Totale Audio9

Audio 9_1aUse of Internet Question:  What do people use the Internet for? Chris:   I love the Internet.  I use it to do all my banking.  It’s excellent;   I can do everything I want day or night.  I also do most of my food  shopping over the Internet.  As I’m retired, I spend a lot of time going  to concerts, the cinema, that kind of thing.  I always book my tickets  online.  Oh yes – my daughter and her family are in Australia, so I  keep in touch with her and my grandchildren by e‐mail. As...dato che; That kind of thing = quel genere di cosa; my grandchildren = i miei nipoti.

Margret: I use the Internet a lot as I’m a student. For example, if I’m researching a project it’s much easier than going to the library. I also use it to keep in touch with my family and friends back in Sweden. Oh yes, and I use it for finding cheap holidays. Last September, my boyfriend and I went to Turkey and we found and booked everything online. library = biblioteca; cheap holidays = vacanze a buon mercato;

Audio 9_1aUse of Internet (2) Derek: I travel a lot for my job – you know, flying around Europe – and so I find it very convenient to use the Web for booking airline tickets. Another thing I use the Web for is to check the football and baseball scores from back home. I like to follow my teams! I sometimes use the Internet for buying books and CDs. It’s much cheaper. Also I’m doing an MBA course over the Internet, by distance learning. distance learning = apprendimento a distanza www = world wide web

Audio 9_1b e‐commerce A typical e‐commerce transaction1 begins when you browse2 through a website3 and select an item you want to buy. You place an order for that item by clicking a button that puts it in your shopping cart4. The software then takes you to a new screen. This screen displays5 the total amount you have to pay and asks you to key6 your credit card details. Your computer then sends this information to the seller’s server, which verifies7 all the details. The transaction can be ‘approved’8 or ‘denied’9. If it is approved, the shopping‐cart program sends an e‐mail to the seller telling them to fulfil10 the order, and an e‐ mail confirmation of the sale to you. Finally, the bank credits11 the seller’s account and debits12 yours.

Audio 9_1c Website Consultant What does a business website need in order to be effective? Consultant: I think four things. First of all, its owners need to understand what a website can deliver – what it’s good at, and what it’s not good at. Secondly, they need to draw up a set of tasks that they want their site to produce. Um, and then, thirdly, they need to build the site that can fulfil those tasks, looking from the different viewpoints of a number of different users. Um, and finally, they must make sure that the website is easy to use, and it doesn’t break down over time. Um = interjection; fulfil those tasks = rispondere a questi compiti; They must make sure = devono accertarsi; break down = bloccarsi, fermarsi;

Audio 9_2a Brussels Trip Alan, Here is your draft programme. You are leaving on1 Saturday, 7 June at2 10:45 from Dublin Airport, arriving at Brussels S. Charleroi at 1:15. That’s local time, so don’t worry! You’re flying Ryanair, flight number FR44. The company driver will be at3 the airport to meet you and take you to4 your hotel in5 the centre of Brussels. From6 the Métropole Hotel, it is just a three-minutes’ walk to7 the Chamber of Commerce. Sunday is a free day, but Mr Vermeullen will probably take you out8 for dinner. He too likes to be well-prepared for9 meetings! The meetings on10 Monday start at 8:30 in11 the morning and will probably go on until12 lunchtime, which is 12:15. Lunch is at the Métropole. At 1:30, Mr Vermeulen is taking you to the ‘E-commerce for Europe’ event. The driver will then take you to13 the airport in plenty of time for14 flight FR47, departing 6:40 and arriving in15 Dublin 7:10. Please confirm by16 the end of the week that these arrangements are OK. Paul

Audio 9_2b Online Business Model (Part 1) When Natalie Massenet was trying to raise money for her Internet start-up, Net-a-Porter, a luxury online fashion boutique, no one was interested. ‘People were throwing millions of pounds at almost any web company then. But they heard “women” and “fashion” and “Internet” and said those words didn’t go together’, says Ms Massenet. But Net-a-Porter, founded in 2000, can now claim to be ‘the world’s first truly global fashion retailer’. It doubles its revenues every year, and sales are now at £47m. It has a distribution centre in London and one in New York, and employs almost 350 people. The web store attracts an average of 90 new customers a day from 101 countries (including Fiji and Greenland), who each spend an average of £400. According to Forrester Research, luxury brands ‘won’t survive without an online sales channel’. Over 40m Europeans buy clothes online, and this number will continue to increase. Experts predict it will grow to over 70m by the end of 2009. to raise money = trovare fondi / soldi; Internet start-up = nuova attività su Internet; luxury online fashion boutique = una boutique di moda di lusso online; first truly global fashion retailer=primo vero rivenditore di moda globale; revenues = entrate; web store = magazino in rete; an average of = una media di; luxury brands = marchi di lusso

Audio 9_2b Online Business Model (Part 2)

The website combines content with commerce: it is designed as a magazine, and everything is for sale and delivered worldwide within 48 hours. Net-a-Porter is expanding very fast. Ms Massenet says: ‘Because we have no physical limit to the amount of designers we stock, we can offer a very wide range. But everything we offer has to be trend-setting fashion.’ We e-mail information about new products to customers regularly, according to their favourite designers. ‘You couldn’t do that in an offline store,’ she points out. ‘That’s the beauty of this business. And customers spend a lot of money in that kind of environment. Seven or eight years ago, nobody believed that.’

Audio 9_3a Exercises A and B 1. Our launch deadline is the week after next. 2. Sales of luxury cars will double by next year. 3. In two years’ time, we’ll review the budget. 4. They will introduce the new marketing strategy in the near future. 5. We’re entertaining the suppliers tomorrow evening. 6. Your flight will board a couple of hours from now . 7. She wants us to increase exports before the end of June. 8. He’s going to rebuild the website at the weekend .

Audio 9_3a Exercises A and B

Insert ‘will’ in the correct position in the sentence. 1. All our catalogues will be online by next year. 2. In ten years, 80% of our sales will be online. 3. Most of our customers will order their products at their computers 4. Customers will open one account to make all their purchases. 5. Security will not (won’t) be a problem. 6. As a result, efficiency will improve.

Audio 9_3b Exercise D

1. Dave arrives at 10:50, so he won’t be late for the meeting. 2. I think Dave will take the 9:45 plane to Glasgow. 3. He won’t catch the earlier flight. 4. He won’t check in until 8:45. 5. He hopes there won’t be a delay. 6. Judith will book him on a later flight. 7. She won’t book him on the early morning flight.

Audio 9_3c Company Culture (Part 1) When people hear the word culture, they often think about the cultural life, the history or the customs1 of a country. But when you are in business, you also need to think about company cultures. Companies have different cultures: they believe in different things, and they have different ways of working. For example, some companies are formal, so staff use family names2 when they speak to each other, and they have to wear business suits3. Other companies have a system of casual4 Fridays, when staff can wear5 anything they like at the end of the week.

Audio 9_3c Company Culture (Part 2) Sometimes, there are also big differences in the amount of time off6 that staff can get. In some companies, staff get more paid annual leave7 than in others, for example. Or staff can choose when they start and finish work – a system called ‘flexitime’8. People can start work at 8, 9 or 10 a.m. and finish at 4, 5 or 6 p.m. Finally, bosses and employees can communicate in many different ways. Some line managers like to get regular written reports, but others prefer face-to-face9 communication.