问答题 Read the transcript of the Listening Test, Part Two. Complete Task One as you read each extract the first time; then read the extracts a second time and complete Task Two.
Transcript
1. Unfortunately for us, most of our business comes from two big clients. Even though we are only a small group of teachers and trainers, we still have to respect these companies' payment terms. In the case of one of them it's 45 days and the other is 60 days, which gives us real problems with cashflow.
2. As a high street shop, cashflow is not a particular problem. It's the rent and local business rates that are so crippling. But because we sell ladies' fashion, location is very important. We could find something much cheaper out of the city centre, but our income would certainly suffer.
3. We borrowed quite a lot of money to set up the business four years ago and I've no regrets. We couldn't have fitted out the garage with the right equipment otherwise—hydraulic ramps, a body-paint shop and so on. It's just that the interest is so high and it means we spend a lot of our time working to service the debt rather than developing the business.
4. It's a great business with very low costs on the whole. We don't have a shop front—we just send out catalogues and people phone in their orders. It can be expensive when we get returns, but the main difficulty is the marketing, because it's so expensive these days. Unless we are present every week in some newspaper or magazine, or on a billboard somewhere, customers forget about us.
5. We are currently buying a lot of small villas and farmhouses in... Well, I won't tell you where in case you get ideas of your own—but it's a small developing country. It's a big gamble, because no-one actually knows whether the market there is going to take off or not. If it doesn't we'll be bankrupted... but I'm confident.
·Read the extracts by five business owners talking about their financial situation.
·For each extract there are two tasks. For Task One, choose the sector their business is in, from the list A-H. For Task Two, choose the financial problem each person identifies from the list A-H.