Progress test 1 (Units 1–3)
Listening
Track 2
Listen to an interview with Helen Parker, a training and development consultant. Choose the best answer – a, b or c – to the questions below.
1 How well does Helen say organisations understand their own training needs?
a) Usually not very well
b) Generally pretty well
c) Often extremely well
2 How does Helen find out what sort of training will be useful to a company?
a) She asks the management.
b) She interviews the employees.
c) She spends time in the company.
3 What is the benefit of the activities she conducts?
a) They help her see how people work together.
b) They allow her to understand a company’s products or services.
c) They encourage the management and employees to relax together.
4 How do case studies help Helen?
a) They allow her to identify the most intelligent people in the organisation.
b) They let her watch how people react to certain ideas and situations.
c) They give her an opportunity to encourage people to share their emotions.
5 What do the bridge- or tower-building exercises show Helen?
a) How groups do or don’t cooperate
b) What learning styles people prefer
c) Which people are likely to leave the company sooner rather than later
6 Which of these is a feature of the bridge- and tower-building exercises?
a) The teams must select appropriate materials.
b) There is a deadline for the project.
c) The construction must be done without tape or glue.
7 What does Helen say about the building games?
a) They put people in roles they don’t usually perform at work.
b) They generally reflect how relationships work on the job.
c) They help improve communication.
8 After the first phase of work in a company, what does Helen do next?
a) She sets up training programmes.
b) She makes suggestions for team reorganisation.
c) She put workers and managers into ‘training teams’.
9 What do coaching and mentoring have in common?
a) Both build on skills that are already present.
b) Both introduce and develop new skills.
c) Both require the financial backing of the company.
10 How is mentoring different from coaching?
a) Mentoring doesn’t require as much commitment.
b) Mentoring usually requires expert involvement from outside the company.
c) Mentoring generally has a longer timeline.
Vocabulary
A Complete the sentences with the noun form of the words from the box. You will not need all of the words.
advise allow develop educate employ intern qualify recognise
11 In my final year of university, I had an _________________ at a Volkswagen plant in Mexico. It was a great experience.
12 I need to ask for some _________________ about how to make the best possible impression at my interview next week.
13 All employees are given an _________________ for food and travel expenses when they work away from the office.
14 Nico earned an accounting _________________ by receiving on-the-job training provided by his company.
15 Adam Reeves has received a lot of _________________ inside the company for making real improvements through effective training.
B Complete the conversation with the words and phrases in the box.
emissions energy eyes in agreement off panels slouching staring technology wave
Seth I heard you gave a presentation on renewable _________________16 this morning. How did it go?
Piet Not very well. Martin asked me to do it just yesterday and I wasn’t really prepared.
Seth Oh, that’s a shame. What happened?
Piet Well, I started off talking about the need to reduce carbon _________________17 and at first I thought people were nodding _________________18 but actually they were nodding _________________19!
Seth Did you have a chance to talk about fuel-cell _________________20? That’s your area of expertise.
Piet Only at the very end. It seemed like everyone was more interested in _________________21 power and solar _________________22 and I’m not really an expert on those.
Seth No, that’s more Martin’s area, isn’t it?
Piet When we’d been going for about half an hour, everyone was just _________________23 in their seats. A couple of people asked interesting questions and I thought I was recovering but then the catering people started setting up for coffee break so of course everyone was letting their _________________24 wander over to that.
Seth Oh, dear.
Piet Then I noticed that Martin was sitting at the back of the room with his arms folded across his chest, _________________25 at me and acting as though he was offended by my bad presentation!
Language
A Match the sentence beginnings (26–30) with the best endings (a–e).
26 Don’t worry about organising the a) I merely typed it up.
training schedule,
27 I don’t think Beth wrote this; b) Lawrence already did it.
28 Several people worked on this but c) it was primarily Ian who put it together.
29 Because it’s difficult, not everyone d) Jane probably did it.
has finished the training course but Lisa
30 Stan did most of the planning and e) successfully completed one last year.
B Each of these sentences contains an expression that’s wrong. Cross out the incorrect word and write the correct one.
31 If we’re going to turn this company around, we need to connect the spots and understand that all of our problems are somehow related. _______________________
32 We don’t want to allow workers to home their skills at our company and then take their expertise somewhere else for more money. _______________________
33 Your theory makes a lot of sense but it’s completely divorced from practising. We simply don’t work that way! _______________________
34 It’s important to rejog teams from time to time even when there isn’t a problem. It keeps ideas fresh. _______________________
35 When he said my input was ‘academic’, I think he was using the word in the pejorating sense.
_______________________
C Choose the correct words to complete these sentences.
36 Most people understand the need to move away from (the / —) fossil fuels but actually doing it will be very difficult.
37 (An / The) airline industry around the world has suffered in the recession.
38 We need to identify (a / the) sympathetic person in middle management who would be willing to take on a mentoring role for at least the next two years.
39 (The / —) US is often seen as a tough market by UK companies.
40 Building (a / the) personal network is extremely important for graduates.
Skills
A Put the sentences into a logical order to make a conversation.
a) Sam I thought your face looked familiar! I was there, too. I’d love to talk to you sometime soon about something I’m working on.
b) Mia Not at all. I’m Mia Leeman. I’m with Kumatori Brake Company in Osaka. Sam, you might like to meet my colleague Nori Okazaki. He works on brake systems for Toyota.
c) Mia Excuse me. I’ll let you two keep on talking but I’m afraid I have to make a quick call.
d) Sam Yes, that would be good. So you’re based in Osaka, is that correct?
e) Sam Hello. I’m Sam Soames. I’m in marketing with Toyota UK. Do you mind me asking where you’re from?
f) Nori Nice to meet you, Sam. I met some of your colleagues at the Paris Motor Show.
g) Nori OK, Mia. See you later. Sam, we should do lunch one day this week.
h) Nori Not quite. Mia is in Osaka but I’m based at one of our factories, in Thailand.
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agree clarify could consider keep going on
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