Business English Test: Can you pass it? (Listening + vocabulary exam)

Hello, lovely students, and welcome back to English with Lucy. In this lesson,

you're going to follow a professional as he goes about his working day, and you're

going to do a quiz at the same time so that you can test your business English

skills. I really like this activity; I think you're going to enjoy it. I have

also created a free PDF to go with this lesson, and it's packed with all of the

information in this video, plus a link to some interactive activities so that you

can put what you've learnt in this lesson into practice. If you'd like to

get all of that, all you have to do is click on the link in the description box,

you enter your name, your email address and choose your English level. Then

you'll sign up to my mailing list, and the PDF will arrive directly in your

inbox. And after that, you've joined my free PDF club, you'll automatically

receive my free weekly PDFs alongside my news, course updates and offers. It's a

free service, and you can unsubscribe at any time. One other very important point:

if your goal is to speak natural, effortless business English, don't forget

that very, very soon I am launching my Professional English Programme Level 2,

and you can sign up to the waiting list. There's another link in the description

that you can click—you can join the waiting list, and you'll be the first to

know when enrolment opens next month. And there will be some other surprises

for people on the waiting list. Let's start with the video! We're going to be

following Andy around at work. You're going to listen to 5 short audio

clips. Each one will have a question or 2 before or after it. Make sure you

share your scores with me in the comments section. There are 10 points

available—I would love to know your scores out of 10. Are you ready? Here's

the first one: Andy is negotiating. Take a look at what he's going to say. How would

you complete the sentences? There are lots of different ways. Pause the video

and think of as many as you can. Okay, let's listen to the 2

sentences. Did anyone get those 2 words? I imagine many of you said 'if' for the

first gap. That's absolutely fine; you can give yourself a point. I'll put some

other options in the PDF, so check there to see if your answer was included. But

Andy said 'supposing', which asks someone to imagine a situation. It can be used

instead of 'if' in the first, second and third conditionals. Andy used the second

conditional: 'supposing' plus past simple, comma, 'would', plus base verb. Conditionals

are essential when negotiating, and in the second gap, we had 'could'. If you

thought the answer was 'can', full points too. However, 'could' makes the sentence

more polite and more formal than 'can'. A great business English programme will

teach you this kind of functional grammar that you can instantly apply

during your working day. If you're looking for one, sign up to the waiting

list because it's going to be fantastic. All right, we're in another meeting now,

and things are not going well. You're going to hear Andy express his

disappointment, and then you're going to hear 2 responses. Choose the better

response.

What do you think? What if I told you that both are okay? When something goes

wrong or you receive negative feedback, it might be appropriate to accept the

criticism like in the first response, but at other times, you might be better off

respectfully defending yourself. If you want to learn both of these skills, make

sure you join the waiting list, the link is in the description box. Okay, let's see

how the meeting might continue. Can you put the words into the correct

gaps? Pause if you need to. Shall we listen to the answer? 

How did you do? This is an excellent formula for talking

about your challenges or failures at work, which many of us often need to do.

The speaker explained the issue, then said that they learnt something, and

finally explained what they did to fix the issue. What do you notice about the

language used? A word like 'miscalculate' is a softer way to talk about a failure

than saying 'we failed to' or 'we didn't know'. Okay, how many points do you

have out of 5 so far? Next, let's imagine we're still in that meeting,

trying to come up with a way to sell more tickets. Look at the sentence,

complete the gaps. The first letter of each word is given. Shall we listen to

the

answer? Did you get those? 'From all angles' is a nice, high-level collocation, and

'point of view' is a phrase I'm sure many of you are familiar with. But what's

really special about this text is that Andy is letting people know he's open to

hearing from someone who disagrees, and this is so important. It's a big part of

creating an inclusive culture at work. Okay, score out of 8—how are you

doing? The meeting is over, but Andy has one more stop to make. Two colleagues

have had a disagreement. Listen and answer the questions

afterwards. Are these statements true or false? Number 1—Andy is not involved in

the conflict, and number 2—Andy is going to explain what happened to both

parties. The first one is true: Andy is playing the role of mediator, helping his

colleagues resolve the conflict. The second one is false: Andy wants to hear

his colleagues explain in their own words what happened. Being able to help

others work out their differences is an important part of the job for many

people. My Professional English Programme Level 2 will give you the language to

do this. So, how did you do? Let me know your score out of 10 in the comments.

Also, make sure you check the PDF first if you're not sure whether you got a

point in question one, as there are more options there. The link to the PDF and

exercise pack are in the description box as well. Now, if you're ready to take your

business English to the next level and confidently navigate any professional

situation, enrol on the Professional English Programme Level 2 waiting list.

This 12-week course is designed to help you communicate clearly and effectively in

the workplace so you can stop worrying about your English and focus on what

really matters—your work and your career. Click on the link below or scan the QR

code to join. I will see you in the next lesson! Bye!