Responsible business

What's in the lesson

1. 1Warm-up
2. 2In this lesson
3. 3Guess the words (1)Vocabulary exercise
4. 4Guess the words (2)Vocabulary exercise
5. 5Check the wordsVocabulary
6. 6Useful phrases for a debateVocabulary
7. 7Check your understandingReading comprehension
8. 8Listen: Olivia's supply chainListening comprehension
9. 9Use the new wordsVocabulary exercise
10. 10What does it mean?Grammar exercise
11. 11Notice: a news briefGrammar exercise
12. 12Reporting and hedgingGrammar rule
13. 13Choose the right formGrammar exercise
14. 14Write it carefullyGrammar exercise
15. 15Fix the reportGrammar exercise
16. 16Say it naturallySpeaking practice
17. 17Debate: who is accountable?Speaking practice
18. 18Let's discussDiscussion
19. 19Wrap-up

Homework

1. 1Homework: closest meaningVocabulary exercise
2. 2Homework: your sentencesVocabulary exercise
3. 3Homework: careful sentencesGrammar exercise
4. 4Homework: a careful summaryDiscussion

Words

• accountable/əˈkaʊntəbl/

  responsible for your decisions and actions, and expected to explain them (hold someone accountable)

• stakeholder/ˈsteɪkhoʊldər/

  a person or group affected by a company's decisions, such as workers, customers, investors or neighbors

• supply chain/səˈplaɪ tʃeɪn/

  all the companies and steps involved in making a product and getting it to the customer

• transparency/trænsˈpærənsi/

  being open and honest about what you do, so that others can check it

• greenwashing/ˈɡriːnwɑːʃɪŋ/

  making a company or a product look better for the environment than it really is

• toxic/ˈtɑːksɪk/

  poisonous; harmful to people, animals or the environment

• contaminate/kənˈtæmɪneɪt/

  to make water, soil, food, etc. dirty or harmful by adding something dangerous

• negligence/ˈneɡlɪdʒəns/

  failing to take proper care, so that someone is harmed

• liability/ˌlaɪəˈbɪləti/

  legal responsibility for something, especially for paying for harm or damage

• settlement/ˈsetlmənt/

  an official agreement that ends an argument or a court case, often with a payment

Two slides from the lesson

Warm-up

Let's talk about companies and the world around them.

1. Does your company, or a company you know well, do anything for the environment or the local community?
2. Would you work for a company if you thought its products were harmful? Why, or why not?
3. When you buy something, do you think about who made it and how?

Grammar rule

Reporting and hedging

Reporting what people say, think or estimate

Pattern	Use	Example
It is said / thought / believed / reported / estimated + that…	any claim	It is estimated that a third of the budget is spent on rent.
subject + is said / thought / believed / reported + to + verb	a claim about now	Our main competitor is said to be in trouble.
subject + is thought / said… + to be + -ing	something in progress now	Several suppliers are thought to be raising their prices.
subject + is reported / believed… + to have + past participle	something earlier	Two of the directors are believed to have sold their shares before the news broke.

For a claim made in the past, use was: It was believed that… · The plant was said to be safe. After expect, to + verb is about the future: The report is expected to name the suppliers.

Hedging: making a claim careful

Form	Meaning	Example
appear to / seem to + verb	this is how it looks	Customer complaints seem to be falling. · The data appears to show a link.
tend to + verb	this usually happens	Online orders tend to peak in December.
may / might / could + verb	possible now or later	The new rules might raise prices.
may / might / could + have + past participle	possible in the past	They could have missed the email.

These forms report a claim without saying that it is true: "The company is said to have known" means that people say so, not that it is proven. Not The company is said that it knew and not It is said the company to know. With this meaning, appear and seem are not used in the continuous (not is appearing to).