主题：2007年11月商务英语BEC考试高级口试真题

Speaking Test Part II　　1. Customer Relations: the importance of making customers feel valued
　　2. Company growth: the importance to a company of controlling expansion
　　3. Marketing: how to ensure that agents maintain a high level of effectiveness when representing a company
　　4. Time Management: the importance of planning work time effectively
　　5. Project Development: how to ensure inter-departmental co-operation on new projects
　　6. Purchasing: how to evaluate and select new products
　　7. Personnel Management: the importance to a company of having well motivated staff
　　8. Strategic Planning: how to decide whether to purchase or rent company premises
　　9. Sales: how to ensure that price levels for new products are set appropriately
　　10. Communication Skills: the importance of foreign language training for selected employees
　　11. Advertising: how to select a suitable agency to handle a company’s advertising
　　12. Finance: how to decide whether to float a company on the stock-market
　　13. Marketing: the importance to a company of offering its products on the world-wide web
　　14. Staff Training: how to evaluate the effectiveness of company training programmes
　　15. Company Growth: how to decide when it is the right time for a business to expand
　　16. Public Relations: the importance to a company of sponsoring well-known personalities from the arts and popular culture
　　17. Recruitment: how to ensure that the best candidate for a post is selected
　　18. Information Management: how to analyse and make effective use of information
　　19. Sales: the importance of brand image in ensuring that products or services sell well
　　20. Technology: the importance to a company of keeping up-to-date with internet developments
　　21. Quality Control: how to ensure that a company consistently maintains quality control standards
　　22. Product Promotion: how to make effective use of the media when promoting a new product or service
　　23. Product Management: the importance of teamwork for the effective management of projects
　　24. Health and Safety: how to develop a responsible attitude among staff to the health and safety requirements of accompany
　　25. Technology: the importance of computer skills for the workplace of the future
　　26. Communications: how to ensure that e-mail is used appropriately by staff for internal and external communications
　　27. Staff Development: how to administer a staff budget effectively
　　28. Market Research: the importance of finding out about customers’ habits and attitudes
　　29. Financial Management: how to identify ways of reducing costs in a company
　　30. Communication: how to achieve an effective working relationship between different departments within a company
　　31. Communication skills: the importance of understanding cultural differences when working in an international environment
　　32. Personnel Management: the importance of providing employees with clear job deions
　　33. Company Growth: how to ensure that company growth proceeds at the optimum rate
　　34. Time Management: how to manage a heavy workload effectively
　　35. Health and Safety: the importance to a company of having a Health and Safety policy
　　36. Human Resources: how to ensure that staff at all levels receive appropriate feedback on individual performance

Samples(部分口语试题参考答案)
　　1、Customer Relations: how to maintain customer interest in a company’s products
　　As is know to all, it is very important for a company to maintaincustomer interest in their products. I think a company should try everypossible way to retain its current customers.
　　First, it should always make sure that it provides its customerswith quality goods and after-sales service. Second, it should layenough emphasis on the feedback from its current customers and takeprompt action to take care of their needs and demands. Third, ifpossible it may provide some incentives to its old customers. Forexample, it can grant a certain discount to them if their purchasesreach a certain amount. Apart from all these, a company should designstrategies to attract new customers and create transactions with them,to expand their customer base, so to speak. These strategies includeproduct diversification and upgrading.
　　All in all, a company should try its utmost to keep its currentcustomers satisfied with its products and services, and at the sametime it should stay ahead of the market through product and pricingstrategies.
　　2、How to fill a key vacancy
　　In order to fill a key vacancy, a company will usually follow the same standard procedure.
　　It will begin by producing an accurate job deion of what it wouldlike the successful candidate to do. From this, it can then produce aprofile of this ideal candidate, which is a list of skills, experience,attributes and so on.
　　Having produced this profile, the company must then decide on thebest recruitment method to capture a candidate with this profile. Thismight be an internal advertisement or an external advertisement in anewspaper, on the Internet say, even an agency or perhaps a headhunter.
　　Having decided on the best recruitment method, the advertisementsare then placed or the headhunter contacted and a list of candidateswill be then drawn up to be put through the company’s recruitmentprocesses. This might be interviews, psychometric tests or evenhand-writing analysis. This will then produce the ideal candidate forthe company.
　　The company will then have to negotiate terms with this candidateand, hopefully, this will result in terms which are both affordable forthe company and attractive enough to get the candidate they want.
　　Background Information
　　3、Career Planning: how to assess the career opportunities provided by different types of companies
　　Career Planning
　　Even after a job is offered and accepted, career decisions must bemade. On-the-job experience may affect the desired path. Aspiring toachieve a position above the present position is natural. The plannedcareer path to that position may involve either a series of promotionswithin the firm or switching to a different firm. While planning acareer path is a useful motivator, the plans should be achievable. Ifeveryone planned to be president of a company, most plans would not beachieved. This can cause frustration. A preferable career path wouldinclude short-term goals, since some ultimate goals may take twentyyears or longer. The use of short-term goals can reinforce confidenceas goals are achieved.
　　Career Development: the importance of acquiring a range of skills throughout your career
　　It is important a person to have a range of skills in the courseof his career development. When he has a range of skills, he isobviously more competitive than those who don’t and therefore has morechances of promotion. And it will be easier for him to find a joboutside his company if he is not satisfied with his present job. Inaddition, a person with a range of skills is more likely to work hisway up to the top of the corporate ladder.
　　4、Human Resources: how to provide effective support for new members of staff
　　Training: The importance of a continuous programme of staff training within a company
　　Staff Management: how to achieve and maintain high motivation among a workforce
　　Motivating Employees: Employees tend to be more satisfied withtheir jobs if they are provided (1) compensation that is aligned withtheir performance, (2) job security, (3) a flexible work schedule, and(4) employee involvement programs. Firms should offer job security,compensation that is tied to employee performance, more flexible workschedules, and more employee involvement programs. To the extent thatjob satisfaction can motivate employees to improve their performance,firms may be able to a higher production level by providing greater jobsatisfaction.
　　5、Marketing Research
　　Managers cannot always wait for information to arrive in bits andpieces from the marketing intelligence system. They often requireformal studies of specific situations. For example, Toshiba wants toknow how many and what kinds of people or companies will buy its newsuperfast laptop computer. Or Barat College in Lake Forest, Illinois,needs to know what percentage of its target market has heard of Barat,how they heard, what they know, and how they feel about Barat. In suchsituations, the marketing intelligence system will not provide thedetailed information needed. Managers will need marketing research.
　　We define marketing research as the systematic design, collection,analysis, and reporting of data and findings relevant to a specificmarketing situation facing an organization. Every marketer needsresearch. Marketing researchers engage in a wide variety of activities,ranging from market potential and market share studies, to assessmentsof customer satisfaction and purchase behavior, to studies of pricing,distribution, and promotion activities.
　　A company can conduct marketing research in its own researchdepartment or have some or all of it done outside. Although most largecompanies have their own marketing research departments, they often useoutside firms to do special research tasks or studies. A company withno research department has to buy the services of research firms.
　　6、Marketing: the importance of packaging products appropriately
　　In recent times, numerous factors have made packaging an importantmarketing tool. Increased competition and clutter on retail storeshelves means that packages now must perform many sales tasks-fromattracting attention, to describing the product, to making the sale.Companies are realizing the power of good packaging to create instantconsumer recognition of the company or brand. For example, in anaverage supermarket, which stocks 15,000 to 17,000 items, the typicalshopper passes by some 300 items per minute, and 53 percent of allpurchases are made on impulse. In this highly competitive environment,the package may be the seller’s last chance to influence buyers. Itbecomes a "five-second commercial." The Campbell Soup Company estimatesthat the average shopper sees its familiar red and white can 76 times ayear, creating the equivalent of $26 million worth of advertising.
　　7、Market Research: the importance of doing market research before launching a new product
　　Sales: How to sell a product effectively in international markets
　　Product Promotion: the importance of selecting appropriate members of staff to attend exhibitions
　　Communication: the importance in business of maintaining contact with clients
　　Public Relations: the importance of adequate supervision and training of staff who deal with the public
　　8、Management: How to run a meeting successfully
　　Transport Management: the importance to a business of an efficient public transport system
　　Any distribution of products from producers to wholesalers or fromwholesalers to retailers requires transportation. The cost oftransporting some products can exceed the cost of producing them. Anefficient form of transportation can result in higher costs and lowerprofits for the firm. For each form of transportation, firms shouldestimate timing, cost, and availability. This assessment allows thefirm to choose an optimal method of transportation. The most commonforms of transportation used to distribute products are truck, rail,air, water, pipeline.
　　Transport Management: the importance of using environmentally friendly means of transport whenever possible
　　9、Health & Safety
　　Employee Safety: Firms ensure that the workplace is safe foremployees by closely monitoring the production process. Some obvioussafety precautions are to check machinery and equipment for properworking conditions, require safety glasses or any other equipment thatone can prevent injury, and emphasize any special safety precautions intraining seminars.
　　Firms that create a safe working environment prevent injuries andimprove the morale of their employees. Many firms, such as AlliedSignal, now identify workplace safety as one of their main goals. LeviStrauss and Company imposes safety guidelines not only its U.S.facilities but also on Asian factories where some of its clothes aremade. Starbucks Coffee Company has developed a code of conduct in anattempt to improve the quality of life in coffee-producing countries.
　　10、Life Skills: the importance of being able to cope with stress in a job
　　Technology: the importance of training staff in how to use new technology when introducing it into the workplace.