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Passage 1. Choose the correct answer for each question
Times have been hard for the UK cycle industry. Poor weather and competition
from abroad have had a serious effect on sales. Manufacturers have had to cut back
and last month more than 40 jobs losses were announced at Cycle World, one of
the country’s main bicycle factories in Leicester. But the company says it is
fighting to win back customers requirements.
Two years ago, Cycle World sold off its bike-making machinery in an effort to cut
costs and save money. The company’s Leicester factory is now only an assembly
plant as most of the parts are imported.
The company produces half a million bikes a year across the full Cycle World
range, with nearly all of these being sold in the UK. Production is largely done by
hand. Workers use the batch production method - everyone making up to 600 bikes
of a particular model at any one time.
At the height of its success, Cycle World employed 7,000 people but, like many
areas of manufacturing, it has since shrunk. Its 1950 purpose-built factory now
employs just 470 permanent workers, with numbers rising to 700 as temporary
staff are taken on to meet seasonal demands in sales.
Q1. The weather has encouraged more people to buy bikes. FALSE
Q2. Management have recently had to make people redundant at Cycle Word. TRUE
Q3. Cycle World is providing a more personal service to regain market share. TRUE
Q4. Cycle World imports some bike-making machinery as part of a cost-cutting exercise FALSE
Q5. Only a small number of different bike models are produced each month. NOT GIVEN
Passage 2. Choose the correct answer for each question
’Unigroup, the hotel chain, has recently announced that it will close its
headquarters in London as part of its attempt to reduce costs ahead of its break-up.
The group, currently fighting off a takeover bid from Rockford Investments, is
keen to show shareholders it can save £100m as part of its defense. It is also selling
hotels in London and several more in the US. Unigroup has started a program there
for making staff redundant and is considering further job cuts across Europe.
Unigroup spent Friday putting forward its arguments to shareholders. It is
understood that the shareholders have asked the company to postpone the meeting
at which they will vote on Rockford the chance to reconsider the package it is
offering, parts of which were criticized by its own shareholders.
Rockford has maintained that Unigroup shareholders have given it a friendly
reception, but refused to comment on its bid, currently worth 648p per share.
The battle increased last Friday when Unigroup management complained to the
Takeover Board about negative comments a Rockford representative had made
about the company at a press conference earlier that day. Rockford later apologized
for what its representative had said.
Q1. The headquarters of Unigroup will close after the rest of the business has broken up. FALSE
Q2. Unigroup is cutting costs to help persuade shareholders to reject a rival takeover bid. TRUE
Q3. Unigroup’s shareholders wish to delay their decision on Rockford’s proposal. TRUE
Q4. Rockford’s shareholders support the offer the company is making. FALSE
Q5. It is believed Rockford will increase its bid if the current one looks likely to fail. NOT GIVEN
Passage 3. Choose the correct answer for each question
GOOD NEWS FROM AN INSURANCE COMPANY
Customer loyalty is an important issue for the insurance sector since retaining a
customer cost much less than acquiring new ones. The best way to build customer
loyalty is to make sure that the customers are satisfied with the services they have
subscribed to, and in the insurance industry, the quality of the services will be
tested especially when a claim is filed.
For the fifth year in a row, the Loyalty Insurance Company has cut the cost of its
house insurance. More than a million people with homes insured by the company
will benefit from decreases of between two and four percent on the amount they
will have to pay this year. This move goes against the market trend, with other
insures increasing rates by an average one percent.
‘The level of claims has been lower than usual over this period, allowing us to
make these welcome reductions,’ says Malcolm Broad, Loyalty’s general manager.
Although the cost of insuring a car with Loyalty has increased by six percent this
year, it is still the smallest rise in the insurance industry; most other companies’
rates are, on average, ten percent higher than they were last year.
‘The company has always believed in passing on any improvement in its financial
position to its customers,’ says Mr. Broad. “Without doubt, this has led to a
continual expansion of our business over the past few years.’
Q1. This is the first year that Loyalty customers are paying less for their house insurance. FALSE
Q2. Insuring a house with Loyalty will be at least four percent cheaper than last year. FALSE
Q3. Loyalty is performing in a different way from other insurance companies. TRUE
Q4. Loyalty’s car insurance is currently the cheapest available. NOT GIVEN
Q5. It is Loyalty’s policy to share its success with its customers. TRUE
Passage 4. Choose the correct answer for each question
’ Records show that tools were being made in Sheffield as long ago as the 13th
century. The city not only produced steel and made metal goods, but also
pioneered the processes by which they were made; for example, the first stainless steel was produced in 1913.
The first large-scale works in Sheffield each employed up to 500 workers. But
these were dwarfed by the massive steel and engineering works that grew up in the
east of the city after the 1890s. During its peak, Sheffield was producing 90% of all
British-made steel and 50% of all that made in Europe.
The metal industries were secretly hit in the late 1970s and 1980s. There was
overcapacity in Europe, and the government of the 1979 was not prepared to
continue subscribing the industry.
After the 13-week national steel strike in 1980, the steel, engineering and metal
manufacturing industries suffered huge redundancies. In 1981, there were 27,000
jobs in steel production in Sheffield and 43,000 in engineering and metal
manufacturing. By 1991, there were just 7,000 jobs in steel and fewer than 30,000
in engineering and metal manufacturing.
Although heavy industry now plays a much-reduced role, for the past six years
Sheffield has had the fastest growing city economy outside London.
Q1. Sheffield was for a long time a leader in the production of steel. TRUE
Q2. The factories built in the east of Sheffield after 1890 were larger than the earlier ones. TRUE
Q3. At its height, Sheffield was producing almost all of the steel in Europe. FALSE
Q4. After 1979, the British government agreed to put money into the steel industry. FALSE
Q5. The steel strike in 1980 was part of a general strike all over Britain. NOT GIVEN
Passage 5. Choose the correct answer for each question
Woolworths graduate training program
Our graduate recruits are our next generation of business leaders.
When you join us, you’ll enroll on our Woolworths Group Leadership Program
(WGLP) which will put you on the fast track to a senior management role in one of
our central functions (e.g., buying, finance, supply chain, systems, human resources or marketing).
You’ll undertake a comprehensive program of training in general management
techniques and specialist skills relevant to your functional discipline. With input
from leading business academics at City University, the WGLP will expose you to
the latest strategic business thinking. You’ll also receive support as you pursue
professional qualifications in your field.
Your first few months will be spent working alongside a store management team.
You’ll learn the essential store management disciplines and gain insight into our
customers, brands and products. After that, you’ll join your functional team where
you’ll take on meaningful responsibility from the word go.
You’ll be mentored by senior managers who have already established themselves
in the business, and you’ll be part of a group-wide network of WGLP participants.
There will also be opportunities for you to move between companies as you develop your career.
Q1. To join the Leadership program, you need to have a university degree. TRUE
Q2. Enrolment on the program guarantees you a job as a senior manager. FALSE
Q3. Part of the program is led by university lecturers. TRUE
Q4. You will get extra money if you have a professional qualification. NOT GIVEN
Q5. A senior person will support you personally during the training program. TRUE
Passage 6. Choose the correct answer for each question
Franchising: ask the right questions and you should be on the road to success in
your venture, advises Michael Becket.
Franchising operators seem to have a simple approach when it comes to recruiting.
‘Don’t worry about what sort of work we’re doing, just roll up your sleeves and get
down to it.’ Potential franchisees glancing through magazine advertisements could
struggle to find out what line of business they are chasing because the wording is so vague.
It all seems to be a seller’s market. Certainly, the sector’s profile – there are almost
680 franchise systems operating in the UK – suggests business is booming. Figures
released in the run-up to this week’s Franchise Exhibition at the Wembley
exhibition and conference center show the industry is producing a turnover of
£91⁄2 billion a year and providing more than 326,000 jobs.
The initial start-up cost is now averaging £59,200 and the typical franchise is
generating a turnover of almost £300,000 a year while 91% of franchisees say they are making money.
It is impressive, but most of the large and reputable franchise operations complain
they are suffering from a shortage of “suitable applicants”. More than 40% of
franchisors say the biggest barrier to growth is a lack of franchisees they feel will make the grade.
Q1. It is simple to buy a franchise operation. NOT GIVEN
Q2. Advertisements for franchises don’t always make it clear what kind of business involved. TRUE
Q3. Franchising appears to be very successful in the UK. TRUE
Q4. The exhibition at Wembley provided around 326,000 jobs. FALSE
Q5. Franchises could grow faster if more money was invested in operations. NOT GIVEN
Passage 7. Choose the correct answer for each question
You probably know the statistics: whatever you pay for a jar of coffee in a
supermarket, half goes to the manufacturer, a third to the supermarket itself, ten
percent to the plantation where the coffee was grown, and about seven percent to
the worker who picked the beans in the first place. The situation is getting worse:
prices for raw commodities are now worth less than half what they were 15 years ago.
In the past ten years, the fair-trade movement has developed to provide an
alternative to this situation. Fair trade organizations do business directly with
producers in the developing world, cutting out the middlemen, and so they make
sure that the maximum profit is returned to source. Fair trade also guarantees
stability for producers and protects them against fluctuations in the market by
offering secure, long-term prices which are over and above the market rate. Many
schemes also offer prepayment or access to credit.
The fair-trade movement is not only restricted to foodstuffs. Crafts, clothing,
jewelry and furniture are fairly traded in the same way – and the movement is
growing. Around 1,700 world shops and fair-trade groups took part in the first
European World Shop Day, in Day 1996, and there are now fair-trade
organizations throughout the world. Public opinion surveys repeatedly show that
people are happy to spend more money for fairly traded goods; Cafidirect, the first
product to carry the Fairtrade Mark in Britain, is now the third best-selling coffee in one supermarket chain.
Q1. 15 years ago, manufacturers paid less for raw commodities than they do today. FALSE
Q2. The fair-trade movement had been in existence for about a decade. TRUE
Q3. Fair trade organizations try to stop producers being exploited. TRUE
Q4. Producers offer manufacturers a 90-day credit period in which to pay them. NOT GIVEN
Q5. Cafidirect is popular because it is the cheapest brand of coffee in the supermarkets. NOT GIVEN
Passage 8. Choose the correct answer for each question ADVERTISING FEATURE
Advertising is a paid form of communication that is used for the non-personal
presentation of information that helps the general public or target audience to know
and opt for a product or service. Features of advertising are crucial in bringing
potential buyers to the brand’s goods and services.
Save money and keep your staff happy
It can be expensive to keep the canteen open to serve drinks to your staff through
the day. Our QVM hot drinks machine replaces this service, so that you can close
the canteen between mealtimes. You can install the QVM hot drinks machine
anywhere in the building. One machine is suitable for a staff of ten to fifteen
people. It costs £1300 to buy, or £11.00 per week to rent over 60 months. It is not
expensive to operate; for example, the cost of power for one day is 30p, nearly as
cheap as the price of one hot drink from the machine.
Our company will carry out weekly service, at a charge of £10.00. We can also
refill the machine with drinks ingredients for an extra charge of £8.00. Some
customers prefer to do this themselves, however. There are eight choices of hot
drink available from the QVM machine, and our company offers one month’s trial
free of charge, so that you can estimate how popular the machine will be and see what the actual savings are.
Q1. With a QVM machine, companies can avoid having a canteen altogether. FALSE
Q2. The QTM machine provides enough hot drinks for up to fifteen people. TRUE
Q3. Most customers prefer to rent the QTM machine over sixty months. NOT GIVEN
Q4. The electricity used daily by the machine cost less than the price of a hot drink. FALSE
Q5. The machine company empties the money from the machine as part of its service agreement. NOT GIVEN
Passage 9. Choose the correct answer for each question
It is not just their availability that is the problem, but the speed with which new
versions of products come on the market. Advances in design and production mean
that new items are almost ready by the time that goods hit the shelves. Products
also need to have a short lifespan so that the public can be persuaded to replace
them within a short time. The classic example is computers, which are almost
obsolete once they are bought. At first, there were only one or two available from a
limited number of manufacturers, but now there are many companies all with not
only their own products but different versions of the same machine. This makes
selection a problem. Gone are the days when one could just walk with ease into a
shop and buy one thing; no choice, no anxiety.
This situation is not limited to consumer items. With the greater mobility of people
around the world, people have more choices about where they want to live and
work – a fairly recent phenomenon. In the past, nations migrated across huge
swathes of the earth in search of food, adventure, and more hospitable
environments. Whole nations crossed continents and changed the face of history.
So, the mobility of people is nothing new. The creation of nation states and borders
effectively showed this process down. But what is different now is the speed at which migration is happening.
Q1. It is a bad thing that new products are so widely available. TRUE
Q2. Products are kept and used for longer than in the past. FALSE
Q3. There are as many computer manufacturers now as previously. NOT GIVEN
Q4. There have always been too many choices for consumers over the years. NOT GIVEN
Q5. The phenomenon of migration barely changed the history. FALSE
Passage 10. Choose the correct answer for each question
Unemployment has costs to a society that are more than just financial.
Unemployed individuals not only lose income but also face challenges to their
physical and mental health. Societal costs of high unemployment include higher
crime and a reduced rate of volunteerism.
More than one in six young people are out of work, raising fears of a ‘lost
generation’ of potential workers, as unemployment hit a 14-year high. Even
McDonald’s - a brand synonymous with today’s youth – appeared to anger its main
customer base with a new campaign to boost the recruitment of older staff.
According to a Lancaster University study commissioned by the company,
customer satisfaction was 20 percent higher in those branches employing workers
over 60. At present, 1,000 of McDonald’s 75,000 workers in Britain are over 60.
Young people were granted some hope yesterday as Morrisons, Britain’s fourth-
largest supermarket, said that it would employ an extra 2,000 workers this year. As
job losses have increased significantly during the recession, supermarkets have
been among the biggest recruiters. Morrisons said yesterday that a third of the new
jobs would be filled by recruits aged 18 to 24. The jobs include vacancies for
butchers, bakers and fishmongers as well as checkout operators. Morrisons trains
staff through its own food academy and is aiming to have trained 100,000 workers to NVQ Level 2 by next spring.
Q1. McDonald’s is busy after school hours because young people are their main customers. NOT GIVEN
Q2. In McDonald’s, customer satisfaction is partly dependent on who the customers are served by. TRUE
Q3. The majority of McDonald’s employees are over 60. FALSE
Q4. Morrisons supermarket is financially in a good position at the moment. NOT GIVEN
Q5. Two thirds of the jobs at Morrisons will be taken up by people between the ages of 25 and 75. NOT GIVEN
Passage 1. Choose the correct answer for each question
More than half a million new businesses are created each year in America alone.
Two-thirds of these businesses survive at least two years; half make it to at least
four. So how does a company manage to go past the four-year mark? How does it manage to grow?
Part of the challenge lies in the fact that growth is not always good. Companies can
rush unprepared into new markets, expand without considering the demands made
on their employees, or spend unwisely. Tom Bartlett, vice president of investor
relations for Verizon Communications, is familiar with these problems. In
September, Verizon began launching third-generation (3G) wireless networks in 14
cities in the United States. Similar European companies have yet to see a profit
from their 3G investments, and Verizon has taken an expensive risk in a slow
market, by signing a $4.5 billion contract extension with Lucent for 3G services in July.
One of the choices is whether to go public or stay private. Matthew Szulik, chief
executive of Red Hat, which bundles Linux software for personal computers and
larger networks, has made this decision twice. While discussing the growth of
demand for his product, Mr Szulik admits that the consequences of going public
during the dotcom boom were not totally positive for the firm.
Q1. More than half the new companies stay in business for four years. FALSE
Q2. Fast expansion can lead to huge debts in business. NOT GIVEN
Q3. Verizon launched its product around the world in September. FALSE
Q4. Verizon’s European 3G competitors have failed to make money. TRUE
Q5. Mr Szulik believes that going public was bad for Red Hat in some ways. TRUE
Passage 2. Choose the correct answer for each question
Many critics dislike reality TV but one show which has received very favorable
reviews is Changing Places. The main idea is simple. Take the Chief Executive
Officer of a company and put him or her in the position of one of the company's low-end workers.
Donald Eisner is the CEO of the Absalon chain of hotels in Australia. His family
have been hotel owners for three generations and are one of the wealthiest in the
Australian hotel industry. In the program, we see Donald Eisner working as a
bellboy, cook and cleaner while supervisors monitor his performance, noting any
mistakes. He has some triumphs, it is true. In the kitchen, he successfully cooks
several pancakes, for example, and, as a housekeeper, he makes the beds correctly.
The rest of his housekeeping, however, is not a success, as he fails to clean any
rooms to the company's required standards. At the end of the program, we see his
supervisor taking him from room to room, pointing out his mistakes.
Alex Jennings runs a successful chain of steak bars called Wayside Inn. He has a
reputation for demanding quality from his staff, both in terms of food and service.
When he changes places with some of his staff, we see him fail a number of tasks
in the restaurant. As a waiter, he continually forgets to ask customers how they
want their steaks to be done and mixes up the orders completely when he has to
serve five tables at the same time. A few minutes later, disaster strikes when his tie
becomes caught under the drinks on a tray! The next day, when he takes the place
of the cook, his supervisor makes him redo several of the steaks.
Q1. Donald Eisner comes from a rich family. TRUE
Q2. Donald Eisner can cook pancakes. TRUE
Q3. In the program, Donald Eisner successfully cleans rooms up to his company’s required standards. FALSE
Q4. Alex Jennings believes quality is important in his restaurants. TRUE
Q5. Alex Jennings has good skills as a waiter. FALSE
Passage 3. Choose the correct answer for each question
The old definitions of manufacturing are no longer worth much. One dictionary
calls it ‘the making of an article by physical labor or machinery’. Now go and
stand in a queue at a McDonald’s takeaway. Observe what goes on behind the
counter. Gills cook raw discs of minced beef. Some workers are tending the grills;
others are loading potato chips into vats of hot fat; yet others are taking orders,
packing the output of their colleagues into cardboard cartons, adding whatever
extras the customer calls for. Would you call this a service activity – or the
distributed manufacture of cooked-meat products? The repetition of different tasks,
the loading and unloading of the cooking machines, is very similar to a car assembly line.
Alex Trotman, the chairman of Ford, sent a taskforce to McDonald’s when he set
out to transform the car company years ago, to learn how McDonald’s turn out the
same burgers all around the world. Ford wanted to do the same sort of thing. It
wanted to change itself from a collection of regional company into one which
designed and produced cars on a global basis, with a global supply chain.
Mr Trotman has long believed that in future a car company will beat its rivals not
so much by the shape of the car it sells, or the power of its engine, as by what the
company can do for its customers while they own the car. In the new meaning
introduced by the new technologies, much of what used to be called ‘service work’
is becoming part of the same thing as what used to be called ‘manufacturing’.
Q1. Modern descriptions of manufacturing are the same as traditional description. FALSE
Q2. At McDonald’s, workers have special training in the production of the food. NOT GIVEN
Q3. Ford wanted to be less regional and more global. TRUE
Q4. The future of the car industry will depend on the power of the engines. FALSE
Q5. Service and manufacturing industries are becoming more similar. TRUE
Passage 4. Choose the correct answer for each question
Companies frequently combine several different schemes to reward different kinds
of achievement. Eddie Bauer, a clothing retailer, used to pay people mainly by the
kind of job they did, not by how they did it. "People knew they could change their
pay by rewriting their job description, not by raising their productivity", says Lori
Fosnes, the senior compensation manager. But now staff can win more pay by
being promoted - sideways as well as upwards, as long as they acquire new skills
in the process - or by improving their personal performance.
However, the company reinforces the message with something that makes it easier
to reward teamwork: with prizes for good behavior. The most basic is a star, about
four inches across, which can be stuck on a filing cabinet or a wall. It can be given
by any "associate", as Bauer people call each other, to any other at any time, in
recognition for doing something well. The Oscar of Bauer awards is the "Best of
Bauer", decided by a "legends" committee and handed out at a ceremony in March.
Employees who receive this accolade wear a special name tag all year.
Such schemes may sound like kindergarten. But Bauer's human-resources staff
think they have a powerful effect because they are so much more public than pay
rises. They also point to other aspects of a job that individuals find rewarding: does
their office have a window? Do they have a parking space? Can they work from
home? Such thing can be immensely effective in rewarding good performance, and
generally cost a lot less than a pay rise.
Pay alone rarely keeps people with an employer. In the war for talent, companies
need better weapons than cash. They need to guarantee their stars a sequence of
fascinating jobs; to give them a sense of belonging; and to tell them they are tops.
Q1. Eddie Bauer has changed the way that staff performance is rewarded. TRUE
Q2. In the past, the company rewarded the job you did, and not how well you did it. TRUE
Q3. Now staff only have to be promoted upwards to get higher wages. FALSE
Q4. Any person who works at Eddie Bauer can give another employee a star. TRUE
Q5. Pay is not the only thing that motivates employees to stay with a company. TRUE
Passage 5. Choose the correct answer for each question
The world is a risky place, especially for those concerned with business and
finance. Natural and man-made disasters, including forest fires, earthquakes, big
industrial accidents, and various transport disasters have added to the feeling of
danger. However, part of this fear is irrational. The world is not necessarily more
dangerous. For most people in rich countries, life has become much safer in a
number of important ways. Over the past century, their life expectancy has risen by
around two-thirds. Workplaces, the wider environment, and many diseases have
become less hazardous. So, it is not true to say that life has become riskier; instead,
some risks have become smaller and some new ones have arrived.
It is now easier for people to study and learn from past risks by using information
technology. For example, life-insurance companies have looked back at records of
births and deaths to estimate lifespans and set insurance premiums. Thanks to
computer models, epidemiologists are more successful at tracking diseases, and
even man-made crises such as stockmarket crashes can be catalogued and studied
to produce better forecasts. This technology is also providing better information on
the costs of the problems when they do occur.
Insurance works by shifting risks from a party that does not want to deal with them
to one that does. For example, the cost of a house burning down can be moved
from a homeowner to the insurance company and its shareholders. A stockmarket
listing can shift business risks from a single family to thousands of investors worldwide.
Q1. Globalization has made people feel less worried about danger. NOT GIVEN
Q2. Over the last 100 years, life expectancy has increased by over 65%. TRUE
Q3. Looking at past risks can be done easily by using information technology. TRUE
Q4. Epidemiologists predict storms and earthquakes. FALSE
Q5. Insurance spreads the cost of paying for problems from an individual to a group. TRUE
Passage 6. Choose the correct answer for each question
A self-employed person refers to any person who earns their living from any
independent pursuit of economic activity, as opposed to earning a living working
for a company or another individual (an employer). A freelancer or an independent
contractor who performs all of their work for a single client may still be a self- employed person.
Last year, Sally Patterson left her permanent job with a newspaper and is now a
self-employed journalist. Why did she do it? ‘I had no control over my work,’ she
says, ‘and that mattered more to me than earning lots of money. Actually, leaving
my job wasn’t as difficult as I’d expected, because I already had plenty of contacts
in the publishing industry. Unlike my last job, though, I’m mostly in touch with the
magazines and newspapers I write for by email, and as I don’t work in an office, I
may not see anyone for days. But that’s a welcome relief!’
Isn’t it hard being self-employed? ‘The biggest danger when you become self-
employed is saying “yes” to everything,’ Sally says. ‘I make sure I turn work down
if I haven’t got the time for it. And that’s a question of planning: I spend an hour
every week working out what I’m doing for the next few months.’
And what about the benefits? ‘Well, at the newspaper I always concentrated on
economic matters, but now I can choose to work on a wider range of projects than
before. And being my own boss has made me feel more confident about the other areas of my life, too.’
Q1. Sally left her last job because she wanted to make decisions about her work herself. TRUE
Q2. Her colleagues in publishing thought that being self-employed would be difficult for her. NOT GIVEN
Q3. Most self-employed journalists find it difficult to plan ahead. NOT GIVEN
Q4. Sally specializes more now than she did in her last job. TRUE
Q5. Self-employed has barely affected Sally’s attitudes to life. FALSE
Passage 7. Choose the correct answer for each question BREAKING INTO NEW MARKETS
The term electronic commerce (ecommerce) refers to a business model that allows
companies and individuals to buy and sell goods and services over the Internet.
Ecommerce operates in four major market segments and can be conducted over
computers, tablets, smartphones, and other smart devices.
A business model for e-commerce?
eBay, the world’s leading online auctioneer, has a business model that definitely
suits the internet. Thanks to many clever search features, it can match up sellers
and buyers of even the most unfamiliar items. And because of its smart cost and
revenue structure (it charges a modest commission on each transaction and does
not store goods), eBay has been one of the most consistently profitable e-
commerce businesses. In the first quarter, its net income more than doubled, to
$104.2m, on revenues of $476m. This was partly due to eBay’s acquisition of
PayPal, a payment business, last year.
Taking out the effects of that deal, sales were up by 56% over the previous year.
One of eBay’s greatest strengths, however, is also one of the biggest risks it faces.
Its business, like any marketplace, is a natural monopoly, and so once it is
established, it is pretty hard for a newcomer to challenge it. This has already
aroused the interest of America’s Department of Justice. It took no action after an
investigation a couple of years ago, but some think it will be tempted to take another look as eBay expands.
Q1. eBay is regarded as the top online auction company. TRUE
Q2. The company buys goods and holds them before reselling them. FALSE
Q3. The company makes a large profit on every deal. NOT GIVEN
Q4. eBay has recently bought a payment business. TRUE
Q5. The US Department of Justice has tried to stop eBay trading. FALSE
Passage 8. Choose the correct answer for each question
New technology is influencing the way logistics companies are doing business –
and cutting their costs. For example, it costs FedEx $2.40 to track a package for a
customer who calls by phone, but only four cents for one who visits its website.
FedEx now gets about 3m online tracking requests a day, compared with only a
few tens of thousands by phone.
However, the most dramatic gains happen when companies use technology to
understand better what they do in order to change how they do it. The main issue is
‘grandma syndrome’ – a reluctance to get rid of tried and tested processes. The
brave company fighting this syndrome is probably Dell, the computer maker. It
constantly improves the way that it links customers and suppliers through its
website, and it regularly revisits its processes. Dell now sends electronic orders to
suppliers every few hours and can build a computer in less than 24. One of its
managers in Austin, Texas, was recently heard estimating gains of 30% this year, and again next year.
Old-established companies can also make similar gains. Procter & Gamble, the
consumer goods giant, used to think that the most efficient way to get detergent
from its warehouses to shops was to load trucks as fully as possible. Then, a few
years ago, it invested in software to assess the supply chain. The unexpected
conclusion was that it should send trucks less full, and to load some toothpaste and
other stuff alongside the detergent. As a result, P&G’s inventory is down by some
30% and its warehouse workers spend less time relaxing.
Q1. It is expensive for FedEx to track orders for internet users. FALSE
Q2. FedEx has twice as many telephone tracking requests as online ones. FALSE
Q3. Dell regularly evaluates and updates the way it does things. TRUE
Q4. Dell has taken on 30% more staff to deal with increased business. NOT GIVEN
Q5. Proctor and Gamble now needs fewer warehouse workers. NOT GIVEN
Passage 9. Choose the correct answer for each question
A&C Exports has seen its annual export sales rise by 40% since it improved its
foreign language skills. When the company first targeted Italy, it used an
interpreter, but this was very frustrating. A middleman, however fluent, can’t hope
to establish relationships in the way a committed member of the company can.
A&C also takes great care to respond to the cultural requirements of its customers,
for example by choosing the right color for packaging. This approach has doubled sales to Germany.
Karen Burdett, a language specialist who joined A&C eighteen months ago, is the
key to the firm’s export success. When Burdett was appointed, she spoke Spanish
and French fluently, but her knowledge of Italian was limited. In the four weeks
before she took up her new post, she determined to improve her Italian skills. She
listened to Italian while she was driving, cooking, dusting, and sleeping. She
watched Italian videos. She read newspapers, magazines, pizza packets, and shampoo bottles.
Her reward came with her first phone call. ‘I explained that I was learning their
language and asked our clients to be patient with me if I made mistakes. Far from
being critical, they were delighted, and from then on, a strong relationship was established,’ she says.
Q1. A&C managed to sell its products to Italy. TRUE
Q2. A&C wasn’t happy with using an interpreter. TRUE
Q3. A&C thinks that cultural differences are unimportant. FALSE
Q4. Karen knows how to maximize her language learning. TRUE
Q5. Karen’s work has affected staff at all levels in the company. NOT GIVEN
Passage 10. Choose the correct answer for each question
How do you create a restaurant business and become an overnight success at the
age of 52? As Ray Kroc said, “I was an overnight success alright, but 30 years is a long, long night.”
In 1954, Ray Kroc visited a restaurant in San Bernardino, California that had
purchased several Multimixers. There he found a small but successful restaurant
run by brothers Dick and Mac McDonald and was attracted by the effectiveness of
their operation. The McDonald’s brothers produced a limited menu, concentrating
on just a few items – burgers, fries, and beverages – which allowed them to focus
on quality and quick service. They were looking for a new franchising agent and Kroc saw an opportunity.
As a result, the first McDonald’s franchise restaurant that Kroc was responsible for
opened in Illinois in 1955. Like the earlier franchises, the building was red and
white, and used the Golden Arches logo. Both Kroc and the McDonald brothers
wanted to control the company, but in 1961 the brothers sold their interest in the
business to Kroc, although they felt he was forcing them out of the company. Two
years later, McDonald’s one billionth hamburger was served on national TV, and
by 1965, the number of restaurants had grown to over 700. McDonald’s was
floated as a public company in the same year. There was great demand for its
shares, and their price more than doubled within a few weeks. The clown character
Ronald McDonald first appeared in a national TV commercial in 1966. The
company’s international expansion began in 1967, when its first Canadian store opened.
Q1. The McDonald brothers retired from business when they left the company. NOT GIVEN
Q2. The first time that the public could buy shares in McDonald’s was in 1965. TRUE
Q3. After a few weeks, McDonald’s share price was lower than it started. FALSE
Q4. The clown character Ronald McDonald was Ray Kroc’s idea. NOT GIVEN
Q5. Until 1967 all the company’s restaurants were in the USA. TRUE