Match the opposites, then name foods or drinks which can go with each.

sweet tender fatty spicy sparkling

tough mild bitter/sour still lean

Sweet chocolate-bitter coffee-sour lemon.

Compound Nouns

A compound noun is formed from two nouns, or an adjective and a noun. Here are some examples.

• alarm clock, credit card, table tennis, T-shirt, earring, sunglasses, traffic lights, tin opener, parking meter, first aid, pedestrian crossing, dining room, film star, brother-in-law, income tax, writing paper, washing machine, check book, baby-sitter, mother tongue, science fiction, box office.

Quite often, one part of a compound forms the basis for a number of compound nouns.

Post/ticket/box office, traffic lights/warden/jam, film/pop/rock star, brother/sister/father/mother-in-law, dining/sitting/waiting room.

Complete the sentences with suitable compound nouns.

1. I’m late because there was a terrible …………………. in the centre of town.

2. Humphrey Bogart was a famous ………………….. in the forties and fifties.

3. My …………………didn’t ring this morning and I did not wake up until 9.30.

4. When I got to the surgery, I had to sit in the ………………….for forty minutes before I could see the dentist.

5. Mary really wanted to see the film but she couldn’t find a …………………for the children, so she had to stay at home.

6. When I am driving I always wear ……………….. if it is very bright and sunny.

7. You have to pay ………………….. on your salary in Britain; the amount depends on how much you earn.

8. I often have the same problem: I park the car next to a ……………….. box, and then I discover that I don’t have the right money.

9. In some countries you have to have a ………………. box in your car for minor injuries and illnesses.

10. My brother loves ………………., but I prefer true stories about the present and the past.

Take one word from each compound and create a new compound.

Brother-in-law - mother-in-law; Table tennis - table leg

Dining room ……………………………. Traffic lights ………………………………………

Film star …………………………………. Sunglasses ………………………………………….

Credit card ……………………………… post office ……………………………………………

Toothpaste ……………………………… hairdryer ……………………………………………..

Word building

One way to build your vocabulary is to learn word families: words which all have the same root, like innovate, innovative and innovation. These words are often next to each other in a dictionary, so they are easy to look up. Make sure you try to learn the collocations that go with these words as well.

Fill in the missing words in the table.

Verb	Person noun	General noun	Adjective
		administration
advise
pay
			soluble
		inspection
	Promoter
co-ordinate
produce		information
			attractive
		competition

Collocation (word partners)

1. Learn the collocation:

1. to miss the bus

2. to make a mistake

3. a heavy smoker

4. a serious illness

2. Verb + noun

1. to start the car

2. to tell a story

3. to tell a joke

4. to get on a bus

5. to miss a person

6. to miss a lesson

7. to start a family

8. to tell the truth

9. to run a shop/company

10. to get in (to) a car

3. Adjective +noun

1. a soft drink

2. dry wine

3. strong coffee

4. hard work

5. have traffic

6. a soft voice

7. dry weather

8. a strong accent

9. a great success

10. have rain

4. Adverb + adjective

1. terribly sorry

2. highly unlikely

3. fully aware

4. vitally important

1. Write the opposite of these phrases and expressions

sweet wine a strong accent strong coffee a soft voice

get on the bus tell the truth catch the bus get in the car

2. Find a suitable adjective, verb or adverb from the list co complete these sentences.

1. I’m …………………………….sorry I’m late, but I ……………….. the bus and had to wait ages for another one.

2. He ……………………….. everyone the same joke, and nobody laughed.

3. We had lots of snow in the night and I had a problem …………………………….. the car this morning.

4. Michael is one of the owner, but his brother John ……………………… the company, and he has about 50 employees working for him.

5. I think they want to get married and …………………… a family.

6. That’s the third mistake she’s ……………….. today.

7. It’s …………………..important that we finish this work by the end of the week.

8. If this ……………………rain continues, I think he’s ……………..unlikely to come.

9. I don’t drink ……………….coffee at night because it keeps me awake.

10. I really ………………….my family when I stayed in Australia on my own last year.

3. The adjective on the left can all mean ‘very big’, but we often use them specifically with the noun on the right. Complete the sentences below.

1. I used to be medium but I need a ………………… now because I’ve put on weight.

2. Fortunately the shop I go to has a ………………….. of shirts and jumpers to choose from.

3. I’ve also got very ………………………, but my waist is quite small.

4. A few men can’t find clothes to fir them, but the …………………… are small, medium or large.

Countries, nationalities and languages

Who speaks what where?

Country	Nationality	Language
Germany	German	German
France	French	French
Italy	Italian	Italian
Spain	Spanish	Spanish
Britain	British	English
Portugal	Portuguese	Portuguese
Japan	Japanese	Japanese
Korea	Korean	Korean
China	Chinese	Chinese
Thailand	Thai	Thai
Australia	Australian	English
The United States of America	American	English
Saudi Arabia	Saudi Arabian	Arabic
Brazil	Brazilian	Portuguese
Sweden	Swedish	Swedish
Switzerland	Swiss	Swiss-German, French , Italian
Egypt	Egyptian	Arabic
Holland	Dutch	Dutch
Mexico	Mexican	Spanish
Russia	Russian	Russian
Israel	Israeli	Hebrew
Greece	Greek	Greek
Turkey	Turkish	Turkish
Argentina	Argentinian	Spanish

Exercises

1. Answer these questions:

1. Write down three countries where the first language in English?

2. What language is spoken in Brazil?

3. What are people from Holland called?

4. Write down three languages spoken in Switzerland.

5. What language is spoken in Saudi Arabia?

6. What nationality are people from Sweden?

7. What language is spoken in Mexico?

8. What are people from Egypt called?

9. What is the first language in Israel?

10. Where do people speak Mandarin?

2. Complete these sentences with the name of the people from the country on the right.

Examples: I’ve worked a lot with Germans.

I’ve spent a lot of time with the French.

3. Complete these sentences.

1. Bangkok is the capital of …………………………

2. Buenos Aires is the capital of………………….

3. Ankara is the capital of ……………………………

4. Seoul is the capital of ……………………………..

5. Cairo is the capital of ………………………………

6. Riyadh is the capital of ……………………………

7. Athens is the capital of …………………………..

8. Tel Aviv is the capital of ………………………….

9. Stockholm is the capital of …………………….

10. Lisbon is the capital of ………………………….

Cultural Stereotypes and Management

You have probably heard jokes like this (British) one:

What is the difference between heaven and hell? In heaven, the French are the cooks, the Germans are the engineers, the British are the politicians, the Swiss are the managers, and the Italians are the lovers. In hell, the British are the cooks, the French are the managers, the Italians are the engineers, the Germans are the politicians and the Swiss are the lovers.

Do you find such stereotypes amusing or offensive? Is there any truth in national stereotypes? Do cultural habits have an effect on business practices and management styles?

EXIRCISE 1

Match up the following adjectives into pairs opposites:

Do you think any these descriptions could apply, in general, to the people in your country, or in neighbouring countries?

EXERCISE 2

More seriously, which countries or parts of the world do you think the following descriptions might apply to? Choose from the box below:

North Americans, Southern Europeans, Latin Americans, Northern Europeans, Australians and New Zealanders, Germans, Dutch, Swiss and Scandinavians, Japanese and Singaporeans, Asian and Arab countries, North African and Middle Eastern countries, Asian and Southern Europeans cultures

Do stereotypes help or hinder business relationships? Are they unfair?

1. They believe that personal relations and friendships are more important than rules and formal procedures.

2. They believe that rules are very important, and exceptions shouldn’t be made for friends.

3. They ‘re collectivist, so they dislike the idea of one person in a group earning much more than his or her colleagues.

4. They’re efficient, punctual, and highly organized.

5. They’re great believers in analysis, rationality, logic and systems.

6. They are individualistic, so paying people according to their performance is highly successful.

7. They like to spent time getting to know people before doing business with them.

8. They place great stress on personal relation, intuition, emotion, feeling and sensitivity.

9. They seem to be very disorganized, but on the other hand, they get their business done.

10. They accord status and respect to older people, and promotion comes with age.

11. They’re keen to find a consensus and to avoid confrontations.

12. They’re very short-term oriented, thinking only of quarterly results.

READING

BUSINESS AND NATIONAL STEREOTYPES

We are repeatedly warned to beware of generalizations yet, paradoxically, it seems that the human mind cannot resist categorizing people and things. We love to “pigeon-hole”, to make order out of a universe that frequently seems to us confusing and even chaotic. Nowhere is this tendency more evident that in our willingness to generalize about nationalities. We create national stereotypes and cling tenaciously to our prejudices. To illustrate this point, we shall take a look at the findings of a survey carried out by the market research firm, Parkland Research Europe.

This organization carried out a detailed study of European attitudes by questioning 185 business executives, lawyers, engineers, teachers and other professional people from seven European countries. These were: Germany, France, Britain, Switzerland, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium. The resulting publication , Guide to National Practices in Western Europe, gave some idea of what Europeans think of each other. It revealed many widely-held stereotypes, but also came up with a few surprises.

PARKLAND FINDINGS

GERMANS. Liked themselves best of all. Most Europeans agreed that the Germans had the highest proportion of good qualities. They considered themselves very tolerant, but nobody else did. They saw themselves as fashionable. Others found them “square”.

FRENCH. Not really admired by anyone except the Italians. Other Europeans found them conservative, withdrawn, chauvinistic, brilliant, superficial, hedonistic. Also, not very friendly. The French agreed o the last point!

BRITISH. Mixed reactions. Some found them calm, reserved, open-minded, trustworthy; others deemed them hidebound, insular and superior. Everyone was unanimous that the British had an excellent sense

of humour. The British most admired the Dutch.

SWISS. Showed considerable lucidity and powers of self-analysis. Saw themselves as serious, trustworthy, but too money-minded and suspicious. Most Europeans agreed. The Swiss liked the Germans best.

ITALIANS. Generally considered by everyone to be lazy and untrustworthy, and the Italians agreed! Most also found them to be vivacious, charming, hospitable and noisy. The Italians admired the French and the Dutch. Hardly anyone loved the Italians except the French.

DUTCH. Most admired people in Europe – except by their neighbours – the Belgians. Everyone agreed that the Dutch are hard-working, thrifty, good-natured, tolerant and business-minded. The Netherlands, however, was not considered to be a good place to live in.

BELGIANS. Least admired in this group. They see themselves as easy-going and diligent workers. Other Europeans consider them undisciplined and narrow-minded – and lousy drivers!

As a follow-up to this study, businessmen were asked to imagine they were setting up a multinational company. They had to choose national for the positions of president, managing director, chief cashier, public relations officer and skilled and unskilled labour.

The Germans were universal choice for the top jobs, and also first choice for skilled workers. The Italians were relegated to unskilled jobs; the French received massive support for the light-weight public relations post. According to Parkland research, “No European picked an Italian as president or chief cashier. Moreover, no Italian or Frenchman picked one of his own nationals as chief cashier!”

Answer the questions:

1. How does the author account for people’s irresistible desire to create stereotypes?

2. What was the study carried out by Parkland Research Europe devoted to?

3. What did the study result in?

4. What is typical of Germans, according to the study?

5. What makes the Italians admire the French?

6. What does the study say about the British?

7. What makes the Dutch the most admired people in Europe?

8. How do the Belgians differ from the French? Do you think they have anything in common?

9. What roles were relegated to representatives of different nations in a hypothetical multinational company?

Read the dialogue. Underline the adjectives. Speak on the strengths and weaknesses of the Germans. Compare the Germans and the Russians

I What would you say is the stereotype of people from your country?

M Well, one thing everybody thinks is that our football teams always win – which of course isn’t always true, unfortunately. And people think that we spend all our time drinking beer and eating sausages, and driving fast cars. People always think of us as being very efficient and disciplined, very hard-working. They think that we always tend to obey rules, and that we don’t have a sense of humour. They also think that we are very self-confident, even arrogant.

I How much of the stereotype is true?

M Well, as regards the food, it’s true that we do like beer and sausages, but I would say that nowadays people have started to worry more about their weight, so they don’t eat and drink as much as they used to. And it is true that we love our cars almost more than our families, well, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit. Hard-working? Yes. Efficient and disciplined – well, this is true, but it’s a bit of a simplification. The German’s favourite phrase is Alles in Ordnung, that is “everything is in order”. It’s very important for us that things work – our washing machines, our cars, our trains, everything must work properly. This is very important to us.

I What about the stereotype of Germans having no sense of hu

mour?

M Ah, yes, well, this I have to say is true. Generally speaking we take life seriously. We do have some humour but it doesn’t translate very well. And we only like jokes at certain times, for example, not at work – and we don’t usually make jokes about other nationalities.

I What aspects of the stereotype aren’t true?

M Well, I’d say that in spite of what people think, we are not really self-confident. There is very important word when you talk about the German personality, and that is Angst. This means something like ‘insecurity’ – people don’t think of the Germans as being insecure but we’re very insecure, and that’s why we have this great desire for everything to be regulated and controlled and for everything to work.

I Is it true that the Germans look down on other nationalities?

M No, no, this is not true! For example, we really look up to the Swiss – we admire them because they are even cleaner and more punctual than we are!

I What are the strengths of the Germans in your opinion?

M Well, I think in general we are well educated – we love culture and it very seriously – the more culture the better. Did you know there are 143 volumes of the works of Goethe, and it would take two weeks to listen to all of Wagner’s works! Also we are very green, we are very ecology conscious. We are very responsible about recycling and things like that.

I What about your weaknesses?

M One thing I’d say is that modern Germans are very obsessed with their health. Never ask a German ‘How are you’, or you’ll have listen to him, or her for hours giving you all the details. I would say that we are a nation of hypochondriac. Another problem for us is that we hate breaking rules and this can make life very difficult especially as we have so many laws, some of which seem a bit ridiculous to other people. For example, in Germany you can’t cross the street if the traffic lights are red, even if there’s no traffic – things like that. But maybe our greatest weakness is that we are very bossy. We like criticizing other people, and telling them what they are doing wrong. For example, I tell you, if you leave your children’s toys outside your house, in the garden where your neighbours can see them, you can be sure they will come and tell you that this is wrong and that you must put them away.

Read the information and discuss the questions.

Britain has a bad reputation for food, but many people now claim that the reputation is undeserved. There are over 50,000 restaurants in the country and they are improving all the time. In many cities, you can choose from Indian, Chinese, Italian, French, Mexican, Turkish, Greek and Spanish, but finding good traditional British food can be difficult.

Cooking programmes on TV are very popular and TV chefs like Jamie Oliver are household names. Recipe books are often at the top of the best-seller list. Health food shops are everywhere and more and more people are eating organic food.

1. Does your country have a good reputation for food? Is the reputation deserved?

2. How often do you go to a restaurant or have a meal with friends?

3. What are the most popular food books and TV programmes in your country?

GRAMMAR PRACTICE