Intensive Exercise One

Part Two

1. Spot dictation:

 

1. I was quite surprised to get their letter, actually. ____________ they’ve done nothing but complain about everything. There always seemed to be something wrong. So it’s strange that they ______ ______ so many of ___________. Especially they’re relatively ______. We’ve only ____________________ for a month. They want us to deliver sixty September.

 

2. Well, ___ wrote to them ________ thanking them for their help over the accounting matter. I’ve just had a ______. __________________ we ____________________ reduce costs, which is ______ to know. But they want us to cut back even more.

______suggested that I ___________________________ to see if they could make more savings. But ___ think ____________________. So ____________________________________. If they’re really insistent, they’ll write again. But I don’t think __________________________________________.

 

3. I’ve just _________________ about that actually. They ______________ __________________. They _____________________ our decision to expand within Australia, so _____ they ______________________________go into New Zealand as well. I don’t want to give too much away until we know what they are doing. I was going to write and ask for further details of their _________________, __________________. I think it will be better done _____________. So I’d ask my secretary to ___________________ for next week. And hopefully it will be fairly friendly.

 

4. About two months ago, we ______________________ that they were selling. But they still ________________. Now they’ve written to say ___________________________. They ____________ to deliver them ______________________. That’s lucky, because I ___________________ write to complain about them taking so long. ___________________, but I still don’t think we ought to just accept it. So _______________________ to talk about the problems. If we don’t say anything, then the same thing will just happen again next time. But I’d like to keep informal _____________.

 

5. I said I wanted to ___________ to Harrison. So ____________ to say they ________________________. Apparently _________________________. ________________ everyone in the sales and marketing to go. Of course they’re__________________________, as he’s the ______ in their ______. The problem is I wanted the opportunity to have a __________ discussion with him. I don’t want to just listen to a lecture with a lot of other people. So I’m going to ________ saying I am ____ of course for __________ but I’ve ____________________.

 

Part Three

 

1. Spot dictation:

 

23.

I started it because I was hungry really. There was ________ to _____________________________. And I ______________________. I set up the business with a partner.

 

24.

However the first three years were ________. We ______________________________________________. We just didn’t have ____________________ of what we wanted, and frankly we were _________________.

 

25.

Having said that, the fast food chains do some things _____________. And I’d like us to _________________________ of how they operate. What I mean is we should _______________________________, not waste __________ or ______________.

 

26.

No, I am not. ___________________. I find this _________________ gives me__________________. I ____________ how you can get things done if __________________________. I am sorry for my secretary, who _____________________________, but for me it’s the only way.

 

27.

And we focus there not on details but on major issues. This means I can actually spend about 95% of my time listening to customers. And this is really the _____ to how I run my business life---listening to our employees, because ____________________________.

 

28.

We’re in a high _______ low ________ business. We only make ____________ on everything we sell, so basically we have to _____________. And the secret of success in a business like this is a ___________________. It’s as simple as that.

 

29-30.

I’d say, look at what other people ___________________ are doing. It’s _____________.

But doesn’t everyone monitor what their competitors are doing?

Perhaps they do, but the important thing is ____________________. A lot of people seem to monitor what’s going on so they know what their feelings are. Then they ______________________. I find it most extraordinary.