T E S T 2

PART 1

MAN: Hello, Oz House Sitters. Adam here.

WOMAN: Oh, hello. My husband and I are going on a trip overseas and
we'd like someone to stay in our house and look after it while
we're away. Is that something you can help us with?
MAN: It most certainly is. We can take care of all the arrangements
WOMAN: for you.
MAN: Okay, great.
Now, can I just get some contact details from you for the
WOMAN: form? Your name is…
MAN: Jenny. Jenny Hall.
WOMAN: Thank you. Now, what's your address?
MAN: 14 Gray Street. Q1
WOMAN: Is that GREY or GRAY?
MAN: AY.
Right. And what's the suburb?
MAN: Greenfield.
WOMAN: Oh, I know it. And if I can just get a contact telephone
number? Q2
MAN: I'll give you my mobile number. That's probably the best one
WOMAN: to use. It's 0491 577 248.
Thanks. Now, when did you want the house sitter to start? Q3
We're flying out on the 25th of September, but my brother will
MAN: be in the house for a few days until the 28th. So from the
WOMAN: 29th of September, please.
I'll note that down. And how long do you want the house sitter
for?
MAN: Well, I'll be attending a training course in Paris for two Q4
WOMAN: weeks, but we're also going to visit my niece in Singapore on
MAN: the way home to Australia for a few days.
So shall I put down 3 weeks?
WOMAN: That sounds about right. I think 4 would be too long.
MAN: Sure. Now, Jenny, can you tell me more about the features of
WOMAN: your house? This helps us to match house sitters and
homeowners. Q5
MAN: Sure. What do you want to know?
Does the house have air conditioning?
WOMAN: No, we don't like using it. We prefer the fresh air. But last
year, we did put in a pool.
MAN: Very nice. And are there any other attractive features? Is
your house near a beach, for example?
WOMAN: No, not really. We're about to an hour's drive away, but we Q6
are close to a station, so it's handy for anyone getting into
MAN: work and so on.
Okay, great. Now, if our house sitter has their own transport,
is there any space for them to park?
 Well, we won't be taking our car, but it's a large double
garage. There'll be space for one more.
Okay, great. I'll note that down too.

MAN: And are there any special duties that you'll need the house-
sitter to carry out?
WOMAN: Oh, I don't know. What do people normally ask for?
MAN: Well, for example, one common chore is looking after the
WOMAN: garden.
Oh, yes, we have an orange tree and an apple tree, which are
both watered automatically, but we haven't connected the Q7
MAN: sprinkler to our lemon tree yet, so they'll need to water that
one.
WOMAN: Sure. Now, Jenny, do you have any special requirements for
your house sitter? Q8
Well, I don't know if this is possible, but I'd probably
MAN: rather have a couple than someone who's single. The house
might be a bit too big for just one person.
WOMAN: Sure. Now, many of our owners ask for sitters without
MAN: children. What's your preference? Q9
WOMAN: Oh, that's no problem. There's nothing they can break.
What about smoking?
MAN: Oh, no. I can't stand the smell. Definitely not. Now, how do I
know that my house is going to be safe with the house sitters? Q10
Well, we check all of our house sitters very carefully. They
WOMAN: have to provide references. But as well as that, you can ask
MAN: for a police check if you want to.
WOMAN: Oh, yes, I'd like to do that, please.
Okay, no problem. That's all I need for now.
Okay.

PART 2

Everybody dreams of becoming a millionaire one day. So we asked Arthur Knowles,

who made his millions in the plumbing business, to give the budding
entrepreneurs among you a few tips on how to make your first million. Arthur,
welcome to the programme.
Thanks, Sue.
So, Arthur, what advice do you have for our listeners?
Well, one thing I've heard people say is that when you're starting up a Q11
business, you can't afford to make mistakes. Well, I believe in the old saying,
a person who never made a mistake never made anything. You can't really predict
when you'll make mistakes, and you have to look at them as a positive
experience, and one that means you won't make the same mistake again. You need Q12
to be able to cope with the world of business. But according to recent American
Business School studies, believing in yourself isn't enough by itself to
guarantee success. Confidence can be a good thing, but a person can have too Q13
much confidence. And people who try to learn to be confident by buying those
How to Succeed books are just wasting their time. The advice given in these
American studies was that being a successful entrepreneur comes down to having
the right attitude. It's no good getting depressed every time something goes Q14
wrong. Always keep your goals in mind and never give up. And don't listen to
all the people around you who say, oh, this will never work. One thing I've
learned in business is that you don't have to be an expert in everything, like
marketing, for example. When I started my business, I tried to do it all Q15
myself, but I soon realised that although I knew everything there was to know
about plumbing, I didn't have much idea about how to sell my ideas. So I got
someone who knew more about this to take care of the marketing side of things
for me. And as for leadership, well, you've got to be someone your workers look Q16
up to, because you've been seen to make the right decisions. You have to be
able to control people, but listen to them at the same time. Some people are
driven to make their companies successful, but that too often leads to a
ruthless approach. Then there's the question of taking risks, even calculated
ones. I personally feel it's actually better to tread carefully when it comes
to taking short-term risks. You need a degree of vision, certainly, but it's
easy to get carried away by your desire to increase profits. And if things go
wrong, you can end up losing more than you gain.

So if you have a great idea for a business, what should you do next?
Well, the first thing to ask yourself is whether there's a need for your
product or service. Can you cater for people's needs better than existing Q17
companies? You don't need to worry about whether it's original or not, because
there isn't always enough of a demand for completely new ideas. And the second
thing to ask yourself is, not what colour should the packet be or how much Q18
should it cost, but do I care enough about this idea to dedicate the next 10
years of my life to it? Because realistically, that's how long it will take.
Tell us how you got started, Arthur. How do you explain your early success?
I started my business just as the economy was going into a recession, which
wasn't the best time, and I was lucky to survive, especially as the banks
weren't being particularly supportive to small businesses at that time. If I'd Q19
listened to the business advice I was given back then, I'd never have got
started. My strengths were that I knew I could provide a better service than my Q20
competitors, who really hadn't spotted the opportunities that were out there,
and that my wife had a good job and was able to pay the household bills while I
was getting the company on its feet. The first couple of years were very tough,
but I knew I would make it eventually.
Okay, now we're going to take some calls from listeners.

PART 3

STEPHEN: Hi Magda, how was your placement?

MAGDA: It went really well. The kids really enjoyed the science I did
STEPHEN: with them.
MAGDA: So did mine. I think they found it very motivating.
Yes, the programme we had to teach was much better than the
STEPHEN: old-style science experiments we did at school.
Yes, though I don't understand why the children should have to Q21
build a model of a steam engine. I tried it with the kids, but
MAGDA: I couldn't get it to work.
STEPHEN: Me neither. And it really shows it's hard to get any real
 results.
Yes, and it's usually the children's parents, rather than the
MAGDA: kids themselves, who favour that type of experiment. So what Q22
experiments did you do?
Well, one day a discussion started in class about breakfast
STEPHEN: cereals, about which one was best. One child then said that we
MAGDA: should test them in class.
That's a nice idea.
Yes, and it wasn't expensive. We brought four different brands
STEPHEN: of cereal and had everyone evaluate them for taste, appearance
MAGDA: and sogginess in milk.
And are you going to tell me which one won?
No, I'll let you do it yourself. It obviously isn't difficult Q23
to set up. Another experiment we did, the sports teacher's
idea actually, was to spend a morning seeing how high various
STEPHEN: balls bounced. For example, do new tennis balls bounce higher
MAGDA: than old ones? And do basketballs that are fully inflated
bounce better than flatter ones?
And I guess you got some interesting data.
STEPHEN: We did. And they had to make a chart to plot the results. It
MAGDA: really improved their grasp of charts and graphs and Q24
calculation. Apparently, they'd had problems understanding the
point of graphs in the past.
Did all your experiments work out OK?
STEPHEN: Well, we had one lesson on making paper from grass. The Q25
children made a terrible mess in the classroom. Whatever they
did didn't work. And it wasn't because it was difficult. I
MAGDA: think it was because it didn't engage them at all. It didn't
STEPHEN: seem to motivate them.
My tie-dying experiment went well. They had to get a piece of
material and twist it into a rope and then dye it. The
MAGDA: children did end up with blue and green hands for a few days,
though. Q26
But don't you need to spend more than one lesson on that?
Yes, we did it over three classes. The children really loved
it, though, and one suggested we make scarves from the result.
STEPHEN: I declined, as my sewing skills aren't up to much.
I guess the one experiment that everyone loved in my class was
making glue from milk. I thought it would be a complete
failure, but in fact it worked brilliantly. One reason, I
suspect, is that they got feedback straight away. Some
children get really restless if they have to wait for anything
interesting to happen.
Yes, I think that's always a good idea. Really helps to make
it a success.

MAGDA: I see you've got a diagram there for one of your experiments.
STEPHEN: Yes, it was an idea I got from the internet. It was very easy
and straightforward to set up. The idea is to make a condenser
to extract essences from plants. The large container's made of Q27
MAGDA: metal.
STEPHEN: Right, and that holds the hot water. Q28
That's right, and it has a strainer which sits inside it. This
is where you put the plant matter. We use plants like
MAGDA: rosemary, as the essence you can extract is quite strong.
STEPHEN: So what's the container right at the top? Q29
It's made of glass. It's where we put the ice. The glass
MAGDA: container has a drip tip at the bottom.
STEPHEN: What's that for?
MAGDA: It's where the essence collects.
STEPHEN: Where does the essence go then? Q30
MAGDA: Into the dish at the bottom. It's made of pottery.
Sounds good. I might try it with my class.

PART 4

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the second lecture in our series on chain
stores in the UK. Today I'll be focusing on a very successful global petrol
company called Telsa, paying particular attention to their expansion and future
development. There will be time for questions at the end, so please refrain
from interrupting during the talk. When it was founded, the company was a
family-run organisation with only one shop open in a small town in southern
England. The family was able to compete with other local companies by offering
special discounts for returning customers, which resulted in a massive Q31
expansion of their client base. This strategy was so successful that they were
able to open petrol stations across the country, subsequently increasing their
market share in England. Within a decade, Telsa was running establishments
throughout the UK, including Wales and Scotland. By comparing the sales income
from all of their stores, they were able to collect data that highlighted which Q32
areas were the most profitable stations in the south of Scotland. They
discovered that by closing the less useful stations in the south of Scotland,
they could increase income from their other, more profitable stations. This
example demonstrates the importance of continually monitoring and maintaining a
clear view of the finances of the company. Once the expertise required to run Q33
the company had exceeded the abilities of the 'family', they needed to hire
professional consultants. After assessing the company's financial statements,
the consultants advised that Telsa close the head office of the convenience Q34
stores in Oxford. They deemed the head office unnecessary and identified it as
a financial drain on the company, as the premises were expensive to run and
generated no income. To avoid firing any employees, they transferred over 200 Q35
staff to other offices and retrained them to carry out their new roles. Now
that Telsa had conquered the petrol market in the UK, they were able to branch
out into other niche areas that offered prospects for profits. They realised
that they could establish a new environmentally friendly brand image by selling
fresh food near convenience stores that had been grown by local farmers. This
strategy would not only broaden the scope of the company, but also help to
strengthen its relationships with local communities. Every year, Telsa holds a Q36
meeting in London, where all of the consultants and managers meet to discuss
plans for development and improvement. These meetings are essential to the
evolution of the company, as feedback is heard from all levels of the
organisation, from the sales staff to the CEOs. They did this by assigning Q37
every manager the task of holding staff discussions, at which ideas and
concerns would be passed on for evaluation at the meeting. Telsa decided to
accommodate the individuality of each of their stores, instead of forcing them Q38
to conform to one overriding company identity. They realized that by increasing
the flexibility of the profit-making strategies of each of the retail stores,
they subsequently became more commercially successful. The level of staff Q39
satisfaction also doubled as a result. Individuals felt they were not being
constrained to one way of thinking. To avoid misunderstandings and mistakes,
any future changes were introduced in stages to familiarise the staff with the
new regulations. Now, it's time to conclude the lecture for today, so I will Q40
leave you with some food for thought before you go. To run a successful
business, one cannot underestimate the importance of maintaining open-
mindedness when deciding on strategies for expansion. Sometimes it's necessary
to employ an independent consultant who can offer an objective and unbiased
view on the running of your company. Emotion will only ever cloud your ability
to make business-related decisions. Research suitable case studies and look at
how department stores, for example, were able to alter their organisational
structure while minimising costs and staff redundancies. Precedents are an
essential resource when it comes to making decisions for your own business, so
don't undervalue them. Well, that wraps up our lecture for today. If there are
any questions...