For each recording, decide which opinion the participant gives about a seminar. 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. [Pause]

Now listen, and decide which opinion each participant gives about a seminar. [Pause]

Thirteen

Woman: I only went because several colleagues who'd been before said how great it was. To be

honest, I usually get bored at these events. Instead of just listening to someone talking, I'd rather be doing something. But as everyone had recommended it, I had high hopes it'd be good, and I wasn't disappointed. I found the speaker-really entertaining; the thing was, he couldn't cover everything - they should have allowed a full day.

[Pause]

Fourteen Man: I know you're supposed to pick up lots of new ideas at these seminars and I suppose it

was useful -1 did get a few ideas, which is just as well because now I've got to give a talk to staff on the same topic. What I was actually hoping for, though, was to be able to make the most of the opportunity in other ways, too. As some of the other participants I networked with may well become major clients, I'd definitely go again.

[Pause]

Fifteen

Woman: The seminar was held in a really smart hotel. I did wonder how much my company

was having to pay for me to attend. I hope they think it was worth sending me along. I tried to take lots of notes just in case my manager asked me to write a report about it afterwards. I must admit, though, I didn't write much because although the speaker was highly entertaining, I couldn't exactly say I learnt anything new. Shame, really.

[Pause]

Sixteen Man: Well, what we covered was all really important stuff, some of which was mainly

common sense. And I'll certainly be trying out the ideas I picked up. The trouble was, I know the speaker's someone quite well known - he's even had a book in the best-seller list - but his style wasn't exactly entertaining. I noticed that a few of the other participants looked rather fed up, too. I was just glad that it was only a half-day event.

[Pause]

Seventeen

Woman: I usually enjoy seminars. It's a chance to get away from the office, and there's the

opportunity to share experiences. I know these events aren't cheap, especially when the speaker's somebody well known. At this particular seminar I went to, the speaker was unknown so I was unsure how, good it would be, but I found it really useful - it gave me new ideas on selling techniques, which I've already started using... with some success. So Fd say it was well worth the fee.

[Pause]

Now listen to the recordings again.

[Pause]

Section Two.

Questions 18 to 22.

You will hear another five recordings. For each recording, decide which aspect of business the speaker is talking about.

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. [Pause]

Now listen, and decide which aspect of business each speaker is talking about. [Pause]

Eighteen

Woman: I think where we went wrong was in assuming that price is always the most important

concern, and simply keeping our margins low. Clearly, by doing this we haven't managed to regain market share. Our marketing consultant has suggested that we change our strategy and give increased attention to other things which are very important to people, such as reliability - of quality and of delivery - even if it involves charging more.

[Pause]

Nineteen Man: We'll be implementing various measures as quickly as possible. In the short term,

we're going to reduce the number of quality control staff on the factory floor - we think we can do this without causing too many problems. We're also looking at the supplier of our metal casings - we think we can negotiate a better deal for these elsewhere. And we also need to give serious thought to the question of overheads.

[Pause]

Twenty

Woman: I've looked at the figures for the last five years and they're rather worrying. I feel we

must do something to retain people longer. As things are, the cost to the company isn't easy to quantify - we don't have any reliable method of calculating it - but it must be considerable. After all, it takes quite a few weeks, or months -depending on the type of work, for anyone new to achieve maximum productivity, because there's so much information to acquire.

[Pause]

Twenty-one Man: Our assets are very healthy - the capital value of the hotel building has almost doubled

since we acquired it. But although we've renovated about a third of the rooms, we can't complete the programme without funds, and we can't generate any substantial income until we start trading. So we've decided to open for business immediately, and offer discounts to compensate for the inconvenience of the ongoing building work. We're sure there'll be a market.

[Pause]

Twenty-two

Woman: Research suggests that saturation point was reached in this country some time ago,

despite falling prices. So we shouldn't expect consumption here to increase much more in the future. However, income levels in our traditional overseas markets are steadily rising, so a product like ours, which is regarded as a luxury there right now, will soon be regarded as a necessity. So, in general terms, the figures will be much as they were.

[Pause]

Now listen to the recordings again. [Pause]

Part Three. Questions 23 to 30.

You will hear a discussion between two consultants, Christina Shaw and David Yates, about a management training programme for a company called Sandfords.

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.

Woman: Well, that was an interesting visit to Sandfords this morning. Man: Yes, I'd really like to get the contract with them. They'd be an excellent company for

our portfolio.

Woman: Absolutely. Talking to the department managers was extremely useful. How did you

get on in discussion with the senior management team?

Man: Mm, a similar experience – very informative. I was impressed - they're operating in a

highly competitive market, yet they're totally committed to investment in training.

Woman: Not all companies take that view, of course, especially when the economy is on a

downturn.

Man: Quite. Sandfords' view is long-term. Instead of being satisfied that they're already

known as a good company to work for, they want their management programmes to create an established, committed team and keep those people in the company.

Woman: The staff I spoke to had plenty to say about the training they received in the past. Man: So did the senior managers. As you probably found out, they've always tried to run

their own in-house programmes before, using the knowledge areas of a number of their own personnel. They were very keen for management training to be attended by all managers - of course, they rarely succeeded in getting everyone together at the same time. Sessions kept getting cancelled and people were generally irritated by the changes to arrangements, though those sessions that did take place were well received, especially ones on the more specialist topics

Woman: Yes, the middle managers I interviewed commented that they'd like training to cover

more specialist areas. To be honest, though', I think they're involved in such a lot of training o new and existing junior staff that they don't fully appreciate the benefits of receiving training themselves.

Man: Mm... could be challenging for us then.

Woman: Yes. Whilst welcoming the efforts of senior management, one of the marketing

managers I spoke to was quite open about his and his colleagues' views ... he made the point that there was a widespread feeling that the motivation behind this new programme wasn't clear. They thought it might be used as a way to assess their performance. Because of that, they hadn't been able to make up their minds either way about whether they were in favour.

Man: OK, well, let's think about the content of the programme.

Woman: Right, well we must include sessions on the areas they've actually asked for. Let's

Man: Woman:

Man: 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 fart 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.

have a look... customer care and presentation techniques were certainly on their list. Didn't some of them mention negotiating skills as well?

OK, let's kick off with what they identified as their priority areas - so we could d( presentation techniques this time round and then put forward a proposal for sessions on negotiating skills and customer care and anything else they might want in the future.

That sounds good. We'll go with that.

We should have more chance like that of fitting in with people's availability. Well, the company always tried for residential courses at weekends before.

I gather that wasn't popular. Also, the managers I spoke to weren't keen to come into work even earlier for training sessions.

Mm. Well, if we start off with a series of full-day events during work time, I think that'd be best.

Yes, sessions early in the morning would be too short - we wouldn't achieve much. OK, we'll propose that.

Did you discuss when we'd start?

I suggested March - I'd have liked to get this contract underway before the end of our financial year, and we're already quite booked up from the end of May onwards. Don't they have a big launch coming up in the first week of April?

Yes, they said March will be hectic, so as soon as the launch is over and they've had a week to clear up would fit in best.

OK. So what needs to be done next? Shall we put together a proposed schedule?

Mm, we'll need to do that soon. For now, we've got to get on with devising a survey to go out to everyone included in the programme. We can start working on costings to send to their senior management as soon as we've done that. OK, let's just…

TEST 5

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. [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.