Business 2aul Emmerson Grammar Builder 2nd edition Intermediate to upper-intermediate Clear explanations for real situations eA MACMILLANTrends, graphs and figures A Verbs describing trends ‘The box below shows verbs that describe different business trends (= tendencies). Upward movernent {0 up, increase, ris, climb Rapid upward movement take off, jump, rocket, double Downward movement go down, decrease, fall, drop, decline Rapid downward movement collapse, eras, sump, plummet, halve Highs and lows peak, reach a peak, fallback, bottom out, hit alow, pick up Change in size grow, expand, shrink, contract Stability and volatility slay the same, be lat, be unchanged, be (relatively) stable, ‘fluctuate, vary, mave within a range, lve off Good and bad improve, get belter, strengthen, recover, deteriorate, get worse, weaken Individual points stand af, be at, be above, be below States be up/down, stay high/low, remain high/low [Note these irregular verb forms: go-went—gone grow grew ~ grown rise — rose risen fall—fell— fallen Note these nouns: «rise, growth, an improvement, afl, a drop, a peak, a recovery, @ halving, a doubling ‘Note the following prepositions: Sales increased from $5.4m to $5.8m. There was an increase im sales of $0.4m. Sales increased (by) $04. (Gy is usually missed out in AmE) B Trend verbs with objects Verbs are used indifferent ways. Some verbs are always followed by an object. Well raise lower /cxt the budget (NOT The budget-will raise/lower/eut) Other verbs are never followed by an object. Inflation wil rise /fall/go up. (NOT These measures will-rico/fall/go-up inflation) ‘Some verbs can be used with or without an object. Well increase /improve our marketshare AND Our marketshare will increase /improve. © Speed and amount of change ‘We can use adverbs to talk about the speed and amount of change. Speed Sales grew .. quickly, rapidly, gradually, stendily, slowly ‘Amount to some extent, slightly, marginally Note the relationship between ‘verb + adverb’ and ‘adjective + noun’ Sales grew steadily. There was steady growth in sales. D Graphs and charts ‘The language in section Ais often shown visually in a [presentation or report by means of (ine) graphs, (bar) charts, (pie) charts and tables. A graph/chart may have: a horizontal and a vertical axis; a solid /dotted /dashed line; a segment; a shaded area; bars. A table has rows and columns with headings. E Figures (decimal point, comma, etc.) ‘A decimal point is written as 2 ‘dot, not as a comma like in some languages. It is spoken as point. 65 six point five 0.25. zero pont tw foe (NOT point twenty-five) ‘Acoma can be used to separate thousands from hundreds. 6200 six thousand fo hundred (AmB and BrE) 6.280 six thousand tao hundred eighty (AmE) 6.280 six thousand to hundred and eighty (BrE) Note also: 2m too million (NOT reilions) 2.5m two point five two and a half ition F Linking words and phrases Linking words are used for analyzing trends. They can join parts ofa sentence or link across sentences. See units 41-44 Hire are just a few examples: although, and, basically, beacuse, clearly, firstly, however, in addition, in fact, in general, in my opinion, in particular, in relation to, in spite of, 50, therefore, whereasSections A, B, C Section & Section F 50 Trends, graphs and figures Exercises 50.1 Underline the correct words. ‘There was a slightly/slight rise in profits last month. We rosefncreased our profits slightly last month. ‘There was a sharp fall infof our sales last quarter. ur sales fell byfof 6% last quarter. (or no preposition) We fellimproved our market share last year. ‘Their share price hitibeat a fow/dovmn last month, but it has recuperatedirecovered since then and now stands atfn €3.78. ‘Their share price met @ top/peaked in May, but it's fallen back since then. Inflation is increasing slow/slowly at the moment, infby about 1% a year. There is a slowisiowiy increase in the rate of inflation offby about 1% a year. Operating profits went from $2.5mn to/until $3. 1m, ‘This year, dividends paid to shareholders raised/rose by 6% year-on-year. Last year they felfcut slighty. 12 This year we raledirose dividends to shareholders by 6% yearon-year. Last year, in comparison, we felfcut them. aunune BSean ‘comparison, 50.2 Write in words how you would say the numbers in brackets, using British English. Look at section C and the additional example below to help you. (1,230) ‘one thousand two hundred and thirty (12,300) (12,030) (120,300) (123,000) (123,330) (1,230,000) 50.3 Complete the sentences with the words or phrases in the box. Look carefully at the Punctuation to see if the words join parts of sentences or link across sentences. because because of so although inspite of _ir-addition however therefore 1 Sales are up 5%. /n addition , market share is up 2%, 2 Sales are up 5%. —____, marketshare is down 2%. 3 Sales are up 5%, market share is down 2%. 4 Sales are up 5%, a drop in market share of 296. 5 Soles are up 5%. we should get a bonus at the end ofthe year. 6 Sales are up 5%, —___ we'll all get a bonus at the end of the year. 7 Sales are up 5% —_. the new advertising campaign. 8 Sales are up 5% ——_____ the new advertising campaign has started. “Would you please elaborate on ‘then something bad happened”?”” ‘TRENDS, GRAPHS AND FIGURES 207