Business English Lesson – Advanced Level''''s archiveDebt Reduction docx

Business English Lesson – Advanced Level's archive
Debt Reduction
1. Finance Minister Paul Martin announced today that the
federal government reduced its debt by $17.1 billion in
2000-01, the largest debt in history by a Canadian
government.

drawback
drawdown
payback
paydown
2. If dividends are not paid within the specified period,
then before the company pays off its common
shareholders, it shall have to distribute the dividend
to the preference shareholders.

accrued
accumulated
acquired
aggregated
3. The spread between corporate bonds and U.S.
treasury bonds increased from 1.09 percent (Aaa-rated
bonds) and 1.69 (Baa-rated bonds) in July 1998 to 1.84
percent (Aaa) and 2.65 percent (Baa) in October 1998.

default
quality
risk
value
4. A writ of shall issue only upon court order on
motion of a party claiming the right to possession of

chattels; such order may be entered by the court only after
it finds that the party in possession appears about to
abscond or about to destroy, secrete or otherwise dispose
of the chattels.

habeus corpus
mandamus
quo warranto
replevin
5. The US Bureau of Economic Analysis dished out some
discouraging news recently, saying that Americans had a
negative savings of 0.5 percent for 2005, the first
time that's happened since the Great Depression; our
saving habits have been doing a gradual slide since May
1985 when we saved 11.1 percent of our disposable
income.

balance
increase
pace
rate
6. Employee stock purchase can be a good deal for
those who participate; like incentive stock options, they
can make it possible for you to buy stock at a bargain
price without reporting income until you sell the stock.

discounts
plans
rebates
schemes

7. Are you taking advantage of all the tax benefits Uncle
Sam has to offer? — the goal of tax is to help you
minimize your federal income tax liability as much as you
are allowed by tax law.

devaluing
evading
planning
reducing
8. In Ontario, land tax is imposed on the acquisition
of an interest in land by registered conveyance or
unregistered disposition; the tax is calculated on the value
of the consideration for the transfer, sometimes deemed to
be the fair market value of the land.

assignment
exchange
settlement
transfer
9. The report of the debate in Congregation on 10
March on the general resolution concerning the Report of
the Commission of Inquiry is set out herein: "MR VICE-
CHANCELLOR: Before we begin the debate, I should
express on behalf of Congregation our gratitude to "

construed
explicit
paraphrased
verbatim
10. It appears that the US federal annual $10,000 gift-tax

will finally increase to $11,000 in 2002, and anyone
who has an estate vulnerable to estate taxes or who is
funding high-cost college expenses should consider use of
this benefit.

deduction
exclusion
exemption
redemption