背景提示： The transport strike is off. Lee and Andrea work together to ensure that all orders can be delivered in two days.
【Audioscript】
Lee: Malcolm, Andrea…Have you heard the news? The strike’s off!
Malcolm: What? That’s great news. Does that mean we’ll get all our order after all?
Lee: Well it’s not as good as that I’m afraid. They’ve already loaded up with the 60% of goods they promised us. But they haven’t got the capacity to load up the missing 40%, that’s going to have to come in 24 hours.
Malcolm: 24 hours, eh? Where does that leave us with the production run?
Lee: Well they are delivering 60% of all packaging items – wrappers, boxes, cartons the lot. So we can at least do complete orders of all that 60% and get them shipped out to our customers.
Malcolm: Hmm – so who’s going to have to wait then?
Andrea: Hi Lee. Sorry about that. Did I hear you say we are going to get all of the supplies?
Lee: Yes. We’ll get the first 60% as planned – tomorrow. But we won’t get the rest until 24 hours later. So, we’ve still got a problem but it isn’t as serious.
Andrea: Can I do anything to help?
Lee: Yes I think you can. Why don’t you and I look at the orders and see who might be able to wait. Some of the smaller shops won’t want to wait. They’ll buy their goods from someone else if they can’t have ours. Let’s go to my office – if that’s all right with you Malcolm?
Malcolm: Well, Andrea’s Nellie’s secretary really, but whilst this crisis is on I’ve sort of commandeered her to help us. Nellie’s got a lot on her plate with the advertising programme and PR of Country Crumbles, so I don’t think she’ll miss Andrea for an hour or two. So yes, off you go you two. See what you can come up with by way of damage limitation – we don’t want to upset any very important customers, do we?
Lee: Right, here we are then.
Andrea: I’ve already printed off a couple of copies of the client list.
Lee: Good thinking Andrea.
Andrea: And I’ve highlighted all of the small shops in green, and all our most loyal and regular customers in red.
Lee: Well they deserve to have their goods on time first of all, don’t they?
Andrea: Can you do the sums, Lee?
Lee: Yes, hang on ..... let me just get to my trusty computer…
Lee: So there we are then. We can send out these 85 orders on time the day after tomorrow and we can also offer all of the other clients 50% of their order by the end of tomorrow, with the balance coming the day after.
Andrea: All of them?
Lee: Yes, 50% on time and the rest the following day.
Andrea: doesn’t seem too bad does it?
Lee: Well it should be enough to stop any of them trying to get their products from another manufacturer, but the extra transport costs are going to really eat into our margins on this order. We could end up with a whacking loss if we’re not careful. It may be worth it to keep our good name for reliability and service, but on the other hand it may be worth a few calls to the clients in green to see if any of them can wait for 48 hours – till our next regular delivery to them. If so we can really cut back on extra costs. If some ... around thirty ... clients say yes, we’ll be okay. We’ll cut the deliveries by half.
Andrea: Shall I start making some phone calls?
Lee: Yes, that would be great. Start with the biggest orders.
Malcolm: How you getting on you two? Any success?
Lee: Yeah, well I think between us, Andrea and I have nearly cracked this one! Crisis nearly over!
Malcolm: Excellent! You make a good team, you two. Nellie had better watch out or she’ll be losing her secretary to the Finance and Accounts Department.
- End -
背單詞 — 商務英語詞彙
【Glossary】
load (v.) - to put things into a vehicle 把……裝上車
capacity (n.) - the ability to do something 容量，容積
production run - the collective processes that are involved in manufacturing a group of similar or related parts 生產執行
the lot - (informal, British English) everything 每一樣東西
commandeer (v.) - to take possession of something by force 霸佔
whacking (adj.) - (informal, British English) very huge 很大
reliability (n.) - something or someone that can be trusted to perform well 可靠性
【Business notes】
數字問題
In Episode 6, Malcolm and Lee are discussing the after-effects of the transport strike and the percentage of goods that the packaging company will be able to deliver.
在這一節當中，Malcolm和Lee討論了一下運輸工罷工後的後效，以及裝運公司可以運輸的貨物比。
Lee: …. They’ve already loaded up with the 60% of goods they promised us. But they haven’t got the capacity to load up the missing 40%; that’s going to have to come in 24 hours.
When dealing with figures, there can be some confusion as to how to correctly describe them.
小數的表示方法有很多：
16.5 sixteen point five
17.38 seventeen point three eight (not thirty eight)
注意，小數點後面的'數字，要一個一個地讀：
0.63 zero point six three or nought point six three (British English)
0.05 zero point oh five or nought point oh five
當我們表達趨勢的時候，我們要注意當中的介詞：
Profits rose 11% to $2.7 billion.
Profits have gone up from 3 million to 4 million euros.
Our business grew by 10% last year.
There’s been a decrease in annual sales of 1 million dollars.
Last year profits stood at 2.5 million pounds.
表達趨勢的時候，要注意的動詞：
Sales have increased from $5m to $7m.
Sales doubled in the last quarter.
Profits halved because of the recession.
Sales reached a low point of $1m in April.
Sales plummeted in August.
Sales levelled off towards the end of the year.