Progress Test 3 Audio Script
Track 7
Listening 1
Sandra Good morning. Sandra Collins speaking
Rob Hello. It’s Rob McCartney here from sales.
Sandra Hello, Rob. Look, if you’re calling about your commission, I’m really sorry about the payment delay. It’s being sorted.
Rob Well, no, it’s a bit more awkward really . . em . . I’d like to make a formal complaint.
Sandra I see. What’s the problem exactly?
Rob Well, it’s about Sam . . .
Sandra Sam James here in personnel?
Rob No, my office manager.
Sandra Oh, OK.
Rob He’s not actually physically threatened me or anything but he has tried to keep my mouth shut, tried to pay me off.
Sandra When you say that, what do you mean exactly? That he’s trying to get you to accept a bribe?
Rob Yes.
Sandra So, could you tell me what’s been happening?
Rob Well, I discovered he’s been selling goods to clients at a higher price than normal.
Sandra Have I got this right? He’s keeping the difference?
Rob Uh-huh.
Sandra Ahh . . . in cases of fraud like this, I’m afraid that I can’t do anything without any proof. Could you put your complaint down in writing, together with any evidence, and send it to my director immediately?
Rob OK.
Sandra Then we’ll be able to conduct an internal investigation straightaway.
Rob OK. I’ll get that to him as soon as I can – and thanks.
Listening 2
A So, Charles, how did your business start?
B Gina and I both used to work as bankers in New York – for JP Morgan, but after several years’ travelling around the world for business and never seeing each other, we finally decided to leave the company and look for our own entrepreneurial opportunity.
A So, what did you do?
B Well, we saw an opportunity in ice-cream the very first time we went into a UK supermarket. Stores in the UK have more varieties of cream than those in the US but fewer of ice-cream. We thought that if Britain had the world’s best dairy produce, it should also have the world’s best super premium ice-cream – which it didn’t.
A What’s super premium ice-cream?
B It’s a high-quality ice-cream made from milk or high-fat cream, giving it a fat content of sixteen to eighteen percent. And ours contains no artificial ingredients, so it has a traditional feel to it – like it was made in your kitchen rather than being mass-produced. It tends to be priced at more than six pounds a litre, so that’s higher than in America. In the UK the leading players are Ben and Jerry’s and Haagen-Dazs.
A So, what kind of market research did you do?
B We spent eighteen months analysing the trends of different types of ice-cream – and the dairy market. But we were coming at this as consumers, not people from a food manufacturing background. We wanted our ice- cream to be less sweet than the alternatives available in the UK and we had to overcome a lot of ridicule from potential rivals at trade shows, who told us the British prefer sugary ice-cream. We believed in our product and signed up for an ice-cream manufacturing programme to learn more about the whole process.
A What happened then?
B We finally decided to lease a factory near to our key market – the south-east. It took about six months to make the factory ready for food production and to buy the machinery – and two hundred and fifty thousand pounds in capital. Within two years we had taken on seven members of staff and were supplying supermarkets like Tescos. Demand just grew!
A I read that turnover is expected to reach one million pounds next year!
B Really – well that sounds good! We’ve certainly made a real breakthrough in terms of supermarkets without spending much on marketing. Our production process means we can double our output with only a third more staff.
A Well, I’m sure the listeners will join me in wishing you even greater success in the future.
B Thank you.
Adapted from the Financial Times
PHOTOCOPIABLE © 2006 Pearson Longman ELT
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