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3A G1 – English Test- 31/01/2022 I / Listening (Track 3) (2.5 points) Listen to a phone call between Darren Larson and his manager, Liz Parks. Choose the best answer, a, b, or c to complete the sentences. 1

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Business in Vietnam is ____ each quarter. a) improving b) getting worse

c) about the same

Sales in Thailand have ____ recently . a) increased b) decreased

c) not changed

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Darren says the agent in Thailand has been ____ . a) promoted b) replaced c) transferred

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The new agent ____ . a) has already started

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b) will start next month

Liz ____the sales conference in Singapore. a) has already attended b) won’t attend

c) has not been chosen

c) plans to attend

II / Language Review (10 points) A / Put the verbs in brackets in the correct form. I don’t mean (1) __(be) unkind, but my assistant is really driving me mad. This morning he forgot (2)__ (send) an urgent package which had to be delivered before 4pm. We’ve now lost one of our biggest customers as this isn’t the first time he hasn’t remembered (3) __(send) them something. In fact, I remember (4) __(tell) him last time that I would have (5) __(fire) him the next time. (6) __(fire) people is not something I like (7) __ (do), especially when they have some good qualities. For example last month he suggested (8) __(raise) the price of our leading product by a few pence. Everyone was against price rises, but he managed (9) __(persuade) the directors it was a good idea and our income increased considerably. Based on this success, he wanted to change the customer services division but failed miserably. (10) __ (Have) made a mess of that, he still wouldn’t stop trying to change things. B / Complete the talk with a word from the box. purposes / tail / picture / point / different / wrong /brick / hear / nutshell / beat GOOD COMMUNICATION Good communication is vital for businesses. To put it in a (11)_____, if you can’t communicate well, your business will probably go under. As time is money, it’s best not to (12)____ around the bush at meetings. It’s important to get straight to the (13)_____. That doesn’t mean you have to rude, just clear and relevant. The last thing you want is to be talking at cross-(14)_____, which will happen if you are not clear about what you are saying. Neither do you want to waste time talking to people who give you nothing back. Talking to a (15)_____ wall is a total waste of time. Keeping people in the (16) _____ is an important part of a good manager’s role. You don’t want people to get the (17)_____ end of the stick, do you? I’ve listened to many speeches and not been able to make head nor (18)______ of them because they were so muddled. It seemed as if the presenter was on a completely (19)____ wavelength from everyone else in the room. Finally, don’t always believe what you (20)_______ on the grapevine. Check out the facts before you pass any information on.

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3A G1 – English Test- 31/01/2022 III / Vocabulary (10 points) A / Select the right option (a, b, c or d) in the following sentences. 1

The new assistant manager is rather _____. He doesn’t say much or seem very confident. a) reserved b) eloquent c) responsive d) rambling

2 I’d like you to be more ______ in your summary. I don’t need every minor detail, just a broad outline of the key points. a) hesitant b) fluent c) succinct d) sensitive 3 It was very ______of you to mention the mistake he made in front of everyone. He was very upset. a) persuasive b) tactless c) inhibited d) focused 4

His presentation wasn’t particularly ______. It didn’t link together very well at all. a) articulate b) vague c) coherent d) emotional

5 His responses were completely ______. I learned nothing from them as there was no detail at all. a) vague b) inhibited c) concise d) extrovert 6 You can get ______a lot using email instead of face-to-face meetings because it’s easier to make excuses when no one can see you. a) off b) away with c) out d) on with 7 Email is also a good way of directly ______ your ideas or products to someone powerful who you may not be able to meet otherwise. a) launching b) engaging c) influencing d) pitching 8

Could you please _______ what you mean exactly? I’m not sure I fully understand. a) engage b) clarify c) interrupt d) digress

9 The audience was extremely ______to our product presentation and asked lots of questions. Some even placed big orders. a) focused b) persuasive c) eloquent d) responsive 10

The speaker kept _______and talking about his own experiences instead of the main topic. a) digressing b) confusing c) interrupting d) clarifying

B / Choose the correct option (a–d) 11

I’m sorry, but it just ____my mind. I’ll do it now. a) missed b) passed c) ripped d) slipped

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The shop immediately gave me a ____ for the faulty product. a) compensation b) refund c) payment d) remuneration

13 Today many companies offer money-back ____to try to encourage their products. a) refunds b) compensation c) guarantees d) payments

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people to buy and try

3A G1 – English Test- 31/01/2022 14

I think we’ve been talking at cross____. Shall we start again? a) purposes b) rapport c) meaning d) reasons

15 Customers are loyal to those companies who are prepared to _____the extra mile with their customer service. a) put b) do c) go d) make 16

We need to get to the ____of this and find out what the real problem is. a) top b) centre c) bottom d) middle

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Customer care staff are trained to develop a ____with their customers. a) relation b) rapport c) report d) feeling

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I think we were ____ off. We paid far too much for those chairs. a) ripped b) taken c) passed d) paid

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When you return goods, you need to show ____of purchase. a) receipt b) note c) sign d) proof

20 CEO.

It was the last ____ when they refused to give me my money back, so I wrote a letter to the a) buck

b) straw

c) time

d) complaint

IV / Text Comprehension After reading the text, answer the following questions in English (make sentences without copying or quoting the article) 1 - Is traditional mass-marketing efficient in setting up a strong and lasting customer relationship? Justify (2 points) 2 - Does the use of loyalty schemes by all companies in a specific sector influence customer purchasing behaviour? Why? (2 points) 3 - How can firms respond to customer requests effectively? (1.5 points) 4 - What are the different goals of offering guarantees for a firm? (3.5 points) 5 - How can companies carry out database and micro marketing campaigns? (2 point) 6 - What are the 3 main purposes of such campaigns? (2.5 points) Tying in an asset Organisations with successful customer–responsive strategies are alike in a number of ways. There is a willingness to serve customers differently, with the best customers getting the best treatment. The airline industry, for example, has created multi-level frequent flyer programmes, with dedicated reservation lines, priority upgrades, rapid check-in privileges and so on to recognise the best customers. Decisions are based on detailed information about customers. Databases pull key data from internal operating systems (such as a retailer’s transaction system) and merge it with information from external sources. This enables database marketing and “micro-marketing” campaigns. A “have-it-your-way” attitude prevails. This can range from tailoring messages to micro-segments – such as Parents magazine in the US, which is customised according to the age of the buyer’s children – to Nordstorm’s department store allowing its clerks to go through the entire store to put together clothing ensembles for their customers. 3

3A G1 – English Test- 31/01/2022

A customer–responsive strategy is likely to gain an advantage if it delivers superior customer value by personalising the interaction, demonstrates trustworthiness and tightens connections with customers. Too often, these are only traditional mass-marketing efforts that overwhelm consumers with too many products, messages and appeals for personal information. Often they are badly designed, as when a bank’s “privileged” customers were sent offers of special credit-card rates that were normally available only to new customers. A lot of money has been wasted on short-term rewards through gifts or one-time reductions for loyal customers. These are nice to receive but do nothing to strengthen the relationship. There was a time when there were no loyalty schemes in the UK grocery market (with the exception of Co-op’s stamp scheme), but once Tesco started its scheme, all the others were forced to do the same. No doubt Tesco benefited because it was the first, but for the rest, the frequency rewards became a burden. Once everyone has a programme, most customers are able to obtain points with whichever shop they use and loyalty patterns remain unchanged. The difference between repeat behaviour and loyalty is that the former is for sale while the other is earned. This sums up why gifts and other one-time rewards have little lasting impact – they demonstrate neither more benefits nor lower costs than the competition. Guarantees, by contrast, build trust by symbolising a company’s commitment to fair play with its customers. They also maintain the pressure on the entire organisation to continue to improve performance in order to avoid the costs and conflicts created by frequent payouts and replacements. Guarantees can also put intolerable pressure on competitors if they cannot match the terms. Xerox gained 4.5 percentage points of the office copier market when it introduced a “no question asked” guarantee whereby customers could decide they wanted the copier replaced. The Financial Time

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3A G1 – English Test- 31/01/2022 V / After reading the following text, choose the correct answer for each of the 8 sentences. (4 points) Jobs, please Few if any other ex-communist countries have done as well as Poland in creating jobs and luring foreign investments. But the economy that it inherited when communism collapsed a decade ago was ropy in the extreme. In the matter of job creation, the 39m Poles have had to run just to stand still and now they may be flagging. In 1999, the economy grew by just over 4%, last year by a shade more, but this year, at the latest guess, it will grow by not much more than 3%: not bad, but Poland must strive to get back to the 6 – 7% level of the mid-1990s if it is to stop the dole queue from stretching again. Poles are nervous about high interest rates, rising crime and the swelling of an underground economy that is eroding the country’s tax base. But their most acute cause for concern is jobs. Some 16% of Poles are now without one – the highest rate for six years. That means 2.9m Poles out of work, 1.2m more than in 1998. Some fear that the figure will exceed 3m before year’s end. The bustling capital, Warsaw, is still booming; the problem: there is shortage of affordable housing, not jobs. But in the country, and in old industrial regions, the mood is very different. Silesia, in the southwest, is particularly hard hit, as still more coalmines are closing down. Young Poles, who are looking for their first jobs in record numbers, are especially glum. A quarter of those between 18 and 24 are out of work, a third of recent graduates have yet to find a steady job. One reason is simply that there are so many of them. Unfortunately, the number of Poles coming into the labour market between 2006 and 2010 will rise still faster. What can be done? For a start, the law should make it easier and cheaper to take on new workers. A Polish employer paying an employee $200 a month must hand over another $160 to the government in payroll taxes. Red tape makes it hard for the entrepreneurial to start small businesses. Jerzy Buzek, Prime Minister of Poland’s shaky minority coalition which, pollsters guess, will be thrown out by the voters in the autumn and replaced by a government led by ex-communists, is calling for “more investment, more exports and lower labour costs”. Some economists think that compensation due to arrive this summer from German firms to surviving Poles used as slave labourers during the second world war could bring in nearly $1 billion. That might mean more consumer spending. But the country still has a trade deficit of $1.1 billion. Poland’s post-communist economic boom may be ending.

The Economist, March 2001

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3A G1 – English Test- 31/01/2022 1 - In the area of job creation, Poland: a. is lagging behind other ex-communist countries b. has done better than ex-communist countries c. has performed badly due to lack of foreign investment d. has reached a standstill 2 - In 2000, the rate of economic growth in Poland was: a. exactly 4% b. 3% c. just under 4% d. just above 4% 3 - Poland’s economy needs to grow by at least 6 – 7% in order to: a. prevent the unemployment rate from rising again b. come out of the recession c. stop interest rates from rising d. stop taxes increase 4 - At the time the article was published, the number of jobless in Poland had reached: a. 3 million b. 16 million c. 2.9 million d. 39 million 5 - The biggest problem in Warsaw is: a. the lack of reasonably priced accommodation b. the closing of coalmines c. the decreasing number of jobs in heavy industry d. the growing underground economy 6 - Unemployment is highest among young Poles because: a. too many are unskilled b. they are too numerous in the job market c. they tend to prefer casual work to regular employment d. they do not know how to find jobs 7 - The main reason for the lack of job creation in Poland is: a. the country’s political instability b. that firms tend to stay small and hire few employees c. the lack of entrepreneurs d. the high cost of employing people 8 - This year, some Poles will be receiving: a. benefits from the Polish government aimed at increasing consumer spending b. subsidies aimed at helping small businesses c. payments to compensate for their suffering during the second world war d. returns on investments made during the second world war

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