How to practice this piece
1. Listen without reading
Press play and do not look at the text. You can repeat the audio as many times as you want or slow it down.
2. Do the exercises
Comprehension, true or false, ordering, real speech and a dictation. Each one is checked at the end.
3. Read and listen again
When you finish every exercise the text unlocks, with each word highlighted while it plays.
Comprehension
Choose your answers. They are not graded automatically: when you have answered them all, press “Check answers” at the bottom to see which ones you got right.
Question 1
What are the three people doing?
Question 2
What is Samuel's first price for five hundred chairs?
Question 3
How does Karin feel about the first price?
Question 4 · Listen and choose who said it.
“a warranty is only as good as the company behind it”
Question 5
What does Samuel need before he can agree to the ten percent discount?
Question 6
What is the longest payment time Samuel can offer?
Question 7
What must happen for the chairs to be delivered by the end of April?
Question 8
What happens if a chair arrives damaged?
0 of 8 answered
About this piece
Three people in a business meeting negotiate the price, payment terms and delivery of a large order. Practice following numbers, conditions and polite disagreement with different accents.
What you will practice
- Comprehension: the main idea and the details you hear (numbers, prices, times, names).
- True, false or not given: precise attention to what was really said.
- Ordering: following the sequence of what happened.
- Real speech: forms and expressions that do not sound the way they are written.
- Dictation: writing the missing words in a sentence from the audio.
Vocabulary from this piece
frank adjective
honest and direct, even when it is not easy to hear
budget noun
the money you plan to spend on something
bear in mind phrase
to remember and think about a fact
warranty noun
a promise that a company will fix or replace a product if it breaks
competitors noun
companies that sell the same things as you
counts for something phrase
has some value and is important
stretch verb
to make something longer or bigger than usual
outline noun
the main parts of a plan, without all the details
damaged adjective
broken or hurt, so it does not work or look well
Samuel: Thank you all for coming. As you know, our price for five hundred chairs is eighty-five thousand dollars, delivery included.
Karin: Thanks, Samuel. I'll be frank: that's considerably higher than we were expecting. Our budget for this order is closer to seventy-five thousand.
Samuel: I understand. But bear in mind that these chairs come with a ten-year warranty, which none of our competitors currently offer.
Derek: That's true, and it counts for something. Still, ten years is a long time, and a warranty is only as good as the company behind it.
Samuel: Fair enough. Let me put it this way: should you place the order today, we'd be willing to take five percent off.
Karin: Five percent gets us to just over eighty. It's a start, but we'd need more than that.
Samuel: What kind of arrangement did you have in mind?
Karin: If we were to raise the order to six hundred chairs, would you take ten percent off the whole order?
Samuel: Ten percent on six hundred chairs would bring it to just under ninety-two thousand. I'd have to speak to my director before I could agree to that.
Derek: And on payment terms, we normally pay within sixty days of receiving the goods, so thirty days would be tight for us.
Samuel: Our standard is thirty days. I could stretch it to forty-five, but no further than that.
Karin: Forty-five days is perfectly acceptable for us. What about the delivery date, though?
Samuel: The chairs would be delivered by the end of April, provided the order is confirmed by the fifteenth of March.
Karin: One more thing: who pays if some of the chairs arrive damaged during the delivery?
Samuel: We do. Any damaged chair would be replaced at no extra cost within two weeks.
Derek: That's reassuring. Please make sure that it's included in the written offer you send us.
Karin: We'll confirm as soon as we've heard back from your director.
Samuel: Then I think we've got the outline of a deal, and I'd like to put it in writing by the end of the week.