Describing Trends in Business

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 Describing Trends in Business

1. Vocabulary
Intransitive verbs (verbs which do not have an object)
• to go down
• to increase
• to drop
• to fall
• to rise
• to decrease
• to deteriorate
• to grow
• to go up
• to recover
• to decline
• to weaken
• to jump

Transitive verbs (verbs which have an object)

• to weaken
• to increase smth
• to reduce smth
• to recover
• to decrease smth
• to raise smth

Nouns
• a reduction
• an increase
• a fall
• a decrease
• a rise
• a drop
• a decline

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2. Listen and decide which graph is being described.

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3. Complete the following sentences using a noun or a verb from the list below:
Nouns: a reduction - an increase - a fall - a decrease - a rise - a drop - a decline
Verbs: to go down - to increase - to drop - to reduce smth - to fall - to rise - to raise smth - to
decrease - to go up - to recover - to decline

1. As a result of the recession, we have had to __________ the amount of money we

spend on research and development.
2. Last year was a good year for the company and our sales __________ considerably.
3. The price of coffee has __________ as a result of bad weather conditions.
4. Many Asian companies have entered the market and there has been a 20%
__________ in prices.
5. Some governments fear the __________ in Japanese investment in Europe.
6. The __________ in profits is the result of poor management.

4. Trends are not only described by verbs and nouns – in business communication, adjectives and
adverbs are actively used, too. Fill in “Adjective” column of the table below using the following
adjectives:
steady – sudden - slight – dramatic – sharp – gradual - constant

Adjective Adverb
used to show a regular movement:

used to show a small change:

used to show considerable, striking or

unexpected change:

5. Now see if you can form the correct adverbs to fill in the “Adverb” column of the table above.

6. Use an appropriate adjective or adverb to complete the descriptions of the following graphs:

Prices were rising __________ from January to July, then jumped __________ in August, and then
fell __________ again.

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2000 saw a __________ drop in production, followed by a __________ recovery in 2001.

The customer satisfaction rate has been rising __________ between January and May, before
beginning its __________ descent to today's figure of 26%.

7. Now choose any of the other two graphs from page 2 and describe it.

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 Teacher's notes

It is a good idea to introduce the topic by stating the importance of knowing the vocabulary to talk
about trends. The words students will learn in this lesson can be used to talk about trends in the
economy, as well as to describe the evolution of any social indicators and comment on charts.

Before doing exercise number 1, the teacher must make sure that the students know the difference
between transitive and intransitive verbs. It is an important concept not only for this exercise, but
for the whole process of language learning. Students must be aware of it any time they are noting
new vocabulary.

The second exercise is a listening exercise. The teacher is required to read the following passage:

“Things were going pretty fine until 1975. However, that year saw a dramatic drop in exports.
Export levels then decreased to an all-time low in 1980, but, luckily enough, sales began to recover
soon. They have been going up steadily for another 5 years. Then, we've experienced a slight fall,
but our export levels were still rising. In the past few years, however, we've experienced a sudden
drop in sales. But, according to our estimates, exports will still be outnumbering the imports in the
near future.”

The answer is”Chart number 2”.

It would be a good idea to give exercise number 4 as homework. It would give the student an extra
chance to look back at the vocabulary studies in the course of the lesson, look up the dictionary if
necessary and otherwise making sure that they have grasped the material.

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