A good opening for a bad-news message would be a. 'I'm sorry to say I have some bad news. 'This letter is in reply to your application.

A good opening for a bad-news message would be

   a. 'I'm sorry to say I have some bad news.'

   b. 'This letter is in reply to your application.'

   c. 'Your résumé shows an admirable breadth of experience.'

   d. 'We have no openings at this time.'

When dealing with someone from another culture, face-to-face communication

   a. puts your business relationship at risk.

   b. lets you avoid the much more difficult task of writing your message and saves you the expense of translation.

   c. lets you establish a personal relationship and gives you the benefit of immediate feedback.

   d. wastes a lot of the time needed to run your business.

When composing a bad-news message, you

   a. choose a buffer that will distract your reader from the main point of your message.

   b. try to gain the audience's acceptance of the bad news.

   c. leave the reader with hope that you will change your decision.

   d. do all of the above.

When preparing an ''organization chart'' to help organize a message, you begin with

   a. the main idea.

   b. the major points.

   c. supporting evidence.

   d. whatever you want to begin with.

When you have bad news to convey, it''s a good idea to

   a. put the bad news at the beginning of your message, thus getting it out of the way immediately.

   b. begin with a neutral statement that leads to the bad news gradually.

   c. put the bad news at the very end of your message.

   d. put off communicating the bad news in hopes the person will get the bad news from someone else.

''Out-listening'' refers to

   a. a highly focused form of listening.

   b. a form of selective listening in which the listener's mind wanders until something relevant is said.

   c. a form of defensive listening.

   d. listening only long enough to get a word in edgewise.

The final link in the communication chain is

   a. sending the message.

   b. receiving the message.

   c. giving feedback to the sender.

   d. interpreting the message.

When writing letters to businesspeople in other countries, you should

   a. use an informal, friendly tone.

   b. keep your sentences and paragraphs long.

   c. be vague and general in your wording.

   d. make generous use of transitional words and phrases.

A complex sentence is one characterized by

   a. two independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction.

   b. a single subject and a single predicate plus any modifying phrases.

   c. two or more independent clauses along with all modifying phrases.

   d. an independent clause and one or more dependent clauses related to it.

To hear spoken messages or other sounds attached to a document, receivers must

   a. convert the document to tape and use a tape player.

   b. load the document into a computer that has a sound card installed.

   c. insert the document into an optical character recognition system.

   d. receive the document over a phone line.