Didn’t he apologize for _______?

3. Whom should we consult on this matter?

Do you know _______?

4. Is Mr. Simpson going to accept the offer?

I’m not sure _______.

5. When do we arrive? How much traffic is there on the highway?

It depends on _______.

Exercise 15. Rewrite the following as in this example:

Example: Why was this invoice not included in the statement? (We cannot understand)

We cannot understand why this invoice was not included in the statement.

1. How do these price increases affect us?

We should like to know _______ .

2. Why have you taken so long to execute such a small order?

We are frankly at a loss to understand _______.

3. What percentage of polyester fibre do your men’s suitings contain?

One of our customers would like to know _______ .

4. How many cases must we order to get maximum discount?

Will you please advise us by return _______ .

5. What do they charge for servicing machines that are no longer under guarantee?

We are trying to find out _______ .

Get ready to retell the text “A Sales Meeting” using reported speech.

Text ¹ 2 Market Study

Peter wanted his marketing people to follow up on the Tru-Tone sales problem before things got much worse. He scheduled a ten o’clock meeting in the conference room with Ben Melnick and Jane Collins. He also invited Steve Blake, who had just submitted his market study of the Try-Tone line, and Jack Bell, who was in charge of the Audio Performance account at their advertising agency, Creative Talents.

“It looks as we’re all here,” said Crawford. “Steve, why don’t you begin?”

Steve began by reviewing the problems that faced AP with regard to the Try-Tone line: declining market share, inability to sell to department stores, the pricing problem, and low brand awareness.

“First we had figures prepared on total industry tape recorded sales for the past three years. We broke these numbers down into several categories: age, sex, income, and geographic distribution of the purchasers. We then had the data broken down again according to sales outlets: authorized dealers, hi-fi shops, department stores, discount houses, appliance stores, and so on. Next we did the study to discover the factors that make buyers choose one brand over and other. And finally we did an analysis of pricing for the entire industry. We then compared all the industry data with information we already had on purchase of our products.

Steve’s study reinforced what Crawford already suspected Tru-Tone hadn’t kept pace with the industry. It was still being distributed through its own dealership network and was still relying almost exclusively on print advertising, which was largely misdirected.

Tru-Tone had failed to attract the youth market, appearing mostly to middle and upper income people in the forty to fifty year range. While most of those who had purchased Tru-Tone equipment were satisfied with its quality, those who had decided against purchasing the line felt it lacked important features available in competing models. Another major complaint seemed to be that the Tru-Tone models were too heavy and bulky.

Crawford was more than satisfied with the presentation.

”I like to have your people prepare a detailed advertising plan. It should be youth-oriented, with heavy TV and radio support. I want costs and schedule to be submitted for each month over a one-year period. In the meantime I’ll be working with Steve and Ben on a department store strategy. And I already see that the design people are working on a few interesting improvements which should eliminate the weight problem. Can we agree to get together again in about a month?”

“That sounds fine to me,” said Bell. “We’ll be ready with a complete presentation by the end of July.”