?Read the following article about culture in business negotiation and the questions.
?For each question (15-20), mark one letter (A, B, C or D) on your Answer Sheet.
Negotiation is a common and necessary process in concluding an international transaction. Businesspeople from different cultures may sometimes find themselves in an awkward position owing to the cultural conflict. As a matter of fact, when two parties of different cultures sit at the negotiation table, two cultures are conflicting. Cultural conflict may result in a failure of a deal or loss of opportunity or loss of profits. For example, foreigners with some knowledge about Chinese culture will avoid making an appointment with Chinese businesspeople to negotiate during the traditional Chinese Spring Festival, especially on the New Year's Eve and in the following three days, as Chinese people think that it is not the time to make money during the Festival. On the other hand, they need relaxation after a whole year's hard work.
Cultural elements influence the style, method, pace, and goals of the negotiators. The negotiators must remain alert to not only the culture of the society represented but the personal views and outlook of the negotiator across the negotiation table and even across wire (talking on the phone).
Negotiation between businesspeople is an activity of cross-cultural communication, and closely linked with communication is the accommodation of differences in negotiating styles. Some cultures are more formal than others, others more confrontational; some will be understated, others inclined to exaggeration; some more conscious of status and far less egalitarian than Americans, others so circumspect (to save face and preserve harmony as to leave a typical Western businessman baffled in trying to find out the intent).
Understanding manners and customs is especially important in negotiations because misunderstanding manners or customs of another culture may result in poor outcomes or even disasters.
To negotiate effectively in cross-culture negotiation, all types of communication should be read correctly. For example, Americans often interpret inaction and silence as negative sign. Japanese managers tend to expect that their silence can get Americans to lower prices or sweeten a deal. Even a simple agreement may take days to negotiate in the Middle East because the Arab party may want to talk about unrelated issues or do something else for a while. The aggressive style. of Russian negotiators and their usual last-minute change requests may cause astonishment and concern on the part of ill-prepared negotiators. The following examples may further show how culture conflicts damage international trade transactions.
At the negotiation table, Western business negotiation group leader found the Japanese negotiation leader nodding his head after he made his offer to the Japanese negotiator, so he thought the Japanese business counterpart agreed to their offer, and he took out the contract, hoping to conclude the negotiation by signing the sales contract. But, to his great astonishment, the Japanese counterpart did not show any sign of signing the contract. The Western business negotiation group leader, however, felt offended. He thought the Japanese counterpart was not serious. The negotiation then ended resultless.
The process of decision making is varied. The time taken to make one decision will depend on whether such authority is centralized, assigned to a committee of technical people, routed through a network within the organization, or entirely delegated to the negotiator. For example, again it is concerned with the negotiation between the Japanese businesspeople and an American group. After being offered the price, The Japanese negotiators habitually remained silent f
A. negotiation is very important in international business.
B. differences in culture in negotiation cannot be neglected.
C. businesspeople must negotiate carefully.
D. culture is very important.
Which country do businesspeople come from may take longer time to make decisions to accept
A. The USA
B. Russia
C. Japan
D. The Middle East
What are we told in international business negotiation?
A. We must be alert to the counterparts' attitude towards the negotiation.
B. We should learn the culture of other countries.
C. We must avoid cultural conflict.
D. We have to pay great attention to the cultural differences when negotiating.
?Read the article below about sales.
?Choose the correct word to fill each gap from A, B, C or D.
?For each question (21-30), mark one letter (A, B, C or D) on your Answer Sheet.
Some people believe that you have to be a special kind of person to sell a product. Although it is clear that a successful sales rep does need special talents and an outgoing personality, many of the skills he uses are used by most of us. we build and (21) . relationships with different kinds of people, we listen to and take note of what they tell us and don't just enjoy the sound of our own voices and we explain things to them and share ideas with them.
A company may depend on its own sales team or on the salesmanship of its distributors, wholesalers or retailers. (22) any company needs to establish a personal relationship with its major clients (key accounts) and potential customers (prospects). It is often said that "people do business with people": a company doesn't just deal impersonally (23) another company, but a person in the buying department receives personal visits from people representing the company's suppliers on a regular basis—or in the case of department stores (24) chain stores, a team of buyers may travel around visiting suppliers.
Keeping sales people "on the road" is much more expensive (25) employing them to work in the office and much of their time is spent unproductively traveling. Telephone selling may use the time more productively (though in some countries this is illegal), but a face-to-face meeting and discussion is much more effective. Companies involved in the export trade often have a separate export sales department, (26) travel and accommodation expenses may be very high. Servicing overseas customers may consequently often be done (27) phone, telex or letter. And personal visits may be infrequent. Many companies appoint an overseas agent or distributor whose own sales force takes (28) responsibility for selling their products in another country.
A sales department consists of many people who are based (29) different parts of the country or the world, who don't have the day-to-day contact and opportunities for communicating with each other that office-based staff have. (30) this reason, companies hold regular sales conferences where their entire sales force can meet, receive information and ask questions about new products and receive training.
(21)
A. keep
B. maintain
C. make
D. construct