节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-03-08
难易度:High
关键字:crucial, undercapitalization, buy out, premium, service
Well, Uncle Bob is giving Ben some very crucial advice about how to finance his
business.
Of course, something that you want to be careful about if you are starting a
business is undercapitalization,
that long word we saw there in the first part.
You want to make sure that you are making a profit not losing money.
Well, Ben is learning some very important things.
Uncle Bob has good advice for him.
Let's continue with the second part of our reading for today.
Financing Your Business.
I know.
We're looking into small business loans, but the interest rates seem really
high.
How did you pay for your hardware stores when you first started?
To be honest, I actually didn't start our first store.
Instead, your Aunt June and I used our savings to buy into an existing business.
Later, we bought out our business partner and then expanded the business.
So you didn't arrange outside financing?
Not at first.
Like you said, lenders often charge a premium for small business loans because
they are so risky.
We were worried that the cost of servicing a loan would actually hurt the
business.
I hadn't thought of that.
Well, I think it's a good thing that Ben can talk to his Uncle Bob about advice
for business.
And in this section, Ben has the first line.
Oh, yes, so.
I know.
We're looking into small business loans, but the interest rates seem really
high.
OK, got to stop you there, Ben, because you know what,
we need to go talk to Liz in the Grammar Gym right now and see what she has to
tell us about this sentence.
Hello, friends.
Welcome to the Grammar Gym.
My name is Liz.
We find this statement in today's lesson:
"We're looking into small business loans..." And that's our Grammar Tip
sentence.
Our focus is on the phrase: to look into.
It's an idiom that means to investigate.
So in today's article, Ben is telling Uncle Bob that he and Sandy are learning
more about small business loans.
So, if you want to talk about finding out more and getting more information
about something, you can try using this idiom.
For example:
The mayor promised the widow that he would personally look into the case of her
missing child.
Or: The boss is busy and has asked his secretary to look into this matter.
If you want to see some more example sentences, they're available in today's
Grammar Tip section in your Studio Classroom magazine.
And that's it for today.
This is Liz from the Grammar Gym.
I'll see you next time.
Well, thank you for looking into that grammar for us, Liz.
It's very helpful.
What are some other ways that we could use this phrase "looking into," Carolyn?
Well, you might be looking into buying a house or a new car.
You need to do some research and decide what kind of car you really want to buy,
and then where the best place to find that car would be.
So you need to look into a lot of different things when buying a new car.
How else can you use that, Gabe?
Uh, well, maybe you're considering studying something further.
You graduated university.
And now you're looking into different master's programs so that you can continue
studying what you like to study.
You can look into these different universities or look into these different
programs.
How would you use that phrase, Nathanael?
Well, you can look into a purchase, like Carolyn said, or you could look into a
possibility.
You might look into a certain topic for a research paper, too.
I'm going to look into George Washington because I need to write a profile
article about him.
A lot of different ways you can use that phrase.
OK, Ben, it still your turn to talk.
OK, continuing.
How did you pay for your hardware stores when you first started?
To be honest, I didn't actually start the first store.
Instead, your Aunt June and I used our savings to buy into an existing business.
OK. Thank you, Uncle Bob.
I have to stop you there for just a second because we need to talk about a
phrase so that we can understand what you just said.
Uh, Carolyn, can you help explain what he's talking about?
What exactly did he do?
Well, he says that he bought into an existing business.
And "to buy into" is a phrase that we want to talk about today.
If you buy into something, then you spend money so that you have partial
ownership.
You own part of the business.
So originally it was someone else's business, but he bought into it, and now he
partially owns it.
So he can be one of the bosses of this company.
Gabe, how else can you use this phrase?
That's right.
Well, and the way you used it is kind of like you own a share.
Maybe you bought some stocks in a company so you own part of it.
But yeah, like you said, there's other ways to use this phrase.
You can buy into someone's idea.
That means you agree with them.
You think it's a good idea.
You think that it's solid that it could actually work, so you buy into it.
Yeah... I'll... I'll buy into that.
Nathanael, how else could you use that phrase?
And sometimes we do say "I'll buy that." I believe it, or I accept it.
You might also buy into a business strategy, a new way of doing business.
OK. I think there's a little bit more that Uncle Bob has to say.
Of course.
Later, we bought out our business partner and then expanded the business.
Very good, OK.
There's another phrase here that we need to talk about.
It's kind of similar to "buy into." This one, instead, is "to buy out." Or here,
bought out.
Let's look at this phrase: bought out.
Uncle Bob says: We bought out our business partner.
What does it mean to buy out a business partner, Gabe?
Well, this comes from the noun a "buyout," which means that you own the greatest
share in a company.
That means basically you are the... the biggest or the best owner of that
company.
You bought out the company.
How else could you use that phrase, Carolyn?
Well, some companies try to buy out the competition.
So they try to purchase the competition's companies so that there are fewer
competitors.
Maybe a cell phone company purchases another cell phone company.
They have bought them out.
OK. And also within one company, of course, there might be many different people
with shares the own part of the company.
So if you own the large majority, you could say that you're "buying out" if you
buy a lot more and have the large majority.
Or you could also use that phrase if you finally end up owning the entire
company.
You could use it in either situation.
OK, let's continue.
Oh, yes. That's... that's me. So.
So you didn't arrange outside financing?
Not at first.
Like you said, lenders often charge a premium for small business loans because
they are so risky.
OK. We want to talk about another word in the sentence.
I'm sorry.
Please don't hurt me.
Uncle Bob, you're a little scary today.
But you said the word "premium." And we do want to talk about that because it's
a key word for today.
It's in our Word Bank, the word "premium." Premium is an amount of money that
you pay.
But can you explain this a little bit more, Carolyn?
Well, when you're trying to get a loan, you often have to pay interest,
additional money on that loan.
But a premium is more money in addition to the interest.
So this is a base fee that you have to pay in order to get the loan first.
And then you also have to pay interest afterward.
So, oh, it can be very expensive.
Gabe, how else might you use this word?
Well, as you could see as Carolyn was telling us earlier, this is actually
referring to what Ben said earlier.
He says we're looking into small business loans, but the interest rates seem
really high.
And so if you're going to buy into a company or if you're trying to raise
finances, then you might be worried about the interest.
And of course, one thing you need to think about is the premium, what you might
have to pay there.
Well, hey, is it my turn to continue?
This is uh, Uncle Bob?
It is.
Yeah. It is Uncle Bob.
Here we go.
We were worried that the cost of servicing a loan would actually hurt the
business.
Oh, I hadn't thought of that.
Yeah, you hadn't thought of that.
I didn't think so, Ben.
Well, right now it's time for us to continue learning something with Michelle in
the Language Lab.
She's always got some good for us there.
OK.
(Chinese).
OK. Get ready to learn more from our teachers.
There's a lot to learn in today's conversation.
Gabe, what was one thing that you learned today?
I learned about... I... I learned about undercapitalization.
Actually, that's a big word.
And I learned that you need to make sure your company is making a profit, not
losing money.
So don't undercapitalize.
Carolyn, what did you learn?
Well, we mentioned the word "servicing," servicing a loan.
And that just means that you make payments on the amount that you borrow as well
as interest.
And we have a lot more to learn about what it takes to finance a business.
And I hope that you'll join us here on Studio Classroom.
See you then.
Bye-bye.