Conversation One

　　W: Now, could you tell me where the idea for the business first came from?

　　M: Well, the original shop was opened by a retired printer by the name of Gruby. Mr Gruby being left-handed himself, thought of the idea to try to promote a few products for left-handers.

　　W: And how did he then go about actually setting up the business?

　　M: Well, he looked for any left-handed products that might already be on the market which were very few. And then contacted the manufactures with the idea of having products produced for him, mainly in the scissors range to start with.

　　W: Right. So you do commission some part of your stock.

　　M: Yes, very much so. About 75 percent of our stock is specially made for us.

　　W: And the rest of it?

　　M: Hmm, the rest of it now, some 25, 30 years after Mr. Gruby’s initial efforts, there are more left-handed product actually on the market. Manufactures are now beginning to see that there is a market for left-handed products.

　　W: And what’s the range of your stock?

　　M: The range consists of a variety of scissors from children scissors to scissors for tailors, hairdressers etc. We also have a large range of kitchen ware.

　　W: What’s the competition like? Do you have quite a lot of competition?

　　M: There are other people in the business now in specialists, but only as mail-order outlets. But we have a shop here in central London plus a mail-order outlet. And we are without any doubt the largest supplier of the left-handed items.

　　【材料評析】

　　這是一篇采訪一名專為左撇子們提供產品的供應商的文章。文中分別談到了創業理念的來源、產業如何創始、產業日前發展狀況以及這家產品供應商所面對的行業現狀。具體細節為：創業理念開始于一名名叫Gruby的退休印刷工，他本人是一名左撇子，所以想到找生產商幫他實現自己所想的專門為左撇子設計產品的理念。而這家供應商目前面對的行業現狀為：市面上已有的左撇子產品比最初創業之時，增加了許多;但銷售渠道來源主要是網絡訂單。而這些，并不對這家供應商公司構成競爭威脅，因為他們在倫敦有門店和網絡銷售的雙重渠道。因此他們是這種左撇子產品的最大供應商。

　　本篇文章為考查細節信息抓取能力題。難度較大主要因為考生可能對產品制造加工行業涉及到的manufacture、stock、mail-order outlet 、supplier等專業術語不太熟悉，而形成困擾。但考生只要能聽出這是一篇采訪類型的文章，每次都能聽到女士(采訪者)的問題非常簡短，應該立即警惕答案應該是針對男士(被訪者)的回答提問。而女士(采訪者)的問題中本身就已經暗示出接下來的回答中的關鍵詞。如：女士問的“And what’s the range of your stock?”一句中，stock即為關鍵信息詞。因此，這篇文章同時也提醒考生平時應該注意商務用語和商業常識方面的積累。

　　Q19: What kind of business does the man engaged in?

　　【答案】

　　Q20: What does the man say about his stock of products?
　　【答案】

　　Q21: What does the man say about other people in his line of business?

　　【答案】

　　Conversation Two

　　M: Can we make you an offer? We would like to run the campaign for four extra weeks.

　　W: Well, can we summarize the problem from my point of view? First of all, the campaign was late. It missed two important trade affairs. The ads also did not appear into key magazines. As a result, the campaign failed. Do you accept that summary of what happened?

　　M: Well, the delay wasn’t entirely our fault. You did in fact make late changes to the specifications of the advertisements.

　　W: Uh, actually, you were late with the initial proposals so you have very little time and in fact, we only asked for small changes.

　　M: Well whatever, can we repeat our offer to run the campaign for 4 extra weeks?

　　W: That’s not really the point. The campaign missed two key trade affairs. Because of this, we are asking you either to repeat the campaign next year for free, or we only pay 50% of the fee for this year.

　　M: Could we suggest a 20% reduction to the fee together with the four week sustention to the campaign.

　　W: We are not happy. We lost business.

　　M: I think we both made mistakes. The responsibility is on both sides.

　　W: Ok, let’s suggest a new solution. How about a 40% cut in fee, or a free repeat campaign?

　　M: Well, let’s take a break, we’re not getting very far. Perhaps we should think about this.

　　【材料評析】

　　這篇對話是圍繞一次商業活動的推廣是否延期和如何收費的討論。對話中，女士否決了延期四周這個提議。理由是這次的活動已經錯過了兩個重要的商業活動事件，而且也沒有在重要雜志上打廣告。而男士則堅持要求延期，并表示：活動被耽擱的原因是女士所在公司沒有及時給出對廣告的修改。而男士認為是女士所在公司提交細節修改建議太晚而導致耽擱。女士堅持無需延期，且不應延期，而應定為活動失敗。因此，女士向男士的公司提出降低收費或者明年免費為她們公司做活動的要求。最后，男士提出延期四周并給出20%的降價。可惜女士仍然要求更低的40%的降價和下一期的免費活動推廣。而男士提出還需再議。顯然，他對此提議并不表示贊同。

　　這篇文章總體不難，考查文章大意。而文章本身圍繞是否延期和如何收費這個中心討論點展開，沒有較生僻的詞匯。但值得注意的是，考生需要通過對話推知談話者的身份，并對說話者的語氣和話外音所包含的內容有所把握。另外，這是一篇在真實的商務談判場景中會經常出現的狀況。考生注意平時對商業和商務常識方面的知識積累，會對把握整個聽力對話的大意很有幫助。