1、TEST 3This is the Business English Certificate Vantage 4, Listening Test 3.Part One. Questions 1 to 12.You will hear three telephone conversations or messages.Write one or two words or a number in the numbered spaces on the notes or forms below.After you have listened once, replay each recording.pau
2、seConversation One.Questions 1 to 4.Look at the notes below.You will hear a phone conversation between a manager and his PA.You have 15 seconds to read through the notes.pauseNow listen, and fill in the spaces.pauseMan: Hi, Jane. Barry here. Sorry this is a bit rushed, but I need you to fax me a doc
3、ument urgently.Woman: No problem. What do you need?Man: That report Ive been writing on recruitment. I havent printed it off, but youll find it on my computer. I called it jobsplan, all one word. OK?Woman: No problem. Which folder is it in? Personnel?Man: Thats right. No, no, hang on, um, I created
4、a new folder called Current Reports - its in there.Woman: OK. Ive made a note of that. If I cant locate it, Ill call you back.Man: Fine. Its quite a long document by the way. So dont bother sending the appendix. We dont really need that. But include the contents page - thatd be quite useful.Woman: S
5、hall I send it to you there at Head Office?Man: Um. let me think. It might be better to fax it to my hotel. Er, no, youre right. Send it here.Woman: OK.Man: Thanks very much. Bye.pauseNow listen to the recording again.pauseConversation Two. Questions 5 to 8.Look at the notes below.You will hear two
6、colleagues discussing an additional location for their business.You have 15 seconds to read through the notes.pauseNow listen, and fill in the spaces.pauseWoman: Hello, Mike, have you got a moment?Man: Sure, what is it? The location?Woman: Yes, we cant put it off any longer.Man: Hm, especially as we
7、 chose the site for the new warehouse last night. We need to get organised.Woman: Exactly. We need a decision today. Where should the discount shop be, then?Man: Well, not too close to our existing branches, thats for sure. I think itd better be in the out-of-town retail centre.Woman: I know thats e
8、asier for customers, but the business park, which is the other out-of- town site, would be better for deliveries, which is important.Man: But the trend is towards more and more people using the retail centre, isnt it?Woman: Well, the survey we did shows people will visit the business park if we open
9、 there.Man: Really? I wasnt expecting that. Is it because we produce specialist goods? Does that make a difference?Woman: Yes.Man: Are there any local grants available?Woman: Not as such, but there are tax benefits if we take on premises in the business park.Man: Right. Thats settled, then. How abou
10、t.pauseNow listen to the recording again.pauseConversation Three. Questions 9 to 12.Look at the note below.You will hear a woman leaving a message about where to hold a meeting.You have 15 seconds to read through the note.pauseNow listen, and fill in the spaces.pauseHi, its Emily Parker in Marketing
11、. I was at the Carlton Hotel yesterday for a sales training meeting. I thought it would be a very suitable place to hold the shareholders meeting youre arranging. I heard youre still looking for somewhere. Theyve recently refurbished all their meeting rooms. I was in a seminar room - it was too smal
12、l for your event, but I looked at the conference hall and the VIP lounge and either would be perfect - oh, except the conference halls booked on the twenty-fifth of October, so it doesnt leave us any choice. Anyway, theyre both large rooms with comfortable seating, and its possible to have a sound s
13、ystem at no extra cost. Wed have to bring a display stand of our own if we wanted one. Assuming you want to go ahead with the twenty-fifth, I mentioned to the Events Manager there that we might want to book, so youll need to talk to him, rather than the General Manager in the bookings office. The nu
14、mbers three-five-seven-two-oh-nine. Bye.pauseNow listen to the recording again.pauseThat is the end of Part One. You now have 20 seconds to check your answers.pausePart Two. Questions 13 to 22.Section One. Questions 13 to 17.You will hear five short recordings. Five speakers are talking about delega
15、ting at work.For each recording, decide what advice the speaker gives about delegating at work.Write one letter (A-H) next to the number of the recording.Do not use any letter more than once.After you have listened once, replay the recordings.You have 15 seconds to read the list A-H.pauseNow listen,
16、 and decide what advice each speaker gives about delegating at work.pauseThirteenNo matter how much confidence you have in the person youre entrusting a task to, I think theres a crucial element to delegating thats often forgotten. There has to be a framework in place of where and who to go to if th
17、ey get stuck and need help. I know, as a manager, Im used to dealing with tasks all by myself, but when Im delegating to juniors, I always remind myself that not everybody is as independent as me.pauseFourteenIf youve ever delegated to someone else and spent more time on the task than if youd done i
18、t yourself, then its time to review where youre going wrong. If your motivation for delegating is thinking that the other person can do it better than you, or itll free you up to do something else, thats great. But delegation isnt an easy way out, so if youre just being lazy or the task seems too sm
19、all to concern yourself with, always do it yourself.pauseFifteenOnce youve selected someone to delegate a task to - assuming you do have a choice of personnel - theres something you need to do thats too important to leave till the jobs finished. Its a mistake if you dont make it clear to staff what
20、theyre doing well and what they could improve on. Some managers think its a form of interfering and doesnt give people space to get on with the job, but I find some constructive suggestions are usually helpful.pauseSixteenWhen you give someone a task to do, theres not much point in simply listing th
21、e particular difficulties involved in carrying it out. You really need to check they understand what challenges they can expect to face and how they might deal with them. So you should sit down with them and explore possible solutions. If they simply say I understand, its not a guarantee that they d
22、o.pauseSeventeenOnce you become an effective delegator, youll be talked about by those who see what you and your team can achieve. And, as for team members, well, theyll appreciate the trust you place in them and the support theyve received from you. But until you reach that point on the learning cu
23、rve, keep telling yourself not to give up whenever it doesnt go to plan. Ive certainly had some disastrous attempts at delegating in my time.pauseNow listen to the recordings again.pauseSection Two. Questions 18 to 22.You will bear another five recordings. Five speakers are talking about the reason
24、for the success of their companys most recent TV advertising campaign.For each recording, decide what reason the speaker gives for the success of the campaign.Write one letter (A-H) next to the number of the recording.Do not use any letter more than once.After you have listened once, replay the reco
25、rdings.You have 15 seconds to read the list A-H.pauseNow listen, and decide what each speaker says is the reason for the success.pauseEighteenOur last campaign was the most successful ever. Always worried about the cost, we were on a tight budget, but the results were fantastic. Research had shown o
26、ur rivals products were more attractive, but while the ad was running, one of them had some bad publicity about their products, and we picked up a lot of their trade. Sometimes, its not how much you invest or who you use, but just being in the right place at the right time.pauseNineteenLast years TV
27、 campaign took the market by storm. In the past, wed depended heavily on sending out samples to customers - it was a cheap and, we thought, effective way of targeting our core customer base. But last year, we had the good fortune to recruit a dynamic young Marketing Manager who brought with him a gr
28、oup of people who are changing the way we do things. Were looking to produce another even more successful series of TV commercials next year.pauseTwentySpend money to earn money! Thats been the philosophy of our organisation for years. The directors liked expensive-looking TV commercials, which appe
29、aled to our core customers in the old age bracket. However, our last campaign proved that you dont always have to go over budget to win new customers. We thought of a new approach, which our agency developed, and it turned out to be cheaper and, to our delight, brought us to the attention of a new,
30、younger market.pauseTwenty-oneSuccessful TV campaigns can be costly, and good market research is absolutely vital. Weve always researched thoroughly before a campaign, but theres something else which was the key to last months success. Although some people attribute it to our main rivals bankruptcy,
31、 it was the fact that we found a management group who we brought in to recommend ways of improving our marketing that really helped. A suggestion to use a TV campaign to advertise in-store promotions and mail-order facilities paid off handsomely.pauseTwenty-twoConsultants recommended hiring a whole
32、new marketing team for the company, but I rejected this. Weve got a good experienced team in the company. It wouldve been an unnecessary expense. We decided we should put more effort into the groundwork for the campaign. Our team carried out a more detailed customer survey, and on the basis of that,
33、 our production company was able to create a commercial that was more accurately targeted.pauseNow listen to the recordings again.pauseThat is the end of Part Two.pausePart Three. Questions 23 to 30.You will hear a radio interview with a businessman called Brett Porter, who developed a product calle
34、d Rainaway, a type of waterproof map.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.pauseNow listen, and mark A, B or C.pauseWoman: . and today were talking to Brett Por
35、ter, whose company developed the hugely successful all-weather maps called Rainaway. These are waterproof maps that can be used by people who ride motorbikes. Brett, welcome to the programme.Man: Thanks.Woman: You actually invented Rainaway - how did that come about?Man: Well, anyone, like me, who r
36、ides a motorbike, understands the problem of ordinary maps falling to pieces when its raining or windy. There are three million bikers just in the UK, who I knew would be willing to pay for a solution to this problem. Nobody had ever produced something like Rainaway - Id assumed it couldnt be done,
37、that the costs were too great, but I was disappointed that my needs as a consumer werent catered for, and people I knew kept encouraging me to develop and produce it as a business.Woman: Was establishing the company difficult?Man: In fact, I already had my own company - a motorcycle courier firm - b
38、ut this was completely different and involved setting up a new business. What Id learnt about pricing didnt seem to apply - Id never dealt with a product as such. But I knew I understood the market better than most. If I could make the product, Id be meeting a demand. However, knowing where to sell
39、and how to get it into the shops was another matter!Woman: I see.Man: But I was convinced the business would grow fast. I even entered the European Awards Scheme for ideas for business start-ups. It had a first prize of one hundred thousand euros worth of software from Croner Consulting. The awards
40、were sponsored by Alliance Business Bank - and because I made the final shortlist, I was offered a two-per-cent interest loan from them if I needed it. They organised a dinner for everyone on the shortlist, and I happened to get chatting to their senior business consultant, who gave me some invaluab
41、le financial advice. It really helped get me started.Woman: Did you do any trial production of the maps?Man: Yes. I knew what they should look like - a strong cover and small enough to flick through quickly. But trials took six months. The difficulty was we had to use a really tough kind of plastic
42、for the cover, and this had to be fed into the printer sheet by sheet - fine for a small output, but absolutely no good for large-scale production.Woman: Did you have any trouble persuading a printing company to make Rainaway?Man: I thought I would - it wasnt really in a printers interest to make a
43、long-lasting product. The real difficulty, though, was my lack of a track record. They thought I was just planning a one-off print run or a very small-scale operation, which wouldnt be very profitable for them. Once Id persuaded the boss of one firm that wasnt the case, he seemed willing to take a c
44、hance.Woman: Do you use someone elses maps to make Rainaway from?Man: Yes, we use Herne Publishings. Of course, given they know theyre a crucial supplier, theres a danger in a few years they might want to buy us out. But in the meantime, I have a protected trademark, and the people at Herne Publishi
45、ng realise its better for them to let me use my knowledge and contacts to establish the business. The alternative for them would involve spending money on producing a rival product, which I know they would be reluctant to do.Woman: You must be pleased with Rainaways performance?Man: Absolutely. We l
46、aunched Rainaway in September two thousand one, and sold two hundred thousand maps in the first year alone. In the last couple of years, the company turned over in excess of seven hundred thousand pounds, our best result so far, which isnt bad when you consider our maps retail at ten to twenty-four
47、pounds each.Woman: Very impressive! Whats next for Rainaway? Do you plan to extend your range?Man: I already have plenty of other ideas for the longer term, but thats all I can say for now. Ive been devoting a lot of time recently to facilitating expansion by setting up a call centre to deal with ma
48、il-order sales. Thats just opened, with a staff of twenty-five. I now need to concentrate on our advertisements - theyve been very popular so far, but its tough coming up with new ideas to continue to attract attention.Woman: I wish you luck.pauseNow listen to the recording again.pauseThat is the end of Part Three. You now have ten minutes to transfer your answers to your Answer Sheet.pauseNote: Teacher, stop the recording here and time ten minutes. Remind students when there is one minute remaining.That is the end of the test.
