POST-LISTENING. Consider the following points

Consider the following points. Share your ideas with a partner or a small group. Be prepared to explain your answers to the class.

a) How could Ambrose Harper’s importance in the company be defined?

b) What are the advantages of J.Martin’s membership in the Board?

c) What do the Rules of Association drawn up by Harper and H.G.’s father state?

d) What are the reasons for Wentworth to be invited to join the board?

e) Prove that John Martin would be a useful counter to Wentworth.

2. Recount the situation as if you were Hector Grant.

3. Suppose you are Alfred Wentworth, are you satisfied with the situation in Harper & Grant Ltd. and the number of its shares you own? What do you plan for the future?

4. Give a lecture on the structure of the share capital in Harper & Grant Ltd. before and after Ambrose Harper’s death. (See Illustration 1 below)

5. Answer the following questions as if you were William Buckhurst:

a) Why should the accounts be done every month in your opinion?

b) What are the disadvantages of doing accounts every quarter?

c) What is the essence of breaking down the activity of the company into cost centres?

6. Act out:

a) a conversation between Peter Wiles and John Martin. Discuss the pro and contra of the introduction of monthly accounting by cost centres;

b) a talk between Hector Grant and William Buckhurst before the Board meeting about the changes in the board that are to be made.

Illustration 1

Phrase list

Listen to the tape and practise the pronunciation of the following words and word combinations, quote the sentences in which they are used in the unit. Consult a dictionary and translate them into Russian.

to approve the accounts

to ensure that somebody is reporting correctly

to be in private practice

to be exempt from having to publish the accounts

Profit Statement (a Trading and Profit and Loss Account)

Balance Sheet

Director’s Report

to deduct overhead charges

depreciation on plant and buildings

the capital employed

issued share capital

retained earnings

fixed assets

trade investments

compilation of net current assets

less liabilities

The totals must agree.

current liability

stock valuation

to go into things

to be listed as goods paid for

to find no/the record of payment

to buy something on a sale or return basis

to make out cheques to somebody

to total up the value of the cheques

to pay in the staff member’s cheques

to draw out an equivalent sum of cash with the cheque

a withdrawal on the bank statement

a paying-in voucher for the date

to be a fiddle

to query the figure

to draw somebody’s pay in advance