Generalitat de Catalunya

Departament d’Educació
Institut Obert de Catalunya
Nom i cognoms

AGB0 CFGS Administració i finances

Mòdul 6 – Anglès
UF1 – Anglès tècnic
EAC2
(Curs 2021–22 / 1r semestre)

Enunciat

1. Reading comprehension. Read text below and answer the comprehension questions with
complete answers.
[Total points: 5; 1’25 for each correct answer]
Reference:
• You can find ideas and suggestions for answering comprehension questions in document
3.2 'L'expressió escrita', in the 'Material complementari', section 'Other resources', in the
classroom.
Your company, ‘Globalization & Communication’, has decided to open new branch offices in Asia.
As you are good at English, your boss has asked you to travel to New Delhi to make a presentation
to a group of new employees. They are taking part in formative activities organized by the
company, to know the aims and how the company works. Despite your level of English is good,
you are nervous and you find an article on the internet that can be useful:

7 Tips for Giving a Killer Speech by Mike Michalowicz

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Does public speaking make you sweaty-palmed and anxious? These 7 techniques can calm your nerves and help you
deliver a more powerful speech.

William Shakespeare once told us, “Brevity is the soul of wit.” My humble contribution to the power of
getting to the point is that “brevity is essential in public speaking.” But a speech’s length is only one
factor you need to consider when you’re preparing to give a speech at an event. Here are some other
techniques you can use to make your speech memorable.

1. Deliver a performance, rather than a speech.

A speech is primarily about the words that you speak, but a performance is so much more. It’s
inflection, gesture, tension, resolution and suspense. Don’t believe me? Go see a one-man (or
woman) play, and you’ll instantly understand what I mean. Performers work hard at capturing and
keeping an audience’s attention, and words are only one tool in their arsenals. Don’t stop crafting
your performance once you’ve written the text of your speech.

2. Use the power of eye contact.

Your audience is made up of individuals, and you should make an effort to make eye contact with
each of them. Eye contact makes a person feel personally engaged in a speech, and engaged
listeners are much more likely to be persuaded.

3. Don’t hide behind the lectern.

The lectern is a crutch—a structure built to conceal knocking knees and shaking hands. It’s a barrier
between you and your audience, and you must step out from behind it. Not only will your movement

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keep folks from falling asleep, but they’ll perceive you as more open and accessible if you’re out in
the open rather than hiding behind a big wooden barrier.

4. Posture matters.

Don’t ever, ever slouch. It looks weak, and your message will inevitably be diluted by what your
audience perceives as a lack of confidence. Stand up straight, and keep your shoulders back. Also,
never let ‘em see you sweat. Even if there are lights on that make the stage feel like an oven, pit
stains on your shirt are distracting. Make sure you wear clothing that will conceal any signs of
nervousness. Project confidence. Always.

5. Tell compelling stories.

The power of storytelling lies in the images that your audience will create in their heads as you spin
your yarn. Rather than just loading folks up with information, if you tell a story, you’re making them
active participants in your performance. Stories—brief, relevant stories—are a powerful tool.

6. Vary your cadence.

Deliberately mixing it up in terms of your speech patterns—volume, speed and tone—keeps your
audience from being lulled to sleep by a monotone. With regard to speed, slower is always better
than fast. When in doubt, slow down and let the tortoise mind catch up to the rabbit speaker.

7. Speak about what you know and care about.

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Passion translates into energy and authenticity, and that matters to your audience. If you’re not
invested and engaged with your subject, why on earth would your audience care? Emotion pulls the
audience in and gets them involved in the process. If you find you’re not moved by your topic, modify
it until it matters to you. If you’re going to invest the energy in writing and delivering a speech, it
should be on a subject that’s important to you.

You’ll notice that I didn’t give you any advice about content—that’s because you should be the expert
on the subject. After all, you were invited to speak because you’re the go-to person in your field. But
while you don’t need my help putting together your main points, using the techniques I’ve shared with
you will help you deliver your message in a compelling and memorable way.

Michalowicz, M. (8th September 2014). ‘Don’t do Business without it’.

https://www.americanexpress.com

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Comprehension questions:

1. What does the article suggest to overcome anxiety when public speaking? Do you think these
tips can help you to give a better speech?

2. According to the article, are performances and speeches the same? What must you do after
writing your speech text?

3. Why does the author recommend you not to stay still while you are giving a speech?

4. The autor states ‘If you’re going to invest the energy in writing and delivering a speech, it should
be on a subject that’s important to you’. Do you agree? How can you modify your speech until it
matters to you?

Your answers:
1. In the text, the author gives us several tips to overcome anxiety when public speaking, for
example, knowing how to use our body to communicate in a better and more entertaining way. On
the other hand, he also advises us to choose topics that we are passionate about in order to
convey our words in a more entertaining way since we reflect our true passion on the subject.
2. According to the article performances and speeches are not the same, the first one involves
many more things beyond words, such as expressions, gestures and suspense, among many
more tools that keep the public excited about what you do. And the second one is just one of the
performance instruments. After writing your speech text, you should start to think about gestures,
tonality, posture and all the other things that will convert your boring talk into an amazing show.

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3. The author recommend us not to stay still while you are giving a speech because it makes you
be closer to the public as it makes you look more human and less static and robotic
4. I do not agree with the author's statement, sometimes you have to do speeches of things that
you don’t like due to your studies or work demands it and there’s nothing you can’t do. I think that
one way of modifying a speech in order to make it more interesting could be to focus in a way that
you can explain through something you like. For example, I remember having to do a presentation
about empathy, which I am not passionate about, but I managed to direct all the talk through my
favorite cartoons.

--------------- For teacher's use only; please do not write in the box -------------------

Mark /5:

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2. Your company, ‘Globalization & Communication’, has decided to open new branch offices in
Asia. As you are good at English, your boss has asked you to travel to New Delhi to make a
presentation to a group of new employees. They are taking part in formative activities organized
by the company, to know the aims and how the company works. Despite your level of English is
good, you are nervous and you find an article on the internet that can be useful:

Once the Mobile World Congress is over, your manager asks you to write a 200-hundred- word
essay on the advantatges and disadvantatges of being part of an international congress. Your
manager would like to know your point of view to value if it is useful to participate in the congress
next year.

[5 points]

Writing tips:
1. The first stage in writing is producing ideas. It’s important to dedicate two or three minutes to
carefully planning what you are going to say.
2. Once you have your first draft pay attention to how you have organised the information into
paragraphs and grouped ideas.
3. Once this is done you can focus on expression. This means looking at sentence structure, tense
usage and vocabulary. It’s important to write clearly and economically. This can mean either
rephrasing ideas in two sentences instead of one, or rewriting two longer sentences as one shorter
sentence. So, go over your first draft, looking for ways of improving sentence structure, tense
usage and vocabulary.
4. Organise your essay into clear ideas.
5. Remember to use a variety of structures and vocabulary. Revise the grammar, vocabulary
and spelling.
6. Follow the article tips.
Reference:

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• For further information about writing, see document 3.2 L'expressió escrita in the 'Material
complementari', section 'Other resources' in the classroom.
• Don’t forget to check out the following reference: ‘Punctuation’ and ‘Spelling’ in section
2.2.1 Communication: business correspondence, in your written material, to learn about the
punctuation and spelling rules.
• You can get further information about the punctuation rules in the the 'List of interesting
links' > section 1. PDF documents > document 6. 'La puntuació en anglès', in 'Other
resources' in your classroom.
• You can get further information about the punctuation rules in the the 'List of interesting
links' > section 1. PDF documents > document 6. 'La puntuació en anglès', in 'Other
resources' in your classroom.

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Write a 200-hundred-word speech in the box:

...

--------------- For teacher's use only; please do not write in the box -------------------

Mark/5: Being part of an international congress can be great, but it is important to realize
that it can be a two-sided coin.

There are a lot of benefits of participating in this kind of marketing, but nothing is
perfect. Before you make the decision to collaborate in these renowned events, you
must carefully weigh the pros and cons.

The main advantage is that you will have a truly great opportunity to sell your brand
to purchasers around the world. In addition, the sale with customers will be closer,
and they will be able to experience first-hand the high quality of the products on
display.

Also, by having direct contact with the customer, the sale is much more dynamic,
entertaining and close, which, without a doubt, will increase interest in sales much
more than with regular publicity.

One disadvantage is the high cost of this project. Being a congress of great
magnitude, the space, the stand, the advertising strategies, the workers, and the
maintenance of all the aforementioned, leaves us with an investment of
disproportionate dimensions.

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Last of all, the most remarkable con: the global problem of COVID-19, due to this
there has been a great reduction of people in the congress and consequently a
great decrease in sales and benefits.

Although the mobile world congress is one of the best ways to advertise a business,
I faithfully believe that there are other alternatives that may be the same or better,
such as advertising through networks and influencers that helps us capture the
attention of the clients of the present and the future: young people.

----------------------------------------- For teacher's use only: please do not write below this line --------------------------------

Your mark for

EAC2 Writing/10:

Teachers' comments:

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