D: I‘m afraid there‘s a slight delay on orders at the moment. We could send them to you at the end of the month.
H: You mean we have to wait for 3 weeks. D: I‘m afraid so.
H: That will be too late! We need them next week.
D: 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. H: I don‘t know, how does it compare with iR2270?
D: They are a similar size and have similar functions. They only difference is iR2270 can print 22 copies a minute, while iR2010 prints 2 copies less. H: that does matter. How much is this one? D: $2200 each, if you buy 4. H: $2200.That‘s…
D: That‘s $130 less than iR2270.
H: Sounds not bad. I think we could have these. D: Do you want to place order now?
H: Yes, but can you first show me how it works? D: Sure, you see these buttons here?
Video 2
Hello. Am I late? No, it‘s 8:55.
Good! Have you seen the brochure on the desk? Yes!
Thank you all for making it here. I know you are busy at this time of the year. Can I take this opportunity to wish you all a merry Christmas? Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!
So, everybody‘s here! Good, then I‘ll get started.
I‘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 question.
To start with, I‘ll focus on the features of this new model. Please look at the screen. This is the picture of the for a 1300 and its functions. You see, it's small enough to fit right in the palm of your hand. It measures 11.2 x 6.0 x 2.2 cm, including the 2cm antenna, just slightly larger than a mobile phone and yet it incorporates a small, yet functional physical keypad. Is it too tiny to use?
Well, you can try it when we finish. You?ll find it surprisingly easy to use. The screen is 4.5cm x 4.5cm. This phone makes both a great PDA and a cell-phone. You can make phone calls and store up to 1,000 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 meeting and someone needs a figure that you
know you have received in an email, you can download the email and view the spreadsheet and yourself rather grateful that your smart phone is more than a cell-phone 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 time for the present-buying season at Spring Festival. It will be in stock in all retail outlets throughout the country by then. We will also be making the phone available by mail order and online, with 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‘ll stop here. I hope you‘ve got a clearer picture of the Fora 1300. And I hope you will be 100% behind this model.
Sure, but how does this model compare to our biggest competitor, SAMSUNG i700?
Good question, Philip. Well, it‘s smaller in size, and the screen is brighter. The battery lasts longer, and most important of all, it‘s more user-friendly. Is it competitively priced?
It‘s set at the same price as SAMSUNG i700.
It‘s still a bit more expensive than some products of its kind. It‘s difficult to get people to pay $500 for a phone.
That‘s true! I know a high price can stop people from considering our product, but we‘re offering discounts and free Spring Festival gifts. That‘s good. The competition gets tougher every year.
UNIT 8
Task 1
Let‘s have a look at the sales of the jeep V6 over the last few years. As you can see, there have been quite a lot of changes during those years.
Total sales at the end of 1999 were 17,850. sales 1)remained flat through 2000. they were about 18,000 by the end of the year.
In 2001, sales 2)went up steadily, reaching about 19,200 by the end of the year. Then in 2002, things really started to happen. We had a strong economy, and consumer spending was up. We ran an advertising campaign on TV which was very effective.
So in 2002, sales of the jeep V6 3)rose dramatically. At the end of that year, sales reached a peak of 21,600. That‘s an increase of more than 11% in one
year. It was a wonderful year for our salespeople.
However, this didn‘t continue. The next year, gas prices were 4)up, and sales were down. In 2003, our figures dropped by 1,700 to 19,900. So it was a very challenging time in the industry, and we had to adapt very quickly to the market.
Task 2
1) the growth trend 2) more than 37%
3) the persistent high price 4) RMB48 million 5)accounted for 6)40.6%
7)domestic routes 8)RMB16,869 million
Follow up practice
At the beginning of last financial year, sales of our shoes stood at $800,000. Sales took off between May and June. However, they then fluctuated between June and November. In December there was a noticeable decline in sales from $1,500,000 to $1,200,000. The downward trend continued, and in February sales reached their lowest point since 1998. Fortunately, thanks to a new marketing strategy, sales improved slightly at the end of the financial year, eventually reaching $1,400,000 in March.
This financial year the number of sales also started off quite low, but between April and September there was a steady increase. Sales peaked in September, reaching $1,600,000. The figures then fell slightly during October and November and remained constant through November and December. Then, in January, due to effective changes in design, there was a dramatic increase to $1,900,000. The number of sales has continued to rise steadily.
Video 1
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen.
I am pleased to announce that this year has been a very good year for our company. Overall, we‘ve increased our market share from 37% to 48%. That‘s a significant increase. We ordered 35 new planes last year. To date, we have received 15 of them, which we are using on both our domestic and our international routes. That brings our total number of planes to 84.
We‘ve also developed an extensive program to train all our employees on the new aircraft. So far, two-thirds of the pilots and three-quarters of the mechanics have already finished training.
We‘ve opened several new routes this year, and we have extended service on our popular Singapore route.
With our increased focus on customer service, customer complaints have dropped to seven and a half percent, down from 15% last year. That‘s 50% less than last year. And the number of passengers continues to rise. This year, we‘ve carried 12 million passengers, an increase of five and a half percent over last year. August, in particular, was a very strong month. If you look at the chart here, you‘ll see that we carried 1,336,000 passengers in August, an increase of 8 percent over the same period last year. And our cargo service is growing fast. We‘ve carried 50 million kilo of cargo, an increase of 56% over last year‘s figures.
1-C 2-D 3-A 4-F 5-B 6-E
Video2
Allen Zhou: Good morning, Miss Kasumi.
Kasumi: Good morning, Mr.Zhou. Nice to see you again.
Allen Zhou: Nice to see you too. Please sit down. Tea or coffee? Kasumi: Tea, please.
Allen Zhou: It‘s a bit chilly today.
Kasumi: Yes. The weatherman said it would be even colder tomorrow. Thank you.
Allen Zhou: Come in!
Secretary: Excuse me. Mr.Zhou, your air ticket. 8:50 tomorrow morning. Allen Zhou: Thank you.
Kasumi: You must have been busy these days, Mr.Zhou. I understand that you have set up a new plant in Jiangsu.
Allen Zhou: Yes, you‘re right. Our new plant has just started running. I need to go down there once every week to make sure that everything is under control. Kasumi: I see. Perhaps we can get started now, Mr. Zhou?
Allen Zhou: Yes. Er…a second. Well, this morning, I‘ll tell you about the business performance of our company in the year 2004. After that, we‘ll show you around our main plant. Kasumi: OK.
Allen Zhou: This is our financial report. It contains some graphs that will help you get a clearer picture of our business. Kasumi: Great. Thank you.
Allen Zhou: As you know, we make and sell refrigerators and washing machines. As you can see from this bar graph for the year 2004, our business is
getting big. The annual turnover reached 10.2 billion yuan. That‘s an increase
of about 112% over the previous year. Kasumi: Your profit also increased?
Allen Zhou: Definitely. Look at the next graph. Our profit amounted to 725.33 million yuan, an increase of over 64% over 2003. Kasumi: Wow!
Allen Zhou: These two pie graphs show the total output of our main products, refrigerators and washing machines. First look at this one on the right, the total output of refrigerators stood at 2.1 million units, of which nearly half were exported.
Kasumi: Which countries are your leading export markets? Allen Zhou: United states and some European countries. Kasumi: I see. How about washing machines?
Allen Zhou: The total output of washing machines in 2004 was 1.98 million. 0.7 million units were exported.
Kasumi: You seemed to put great emphasis on overseas markets. How about your performance in the domestic market?
Allen Zhou: That‘s a very good question. In fact, that is the point I‘d like to talk about next. Our domestic market shares are increasing steadily. We took 23% of the refrigerator market and 15.6% of the washing machine market. These two figures place us at No.1 in both markets. Kasumi: That‘s pretty impressive. Allen Zhou: Now let‘s look at…