A. Vocabulary

· No pain, no gain - people's belief that you must suffer to succeed, that nothing good comes without hard work

· conglomerate – (n) a corporation made up of several different, independent businesses.

· curse – (v) swear; use coarse language

· pardon my French = funny way to apologize for cursing

· steal [someone's] thunder = use this phrase when one person does something that takes (the stealing) positive attention (the thunder) away from someone who should be getting that positive attention.

B. Questions

· Are you a competitive person by nature?

· People say “no pain no gain”. Do you believe in this?

· How well do you deal with defeat?

· Do you ever think about how much you earn compared to your colleagues?

· Do you work in a competitive industry?

· What can you say about family-run business conglomerates in terms of competition?

· Would you encourage your children to be competitive?

· Do you curse during meetings? If you do, do you say “pardon my French” after?

· Should a manager encourage competition between workers?

· Are competitive people more successful in general?

· Talk about a time when someone stole your thunder.