I. Match these word partnerships to their meanings. (10%)

1. brand loyalty           2. product lifecycle        3. product placement

4. brand stretching        5. product launch          6. brand name

7. brand awareness        8. product range           9. product endorsement 

10. brand image

a)     the name given to a product by the company that makes it

b)     using an existing name on another type of product

c)     the ideas and beliefs people have about a brand

d)     the tendency to always buy a particular brand

e)     how familiar people are with a brand

f)      the set of products made by a company

g)     the use of a well-known person to advertise products

h)     when products are used in films or TV programs

i)      the introduction of a product to the market

j)      the length of time people continue to buy a product

II. Complete sentences 1-6 with answers A, B or C. (15%)

1. Viacom Outdoor is an advertising company that specialises in placing adverts on ______ such as buses.

A. billboards       B. public transport     C. television

2. Some perfume companies provide ______ so that customers can try the perfume on their skin before they buy.

A. leaflets         B. commercials        C. free samples 

3. Advertising companies spend a lot of money on creating clever ______ that are short and memorable such as the message for the credit card, Access: ‘Your flexible friend’.

A. slogans         B. directories          C. mailshots 

4. Celebrity ______ is a technique that is very popular in advertising at the moment.

A. exhibition       B. research            C. endorsement

5. If news about a product comes to you by ______, someone tells you about it rather than you seeing an advert.

A. word of mouth     B. press             C. Internet

6. If you have something to sell, you can ______ an advert in the local newspaper.

A. target             B. place             C. launch

7. I was thrown in at the deep ______ when my company sent me to run the German office. I was only given two days’ notice to prepare.

A. water            B. end            C. fire

8. We don’t see eye to ______ about relocating our factory. The Finance Director wants to move production to the Far East, but I want it to remain in Spain.

A. eye              B. ear             C. mouth

9. I got into hot ______ with my boss for wearing casual clothes to the meeting with our Milanese customers.

A. fire            B. water        C. end

10. Small talk is one way to break the ______ when meeting someone for the first time.

A. snow           B. end         C. ice

11. I really put my ______ in it when I met our Japanese partner. Because I was nervous, I said ‘Who are you?’ rather than ‘How are you?’

A. feet             B. foot        A. leg 

12. I get on like a house on ______ with our Polish agent; we like the same things and have the same sense of humor.

A. fire             B. water       C. ice

13. When I visited China for the first time I was like a fish out of ______. Everything was so different, and I couldn’t read any of signs!

A. sea            B. ocean        C. water

14. My first meeting with our overseas clients was a real ______-opener. I had not seen that style of negotiation before.

A. ear           B. eye           C. mouth

15. If your data projector is still under ______, we will repair it for free.

A. insurance                      B. deposit   C. guarantee

III. Make comments on the following quotations. (20%)

1. ‘Truly great brands are more than just labels for products.’

2. ‘A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove that you don’t need it.’

3. ‘Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. The trouble is I don’t know which half.’

4. ‘Share our similarities, celebrate our differences.’

IV. Cloze (15%)

                Who Benefits Most from Company Training?

According to recent research, the better educated and the higher up the socioeconomic scale you are, the more likely you are to be offered workplace training. And, incidentally, the more likely you are to then turn (1) ______ the offer, pleading family and personal commitments or (2) ______ of work. Less qualified staff, on the other hand, are offered fewer training opportunities, but are more eager to (3) ______ them up. In fact, people with few or no educational qualifications are three times more likely to accept training when it is offered.

In the majority of companies, more (4) ______ are allocated to management training than to other areas. Employers (5) ______ their better qualified staff as more important to the business, so they pay them accordingly and invest more in them in (6) ______ of training. This is (7) ______ by the fact that organizations are dependent on properly (8) ______ managers making the right decisions. But this (9) ______ may mean that companies are (10) ______ other parts of the workforce down.

The researchers found a growing demand for training among the lower-skilled. Unfortunately this demand is not being (11) ______ by employers, even though there are strong indications that companies would benefit from doing so. They also discovered that, despite the substantial (12) ______ between the training provided for managers and that offered to other staff, there was still widespread endorsement of training.

For the purposes of the research, training was defined as any (13) ______ of planned instruction or tuition provided by an employer with the aim of helping employees do their work better. It therefore included a wide variety of approaches. On-the-job and classroom training (14) ______ to be used equally by employers. But learning on the job, which involved observing a certain procedure and then practicing it, was easily the most popular method for all categories of employee. While many felt that learning from colleagues was best, very few (15) ______ the internet as an effective way to train.

1. A. back       B. over       C. down        D. off

2. A. force       B. pressure    C. strain        D. load

3. A. pick        B. keep       C. take         D. put

4. A. means      B. reserves     C. finances      D. resources

5. A. imagine     B. regard      C. suppose      D. know

6. A. requirements    B. specifications    C. states    D. terms

7. A. allowed        B. approved       C. justified   D. accepted

8. A. understanding    B. intelligent      C. informed   D. knowledgeable

9. A. stress           B. emphasis       C. weight     D. strength

10. A. letting         B. cutting         C. breaking    D. setting

11. A. reached        B. achieved        C. gained     D. met

12. A. space          B. gap            C. hole       D. room

13. A. frame          B. structure        C. form      D. order

14. A. showed         B. appeared       C. demonstrated   D. presented

15. A. rated           B. thought        C. marked        D. believed

V. Reading (15%)

Part One

Questions 1-5

Read the article below about the importance of human resource (HR) management.

Choose the best sentence from the opposite page to fill each of the gaps.

For each gap (1-5), mark one letter (A-G) on your Answer Sheet.

Do not use any letter more than once.

There is an example at the beginning, (0).

Human Resource Management

It is nearly a century since the car manufacturer Henry Ford said, ‘You can destroy my factories and offices, but give me my people and I will build the business the business right back up again.’ (0) ___G___. But a few business theorists are beginning to argue that managing people well can add more to the bottom line than anything else.

Mike Manzotti, a leading American author in this area, has strong views about the growing importance of human resources in today’s business world. (1) ______. A company with high staff commitment, for example, has an asset that its rivals find hard to copy.

Research in Britain would appear to support this notion. A recent business school survey into the performance of eight multinationals found that people management could be the most decisive factor in a company’s performance. Another study indicated the same thing in medium-sized manufacturing form. (2) ______. After all, how can an organization evaluate the commitment of its staff?

For this reason, the researcher George Hessenberg argues that a scientific approach is needed. He feels that when HR professionals suggest changing an organization’s compensation structure or being more selective in recruiting, they are asking for things that require resources. (3) ______.

Some new approaches are emerging that attempt to do just that, including the scheme devised by consultants Couze Jordan. The scheme, which covers communication, recruitment, and use of resources, predicts that significant improvements in these areas achieve an increase in shareholder value of up to 30 percent.

Another programme, launched by James Lester, an independent human resources expert, approaches the problem from a perspective that is designed to appeal to a wide range of managers. (4) ______. Both, he argues, involve appropriate decisions being made about the allocation of resources within a particular budget.

Lester’s expertise enables him to carry out an organizational audit for his clients to identify which areas of HR are in most need of improvement. This is because there is no point in business spending large amounts without knowing if the investment is worthwhile. (5) ______. Lester’s advice, however, is for companies to think twice before hiring people, since it is vital they assess whether they are getting value for money.

A. But the findings are inconclusive because of the difficulty of collecting reliable evidence.

B. He argues that the role of a skilled, motivated and flexible workplace has become more significant as traditional sources of competitive advantage diminish.

C. For example, a common mistake is to spend a fortune on recruitment to cover up for deficiencies in training.

D. However, most leading experts in the field believe that there is sufficient evidence to support this model of workplace dynamics.

E. He compares the positive use of human resources to effective fund management, as this is something that senior executives can relate to.

F. He believes, however, that the only way they will gain approval for these potentially expensive initiatives is to have some data that demonstrates positive financial benefits.

G. In the light of this statement, it is odd that people management has taken so many years to move up the agenda.

VI. Writing (25%)

You organized the conference at the Modern Hotel for your conference but it did not go well, for the reasons given below. Write a letter (150 to 200 words) to the manager of the hotel complaining about the problems you had and asking for a discount on the bill. Suggest a figure for this discount.

●  Restaurant --- slow service (give an example)

●  Conference facilities --- equipment out of order (give a percentage)

●  Swimming pool --- closed some days (give the number of the days)

●  Satellite TV --- only French-language channels available

●  Disabled facilities --- some facilities not accessible (one of your delegates was in a wheelchair)

●  Smoking --- many guests (not your delegates) smoked in non-smoking areas

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