Intro
1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.
2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.
Competition. It’s what drives people to work smarter, harder and faster. It separates the winners from the losers, the haves from the have-nots, the ambitious from the lazy. Unfortunately, however, it also causes people to cut corners, to find ways to cheat in order to be more successful.
Since the downturn of the global economy a few years ago, many companies and individuals around the world have been caught in all sorts of scandals ranging from embezzlement to plain lying.
Listen to Dave and Emily talk about corporate scandals.
Dialog
1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.
2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.
Dave: So, yesterday, the chairman or founder of Hyundai was subpoenaed in South Korea, um, for embezzling money.
Emily: Really? I hadn’t heard about this.
Dave: Maybe it’s just the nature of the beast, in terms of corporate…Well, it’s not even corporate America anymore. It’s happening all over the world.
Emily: Corporate international business.
Dave: Right. We had in the U.S., the big one was Enron a few years ago, and the two – the CEO and the CFO – have now been convicted.
Emily: I did hear that a couple days ago.
Dave: And who else? Who else has been involved in these corporate scandals?
Emily: I have to go with Martha Stewart.
Dave: How long did she spend in jail?
Emily: I can’t remember. I want to say like nine months or something.
Dave: Was that it? Nine months? Less than a year.
Quizzes
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Discussion
The big corporate bombshells in the U.S. happened a few years ago. Companies like Enron and Worldcom cooked the books and cost employees and investors billions of dollars. However, such crimes are not limited to U.S. companies. In fact, they are not even limited to companies, as more and more scandals involving universities and other public organizations are coming to light.
In South Korea, the chairman of Hyundai is currently being investigated for embezzlement.
In China, a professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University faked research on computer chips in order to make his department look better.
Last year, a famous researcher at Seoul National University faked research on stem cells. He was also charged with embezzling nearly $3 million dollars from research funds. He was convicted two weeks ago.
These are only a few of the many scandals that have caught public attention over the past few years. Do you think these kind of scandals are the result of intense competition, or just the work of a few bad apples? When it comes to competition, which is the better attitude: Do anything and everything to win!, or Play fair!
Comments
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