Bus Part C1 ReadingBank U1

Reading Bank

Unit 1
1 Read the article about women in business quickly and find the following information.
1 the director of the Cambridge Centre for Neuropsychiatric Research
2 a course designed to encourage female scientists to start their own businesses
3 a British government agency that has looked into the role of women in science
4 the chief executive of the UK’s Chartered Management Institute
5 a mechanical engineer who attended EnterpriseWISE last year
6 a business that is developing technology that should help increase the lifespan of oil pipes

2 Read the article again. Complete the gaps (1–6) with the phrases (A–F).
A because of her gender
B why she left to start her own business
C they all want to start a business
D a consulting company specialising in the same field
E women make up 21 percent of the corresponding workforce
F men are still twice as likely as women to be entrepreneurs

3 Find the phrasal verbs (1–5) in the text and match them with the definitions (a–e).
1 to lose out (on sth) a to belong / try and be a part of something
2 to drop out (of sth) b to not get something good, when someone else does get it
3 to fit into (sth) c to depend on, expect someone else to do something for you
4 to rely on (sth) d to make something possible
5 to allow for (sth) e to no longer take part in something, give up
4 Look at the words in the box and answer the questions. There are two extra words.
chief executive stakeholder counterpart participant co-founder peer graduate entrepreneur director
1 Which two words mean ‘a person of the same type’?

2 Which three words mean ‘a person who has invested time and/or money in an enterprise?
3 Which two words mean ‘a role in a company’?
5 Choose the correct option to complete the sentences.

1 She on her assistant to keep her diary up-to-date.
a built b relied c fitted d pursued
2 Once you have invested money in the company, you will become a .
a stakeholder b co-founder c participant d graduate
3 The company out on a major deal because they didn’t get their proposal in on time.
a dropped b lost c ran d found
4 I would describe Arthur as a/an because he’s prepared to take risks and has already started his own business.
a peers b directors c chief executives d entrepreneurs
5 The number of students who out of university is higher than expected.
a drop b run c fall d conduct
6 Lidia is my in the Milan office. Our jobs are almost identical.
a executive b director c counterpart d participant
1 Business Partner C1 © Pearson Education 2020

Reading bank
Science start-ups struggle to bridge the gender gap

Britain’s economy loses out on £2bn a year through a dearth of female entrepreneurs
Sabine Bahn insists she is a scientist, not an executive. The programme at Judge highlights the achievements of
‘You don‘t have to be on the frontline. I was never female science entrepreneurs and helps participants, who
CEO of any of my companies,’ says the co-founder of are used to being a minority within their field, to build a
a company that developed the first blood tests to aid the network of other female scientists.
5 early diagnosis of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. ‘Do 50 Chiraz Ennaceur attended EnterpriseWISE last year, when
what you’re good at,’ she says. she was a programme manager at the Welding Institute, a
Professor Bahn, who is director of the Cambridge research and technology organisation for people working
Centre for Neuropsychiatric Research, is sitting in front in welding and joining. Two months later she left her job
of an audience of thirty peers from all over the world. and started her first business – 4 .
10 In the room are people working in fluid mechanics, 55 The first company quickly led to a second and, in April,
bioengineering and neuroscience. They are a diverse the forty-one-year-old co-founded CorrosionRADAR, a
bunch, but share three things: they are all scientists, they business that is developing a sensor technology to reduce
are all women and 1 . oil pipe corrosion.
The course they are attending, EnterpriseWISE, is run by ‘We are conducting field trials in the next twelve months,’
15 Cambridge Judge Business School and is in its fifth year. 60 Ms Ennaceur says, adding that her team aims to start
The point is to encourage more female scientists working selling services within eighteen months. The company
in science, technology, engineering and mathematics is targeting oil and gas owners and has started talking
(STEM) to start companies, says Shima Barakat, who to stakeholders such as Shell, BP and the Scottish
designed the programme. government.
20 Ms Barakat says that about 30 percent of Cambridge’s 65 ‘Being a mechanical engineer in the oil and gas industry,
graduates in STEM subjects are women. ‘But out of I have been in male-dominated settings for most of my
graduates in these fields who go on to start a business, life, and the higher up I [went] the fewer women I met,’
only 7 to 9 percent are female,’ she says. Ms Ennaceur says. She trained first in Tunisia, where she
The gap between female and male business owners was born, and went on to study for a PhD in mechanical
25 in the UK has narrowed in the past few years, but 70 engineering in France.
2
. The current proportion of self-employed Ms Ennaceur says she has never been aware of
women in STEM is just 14 percent, according to data discrimination 5 . But spending time in
from the Office for National Statistics. a female-only setting made her view her day-to-day
It is not only the unrealised ambition of potential experience in a different light.
30 entrepreneurs that is at stake. Innovate UK, a government 75 ‘The emotional experience of EnterpriseWISE was
agency, estimates that the lack of women in sciences and shocking,’ she says. ‘Being with other people in my
science entrepreneurship is causing an annual loss of field who were all women made me realise how, without
£2bn to the British economy. noticing, I had been adapting to fit into a man‘s world.’
But enterprise training directed specifically at women 80 The language and culture she was used to in business
35 working in STEM is still rare. consisted of pre-meeting sports talk, after-work drinks
That could be a missed opportunity as female scientists and the seeming absence of childcare responsibilities.
find it more difficult to access both promotion in ‘Most of the men I worked with had children, of course,
workplaces and funding opportunities as entrepreneurs but it was clear that they relied on their wives,’ Ms
than their male counterparts, says Ann Francke, chief 85 Ennaceur says.
40 executive of the UK’s Chartered Management Institute. In the end, the lack of women in her field was one of the
Ms Barakat says that these kinds of challenges lead reasons 6 . She is still managing a team of
many of the relatively few women who pursue STEM men, but says the workplace dynamic is more ‘down to
research or entrepreneurship to drop out. In the UK, the earth’ now that she is chief executive, and allows for more
proportion of female STEM graduates is 25 percent, but 90 multitasking. ‘EnterpriseWISE helped me realise you can
45 3
. do things your way and be successful,’ she says.
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Reading Bank

1 Which two words mean ‘a person of the same type’?

5 Choose the correct option to complete the sentences.

1 Business Partner C1 © Pearson Education 2020

Science start-ups struggle to bridge the gender gap

Business Partner C1 © Pearson Education 2020 2

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