Exercise 2 Put questions to the letters.

 

Visteria Ltd.

Р.О.Вох 82

Кiev 253206

Ukraine

28^th March, 2004

 

Ref: Order No.142 of 21^st March, 2004

 

Dear Mr. Smurov,

 

Thank уоu for your letter of 21^st March, 2004. We are pleased to acknowledge your order for 400 men's silk shirts and enclose the сору of it, duly signed, as requested.

 

Delivery will bе made immediately оп opening а letter of cred­it with our bank for the amount of $4212.

 

We hоре our shirts will bе in great demand in Ukraine and уоu will bе able to place large orders with us in the future.

Yours sincerely,

Alfred Smithers

Sales Manager

 

If the buyer needed the goods very urgently indeed he might send a telegram or a telex if he could not get through by telephone. The English used in telegrams is naturally short, as every word costs money. Words such as the, a, an, etc. are usually left out, unless the meaning would not be clear without them. Most firms have a telegraphic address which can be used for telegrams, and a telex number, both of which are printed on the firm’s letter-head, their headed paper for letters.

 

TO: WINBANC LONDON

PLEASE CANCEL CROSSED CHEQUE B 394068

DRAWER HARPER & GRANT PAYEE MAPLE

ADDRESSING MACHINE COMPANY AMOUNT £ 250

CONFIRMATION FOLLOWS

FROM: HARPO LONDON

 

Here is a letter of confirmation mentioned in the telegram:

Great West Road Directors:

London W.25 Ambrose Harper (Chairman)

Telephone [phone] Hector Grant (Managining)

Telex 80153 William Buckhurst FSA (Secretary)

Telegrams Harp LDN Margaret Wiles

Harper and Grant Limited

 

The Manager,

Windermere Bank,

68 Cambridge Street,

London, W. 27

2^nd January, 2002

 

Dear Sir,

This is to confirm our telegram to you earlier today. Will you please stop payment of crossed No B 394068. The payee was The Maple Addressing Machine Co. Ltd., and the amount £ 250.

Please acknowledge that this cheque will not now be honoured so that we may issue a duplicate cheque in payment of our account.

With thanks.

 

Yours faithfully,

Chief account

HARPER & GRANT LTD

Exercise 3 Choose the most appropriate explanation:

cheque (a sudden stop; a written order to a bank to pay money; any restraint of action)

payee (a check in payment of wages; a list of employees to be paid; the person to whom a cheque, note, money, etc)

to honour a cheque (to add up the prices and collect the total; to consider it valid; to mark off in squares).

 

Exercise 4 Say whether these statements false or true:

1 Harper & Grant Ltd. asked Wendemere Bank to acknowledge that the cheque would not be honoured.

2 Harper & Grant Ltd. stopped payment of their account.

3 The payee was Harper & Grant Ltd., and the amount of money was £ 250.

 

Exercise 5 Arrange the sentences of the reply to the offer.

1 You ask for immediate delivery. We are very sorry to inform you that these CD-ROMs are not available at the moment.

2 However, we are in the process of publishing a new series in the end of September. Please find attached our current catalogue and price list.

3 Yours sincerely,

4 Your order N12345 for 50 CD-ROMs Business Letters

5 Thank you for your order from August 20, 2000 for the software Business Letters.

 

Exercise 6 Fill in the blanks:

1 We may issue a... cheque in payment of our...

2 Please stop payment of... cheque.

3 The... was the Maple Addressing Machine Co. Ltd., and the... was £ 250.

4 Will you stop... of crossed cheque No B 394068.

 

Exercise 7 Arrange the given words into order:

1 that, your attention, to the fact, awaiting, we are still, above vehicle, collection, we write, to draw.

2 as, is very limited, space, workshops, arrange for collection, we must ask you, as soon as possible.

 

 

U N I T 7

TELEX LANGUAGE

Telex language does not have fixed rules. Each writer has his or her own style. However there are some common features of telexes.

1 We generally miss out articles (the, a), pronouns, prepositions, and auxiliaries.

Full sentence: We have sent the spare parts to you.

Telex: SENT SPARE PARTS

 

2 Future forms are not necessary if time is mentioned, and prepositions of time can be omitted.

Full sentence: The spare parts will arrive on 25 January.

Telex: SPARE PARTS ARR 25 J AN

 

3 We generally use active sentences rather than passive.

Full sentence: The information was sent last week.

Telex: SENT INFO LST WK

 

4 Reductions:

a) We often miss out vowels (a,e,i,o,u), but not when they start the word:

confirm CFM

obtain OBTN

b) We usually use the beginning letters of longer words:

Information INFO

Company CO

c) We usually use the first three letters of months and days of the week:

January JAN

Sunday SUN

 

5 Typical letter expressions are often abbreviated:

as soon as possible ASAP

with best regards RGDS

for the attention of FAO

Special abbreviations are used in telexes to save time and money. Unless you are quite certain that your reader will understand exactly what you mean, it’s best to use normal English. The kind of language that’s used in a telex is also used in electronic mail (e-mail) – messages sent from one computer to another.

Exercise 1 Read the following telex and answer the questions:

FAO: S JONES

 

RGRT MUST CHNG ARRVL TIME 14NOV. NEW ARRVL TIME 1830 LHR. PLS ARRNG PICK UP. CHNG APPT MR TOMLINSON. SUGST 0930 15NOV. NEW ITNRY TUE 15NOV LONDON WED 16NOV EDINBURGH. DEP 1030 FRI 17NOV. PLS CFM BY APPT WITH TMLSON. SEE U MON.

 

RGDS

 

1 Who is the telex sent to? 2 Who is the telex from? 3 When will Mr. Bowden be arriving at London Heathrow? 4 When does he want to meet Mr. Tomlinson? 5 When will he be leaving? 6 Will he take the underground from London Heathrow? 7 Will he be staying in London for the whole trip? 8 What does he want S. Jones to confirm by telex?