I. Listen to Colin Knapp talking about traveling to the Far East and try to guess the meaning of the following words and word-combinations:
jet lag
culture gap
tip
II. Listen again and answer the questions:
1. How often does Colin travel on business?
2. Which country does he visit regularly?
3. How long is the flight?
4. What two things does he do during the flight?
5. Does he suffer from jet lag?
6. Is jet lag different traveling west-east and east-west?
7. Why does he travel to the Far East instead of doing business by telephone or fax?
8. What example of a culture gap does he give?
9. What three tips does he give for visiting this country for the first time?
Lexical exercises
Active Vocabulary
I. How was your trip?
Read these extracts from interviews with people about their business trips. Then look at the words in bold in each extract and find six pairs of opposite phrases.
| 1. The trip was a complete disaster. Everything went wrong-my plane was delayed on the way out and then my meeting was cancelled because the supplier was ill.
| 2. I don’t go abroad often, just an occasional trip to Head Office in Frankfurt.
|
| 3. I’ve arranged my trip to Milan for the first week in April. I’m really excited–it’s my first trip for the company and my first time to Italy.
| 4. The trip out took three hours, and I didn’t have to take a taxi from the airport because my supplier was waiting for me to drive to his office.
|
| 5. I had to cut short my trip–there was a crisis back at the office. The clients were very understanding and have agreed to meet me next month instead.
| 6.The trip was a great success. I made a lot of useful contacts. My boss was very pleased when he read my report.
|
| 7. I make frequent trips to our supplier in Poland. We do a lot of business with them and it means that I earn lots of air miles to use on flights for my family.
| 8. It was a one-way trip–from Paris I went to visit another supplier in Brussels instead of coming straight back to the office.
|
| 9. The trip back took much longer than I expected-the flight was delayed because of bad weather. My husband came to meet me at the airport but he had to wait for two hours before my plane landed.
| 10. I’ve cancelled my trip to Madrid–I’m too busy dealing things here at the office. We are going to reschedule for next spring when things are calmer.
|
| 11. I decided to extent my trip–I needed more time to visit my customers.
| 12. It was just a quick round trip–there and back in a day. But it was very tiring. I left early in the morning and got back late at night.
|
From In Company Intermediate
II. Read the dialogue in pairs.
