BEC中级听力第九课时

听力原文：
Ml: Good morning. I’ve asked you both to my office to hear your views on useful framing courses which might benefit certain members of our staff. First, what do you think about the general idea of training courses that we might send personnel on? How useful would such courses be. And should we look at courses outside the company or should we seek to bring in specialists to give such courses on the premises? I just want your general views at this early stage.
M2: I think training courses would be very useful indeed to improve our performance and keep abreast with recent developments of all kinds.
F1: There are a lot of extremely good courses given in many countries in East Asia, especially in Japan and also in Singapore. There’s also a particularly good course that’s very relevant to our needs given by the Management Training Board in London.
M2: The trouble is that it costs a lot to send our people abroad on training programmes.
F1: Training and development are always expensive, but they usually pay for themselves in the end -I mean in the improved performance of the people who attend. It’s the company that benefits - even more than the individual.
M2: That’s true, but my point is that it would be cheaper to bring in a couple of specialists and have the training sessions here within the company.
Fl: Clearly, we’ve got to consider in-company training courses - but we shouldn’t dismiss outside courses as being necessarily much more expensive. Even the best courses abroad are only slightly more expensive relatively speaking. The most expensive part of any training course is not the course fee, high as this often is! Neither is it the cost of travel and accommodation. It is simply the length of time staff are absent from their jobs. They still have to draw their salaries. Also, special arrangements have to be made to do their work while they’re away. But even in this respect we can save something by good planning beforehand. I mean planning efficient ways of substituting staff and reorganising the work of people who’re going to be absent.
Ml: How long are the courses you’re thinking of?
Fl: The longest course I envisage would be about ten weeks. Some courses might last no longer than one month. One month to ten weeks seems to be about the best time to justify the expense involved in travelling and accommodation costs.
M2: The advantage of in-company courses is that they can be shorter or longer than the time you’ve just mentioned. But their chief advantage is that the course can be specially tailored to meet the precise needs of the staff attending—that is, the company’s own special requirements.
Also all courses can be given at times which cause least inconvenience to the company - perhaps during the mornings for one group of personnel and during the afternoons for another.
F1: But isn’t another advantage of courses provided by the opportunity to meet other people attending the course? During discussion sessions and workshop groups, participants can meet people from other companies and even from other countries. In this way they can get an insight into other methods of working and of dealing with problems -something they can’t get on in-company training courses.
Ml: Well, thank you both for your views. This session has been very helpful. Whatever decision we make here- outside courses or in-company courses I feel it’s very important for all those attending to be reminded that such courses are a considerable expense for the company. And consequently, it’s only reasonable to expect all those attending a course to write full reports. Also I’d want them to complete a course evaluation form which we must arrange to draw up.

练习2：Questions 23 - 30（课堂讲义TEST 8- PART 3）

• You will hear a discussion. A company production director is discussing with senior executives a proposed structure for the production engineering department of a large company.
• Choose the correct ending for each of the sentences (23 - 30).
• Mark one letter (A, B or C) for the ending you choose.
• You will hear the recording twice.

23. The proposals being made affect
A every department in the company
B the production engineering department.
C several other successful companies.
24. The production engineering department has a total workforce of
A 100.
B 600
C 800.
25. At present the engineering services and expertise is
A concentrated at headquarters.
B spread unevenly throughout 12 factories.
C both at headquarters and in the company’s 12 factories.
26. Someone else agrees that the production engineering department is
A losing touch with its factories.
B too powerful.
C in need of more specialist knowledge.
27. The proposal is for the factories to become
A more independent and less closely integrated.
B more closely integrated and less independent.
C more independent but closely integrated.