MEATLOAF

Meatloaf pode ser servido com arroz branco e pure de batatas ou só com uma salada.

(Postado em Português para maior compreensão de medidas)

Massa
1 kilo patinho moído
01 pacote de creme de cebola
½ xícara de chá de farinha de rosca
1/2 cebola picada
½ xícara de água (para dar liga na massa)
50 gr. de bacon (fatias) cortados em pedaços pequenos
cheiro verde picado (a gosto)
orégano (a gosto)
pimenta (a gosto)

Recheio
02 cenouras cozidas
Modo de Preparo
Preparo:
Misture tudo muito bem(com as mãos), embrulhe em um pano de prato úmido e reserve recheio misture todos os ingredientes.

Abra a massa com a palma da mão, sobre o pano de prato úmido em que estava a massa. não deixe muito fino e também não muito grossa. Coloque as cenouras cozidas e enrole como rocambole. coloque em assadeira untada com margarina. Coloque para assar por 1 hora em forno médio.

Obs. Se você não for congelar o bolo de carne, substitua o 1/2 copo de água por 2 ovos inteiros.

LEARNING IN THE NEWS VIII (For Beginners and Pre-Intermediate Business Students)

GM, Toyota in Virtual Tie on 2007 Sales
By TOM KRISHER AP Auto Writer
US News & World Report – Published: Jan 23, 11:17 AM EST

By M. Spencer Green,AP file

DETROIT (AP) -- General Motors Corp. is in danger of losing its 76-year title as the world's sales leader, as totals for 2007 released on Wednesday showed the automaker in a virtual tie with Toyota Motor Corp.
GM said it sold 9,369,524 vehicles worldwide last year, up 3 percent from 2006. Earlier this month, Toyota reported global sales of 9.37 million vehicles, but the Japanese automaker did not release a number down to the last vehicle.
"The race is too close to call," Mike DiGiovanni, GM's executive director of global market and industry analysis said during a conference call Wednesday with reporters and industry analysts. "I don't think anybody knows at this point."
Detroit-based GM has held the title of world's largest automaker since 1931, but Toyota's strong U.S. growth and GM's U.S. sales decline helped Toyota move closer to the top spot in recent years.
John Middlebrook, GM vice president for global sales, service and marketing operations, said sales in China, Russia and Brazil helped drive the gain.
"This is the kind of emerging market growth that fuels our global performance," Middlebrook said in a statement. "Customers are responding to our fuel-efficient and dynamically-designed product lineup around the world."
GM said 2007 sales were the second best global total in the company's 100-year history and marked the third consecutive time, and fourth time ever, that GM sold more than 9 million vehicles a year.
Toyota's share of the U.S. market has more than doubled since 1990, when it controlled only 7.5 percent of the market with just over 1 million in sales, according to Ward's AutoInfoBank. Its sales have grown briskly in recent years, sometimes by double digits, as people bought its smaller, fuel efficient cars with a reputation for reliability. By 2007, Toyota controlled 16.3 percent of the U.S. market, selling 2.6 million vehicles.
GM, while still the U.S. sales leader, has seen its U.S. market share drop dramatically since 1990, when it controlled about 35 percent by selling nearly 5 million vehicles. Last year GM's share was roughly 23.8 percent, with sales of 3.8 million vehicles.
GM Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner has pledged to defend his company's title, but said it would not abandon its U.S. strategy of reducing incentives and low-profit sales to rental car companies in order to win.
"Great cars, smart marketing, growth in the emerging markets. And hopefully that will keep us on top. If not, we'll come back to work the next day and work even harder," Wagoner said earlier this month.
The title in coming years likely will be decided by sales in burgeoning markets such as China, Russia, South America and other regions with a growing middle class.
Mature markets in North America and Europe, meanwhile, are likely to post slower growth, analysts say, and Japan's auto market is shrinking.
Toyota is setting up overseas plants to achieve growth in new markets - aiming to sell 9.85 million vehicles worldwide this year, up 5 percent from last year, under an ambitious plan it announced last month. Toyota executives also said they projected better vehicle sales in the U.S. this year.
Shoichiro Toyoda, a member of the founding family and former Toyota president, said gaining the top spot in the auto industry could be transient.
"We are not No. 1," he said when asked recently by The Associated Press how he felt about becoming the world's biggest automaker.
"It's just one moment," he said at a reception for auto manufacturers this month. "We need to just keep working harder."
Other Toyota executives have also consistently brushed off questions about becoming No. 1.
Some company officials acknowledge they are even nervous about wresting the honors because of fears about a U.S. political backlash reminiscent of the "Japan-bashing" in the 1980s and 90s, when the nation was accused of taking jobs from American workers.
Earlier this month, Toyota deposed Ford Motor Co. as the No. 2 auto-seller in the U.S. in 2007.
GM shares rose 4 cents, or 0.17 percent, to $23.69 in morning trading Wednesday, while Toyota's U.S. shares fell $1.97, or 2.03 percent, to $94.94.


Vocabulary:

Tie: an equality in number (as of votes or scores)
The race is too close to call: it is too soon to say who won the competition
Fuels: a source of sustenance or incentive
fuel-efficient: designating a vehicle, engine, etc. that delivers better mileage per gallon of fuel than other less efficient models
share: the percentage of the market for a product or service that a company supplies
briskly: marked by much activity
reliability: the quality or state of being reliable, meaning dependable
drop dramatically: a sudden very large fall ( uma queda grande e repentina)
roughly: without completeness or exactness : approximately
pledged: to promise the performance of by a pledge
emerging markets: emergent markets, prominent markets
burgeoning: to grow and expand rapidly
meanwhile: meantime, as for now
shrinking: reducing
setting up: establishing
plants: a factory or workshop for the manufacture of a particular product
to achieve: to reach
aiming: objecting
top spot: top places, top of the rank
transient: affecting something or producing results beyond itself
brushed off: past of brush off - a quietly curt or disdainful dismissal
wresting the honors: to call themselves “the winners”
backlash: a strong adverse reaction
Japan-bashing: (longa explicação mas necessária) The term Japan bashing, or Japan-bashing, was first coined in the early 1980s by Robert Angel, a paid lobbyist for the Japanese Government. Wanting to counter growing U.S. criticism of Japan’s Trade policies, Angel searched for a way to discredit Japan critics by insinuating their criticism was based on racism and xenophobia. "I looked around for a phrase to use to discredit Japan's critics," Angel later said. "And I hoped to be able to discredit those most effective critics by lumping them together with the people who weren't informed and who as critics were an embarrassment to everybody else."
Japan-bashing today
As Japan's "bubble economy" burst in the late 1980s and went into recession, the term's popularity subsided. Today, the term "Japan-bashing" is often used in reference to Asian critics who accuse Japan of attempting territorial expansionism and whitewashing history
Deposed: to remove from office or a position of power, esp. from a throne; oust
Shares: (for the last two lines) any one of the equal parts into which the capital stock of a corporation is divided

Describing changes

VERB - NOUN
To rise - a rise
To fall - a fall
To increase - an increase
To decrease - a decrease
To improve - an improvement
To recover - a recovery

ADJECTIVE - ADVERB

(describes a noun) - (describes a verb)

Slight - Slightly
Sharp - Sharply
Dramatic - Dramatically
Steady - Steadily

Adjective that describes:

1) a sudden, very large change: dramatic
2) A sudden, large change: sharp
3) A very small change: slight
4) A regular change (not sudden): steady


Explaining Figures:
A move to larger premises resulted in a rise in rent in August.
.........(reason).................... led to........... (result)..............

The rise in rent in August was due to a move to larger premises.
............(result)............... resulted from............ (reason)......

ALL AMERICAN CESAR'S SALAD !!!!

.

Ceasar's salad

(For better comprehension of the measurements Recipe was posted in Portuguese)

Ingredientes:

• 1 maço de alface

• 1 maço de radicchio

• 1 gema de ovo

• 2 filés de anchovas

• 1 dente pequeno de alho

• 1 colher (café) de mostarda Dijon

• Suco de 1/2 limão

• 200 ml de azeite

• 30 g de parmesão ralado fino

• Sal e pimenta-do-reino a gosto

• 60 ml de creme de leite

• Croutons

Prepare assim:

• Bata a gema com a mostarda, as anchovas bem picadinhas e o alho bem picadinho;

• Quando começar a emulsionar, coloque um fio de azeite, sem parar de bater até formar uma maionese firme;

• Junte o suco de 1/2 limão, o creme de leite e o parmesão, acrescente sal e pimenta-do-reino;

• Coloque o molho no fundo de uma saladeira, sobreponha com as folhas lavadas e secas, salpique com croutons e parmesão em lascas.

LEARNING IN THE NEWS VII (For Intermediate and Pre-Advanced Business Students)

Three connected cites drive the global economy
Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images; Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images; ADRIAN BRADSHAW/EPA

A Tale Of Three Cities
THE TIMES MAGAZINE – Published Thursday,
Jan. 17, 2008 By MICHAEL ELLIOTT

They tend to be an optimistic lot, the bankers and business leaders, politicians and pundits, who every year make their way to the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Those who have power and influence often have much to be optimistic about, to be programmed to lift up their eyes to the hills — of which Davos has plenty — and see more prosperity coming their way.
This year's meeting, which starts on Jan. 23, might be a little different. Thoughts may be in the valley rather than the hills. A year ago, subprime had not entered the lexicon of the nightly news, and most Americans probably thought that "credit crunch" was a breakfast cereal. We all know better now. In the wake of the report that December's U.S. unemployment rate had jumped to 5%, the highest level in two years, the Bush Administration and Congress, Republicans and Democrats, started falling over themselves trying to find a politically acceptable stimulus package. With a recession in the American economy looking to be imminent, the tireless locomotive of the global economy seems finally to have run out of puff.

How serious are the consequences likely to be? Much more could go wrong: a collapse of the dollar, or of U.S. consumer confidence as house prices continue their fall. But on balance, the denizens of Davos would be well advised to keep up their sunny spirits. Taking the long view, the global economy is at a remarkable moment. Whatever the chance of a recession this year, the U.S. has experienced what the economist and former Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs John B. Taylor of Stanford University calls a "long boom" since the Fed started to squeeze inflation out of the system in 1979. For nearly 30 years, Taylor points out, the few downturns the U.S. has suffered have, in historical terms, been both short and shallow. Even more extraordinary is the tale outside the U.S. According to the World Bank's recent Global Economic Prospects report, global growth in 2007 was 3.6%, down a little from 3.9% in 2006. But among developing economies, growth was a remarkable 7.4%, the fifth successive year of an expansion of more than 5%. This isn't just the predictable tale of the rise of China and India; on the back of strong commodity prices (and relative peace), African economies, too, are performing better than they have for a generation.

How did the world come to this happy position? You can list the usual reasons: two decades of decent macroeconomic policy making, the triumph of markets and the collapse of command economies, the dissemination of transforming technologies and tools such as the Internet, and open trading systems. All of these are the attributes that combine to form that much discussed phenomenon: globalization. But in this special report, we look at one overlooked aspect of a generation's worth of global growth: the extent to which New York City, London, and Hong Kong, three cities linked by a shared economic culture, have come to be both examples and explanations of globalization. Connected by long-haul jets and fiber-optic cable, and spaced neatly around the globe, the three cities have (by accident — nobody planned this) created a financial network that has been able to lubricate the global economy, and, critically, ease the entry into the modern world of China, the giant child of our century. Understand this network of cities — Nylonkong, we call it — and you understand our time.

Go back nearly 30 years, and few would have thought that any of the three cities were about to remake the world for the better. In September of 1982, the Hong Kong stock exchange lost a quarter of its value after Margaret Thatcher, flush from her victory in the Falklands War, annoyed the rulers of communist China by foolishly seeming to suggest that Britain might be able to hold on to its colony — which prompted China to insist that it would do no such thing. At the same time, London and New York City were bywords of urban decay. In 1981, London had seen some of the most bitter riots in a century. The city was run by a hard-left political clique whose understanding of capitalism came straight from Marx. (Its leader was "Red" Ken Livingstone; some 25 years on, now mayor, he sings the praises of London's financial-services industry and is pals with New York's plutocratic leader, Michael Bloomberg.) New York almost went bankrupt in 1975; by the early 1980s, its streets were potholed, filthy and dangerous. The city routinely had nearly 2,000 homicides a year. Last year, the number was just 494, the lowest since consistent record-keeping began in 1963.

Challenge and Change
Yet even in the darkest times, the Nylonkong cities had the sort of hidden strengths that would be their salvation. All had a certain adaptability hardwired into their people. All were once centers of manufacturing, but all have been able to shift their economic focus to the service sector as factories moved from New York's lower east side, or London's Park Royal estate, or the thousands of tiny enterprises in Kowloon, to the American sunbelt or up the Pearl River delta from Hong Kong to Guangdong province. All are — or have been — great ports. Today, only Hong Kong of the three wears its seagoing character on its face, with tugs and barges chugging up and down the harbor a stone's throw from the skyscrapers of the banks and trading houses. London and New York, by contrast, politely hide their tattooed seafarers' muscle out of sight, downriver or on the Jersey shore. But the sense of being a blue-water place is vital to the cities' success. It has made them open to trade, with all the transformative capacity that trade has to shake up established orders and make the exotic familiar.

Their history as ports has made Nylonkong open to the world in other ways, too. New York, of course, has long been thought of as a city of immigrants — of the Irish and the Italians, the Dominicans in Washington Heights, and the scores of other ethnicities that make up Gotham's mosaic. But increasingly, so is London. In 2006, according to the London Labour Force Survey, 31% of the city's residents had been born outside Britain; that compared with 34% of New Yorkers who hailed from outside the U.S. that year. Hong Kong, which barely existed 150 years ago, has always been a haven for migrants fleeing trouble in China. Even in these prosperous times for the mainland, it still has pull. (Visitors from the West may find Hong Kong polluted; locals know it has cleaner air than almost all Chinese cities.) And increasingly, it is a magnet also for Chinese whose families have lived for generations in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K., as well as for other Asians. Between 1996 and 2006, for example, the number of South Asians in Hong Kong leapt by 43%.
The network of international trading and personal contacts that shape New York, London and Hong Kong facilitate their key industry. If the 19th century was the age of empire and the 20th one of war, so the 21st century, to date, is an age of finance. It is the banks and investment houses, the mutual funds and money managers, taking in their clients' cash and spreading it around the world, who have made today's global economy what it is. In Victorian times, London alone could fulfill this function. (The city funded enterprises all over the world, including much of the industrial development of the U.S. after the Civil War.) But the job has become too big for one place to handle. Now Nylonkong, that interconnected tripartite city, greases the wheels of trade and development. This is where the great banks — Citigroup and HSBC, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan — have their headquarters and their key regional offices; this is where ambitious companies go to seek financing or go public. Hong Kong — whose stock market's capitalization jumped almost fourfold in the 10 years from 1996 — has especially been able to benefit from the business of the hundreds of Chinese companies that want to raise money in global markets. Its bankers and brokers are continuing an old story. As they circle the globe — there are no less than 187 direct flights that leave London for New York every week and 28 weekly flights from Hong Kong to New York — staying in their favorite hotels and dining at their favorite private clubs, Nylonkong's financial-services executives are heirs to the Tuscan moneylenders who first stretched the sinews of capitalism 700 years ago.

Great cities, of course, are about more than money and finance. They are messy agglomerations of talent and culture. That is how they attract men and women in the financial sector who could choose to live anywhere. (Granted, nobody yet would argue that Hong Kong was London or New York's cultural equal, but it's a younger place.) That's a reason why Nylonkong needs to be careful not to kill the goose that laid its golden egg. These places are not cheap. According to the consultancy ECA International, Hong Kong's high-end apartments last year had the most expensive rents in the world, with New York third and London sixth.

The sheer expense of living in Nylonkong is but one of the challenges facing it — as the next three stories demonstrate. In the case of New York, high real estate prices may squeeze out of town the very people that make a city fun and livable. Globalization may have brought many benefits to those who live in London, New York and Hong Kong, but it has at the same time made the familiar strange, and turned the known world upside down. As they see London property prices bid to the skies by an influx of foreigners, native Cockneys may one day wonder what the new world has to offer them. Hong Kong, for its part, has gotten rich on the back of China. But it is a city of just 6.9 million people. China's largest metropolis, Shanghai, holds 18 million, and the mainland has scores of other rising cities, all ambitious for their moment on the world stage. Hong Kong must continually raise its game to maintain its relevance to the burgeoning Chinese economy.

Yet these are places that know how to meet a challenge. They've done it before. From being dismissed as long past their prime a quarter of a century ago, New York, London and Hong Kong have gone on to extraordinary heights. Tying themselves together, they have also knitted the world into a seamless fabric, financing and transporting the container vessels and the streams of data that have made today's global economy a phenomenon that has increased the life chances of countless millions. Welcome to Nylonkong, and the world it made.

VOCABULARY:

Pundits: a person who knows a lot about a particular subject and is therefore often asked to give an opinion about it
to lift up: to move something from a lower to a higher position
subprime: (on the article it refers to lending practice of extending credit to borrowers with credit characteristics -- e.g. sub-620 FICO scores -- that disqualify them from loans at the prime rate (hence the term 'subprime').
credit crunch: (meu longo mas necessário para entender o sentido...) In essence, some event creates a moderate crisis which causes investors to run and pull their money from whatever market they happen to be in and are fearful of losing their money. Liquidity (new investors stop - existing investors pull out) dries up for the investment which causes the investment to lose value and causes others to panic and pull their money and so the effect snowballs. When there are links that are unseen, unknown, or poorly recognized, we have one investment crashing the next investment until finally there is one last panic selloff. The investment community stabilizes at some point and the market begins moving forward again or we go through a recession which also stabilizes the markets and then we begin moving forward again.
run out of: If a supply of something runs out, all of it has been used or it is completely finished
denizens: an animal, plant or person that lives in or is often in a particular place
to keep up: If someone or something keeps up with someone or something else, they do whatever is necessary to stay level or equal with that person or thing
to squeeze: a reduction or limit
downturns: a reduction in the amount or success of something, such as a country's economic activity
shallow: having only a short distance from the top to the bottom
commodity: a substance or product that can be traded, bought or sold
command economies: an economic system in which activity is controlled by a central authority and the means of production are publicly owned
overlooked: to give little attention or respect to
long-haul jets: travelling a long distance (on the article it means long flights)
be able to: to be in conditions to
bywords: one that is noteworthy or notorious
bitter: being or inducing the one of the four basic taste sensations that is peculiarly acrid, astringent, or disagreeable
riots: tumultuous disturbance of the public peace by three or more persons assembled together and acting with a common intent
plutocratic: a controlling class of the wealthy
bankrupt: a person who becomes insolvent
potholed: a usually minor difficulty or setback
hardwired: connected or incorporated by or as if by permanent electrical connections
tugs: a strongly built powerful boat used for towing and pushing —called also towboat
barges: a roomy usually flat-bottomed boat used chiefly for the transport of goods on inland waterways and usually propelled by towing
chugging up: making dull explosive sound made by or as if by a laboring engine
seafarers: a person who navigates or assists in navigating a ship (seaman, mariner, sailor)
to shake up: an extensive and often drastic reorganization
hailed: to pour down or strike like hail
mainland: a continent or the main part of a continent as distinguished from an offshore island or sometimes from a cape or peninsula
tripartite: made between or involving three parties
to seek: to go in search of
fourfold: having four units or members
heirs: one who inherits or is entitled to inherit property
moneylenders: one whose business is lending money (pawnbroker)
sinews: solid resilient strength
to kill the goose that laid its golden egg: (aqui tem que ser em português – equivalente à nossa Galinha dos Ovos de Ouro)
sheer: free from guilty
burgeoning: to send forth new growth
quarter of a century: same as 25 years
knitted: to become drawn together
seamless: having no awkward transitions, interruptions, or indications of disparity
vessels: same as ships

LEARNING IN THE NEWS VI (For Intermediate Students)

Entrepreneurship Takes Off in Ireland
By JAMES FLANIGAN
THE NEW YORK TIMES - Published: January 17, 2008

Feargal Mooney, left, is chief operating officer for Web Reservations International. Ray Nolan is the founder and chief executive officer. Web Reservations provides booking and management for hostels that cater to economy travelers.

DUBLIN — Ireland is now alive with enthusiasm for entrepreneurs, who seemingly rank just below rock stars in popularity.

For evidence, consider the Ernst & Young accounting firm’s award for Irish Entrepreneur of the Year. The award show was prime-time television fare in October. (The winner, Liam Casey, runs a business, now based in China that arranges for products to be manufactured and shipped from China to customers in Europe and the United States.)

Then there are the government-sponsored studies proclaiming that Ireland ranks third in the European Union in early-stage entrepreneurial activity. And Enterprise Ireland, an agency of the Irish government that gives fledgling small companies a helping hand, has even leased space in an office building in Midtown Manhattan to serve as an incubator for businesses hoping to expand into the American market.

The relatively new emphasis on entrepreneurs in Ireland is the culmination of nearly four decades of government policies that have lifted the economy from centuries of poverty to modern prosperity.
The change began when Ireland entered the European Union in 1973. In subsequent years, the government rewrote its tax policies to attract foreign investment by American corporations, made all education free through the university level and changed tax rates and used direct equity investment to encourage Irish people to set up their own businesses.

“The change came in the 1990s,” said James Murphy, founder and managing director of Lifes2Good, a marketer of drugstore products for muscle aches, hair loss and other maladies. “Taxes and interest rates came down, and all of a sudden we believed in ourselves.”

The new environment also encouraged Ray Nolan, who founded Raven Computing in 1989 to provide software for lawyers to keep track of billable hours. He sold that company and founded another that created software for companies to manage billing and receipts. And in 1999, he founded Web Reservations International to provide booking and property management for hostels that cater to backpackers and economy travelers.

“Hostel owners needed to keep track of people sharing rooms, and bookings for Americans coming to Dublin for three nights,” said Feargal Mooney, chief operating officer of Web Reservations. “Hostel accommodations go for 10 to 20 euro a night,” he said, or $15 to $30 at today’s exchange rates, “so booking reservations in them wasn’t profitable for the big travel companies.”

As the business grew — its 100 employees and banks of computers now handle reservations for some 50,000 hostels in 166 countries — Web Reservations was offered an equity investment by Enterprise Ireland. “But we said this is our baby, we didn’t want to give up equity,” Mr. Mooney said.

But the company, which is expanding in the United States and in China, has taken advantage of the agency’s help to open operations in Shanghai and New York. “They’ve helped us with introductions to government officials in China, and we’re in the office space on Park Avenue, expanding our systems in the States,” Mr. Mooney said.

Government help for Irish entrepreneurs grew out of an overall economic policy devised in 1987 that reduced personal taxes, said Kevin Sherry, a director of Enterprise Ireland who specializes in start-up companies.

Income tax rates in Ireland today are 20 percent on the first $50,000 of income and 41 percent on income above that. But there are value-added taxes of 21 percent levied on all goods and transactions, with the exception of health and medical services, children’s clothing and food.

The tax on corporate profits, though, is 12.5 percent, which is an incentive to own a business. And government helps out. “We have helped over 300 people or groups in the last dozen years or so,” Mr. Sherry said.

Enterprise Ireland has also put up initial capital for venture investment funds and supports research and development. “We must support new approaches, nanotechnology, biotechnology and other sciences,” Mr. Sherry said, “because we cannot succeed in the future using what got us here in the past.”

Colm O’Gorman, who teaches entrepreneurship in master of business administration courses at Dublin City University, said the government agency is at the heart of several trends. Enterprise Ireland “supports research and development at Irish companies and universities,” Professor O’Gorman said, “and it is encouraging more women to become entrepreneurs, as the role of women has changed in Irish life.”

One reason for many changes in Ireland is its membership in the European Union, which has brought new perspectives and regulations from its governing councils in Brussels.

Elaine Doorly, for example, founded Radiation Safety Ireland three years ago to advise industry on effects of radiation in building materials, scanners and other sources, an evolving field that is driven by regulation from Brussels.

Ms. Doorly runs her consulting company part time while also working as the health officer specializing in radiological protection for the University of Dublin-Trinity College, the 416-year old institution that is a leading site of Irish scientific research. She has held that post for 10 years.

“I run training courses and consult with companies that are coping with the huge variety of radiation in ordinary objects, including the many screening systems that have been put in place since 9/11,” said Ms. Doorly, who has a doctorate in physics from Trinity. “It’s a growth field but a niche industry.”

Mr. Murphy, 46, of Lifes2Good is one of the entrepreneurs who has expanded his business beyond Ireland’s borders. He qualified as a chartered accountant in the 1980s and worked in several countries in Europe before returning to Ireland in 1991 looking to own a business.

He served as financial officer for the inventor of a device that used electrical current to ease muscle pain and learned how to market such treatments by making infomercials for television stations in Europe.

He founded his company, Lifes2Good, in 1997. Using infomercials to promote micro-current pain relief and health and beauty aids, the business spread throughout Britain and the Continent and grew to 40 employees and $30 million in annual revenue. Now he is trying to expand in the United States.

“When you come to the U.S., you have to be prepared to lose a couple of hundred grand for six months without panicking,” Mr. Murphy said. His American operation also works out of Enterprise Ireland on Park Avenue.

Mr. Sherry of Enterprise Ireland said the passion behind the efforts to support entrepreneurs comes from a desire to make Ireland a better place. “We’re old enough to remember when times weren’t good. We don’t want to go back there.”

VOCABULARY:

Entrepreneurship: From Entrepreneur - A person who organizes, operates, and assumes the risk for a business venture. [French, from Old French, from entreprendre, to undertake.]
Takes Off: Move forward quickly
Seemingly: apparently, ostensibly, on the face of it
Fledgling: A young or inexperienced person (in this text it refers to a company)
Lifted: To raise in condition, rank, or esteem
Tax: A contribution for the support of a government required of persons, groups, or businesses within the domain of that government.
policies: A plan or course of action, as of a government, political party, or business, intended to influence and determine decisions, actions, and other matters
equity: The market value of securities less any debt incurred, Common stock and preferred stock
to set up: Establish, found (for this text…)
maladies: A disease, a disorder, or an ailment
Taxes: plural of Tax (see above)
interest rates: the percentage of a sum of money charged for its use
came down: (past of come down) - Become reduced in size or amount, be lowered
all of a sudden: Entirely without warning, abruptly
to keep track: Remain informed, follow the course of, keep records of
billable hours: working hours that will be charge to a client (for lawyers)
booking: reservations
hostels: A supervised, inexpensive lodging place for travelers, especially young travelers
cater: To attend to the wants or needs of
backpackers: hike with a backpack (gíria: mochileiros)
sharing: (Present Continuous of To Share) dividing
to give up: release, relinquish, resign, free (neste texto perder)
grew out: (past of grow out of) - Become too large or mature for
overall: total
devised: To form a strategy for: blueprint, cast, chart, conceive, contrive, design, formulate, frame, lay1, plan, project, scheme, strategize, work out. Informal dope out. Idioms: lay plans
Income tax: A tax levied on net personal or business income
Nanotechnology: The science and technology of building devices, such as electronic circuits, from single atoms and molecules
Trends: The general direction in which something tends to move
Coping: (Present Continuous of To Cope) - To contend with difficulties and act to overcome them
Infomercials: A relatively long commercial in the format of a television program
hundred grand: hundred thousand (neste caso algumas centenas de milhares de dólares)

LEARNING IN THE NEWS - V (For Intermediate Business Students)

Can Looks Predict a Successful CEO?
By Barbara Kiviat
Times Magazine - Friday, Jan. 11, 2008

In a recent study, college students were asked to rate headshots of the CEOs of 50 Fortune 1000 companies. Based on measures like competence and trustworthiness — and with no prior knowledge of the executives —study participants could distinguish between the successful (Warren Buffett, left) and less successful (Bill Ford, right) CEOs.
A first impression can count for a lot. For a company's CEO, it may even predict his firm's success. Top executives who appear powerful and leaderlike at first glance are more likely to run profitable companies, according to a study by Tufts University psychologists published in the February issue of Psychological Science. By contrast, CEOs who seem likeable or trustworthy have no leg up.
The researchers showed 100 study participants black-and-white headshots of 50 Fortune 1,000 CEOs — a fairly homogeneous-looking group almost entirely made up of middle-aged white men — then asked the volunteers to rate the executives on personality traits, and how well they thought the person would lead a company. The study controlled for the CEOs' age, emotional expression and attractiveness (it's well-known that people tend to assign positive traits to the good-looking), and threw out data from participants who recognized any of the executives.
CEOs who scored high on measures of power — competence, dominance and facial maturity — and on a measure of leadership were in many cases the ones who ran companies with the biggest overall profits. (The study looked at profit, not profit margin, but controlled for firm size.) On the other hand, executives who were rated highly on measures of warmth, such as likeability and trustworthiness, didn’t necessarily match up with successful companies. Boards of directors take note: "There's no relationship between how trustworthy a person seems and how well the company does," says Nicholas Rule, a doctoral candidate and one of the study's co-authors. "Warmth isn't correlated with success. Power is."
Just because two things go hand in hand, though, doesn't mean that one is causing the other. Nalini Ambady, a Tufts professor and the study's other author, explains: "What's not clear is whether people pick CEOs because they look a certain way, or if people look a certain way once they become CEOs."
The study also didn't ask participants why they thought one CEO looked more competent or trustworthy than another. The judgments being measured were happening more on a gut level. In that way, the experiment lends support to a growing argument among psychologists who study decision-making that when people come to quick conclusions without much information, their decisions are often good ones. Though previous research examining perceived CEO personality and firm performance found few links between the two, Ambady and Rule point out that those studies relied on surveys of people who knew the executives. In the new paper, the authors write, "These finding suggest that naïve judgments may provide more accurate assessments of individuals than well-informed judgments can."


Vocabulary
Headshots: (informal) - someone who is skilful and successful at something
CEOs: Chief Executive Officer – The President of a Company
Fortune: A Business Magazine
Measures: to discover the exact size or amount of something, or to be of a particular size
Trustworthiness: worthy of confidence: dependable
Leaderlike: someone who looks like a leader
at first glance: on first consideration i.e. at first glance the subject seems harmless enough
likely: having a high probability of occurring
to run: to manage
profitable: yielding advantageous returns or results
likeable: having qualities that bring about a favorable regard : pleasant, agreeable
leg up: a helping hand : boost
traits: a particular characteristic that can produce a particular type of behavior
overall: in general rather than in particular, or including all the people or things in a particular group or situation
warmth: friendly and affectionate
match up: If two things match up, they are similar and are designed to connect or to work together
Boards of directors: the group of directors who are responsible for controlling and organizing a company
go hand in hand: If something goes hand in hand with something else, it is closely related to it and happens at the same time as it or as a result of it
on a gut level: a strong belief about someone or something which cannot completely be explained and is not necessarily decided by reasoning
point out: accentuate
relied: supported by
surveys: an examination of opinions, behavior, etc., made by asking people questions
naïve: a French loanword indicating the state of lacking experience, understanding or sophistication
accurate: conforming exactly to truth or to a standard : exact
assessments: evaluation, the action or an instance of assessing : appraisal

HOW TO WRITE A MARKETING PLAN (For Business Students - Pre - Advanced Level)

How to Write a Marketing Plan

A good marketing plan helps your organization to define its goals and develop a series of activities to achieve those goals. The key to writing a good marketing plan is to keep it simple when you start, but return often to revise and update your marketing plan.

Here are a few basic elements to get you started. You can expand from these marketing plan essentials as your needs require additional details. Your marketing plan should:

1) Describe the Unique Solution Your Company Provides

What products, or services do you provide to the market. Often described as an elevator pitch, you should be able to quickly describe your solution to a prospect within 20 seconds. Think about this as your purpose. What need was identified in the market that led to the development of your solution to fulfill that need.

2) Define Your Target Market

When organizations write the marketing plan, defining the target market often proves to be the most challenging aspect of the plan. However, if you do not choose the right markets to target, you will often never achieve complete success. Too often companies see that their solution can serve the needs of multiple markets and they go off trying to establish multiple markets at the same time. Ultimately this may lead to failure because they overextended themselves and didn't successfully meet the needs of any market. Choose a well-defined market when you write your marketing plan and stick to it until the market dictates a change.

3) Write the Benefits of Your Products or Services

When companies describe their products and services, they often talk in features, or advantages, when what the customer really wants are benefits. If your customer ever says to you, "Hey that's great, but what's in it for me?" then you are guilty of talking features instead of benefits. Features describe a product, or service, but the benefits help your customers understand how they'll use it, and most importantly why they will use it.

4) How will You Position Your Products or Services

Take a position and defend it. For your customers to make a decision, they need to know what you have to offer and why it is different from your competition. We see this most readily with consumer product as companies seek to define their products and build their brand. Your positioning defines your location in the market and will drive your price and how you market your products or services. Finish the statement "we want to be known as ____________" and you will have the first piece of your positioning.

5) Define Your Marketing Methods

How do you plan to tell the world about your products and services. We refer to this as the integrated marketing communications plan. The communications plan defines the methods you will use to promote your products or services, for example, advertising, online marketing, and/or public relations. For each of these aspects of the communications plan, you'll need to choose the proper deliver vehicle, budget and resources to implement them. The best communications plan is an integrated program that works together to promote a consistent message to your customers.

INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS PLAN

What Does Integrated Mean?
An integrated marketing communications plan has all parts of your tactics working together. For example, if your marketing communications plan calls for print advertising, the same theme of your print ads should be reflected on your web site. If your customer gets the same message and visual clues in both places, they are much more likely to comprehend your marketing message. By doing this, you will build your brand with that customer who will remember you when they are ready to buy.

Elements of the Integrated Marketing Communications Plan
Your plan should include consideration of marketing methods such as:

Web site: What does your web site say about your company? Is it informative, easy to use, ecommerce ready? Your web site is available at all times, is it ready to speak for you when you are not available.

Advertising: print, online, radio, or tv. Choose the advertising medium(s) that gets your message to your target audience where they are likely to be ready to receive it. Use a consistent, repetitive approach to build awareness and recall.

Marketing Collateral: brochures, case studies, white papers. Your materials build and define your brand and provide the customer with an important look at your positioning and messages.

Online Marketing: advertising, opt-in email marketing and links from other sites. Your customers are online and you should use the appropriate methods to reach and retain them.

Trade shows: How many individual meetings would you need to setup to equal the number you can have at a trade show. No other opportunity affords you the ability to meet directly with so many customers in a condensed time frame.

Direct mail, personal selling, networking and many more methods allow you to get your message to the customer.

Budget and allocate resources

Your integrated marketing communications plan must have a target budget and resources assigned to each element of the plan. Depending on the size of your budget, you will probably need to make trade-offs between methods to achieve your goals. In addition, you need to have the internal, or external resources aligned to carry out the plan.
A good marketing communications plan can take your marketing efforts to the next level. Test what works and feed the information back into the plan.

6) The Cost and Resources Needed

Define your budget and your resources. Marketing is an investment in your company that must be consistent and steady to produce results. Without a consistent approach you will not be able to achieve the goals your established for the organization. Your budget and resources - both internal and external should be sufficient to sustain the plan.

7) Revisit and Refine Your Marketing Plan

Once you write a marketing plan be sure to come back and revisit it often. You may find aspects of the plan that need to be updated, or modified to reflect changes in the market. Set specific goals within your marketing plan and evaluate your performance against those goals.
Good luck with your marketing plan. Once you get it in writing, you now have a plan to excel.

Here is an Outline for your Marketing Plan:

MARKETING PLAN OUTLINE

I. Executive Summary

A high-level summary of the Marketing Plan.

II. The Goals

Brief description of the product or service to be marketed with its associated goals, such as sales figures and strategic goals.

III. Situation Analysis

Company Analysis
· Goals
· Focus
· Culture
· Strengths
· Weakness
· Market Share

Customer Analysis
· Number
· Type
· Value drivers
· Decision Process
· Concentration of customers base for particular products / services

Competitor Analysis
· Market Position
· Strengths
· Weakness
· Market Shares

Collaborators
· Subsidiaries, joint ventures, and distributors, etc.

Climate
Macro-environmental PEST Analysis
· Political and legal environment
· Economic environment
· Social and Cultural environment
· Technological environment

SWOT Analysis
A SWOT Analysis of the business environment can be performed by organizing the environmental factors as follows:
· The firm’s internal attributes can be classed as strengths and weaknesses
· The external environment presents opportunities and threats

IV. Market Segmentation

Present a description of the market segmentation as follows:

Segment 1
· Description
· Percent of Sales
· What they want
· How they use product / service
· Support requirements
· How to reach them
· Price sensitivity

Segment 2
.
.
.

V. Alternative Marketing Strategies

List and discuss the alternatives that were considered before arriving at the recommended strategy. Alternatives might include discontinuing a product, rebranding, positioning as a premium or value product, etc.

VI. Selected Marketing Strategy

Discuss why the strategy was selected, then the marketing mix decisions of product, price, place (distribution), and promotion.
Product / Service
The Product(s) / Service(s) decisions should consider the product’s advantages and how they will be leveraged. Product decisions should include

· Brand name
· Quality
· Scope of product line / service
· Warranty
· Packaging (If applicable)

Price

Discuss pricing strategy, expected volume, and decisions for the following pricing variables:
· List prices
· Discounts
· Bundling
· Payment terms and financing options

Distribution (Place)

Decision variables include:
· Distribution channels, such as direct, retail, distributors & intermediates
· Motivating the channel – for example, distributor margins
· Criteria for evaluating distributors
· Locations
· Logistics, including transportation, warehousing, and other fulfillment

Promotion

· Advertising, including how much and which media
· Public relations
· Promotional programs
· Budget determine break-even point for any additional spending on Promotional Programs
· Projected results of the promotional programs
· Trade Fairs
· Budget determine break-even point for any additional spending on Trade Fairs
· Projected results from the participation on Trade Fairs
· Advertising including how much and which media
· Public Relations

VII. Short & Long Term Projections

The selected strategy’s immediate effects, expected long-term results, and any special actions required to achieve them. This section may include forecasts of revenue and expenses as well as the results of a break-even analysis.

VIII. Conclusion

Summarize all of the above

Appendix

Exhibits

Calculations of market size, commissions, profit margins, break even analyses, etc…

WRITE A WINNING BUSINESS PLAN (For Business Students - Pre-Intermediate Level)

From: Business Week / Section Business Advice

A sound business plan can mean the difference between a company that prospers and one that flounders. A good business plan communicates accuracy and credibility, and generates enthusiasm for your business. Your plan should be thorough, professional, and realistic.

General Rules
Here are some important things to remember when sitting down to write your plan:

· Your plan should be concise (30 to 40 single-spaced pages at most, not counting appendices).
· Your plan should be easy to read and understand, without typos or grammatical errors.
· Your plan should convey large and profitable market opportunities for the business.
· Your plan should convey the strength and depth of your management team.

Business Plan Don'ts
Here are some tips on what not to do in drafting your business plan:

· Don't make unrealistic assumptions.
· Don't underestimate the difficulties in growing a business.
· Don't underestimate competitors.
· Don't assume that the reader knows industry technical jargon.
· Don't include long, tedious or overly technical information.
· Don't include highly confidential or proprietary information.
· Don't avoid discussing the risks to the business. This may detract from the plan's credibility.

Standard Business Plan Format

The form of every good business plan, although not set in stone, tends to run along the same basic lines, containing the following key sections:

Cover page. The cover page should be professional and informative and should contain an appropriate confidentiality legend.

Executive summary. The executive summary is the introduction to your business plan and the most vital section. Although it comes first, you generally write it last because it summarizes the entire plan. Effective summaries generally cover:

· The company's origins.
· The product or service and its uniqueness or competitive advantage.
· The company's goals.
· The market potential for the product or service.
· A three- to five-year summary of key financial forecasts, especially sales and profit/loss.

For new businesses, do some market research and make realistic assumptions about how your business can compete.

· The management team and its track record.
· The financing required to grow the business.
· The exit strategy.

The company description. This should convey a sense of the history of the company, as well as its goals. You should also include a summary of the company's principal objectives — both long-term and realistic interim goals.

Management. The management section of the plan identifies key members of the management team, describes their individual responsibilities and establishes their relevant experience and accomplishments. Include resumes that stress accomplishments and relevant track records in an appendix.

The product. If the company is selling a product, this section describes what the product is or will be and shows why it can penetrate the existing or developing market. If the product is still under development, discuss in detail where the project stands and what remains to bring it to market.

Investors are typically not interested in a one-product company. You should therefore discuss logical extensions of the company's product line and future enhancements in the product section.

The market. You must convince prospective investors that the company's market is large, growing, and receptive to your products or services. If the market is small or stagnating, investors are less likely to invest. Appendices can include more detailed market information.

Competition. The competition section of the plan identifies competing products and technology. Compare your product or service with the competition. How will your price or quality be different? What will make it successful?

Marketing. The marketing section of the business plan should describe the company's marketing plan and strategy in as much detail as possible.

Financial statements and projections. The body of the plan should include a summary of the key aspects of the financial forecasts, which appear in more detail in appendices. These may include total cash requirements, the time frame for positive cash flow and the anticipated growth in sales and profits.

The financial forecasts appendices should have more detail: balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow projections for a three- to five-year period, with the information presented monthly for the first year and quarterly in following years. The projected income statement is probably the most important projection.
The most significant aspect of the forecasts is the set of assumptions supporting your numbers. Make sure your discussion sufficiently communicates the basis of your assumptions — they must be realistic, logical, and attainable.
If you're not a financial statement guru, get help. Credible financial forecasts are so important — if you're not familiar with financial statements, you should seek help from an accountant or other reliable source.

Reality check. After you complete your draft business plan, circulate it for comment to friends, professionals, and other trusted advisors. Ask for their blunt assessments. Even better, ask them to give you a "markup" of the plan with specific recommended changes.

Write a Mini Business Plan
A two- or three-page business plan can also be useful at times. This condensed plan helps introduce the company to prospective investors, lenders, or employees. If the party is interested, you can follow up with the complete business plan.

VOCABULARY:
Sound: not broken or damaged; healthy; in good condition
flounders: to experience great difficulties or be completely unable to decide what to do or say next
accuracy: correct, exact and without any mistakes
credibility: when someone can be believed or trusted
thorough: complete, very great, very much
concise: short and clear, expressing what needs to be said without unnecessary words
typos: a small mistake in a text made when it was typed or printed
convey: to express a thought, feeling or idea so that it is understood by other people
drafting: before making a piece of text, a formal suggestion, or a drawing in its original state, often containing the main ideas and intentions but not the developed form (Not the final document).
Underestimate: to fail to understand how strong, skilful, intelligent or determined someone, especially a competitor is
Overly: too; very
Detract: to make something seem less valuable or less deserving of admiration than it really is or was thought to be
not set in stone: (slang) final, not changeable
summarizes: to express the most important facts or ideas about something or someone in a short and clear form
competitive advantage: Competitive prices, services, advantage, etc. are as good as or better than other prices, services, advantage, etc
goals: Objectives
forecasts: a statement of what is judged likely to happen in the future, especially in connection with a particular situation
profit: money which is earned in trade or business, especially after paying the costs of producing and selling goods and services
loss: when a business spends more money than it earns
track record: all the achievements or failures that someone or something has had in the past
to grow: to expand, to succeed
accomplishments: something that has been accomplished (realizações)
enhancements: improvements of the quality, amount or strength of something
cash flow: the amount of money moving into and out of a business
balance sheets: a statement that shows the value of a company's assets (= items of positive value) and its debts
income statements: report showing: money that is earned from doing work or received from investments
attainable: possible to achieve
seek: look for
reliable: Something or someone that is reliable can be trusted or believed because they work or behave well in the way you expect
blunt: saying what you think without trying to be polite or caring about other people's feelings
assessments: evalualtions
markup: to put a mark on (an observation)

GUIDE TO THE U.S. GOVERNMENT

I know...some readers might send me an e-mail saying that this has nothing to do with the purpose of this blog which is to post hints about the English Language. But I think that it will be a learning experience to understand how the U.S. Government works...

INTRODUCTION

The US is a federal republic of 50 states. The framers of the Constitution, drafted in 1787, wanted to block any individual or group from gaining too much control, so they established a government of separate institutions that share powers. Authority is divided into three tiers of national, state and local government, with the American people electing officials to serve in each tier. At the national level the government is split into three autonomous branches - legislative, executive and judicial. Each has its own distinct responsibilities, but they can also partially limit the authority of the others through a complex system of checks and balances.

LEGISLATIVE

The legislative branch of government, established in Article I of the Constitution, makes new national laws and modifies existing ones. Under the Constitution this duty is carried out by the Congress, a bicameral body divided into the Senate and House of Representatives. Members of both chambers are directly elected by the people of the state they represent. The House of Representatives has 435 members, with the number representing each state decided according to population size, elected every two years. The Senate is based on equal representation, with each state supplying two of the 100 members, and each has a six-year term.
The founding fathers wanted to check the power of the majority by giving smaller states extra representation, and gave Senators a longer term in office so that they would be less subject to popular pressures.

CONGRESS

Congress has wide-ranging powers including control over federal taxing and spending and the right to coin money or declare war on other countries. Its primary duty is to write, debate and pass bills before they are sent to the president. Money bills can only originate in the House, but both houses need to approve a bill before it can be passed.
Another key task is overseeing the executive branch of government. Congressional committees are tasked with ensuring the government is being run competently and without corruption. To assist in this they can summon senior officials for questioning and demand audits of executive agencies. Congress can also hold hearings on matters of general public concern.

How the president can check the legislature:

- Can veto a bill Congress has passed
- Can call special sessions and force an adjournment when both Houses cannot agree on adjournment
- Can temporarily appoint senior officials without Senate approval when it is in recess
- Congress cannot reduce the president's salary while he or she is in office.

How the judiciary can check the legislature:

- Congress cannot reduce a judge's salary while he or she is in office
- Chief justice presides over impeachment trials.
- A joint session of the US Congress

CONGRESSIONAL AGENCIES

As congressional work has grown and become more complex, Congress has come to rely on the advice and assistance of a large number of auxiliary agencies and a large congressional staff. One of the most important agencies is the Congressional Budget Office, a group of experts in economics and statistics, who aid legislators by providing independent, impartial advice on the president's budget proposals. Another is the Library of Congress, which serves Congress as a research facility, and is also the US national library and home to some of its most precious texts, including copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.


EXECUTIVE

The executive branch of government is responsible for enforcing the laws of the land. It is made up of the president, the vice-president, the Cabinet and a number of what are known as independent agencies. At the head of the executive branch is the US president, who must "take care that the laws be faithfully executed" and "preserve, protect and defend" the Constitution. In order to carry out this duty, he or she presides over a vast organization of federal departments and agencies, which has grown over the course of history and now employs about four million people.

PRESIDENT

In addition to leading the executive branch, the president is the head of state and commander in chief of the military. The president's duties include negotiating international treaties, signing or vetoing bills, appointing members of the Cabinet, judiciary and ambassadors and issuing pardons for federal offences. Thanks to its superpower status the US president is often cited as the most powerful person on Earth. But while the office does have significant authority it is limited by the checks and balances enshrined in the Constitution. However the power of the press and the importance of foreign policy has enormously boosted the authority of the president in recent times.

How the legislature can check the president:

- Can refuse to pass a bill the president wants or to approve presidential appointments
must approve budget, declarations of war and treaties
- Can override presidential vetoes and use impeachment powers to remove the president from office
- Chooses the winner of a presidential or vice-presidential election when no candidate has a majority of electoral college votes
- President must periodically report to Congress by delivering a State of the Union address

How the judiciary can check the president:

- Can declare executive orders unconstitutional
- Chief justice sits as president of the Senate during presidential impeachment trials

CABINET

The Cabinet is traditionally made up of the vice-president and the heads of the 15 executive departments - agriculture, commerce, defense, education, energy, health and human services, homeland security, housing and urban development, interior, labor, state, transportation, treasury, veterans' affairs, and the attorney general. These department heads are appointed by the president, and must be approved by a majority vote of the Senate. Other officials or agencies can be given Cabinet rank if the president chooses.
Cabinet members must work closely with the congressional committees who control their budgets and write the laws they have to implement. While some cabinet members are key advisors to the president, others may essentially serve in a more administrative capacity.

EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

The staff of the executive office serves the president directly and when he or she is replaced the office may be completely reorganized. The bodies which make up the executive office advise the president and carry out the detailed work of implementing presidential policies and programmes. Playing leading roles in the executive office are the National Security Council (NSC) and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The NSC advises and assists the president on national security and foreign policy matters. It is chaired by the president and includes the vice-president, national security adviser and secretaries of state, defense and the treasury. The OMB assists the president in overseeing the preparation of the federal budget and formulating the president's spending plans.

VICE-PRESIDENT

The vice-president is the second-highest executive officer and assumes the top role if the president cannot continue in office. He or she serves as president of the Senate, overseeing procedural matters, and has the ability to cast a deciding vote in the event of a tie. The vice-president also presides over a joint session of Congress when it formally counts electoral votes for presidential elections. The role grew in strength in the 20th Century when it became customary to invite vice-presidents to Cabinet meetings and when, in 1949, Congress made the vice-president one of four statutory members of the National Security Council.

INDEPENDENT AGENCIES

There are several administrative divisions of the executive branch whose roles have been separated from formal control of the president and are considered independent extensions of the government. These agencies and commissions are established by Congress to help execute policy or provide special services. They are diverse in make-up and responsibilities and include the Central Intelligence Agency, the Post Office, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
The role of the CIA is not outlined by the Constitution

JUDICIAL

It is the job of the judicial branch of the government to interpret the laws passed by Congress. It consists of the Supreme Court and the lower federal courts. In interpreting the law the courts may find that a law - including those passed by individual states - violates the Constitution. By declaring a law unconstitutional the courts play an important role in determining the law of the land.
The US Supreme Court heads the judicial branch

SUPREME COURT

The Supreme Court is the highest court in the US. Its decisions cannot be appealed and can only be changed by another Supreme Court decision or a constitutional amendment. The number of justices serving on the court is determined by Congress rather than the Constitution, but since 1869 it has always consisted of one chief justice and eight associate justices. They are nominated by the president and approved by the Senate, and have their jobs for life, unless they resign, retire, or are removed from office. The key responsibilities of the Supreme Court is to examine laws and government actions to ensure they do not violate the principles laid down in the Constitution. This practice, known as judicial review, allows the court to strike down laws that do not conform to the Constitution.

How the president can check the judiciary:

- Appoints judges
- Has power to pardon convicted criminals

How the legislature can check the judiciary:

- Approves federal judges
- Has power to impeach and remove judges
- Can initiate constitutional amendments and can alter the size and structure of courts
- Sets court budgets

LOWER COURTS

Along with the establishment of a supreme court, Article III of the US Constitution calls for Congress to create any other federal courts necessary to interpret and apply the federal laws of the land. In response Congress has created a number of district courts, appeal courts and several specialised courts such as the Tax Court, which hears cases regarding federal taxes. There are 94 district courts spread throughout the US and its overseas territories. They are the trial courts of the federal judicial system and have jurisdiction in federal criminal cases and civil cases. There are 13 courts of appeals - one for each of the 11 geographical regions, called circuits, one for the District of Columbia, and one hearing cases from specialised lower courts. These 13 courts hear cases on appeal from the federal district courts and other lower courts.
However, most legal cases in the US - including nearly all criminal cases - are tried by state courts, using state laws, which can vary greatly between states (for example, in the use of the death penalty).
The federal courts deal with crimes against federal