Download Give the correct form of the verb in brackets:

Chapter 14
COMMUNICATION
Linguistic skills
By the end of this chapter you should be able to do the following:

Use the indefinite, perfect and continuous tenses;

Form questions with and without question words and with question tags;

Choose the correct article to use before a noun;

Form the plurals of nouns;

Choose the correct pronoun;

Decide on the correct structure word;

Distinguish between adverbs and adjectives and understand how to form their
degrees of comparison;

Use the appropriate structure word;

Use the apostrophe correctly;

Differentiate between the singular and plural form of the verb.
Questions with short right or wrong answers
Give the correct form of the word in brackets:
1. Customers generally (dislike) slow, confusing, labour-intensive processes.
2. Alexander Graham Bell's invention (result) in the first telephone that was patented in
1877 in the USA.
3. In the next decade cross-pollination between the private and public sectors (lead) to
economic development.
4. Up to now information and communication technology (converge) in such a way as
to facilitate the integration of voice and data integration.
5. After the American Telephone and Telegraph (introduced) the first high volume
discounts for outbound long distance calling, regional and national telemarketing
CCs developed.
6. By 2005, Gauteng already (control) 60 percent of the Call Centre industry.
7. By next week, the new members of staff (be train).
8. At present cross-border, as opposed to in-country, financial sector BPO (grow) fast.
9. At that time the company (lose) money.
10. Tomorrow at nine o'clock the agents (attend) a briefing.
11. Customer relations management and customer service excellence in an information
and communication technology driven economy (is/are) central.
12. The geographic location of CC employees, in addition to Telecentres, (allows/allow)
them to perform their tasks at home.
13. Either too many options to choose from the automated voice answering service or
waiting too long in a queue frequently (irritate/irritates) clients.
14. One's customers should receive immediate attention from (one/you).
15. The needs of an employer and an employee differ from (each other/one another).
16. People sometimes allow their fears to influence their relationships with (each
other/one another).
17. The new employee does not know (anything/something) about call centres.
18. There is (any/some) government interest in the call centre industry.
19. By five o' clock yesterday afternoon, the candidates had not (already) gone through a
selection process.
20. Although a customer's first contact with the call centre agent should be pleasurable,
the second contact should be even (pleasurable).
21. She is the (inadequate) temp in a frontline position customers will ever come across.
Multiple choice questions
Choose the correct answer:
1. In most corporate companies, the recruitment and selection of staff generally …
place via a list of preferred suppliers.
A. has taken
B. have taken
C. take
D. takes
2. For the past six months the company … involved in submitting tender documents.
A. will be
B. has been
C. was
D. had been
3. Since agents … connected to the call router of the CC, their calls have been
monitored by team leaders.
A. have been
B. had been
C. are
D. were
4. After the agent … the client at the end of the conversation ‘How did you find my
service?’, the customer slammed the phone down.
A. had asked
B. asked
C. will ask
D. asks
5. Logistics service providers want to be in … best position to serve both the
international and African markets.
A. a
B. an
C. the
D. no article
6. Suppliers seldom rely on … single source of raw materials.
A. a
B. an
C. the
D. no article
7. The GEDA is … investor's first port of call for developing business relations in
Gauteng.
A. a
B. an
C. the
D. no article
8. Well-seasoned temps have the experience brought by … assignments on different
systems.
A. little
B. few
C. much
D. many
9. While there is … to be learnt from success, there is a lot to be learnt from failure.
A. little
B. few
C. much
D. many
10. The decision to outsource is usually taken by executive management. In general, …
decisions enhance efficiency.
A. that
B. those
C. this
D. these
11. Back office services could include the handling of information in all … dimensions.
A. it's
B. its
C. their
D. there
12. When a company outsources business processes to a BPO supplier in another
country, … called ‘cross-border BPO’, or ‘business process outsourcing and
offshoring’.
A. it's
B. its
C. they are
D. which is
13. When customers make telephone calls, trained CC employees usually attend to …
queries.
A. his
B. his or her
C. their
D. there
14. … intellectual capital contributes to improving service levels?
A. Which
B. Whose
C. Who's
D. That
Turn the following sentences into questions by adding a tag
1. Employees do not have to travel all the way to corporate environments,
A. will they?
B. won't they?
C. don't they?
D. do they?
2. Gauteng controls 60 percent of the CC industry,
A. is it?
B. isn't it?
C. doesn't it?
D. don't they?
3. Government-funded agencies assisted employees and the unemployed with their
skills development needs,
A. didn't they?
B. don't they?
C. will they?
D. won't they?
4. Coega has access to SA's vast mineral reserves,
A. isn't it?
B. doesn't it?
C. don't they?
D. hasn't it?
Give the plural of the following words
1.
bucketful
E. bucketful's
F. bucketfuls
G. bucketsful
2.
medium
H. media
I. mediums
J. medium's
3.
agency
K. agencys
L. agency's
M. agencies
D. agencie's
Questions with 'Fill in the missing word' answers
Turn the following sentences into questions by filling in the missing auxiliary verb (do,
does, am, is, are, did, was, were, has, have, had, will, etc):
1. Call Centres provide the channel through which customers can contact companies.
2. Question: … Call Centres provide the channel through which customers can contact
companies?
3. The manner in which the telephone lines were connected became more complicated.
4. Question: … the manner in which the telephone lines were connected became more
complicated?
5. A company that achieves economies of scale lowers the average cost per unit, … it?
6. A developing country with a struggling economy will not be viewed as a starter, … it?
7. A number of SA government entities have been working hard to attract BPO
business, … they?
8. So far each one of the Call Centres … completed the migration to an Interactive
Centre/ Integrated Delivery Centre.
9. Either public or private sector outsourcing of selected business processes to Call,
Contact, Interactive or Integrated Delivery Centres … been popular up to now.
10. Customer centricity, as well as core competencies, … currently strategic focus points.
Fill in the missing pronoun (who, whom, whose, what, that, which):
1. The first Call Centre employees were referred to as switchboard operators … worked
at telephone exchanges.
2. The agent has just picked up the pen from the floor. To … does it belong?
3. … are the essential attributes of a successful BPO supplier?
4. The manager has to implement the decision … has been finalised.
5. Outsourcing business processes gives firms the opportunity to focus on their core
business processes, … are those areas where the firm adds most value.
Change the following sentence into questions by inserting the correct interrogative
pronoun (what, when, where, who, whom, why, how):
1. South African call centre professionals are actively seeking international business for
local call centres at the moment.
2. … are actively seeking international business for local call centres at the moment?
3. … are South African call centre professionals actively seeking at the moment?
4. … are South African call centre professionals seeking international business for local
call centres at the moment?
5. … are South African call centre professionals actively seeking international business
for local call centres?
Supply the missing adverb or adjective:
1. Although many people are illiterate in South Africa, even … people are illiterate in
Africa.
2. … improvements were made, the business remained competitive and healthy.
True/False questions
Indicate whether the following statements are true or false:
1. The Present Continuous Tense (am/is/are -ing) is used for involuntary actions, such
as seeing, hearing and smelling.
2. The verb of the following sentence is correct:
I have a problem.
3. If question words (interrogative pronouns) are not used in the present indefinite
tense, the question starts with Do or Does.
4. The past continuous tense (was/were -ing) is used to express habits or customs
belonging to the past.
5. The following question is grammatically correct:
Did the employer made provision for someone to take responsibility for ensuring the
temps' introduction to the company?
6. The following sentence is in the past indefinite tense:
The temp was adequately screened by the service provider.
7. The past perfect tense expresses an action or event that that has taken place at an
unspecified time in the past (no time word is given).
8. The following sentence is in the future continuous tense:
The customer will be informed every few seconds of the number that he/she
presently occupies in the queue.
9. The future perfect tense indicates that something will be happening AT a certain time in
the future.
10. The verbs in the following sentence are correct:
After the agent received a reward for the best call resolution record, the agent has tried
even harder.
11. The present continuous tense (am/is/are -ing) is used with the word while to indicate
that while one action is taking place in the present, it is interrupted by another action.
12. At that moment is a time word belonging to the past continuous tense.
13. Tomorrow BY two o' clock is a time word indicating the future continuous tense.
14. The question tag is correct:
Outsourcing remains a hot topic for CCs around the world, doesn't it?
15. The article an is used before the noun university.
16. The plural of belief is believes.
17. The plural of equipment is equipment.
18. The pronoun is used correctly in the following sentence:
The business is theirs.
19. The pronouns are used correctly in the following sentence:
Everyone should attend to their own business.
20. The pronoun is used correctly in the following sentence:
The manager and I provide advice and professional service on different aspects of
the CC industry.
21. The relative pronoun is used correctly in the following sentence:
The operator whom received intensive prior training started working at the
switchboard.
22. Whom, as opposed to Who, is used after a preposition (e.g.: by, from, with, to).
23. The relative pronoun is used correctly in the following sentence:
Employees, whose responsibilities include answering ‘inbound calls’, may also market a
company’s products.
24. Adjectives are often formed by adding '-ly' to adverbs.
25. Indefinite pronouns, such as everyone, nobody and something, take a singular verb,
e.g.: is, was, has.
Match number questions
1.
demonstrative pronouns
2.
These
3.
indefinite pronouns
4.
interrogative pronouns
5.
one another
6.
let
7.
than
8.
adverbial phrases
9.
sophisticated
10.
necessarily
11.
some
12.
any
13.
as well as
14.
news
15.
a number of
16.
to apologise, to refuse
17.
at this moment
18.
next Monday at four o' clock
19.
since, after
20.
a
A.
they
B.
them
C.
used in affirmative sentences
D.
adverb
E.
takes a plural verb
F.
this, that
G.
auxiliary verb
H.
used with the present indefinite tense
I.
used with the future continuous tense
J.
who, whom, whose, what, which
K.
used with the present continuous tense
L.
more than two people are involved
M.
consist of more than one word
N.
anybody, nothing
O.
used in negatives and questions
P.
takes a singular verb
Q.
demonstrative pronoun used before a plural noun
R.
verb corresponds with subject before intervening phrase
S.
descriptive adjective
T.
used before a vowel sound
U.
used before a noun starting with a consonant sound
V.
shows possession
W.
used with the present perfect tense