长对话

Conversation One

A: Now, could you tell me where the idea for the business first came from?
B: Well, the original shop was opened by a retired printer by the name of Cruby. Mr Cruby, being left-handed himself, thought of the idea of trying to promote a few products for lefthanders.
A: and how did he then go about actually setting up the business?
B: Well, he looked for any left-handed products that might already be on the market, which were very few and then contacted manufactures with the idea of having products produced for him, mainly in the scissor range to start with.
A: Right. So you do commission some part of your stock?
B: Yes, very much so. About 75% of our stock is specially made for us.
A: And the rest of it?
B: The rest of it now, some 25, 30 years after Mr Cruby's initial efforts, there are more left-handed products actually on the market and manufactures are now beginning to see that there is a market for left-handed products.
A: And what's the range of your stock?
B: The range consists of a variety of scissors, from children scissors to scissors for tailors, hairdressers, etc. We also have a large range of kitchenware.
A: What's the competition like? Do you have quite a lot of competition?
B: There are other people in the business now as specialists, but only as Mellorder outlets. But we have a shop here in central London plus our Mellorder outlet. And we are, without any doubt, the largest supplier of left-handed items.

19: What kind of business is the man engaged in?

20: what does the man say about his stock of products?

21: What does the man say about other people in his line of business?

Conversation Two

M: Can we make you an offer? We would like to run a campaign for four extra weeks.
W: Well, can we summarize the problem from our point of view? First of all, the campaign was late, it missed two important trade fairs. The ads also did not appear in two key magazines. As a result, the campaign failed. Do you accept that summary of what happened?
M:Well, the delay wasn't entirely our fault. You did in fact make late changes to the specifications of the advertisements.
W: Hm......., actually, you were late with the initial proposals so we have very little time and in fact, we only asked for small changes.
M: Well, whatever, can we repeat our offer to run the campaign for four extra weeks?
W: That's not really the point. The campaign missed two key trade fairs, because of this we are asking you either to keep the campaign next year for free or we only pay fifty percent of the fee for this year.
M: Could we suggest a 20% reduction to the fee together with a four weeks extension to the campaign?
W: We are not happy, we lost the business.
M: I think we both made mistakes, the responsibility is on both sides.
W: OK, let's suggest a new solution. How about a 40% cut in fee or a free repeat campaign?
M: Well, let's take a break, we are not getting very far, perhaps we should think about this.

22. What do we learn about the man's company?

23. Why was the campaign delayed according to the man?

24. What did the woman propose as a solution to the problem?

25. What does the man suggest they do at the end of the conversation?