BANKING ACADEMY READING – FINAL TEST – Se.

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INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF BUSINESS Time allowed: approx. 50 minutes
Name: _________________________________ DoB: ______________ ID:___________
Date of test: 26/03/2020
Section 1 Questions 1 – 7
Read the information and answer Questions 1 – 7 below.

A CURE FOR THE COMMON COLD?

The average person comes down with three colds a year, each lasting for about nine
days. There is still no cure but the following advice may help. Take time off work, because
your body will fight off the cold virus better if it is well rested. However, if you have to work,
avoid close contact with your co-workers as the virus is contagious. Wash your hands
frequently or use an alcohol-based disinfectant gel. Non-sedating allergy medications, which
you can buy from a chemist, can decrease drowsiness and also alleviate the problems of a runny
nose, watery eyes and blocked sinuses. As soon as you feel a cold coming on, boost your fluid
intake. Water or juice is ideal but hot herbal teas with lemon will help thin mucus and expel it
from the body. A warm gargle with salt water will relieve a scratchy throat by reducing
inflammation and clearing mucus and irritants. It also flushes out bacteria and viruses so it can
be used as a preventative measure as well. The warm moisture generated by a hot shower or
bath will soothe and clear nasal passages. Inhaling steam over a bowl of hot water relieves
congested sinuses, too.

For a tickly cough, the latest research suggests that honey, either straight from the jar
or dissolved in a hot drink, works as well if not better than costly lozenges and sprays. A good
diet is essential for a quick recovery, so start the day with a healthy breakfast including vitamin
C in the form of fresh fruit or berries. For lunch, chicken soup is good, but be sure to add
chunks of lean chicken meat, for protein helps build immune cells. Not only is this the perfect
comfort food but it has been proven to be medicinally beneficial. For dinner, a spicy curry
makes a good decongestant and some ingredients (ginger, garlic, chilli) are recognized as being
anti-viral and anti-bacterial. A little light exercise is beneficial, as this will enhance your
emotional wellbeing, but don’t attempt anything too strenuous. Finally, to recharge your body
and regain your strength, you need a full eight hours’ sleep.

Questions 1–7

Complete the summary below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the text for each
answer. Write your answers in boxes 1 – 7 on your answer sheet.

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 BANKING ACADEMY READING – FINAL TEST – Se.1
INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF BUSINESS Time allowed: approx. 50 minutes
Name: _________________________________ DoB: ______________ ID:___________
Date of test: 26/03/2020
People usually get three colds every year. When sick, it is good to stay away from work

because you need rest and you could spread the illness to (6) …………………. . Reduce (7)

…………………. and cold symptoms by using medicines that you can buy from a pharmacy.

Drink a lot and gargle with salt water to help clear your throat. Gargling with salt water is a

good (8) …………………. to keep you safe from future illness, too. Steam helps clear the nose

and (9) …………………., instead of expensive medicine, is good for a cough. Take lots of

vitamin C. Chicken soup is healthy and it is ideal (10) …………………., as well as having

curative properties. In the evening, a meal of hot curry will clear the airways. This also has

(11) …………………. that can neutralise harmful bacteria and viruses. Some kind of (12)

…………………. is a good idea to improve your mood and sleep will help you to get better.

Questions 13 – 19

Read the text below and answer Questions 13 – 19

REDUNDANCY WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW

Getting laid off can be distressing and demoralizing for the employee. Two features
differentiate redundancy from other grounds for termination. Firstly, the position must be
justifiably superfluous to the employer’s requirements and, secondly, the employee must not
be at fault. Redundancy cannot be used as a means of dispensing with a poorly performing
employee, or one who has been guilty of misconduct in the workplace.

Whether a position is truly redundant is a matter of business judgment for the employer.
Whereas minimal modifications to a job role do not amount to grounds for redundancy, a
worker who has an obsolete skill set because of the introduction of new technology, for
example, can be made redundant. Sometimes the reason for redundancy is obvious to
employees, such as the relocation of the business to another city or province, closing down, or
selling the business; but sometimes it is less obvious, such as a takeover by another firm. A
company can also make redundancies in order to operate more efficiently and cost effectively,

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 BANKING ACADEMY READING – FINAL TEST – Se.1
INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF BUSINESS Time allowed: approx. 50 minutes
Name: _________________________________ DoB: ______________ ID:___________
Date of test: 26/03/2020
if there are financial issues leading to downsizing or if it is no longer using a certain department,
for example. In some situations, a company may decide to lay off part of its workforce because
it can no longer sustain some in-house services and it wants to outsource certain business
functions.

The employer must consult ‘in good faith’ (sincerely and honestly) with the affected
workers before making the ultimate decision. Reasons for the reorganization must be presented
and workers must have an opportunity to have their say. The employer must take into account
any feedback that employees provide. Where possible, the employer should weigh up the
alternatives, such as transfer within the company or a reduction in hours. The final decision,
however, rests with the employer. The notice peri- od for redundancy will usually be stipulated
in the original employment contract. If not, then ‘reasonable notice’ is required and this will
depend on the circumstances, such as seniority and length of service.

In some situations, employees may wish to challenge their redundancy in court, and
this must be done within 90 days of the decision. The employer must show that the redundancy
was genuinely decided on commercial grounds and that there was a frank and honest
consultation with the employee before the final decision was made. The business must give
evidence to show that the grounds for redundancy were objective, reasonable and fair. The
court will then perform its own assessment of whether the restructure was necessary.

Questions 13 – 16

Choose FOUR letters, A–H.

A the company moves to a new place

B the company wants to hire a younger workforce

C the company has recently taken on other people

D the company no longer requires as many employees

E the company wants to get rid of badly behaved employees

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 BANKING ACADEMY READING – FINAL TEST – Se.1
INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF BUSINESS Time allowed: approx. 50 minutes
Name: _________________________________ DoB: ______________ ID:___________
Date of test: 26/03/2020
F the employer contracts another firm to perform the work

G the employer has no need of underperforming employees

H the employer’s need for a particular type of work has ceased

Questions 17 – 19

Complete the sentences below. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the text for each
answer. Write your answers in boxes 22–24 on your answer sheet.

17. The company has to consult with workers before making the final redundancy decision; it
must provide reasons and consider the workers’ ..................... .

18. A period of .................... of redundancy is needed, where this is not stated in the contract.

19. If employees contest their redundancy, employers must provide .................... for the
redundancy decision.

Reading passage 3

You should spend about 20 minutes on questions 20 – 31 which are based on reading passage
3.
A Dying Breed
Karoshi- death by overwork, is a major problem faced by Japanese employers and
employees alike. By some reckonings, up to 10,000 Japanese die from it annually grim
testimony to the fierce dedication among workers which has helped propel Japan to a position
of supremacy in key global industries.
Japan has, in fact, been reducing average working hours for some time. The number
fell marginally to 2,052 hours in 1990 from 2.111 in 1987. The latest figures, however, are stall
a year more than those worked in the West. More importantly, these official tallies exclude
unrecorded overtime, work taken home, and commitments such as entertaining clients on golf
courses at weekends.
Thus, the national target of cutting average annual work hours to 1,800 by 1995 seems
a tall order. It will require Japanese to take more holidays, as well as cut their working week

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 BANKING ACADEMY READING – FINAL TEST – Se.1
INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF BUSINESS Time allowed: approx. 50 minutes
Name: _________________________________ DoB: ______________ ID:___________
Date of test: 26/03/2020
Legislation to cutting standard weekly hours to 40 from 44 is expected to come into force nest
January, along with requirements that overtime pay exceed the current minimum of 125 % of
regular pay.
More to the point, will Japanese workers take their extra time of? Most employees
currently use only seven to nine days out of annual leave allocations of two to four weeks.
Their actual leave is, therefore, roughly half that taken by US workers and about a that taken
by the Germans and the French. Japan also has 13 annual pubic holidays, some companies do
offer extra days off.)
In a recent survey conducted by Tokyo-based think-tank, 40 % of those interviewed
said they were “Uncomfortable taking paid holidays “, while another 41 % would be “at a loss
if given vacations lasting a month”. One common explanation for these sorts of results is that
Japanese love to work. “We were taught as a child that diligence is the finest virtue,” says a
38-year-old journalist.
This traditional attitude is stronger among the post-World Wat I generation which
single-mindedly pursued persuaded development. Many of the people now at the top of Japan’s
big corporations, as well as in senior positions in government. Are from this genera Lion. And
if these senior executives do not take holidays, few junior staff dare to do so in a society which
values group action. As a result, millions of Japanese annually compete for leisure facilities
during the national Colden Week and New Year breaks, when everyone stops work at the same
time. “We feel secure when everybody is doing the same thing” says the journalist.
The view that the employee should devote almost all his or her waking hours to the
work unit is further promoted by the traditional system of near-lifetime employment. Many of
today’s graduates and white-collar workers, however, would prefer to leave the old system
behind in favour of finite labour contracts with their companies.
Japan also needs to change retirement rules that virtually force employees to remain at
work until their 60 birthdays if they are to qualify for the lump-sum payments – typically Y20-
30 million that supplement pensions. One advocate of such a move is Hitotsubashi University
Professor Iwao Nakatani. He acknowledges, thought, that this might require major changes in
Japan’s state pension and social security systems to compensate for reducing company
provisions.

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 BANKING ACADEMY READING – FINAL TEST – Se.1
INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF BUSINESS Time allowed: approx. 50 minutes
Name: _________________________________ DoB: ______________ ID:___________
Date of test: 26/03/2020
Some big companies have begun making changes to work regimes. Sanyo and
Matsushita, for example, plan to reduce the number of working hours to 1,800 by March 1994
while Sharp hopes to achieve the same goal by the late 199) s. Canori has even given its staff
16 consecutive days of vacation this summer. These cases, however, are the exception.
Moreover, a key caveat in the push towards more-relaxed work routines – as with other
in the workload debate – is that changes agreed to by big companies e reach of small and
medium-sized firms. By international standards, these smaller enterprises comprise an
unusually large share of Japan’s economy and represent considerable obstacle to change.
Currently, they are grappling with a chronic labour shortage at a time when the costs
saving capital investment are rising. And times will get tougher as the economy slows and big
companies squeeze their suppliers harder. “We are not talking about working about how to
maintain the same volume of work as last year,” says a spokesman for an Osaka-based small-
business association. Nonetheless, the new economic pressures now being felt by Japan are
likely to produce changes whatever the outcome of the workload debate.
The collapse of the Tokyo stock-market and with it the era of warrant and convert-ible-
bond issues has raised the cost of this once-popular form of financing from around 1 % to
nearer 5 % -6 %. Debt-servicing costs have also risen with higher interest rates. Companies
have been cut off from cheap credit and manufacturing investment has slumped. The result is
likely to slow down productivity gains.
Profits have, meanwhile, declined sharply on the back of reduced domestic and
overseas demand, and of higher depreciation costs associated with earlier capital investment.
The corporate sector is under pressure, too, from institutional investors and the Ministry of
Finance to increase dividend pay-out ratios.

Questions 20 – 22
Some ideas presented in Reading Passage 3 are listed in the box below. Please answer the
following questions by selecting appropriate letter(s) and write the letter(s) in boxes 20 – 22
on the answer sheet.
A. Some employees are now given more days of
B. Japan’s state pension and social security system needs to be changed.
C. Japan is a society in which individuals are expected to conform.

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 BANKING ACADEMY READING – FINAL TEST – Se.1
INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF BUSINESS Time allowed: approx. 50 minutes
Name: _________________________________ DoB: ______________ ID:___________
Date of test: 26/03/2020
D. The five-year economic boom ended as the Tokyo stock-market collapsed.
E. Japan’s post-war work ethic is under threat.
F. Traditional system of near-lifetime employment is still in prevalence
G. Economic development was the single most important concern in the post-World War II
period H. Domestic and overseas demand for Japanese products is shrinking, causing profit
declines.

20. Which THREE in the above list contribute to the workaholism in Japan?
21. Which ONE in the above list indicates that situation in Japan is changing?
22. Which ONE in the above list is the best summary of the main idea of Reading Passage 3?
Questions 23 – 31
Complete the following summary of Reading Passage 3. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE
WORDS from the passage for each answer. Write your answers in boxes 23 – 31 on your
answer sheet.
Japanese enterprises have dedicated employees whose workaholic tradition has helped 18
__________ Japan’s economy and made the country into an 23 __________ superpower. It is
believed that there are cultural, historical and economic reasons behind the tradition. For
example, the 24 __________ payments for employees who retire at the age of 60 is a
comfortable addition to the state 25 __________.
Recently, there has been pressure both from domestic and overseas-for that are reducing the
number of work hours. As a result, 26 __________ are reducing the number of work hours. A
lot of small and 27 __________ companies, however, may not afford to do so, as they are
finding it difficult to 28 __________ their business. What has happened to Japanese economy
recently, for example, the collapse of the 29__________ the shrinking of domestic and
overseas 30 __________ are likely to influence the change in employees’ 31 __________. It
will be interesting to see how things develop.
_______ The End ________

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 BANKING ACADEMY READING – FINAL TEST – Se.1
INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF BUSINESS Time allowed: approx. 50 minutes
Name: _________________________________ DoB: ______________ ID:___________
Date of test: 26/03/2020