Audio script

ENTRY TEST
Track 1

Michio Michio Yamada.

Noemi Hello, Michio. It’s Noemi. How are you?

Michio Fine, thanks, Noemi. How about you?

Noemi Fine, thanks. I posted the contract to you earlier this week. Have you received it?

Michio Yes, it arrived yesterday.

Noemi Good, good.

Michio And I’ve already signed it. I’ll post it back to you tomorrow.

Noemi Great. I look forward to receiving it. Have you scheduled your next visit
to Hungary?

Michio Yes, I’m planning to be there in three weeks. I arrive on the 15th of March.

Noemi The 15th of March. Good. How long can you stay?

Michio I can stay for three days.

Noemi That’s enough time for a team meeting.

Track 2

Noemi Michio, welcome to Hungary. How was your flight?

Michio It was fine, thanks, Noemi. And it’s good to see you again!

Noemi Michio, this is Maria Slater. She’s in charge of our Marketing Department.

Michio Good to meet you, Ms Slater.

Maria Good to meet you, Mr Yamada.

Noemi I’ve got a company car waiting. We’ll take you to your hotel.

Michio Great. I’m pretty tired! I didn’t sleep on the flight.

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Audio script

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PROGRESS TEST 1
Track 3

Mr Becker Good morning. My name is Henry Becker and, as you all know, I’m the CEO of
Hendix Corporation.

My purpose today is to welcome you to Hendix Corporation. I’ll begin today by

congratulating you on joining the company. Next, I’ll discuss the company’s
expectations for its employees. Finally, I’ll talk about what makes Hendix
Corporation a good company to work for.

So first, congratulations. As recent graduates, you have all chosen to begin your
careers with one of the world’s most respected manufacturing companies. The
job market is tough these days and there is a lot of competition for every job. So
you’ve already achieved a lot, just being here today.

Moving on to expectations, each of you has a different reason for choosing to

join our company and different expectations of the job. However, the company
has one main expectation for all of you: that you will always work to make the
company better. Better how? What makes a ‘good’ company? Well, our
company motto is ‘Honesty, quality and innovation’.

Honesty. As a company, we believe in being fair and honest in business. This

means we expect our employees to deal honestly and fairly in every part of
their work.

Quality. We make some of the best products on the market in our sector. Why?
Because we expect our employees to think about quality in everything they do.

Innovation. This means always changing and improving. We improve as a

company because we expect our employees to always make small improvements
in the way we work.

Right. So what makes Hendix Corporation a good company to work for?

First, we’re committed to teamwork and to fair treatment of all employees.

Second, we give our employees a quality workplace. We provide the best

training and tools for our employees. This means you can do your job well and it
also means you can develop and follow a career path that we decide together.

Third, we listen. Some of our best ideas come from our employees. At Hendix,
you and your ideas are one of the company’s most important assets.

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Once again, welcome to Hendix Corporation.

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Audio script
PROGRESS TEST 2
Track 4

Sandra I’m Sandra Hebbert and this is Great Ideas, the show. I’m talking today with
Philippe Boisseau, an award-winning furniture designer from France.
Hello, Philippe.

Philippe Hi, Sandra. Thanks for having me on your show.

Sandra Thanks for coming. Now, on Great Ideas, I always start the interview with this
question: Where do your ideas come from?

Philippe That’s a good question, Sandra. I think a lot of furniture designers are like artists.
For those designers, designing a piece of furniture is like painting. For them, it’s
a piece of art. But for me, it’s a business. I make things that people use every
day. So I want them to be useful and comfortable and affordable.

Sandra I see. What do you mean exactly when you say it’s a business for you?

Philippe Well, good business starts with the market. I don’t have an idea for a piece of
furniture and then try to sell it. I want to meet a need in the market so I start by
talking to people. I find out about the furniture they like and why they like it. I
ask them for ideas about furniture they would like to buy – things that they can’t
find in any furniture store.

Sandra So you look for a gap in the market and then try to fill it?

Philippe Exactly.

Sandra Can you give us an example?

Philippe Yes, I can. Two years ago, I was doing research on living room furniture. My
chairs and sofas were selling well but I wanted to extend the product range.
When I talked to people, I discovered that a lot of people wanted more storage
space in the living room. Drawers, especially.

Sandra Drawers?

Philippe Right. But they didn’t want to add a new piece of furniture – a desk or a dresser
with drawers.

Sandra OK, so there’s a need. More drawers in the living room. So what did you do?

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Philippe With my team, I looked closely at our products that were already selling well –
chairs and sofas. We very quickly saw that the bottom part of the sofa had empty
space. If you need storage, empty space is wasteful. So we redesigned our sofa
and added drawers.

Sandra A sofa with drawers? Didn’t that look strange?

Philippe Yes, it did! We really made a breakthrough with that! The market loved the new
design because it was different – you could say a bit strange – but also very practical.

Sandra And that’s the design you won an award for, right?

Philippe Yes, that’s right. The European Furniture Design Award.

Sandra That’s great, Philippe. Now, I wonder if you could tell us about …

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Audio script
PROGRESS TEST 3
Track 5

Adnan Adnan Yilmaz speaking.

Agnes Hello, Mr Yilmaz. This is Agnes Yim calling from Hong Kong.

Adnan Oh, hello Agnes.

Agnes I’d like to go over the arrangements for your visit, if you have a few
minutes now?

Adnan Sure, no problem.

Agnes OK. Well, the main event that you’d like to attend is the Global Trade Show at
the Convention Centre, right?

Adnan Yes, that’s right. The show runs from September third through the sixth – that’s
Thursday through Sunday. I’m giving a presentation on the fourth.

Agnes I thought your presentation was on the fifth?

Adnan No, it’s the fourth. I’m going to listen to some other presentations on the fifth.

Agnes OK, fine. And when do you plan to arrive in Hong Kong?

Adnan I’m planning to arrive on August thirty-first. That’s … let’s see … that’s
a Monday.

Agnes Right, OK. And you wanted me to schedule the meetings that week, right? On
the days before the trade show?

Adnan Yes, that’s right.

Agnes OK. Well, the new sales manager in the Hong Kong office wants to spend about
half a day with you. He’s hoping you can talk him through the new product line.

Adnan Absolutely.

Agnes OK. So why don’t we make that Wednesday …

Adnan The second?

Agnes Yes, Wednesday the second of September, in the morning. And we’ll
arrange lunch.

Adnan That sounds good.

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Agnes I’ll have to get back to you about the other meetings on the first and second.

Adnan OK. Now, after the show, on the seventh, I’m planning to go up to the
Shanghai office.

Agnes So you arrive there on the seventh?

Adnan Yes, that’s right. They’re also arranging some meetings for me.

Agnes OK. Actually, we thought you were going to Shanghai on the eighth, and we’ve
already set up a half day for you on the seventh with the regional sales manager.

Adnan Oh, right. OK. Let’s see. Well, I’m sure I can change my Shanghai plans. I’ll go
up there on the eighth. That won’t be a problem.

Agnes Would you like me to get in touch with Shanghai and let them know about
the change?

Adnan Would you? That would be great. And could you let them know I’m going to
need a day to recover? I’d like to plan a day off in Shanghai for Wednesday
the ninth.

Agnes OK, no problem. Right. I think that’s all we can do right now. I’ll put together an
e-mail with the schedule we’ve agreed so far and you can check it. Then after
we’ve made the arrangements for the other meetings, we can put together a
final schedule.

Adnan That sounds good, Agnes. Thanks a lot for sorting all of this out.

Agnes It’s my pleasure, Mr Yilmaz.

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Audio script
PROGRESS TEST 4
Track 6–7

Ingrid Good morning, everyone. I’m Ingrid Watson and I’m here to show you our latest
product, the TIK-99. It’s high-tech and it’s attractive.

As you can see, the TIK-99 looks like a high-quality wristwatch with a
fashionable black-and-silver case and band. But it does so much more than
a wristwatch.

Let me tell you about its special features. It has a wireless Bluetooth headset and
it’s completely voice activated. You can use it to make phone calls, send and
receive e-mails, browse the Internet and play music and videos. Oh, and it also
tells the time! It’s perfect for wearing everywhere you go.

A huge advantage of the TIK-99 is its small size. It’s 35 millimetres long, 40
millimetres wide and only 6 millimetres thick. It weighs just 40 grams. But this
compact device can give you high-quality sound, full-colour video and excellent
text readability. And the long-lasting battery gives you more than 20 hours of
talk time or 30 hours of music playback.

The TIK-99 is powered by a fast microprocessor and it comes with 64 gigabytes

of memory. This means it’s fast and reliable. It comes with a full range of apps:
e-mail, calendar, address book and web browser. What’s more, this amazing
device is competitively priced at just $399.

I’m sure you’ll all want to try it for yourselves and, in a moment, I’m going to
give you a chance to do that. But first, are there any questions?

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Audio script
EXIT TEST
Track 8–9

Claudia Max, Paul, hello. Can we start, please? OK, the main aim of this meeting is to
talk about training. We don’t have a big training budget – it’s about €11,000 for
the whole year. We want to make good use of it. Max, what do you think?

Max I’m in favour of sales training. The sales team is doing well but I’m sure we
could improve our performance. There are some very good courses available.

Paul I don’t know about that, Max. I feel management training would benefit the
whole company.

Max Well, Paul, you’re a manager …

Paul And I want to be the best manager I can be. I’m sure we all have something
to learn.

Max Perhaps we should consider sales training and management training.

Claudia I’m not sure that’s a good idea. €11,000 will cover one good course for one team
but it’s probably not enough for two full courses.

Paul I think I agree with you. I’m in favour of running one course and doing it
really well.

Claudia Right. So we need to choose one or the other, at least for this year.

Max Exactly. We could have one course this year and one course next year.

Paul I’d like to make a suggestion. Why don’t we do management training this year
and sales training next year?

Max Of course another possibility is doing sales training this year and management
training next year.

Claudia OK, let’s summarise. We’re going to plan both sales training and management
training. We need to decide which we do first. Why don’t we come back to
that later?

Max OK.

Paul Fine.

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Claudia The next thing to discuss is timing. In the past we’ve had one-week intensive
training courses but last year it was suggested that we could do one-day sessions
over several weeks.

Max Sorry, I don’t quite understand.

Claudia Last year, we had a course that ran every day, Monday to Friday, for one week.
So people had to miss work for a week. Next time, we could have a course on
Mondays only. Five Mondays in a row.

Max Oh, OK. I’m in favour of that.

Paul Yes, I think I agree with you. It’s easier to plan.

Claudia I completely agree. So that’s it, then. We’ll have one training day every week for
five weeks. Now, let’s move on to …

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