Business news

Business news

Listen to the business news to practise and improve your listening skills.

Do the preparation task first. Then listen to the audio and do the exercises.

Preparation

Transcript

The first item in the news today is the recent elections that took place across the country. This was a crucial vote, which may see a dramatic change in how the country develops over the coming years. Overall, a 54.5 per cent voter turnout was registered. This represents an increase of 11 per cent over the previous election and six per cent above the average for the past 50 years. There has also been a slight change in demographics, with an increase in youth turnout in the 18- to 24- and 24- to 29-year-old brackets. Despite this increase, young people are still less likely to vote than older people; 84 per cent of voters in the 70 plus age group came to the polling stations.

Moving on, the global digital powerhouse ONK today posted quarterly results which were above forecast. Back in March, Tim Bolling, CEO, issued a profit warning over fears that there would be losses following the recall of their leading product, the 40d device. In fact, the company posted quarterly revenue of US$14.8 billion which represents an increase of 11 per cent from the same quarter a year ago. They also announced that they had sold 21 million 40d devices over the quarter. The company has provided the information that with this level of revenue, there will be a gross margin of 34 to 35 per cent, ultimately leading to a US$1.20 per share cash dividend awarded to shareholders.

And in our final news item we ask, will we soon be saying goodbye to coins and notes forever? The nationwide trend of using cashless payment options is increasing. There are a number of reasons for this development. A key reason for this is a growing interest in reducing the number of items people need to leave their homes with. As almost everyone carries a smartphone with them, and many people also have smartwatches, the ability to pay for things using one of these two technologies is particularly appealing. More and more retailers are accepting cashless payments and in some cases they've stopped accepting cash altogether.

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Discussion

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Average: 4.2 (53 votes)

Submitted by Mohammed_RHANNAM on Wed, 22/03/2023 - 19:04

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Thank you for the amazing question,
First of all, I want to share with you the glad moment of living Ramadan Moments from here in Dubai,
Ramadan Kareem for all,
As an answer to this question, I want to talk about the Pareto Law, which was suggested in the 19th century in order to explain many phenomena.
This rule is basically a statistical graph which stated that between 10 to 20 % of your income as a business owner is coming from 80 to 90% of the customers while 80 to 90 % of the revenue is coming from the other 80% to 90, in other words, for a company, 90% of the outstanding results that drives its success is caused by 10% of the employees only.
This principle called the law of sparsity.

Submitted by Tannia.Flvna on Thu, 03/11/2022 - 01:15

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in this audio i found that "young people are still less likely to vote than older people; 84 per cent of voters in the 70 plus age group came to the polling stations." and in my analysis, it is true that older people tend to vote more than younger people. but in the current generation there should be more young people voting than older people.

~From Indonesia, Thank you.

Submitted by horanghae liza on Wed, 02/11/2022 - 13:23

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The national trend of using cashless payment options is increasing.This trend shows how much new technological sophistication will affect everyday life.

~ Pontianak, Indonesia

Submitted by MELATIMELATI on Wed, 02/11/2022 - 11:40

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After my analysis, young people do not like voting in politics, and also people who use cash payment instead of using headphones as a payment method.

From Pontianak, Indonesia

Submitted by detiajulianaa on Mon, 31/10/2022 - 11:42

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I think cashless payment is really good, because it is very easy for people, especially if we forget to bring cash, then we can pay using smartphone. But, I want to ask, is this trend effective enough for all ages? especially for the elderly who have difficulty in using smartphones?

- From Pontianak, Indonesia

Submitted by cikal hasyah on Mon, 31/10/2022 - 05:09

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For a beginner like me, this level is a bit difficult, but after I translated it into my language, this adds to my insight.

From Pontianak, Indonesia.
With love

Submitted by topbonbon on Mon, 31/10/2022 - 03:53

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For me, using cashless payment is more simple than the cash payment. But for some people cashless payment is quite difficult to use. For the audio file today is quite difficult for me.

From Pontianak, Indonesia

Submitted by FaisalRN on Mon, 31/10/2022 - 03:49

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It is related to me, the cashless payments are increased. Almost 80 percent of my friends are using cashless payments at the University of Tanjungpura, Indonesia. As a student, sometimes in a hurry, I forgot my wallet at home. Unfortunately, I can't use cashless payments at the canteen because the owner of the canteen is an old woman. I think she didn't know how to use the cashless payments application. I hope I can use cashless payments everywhere because it is easier than bringing cash and you got chance lost your money when bring cash.

Pontianak, Indonesia.

From Pontianak, Indonesia.

Submitted by JamesThagarius on Mon, 31/10/2022 - 03:26

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I find the audio file to be quite intriguing. Personally, I believe people should learn about politics even if they aren't too interested in it since it'll govern the way that they live their lives in the future. I extend a gesture of gratitude to the British Council for providing a well-made listening material regarding the matter.

-From Pontianak, with love.
S. B.

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