Progress Test 3 Audio Script

Track 7
LISTENING 1
Sandra Good morning. Sandra Collins speaking
Rob Hello. Its Rob McCartney here from sales.
Sandra Hello, Rob. Look, if youre calling about your commission, Im really sorry about
the payment delay. Its being sorted.
Rob Well, no, its a bit more awkward really . . em . . Id like to make a formal
complaint.
Sandra I see. Whats the problem exactly?
Rob Well, its about Sam . . .
Sandra Sam James here in personnel?
Rob No, my office manager.
Sandra Oh, OK.
Rob Hes 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 hes trying to get you to
accept a bribe?
Rob Yes.
Sandra So, could you tell me whats been happening?
Rob Well, I discovered hes been selling goods to clients at a higher price than normal.
Sandra Have I got this right? Hes keeping the difference?
Rob Uh-huh.
Sandra Ahh . . . in cases of fraud like this, Im afraid that I cant 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 well be able to conduct an internal investigation straightaway.
Rob OK. Ill get that to him as soon as I can and thanks.

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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 worlds best dairy
produce, it should also have the worlds best super premium ice-cream which it
didnt.
A Whats super premium ice-cream?
B Its 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 thats
higher than in America. In the UK the leading players are Ben and Jerrys 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?

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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! Weve 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, Im sure the listeners will join me in wishing you even greater success in the
future.
B Thank you.
Adapted from the Financial Times

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