03.02.25 English for Business Chapter 16 TEST

1. Select the phrase that refers to "brainstorming".

blue-sky thinking

2. We've made our offer, the ball's in their court now.

3. The ball's in the CEO's court to decide on the next steps.

4. We need specialist knowledge not blue-sky thinking.

 5. Listen. What does Alex want her team to do?

"I want to have a team brainstorming session for the project. Some blue-sky-thinking. So use your imagination and be original. We've had some problems and you've already heard my ideas on how to solve these but this is your chance to come up with fresh suggestions." = think of creative ideas for the project
Alex wants her team to do some "blue-sky thinking" and come up with creative ideas for the project.

6. Choose two words to complete the sentence: The ___ is in your ___.

 ball,court,

7.I've made David and offer but now the balls in his court and it's up to him whether he wants to accept.

Jane thinks that David needs to make the next move in their negotiation. True

When Jane says "the ball's in his court", she means she has done as much as she can, and now David has to act.

8.To start the session, I encourage you to do some blue-sky thinking.

9. Better management can help our bottom line.

10. The glass ceiling is an issue women have been facing for decades.

11. "The bottom line" refers to the gross earnings of a company before expenses.- False

A "bottom line" is the total profit or loss of a company, after expenses.

12. Why did Jennifer tell her team that "the ball was in their court"? -

Because she didn't have any more ideas.
Jennifer ran out of ideas, so the ball was in her team's court – they had to come up with new ones.

13. "And can you remember some of the early ideas you rejected during that blue sky thinking session? Off the top of my head, I think there were a few crazy proposals, but nothing I'd be able to talk about in detail without checking. The truth is, though, I'd run out of ideas on my own, so I said to the team that the ball was in their court, and they really responded well to that test, which is why we're here today."И можете ли вы вспомнить некоторые из ранних идей, которые вы отклонили во время той сессии брейнсторма? По-моему, было несколько сумасшедших предложений, но я не смогу говорить о них подробно, не проверив. Правда в том, что у меня закончились идеи, поэтому я сказал команде, что мяч на их стороне, и они действительно хорошо отреагировали на этот тест, что является причиной, по которой мы здесь сегодня."

Jennifer thinks carefully before talking about the unusual ideas they came up with.-False Jennifer talks about her team's ideas off the top of her head (с бухты- барахты, сходу)– without checking.

14. Why does Jennifer say she felt the project was "a long shot"?

A long shot" – это выражение означает маловероятный, но возможный шанс на успех.

"That's very impressive. So, were you confident in this project from the very beginning? Not at all. I'd say it was actually a bit of a long shot.(маловероятно) Obviously, we weren't the first to try this format. Also, it's an incredibly competitive field, and finally, it took some time to convince investors to back us.""Это очень впечатляет. Значит, вы были уверены в этом проекте с самого начала? 

Вовсе нет. Я бы сказал, что это было немного наугад. Очевидно, мы не были первыми, кто попробовал этот формат. Кроме того, это невероятно конкурентоспособная сфера, и, наконец, потребовалось некоторое время, чтобы убедить инвесторов поддержать нас."

Because there are lots of similar products in the market.
The investors thought the proposal was a long shot, unlikely to succeed because of the large number of similar products.

15. Understanding so many new procedures in one day was a steep learning curve.

16.After working in education for so long, Amelia needed a change of pace, so she moved to the tech industry.

17. I had to burn the midnight oil because of a really short deadline.

18. The increased spending on the marketing campaign affected the bottom line.

19.Select the option that would best describe "the bottom line".=

net income

20.We had to burn the midnight oil, but the deliverable was ready on time.