TEST 5

TEST 5Part 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.[pause]Conversation One.Questions 1 to 4.Look at the notes below.You will hear a woman calling a colleague about a factory visit.You have fifteen seconds to read through the notes.[pause]Now listen, and fill in the spaces.[pause]Woman: Sarah Williams speaking.Man: Hello. It's Mark here, from Production. Holly should be taking some visitors around today, but she's off sick, so I was wondering...Woman: ... if I'd do it?Man: Exactly.Woman: No problem. Who are the visitors - sales directors again?Man: Not this time. It's the plant managers. There's about ten, from France, Germany ... all around Europe really.Woman: And the programme?Man: I thought you could meet them at nine thirty by the packing area. I would suggest meeting at reception, but it'll be busy then.Woman: Do you want me to show them around the warehouse first?Man: I think they've been there before. Perhaps you could take them around the shop floor instead?Woman: Good idea. What about after coffee?Man: The delivery yard maybe? There's a lot going on there and visitors usually find it interesting - I'm not sure they'd like a presentation, especially not before lunch. Woman: I agree.Man: Thanks again.[pause]Now listen to the recording again.[pause]Conversation Two.Questions 5 to 8.Look at the form below.You will hear a woman calling a recruitment agency.You have fifteen seconds to read through the form.[pause]Now listen, and fill in the spaces.[pause]Man: Hello. A R Z Recruitment.Woman: Hello. I'm calling from Fraser-Hill ... I spoke to you earlier about a vacancy we want to fill...Man: Oh yes, for the ... mechanical engineer?Woman: Electrical actually.Man: Oh yes, sorry ... I was looking at the wrong file ... and you were going to check some of the details.Woman: That's right... I think I told you the post was in Quality Control, but apparently it's in the Design Section. Someone's just handed in their notice there.Man: OK... and is the salary still the same? Between twenty-one thousand, three hundred and twenty-four thousand, eight hundred?Woman: That's right - depending on previous experience.Man: Yes, OK I've got that ... and are there any particular requirements? When we talked earlier I think you mentioned language ability.Woman: That's right - we're export-oriented and all our major clients are overseas, so that would be an asset. And we must have someone with a diploma, not just a certificate, that's themain thing.Man: OK, that shouldn't be back to you if it is.[pause][pause]Conversation Three.Questions 9 to 12.Look at the notes below.You will hear a journalist phoning the Managing Director of Shipton's Foods about his firm's website.You have fifteen seconds to read through the notes.[pause]Now listen, and [ill in the spaces.[pause]Woman: Thanks for sparing the time to help with my article.Man: That's OK. You'd like to know about our website?Woman: Yes. Who is responsible for updating it?Man: Our IT department's relatively small, and our technical staff lack the skills needed, so the work is contracted out to our IT consultant ... but our Marketing Team had somecreative input at the start.Woman: Does the website serve its purpose?Man: Basically, yes. It's a big site because of all the details we include of our products, and as it's primarily aimed at trade customers, putting up pages like the company history ... orannual report ... seems pointless.Woman: Are you intending to use your site in other ways?Man: We looked into internet recruitment, but decided against it. We're exploring online selling - I think that'll happen quite soon. Apart from that, I'm unconvinced of thebenefits of further investment.Woman: Could I ask why?Man: Well, the bigger the site, the more technical problems there are, and that impacts on staffing. Fundamentally, any marketing activity has to be cost effective, and that's mymain concern about the internet.Woman: Well, thanks very much for your help.[pause]Now listen to the recording again.[pause]That is the end of Part One. You now have twenty seconds to check your answers.[pause]Part Two. Questions 13 to 22.Now listen to the recording again.Section One.Questions 13 to 17.You will hear five short recordings.For each recording, decide what the speaker's strategy is for success in management.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 fifteen seconds to read the list A-H.[pause]Now listen, and decide what each speaker's strategy is for success in management.[pause]ThirteenNo matter what kind of business situation I'm in, it's always important to know exactly who the individual is I'm communicating with. The worst mistake you can make is to fail to find out what drives them - money, status or whatever. Once you've worked that out, you'll be able to ensure you communicate what's in it for them personally. This should essentially govern the way you respond to people, enabling you to stay in control of the situation and achieve the desired outcome. [pause]FourteenI've learnt some valuable management lessons over the years, not least in how to avoid the failure of a project. No matter what your position is, you always have to be prepared for opposition. And it's important to anticipate this by getting as many colleagues as possible on your side, so that if, in discussions, someone objects to your plans, you - and a number of others - are able to give an immediate response in order to silence your opponent.[pause]FifteenWhen I first started running my own business I made some dreadful mistakes in the way I handled staff. The worst thing you can do is stick to one strategy and apply it to every situation. Sometimes you just need to show 'em who's boss; other times some gentle persuasion is more effective - in my opinion, anyway. I'm sure I was often criticised for my management style - not that I let it bother me, though.[pause]SixteenI've found if you want to stay in charge of a situation, the worst mistake you can make is not keeping people up to speed with what you're doing at every single stage of the process. Of course, that doesn't mean you need to be seeking universal agreement or approval for your actions and opinions - some people will always be critical - but at least adopting this approach will encourage an atmosphere in which everyone feels included.[pause]SeventeenThere are always going to be things in a company people don't like, and if you've created an atmosphere in which they're encouraged to contribute ideas freely, you have to learn to deal with complaints. Revealing that you are, for example, upset by their comments is a crucial error - you will have shown a weakness in your character that others may try to exploit - and may lead to a general lack of support for you.[pause]Now listen to the recordings again.[pause]Section Two.Questions 18 to 22.You will hear another five recordings.For each recording, decide what the speaker's main reason is for making the phone call.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 fifteen seconds to read the list A-H.[pause]Now listen, and decide what each speaker's main reason is for making the phone call. [pause]EighteenWe've got a real problem here, so your advice has been very welcome. I've decided that what you said is probably true. We've got too many people working in non-productive departments and not enough people in those departments where the workload is increasing. Your idea of offering transfers before we do anything like starting a recruitment campaign is, I think, a good one and I'm going to follow it up.[pause]NineteenIn December, we accepted a very large contract which we all knew would mean everyone havingto do extra hours, whether here or at home, to fulfil it. I realise that your particular circumstances make this very difficult to deal with, but that's also true of many of your colleagues. I'm afraid I'm going to have to say that I can't do anything about it at the moment. If I did, everyone else would suffer.[pause]TwentyI've been thinking about what you said about the hospitality committee. I completely agree with you that the arrangements they made for the annual conference last year were most inadequate and so, like you, I think it'd be a very bad idea to repeat them. However, I also think you should he very careful how you say this to the senior management. In my opinion, it's not worth risking your career over something as minor as this.[pause]Twenty-oneThere are three flights that day, but two of them require an overnight stay at the airport and it's not company policy to fund that. So, we're left with the third one, the one that leaves at eight o' clock in the evening. If you agree, I'll ask for that one and we can travel down together. We can probably get a lot of work done on the train to the airport.[pause]Twenty-twoI know you think the company's making a mistake in refusing to allow staff to work flexibly in thisway. I realise this kind of arrangement is common now, but I can't accept that the company should employ staff on full pay and then never see them. We've always said that a full staff being here in the office, punctually and regularly, is a really important part of what makes this company what it is, and I agree with 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 bear Sophie Garland, the GeneralManager of Daylong Leisure Centres and.James Pinot, the Operations Manager, discussing problems at the Nottingham centre.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 forty-five seconds to read through the questions.[pause]Now listen, and mark A, B or C.[pause]Woman: Hello, James, do sit down. Right, as you know, our Nottingham centre has had a significant drop in income over the last few months. In fact, it's doing much worse thanour other British centres, for reasons we haven't really been able to get to the bottom of.The situation is now pretty worrying, and even if immediate action is taken, I don'texpect Nottingham to return to profitability this year. Now, it seems to me we have twooptions facing us." the first is to see if we can create a strategy to keep the operationgoing, and the second is to close it down completely. What's your feeling about it? Man: Closing it down would be a disaster. You know, when there was a situation like this in the European division, they turned it around with a special promotion which workedvery well. Do you remember this time last year, when we thought we'd have to sellsome of the French centres? Well, now they're doing well and we didn't even have tospend any extra money on them, either.Woman: Yes, that's true. But Nottingham has lost nearly a million in the six months and we can't afford to keep absorbing that kind of loss. I really think we should close it down as soonas possible and liquidise our assets. It's on a prime site, which would be worth a lot todevelopers. I don't even think it's worth trying to sell it as a going concern to one of ourcompetitors.Man: Isn't that rather short-sighted? The same thing's happening everywhere. It's always the service industries which are hit first when people are worried about job security. Andbefore you say that the centres are looking outdated and that consumer tastes andfashions have changed, I've done my homework and the consumer surveys show thatpeople would still come if they had the money.Woman: That's not the only reason, James. And the bottom line is, the Board are pushing me to improve figures now. We're falling behind the competition, and if we keep Nottinghamopen, we'll need a major change in our image. A good advertising campaign mightbring in more customers while we're running it, but at best it'd just be a short-termsolution.Man: I don't agree with you, Sophie. However, I've got another idea. Why don't we run the centre with minimum staff, no more expensive recruiting, and think about closingduring the quiet times of day until the situation improves? We could go on with thespecial offers we're running, because they bring in a few new customers, and don't costus anything.Woman: It's a thought, but I'm not sure the Board will go for it. They're really keen to sell the Nottingham centre. That way they could cover their deficit and make the shareholdershappy at the same time. It's an attractive solution.Man: Even if they decide to sell, they're not likely to get very much for it, are they? Not at the moment. Property values are at an all time low. Can't we at least try to keep theNottingham centre operational?Woman: Well, it's not going to be possible to keep it running as it is now, but your idea for making savings might work. Do you think you'd be able to get the centre to break evenwithin say six months? But remember, there's no extra money for major promotions. Man: I'd like to have the chance to try, Sophie. I think I can do it, with minimal promotions.Yes.Woman: Then let me have a written proposal in time for next week's Board meeting, will you? [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.。