Facultatea: Contabilitate

Specialitatea: Contabilitate
Nivelul B1-
Anul universitar 2020-2021
Semestru I
Varianta 1

Examination Test-Paper Aprobat: Şef - departament

Subject: Business Language (English) „Limbi Moderne”
Student’s surname, first name ______________
______________________________ Gh. Moldovanu, prof. univ., dr.
_ hab.
Group_________________________ Elaborat: L. Panainte
Date___________________________

Reading. Read the text and complete the following tasks. 40p
Market research.
McDonald’s made a classic sales promotion mistake with its heavily advertised 25 th anniversary
offer. The company expected to sell one million burgers a day when it offered two Big Macs for
the price of one. Demand was so great that customers had to queue for more than an hour. Two
drive - through restaurants, where too many cars turned up, were closed on police advice.
Certainly McDonalds’s is not going to suffer any long term damage – unlike the company which
led the most disastrous sales promotions of them all: Hoover. Although it is hard to believe,
Hoover offered two free flights to the US, which were worth $400, to customers who spent over
$100 on its products. Hoover should have realized that this was a recipe for disaster! Over
300,000 people claimed free flights and there were numerous court cases. Overall the promotion
cost $50 m and the heads of Hoover’s top executives, whose jobs were lost.
Just recently Avon, the cosmetics company, committed a similar mistake by offering mobile
phones to customers who spend more than $15 on its products. Instead of an anticipated 60,000
handsets, there were an astonishing 750,000 requests! When Avon was forced to refer to the
offer where it said that there were only limited numbers of phones available, it caused a storm of
protest. Furious customers have threatened to boycott Avon’s products and one representative
has quit.
Recently, Pepsi jokingly offered a military jet to any customers who could save enough tokens.
However, extra tokens were available for ten cents each. They hadn’t counted on a sharp-eyed
student, who worked out he could buy the jet for 4 500,000, which was a tenth of its real price.
He formed a consortium (a group of people doing business together) which bought the tokens
and he claimed his prize. At this point Pepsi went to court. Clearly, Pepsi shouldn’t have
indulged its sense of humour.
In fact Pepsi ought to have known better after a previous fiasco. In the Philippines, it had
announced that anyone who found Pepsi bottle tops with the number 349 could claim a $ 30,000
prize. A mess – up (mistake) in production meant there were 800,000 bottle tops which had the
winning number and Pepsi paid out more than five times its budget before it stopped paying out
prize money. This angered the public, who set fire to the company’s offices and lorries.

Task I.
Read the text and answer these questions with the relevant information: 14p.
Company McDonald’s:
1. What the customer had to do? - 1.
2. What the company offered? 1.
3. What went wrong? -1.
2.

Company Hoover:
1. What the customer had to do? -1.
2. What the company offered? - 1.
3. What went wrong? 1.-
2.-

Company Pepsi:
1. What the customer had to do? -1.
2. What the company offered? - 1.
3. What went wrong? - 1.

Company Pepsi:
1. What the customer had to do? – 1.
2. What the company offered? - 1.
3. What went wrong? -1.

Task II. Make questions for these answers. 16p.

1. For more than hour 5. 750,000
2. $100 6. $4,5 million.
3. $50 m 7. 349.
4. 300,000 8. 800,000

Task III. Summarise the text in 8-10 sentences. 10p.