Market Leader – Unit III

Unit III – Adjectives

Rewrite the following sentences using the opposite of the adjective present in
each of them.
1. They are going to see the results in the SHORT term. (long)
2. We lugged our LIGHT bags upstairs and dropped them with a thud in the
middle of the room. (heavy)
3. These musicians came about in the EARLY 70s. (late)
4. This car is going really SLOW. (fast)
5. The park is really DANGEROUS at this time of the year. (safe)
6. The Morrisons are very NOISY people. (quiet)
7. The exam was as DIFFICULT as we had expected it to be. (easy)
8. Her latest book was truly a BORING read. (interesting)
9. He doesn't like these streets because they are very WIDE. (narrow)
10. This kind of activities are really STRESSFUL. (relaxing)

Unit III – Too versus Enough

Write sentences using “too” or “enough”, the structures in capitals and the
adjectives from the previous exercise: short and long, light and heavy, early and
late, slow and fast, dangerous and safe, noisy and quiet, difficult and easy,
boring and interesting, wide and narrow, stressful and relaxing.
For example:
I can’t get any sleep in this bed.
The bed is too hard. It isn’t soft enough.
They can’t get comfortable in those seats.
The seats aren’t wide enough. They’re too narrow.

1. The REPORT doesn’t give much information.

2. I can’t carry these SUITCASES.
3. I can’t meet you at six o’clock IN THE MORNING.
4. I don’t want this CAR. Its top speed is only 100 kilometres per hour.
5. Don’t take any visitors to those AREAS late at night.
6. The CAMERA doesn’t fit in my pocket.
7. The HOTEL ROOM is $1,000 dollars a night.
8. I can’t sleep because of the MUSIC from the party.
9. His coworkers are constantly being pushy about the TASKS.
10. She couldn’t focus on her work because of THE BACKGROUND MUSIC.

Unit III – Problems at the workplace

Take a look at the following situations at workplace and decide which of the
options describe the situation best.

I constantly receive emails with plenty of attached files. I have to stay at the
office late every day in order to check the files one by one. The boss calls me
three times a day to make sure I am performing as I am expected to. Last
minute, my coworkers let me know we are having meetings every four hours
during the week.

I usually have a huge pile of paperwork waiting for me as I get to the office. The
problem is that we are moving from one floor to another. Everything is in boxes
and some of them don’t have tags. I really don’t know how I am going to figure
out where my stuff is.

John Smith isn’t anybody’s favorite client. He drops by twice a week and every
time he camos around with a different flaw that he has discovered in the
product he purchased. Nobody wants to receive him, but we are told to treat all
of our clients in a polite way.

At our call centre, 150 agents work in one large room. A lot of them are women
or students. The workstations are very close together, so it’s very noisy. We wear
headphones, but they’re not good enough. I’m only 21, but my doctor says I have
hearing problems. Sitting at a workstation for many hours causes other health
problems. Most of my colleagues have backache. I often get headaches from
looking at the computer screen for too long.
The job is well paid, but the hours are long. Our customers in the UK are often
very rude. It’s not easy to talk to customers when they are angry and don’t want
to understand. A lot of my colleagues want to leave and find another job, but it’s
not easy to find such well-paid work.

We’re often on the phone for four or more hours continuously. Most of the calls
are complaints, and we’re expected to solve each problem within two minutes.
When one call finishes, another call starts immediately. You don’t get time to
think. It’s very stressful. Another problem is there’s no possibility of promotion.
It’s just a job, it’s not a career. Nobody stays in the job very long, so the
company is constantly recruiting and training staff.

Well, I think the biggest problem is when we have late deliveries. Then there
isn’t enough stock to sell to customers. We also sometimes get difficult
customers who want you to spend a lot of time with them, or who want their
money back for no reason.

I have big problems with the computer system. It seems to crash once or twice a
week. When this happens, it means I can’t work. The other big problem is we
have a lot of documents, which are sometimes difficult to find. It’s a big office,
and a lot of documents go missing when people don’t return them.

We are always very busy. It’s never quiet. I guess the worst problem, apart from
that, is people who are rude to you on the phone. People think they can say
anything because they can’t see you. Sometimes it’s difficult to be polite to all
the customers.

It can be very noisy at times, but for me, that’s not a problem. I think it’s
normal. The worst problem is when the machinery breaks down and we can’t
work. We have to stop production and call the engineers. The other big problem
is when customers want to change their orders.
always being busy
difficult customers
changes to orders
computer crashed
rude people
missing documents
delivery delays
machinery not working

Unit III – Jeremy Keeley

Jeremy Keeley, a specialist in change leadership, talks about problems he has at

work. Read the following interview very carefully.

Interviewer: What are typical work problems for you?

Jeremy Keeley: As a consultant, I run my own business and I’m often on my
own, but my clients have quite complicated problems that they need to resolve.
My biggest problem is having enough time to do a good job with the amount of
work I’ve got to do. And then I also face urgent requests for help when I’m
already very busy.
I: What are the biggest problems in companies you know?
JK: Most of the companies I work with are big, international companies facing
complicated situations. Probably the biggest problem they face is the amount of
change they have to go through all the time, and they have to go through that
change fast, as speed.
Secondly, they find it very difficult to plan their needs and therefore also to plan
their resources; in other words, their staff, the equipment, the property, the
money they need to satisfy their customers. And their customers expect them to
reduce their prices at the same time as these companies have increasing costs.
So they have to be much more productive, much mor efficient, all the time.
I: Can you give an example of a problem you’ve solved?
JK: My customers usually ask me o help them solve complicated problems,
where lots of people need to be involved in designing the solution. Recently,
there was a computer system that had to be introduced that affected millions of
customers and their bills.
At the last moment, a problem arose that affected the whole system. I brought
the technical team, the business team, the project team and the suppliers
together in one room, and by understanding the whole problem, and by
understanding each other’s individual problems, we came up with the solution
that solved the problem altogether.

Jeremy Keeley, a specialist in change leadership, talks about problems he has at

work. Taking into account what he’s said mark the following sentences as “true”
or “false”.
1. Jeremy often works with a large number of people.
2. His clients have quite complicated problems.
3. Jeremy’s biggest problem is having enough time to do a good job.
4. He also faces urgent requests for help when he is already very busy.

Jeremy Keeley, a specialist in change leadership, talks about problems he has at

work. Complete the blanks of the following sentences for them to make sense.
1. Biggest problem – amount of ______ they have to go through at speed.
2. Second problem – difficult to plan their needs and resources (staff, ______,
property, money they need to satisfy their customers).
3. Another problem – customers expect them to reduce prices at the same time
as companies have increasing _______.

Jeremy Keeley, a specialist in change leadership, talks about problems he has at

work. Answer the following questions.
1. What sorts of problem is Jeremy asked to solve?
2. What was the problem Jeremy had to solve?
3. Which different groups did he bring together to solve the problem?
Unit I, II & III – Revision

p. 130, p. 137