When negotiating, there are times when you need to be direct, to let others know what you expect of them. And then there are times when you can "hedge" and try to find room enough for compromise and trade-offs. This indirect approach can be achieved in different ways in English. One is to change questions into indirect questions. A question like "Do you have all the money?" may scare off a perfectly good investor who´s short of cash. "I was wondering if you have the money" may leave him or her some room to respond.

Another way is to use appearance words like "it appears", or "it seems" along with adjectives or nouns with reduced emotional content. In this way, negative observations don´t come across like criticisms. In the same way, the passive may make sentences more into neutral comments rather than ways to assign blame for things gone wrong. In the exercises below, choose the best option to correct the statement.


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This language tests is brought to you by Business Spotlight in co-operation with ARS LINGUARUM.


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