News Exercise #32

This week we have a US item from ABC News:

Answers:

1) 0:13 Tonight, hidden cameras show what some of the distributors said “behind closed doors”.
It means “unofficially”

2) 0:30 How is Herbalife’s business doing, and what is this in spite of?
It has never been better, despite two Federal investigations and allegations by critics (that) it’s an illegal pyramid scheme.

3) What is Herbalife’s monetary value?
Six billion Dollars ($6,000,000,000)

4) What kinds of products do they make?
Diet powders and nutrician products

5) Why does the company have to be careful about being accurate in describing its product’s capabilities?
The company remains under a court order from the 1980s not to make false or misleading representations about the products’ health benefits.

6) 1:07 When the former surgeon says “Well you give people _________________”, what does he mean?
“False hope”, which means they believe they can get well, when they can’t.

7) 1:32 What was the company president’s response to the question “Does Herbalife cure brain tumors?”

“Absolutely not, and frankly I’m appalled to hear you say this.”
8) At 2:22 “And this is ___________________.” What does he mean?
“And this is something we clearly need to address.” It means we need to correct the problem.
9) At 2:25, the company president says that these exaggerated claims are “aberrations” and “anomalies”, but why does the reporter not believe this?
Because he heard from the company that “almost 600 distributors were disciplined, last year alone, for making medical claims, with twelve of them stripped of their distributorships.”