B.

READING PRACTICE

Chatbots: Can we help you?

Difficulty level *

In business so much emphasis is put on effective

communication, personalising customer
interaction and building a rapport with clients that
it leaves you wondering where chatbots fit into
this way of thinking.

Chatbots - automated systems for conversations

by text or voice - are becoming more and more common in customer service situations. The little
pre-sales chatbox with 'Hello, can I help you?' that pops up on the corner of your screen as you are
browsing a shopping site can quite easily be ignored but if you contact a company with a question
or a problem to be resolved you might not have any choice, at least at first, but to talk to one of
these chatbots. These virtual agents, available 24/7, can save companies time and money by
dealing with requests like billing details, technical support and all manner of other mundane tasks,
freeing up real customer service agents for other more complex situations.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language generation have meant that today’s chatbots have
come a long way from the stilted, scripted conversations which were all the first examples were
capable of, but it takes a lot of time, financial investment and data to build an advanced system.
Transcripts of hundreds of thousands of company specific enquiries and calls have to be analysed
to train the AI, through deep learning, in order for the chatbots to handle requests correctly. In
addition, they must be able to connect with the rest of the company’s IT system and records, such
as a customer's past purchases, settings and location. This allows the chatbots to combine this
information with the customer’s current question so as to identify and then correctly respond to
the customer’s intent. For these reasons, the latest virtual agent systems are really only suitable for
huge service-oriented companies, with large-scale customer interactions, such as retail, travel,
telecommunications and financial services.

These advanced forms of chatbots might be able to mimic real speech and respond to subtle
changes in tone of voice, however their aim is not to fool people into believing they are talking
with a real person – that would leave clients feeling cheated and probably wary of using the
company again – but to show that chatbots offer a fast, easy, reliable and above all secure way of

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contacting a company. In this way, it should be possible to overcome customers’ dislike and fear
of dealing with an automated system instead of talking to a customer service assistant. After all,
being able to resolve any issues quickly and easily is good news for businesses and customers
alike.

Exercise 1: What is the main idea of the passage?

A. Chatbots fuel customers’ fear of dealing with a machine.

B. Chatbots need a compilation of transcripts to grow more powerful.
C. Chatbots provide 24/7 responses to almost all customer inquiries.
D. Chatbots act as a solution to enhanced business-customer communication.

Exercise 2: Read the article and decide if these sentences are True (T), False (F), or Not given
(NG).

1. ____ The use of chatbots in customer service has increased.

Action plan for True /
2. ____ Chatbots on e-commerce websites are often ignored by False / Not given:
shoppers. 1. Underline keywords in the
statement.
3. ____ Chatbots mean that customer service agents may no longer
2. Scan the text for the
have employment. (paraphrased) keywords.
4. ____ The first chatbots used a very natural and flowing form 3. Read the sentence(s)
containing the keywords in
of language. detail.
5. ____ Deep learning is how AI chatbots are able to learn to deal 4. Decide if the information in
the statement agrees with the
efficiently with customer requests.
text (True), contradicts the
6. ____ Smaller companies are advised not to use chatbots until text (False) or does not
the costs drop. appear in the text (Not given).

7. ____ A good chatbot should be able to convince people it is a

real person.
8. ____ Some clients would prefer to speak to customer service
assistants than use chatbots.

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READING PASSAGE 3

A. VOCABULARY PRACTICE: Complete the following sentences using the words in the box.
Use dictionary if necessary.

reassurance intensity reciprocate unconscious interpersonal

1. The university community provides support for developing vital graduate skills such as verbal
and __________________ communication.
2. During the pandemic, some attorneys pointed out to the fact that there was an increase of the
__________________ of domestic violence.
3. He seems to be driven by an __________________ desire to do better than everyone else.
4. The commitment from meat processors offers some level of __________________ to organic
farmers facing an expensive winter of feeding.
5. European Commission President urged Britain to __________________ EU efforts to resolve
post-Brexit trade arrangements for Northern Ireland.

B. READING PRACTICE

Recognizing nonverbal communication

Difficulty level *
A. Nonverbal communication is an intriguing part of business communication because it is both
complex and somewhat difficult to pin down. On the sending side, some nonverbal signals are
controllable (such as choosing what to wear), some are habits you may not even think about
(tapping your fingers when you’re impatient, for instance), some are trainable (using specific
hand gestures during a presentation), and some are involuntary (such as blushing). On the
receiving side, nonverbal signals are not always reliable (a person who avoids eye contact isn’t
necessarily trying to hide something, for example), and people vary widely in their ability to
interpret signals correctly.
B. In a face-to-face conversation, everything from your body language to your clothing to your
eye movements can influence the messages and meanings the other party takes away from the
exchange. During a phone call, the pitch, rate, and other qualities of your voice can send
nonverbal signals. Even with written messages (both printed and digital), design and

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