发布时间 : 星期一 文章剑桥商务英语中级习题集（2010年春季）听力原文更新完毕开始阅读4c9eaf563c1ec5da50e27090
Obviously, production costs have increased, and I don’t think we’ve taken that into account nearly enough. Introducing a competitive pricing strategy wouldn’t mean that we couldn’t take inflation into account, and we should certainly consider this before the end of the year. Otherwise, we’ll find ourselves selling at below cost! [pause] Fifteen
Time equals money, and you just have to look at the amount of time we spend - well, waste - travelling from place to place to realise that this is costing us too much. We’re duplicating a lot of services and systems, which we wouldn’t have to do if we streamlined our offices. Operating from one location instead of four would lead to greater control, considerable reduction in costs and increased efficiency. Staff would appreciate it, too. [pause] Sixteen
I think that there’s a danger - we’re over-diversified and, instead of looking at our production processes and ways of automating them even further, what we should be doing is targeting our most successful lines and focusing on them, even if it means abandoning some lines altogether. What I’m talking about is specialisation - concentrate on what we know we do well and what we know will make money. And that’ll bring down costs, too. [pause] Seventeen
We’re relying too heavily on past success, without thinking about where we go from here. You can’t just rely on maintaining productivity. Prices of raw materials are rising, and our overheads are enormous - look at what we’re spending on buildings alone. In this business, you have to run just to stay in the same place. We’ve go to constantly improve, and that means getting more produced faster, and better. [pause]
Now listen to the recordings again. [pause]
Section Two.
Questions 18 to 22.
You will bear another five recordings.
For each recording, decide what the speaker is trying to do. Write one letter (A-H) next to the number of the recording. Do not use any letter more than once.
After you bare listened once, replay the recordings. You have 15 seconds to read the list A-H. [pause]
Now listen, and decide what each speaker is trying to do. [pause] Eighteen
I’m afraid we really need to finish the project as soon as possible. If we don’t keep to the schedule, the delay could lose us our external funding. Losing that could lead to various problems, including salaries not being paid on time. Don’t forget as well that the budget depends on us finishing by the end of the summer. No, we need to keep to our original plans and keep that money coming in. [pause] Nineteen
As you can see, the figures speak for themselves - our model EXG surpassed all forecasts in its first year. Because of our competitive pricing policy, it has been selling extremely well. However, we want to extend this trend and build on it. We now need to come up with a
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campaign to make sure we increase the number of models we sell abroad, not just on the domestic market. Japan is our main target. [pause] Twenty
Right, let’s see where we’ve gotten to. We’ve agreed to recognise when staff have worked hard and achieved their goals. Sales need to have done reasonably well in their area - ideally better than the forecasts while keeping within budget. And, if we feel a person is worth substantial investment, we can go with a five-per-cent pay rise, as well as offering a bonus in exceptional circumstances. [pause] Twenty-one
The figures show quite clearly that we didn’t reach the target we set last year. If anything, I think we ought to cut back on spending, at least for the next few months. If sales pick up in the new year and we manage to add new clients to our base, maybe we can think about buying more estate and equipment then. If I may say so, we have to be realistic. [pause] Twenty-two
What were last year’s figures? Hm. Not too good, I see - sales in the US were down, but it looks as though they were more or less constant in Asia. However, the worldwide market’s pretty buoyant at the moment, forecasts do seem more optimistic, and our investment looks sound, so yeah, let’s go along with that - we’ll allocate four hundred thousand dollars for the first quarter. That’s an eight-per-cent increase on last year - we should be able to keep within that. [pause]
Now listen to the recordings again. [pause]
That is the end of Part Two. [pause]
Part Three.
Questions 23 to 30.
You will hear part of a tutorial between a business student called Gareth and his tutor, in which they discuss Trident Appliances, a manufacturer of photocopiers.
For each question, 23-30, mark one letter (A, B or C) for the correct answer. After you have listened once, replay the recording. You have 45 seconds to read through the questions. [pause]
Now listen, and mark A, B or C. [pause]
Woman: Ah, Gareth, do sit down. Man: Thank you.
Woman: Now, presumably you’ve considered this case study about Trident Appliances? Man: Yes.
Woman: Good. Well, let’s start with the present situation. Trident manufactures photocopiers,
which they sell in bulk to retailers and large organisations. Now, why do you think they’re having trouble selling them?
Man: It’s strange, because there’s a big demand for photocopiers, and Trident’s are
competitively priced. But the specifications just don’t compare with what’s expected these days. It’s a shame, because they’ve got plenty of technical expertise in their engineering support team.
Woman: OK. Now, the company is owned by a large multinational. How do they see Trident? Man: Well, the group is largely in the mining sector, and Trident doesn’t fit in with that, so
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Woman: Man:
Woman: Man:
Woman: Man:
Woman: Man:
Woman: Man:
Woman: Man:
Woman: [pause]
Now listen to the recording again. [pause]
That is the end of Part Three. You now have ten minutes to transfer your answers to your Answer Sheet. [pause]
Note: Teacher, stop the recording here and time ten minutes. Remind students when there is one minute remaining.
That is the end of the test.
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you’d expect the parent company to want to sell it. Or alternatively to be active, say by helping it to expand its markets. But really it seems quite content to take a hands-off approach, as long as Trident is generating some income.
Hmm... There’s clearly poor morale among the employees. Why do you think that is? Well, weak line managers are often a reason, but I can’t find any evidence for that here. And even the recent changes, like the cut in bonuses, have been accepted fairly calmly. I think it reflects people’s uncertainty about their long-term prospects with the company.
What would you say about the sales staff? There’s a lot about them in the case study. They’re doing the best they can in the circumstances. There’s a system for helping them to develop their selling skills, and that’s working. The way customers are allocated to each salesperson could be improved maybe, to reduce unnecessary travel. But they’re getting contradictory signals about what they’re supposed to be doing: just responding to enquiries, or going out looking for new business.
Uh-huh. And what about the service engineers: what’s the main weakness in that department?
They seem to miss a lot of opportunities. When they visit a customer to install or repair a photocopier, it’s their chance to look at all the equipment there and suggest how Trident could supply the company’s needs better. Then there’s their problem with spares, the Parts Services Department keeps stocks low, for financial reasons, but that means the engineers often can’t get the parts they need for call-outs, and the customer has to wait.
Now, what about communications within the company? I’m sure you’ll agree they’re not as good as they could be. Why do you think that is?
Well, was bit surprised, because, in fact, middle managers hold regular meetings with their departments. But that’s because they’re given information by the top management about policy issues and plans, for instance, which they have to pass on. But I have to say that some of them don’t seem to think their staff can have anything to say that’s worth hearing. And, of course, this creates ill feeling.
OK. Now, if you think about the Chief Executive’s problems for a moment.., what do you think he needs to tackle first?
There are so many problems! Something needs to be done about the workforce, because some departments employ staff without the necessary training. In the long term, of course, they need to develop the photocopiers themselves. But the priority must be to reverse the fall in revenue, even if it means cutting prices, in order to increase the sales volume. Unless they do that, they’ll go out of business very soon. And what about their advertising?
Well, they’re using modern media, like the internet, and targeting their advertising more than they used to, for instance by moving from magazine ads to direct mailshots to companies. But these have an old-fashioned feel to them; the layout and graphics don’t seem to have changed for twenty years. Right. Now, let’s go on to...