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complex, and they’ve got complicated names which means they're not all that good for
marketing. That’s the problem.
Louisa: Sure. But the other problem is, consumers are not technical experts, and they make
choices based on their impressions, rather than based on facts. That’s a hard commercial fact,
as hard as submarine steel.
Tom: No, I accept that.
Louisa: So what should our approach be? It’s obviously not an easy question ...

b In pairs, discuss what is meant by each of the quality issues in Exercise 13a.

14a ► 2.5 Listen again and answer the following questions.
1 What point does Tom make about the reasons for selecting materials?
2 What does he say about submarine-grade steel to exemplify the above point?
3 What problem does he describe with regard to the marketability of many materials?
4 What hard commercial fact does Louisa give?

b In pairs, mark the following statements True (T) or False (F) according to the views
expressed in the conversation. Read the script and check your answers.
1 Often, exotic-sounding materials are not that suitable, technically.
2 People think that a submarine steel watch must be tremendously water-resistant.
3 The corrosion resistance of submarine steel is exceptionally good.
4 Submarine-grade steel looks fairly good.
5 Tom thinks submarine steel is particularly suitable for watches.
6 The firm has often used materials that are not adequately durable.
7 Often, the compositions of good watch materials are relatively complex.
8 Materials with complicated names are pretty good for marketing.

c ► 2.6 Read the following phrases from the conversation and underline the stressed
syllable. Practise saying the phrases.
1 not particularly suitable 4 tremendously marketable
2 exceptionally resistant 5 relatively complex
3 not at all suitable 6 not all that good

1 not particularly suitable
2 exceptionally resistant
3 not at all suitable
4 tremendously marketable
5 relatively complex
6 not all that good

d Complete the following table using the words in the box.
exceptionally fairly insufficiently not adequately not (all) that not particularly pretty
relatively tremendously

extremely quite not very not enough definitely not
exceptionally .
.

15 In pairs, discuss the key properties and different types and grades of the following

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