2023年BEC中级真题第二辑答案及听力原文.doc

BEC中级真题（第二辑）答案及听力原文
Test 1
Reading
Writing ----Part 1
To: P. Jones
From: Luisa Gambon
Date: 21 November 2023
Subject: Lateness
Mr Jones,
I have noticed that you often arrive late for work, especially on Monday mornings. As your colleagues are starting to complain about that, you understand that unless this habit changes, I will take disciplinary action against you. Come and see me tomorrow at 9 a.m. in my office. Thank you
Band 5
All content points are covered, using natural sounding language and a consistently appropriate tone.
Part 2 -------Report on customer complaints
INTRODUCTION
This report has the purpose of presenting the reasons for customer complaints in 2023.
FIELDINGS
The customer complaints received in 2023 were 300 in January. Then they increased to 540 in February because of the computer system's breakdown.
In March they fell to 230 because an improved order system was introduced.
The reasons for complaints from January to March were analysed:
l firstly the companv received complaints for incorrect orders delivered. These errors were fewer in March.
l secondly the time taken to deliver is too high. but the company has planned to recruit new agents.
l Finally customers complain for the poor product quality. In order to solve this problem more quality controls are making.
CONCLUSIONS
At the moment all customers aren't satisfied but many measures have been taken to improve their satisfaction.
Band 4
There is a satisfactory range of structures, with some errors, but these do not impede understanding. The content points are adequately covered, and the register is appropriate. The information is generally well organised, using headings and other discourse markers.
Listening Test 1
Conversation One.Questions 1 to 4.
Woman: Personnel . . .
Man: Hello, it's Tim here, from Finance.
Woman: Hi, Tim.
Man: I've had a letter from the tax office about a student who worked here last summer – I wonder if you could look him up in your records.
Woman: Sure, what's the name?
Man: The surname's Jaye. First name Stephen.
Woman: How does he spell his surname?
Man: J-A-Y-E. Got that?
Woman: Oh yes, here we are . . . lives at a hundred and eighty-three School Road,
Barnfield . . .
Man: Yes, that's the one.
Woman: And you say he was working in Finance?
Man: Uhm, Customer Services, actually.
Woman: Aah - they had lots of students working for them last summer.
Man: Well, the tax people want to know his exact job title - I'm not sure why.
Woman: Mm, let me see . . . He was an office assistant.
Man: Right, got that. They also want to know about his monthly earnings.
Woman: Let's have a look . . . five hundred and thirty-eight pounds seventy a month . . . Oh, sorry, he was a scale one, so that's four hundred and fifty-seven pounds sixty. Anything else?
Man: That's fine, thanks. I'll send them the information today . . .
Now listen to the recording again.
Conversation Two. Questions 5 to 8.
Woman: Hello, Blackwell Printers. Julie Davidson speaking. How may I help you?
Man: Hello. This is Mark Jones from Europe Holidays. I was hoping to speak to Steven Kirby about the stationery you're printing for us.
Woman: I'm afraid Steven's away until Friday.
Man: Oh - you see I'm not very happy with the business cards and I wanted to see if I could make a couple of changes to the paper too.
Woman: Would you like me to pass on a message?
Man: Yes, please. The thing is, I've just received your proofs - the cards themselves are fine, but you seem to have misunderstood the quantities. I'm sure I asked for five hundred for each of the marketing executives and seven hundred and fifty for me but you've put everyone down for seven hundred and fifty.
Woman: Right, I've made a note of that. Is there anything else?
Man: Yes, well this is my mistake really. Could you ask Steven to move the company logo further to the left? It's too close to the address at the moment. I think that's all for now. Thanks.
Conversation Three. Questions 9 -12
Woman: Geoff?
Man: Yes?
Woman: I just want to finalise the preparations for the delegation next week.
Man: Certainly. It's Thursday, isn't it?
Woman: Yes. Now, can you make sure that each of them gets a name badge and an information pack. The badges are done, but you'll need to prepare the packs with all the relevant information.
Man: Ok, that shouldn't take too long. What about catering?
Woman: Coffee's organised for eleven and three, but lunch - it's at one - we need to reserve it for twelve people . . . The office restaurant is closed next week . . . can you ring the Park Hotel? The Grand Hotel was a bit disappointing last time.
Man: I'll get onto that.
Woman: Now, they'll be coming straight from the station, and their taxi will bring them to the front gate, so make sure you're there to greet them. That'll be about ten.
Man: Ten. And then . . .
Woman: Into Reception, I think. Make sure the new designs are on display, I want them to see those first.
Man: OK.
Woman: Let me know when it's all finalised. Bye.
Part Two. Questions 13 to 22.
Thirteen
Woman: Well no wonder the bank's returned it unpaid. Look, the figures don't match the amount in words. I expect someone was filling it in in too much of a hurry. Let's see, we'd better issue another one straight away to pay Mrs Burton, because it'll be another three weeks if we wait for the next cycle of payments. Her expenses on that sales trip were pretty high, and it wouldn't be fair to keep her waiting much longer.
fourteen
Man: Some of the suppliers are already asking about the increases. I'll check, but I seem to remember from last week's meeting that in the end we agreed on three per cent. So what I'll do is go down each column and calculate the new amounts, and then it can be printed in time to be inserted into the new brochures. Can you check the figures for me, though, before it goes to the printers?
fifteen
Woman: We've just received the paperwork from you about cleaning our premises, and I have to say that it doesn't reflect what we agreed in our conversation last week. For one thing, it says that we have to supply our security code, and for another it specifies monthly payment in advance, and I told you both of those were out of the question. I'm afraid I really can't sign this. Could you send me a revised one?
Sixteen
Man: Of course, this only gives a very general picture. But as you can see, cash is a particularly healthy area. That's even when we take into account regular outgoings on loans and leasing equipment, which are included in the final totals. And even more significantly, unpaid orders are actually excluded from the final calculation. These represent a sum of approximately thirty thousand pounds. With that in mind, we can say that the company's overall position is still strong.
Seventeen
Woman: I've just asked the Arden Conference Centre about availability for our next training seminar, and they said they still haven't been paid for the one before last, which should have been dealt with six months ago. I've had to ask them to send a duplicate! We really must be careful. Arden give us very favourable prices, but we haven't got a contract with them - Can you deal with it straight away so we stay in their good books?
Section Two. Questions 18 to 22.
Eighteen
Man: Hello. This is Guy Cooper from Centron Electronics here. I believe you rang for some advice about your alarm system, which isn't functioning properly. The message I got said you weren't sure if you needed someone to come and sort it out, or if we could advise you over the phone. Well perhaps you'd like to get back to me as soon as it's convenient and tell me exactly what the problem is, and I'll see what I can do.
Nineteen
Woman: Well, as you say, Redlon has been supplying us for years but, quite honestly, two-thirds of the complaints we receive about our products are actually due to faults in components we've had from Redlon. So I talked to the Production Manager and he agreed that I should look at some alternatives. Future World's range is fine for us, and one of their customers who I spoke to recommended them highly, so that's why we've changed to using them.
Twenty
Woman: The competition's getting tougher, and you know we're facing serious problems. We need to see more benefit from the undeniably hard work we're putting in, and this means saying no to jobs which aren't profitable. It would be much more beneficial to put all our efforts into winning higher-margin contracts. So the way I feel you can help most is by identifying the types of contacts which will bring in the income we need in order to ensure our future.
Twenty-one
Man: John Woods here, phoning about the project we discussed earlier. Could you give me a ring so that we can talk about it a bit more? I've done a few calculations and I'm beginning to wonder whether it's really a practical proposition. 1 still think the project's got potential, but there are significant additional costs which we hadn't taken into account. So could you get back to me as soon as you can, please?
Twenty-two
Woman: Hello, Sally here, from Pagwell Paints, returning your call. I'm very sorry you aren't happy with the latest consignment you've had from us. It's rather strange, because following your complaint about the last delivery, we did in fact take action to change the specifications in the way you suggested. So it isn't quite fair to say that we ignored your advice. I know it's important to achieve the consistency that you require, but perhaps your recommendation wasn't exactly what's needed.
Part Three. Questions 23 to 30.
Man: Who are the managers of the best innovation developments in British industry? That was the question which the first Business Today Innovation Awards set out to answer.
This project is all about rewarding good practice and performance. So, rather than simply recognising excellence in the design of specific products, or analysing their financial impact on profits, the awards set out to take an objective look at exactly how companies manage the development process itself.
Over three hundred and fifty organisations entered the competition and were initially reduced to about forty. Then, after further careful checking, a short list of just fourteen of them was arrived at. These finalists, all manufacturers, were then visited by the competition judges, a panel of four chief executives from leading companies. The panel toured the finalists' facilities, received presentations on the companies and their projects, and interviewed the key development team members. The products varied enormously in their scale, function and degree of technology - from bread for a supermarket chain to a printer inside an automatic cash dispenser
Initially the organisers were concerned that this range could create difficulties in the assessment process. But this fear proved baseless, as most elements in the innovation process are shared by all manufacturers.
Interestingly, the finalists broke down into two distinct and equal groups: large firms with one thousand employees or more and small firms with two hundred and fifty employees or fewer. With both groups the judges decided to concentrate on two of the clearest indicators of a successful innovation process, which are: how well the new product is combined with the company's existing business, and secondly, how-well the innovation methods are recorded and understood. Small firms naturally tend to do well in the first category since they have fewer layers of management and thus much shorter communication lines. But they seem to put less emphasis on creating formal development methods which would be repeatable in future innovations.
Large firms, on the other hand, have difficulty integrating the new development within their existing business for reasons of scale. But they tend to succeed in achieving well-documented and repeatable development methods. This is because larger companies, with their clear emphasis on training, fixed management structure and administrative systems, require more formal, daily record-keeping from their staff.
So what were the key questions the judges had in mind when assessing the finalists? One of the most important areas concerned how thoroughly a company checks what is happening in other fields in order to incorporate new ideas into the development process. Many of the finalists impressed in the area. Xatura, for example, had demonstrated genuine energy in searching for new ways of producing their range of specialitv breads. They had looked at styles of home cooking in different countries, as well as the possibility of exploiting new production technologies in order to achieve equally good results but on a high-volume production line.
What then occupied much of the judges' thoughts was the quality of the links which the development team established with senior management, suppliers, the market and manufacturing. The best examples of the first category were found in small firms, where the individual entrepreneur at the top was clearly driving the innovation forward
Links with suppliers were also seen as an important factor, but not all supplier experiences were positive. Occasionally serious problems had to be solved where suppliers were working hard to meet specifications, but the companies that the suppliers were using to adapt their machinery were not so efficient. This, led to disappointing faults or fluctuations in quality.
But in conclusion the awards demonstrate that innovation isn't just for high-tech internet companies. You can also be successful in mature markets with determination and
Test 2 Writing
Part 1
To: All Staff
From: Managing Director
Date: 7 December
Subject: Staff reward
I would like to thank you for the contribution in increasing the company's profit. The profit increased due to very hard work and long working hours. Each of the staff will receive an envelope with a reward on Tuesday. The reward is a trip to Hawaii, and I hope that this will be the perfect reward. Enjoy!
Thank you
Band 4--All points are adequately covered and developed. There is an adequate range of language, though with some repetition.
Part 2
Introduction.
The purpose of this report is to assess and recomend a taxi firm that will become our regular transporter. We will need them especially during next year trade fair and conferences. There are two firms to assess.
Findings:
As regards to Telecars we have a good references on them. It is very experienced traditional firm and is also very reliable. They provide 24-hours service that is useful during night meetings and negotiations. StreetlightCabs is brand new company and there are no references on them. But they provide long distance routes which we use
very often and they are also cheaper. On the other hand they don't have web page and so internet booking isn't available.
Conclu