Part II Listening

1. Blank Filling

Listen to 5 recorded short dialogues. You should complete the dialogue by filling in the blanks. Each dialogue will be read twice. Then try to repeat them in pairs.

Dialogue 1

A: How long______here now, Zhang Ming?

B: I've been working here for three months since August.

A: Well, do you think you can look after the office ______?

B: Yes, I think I can. Why, shall I have to?

A: Yes, you'll have to look after the office on your own this afternoon because I have to take______ for Mr. Ling Feng.

B: Take minutes? How do you do that?

A: To take minutes means to ______at a meeting so that afterwards you can write a record of what has happened.

B: So, you go to the meeting, take notes and then ______the minutes from your notes.

A: That's right.

Dialogue 2

A: I want to ______the department directors for a tomorrow.

B: Yes, I'll ______them right away. But what subject should we choose?

A: The ______in the 3rd quarter dropped tremendously. I believe it's urgent to work out a solution to go through the global economic recession.

B: Yes. That's the very question all the staff is most concerned about right now. Well, what time is the meeting going to begin?

A:11 o'clock. Every ______will need a sales report for the 3rd fiscal quarter and a memo-pad. Will you take care of it?

B: OK, leave it to me.

A: The meeting might last until 1 p. m. Would you order lunch for all of us?

B: OK, please rest assured that everything would be all right.

A: Good. You should also attend the meeting and take the minutes.

B: I will.

Dialogue 3

A: Has everybody got______ the agenda? Would you mind taking minutes, John?

B: Not at all.

A: Good. Well, then let's get started. First of all, thank you everyone for attending ______. As you know, the objective of this meeting of the Capital Works Committee is to discuss a proposal for some urgent building work at our south-side plant. As we've got to reach a decision which may involve spending, we'll run it as a formal meeting. Now, you've read the proposal, so without ______,I'd like to open it up for discussion. Perhaps if we can start with you, Tan, what's your view?

C: Well, I'm not convinced that the work is as urgent as this report suggests, so per-haps we should______ our resources somewhere else.

A: I think we are all aware that some urgent work does need to be done, and we will need to work on a longer term plan. Well, we'll put it to a vote. We're recommending that tenders be called for the ______work needed. All those in favour? All those against?

...

Dialogue 4

A: Well, I'm______ that the situation is as urgent as this report suggests.

B: Oh come on! Our profit is falling!

A: As I was saying, perhaps we should get a______ before we spend any money.

B: Well, as far as I'm concerned, it's a question of cutting cost. So I think we should______ our workforce.

A: Are you suggesting that we ______some workers?

B: In my opinion, yes. If you ask me, there is______ funds. And it's not a recent problem...

A: Are you implying we should have done something earlier?

B: Much earlier. It's a real concern.

A: In that case, I agree. We should do something now.

Dialogue 5

A: Now we're looking at the options for handling our ______.They're going through the roof and frankly the lead time for delivery is ______. We need to improve our per-formance in this area. Any suggestions?

B: Well, as I see it, we have three______ . The obvious one is to employ more people to do the job. Another______ is to automate the system more and cut down on the physical handling.

A: And the third option?

B: We could ______.

A: What are the pros and cons?

B: Well, looking at increasing staff versus automation, we have to consider the cost. Automating has a higher capital cost than putting on more staff. On the other hand, emplo-ying more people is more expensive over a long term. If we keep growing, it'll cost more in the long run.

A: How likely is it that we'll see continuing growth?

B: I'd say it's a certainty.

2. Multiple Choice

Listen to two short conversations and choose one correct answer from the three choices marked A, B, and C.

Dialogue 1

1）When will the meeting begin?

A. Tomorrow at 10 a. m.

B. Tomorrow at 10 p. m.

C. Today at 10 a. m.

2）What will they go over?

A. Last quarter's sales figures.

B. Last year's sales figures.

C. Last quarter's profit.

3）Who will give advice on improving the bottom line?

A. Alice.

B. Frank.

C. Kevin.

4）What else is Frank going to do in the meeting?

A. Outlining some new sales strategies.

B. Making a new business proposal.

C. Presenting the sales report.

5）Where is Alan now?

A. Chicago.

B. New York.

C. San Francisco.

Dialogue 2

Conversation 1

1）Why are Jack and Jared meeting in person?

A. To prepare for a meeting.

B. To review the information Jack emailed.

C. To have a meeting and discuss more questions.

2）When are Jack and Jared going to meet?

A. around 12:00 on Tuesday.

B. Tuesday afternoon.

C. Tuesday morning.

3）Where are Jack and Jared going to meet?

A. At Jared's office.

B. At Jack's office.

C. At a cafeteria.

Conversation 2

4）Why cannot Jack make it to the meeting?

A. He is busy with his work.

B. He is sick.

C. He is going to attend another meeting.

5）What are Jack and Jared going to do on next Tuesday?

A. Having a talk over the phone.

B. Having a breakfast meeting.

C. Having a lunch meeting.

3. Listening Passages

Listen to the following two passages and fill in the following blanks with the ap-propriate word from the list.

Passage 1

lament definitive thrill agenda cue recourse accomplish drain stuck in wrap up

We've all been 1）______ a bad meeting. You arrive on time only to have the meet-ing start 10 minutes late. Some people start to offer ideas; others shoot them down. Nothing is really decided and the meeting 2） ______,as you silently 3） ______the lost hour. There is a better way.

The meeting's 4）______ can be summarised on a handout, written on a whiteboard or discussed explicitly at the outset, but everyone should know why they've gathered and what they're supposed to be 5）______ .The agenda provides a compass for the conversa-tion, so the meeting can get back on track if the discussion wanders off course. If leaders make sure there is an agenda before a meeting starts, everyone will fall in line quickly.

Nothing can 6） ______the energy from a room quite like waiting for the person in charge to show up. Why do so many in positions of power fall into the bad habit of being late for meetings? Is it just that they're so busy? Or is there a small 7）______ in keep-ing everyone waiting for them, a reminder that their time is somehow more valuable than everyone else's?

Time is money, of course, and all that sitting around and trying to guess when the boss may arrive is a waste of a precious 8）______ . When establishing the informal rules of an organization, employees take their 9）______ from the person in the corner office. If that person wants meetings to start on time, meetings will start on time.

Just as important as starting on time is ending on time. A 10）______ end time will help ensure that you accomplish what's on your agenda and get people back to their work promptly.

Passage 2

vital systematic generate flourish chair resolve colleague photocopier participant communication

Did you know that 50% of business 1）______ is actually small talk? Small talk is a2）______ part of working with other people: finding out what they're doing, what they're having problems with, and what they think they should be doing differently. Perhaps even more importantly, it's about getting to know your 3）______ and business partners as people, not just as business machines.

A lot of the best small talk happens accidentally: the classic situations are the queue for the 4） ______,the coffee machine or the water cooler. But a much more 5）______ and effective way to build good relationships between people from different departments is to allow small talk to 6）______ in meetings.

Let's get a few things straight about meetings: the whole point of bringing people to-gether for meetings is to 7）______ discussion, to 8）______ misunderstandings, and to find solutions to problems that people couldn't find if they were working alone. If every-thing is carefully planned in advance, and the 9）V of the meeting sticks rigidly to the agenda, none of those things can take place.

If you're serious about making your meetings more effective, you need to give the 10）______ plenty of time to ask questions, take the conversation in new directions, say things which may or may not be relevant, and above all, get to know each other.

4. Short-Answer Questions

Listen to the dialogue and answer the following questions.

1）At what time was the meeting first planned to be held?

2）What does Lucy want to do?

3）Why is Lucy changing the meeting time?

4）When is the new meeting time?

5）What will Lucy probably do during the meeting?

6）What will Anna do about the time change?

5. True or False

Listen to the dialogue once and mark True or False for the following statements.

1）The team has grown and become more diverse in the past year.

〇 True

〇 False

2）Everyone on the team respects and values everyone else.

〇 True

〇 False

3）They're going to create a workplace charter to encourage diversity, equality and in-clusion.

〇 True

〇 False

4）They're going to involve the whole team when creating the charter.

〇 True

〇 False

5）Nina has already shared some positive research.

〇 True

〇 False

6. Shadowing

Listen to the following passage twice. You should read after it without the script for the first time, and then check your reading in the second listening.

Meetings: Getting down to business

Did you know you can download a clock from the internet to calculate the cost of your meetings? All you need to do is type in the number of attendees at the meeting and their av-erage hourly wage, and start the clock. As the seconds tick away and you see how much those seconds are costing your company, you'll start to appreciate what a terrible waste of time and money most meetings are.

So, what can you do?

Firstly, make sure everyone arrives on time. No excuses. If five people at a meeting are sitting around waiting for a sixth person to turn up, just think how much money you are throwing away.

Secondly, get most of the work done before the meeting. That means sending round de-tailed agendas, with clear instructions for all participants telling them what they need to do to prepare for the meeting. Again, accept no excuses if someone fails to prepare properly. That means the meeting itself can focus on problem-solving and decision-making rather than wasting time explaining the problem that needs to be solved or the decision that needs to be made.

Thirdly, stick to the agenda. Don't let anyone hijack the meeting by chatting about something irrelevant. If they want to talk about those things, let them call their own meet-ing. Don't let them take over yours.

Fourthly, set a time limit and stick to it. There's nothing worse than a meeting that goes round and round in circles with no decisions ever being finalised. A time limit can be a great way to focus everyone's minds on the purpose of the meeting and the need to achieve something concrete... and then to go back to work and start implementing the decisions.

Of course, small talk has its place, but that place is not a meeting.