高级英语视听说第七单元文本 GM's Difficult Road Ahead

Unit 7 GM's Difficult Road AheadEpisode 1If the old saying “what’s good for American is good for General Motor and vice versa” is still true, we are all in a lot of trouble. General Motors is limping along in the breakdown lane, in need of a lot more than a minor tune-up.With GM’s stock trading near an all time low and its bonds rated as junk, the company reported losses of more than $10 billion last year. Unless it stops hemorrhaging money, it will have to be towed into bankruptcy court—a consequence that could cascade through the American economy, threatening up to a million jobs and changing the dreams of American workers.*General Motors is not just another company.For almost a century, it was emblematic of American industrial dominance, with a car for every customer and a brand for every stratum of society.***Back when Pontiacs were as sexy as Sinatra and Cadillac the synonym for luxury, GM made half the cars in the United States. And a job on one of its assembly lines was a ticket into the middle class. But that was before the first oil shock, and the Japanese imports. Today, General Motors is losing $24 million a day—and *** all bets are off.Cole: **And this is not a phantom crisis or a fake crisis. This is a real crisis.David Cole is chairman of the Center for Automotive Research, a non-profit consulting firm in Ann Arbor Michigan. He is widely considered one of the industry’s top analysts, and believes that Detroit is now facing what the steel industry and the big airlines have already been through: high labor costs that make it almost impossible to compete.Cole: And every one of the Big Three faces a problem right now of about $2000 to $2500 per vehicle produced cost disadvantage. ** If that plays out over time, they’re all dead. Correspondent: Change or die.Cole: It’s change o r die. Everything is driven by a profitable business. If you can’t be profitable, you can’t be in business.Episode 2:Wagoner: This is a mid-sized car, the Chevy Impala SS…It has certainly not escaped the attention of General Motors chairman Rick Wagoner, who we met at the Detroit Auto Show and may have the toughest job in America: running a corporation many analysts believe has become, too big , too bloated and too slow to compete with more nimble foreign competitors.Correspondent: How did General Motors get to the point where it is right now?Wagoner: ‘Cause we have a long history, almost 100 years. We have a lot of employees. Wehave a lot of retirees, a lot of dependents. And promises were made about benefits to those people that weren’t very expensive when they were made. And it’s really given us some financial challenges.One of them is that most of the people on GM’s payroll are no longer making cars. Every month, it sends out nearly a half million pension checks to former workers, many of whom retired in their 50s after 30 years of service and live in communities where GM plants closed long ago.Then there is the ever-rising cost of health care. GM has one of the most generous plans in America and provides it to 1.1 million people — retirees, workers and their dependents at a cost of $6 billion a year. More than any company in America.Gary Chaison, a professor of industrial relations at Clark University, has done the math: Chaison: It comes to ab out $1400 a car now. that’s what the health care premiums of the workers who make that car is.Correspondent: More that steel?Chaison: Yeah. Much more than steel, much more than glass, much more than any other part. What you’re doing when you’re buying a car is you’re spending a lot of money for the health care benefits of workers who are making that car.It’s cost most of GM’s foreign competitors don’t have because their workers are usually covered by some form of government health insurance in their own countries. Rick Wagoner says it’s one of the promises made to workers, in good times, that it can barely afford in bad. Episode 3:Correspondent: Do you think that those promises can be kept?Wagoner: Well, we feel a responsibility to the people that those promises were made to. We also have a responsibility to insure that our business is successful in the future.The future looks so bleak that the United Auto Workers, the union that represents GM’s hourly workers, agreed last year to give back some hard-won concessions, which included a $1 an hour cost-of-living raise for active workers, and required retirees to pay up to several hundred dollars a year towards medical insurance that had always been free. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger says it was painful but necessary.Correspondent: Was it hard to sell?Gettelfinger: Sure it was hard to sell. First of all, it was hard for us to convince ourselves that we needed to do something. It was not the easy decision to make, but it was a right decision to make in the long term. Because our concern is the long-term viability of our membership both active and retired when it comes to their benefits or to their wage levels.And the consensus is the union may have to give up a lot more, either before or during next year’s contract negotiations, if General Motors is to avoid bankruptcy—an outcome that couldallow the company to scrap its labor agreements, slash wages and pass off its pension obligations to the federal government.Cole: If you or I were given a choi ce between gold and silver, we’ll take the gold every time. Gold is no longer an option. The choice that they’re facing, literally, is between lead and silver. If they don’t do the right things, they’re gonna get lead.Silver is still terrific. And I think that’s where we’re headed. The industry can afford silver, but they can no longer afford gold.Correspondent: This is the end of the corporate welfare state?Cole: It’s the beginning of the end, big time.Episode 4:General Motors is still the largest automobile manufacture in the world, and most experts will tell you it has never made better cars and trucks. But its market share has fallen to 24 percent, and it has too many plants and too many people for the number of cars it’s selling.GM wants to shut down all or part of a dozen facilities and get rid of 30,000 workers by the end of 2008,but it’s hamstrung by its contract with the UAW, which says it would still have to pay these workers under something called the “job bank”.Cole: people are paid essentially a full salary and aren’t working --- can’t work.You can’t afford literally hundreds of millions of dollars in wage to people that aren’t working. So the way to deal with that is to buy’em out of their job. And that’s gonna be a big part of what’s happening in just the next few months.”The process has already begun. The week before last, General Motors served up one of the biggest buyout packages in corporate history, offering 113,000 hourly employees anywhere from $35,000 to $140,000 to walk away from their jobs or take early retirement. The buyout could cost GM up to $2 billion, so last week it sold off a chunk of one of its most profitable business, GMAC’s commercial mortgage division, to help pay for it. But the ultimate cost could be much greater for communities all over the Midwest.Several generations of American workers **put food on the table and kids through college working at GM factories like this one in Janesville, Wisconsin, where **a union job with General Motors was as close as you could get to guaranteed lifetime security.It’s hard work with lots of overtime, but in a good year they can make $100,000, with up to five weeks vacation. It’s a great job; the problem is, it can be done in Mexico now for $3 an hour, and people here are nervous. Almost everyone in Janesville either works for GM or has a relative or family member that does.Flood: Everybody knows, you know, General Motors is the horse that pulls our car. I think that’s true.It’s the favorite subject at the Eagle Inn, just down the street from the union hall, where we shared a cup of coffee with retirees Steve Flood and Claude Eakins and current UAW workers Ron Splan and Matt Symons, who make SUVs at the Janesville plant. Correspondent: What would happen to Janesville if GM went into bankruptcy?Splan: It certainly wouldn’t be a pretty picture.I mean, there’s probably 20 industries in Janesville here that supply directly to the Janesville General Motors plants. So it would be devastating.Correspondent: Are you willing to make more concessions?Flood: You bet. We’re gonna make sure GM survives. What we do, I’m not sure.Splan: They know that we’re all in the same boat. I mean, if it’s got a hole in it,we’re all,we’re all sinking.There are some who have actually suggested that bankruptcy might be good for General Motors in the long run---that it would allow the company to reposition itself competitively in the global market.GM chairman Rick Wagoner isn’t one of them.Wagoner: Our view is that’s a very bad idea. First of all, we don’t think it’s gonna happen. We don’t think it’s a good strategy. And we think a lot of people would lose if we did that, ranging from shareholders to employees to dealers to suppliers. And it’s my view that all this talk about bankruptcy is way overselling the risk side of the business.But a lot of things could go wrong. A potential strike at Delphi Corp., GM’s major parts suppliers, could shut down general Motors assembly lines and create a liquidity crisis. Corporate raider Kirk Kerkorian, whose intentions are unknown, is now GM’s largest individual stockholders--and making his presence felt. But most of all, GM needs to begin selling more cars and trucks without having to give them away with huge discounts.Episode 5:Wagoner: The first thing...we’re bringing out at the beginning of the year is this all new sports car, the Saturn Sky, a great thing to have in their showroom.Correspondent: It’s definitely not doubty.Wagoner: Definitely not.It needs to revive Buick and Pontiac the same way it resurrected Cadillac, with bold new designs and their own distinct identities.Lutz: This is one of our Cadillac studios.Right now the cars that will save GM, or not, are cloaked in blue shrouds at the company’s super-secret design center in Warren, Michigan. Under the watchful eye of 74-year-old vice chairman Bob Lutz, a legendary design guru, who once ran Chrysler.Lutz: Unfortunately this is a car that I’d like to be able to show, but for competitive reasonswe can’t show it all. I’ll just show you some of the, some of the advanced work that we’re doing on grills --- that this is obviously a Cadillac, no concealing that.Correspondent: Would you have to kill me if I just took this thing and ripped it right out?Lutz: I would not be pleased with you.Lutz acknowledges that GM became complacent over the years, producing too many anonymous cars with this uninspired designs and ** delegating the design process too low in the corporate structure.Lutz: During the period of GM’s greatness in the 50s and 60s, design ruled. And **the finance people ran behind to try to reestablish order and pick up the pieces.We just lost the focus on design.**There is no detail too small for his attention right now. From sheet metal fits to upgrading interiors, and getting rid of what he calls that “nasty rat fur’’ upholstery.Lutz:I mean, the answer is product, product, product, product, product. And I’m happy to say that my experiences, that automobile companies always do their best products when they’re in dire straits, because all the second guessers get out of the way.Luze says the company has turned the corner on reliability and customer satisfaction, and the J.D. Power quality surveys bear him out. He says changing public perceptions will take longer. One encouraging development came at the Detroit Auto Show when Lutz unveiled the new sleek Camaro concept car, which debuted to unanimous acclaim and was selected as best car at the show. It’s exactly what GM needs right now, not at an auto show, but in its showroom.Wagoner:We’re enthused about it and everybody wants to know, ‘So, are you gonna build it?’Correspondent: And the answer is?Correspondent: We should have like 60,000..Wagoner: It’s firm or maybe we’d like to do it...We haven’t made the call yet. Correspondent: Really, you haven’t?Wagoner: We haven’t made the call. We’ve introduced it as a concept. Sometimes we do that to see how people to react it.Correspondent: Well, it was just named the best car in the show.Wagoner: Yeah, well I just got that information. That does suggest that if we didn’t try to build this, we might be brain dead. Stay tuned. 前言（1h）一、课程性质岩土工程主要问题（1）地基稳定问题——沉降与变形——《基础工程与地基处理》（《地基处理技术》等）（2）斜坡稳定问题——破坏模式与防护技术——《支挡结构设计与施工》、《地质灾害治理工程设计》、《岩土支挡与锚固工程》等（3）围岩（硐室）稳定问题——变形破坏与防治——《隧道工程》、《巷道支护技术》、《岩土锚固工程》等（4）涉水的岩土问题：水库、堤岸、港口、码头、海岸等——《抛石基础?》、《坝体设计与施工？》研究人类工程活动与地质环境（工程地质条件）之间的相互作用，以便正确评价、合理利用、有效改造和完善保护地质环境。

新视野商务英语视听说第三版上册第七单元答案1、Nowadays more and more people travel by _______, because its safe, cheap and fast. [单选题] *A. footB. bikeC. high-speed train(正确答案)D. boat2、Some students are able to find jobs after graduation while _____will return to school for an advanced degree. [单选题] *A. otherB. anotherC. others(正确答案)D. the other3、54．—________?—Yes, please. I'd like some beef. [单选题] *A．What do you wantB．May I try it onC．Can I help you(正确答案)D．What else do you want4、_______ is on September the tenth. [单选题] *A. Children’s DayB. Teachers’Day(正确答案)C. Women’s DayD. Mother’s Day5、It was difficult to guess what her_____to the news would be. [单选题] *A.impressionmentC.reaction(正确答案)D.opinion6、One thousand dollars a month is not a fortune but at least can help cover my living（）. [单选题] *A. billsB. expenses(正确答案)C. pricesD. charges7、He was?very tired，so he stopped?_____ a rest. [单选题] *A. to have(正确答案)B. havingC. haveD. had8、8．Turn right ________ Danba Road and walk ________ the road, then you will findMeilong Middle school. [单选题] *A．in...alongB．into...along (正确答案)C．in...onD．into...on9、--Jenny, what’s your favorite _______?? ? ? --like peaches best. [单选题] *A. fruit(正确答案)B. vegetablesC. drinkD. plants10、Both Mary and Linda don't care for fish. [单选题] *A. 喜欢(正确答案)B. 关心C. 照料D. 在乎11、She _______ be here. [单选题] *A. is gladB. is so glad to(正确答案)C. am gladD. is to12、A healthy life is generally thought to be（）with fresh air, clean water, and homegrown food. [单选题] *A. joinedB. boundC. lackingD. associated(正确答案)13、I knocked on the door but _______ answered. [单选题] *A. somebodyB. anybodyC. nobody(正确答案)D. everybody14、If you know the answer, _______ your hand, please. [单选题] *A. put up(正确答案)B. put downC. put onD. put in15、Many young people like to _______ at weekends. [单选题] *A. eat out(正确答案)B. eat upC. eat onD. eat with16、The manager was quite satisfied with his job. [单选题] *A. 担心的B. 满意的(正确答案)C. 高兴的D. 放心的17、The family will have _______ good time in Shanghai Disneyland. [单选题] *A. theB. a(正确答案)C. anD. /18、Many people believe that _________one has, _______ one is, but actually it is not true. [单选题] *A. the more money ; the happier(正确答案)B. the more money ; the more happyC. the less money ; the happierD. the less money ; the more happy19、--What are the young people doing there？--They are discussing how to _______?the pollution in the river. [单选题] *A. come up withB. talk withC. deal with(正确答案)D. get on with20、Jim will _______ New York at 12 o’clock. [单选题] *A. get onB. get outC. get offD. get to(正确答案)21、Experts are making an investigation on the spot. They want to find a way to（）the tower. [单选题] *A. Restore(正确答案)B. resumeC. recoverD. reunite22、I _______ no idea of where the zoo is. [单选题] *A. thinkB. getC. have(正确答案)D. take23、86．—? ? ? ? ? ? ?will it take me to get to the Golden Street?—About half an hour. [单选题]* A．How farB．How long(正确答案)C．How oftenD．How much24、We ______ to set up a food bank to help hungry people next week.（）[单选题] *A. hadB. are going(正确答案)C. were goingD. went25、She passed me in the street, but took no（）of me. [单选题] *Attention (正确答案)B. watchC. careD. notice26、2．I think Game of Thrones is ________ TV series of the year. [单选题] *A．excitingB．more excitingC．most excitingD．the most exciting (正确答案)27、I am worried about my brother. I am not sure _____ he has arrived at the school or not. [单选题] *A. whether(正确答案)B. whatC. whenD. how28、I don’t think he will take the case seriously,_____? [单选题] *A.don’t IB.won’t heC.does heD.will he(正确答案)29、42．—________ meat do you want?—Half a kilo. [单选题] *A．How much(正确答案)B．How manyC．WhatD．Which30、One effective（）of learning a foreign language is to study the language in its cultural context. [单选题] *A. approach(正确答案)B. wayC. mannerD. road。

可编辑修改精选全文完整版Module 77.1 Strengths and weaknesses (page 67)1I admire my boss a lot. He’s very capable;he knows exactly what he’s doing and he’s not afraid to get his hands dirty,not like some managers who think they’re above it all. The one problem is that he takes on too much. I don’t think it’s because he doesn’t trust us to do a good job--it’s because he likes to be involved in everything. He ‘s a bit of control freak. The result is that he spreads himself very thin, when he could hand more work out to others, and he’s often overloaded and stressed.2 Cheryl’s not particularly brilliant, but she knows that. She knows her own limitations, which is certainly one of her strengths. In fact, I don’t think you have to be particularly bright to be a manager-- that’s more a quality you need in a leader. A manager’s job is to bring order to the workplace and the team, so that people are clear about what they should be doing and when they should be doing it. Cheryl is very good at getting everyone working in the most efficient way and that makes our working environment much less stressful.3 He’s not an easy guy to work for. He has very high expectations of his staff and he can be rude and too direct. Sensitivity is not his strong point. He often puts you on the spot: ‘What makes you think this will work?’‘Have you thought about the cost of this?’and so on . You have to be prepared to justify your actions a lot. Some people can’t stand being challenged like this all the time, but you can’t deny that he gets the most out of his staff. People do perform.4 There are people who listen to what you are saying, and people who hear what you are saying. Paul is one of the former. He does try to listen to other people’s ideas, but his mind has often moved onto the next thing, and he doesn’t take on board what you’re saying. It’s the same thing when he’s expressing his own ideas and wishes. He kind of takes it for granted that everyone has reached the same point in their thinking that he has, when often they’re still two or three steps behind. Don’t get me wrong, he’s very nice guy--kind and clever, and he has lots of great ideas and vision for the company--but because of these communication difficulties, he can be very frustrating to work for.5 The financial rewards in our company are not so huge, but in spite of that, in my team we all stay very motivated because our boss really appreciates our work. She’s actually very protective of her own people. She gives us a lot of praise. Other people in the company say she’s a maverick, a kind of a loner. They say she’s difficult to get on with and doesn’t really have the company’s interests at heart. But I wouldn’tknown about that really, because it’s not the side of her that we see. What we get is 100% loyalty and encouragement.Module 88.1 Corporate social responsibility (page 80)I’d like to talk to you today about an approach to doing business that is fast gaining popularity. It is the concept of Triple Bottom Line. We all know the term bottom line and what it refers to, namely the financial profitability of the company. Triple Bottom Line, or 3BL as it is sometimes called, recognises that there are two other important factors in measuring a company’s success-social performance and environmental performance. Put in a more friendly way, 3BL is about ‘People, Planet and Profits’. Nor are these things unconnected:the three legs are in fact strongly linked.Why is this important? In today’s global economy, the standards set by business, and not by government, are more and more what affect people’s lives. The environment, as we all know, is under unprecedented pressure. In many sectors-transport,energy generation, production of chemicals and plastics-business can play its part in reducing pollution, particularly emissions into the atmosphere. It can also take more responsibility for the full life-cycle of products-from manufacture to disposal.In the area of social performance, businesses must consider the welfare of their employees and the communities in which they operate. In the pursuit of a better financial bottom line, companies will naturally look to reduce their labour costs. This may mean cutting jobs or wages or it may mean outsourcing work or relocating to a country where labour is cheaper. All too often the impact of these actions on the workforce is not taken properly into account.One aspect of social responsibility-sponsorship of community projects- has already been taken up by companies on a wide scale. That is probably because companies have been quick to see the financial benefit of the good publicity that comes from being involved in such helpful projects.Does all this sound nice? Of course it does, but it’s not enough to say you are going to follow a policy of corporate social responsibility: to make a difference companies have to ‘walk the talk’. So how do you go about translating good intentions into concrete actions that will really make a difference?The first thing is to be attentive to the needs of all stakeholders. This means that companies must recognise their responsibilities not only to their shareholders, but also be committed to respecting their employees, their suppliers, their customers, and the local community and environment in which they operate.The second point is about audits and reporting. Companies already submit their financial accounts for audits; they must also submit to social audits and environmental impact audits. These must be reported to the outside world so that everyone can see the results of their performance in the three key areas, thus tying companies to their promises. However, this means that companies have to be honest and open about their actions and so expose themselves to public criticism. It’s easy to advertise your successes to your customer; it’s not so easy publicise the level of pollution from your factory or, if you are a private company, to disclose your financial results.。

Unit 7 Weird, wild and wonderfulListening to the worldSharingScriptsF = Finn; M1 = Man 1, etc.; W1 = Woman 1, etc.Part 1F: I like being in the countryside, but I’m always happy to come back to the city. How about you?M1: I actually really love the countryside. I grew up on a farm.W1: I love being in London. I have loved my time in London, but as I’m getting older, I increasingly want to visit the countryside more and more.M2: It’s nice; it’s, it’s quiet – you know, you can forget about the city.W2: I love it. I was brought up in the countryside.M3: I love being in the countryside. I love the quiet; I love the fresh air. It’s great.W3: I love being in the countryside. Um, I’ve come, I come from Hertfordshire, so, although it’s not … where I live isn’t actually directly in the countryside. If you drive for 10 minutes, you’re in it and it’s beautiful.W4: I love the countryside. It’s a nice change to living in London and I enjoy taking weekends out. Um I enjoy camping.M4: I enjoy the countryside be cause I’ve,I’ve lived there for about 37 years. And particularly I enjoyed (enjoy) gardening – growing a lot of vegetables.Part 2F: The thing I like most about being in the countryside is watching animals and birds. How about you? Do you like wildlife?W1: Well, I am, er, an animal lover. Er, I’m a vegetarian as well.W4: I like wildlife and animals. Er, since I was a little girl, I’ve always really liked foxes for some reason. And I know a lot of people don’t, but foxes have always been my favorite animal.M1: I love wildlife. Er, I really, sort of, enjoy things that you don’t see every day –um … enjoy sort of very exotic wildlife that I haven’t seen before.M4: I like, um, watching them on the telly.W2: I think, I think animals are living beings and should be treated as so – should be treated with respect.M3: I like, um, big cats. They’re very graceful;they’re very beautiful. Um, and um, something I’ve, I’ve always just had a fascination with from an early age. Er, I also quite like large snakes. A friend of mine used to keep them.W3: My nephew and niece have a guinea pig, which I love.Part 3F: Are there any animals you’re frightened of?M2: Snakes and scorpions. Um, just ’cause I know that usually one bite could mean that’s the end.W3: I don’t like spiders. It’s not really an animal – but I hate spiders.M1: I am very scared of spiders. Um, and even though in Australia, we get some very small but very dangerous spiders –I’m afraid of very big spiders.M4: I don’t particularly like horses because they’re big, and they frighten our dog.W1: I’m not really frightened of any animals. I love them all.M3: There’s nothing that scares me –that I haven’t got any memories of animals scaring me as a child.W4: I’m quite scared of sharks. I don’t really like the sea and so whales and um, animals such as that, I don’t really like. Um, I suppose because it’s the unknown, I just find it quite scary.ListeningScriptsPart 1Welcome to Save the Planet where we talk about the world’s environmental problems. Now, did you know there are more than six billion people on the planet, and by 2050 there might be more than nine billion? People are living longer and healthier lives than ever before, but a big population means big problems for the planet.Part 2Let’s look at three of the most important problems. The first problem is water. Many people in the world can’t get enough water. But in some countries we use too much. A person in Gambia, Africa, for example, uses much less water than someone in the United States. In Gambia, one person uses four and a half liters of water a day. But in the US it’s 600 liters. And to make the problem worse, the deserts are gettingbigger. The Sahara Desert is one of the hottest places in the world, and is already the largest desert. But each year it gets bigger than before, so it gets more difficult to find clean water. Our second problem is the animals. There are more people on the earth than ever before. This means we use more space. And for the animals this means that there is less space than before. One example is the Amazon Rainforest. It has the highest number of plant and animal species in the world, but it’s getting smaller every year. People are destroying the rainforest to make more space for houses, roads and farms. In the last 10 years we have destroyed more than 150,000 square kilometers of forest –that’s an area larger than Greece! So in the future, many plants and animal species will become extinct. And the last problem on our list, but not the least important, is the weather. The world is getting warmer. The ice in Greenland is melting faster than ever before. Also sea levels are rising. This means that soon some of the world’s most important cities, like New York, London, Bangkok, Sydney and Rio de Janeiro might all be under water.ViewingScriptsJL = Joanna Lumley; T = Tura; KS = Kjetil SkoglieJL: The far north. Fairytale mountains. It’s just fabulously beautiful. The land of the magical Northern Lights is somewhere I’ve longed for all my life. As a little girl I lived in the steamy heat of tropical Malaysia. I used to yearn to be cold. I’d never even seen snow. But my storybooks were full of snow queens, and now I’m enteringthat world. This is the journey I’ve always dreamt of making. I feel I’ve come into another world now. No people except you and us. And if we’re very lucky we might see the elusive Northern Lights. I pack up things that are going to be essential on every trip. So in here I’ve got, for instance, oil-based pastels; and I’ve got a lovely little drawing book, but I’ve got that colored pages so that you can draw in different colors; a lovely old guidebook –it’s called The Land of the Vikings. It’s got beautiful old maps. Look at that. But if it wasn’t for one item in my case, I wouldn’t be on this journey at all. This is the book: Ponny the Penguin. This is when I first heard of the Northern Lights. And there was this picture which haunted me of a sort of rippling curtain and a little tiny penguin. This is not your average taxi rank at the station. I’m in the hands of Tura Christiansen and his team of 11 sled dogs. Good morning. I’m Joanna.T: Tura.JL: Tura. How nice to see you, Tura.T: Yes.JL: These are wonderful dogs.T: They like to … to, er …JL: They like to run?T: Yes.JL: The weather near Troms? is uncertain. But local guide, Kjetil Skoglie, promises me we’ll track down the lights even if it takes till morning. I can’t see anything, Kjetil.KS: No, it’s … it’s nothing yet. You just have to be patient.JL: OK, so I just wait here.KS: Yeah, you just wait here.JL: Yeah.KS: Good luck.JL: Thanks, Kjetil. I stand in the pitch-black by the side of the fjord, and wait. Look, much brighter there. Oh, something’s happening there. Oh … Look up here! Look what’s happening here! Look at that! Oh … Oh!Look at this! And it just keeps changing and changing. I can’t believe I’m seeing this. It’s fantastic and it’s coming back again. I have been waiting all my life to see the Northern Lights. I’m as happy as can be. This is the most astonishing thing I have ever, ever seen.Speaking for communicationRole-playScriptsPart 1A: The best sense of direction? Perhaps it’s the butterfly.B: Er … I’m not sure.A: It’s hard to say. Well, it could be sea turtles.B: Maybe.A: They swim everywhere, don’t they?B: Um, i t might be, but I think it’s the butterfly.It can’t be the taxi driver, can it?A: It’s definitely not the taxi driver.C: OK, here are the answers. Sea turtles travel 3,000 miles a year. And when they lay eggs, they go back to the place where they were born. So they have a great sense of direction. New York taxi drivers drive 37,500 miles a year. They know the fastest way to any address in New York. But sea turtles and taxi drivers do not have the best sense of direction!B: So it must be the butterfly.C: The winner is the monarch butterfly. At the end of every summer, they fly from Canada to Mexico. And no one knows how they do it.Part 2A: Er, so who’s the best athlete? That’s a good question.B: I’m not sure.A: It could be triathletes.B: Or rats?C: Rats are the winners. A rat is the superman of animals. Rats can kill animals that are much bigger than they are, and they can eat electric wires. They can swim a mile and survive in water for 3 days. They can also jump 3 feet and fall 45 feet and survive.A: That’s amazing.Part 3B: Who sleeps the most? Let me think. Um, it can’t be the human baby, can it? And it’s not the black bear.A: It must be the sloth. They spend most of their lives asleep.B: So what’s the answer?C: Well, the black bear sleeps for about 7 months a year. The females are even half asleep when they have their babies.B: Wow.C: Human babies usually sleep about 18 hours a day, but only in their first few months. So sloths are the winner. They sleep 15 to 18 hours a day for their whole life.Group discussionScriptsA: OK, the most beautiful place I’ve been to … Well, a few years ago I went to Fish River Canyon.B: Where?A: Fish River Canyon. It’s the second biggest canyon in the world.B: After the Grand Canyon?A: After the Grand Canyon.B: Where is it?A: It’s in Namibia, in Africa.B: Wow. And what did you think of it?A: Ah, it was amazing! The first thing you notice is how big it is, of course.B: Of course.A: It just goes on and on as far as your eye can see. But the best thing about it was thesilence.B: Right.A: It was so amazingly quiet. We went there in August and there weren’t many tourists and it was just so quiet.B: Would you like to go back?A: I would love to go back. One day!B: One day.Further practice in listeningShort conversationsScriptsConversation 1W: We offer some very exciting tours plus the best luxury hotels. The most popular places are Thailand and India. Have you got any idea of where you’d like to go?M: Well, we were thinking of flying to a small island where we can enjoy some special local food.Q: Where does the conversation most probably take place?Conversation 2M: Have you ever tried diving in the sea? No words can describe the beauty of the sea. You lose track of time down there!W: No, I’m kind of frightened. I mean I hear all these stories about getting sick from going up too fast to the surface and dangerous fish.Q: What makes the woman scared of diving?Conversation 3W: Many people are concerned about the rising costs of fuel.M: I think they are a little short-sighted; they should look on the bright side. With higher costs, people will be forced to use less energy. We can thus save more energy, which is good for the environment.Q: What does the man think of the rise of fuel costs?Conversation 4M: I’ve never been to the mountains before. I’m not much of an adventurer, you know.W: Well, join us. It’s great spending some time with friends and just being close to nature. And when you come back, you’ll be a new person, relaxed and ready to study again.Q: According to the woman, what can the man benefit from going to the mountains? Conversation 5M: Look! The sun is shining. We haven’t seen the sun for ages. It’s been raining for a week! It’s much too beautiful a day to waste indoors reading, cooking or cleaning. W: You are right. Let’s make the most of it.Q: What are the man and woman probably going to do?Long conversationScriptsW: I just saw a great movie about the true story of Christopher McCandless’ trip to the Alaskan wilderness in 1992. It was so inspiring! His love of nature was so beautiful.M: Well, I read about his story. He was foolish and just threw his life away!W: Why would you say that? It’s a shame that he died, but at least he lived doing what he loved. Can you imagine living in Alaska alone, eating only the plants you can gather and the animals you can hunt?M: No, that’s just it! He died in the wilderness because he thought nature was magical and kind. He needed to realize that nature is powerful and full of risks! Christopher was completely unprepared for the many dangers of the Alaskan wilderness.W: Like what? He found shelter and he had a gun to hunt!M: He did not use his map of the area – there was a boat where he could get help only a quarter of a mile away! H e didn’t have any emergency food supplies! Most of all, he had no emergency communication equipment. Any one of those three things would have saved his life!W: Yes, he should have been more prepared, but I still admire what he was trying to do.M: It’s no t romantic! Five famous outdoor specialists were interviewed. They all said he should have lived. He died because he was unprepared!W: Still, I admire his spirit for trying!Q1: What are the man and woman talking about?Q2: What can we learn about Christopher?Q3: What does the woman think about Christopher taking the trip to Alaska?Q4: Which of the following is NOT mentioned as something that would have saved Christopher’s life?Passage 1ScriptsWithin five seconds of taking off, an avalanche can move at 80 miles an hour, so people rarely have time to run out of the way. But these days, avalanches don’t often strike skiers at official skiing zones because the ski patrol makes sure the skiing areas are safe.An avalanche occurs when one entire area or layer of snow slides off another layer below it. When a layer starts to slide, anything on top is carried along, and the avalanche picks up whatever lies in its path as it moves down a slope, including rocks, trees and people. When a person starts to travel across an area of unstable snow, their weight can start a slide.As long as skiers stay in the official ski areas, they don’t have to worry. “We control the hazard, so it is unlikely you’ll get caught,” explains Mike, a snow safety expert. “We do that by p ressing the snow together to make it more solid, and we use explosives to make an avalanche move or to test an area to see if it is unstable.” This work can be dangerous, so ski patrol members look out for each other and keep the public at a safe distance.Mike and his colleagues also dig holes in the snow to study the layers. After they go back, they enter measurements into a computer; a special software creates a chart showing how the different layers are holding up. If an area looks risky, the ski patrol closes it.Q1: What speed can an avalanche reach within five seconds of taking off?Q2: According to the passage, under what circumstances may an avalanche occur?Q3: What are skiers advised to do to avoid being caught in an avalanche?Q4: Why does the ski patrol use explosives?Passage 2Scripts and answersAnna was awarded a special day out for herself and her family after taking part in a competition run by a magazine in April, beating over 2,000 people who 1) participated in the event.Anna’s wild day out will include a special tour of the city’s nature park, with exclusive 2) access to areas of the site that are not usually available to the public. During her visit, Anna is likely to see some natural wonders including rare birds feeding their young and a 3) tremendous number of newly hatched chicks. Anna may also see a great flamingo 4) currently nesting at the nature park after it escaped from the zoo last year.The most 5) incredible thing is that Mike Dilger, a well-known wildlife reporter for BBC, will 6) accompany the family throughout the day. Mike is an experiencedbiologist, so he is ready to share his experiences and knowledge of the natural world every step of the way.Henry, manager of the nature park, says, “Visiting a nature park is a 7) remarkable way to learn more about types of wildlife that you just can’t see in your daily life. It’s an 8) amazing time of year for a visit –the hatching season is well underway, so there are lots of chicks hatching across the park, and as parents take regular trips to find food for their young, there is a very good chance of 9) catching a glimpse of some of our very rare birds. Anna will have a great day; we are really 10) looking forward to her visit.”。

Economy1Task One: Gold Rush(Karen Koh, Anchor)Well, the hope that the conflict in Iraq will be solved diplomatically continues to take the shine out of gold markets. But for investors who still consider the precious metal a safer haven than the markets, Paula Hancocks looks at what you can get for your money.(Paula Hancocks)Diamonds may be a girl’s best friend, but when times are hard, you’re better off with gold.As equities fall, gold looks attractive. As the US dollar weakens, gold looks like a flight to quality. And as political uncertainty hits confidence and growth, gold is a favorite safe haven. Not surprising then, the price has risen almost 85 dollars an ounce in the last year alone. But how doyou go about buying it?(Mike Temple, Gold Investmenter)It’s best if you’ve got 10,000 dollars to either buy bullion coins. Preferably the Krugerrand, cause they’re cheaper as there’s a big market for them...(Paula Hancocks)My unfortunately theoretical 10,000 dollars, would buy me either 30 Krugerrand, or about nine 100 gram bars. But the hidden cost of buying physical gold is in the storage and the security.Another option is to put your money into a mutual fund. That way your investing in the shares of gold mining companies, like the world number one, US based Newmont Mining. The Merrill Lynch Gold and General Trust rose 53 percent last year as global stock markets fell.(Rchichard Davis)We would advise investors to only put a very small part of their portfolio into the gold shares.We would say maybe only 3 to 5 percent of their portfolio should be invested in gold equities. Because, they can do very well when the gold price moves up, but they can also perform quite poorly if the gold price moves down.(Paula Hancocks)Gold is ce rtainly back in fashion. Although if you’re looking purely for profit, the experts saythat buying gold jewelry is probably not the best option, as you are paying a lot more for workmanship. Although from a purely aesthetic point of view, this does look far better around my neck than a gold bar. With jewelry, you’re also paying for the shop markup. It has to be a case of mixing business with pleasure.(Ajit Mulia)At least you have it with you, it’s controlled by you, Rat her than these foreign managers and stockbrokers, you know. You can wear it, you can use, and in a rainy day, you know, you can dispose it, And get the full price of your gold back.2(Paula Hancocks)The price of gold may have been hovering around six-year highs in recent days, but those in the know say the precious metal is still cheap, below 350 dollars an ounce, when it hit as high as 850 dollars in 1980. Task Two: Celebrating 10 Years of the EuroFinance ministers from the European Union member countries have attended the Brussels Economic Forum. The two-day event is to celebrate ten years of the European Monetary Union and also the Euro currency.In his opening remark to the forum Thursday, the Euro Group President gave his assessment of the Economic and Monetary Union’s achievements and t he challenges ahead.(Jean-Claude Juncker, president of Euro group)“It’s obvious that the euro has been a success. It was not easy to come to a merger of 15 national currencies into one single currency. This single currency has developed into the second l argest currency reserve area. This single currency is protecting us against external shocks.”The Forum comes at a time when EU nations are still reluctant to give up their individual seats at major global economic talks in favor of EU seat.The European Commission is pushing for the 15 Euro nations to take a joint Euro seat at key economic institutions such as the G-Seven.In 1998, EU leaders named the eleven countries that would merge their currencies into the single unit, the Euro, but it took 4 years for the countries to physically adopt the Euro.Since 2002, other nations have joined the group and there are now 15 countries in the Euro zone.Task Three: Bring Your Finger into the Store(Hattori)What if you could buy a week’s worth of groceries without ever handing over a credit card, debit card, check or any cash? It may sound impossible, but a Seattle store has the technology to make it happen. Deborah Feldman from our affiliate KING TV has the story.(Deborah Feldman )For some people, paying for groceries with a debit card is novel enough, but for others, carrying a wallet full of cash and credit cards is nothing short of a hassle. That’s why on Wednesday, this Thriftway will start giving customers the option of using finger image technology as a way to pay for their everyday produce.(Paul Kapioski, store owner )You don’t need to bring your card into the store. You just need to bring your finger.(Feldman)Thriftway’s owner says this is the first time biometrics will be used in a Seattle store. Up unti l this point, it’s only been discussed as a safety measure in airports or home and business security systems. Depending on the system, people can use their fingers or their eyes as a personal security code.In this case, Thriftway’s system uses just a third of a person’s fingerprint to verify3 the customer is who she claims to be, and then automatically links to their accounts, so no fears of stolen identities.(Kapioski)In the Seattle area, we’re so used to new technical things. I think it will be a big hi t. (Feldman)But it’s not a big hit with everyone. Some worry of voluntary fingerprint scan in this store could lead to non-optional screening devices down the line.(Unidentified Female)It does not sound like something I would want to do.(Feldman)Why not?(Unidentified Female)Because I think that we’re embarking on some pretty serious privacy issues. (Feldman)But for others, efficiency outweighs any Orwellian theories.(Unidentified Female)You know, if I don’t have to carry my credit cards and all my bank cards and all of that, that would be sounding pretty good.(Unidentified Male)I’ve been fingerprinted before so it doesn’t matter.(Feldman)So you would probably do it?(Unidentified Male)Probably.RMB Appreciation Impacts Overseas Workers in ChinaNow the rise in the value of the Chinese yuan is influencing the earnings of overseas workers here in China. Those who get paid in US dollars are beginning to feel a real pinch in their wallets. The exchange rate of the yuan against the US dollar isn’t just a figure. It’s turned out to be real money in people’s pockets, especially for overseas people working in the Chinese mainland. (Tong Cheng, Director of Beijing Bureau of Al Jazeera)“Naturally, it’s my choice to paid in RMB, because RMB has appreciated considerably in the last 12 months. The reality for me is that my salary has gone down about 20 percent in the past two years.”While some are just complaining about their shrinking salaries, some have made it official by asking to be paid in RMB.(Andy Thruong, Executive Principal of Beijing Concord College of Sino-Canada)“The yuan has been appreciating, which makes it more fair for us to be paid in RMB. We hope the school board will solve the problem.”At the current rate, one US dollar can now be exchanged for about 7.3 yuan , compared with8.2 yuan two years ago. This means the US dollar has depreciated around 13 percent, directly4 impacting overseas workers in China.But experts say for those people work for foreign-funded companies. Their salaries are based on their companies’ overseas profits. All this makes it difficult for them to be paid in RMB.练习答案Unit Seven EconomyTask One: Gold Rush1. Multiple Choice: 1) ACD 2) ABD 3) BD 4) C 5). AC2. Spot Dictation: 1) better off 2) equities 3) the US dollar weakens4) political uncertainty 5) safe haven 6) 85 dollars an ounce7) there ’s a big market for them 8). storage and the security9) mutual fund 10) global stock markets fellTask Two: Celebrating 10 years of the Euro1. Multiple Choice: 1) A 2) BD 3) BC 4) ACD 5) ABTask Three: Bring you finger into the store1. Multiple Choices:1) ABCD 2) ACD 3) BCD 4) ABD 5) ABCD2. Spot Dictation: 1) novel 2). cash and credit cards 3). hassle4). finger image technology 5). new technical things 6).a big hit7). fingerprint scan 8). non-optional 9). privacy issues 10). fingerprinted。

高级英语视听说第七单元文本G M27s D i f f i c u l t R o a dA h e a dUnit 7 GM's Difficult Road AheadEpisode 1If the old saying “what’s good for American is good for General Motor and vice versa” is still true, we are all in a lot of trouble. General Motors is limping along in the breakdown lane, in need of a lot more than a minor tune-up.With GM’s stock trading near an all time low and its bonds rated as junk, the company reported losses of more than $10 billion last year. Unless it stops hemorrhaging money, it will have to be towed into bankruptcy court—a consequence that could cascade through the American economy, threatening up to a million jobs and changing the dreams of American workers.*General Motors is not just another company. For almost a century, it was emblematic of American industrial dominance, with a car for every customer and a brand for every stratum of society.***Back when Pontiacs were as sexy as Sinatra and Cadillac the synonym for luxury, GM made half the cars in the United States. And a job on one of its assembly lines was a ticket into the middle class. But that was before the first oil shock, and the Japanese imports. Today, General Motors is losing $24 million a day—and *** all bets are off.Cole: **And this is not a phantom crisis or a fake crisis. This is a real crisis.David Cole is chairman of the Center for Automotive Research, a non-profit consulting firm in Ann Arbor Michigan. He is widely considered one of the industry’s top analysts, and believes that Detroit is now facing what the steel industry and the big airlines have already been through: high labor costs that make it almost impossible to compete.Cole: And every one of the Big Three faces a problem right now of about $2000 to $2500 per vehicle produced cost disadvantage. ** If that plays out over time, they’re all dead. Correspondent: Change or die.Cole: It’s change o r die. Everything is driven by a profitable business. If you can’t be profitable, you can’t be in business.Episode 2:Wagoner: This is a mid-sized car, the Chevy I mpala SS…It has certainly not escaped the attention of General Motors chairman Rick Wagoner, who we met at the Detroit Auto Show and may have the toughest job in America: running a corporation many analysts believe has become, too big , too bloated and too slow to compete with more nimble foreign competitors.Correspondent: How did General Motors get to the point where it is right now?Wagoner: ‘Cause we have a long history, almost 100 years. We have a lot of employees. We have a lot of retirees, a lot of dependents. And promises were made about benefits to those people that weren’t very expensive when they were made. And it’s really given us some financial challenges.One of them is that most of the people on GM’s payroll are no longer making cars. Eve ry month, it sends out nearly a half million pension checks to former workers, many of whom retired in their 50s after 30 years of service and live in communities where GM plants closed long ago.Then there is the ever-rising cost of health care. GM has one of the most generous plans in America and provides it to 1.1 million people — retirees, workers and their dependents at a cost of $6 billion a year. More than any company in America.Gary Chaison, a professor of industrial relations at Clark University, has done the math: Chaison: It comes to about $1400 a car now. that’s what the health care premiums of the workers who make that car is.Correspondent: More that steel?Chaison: Yeah. Much more than steel, much more than glass, much more than any other part. What you’re doing when you’re buying a car is you’re spending a lot of money for the health care benefits of workers who are making that car.It’s cost most of GM’s foreign competitors don’t have because their workers are usually covered by some form of government health insurance in their own countries. Rick Wagoner says it’s one of the promises made to workers, in good times, that it can barely afford in bad. Episode 3:Correspondent: Do you think that those promises can be kept?Wagoner: Well, we feel a responsibility to the people that those promises were made to. We also have a responsibility to insure that our business is successful in the future.The future looks so bleak that the United Auto Workers, the union that represents GM’s hourly workers, agreed last year to give back some hard-won concessions, which included a $1 an hour cost-of-living raise for active workers, and required retirees to pay up to several hundred dollars a year towards medical insurance that had always been free. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger says it was painful but necessary.Correspondent: Was it hard to sell?Gettelfinger: Sure it was hard to sell. First of all, it was hard for us to convince ourselves that we needed to do something. It was not the easy decision to make, but it was a right decision to make in the long term. Because our concern is the long-term viability of our membership both active and retired when it comes to their benefits or to their wage levels.And the consensus is the union may have to give up a lot more, either before or during next year’s contract negotiations, if General Motors is to avoid bankruptcy—an outcome that could allow the company to scrap its labor agreements, slash wages and pass off its pension obligations to the federal government.Cole: If you or I were given a choice between gold and silver, we’ll take the gold every time. Gold is no longer an option. The choice that they’re facing, literally, is between lead and silver. If they don’t do the right things, they’re gonna g et lead.Silver is still terrific. And I think that’s where we’re headed. The industry can afford silver, but they can no longer afford gold.Correspondent: This is the end of the corporate welfare state?Cole: It’s the beginning of the end, big time.Episode 4:General Motors is still the largest automobile manufacture in the world, and most experts will tell you it has never made better cars and trucks. But its market share has fallen to 24 percent, and it has too many plants and too many people for t he number of cars it’s selling.GM wants to shut down all or part of a dozen facilities and get rid of 30,000 workers by the end of 2008,but it’s hamstrung by its contract with the UAW, which says it would still have to pay these workers under something called the “job bank”.Cole: people are paid essentially a full salary and aren’t working --- can’t work.You can’t afford literally hundreds of millions of dollars in wage to people that aren’t working. So the way to deal with that is to buy’em out of their job. And that’s gonna be a big part of what’s happening in just the next few months.”The process has already begun. The week before last, General Motors served up one of the biggest buyout packages in corporate history, offering 113,000 hourly employees anywhere from $35,000 to $140,000 to walk away from their jobs or take early retirement. The buyout could cost GM up to $2 billion, so last week it sold off a chunk of one of its most profitable business, GMAC’s commercial mortgage division, to help pay for it. But the ultimate cost could be much greater for communities all over the Midwest.Several generations of American workers **put food on the table and kids through college working at GM factories like this one in Janesville, Wisconsin, where **a union job with General Motors was as close as you could get to guaranteed lifetime security.It’s hard work with lots of overtime, but in a good year they can make $100,000, with up to five weeks vacation. It’s a great job; the problem is, it can be done in Mexico now for $3 an hour, and people here are nervous. Almost everyone in Janesville either works for GM or has a relative or family member that does.Flood: Everybody knows, you know, General Motors is the horse that pulls our car. I think that’s true.It’s the favorite subject at the Eagle Inn, just down the street from the union hall, where we shared a cup of coffee with retirees Steve Flood and Claude Eakins and current UAWworkers Ron Splan and Matt Symons, who make SUVs at the Janesville plant. Correspondent: What would happen to Janesville if GM went into bankruptcy?Splan: It certainly wouldn’t be a pretty picture. I mean, there’s probably 20 industries in Janesville here that supply directly to the Janesville General Motors plants. So it would be devastating.Correspondent: Are you willing to make more concessions?Flood: You bet. We’re gonna make sure GM survives. What we do, I’m not sure.Splan: They know that we’re all in the same boat. I mean, if it’s got a hole in it,we’re all,we’re all sinking.There are some who have actually suggested that bankruptcy might be good for General Motors in the long run---that it would allow the company to reposition itself competitively in the global market.GM chairman Rick Wagoner isn’t one of them.Wagoner: Our view is that’s a very bad idea. First of all, we don’t think it’s gonna happen. We don’t think it’s a good strategy. And we think a lot of people would lose if we did that, ranging from shareholders to employees to dealers to suppliers. And it’s m y view that all this talk about bankruptcy is way overselling the risk side of the business.But a lot of things could go wrong. A potential strike at Delphi Corp., GM’s major parts suppliers, could shut down general Motors assembly lines and create a liquidity crisis. Corporate raider Kirk Kerkorian, whose intentions are unknown, is now GM’s largest individual stockholders--and making his presence felt. But most of all, GM needs to begin selling more cars and trucks without having to give them away with huge discounts.Episode 5:Wagoner: The first thing...we’re bringing out at the beginning of the year is this all new sports car, the Saturn Sky, a great thing to have in their showroom.Correspondent: It’s definitely not doubty.Wagoner: Definitely not.It needs to revive Buick and Pontiac the same way it resurrected Cadillac, with bold new designs and their own distinct identities.Lutz: This is one of our Cadillac studios.Right now the cars that will save GM, or not, are cloaked in blue shrouds at the company’s super-secret design center in Warren, Michigan. Under the watchful eye of 74-year-oldvice chairman Bob Lutz, a legendary design guru, who once ran Chrysler.Lutz: Unfortunately this is a car that I’d like to be able to show, but for competitive reasons we can’t show it all. I’ll just show you some of the, some of the advanced work that we’re doing on grills --- that this is obviously a Cadillac, no concealing that.Correspondent: Would you have to kill me if I just took this thing and ripped it right out?Lutz: I would not be pleased with you.Lutz acknowledges that GM became complacent over the years, producing too many anonymous cars with this uninspired designs and ** delegating the design process too low in the corporate structure.Lutz: During the period of GM’s greatness in the 50s and 60s, design ruled. And **the finance people ran behind to try to reestablish order and pick up the pieces. We just lost the focus on design.**There is no detail too small for his attention right now. From sheet metal fits to upgrading interiors, and getting rid of what he calls that “nasty rat fur’’ upholstery.Lutz:I mean, the answer is product, product, product, product, product. And I’m happy to say that my experiences, that automobile companies always do their best products when they’re in dire straits, because all the second guessers get out of the way.Luze says the company has turned the corner on reliability and customer satisfaction, and the J.D. Power quality surveys bear him out. He says changing public perceptions will take longer. One encouraging development came at the Detroit Auto Show when Lutz unveiled the new sleek Camaro concept car, which debuted to unanimous acclaim and was selected as best car at the show. It’s exactly what GM needs right now, not at an auto show, but in its showroom.Wagoner:We’re enthused about it and everybody wants to know, ‘So, are you gonna build it?’Correspondent: And the answer is?Correspondent: We should have like 60,000..Wagoner: It’s firm or maybe we’d like to do it...We haven’t made the call yet. Correspondent: Really, you haven’t?Wagoner: We haven’t made the call. We’ve introduced it as a concept. Sometimes we do that to see how people to react it.Correspondent: Well, it was just named the best car in the show.Wagoner: Yeah, well I just got that information. That does suggest that if we didn’t try to build this, we might be brain dead. Stay tuned.。

Unit 7 2. Listening Prac ce Task 2-1 (B for Buyer; S for Seller) S: Can I help you, sir? d like some informa on about your microwave ovens. B:B:I’I’I’d like some informa on about your microwave ovens. S: OK. What would you like to know? B: What’s your most popular model? S: Well, our most popular model is the B414. Here, this one. As you can see, it looks good and the price is low. B: What’s the target market? S: It’s for people with small kitchens. B: I see. How many colours? – white, black and grey. The white one is the best seller. S: It comes in 3 coloursB: Does it have any special features? ’s easy to operate. S: Yes, its user-friendly design. You can try it to see. ItB: Hmm, how about the warranty? S: 12 months. B: And how much is it? S: The trade price is 48 US dollars. B: That’s not bad. One more ques on: what about delivery? S: We can deliver within 5 days. ll get back to you. B: OK. Thank you. I’I’ll get back to you. Task 2-2 (S for Seller; C for Caller) S: Hello. Jason Office Products. What can I do for you? m calling about office furniture and equipment. C: I’I’m calling about office furniture and equipment. S: Could you tell me what you need? C: Well, I think we need 2 filing cabinets with locks that are suitable for files with large pages. Is that type of cabinet available? S: Yes. We have 3 kinds of those cabinets available right now, two with three drawers and one with 4 drawers. C: I prefer the one with four drawers. It will hold more files , right? ’s 54-and-a-half inches high and 16 inches wide. S: Yes, but it takes up more room. It need to know how deep each drawer is. C: That’s fine. Hmm…I…I need to know how deep each drawer is. S: 39 inches. C: What’s the unit price? ’s only $748 now. S: It has been selling for a 20% discount since yesterday. ItC: It’s s ll expensive. m sure it’s the best cabinet you’ll find in town. It’s all steel and the S: Yes, it’s not cheap, but I’I’m sure itguarantee period is 18 months! C: Have you got any wooden computer desks? S: Yes, we have some very stylish mul purpose wooden desks. C: How big are they? S: They come in different sizes. C: You see, our office is not large. The desk can ’t be wider than 50 inches. S: S: In In In that that that case, case, case, I I would would recommend recommend recommend the the the SAFCO SAFCO SAFCO desk. desk. desk. It It It’’s 48 48 inches inches inches wide, wide, 27 27 inches inches inches deep deep deep and and about 30 inches high. C: That will fit perfectly! How much is it? S: The list price is $289, but you can have it now for $199. It ’s on sale. C: That ’s not bad! I’I’ll probably take it. ll probably take it. S: Would you like to place an order now? C: Oh no, not yet. I need to look at it before I buy it. S: I think you ’re right. C: Oh, I forgot one more thing: the printer! You sell printers, don ’t you? S: Yes, we have a big collec on of printers here. Which brand and model would you like? C: I’I’m not sure. I think we want something inexpensive but good quality. m not sure. I think we want something inexpensive but good quality. S: I suggest suggest you you buy the EPSON inkjet colour colour printer . printer . It It It’’s the best best choice choice if you have have a a limited budget since it only costs about $112. C: How big is it? S: It ’s quite small in size, about 8 inches long, 6 inches wide and 4 inches high. S: Well, that sounds like what I want. I’I’ll drop in this a ernoon. Thank you. ll drop in this a ernoon. Thank you. C: My pleasure. 3. Language Focus A Task 1 Do you have friends or family members you would like to see more o en? When you phone colleagues, colleagues, would would would you you you like like like to to to see see their their faces? faces? faces? The The ViaTV ViaTV Desktop Desktop Desktop videophone videophone videophone means means means that that that you you can! As you can see, it ’s small, elegant and ideal for the office or home, even for business trips. It ’s very easy to set up: all you need is a touch-tone phone. You don ’t need a computer or any special so ware. It ’s also very easy to use, as easy as making a normal telephone call. The ViaTV Desktop videophone has many features. Fist, it has full-colour mo on video which means you can see the other person ’s gestures and changes of expression. The picture quality is excellent. Second, it has an adjustable picture se ng that enables you to change the mode to get an ideal image even for viewing designs or documents. Third, its audio quality is exactly the same as the normal telephone call. In addi on, the ViaTV Desktop videophone has a preview mode so that you can check what you look like before the other person sees you! And finally, the privacy mode is an important feature. You can use it to block the image but keep the voice connec on. Now, of course, just as any means of communica on, it ’s worthwhile to have a set. We have a special offer on at the moment, so now is the me to buy the ViaTV Desktop videophone. Put yourself in the picture! 4. Video 1 (B for Buyer; S for Seller) S: Good morning. B: Good morning. Having you got the Canon iR2270 photocopier? S: Yes, madam. It ’s right here. B: Great! How much is it? S: Let me see … iR2270, hmm, $2450. B: Woo, it ’s not cheap! S: Yes, the price is a bit high, but it makes the best copies in the shortest me. It has been the best seller for 3 months. B: I know it ’s good. We have one in our office. But I’I’m afraid my boss won m afraid my boss won’t like the price. Can you give discounts for bulk? We want to buy 4 of them. S: In that case, we can cut the price to $2330. B: $2330… That ’s about a 5% discount. Right? S: Yes, that ’s the lowest price we can offer. B: OK. How long is the warranty? One year? S: Three years from the date of purchase. B: Good. How about its a er-sales service? You know, photocopiers have jamming problems all the me. It ’s a real nuisance! S: I can assure you that you won ’t have much problems with this model. Besides, we offer free on-site on-site service service service for for for the the the length length length of of of the the the warranty. warranty. And And then then then $150 $150 $150 a a a year year year a er a er a er that.If that.If that.If there there there’’s something something wrong wrong wrong with with with the the the machine, machine, machine, just just just contact contact contact us. us. us. We We We’’ll ll send send send a a a technician technician technician over over over as as as soon soon soon as as possible. B: Good. And what about the guarantees? S: Well, there ’s a 7-day money-back guarantee if you ’re not sa sfied with the machine. Or if you have any problems, just bring it in and you can have a refund. B: Fine. Oh, one more thing. How soon can you deliver them to our office? S: Well, I ’I’I’m afraid there m afraid there ’s a slight delay on orders at the moment. We could send them to you at the end of the month. B: You mean we have to wait for 3 weeks! S: I’I’m afraid so. m afraid so. B: That will be too late! We need them next week. S: Er, how about this one, iR2010? We have plenty of this in stock. If you place the order now, you can have them by tomorrow at noon. B: I don ’t know. How does it compare with iR2270? S: They are a similar size and have similar func ons. The only difference is iR2270 can print 22 copies a minute, while iR2010 prints 2 copies less. B: That doesn ’t ma er. How much is this one? S: $2200 each, if you buy 4. B: $2200. That ’s …S: That ’s $130 less than the iR2270. B: Sounds not bad. I think we could have these. S: Do you want to place the order now? B: Yes. But can you first show me how it works? S: Sure. You see these bu ons here? 5. Language Focus B Task 1 From Honda Motor Company comes a new small, lightweight humanoid robot named ASIMO that that is is is able able able to to to walk walk walk in in in a a a similar similar similar manner manner manner to to to a a a human human human being being being’’s. s. ASIMO ASIMO ASIMO is is is an an an abbrevia on abbrevia on abbrevia on for for “Advanced Step in Innova ve Mobility ”. It is an amazing product that can be helpful to people as well as of prac cal use in society. Compared to Honda ’s previous walking robot P3, made in 1997, ASIMO is smaller, lighter and its design is more people-friendly. P3 is 160 cm tall and weighs 130 kg, while ASIMO ’s height is only only 120 120 120 cm cm cm and and and its its its weight weight weight has has has been been been reduced reduced reduced to to to a a a mere mere mere 43kg. 43kg. 43kg. Other Other Other special special special features features features include include more more advanced advanced advanced walking walking walking technology, technology, technology, simplicity simplicity simplicity of of of opera on opera on opera on and and and an an an increased increased increased range range range of of of arm arm movements. In December 2005, Honda debuted the new ASIMO model. This model is 10 cm taller and 11 kg heavier than the first ASIMO. It can walk alongside its controller, and is able to move carts and other objects around at will. And, with a newly developed total control system, it can act as a recep onist, recep onist, or or or even even even deliver deliver deliver drinks drinks drinks on on on a a a tray. tray. The The New New New ASIMO ASIMO ASIMO is is is also also also more more more agile agile agile than than than its its predecessor, as it is able to run at 6 km/h, and even to turn while running. Video 2 A: Hello! Am I late? B: No, it ’s 5 to 9. A: Good! Have you seen the brochure on the desk? All: Yes! A: Thank you all for making it here. I know you are busy at this me of the year. Can I take this opportunity to wish you all a merry Christmas! All: Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! A: So, everybody ’s here! Good, then I’I’ll get started. ll get started. I’I’ve invited you here today to present to you ve invited you here today to present to you the latest model of our smart phone –I would like to briefly run through the 3 Ps for the new model – The Product, The Place and The Price. Please stop me whenever you ’ve got a ques on. To start with, I’I’ll focus on the features of this new model. Please look at the screen. This is the ll focus on the features of this new model. Please look at the screen. This is the picture of Fora 1300 and its func ons. You see, it ’s small enough to fit right in the palm of your hand. hand. It It measures measures 11.2 11.2 * 6.0 * 2.2 cm, including including the the 2 cm antenna, antenna, just just just slightly slightly slightly larger larger larger than than a mobile phone and yet it incorporates a small, yet func onal physical keypad. B: Isn ’t it too ny to use? A: Well, you can try it when finish. You ’ll find it surprisingly easy to use. The screen is 4.5 cm * 4.5 cm. This phone makes both a great PDA and a cellphone. You can make phone calls and store up to 1000 contact names. And you can also browse on the Web. It ’s reliable for light duty. It allows you to perform certain tasks that you would normally need a computer for.For example, when you are in a mee ng and someone needs a figure that you know you have received in an e-mail. You can download the e-mail and view the spreadsheet and give the figure. Then you may find yourself rather grateful that your small phone is more than a cellphone and a PDA. Of course, it has all the normal features such as a clock, alarm, reminders, stopwatch, calculator, games, tone composers, etc. Plus a built-in camera and speakerphone.In a word, it has just about everything you can think of and it does more than you expect! OK. Now, let me move on to the next point –The Place. I mean, how we are going to distribute the product and where. The launch date for the Fora 1300 will be January 1st , next year so that it will definitely be in the shops in me for the present-buying present-buying season season at at Spring Spring Fes val. Fes val. It It will be in stock stock in in all retail retail outlets outlets outlets throughout throughout throughout the the country country by by then. We will also be making the phone available by mail order order and and online, with a a guaranteed 6 days delivery. Pricing comes along with the product going on the market. At present, the new model will retail at $499. That should be quite a reasonable price considering the quality and the advanced features. Right, I’I’ll stop there. I hope you ll stop there. I hope you’ve got a clearer picture of the Fora 1300. And I hope you will be 100% behind this model. B:Sure, but how does this model compare to our biggest compe tor, SUMSUNG i700? A: Good q ues on, ques on, ques on, Philip. Philip. Well, Well, it it it’’s smaller in size, size, and the and the s creen screen screen is is . brighter . The ba ery The ba ery lasts longer, and most important of all, it’s it’s more user-friendly. more user-friendly. C: Is it compe vely priced? A: It ’s set at the same price as SAMSUNG i700. D: It ’s s ll a bit more expensive than some products of its kind. It’sdifficult It’sdifficult to get people to pay to get people to pay $500 for a phone. A: A: That That That’’s s true! true! true! I I I know know know a a a high high high price price price can can can stop stop stop people people people from from from considering considering considering our our our product, product, product, but but but we we we’’re offering discounts and free Spring Fes val gi s. E: That ’s good. The compe on gets tougher every year. 。