputation and to rate companies when making investment decisions.

15	Companies’ actual financial performance is one of the most important
	indications in ranking companies. There are two types of measurements for
	companies’ performance. All companies involved in the ratings must publish
	financial data and must report part or all of these figures to a government
	agency. Ratings are based on yearly reported financial statements. A second

20type of performance measurement used in ratings is companies’ market performance. This includes their market value, market share, and number of employees. Some rankings use only financial performance or market performance as the basis for their rating of companies, such as the Wall Street Journal. However, some ratings will use both measurements, such as the

25	Fortune 500 and Business Week’s ratings.
	The other major category of ratings relies on the results of surveys sent to

16	indications --- a sign; a criterion
19	financial statement --- a record of how money comes in and goes out
21	market share --- percentage of the market controlled by a company

27 analyst --- a person who studies trends in a particular field

30revenue --- profit; income

31securities analyst --- a person who studies stocks and the stock market

34respondent --- a person giving answers

38privately held --- owned by one person

45primarily --- mainly; for the most part

50crop up --- to appear; to show up

executives, company employees and analysts by the publishers. The publishers’ surveys present detailed statistical and analytical data on the companies that they rank. For example, in order to rank America’s most admired companies,

30Fortune magazine started with the ten largest companies by revenue in sixtysix industries. They surveyed 10,000 executives, directors, and securities analysts related to those companies, who then rated the various companies in their own industries based on certain criteria. For the most admired companies, the survey respondents were asked to select the ten companies in any industry

35that they admired most. Another popular example is Fortune’s Best Companies to Work For rating. To determine which companies make it on the list and where they should rank, the publisher sends surveys to employees of all the Fortune 1,000 companies, plus the 200 largest privately held US companies.

Among all the ratings, the most trusted and well-known rankings are done

40by Fortune and Business Week magazines. Fortune magazine publishes many company rankings every year, including the Fortune 500, Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For, Global Most Admired Companies and Fortune Global 500. In Fortune magazine’s Global 500, a few of the companies that regularly show up on the list include General Electric, Exxon Mobile, IBM, and Bank of

45America. This list’s ranking is based primarily on financial performance. By comparison, the Fortune Global Most Admired rankings are based on executives’ surveys. Companies regularly appearing on this list year after year include General Electric, Wal-Mart, and Microsoft. Finally turning to Business Week magazine’s Global 1,000 ratings, one will find such companies as General

50Electric, Exxon Mobile, and Wal-Mart crop up in the top five companies year after year.

Reading Time

_______ minutes _______ seconds

550 words

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Reading Comprehension

AMark each statement as either true (T) or false (F) according to the reading.

1.____ People use company ratings to make investment decisions.

2.____ Only public and private companies are rated.

3.____ One of the most important things used to rank a company is

its financial performance.

4. ____ Wal-Mart is considered one of the top companies in the world.

BChoose the best answer.

1.What is NOT a reason for ranking companies?

a.To help people make investments

b.To let companies know how well they are doing

c.To help companies make business decisions

d.To help companies make marketing decisions

2.Fortune’s Most Admired Company ranking is based on what survey?

a.A survey of entry-level workers

b.A survey of high-ranking business people

c.A survey of marketing analysts

d.A survey of customers

3.In which list is General Electric usually a top company?

a.Fortune’s Global Most Admired

b.Fortune’s Global 500

c.Business Week’s Global 1000

d.All of the above

CFor the next two questions, look for the answers in the passage and write them on the lines provided.

1.How is a company’s financial performance measured?

______________________________________________________

______________________________________________________

2.What is probably most important for a company when company rankings are made?

______________________________________________________

______________________________________________________

Summary

Fill in the blanks in the table with the sentences below according to the category they belong to. Use each sentence only once.

Rating Companies

Reasons Why Companies are Rated	Methods for Rating

1.When a company is rated, it tells them where they stand in their industry.

2.According to a kind of survey, companies can be assigned ratings on their performance based on the figures in their financial statements.

3.A company can be judged by the opinions of executives and other employees.

4.People use these rankings as an indication of the company’s reputation.

5.Another criterion for determining a company’s performance is to evaluate their market performance.

6.Investors and lenders want companies to be rated.

Vocabulary Extension

Here are six words that are related to the topic but are not in the reading. Fill in each blank with the best word from the list. Use each word only once.

assets

profit

monopoly

bankrupt

debt

conglomerate

1.Bill Gates almost has a(n) __________ on computer operating systems. Almost everyone uses Windows on their computer.

2.Even after paying taxes and all expenses, Microsoft still made a huge __________.

3.My cousin’s company is going __________. He can’t pay all the money that he owes.

4.GE has many buildings, manufactured goods, and other __________ of value.

5.Money you owe is called a(n) __________.

6.GE is a(n) __________; that is, it is one big company that consists of many smaller companies in different fields.

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Supplemental Reading

Where Are the Asian Companies?

Track 48

Since 1999, the US magazine Forbes has published a special list of the “best” companies around the world: the A-list of Best Big Companies. One of the first requirements is that a company must have over US $5

billlion in sales per year. Next, Forbes looks at the company’s history over the past

5five years. Only companies with stable growth of sales and solid stock prices remain on the list.

In looking at the list of companies selected by Forbes, it appears businesses worldwide are not really equally represented. For example, a person might assume that the number of companies from a country should be related in some

10way to that country’s economic power. But companies from the United States and Europe seem overly represented on Forbes’ A-list. Companies from the

United States and Europe represent 85 percent of the companies on the list! Why are Asian companies underrepresented on this list?

Actually, there are several reasons business analysts have suggested to

15account for this underrepresentation. Most of these reasons are related to the “bad” business practices of many Asian companies. For example, companies that hire relatives or friends as managers typically do not have stable growth. They usually fail. Both the legal and political systems in some

countries allow businesses to operate in ways

20unethical. Such practices make these companies poor choices for investors and thus remove these companies from Forbes’ A-list.

Discussion

Discuss the following questions.

1.Do you agree with how Fortune and Business Week rank companies? Why or why not?

2.What do you think is the most important thing to consider in order to have a successful company?