A A VOCABULARY AND GRAMMAR

Business people
Lesson code: VX5X-4319-PCPG ELEMENTARY

1 Vocabulary
Match the words and phrases to the definitions:

1. an entrepreneur a. leaving a job

2. an inventor b. money that you get for a special reason, e.g. to invest in a
business
3. a co-founder c. somebody who creates a new idea, thing or product
4. funding d. somebody who establishes a company with another person
5. resignation e. somebody who starts a business or businesses

Can you think of any successful entrepreneurs or inventors?

2 Collocations
Match the verbs on the left with the nouns on the right. Then complete the sentences below.

1. take a. a break
2. attend b. a company
3. invent c. a meeting
4. receive d. a new product
5. found e. a salary
6. earn f. funding (to start a business)

1. I'm a little tired now. I want to .

2. Mr Small of $50,000 per year.
3. Team work is very important. We have to every day.
4. We are looking for investors. We need to a lot of to start this business.
5. If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you don't need to . You
can offer a useful service.
6. Mark is not happy as an employee. He wants to his own .
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 Business people
A A A A VOCABULARY AND GRAMMAR

3 Business profile
Look at the picture. Who was this person? What do you know about him? Read the text.

Steve Jobs was a famous American entrepreneur and inventor. He was the co-founder and chairman of
Apple Inc.
He was born in San Francisco, California in 1955. He lived with his adoptive parents Paul and Clara Jobs.
Paul worked as a mechanic and a carpenter, and Steve learned how to work with his hands. Paul showed
Steve how to build electronics such as radios and televisions.
Steve Jobs' career started in 1972. He worked as a technician for Atari. After taking a break to travel to
India, Jobs returned to Atari in 1974. In 1975, he attended meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club
with Steve Wozniak. In 1976, Jobs and Wozniak started their own business, which they named "Apple
Computer Company", remembering a happy summer when Jobs picked apples.
In 1976, Wozniak invented the Apple I computer. They received funding from an Intel engineer and
started to sell the computers. However, because of disappointing sales and Jobs's difficult relationship
with the company, he stopped coming to work and resigned as chairman in 1985. Jobs founded NeXT
Inc. after his resignation with $7 million. In 1996, Apple decided to buy NeXT for $427 million and Jobs
returned to the company that he co-founded.
With Jobs as chairman, the company increased sales significantly with the introduction of the iMac, the
iPod portable music player and other new products. On June 29, 2007, Apple entered the cellular phone
business with the introduction of the iPhone.
Jobs earned a salary of only $1 per year as CEO but he was worth $8.3 billion in 2010 according to
Forbes. In August 2011, he resigned as CEO of Apple and he died of cancer in October 2011.

4 Past simple - regular verbs

The words in bold in the text are the past forms of regular verbs. Answer the questions:
1. How do we form the past of a regular verb like work, start and return?
2. How do we form the past of a regular verb like live, increase and name?
3. Find more examples of rule 1 and 2 in the text.
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 Business people
A A A A VOCABULARY AND GRAMMAR

There are three ways to pronounce the -ed ending of regular verbs. Listen to your teacher and repeat.

/d/ /t/ /id/

lived worked started
learned picked attended
showed increased invented

Now listen and read the words below. Which category do they belong to?

wanted offered liked hated repeated stopped

corrected loved fixed played asked

5 Anita Roddick
Complete the facts about the British businesswoman Anita Roddick (1942-2007), founder of The Body
Shop. Use the verbs below in the past.

die found marry

offer open
promote purchase divorce
train travel

1. Her parents divorced when she was nine.

2. In her younger years, she
3. She Gordon Roddick in 1970.
4. They
5. Her first Body Shop
6. During her career, she
7. In 1990, she
8. In 2006, L'Oréal
9. In 2007, Roddick
10. During her life, she
as a teacher.
a restaurant and a hotel in their home town.
only 15 product lines.
fair trade with third world countries.
a charity called `Children on the Edge'.
The Body Shop for ¿652 million.
because of a serious illness.
to many different countries.
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 Business people
A A A A VOCABULARY AND GRAMMAR

6 Past simple - Negative and question forms

In pairs read the dialogue about Steve Jobs's early career and answer the questions below:

A: Did Steve Jobs live with his real parents as a child?

B: No, he didn't live with his real parents. He lived with his adoptive parents.
A: Did his career start in 1972?
B: Yes, it did.
A: When did he start his own business?
B: He started his own business with Steve Wozniak in 1976.
A: Did they receive funding from their parents?
B: No, they didn't. They received funding from an Intel engineer.
A: When did he found the company NeXT?
B: He founded NeXT in 1985.

1. How do we form questions with the past simple?

2. What is the negative past form?
3. How do we form short answers with the past form?

7 Past simple (regular verbs)

Study the past forms of the verb `work'.

affirmative forms negative forms questions

I worked I didn't work Did I work?
You worked You didn't work Did you work?
He/she/it worked He/she/it didn't work Did he/she/it work?
We worked We didn't work Did we work?
You worked You didn't work Did you work?
They worked They didn't work Did they work?

Short answers
Yes, I did. / Yes, you did. / Yes, he did ...
No, I didn't. / No, you didn't. / No, he didn't ...
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 Business people
A A A A VOCABULARY AND GRAMMAR

8 Practice
Form questions like in the example.
Anita Roddick's parents / divorce / when she was nine?
Did Anita Roddick’s parents divorce when she was nine?

1. Anita Roddick / train / as a nurse?

. ......................................................................................
2. she / marry / Gordon Roddick in 1970?
. ......................................................................................
3. they / open / a sauna?
. ......................................................................................
4. the first Body Shop / offer / a wide range of products?
. ......................................................................................
5. Anit Roddick / found / a charity / in 1990?
. ......................................................................................
6. L'Oréal / purchase / the Body Shop / for $10 million?
. ......................................................................................
7. Anita Roddick / die / in 2007?
. ......................................................................................
In pairs, ask and answer the questions like in the dialogue.

9 Flashcard review
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QWERTYUIOPASDFGHJKLZXCVBNM1234567890-
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Image of Steve Jobs by Matthew Yohe licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)
Image of Anita Roddick by openDemocracy licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/)
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 Business people - Key
A A A A VOCABULARY AND GRAMMAR

1- Vocabulary

Go through the terms and model correct pronunciation. Have the students translate them if necessary.

1. e 2. c 3. d 4. b 5. a

2- Collocations

Go through the phrases and check understanding. Have the students translate them if necessary. Students can
complete the sentences individually and check in pairs.

1. a 2. c 3. d 4. f 5. b 6. e

1. take a break 2. earns a salary 3. attend a meeting

4. receive funding 5. invent a new product 6. found (his own) company

3- Business profile

Students read the text in preparation for the follow-up grammar exercises. Be prepared to answer questions about
difficult vocabulary (e.g. `adoptive parents') and check understanding.

4- Past simple - regular verbs

Draw attention to the regular past simple verbs in the text. Ask students to work out the simple rules for forming
the past simple of regular verbs.

1. we add -ed
2. we add -d
3. 1: learned, showed, attended, picked, invented, stopped, resigned, founded, entered, earned; 2: died

Be prepared to point out that when a verb ends in a consonant + vowel + consonant, e.g. `stop', we double the
final consonant when adding an ending such as -ed and -ing (`stopped'). Also point out that when a verb ends in a
consonant + -y, e.g. `marry', we change -y to -ied.

Read out the words and have the students repeat. At this stage, students only need to know that it is easier to
pronounce -ed as /d/ after words like `live', /t/ after words like `watch', etc. Read out the past forms below and
have the students put /d/, /t/ or /id/ next to each word.

/d/ offered, loved, played

/t/ liked, stopped, fixed, asked
/id/ wanted, hated, repeated, corrected

5- Anita Roddick

Go through the verbs, checking understanding. Students can complete the sentences individually and check in
pairs.

2. trained 3. married 4. opened 5. offered 6. promoted

7. founded 8. purchased 9. died 10. travelled (Am Eng:
traveled)

6- Past simple - Negative and question forms

Have the students read the dialogue in pairs and work out the rules for forming questions, negative sentences and
short answers in the past simple.
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 Business people - Key
A A A A VOCABULARY AND GRAMMAR

1. did + SUBJECT + verb

2. SUBJECT + didn't + verb
3. Yes, SUBJECT + did. / No, SUBJECT + didn't

7- Past simple (regular verbs)

Draw attention to the table. Point out that the past simple forms are the same for each person (I, you, he/she/it,
we, you, they).

8- Practice

Students can form the questions individually and check in pairs. Have students ask and answer the questions
about Anita Roddick. Encourage short and long answers, e.g. 1 - "No, she didn't. She trained as a teacher."

1. Did Anita Roddick train as a nurse?

2. Did she marry Gordon Roddick in 1970?
3. Did they open a sauna?
4. Did the first Body Shop offer a wide range of products?
5. Did Anita Roddick found a charity in 1990?
6. Did L'Oréal purchase the Body Shop for $10 million?
7. Did Anita Roddick die in 2007?

9- Flashcard review

Students who register on our website can revise the material from this lesson using the Expemo spaced repetition
learning platform. Visit www.linguahouse.com/ex for more information.

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