評論
打印
Conversation One
W: Now, could you tell me where the idea for the business first came from?
M: Well, the original shop was opened by a retired printer by the name of Gruby. Mr Gruby being left-handed himself, thought of the idea to try to promote a few products for left-handers.
W: And how did he then go about actually setting up the business?
M: Well, he looked for any left-handed products that might already be on the market which were very few. And then contacted the manufactures with the idea of having products produced for him, mainly in the scissors range to start with.
W: Right. So you do commission some part of your stock.
M: Yes, very much so. About 75 percent of our stock is specially made for us.
W: And the rest of it?
M: Hmm, the rest of it now, some 25, 30 years after Mr. Gruby’s initial efforts, there are more left-handed product actually on the market. Manufactures are now beginning to see that there is a market for left-handed products.
W: And what’s the range of your stock?
M: The range consists of a variety of scissors from children scissors to scissors for tailors, hairdressers etc. We also have a large range of kitchen ware.
W: What’s the competition like? Do you have quite a lot of competition?
M: There are other people in the business now in specialists, but only as mail-order outlets. But we have a shop here in central London plus a mail-order outlet. And we are without any doubt the largest supplier of the left-handed items.
這是一篇采訪一名專為左撇子們提供產品的供應商的文章。文中分別談到了創業理念的來源、產業如何創始、產業日前發展狀況以及這家產品供應商所面對的行業現狀。具體細節為：創業理念開始于一名名叫Gruby的退休印刷工，他本人是一名左撇子，所以想到找生產商幫他實現自己所想的專門為左撇子設計產品的理念。而這家供應商目前面對的行業現狀為：市面上已有的左撇子產品比最初創業之時，增加了許多；但銷售渠道來源主要是網絡訂單。而這些，并不對這家供應商公司構成競爭威脅，因為他們在倫敦有門店和網絡銷售的雙重渠道。因此他們是這種左撇子產品的最大供應商。
本篇文章為考查細節信息抓取能力題。難度較大主要因為考生可能對產品制造加工行業涉及到的manufacture、stock、mail-order outlet 、supplier等專業術語不太熟悉，而形成困擾。但考生只要能聽出這是一篇采訪類型的文章，每次都能聽到女士（采訪者）的問題非常簡短，應該立即警惕答案應該是針對男士（被訪者）的回答提問。而女士（采訪者）的問題中本身就已經暗示出接下來的回答中的關鍵詞。如：女士問的“And what’s the range of your stock?”一句中，stock即為關鍵信息詞。因此，這篇文章同時也提醒考生平時應該注意商務用語和商業常識方面的積累。
Q19: What kind of business does the man engaged in?
Q20: What does the man say about his stock of products?
Q21: What does the man say about other people in his line of business?
