IBM English 1 C2 Class Autumn Semester 2022/23

Script Week 3
1 Aim of the lesson
The aims of this week’s lesson are to present your first summaries, to look at the use of the
present simple and continuous, and to learn strategies for dealing with new vocabulary in
reading texts.

2 Self-study texts
i) Work in a group of 3 or 4.
ii) Take it in turns to present the summary of your text.
iii) After each text, discuss the issues that the text brings up in your group.
iv) When you have finished the task, choose one of the texts that you heard about to read for
homework. Get the bibliographical details of the text (e.g. URL) from the person who presented
the text.

3 Present Simple and Present Continuous

The present simple and present continuous cause speakers of German and French a number of
problems, because German and French verbs do not have a continuous aspect. The most
important points to note are as follows:

Present simple is used for:

(1) Permanent or semi-permanent situations: I live in Basel.

(2) Habits and routines: I get up at 7 a.m. on weekdays.
(3) General truths: The sun rises in the east and sets in the west.
(4) Timetables: The train for Paris leaves at 8:10 a.m.
(5) Stative verbs (verbs that describe a state, not an activity). Some examples are as follows
meanings):
Senses: appear, hear, look, notice, see, seem, smell, sound, taste
Feelings: dislike, fear, hate, like, love, prefer, want wish
Thinking: agree, believe, doubt, expect (=believe), feel (= believe), forget, imagine,
know, realize, recognize, remember, suppose, suspect, think (=believe),
understand
Possession: belong to, contain, have (=possess), include, own, possess
Being: be, consist of, exist

(6) Performative verbs (verbs that describe an act conducted through speech itself): I beg you
to come, I swear to obey you, I promise to be there, I recommend the Hilton Hotel.

(7) Items in timetables, schedules and itineraries referring to the future: The semester finishes
on 31 January.

(8) The future in time clauses: Give me a call when you arrive.

(9) Live sports commentaries: Firminho crosses and Salah scores!

(10) Description of actions in informal stories and jokes: Three Irishmen go into a bar…
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 (11) Newspaper headlines: ‘UK inflation falls to a five-year low'

(12) Descriptions of natural objects or artefacts: The river winds across the plain, the film
ends in a bloodbath.

(13) With auxiliary verb ‘do’ in the affirmative to emphasize contrast or strong feeling: I don’t
know much about psychology, but I do know a lot about human nature; I do like your
mum’s chocolate cake!

(14) To give directions: You turn into Oxford Street and then you take the 3rd street on the
right. The imperative can also be used in this case: Turn into Oxford Street and then take
the 3rd street on the right.

Present continuous is used for:

(1) Temporary situations: I’m living with my mother at the moment because I had to move out
of my flat.
(2) Activities in progress at the moment of speaking: I’m looking for Jane. Have you seen
her?
(3) Activities in progress around the moment of speaking: I’m working on a new risk
assessment model at the moment.

(4) Fixed future arrangements that describe some kind of activity: I’m meeting Paul next
week to discuss the latest sales figures.

(5) The future in time clauses: I’ll be at the airport already when you are getting out of bed.

(6) Background information in informal stories and jokes: Three Irishmen are sitting in a
train…

(7) Complaints about another person’s annoying habits (most often with the adverbs ‘always’
or ‘constantly’): ‘You’re always criticizing my family!’

3.1 Practice
Complete the practice exercises 3 and 5 below.

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3
4 Strategies for dealing with unfamiliar vocabulary
When you read long and complex texts in English, you inevitably come across words whose
meanings you do not know. The aim of this exercise is to provide you with strategies for dealing
with such words.

4.1 Identifying unfamiliar vocabulary

Read the text below and underline the words and phrases whose meaning you do not know or
are not sure of. When you have finished, count the number of words and phrases and calculate
the percentage of the whole text that they represent (total words in text: 586).

The Last Days of Cubicle Life

By SETH GODIN
(1) When Frank Lloyd Wright unveiled the Johnson Wax Building in 1939, it showcased
a new way of looking at work. One room, covering half an acre (0.2 hectare), was filled
with women, lined up in rows, typing. Work didn't necessarily mean loud, dirty factories,
but it still involved sitting in orderly rows, doing orderly work for a finicky boss.

(2) In order to understand what your workplace is going to be like in five or 10 years, you
need to think about what your work is going to be like. Here's a clue: employers no
longer need to pay you to drive to a building to sit and type. In fact, under pressure from
economic uncertainties, bosses are discovering that there are a lot of reasons not to pay
you to drive to a central location or even to pay you at all. And when work gets auctioned
off to the lowest bidder, your job gets a lot more stressful.

(3) The job of the future will have very little to do with processing words or numbers (the
Internet can do that now). Nor will we need many people to act as placeholders, errand
runners or receptionists. Instead, there's going to be a huge focus on finding the essential
people and outsourcing the rest.

(4) So, are you essential? Most of the best jobs will be for people who manage customers,
who organize fans, who do digital community management. We'll continue to need
brilliant designers, energetic brainstormers and rigorous lab technicians. More and
more, though, the need to actually show up at an office that consists of an anonymous
hallway and a farm of cubicles or closed doors is just going to fade away. It's too
expensive, and it's too slow. I'd rather send you a file at the end of my day (when you're
in a very different time zone) and have the information returned to my desktop when I
wake up tomorrow. We may never meet, but we're both doing essential work.

(5) When you do come in to work, your boss will know. If anything can be measured, it
will be measured. The boss will know when you log in, what you type, what you access.
Not just the boss but also your team. Internet technology makes working as a team,
synchronized to a shared goal, easier and more productive than ever. But as in a three-
legged-race, you'll instantly know when a teammate is struggling, because that will slow
you down as well. Some people will embrace this new high-stress, high-speed, high-
flexibility way of work. We'll go from a few days alone at home, maintaining the status
quo, to urgent team sessions, sometimes in person, often online. It will make some
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people yearn for jobs like those in the old days, when we fought traffic, sat in a cube,
typed memos, took a long lunch and then sat in traffic again.

(6) The only reason to go to work, I think, is to do work. It's too expensive a trip if all you
want to do is hang out. Work will mean managing a tribe, creating a movement and
operating in teams to change the world. Anything less is going to be outsourced to
someone a lot cheaper and a lot less privileged than you or me.
Source: http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1898024_1898023_1898077,00.html

4.2 Comprehension
Are the following statements true or false according to the text? Highlight the passage in the text
that gives you the answer. The questions follow the sequence of information in the text.
a) The typists’ office in the Johnson Wax Building was huge.
b) Companies will increasingly subcontract work to the firm that promises to do it at the
cheapest price.
c) Companies will have less office space.
d) Only the people who are thought to be essential will have to be physically present in the
office.
e) Working with people in different time zones is a disadvantage.
f) IT helps teams accomplish more in less time.
g) Most team-meetings will still require the physical presence of the team members, if only for
psychological reasons.

4.3 Strategies for handling unknown vocabulary

Work with a partner.

i. Using the context

Judging from the context, what do you think is the meaning of ‘finicky’ in paragraph one and
‘clue’ in paragraph two above?
ii. Using cognates
What German or French word or words point to the meaning of ‘rigorous’ in paragraph 4?
iii. Deriving meaning through analysis of the parts of a word
a) What meaning can you derive for ‘uncertainties’ in paragraph 2 by breaking the word down
into its parts?
b) Which related noun points to the meaning of the verb form ‘unveiled’ in paragraph 1?
iv. Using a dictionary
What meaning does your dictionary give for ‘errand’ (paragraph 3), and ‘yearn’ (paragraph 5)?

4.4 Understanding and recording new vocabulary

Work in a small group. Use the strategies above to work out the meaning of the other words in
the text whose meaning you do not know or are not sure of. Make a record of the new items of
vocabulary. Refer to the flowchart on page 9 of the script for the process of managing unfamiliar
vocabulary.

5 Discussion
Answer the following questions in a group:
1. What kind of work do you want to be doing in five years’ time? Does it correspond to the kind
of work that Godin describes as secure? If not, do you think that there is a risk that there will be
limited opportunities in your chosen field in the future?

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2. What are the benefits and costs, and who are the winners and losers, when companies
outsource work, e.g. cleaning or data processing, to specialized companies in their own country
or abroad?

6 Further reading
Read the text on page 10 of the script and work through the new vocabulary using the strategies
you have learnt today. There are also a number of idiomatic expressions in the text that illustrate
typical journalistic (and also idiomatic professional) language very well. Make sure you
understand these expressions.

7 Homework
i) Finish reading the text in task 6.
ii) As soon as you have your copy of My Grammar Lab Advanced, register for access to the
online resources using the unique access code in your copy, and then register for the course
that I have set up using this course enrolment code:
U9FY-RRT3.
When you have enrolled for the course, work through as many of the following exercises as you
find useful from Chapter 5: Tenses:
Diagnostic test (please do at least this)
Unit 19 Auxiliaries and have got
Unit 20 Present simple or continuous?
Unit 25 State verbs
You can work through the exercises in the book, the online exercises, or both.
iv) Read the text that you chose from your group summaries.
v) Prepare your second summary. Use the information on the last three pages of this script to
help you with your research.
In order to search for resources held at Swiss universities, register with the Swisscovery platform
once you have your FHNW login..

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8 Answers to tasks

3.1 Grammar
Exercise 3
2 are drinking
3 am depending
4 are forever interrupting
5 do you think
6 want
7 is handling
8 doubt
9 are you getting on
10 is just being
Exercise 5
2 that/which belongs to you
3 I am enjoying working here
4 means (that) I take
5 cycling group consists of
6 you think is going to / will
7 am measuring the width of
8 never remembers
9 survival depends on its ability
10 are you thinking about / of

4.2 Comprehension

a) The typists’ office in the Johnson Wax Building was huge. True, paragraph 1 “0.2 hectare”
b) Companies will increasingly subcontract work to the firm that promises to do it at the
cheapest price. True, paragraph 2 “work gets auctioned off to the lowest bidder”
c) Companies will have less office space. True, title, paragraph 4 “the need to actually show
up at an office […] is just going to fade away” and paragraph 5 “We’ll go from a few days
alone at home […] sometimes in person, often online.”
d) Only the people thought to be essential will have to be physically present in the office.
False, paragraph 4 “the need to actually show up at an office […] is just going to fade away”
e) Working with people in different time-zones is a disadvantage. False, paragraph 4 “I’d rather
send you a file […] and have the information returned to my desktop when I wake up
tomorrow.”
f) IT helps teams accomplish more in less time. True, paragraph 5 “Internet technology
makes working as a team, synchronized to a shared goal, easier and more productive than
ever.”
g) Most team-meetings will still require the physical presence of the team members, if only for
psychological reasons. False, paragraph 5 “sometimes in person, often online”
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4.3 Strategies for handling unknown vocabulary
i. ‘Finicky’ means ‘fussy’, ‘fastidious’ or ‘punctilious’ (pingelig/pointilleux,tatillon); a ‘clue’ is a hint
(Tipp/indice), but not a Clou/clou (=highlight).
ii. ‘Rigorous’ is related to German ‘rigoros’ (= ‘gründlich’) and French ‘rigoureux’.
iii.a un + certain + ies = things that are not sure or certain.
iii.b The noun ‘veil’ (Schleier/voile) points to the meaning: ‘unveil’ means ‘reveal’, ‘present for the
first time’ (zeigen, enthüllen, einweihen/dévoiler, inaugurer).
iv. ‘errand’ = ‘a job that you do (most often for somebody else) that involves going somewhere to
take a message, to buy something, deliver goods, etc.’ The phrase ‘yearn for sth’ = long for sth
which is in the past (sich sehnen nach etw./avoir nostalgie de qqc); it can also have the meaning
‘to want very much’

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 Flowchart for Dealing with Unfamiliar Vocabulary
Unknown word

Can you Does the Is there a

ignore the context give foreign
word? no the sense? no cognate? no

yes

Does this Can you

meaning fit derive a
the context? meaning?
no no

yes

Does this Consult a

yes yes yes meaning fit dictionary
the context? no

yes

Continue reading

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Five trends that show corporate responsibility is here to stay
Sustainability began as an ad-hoc response to environmental accidents but has evolved into a global
movement. Regardless of whether you call it CSR, corporate responsibility, environmental, social and
corporate governance (ESG) or sustainability, a common understanding is emerging around the world: a
company's long-term financial success goes hand in hand with its record on social responsibility,
environmental stewardship and corporate ethics.
What began as ad-hoc damage-control responses by business to environmental accidents, corruption
scandals or accusations of child labour in supply chains, has evolved into a proactive, coherent global
movement. As business has gone global in recent decades – spurred by technology and liberal trade and
investment – so too has the idea and practice of corporate responsibility.
The costs to business and society of getting it wrong and the benefits of getting it right are increasingly
apparent. However, the question remains whether this is a passing trend or one that will continue to reshape
the profile of business. Several big trends indicate that corporate sustainability is here to stay:
1. Transparency
As with technological change, transparency is an irreversible force. Reporting and disclosure will
undoubtedly continue to grow, driven by ever-lower barriers to information access, higher public interest
and regulatory changes. Already over 5,000 corporations disclose their ESG performance on an annual
basis, and this number is bound to grow.
2. Trust
The ever-growing impact of business on society means that citizens and consumers expect corporate power
to be exerted responsibly. As citizens more often are sceptical, self-organised and prone to challenge
authority, the corporate community will have to raise its learning curve on building trust. This means being
proactive and thorough in how a company views its responsibilities and impacts on society, and then
showing how it manages operations accordingly.
3. Community participation
Business is expected to do more in areas that used to be the exclusive domain of the public sector – ranging
from health and education, to community investment and environmental stewardship. Environmental issues
are a good example of this blurred line. Natural resources are now recognised to be finite and under stress.
What was once unthinkable is becoming reality: water and even air now come with price tags. Companies
that collaborate with scientists, civil society and public regulators and show early on that they are part of the
solution will come out ahead.
4. Accessing new markets responsibly
Business is moving from resource taker to market builder. With economic growth migrating southward and
eastward, foreign direct investment is becoming more about building and gaining access to new markets
and less about simply exploiting low-cost inputs. Overcoming barriers to growth, such as civil violence,
uneducated workforce and unsustainable sources of energy, water, minerals and soil is now in the interest
of business.
5. Initiatives to engage companies
Means for engaging in corporate sustainability are plentiful and growing. Initiatives, standards and
consultancies are booming at national and global levels. The UN Global Compact, is engaging 8,000
companies in more than 145 countries on human rights, labour standards, environment and anti-corruption.
Many others are producing practical resources in key areas.
For business, environmental, social and governance responsibilities are no longer add-ons. They are integral
to success. While the great majority of companies have yet to commit to this trajectory, there is a strong
upward growth curve in actively engaged companies, with a vanguard taking serious action in all key
markets. The growing feeling is that corporate sustainability has drawn a line in the sand, and it's best for
business to get on the right side.
Georg Kell, executive director, UN Global Compact

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English Dictionaries for Business Students
Monolingual Dictionaries
Oxford English Dictionary http://www.oed.com
Definitive dictionary of the English language. Available online from computers connected to the Swiss
FH network. The OED contains most business terms, with pronunciation indicated in phonetic script.
The disadvantage of the OED is that non-native speakers often find it too detailed and therefore
difficult to use.
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/
Available in text form or online from any computer with internet access. The advantages of the OALD
are that it is written for learners of English, it gives examples of usage, and it offers audio files with
British English and American English pronunciation.
Merriam-Webster Online http://www.m-w.com
Free online American dictionary. Most words are available as an audio file, so you can learn the
(American English) pronunciation.
One Look http://www.onelook.com
This online site references almost 19 million words in 1,061 different dictionaries – all the major
English ones, but also dictionaries for specific subjects (business, art, medicine) or languages.

Bilingual Dictionaries
Pons http://www.pons.eu
Online version of the Pons range of dictionaries. The advantages of the dictionaries are that they have
sound files.
Larousse http://www.larousse.com
Online version of the Larousse range of dictionaries. The advantages of the dictionaries are that the
entries are set out as in a text dictionary, including many idioms, and that they also have sound files.
LEO http://dict.leo.org
A very comprehensive dictionary with many business words and phrases, and with sound files for
pronunciation The disadvantage is that it can be difficult to choose the right translation from the
various possibilities.
Dict.cc http://www.dict.cc
A very useful online dictionary with audio files and quick links to other dictionaries.
Linguee http://www.linguee.de
A search engine that looks for examples of the same text in two different languages on the Internet.
The site therefore provides many examples of real translations. It can be very useful for finding the
right translation for a word in German or French in a particular context. However, poor or simply wrong
translations can also appear in the search results, so care is required when using this resource.
bab.La http://de.bab.la
A combination of the LEO and Linguee approach, with translations of headwords and examples of
sentences in German and English.

DeepL https://www.deepl.com/translator
Can be used to translate individual words or whole texts (up to a length of ca. 900 words in the free
version).

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 Literaturrecherche im Internet

Bibliotheken
Die Kataloge der meisten Bibliotheken können via Internet abgefragt werden.

– Wirtschaftsbibliothek der Universität Basel: Der Bestand kann über

Swisscovery abgefragt werden – physischer Zugang auch für FHNW
Studierende (Ausleihen vor Ort über FHNW Student Card möglich)
– Bibliothekskatalog der Dualen Hochschule Baden-Württemberg in Lörrach:
Katalog DHBW
– Bibliothekskatalog der Université de Haute-Alsace: Katalog UHA
– Bibliothekenliste aller Schweizer Bibliotheken des Wissenschaftsnetzwerks
Switch
– übergreifende (gleichzeitige) Suche in den grossen Bibliotheksdatenbanken
der Schweiz mit Swisscovery.
– virtueller Bibliothekskatalog der Universität Karlsruhe (gesamter
deutschsprachiger Raum sowie diverse wichtige Bibliotheken weltweit)

Datenbanken/elektronische Zeitschriften
Alle drei IBM-Hochschulen (UHA, DHBW, FHNW) bieten Zugang zu Datenbanken
und elektronischen Zeitschriften. Dort finden sich u.a. wichtige betriebswirtschaftliche
Datenbanken (ABI Global Inform, Elsevier, Sage, WISO), Nachschlagewerke
(Duden, Brockhaus), Dissertationen und Masterarbeiten, aber auch Zeitungsartikel
(z.B. NZZ Online). Diese Ressourcen sollten unbedingt im Rahmen einer
Literaturrecherche für die DUT- oder Bachelor-Arbeit genutzt werden.

– FHNW: Zugriff auf die vom Konsortium der Schweizer Hochschulbibliotheken

angebotenen Datenbanken und elektronischen Zeitschriften. Um auf die
Datenbanken auch von ausserhalb (zuhause, Büro) zugreifen zu können,
muss eine VPN-Verbindung zur Fachhochschule eingerichtet sein.
Der Zugriff ist auch über die FHNW Bibliothek möglich:
https://www.fhnw.ch/de/die-fhnw/bibliotheken/e-medien
https://www.fhnw.ch/de/die-fhnw/bibliotheken/open-access

– DHBW: Zugriff auf die DHBW Datenbanken sowie E-Books. Zugriff von
ausserhalb z.T. nur über die Remote Desktop Farm möglich.
– UHA: Zugriff auf die UHA Datenbanken. Um das Angebot von ausserhalb zu
nutzen, müssen Sie sich mit Ihrem UHA-Login auf dem Menüpunkt „Mon
Compte“ einloggen.

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Suchmaschinen
Für ungefähr 90 Prozent aller Internetrecherchen wird google.com verwendet.
Um die Menge der Suchresultate einzugrenzen, empfiehlt es sich, die erweiterte
Suche zu verwenden. Es kann nicht nur nach mehreren Begriffen gleichzeitig
gesucht werden (z.B. Mitarbeiterbindung, Schweiz), sondern Begriffe können mit
einem Minus-Zeichen auch explizit ausgeschlossen werden (z.B.
Mitarbeiterbindung, Schweiz - Tessin). Mit Anführungs-/Schlusszeichenkann auch
nach exakten Wortgruppen gesucht werden (z.B. "Mitarbeiterbindung in der
Schweiz"). Daneben existiert in der Regel noch eine Vielzahl an weiteren Filtern.
Ausprobieren lohnt sich auf jeden Fall, denn je besser die Suchanfrage ist, desto
schneller erhält man ein brauchbares Suchresultat.

Mit Google Scholar können direkt wissenschaftliche Arbeiten im Internet

gefundenwerden. Bereits die Suchergebnisse enthalten u.a. die bibliografischen
Informationen.

Metasuchmaschinen leiten die Suchanfrage gleichzeitig an mehrere anderen

Suchmaschinen weiter und sammeln die Ergebnisse.

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Elektronische Datenquellen für den Bereich Wirtschaft und Dienstleistungen

DATENBANKEN Informationen zu Suchsprache Typen von Quellen Portal Alert

Volks- Manage- Firmeninfor- (Fach)- Bücher & Disser- Ovid Proqu Op-
Bibliographische Hinweise wirtschaft ment mationen E F D Presse zeitschr. Berichte tationen SP est WOK tion
ABI Inform* X X X X X X X X X
EconLit X X X X X X X X
WISO* X X X X X X X
PsycInfo X X X X X X X
Francis X X X X X X X X X
Sociological Abstracts X X X X X X X X
Orbis / Amadeus X X X X
International Bibliography of the Social Sciences X X X X X X
Zentralblatt für Mathematik X X X X
Web of Science X X X X X
Journal Citation Reports (Science Edition) X X X
Nachschlagewerke
Oxford Reference Online** X X X
Publicus X X
Methoden
SRMO - Sage Research Methods Online X X X X
Statistik
Statistisches Lexikon der Schweiz X X X
OECDiLibrary X X X
Fachzeitschriften im Volltext
Annual Reviews*** X X X
Cambridge University Press X X X X X
Elsevier - Science Direct X X X X
Emerald X X X X X
JSTOR Arts & Sciences IV, VII, X X X X X X
OECD iLibrary X X X X
SpringerLink X X X X X
Taylor & Francis X X X X
Wiley/Blackwell X X X X
Presse
Factiva X X X X X X
LexisNexis X X X X X X X X
NZZ Online X X X X
*) Enthält teilweise Artikel im Volltext
**) Enthält (Auswahl): Dictionary of Accounting, Dictionary of Business, Dictionary of Economics, Dictionary of Finance & Banking, Dictionary of Finance & Banking, Dictionary of Statistics
***) Enthält (Auswahl): Annual Review of - of Economics, - Review of Financial Economics, - Resource Economics

KFH Koordinationsstelle Konsortium 20.10.2021/SL