Part 1. Warming up.
A. Keywords.
commercial, airplane maker, merger talks.
Vocabulary.
flurry, hook up, Airbus, KLM, Swiss Air, Sabena Airlines, United Airlines, US Airways, American Airlines, Delta, Northwest.
A1. You're going to hear 2 short news items, work out the summaries.
1. Boeing, the world's leading commercial airplane maker, announced it has 18 billion dollars in new orders this year for its new 777 jetliner.
This figure puts demand for the Boeing aircraft ahead of comparable models produced by rival Airbus of Europe.
2. British Airways and Dutch carrier KLM confirm they are in act of merger talks.
Swiss Air won approval for taking majority control of Belgium's Sabena Airlines and there was another flurry of take-over discussions among some major American carriers.
They come on the heels of Number one United Airlines's offer to buy Number Six US Airways two weeks ago.
The Nation's number two, American Airlines, and the country's third largest, Delta, have been having what are described as preliminary discussions about a possible combination.
American had reportedly been talking with Northwest about a hook up as well.
The top three US airlines, United, American and Delta currently control 56 percent of US air traffic.
It the mergers go through, they'd control 85 percent.
A2. Listen to the second news item again, and then match column A with column B. The match will suggest the mergers between airlines.
