This is the Business English Certificate Higher 2, Listening Test 3.

You will hear a spokesperson telling a group of business people about the Business Support Agency- an organisation which distributes business and research grants.

As you listen, for questions 1 to 12, complete the notes, using up to three words or a number.

After you have listened once, replay the recording.

You now have forty-five seconds to read through the notes.

[pause]

Now listen, and complete the notes.

[pause]

Woman:   Thank you everybody, thank you. The Business Support Agency or BSA are very proud of the part we play in the development of business success. Today I’ll give you a bit of background on the Agency, and then outline the steps involved in applying for support. OK?

               What we do, basically, is distribute financial support from our funds, which come from the central government Department of Education on the one hand, and then that sum is matched - the amount fluctuates on a yearly basis – by contributions from a number of multinational companies. We then follow the procedures I’ll be outlining in a moment. Some examples of this work, if you’re interested, can be seen in our annual report - I’ll leave copies out for you to look at. Since we began, we’ve given out over three hundred grants. We made twenty awards last year alone, and expect that figure to rise to twenty-five next year. But we’re not simply giving this money away - our criteria are strict.