Learning English is not just about mastering grammar and vocabulary, but more importantly about using it naturally in real-life situations. However, the sentences in textbooks are often too formal and differ greatly from everyday expressions. To speak authentic and natural English, you need to be exposed to real conversational contexts. Here, we have selected commonly used English expressions covering social, work, and travel situations, helping you get rid of 'textbook English' and learn the phrases that native speakers really use. Below is the content of this issue of 'New Cambridge Business English (Preliminary) Exam 18'. Keep practicing, and your English will become more practical and life-oriented!

Unit 18 Exam Practice Questions 30 to 37 For questions 30 to 37 you will hear 8 short recordings. For each question mark A, B or C for the most suitable picture or phrase. 30 What does Alison order? So Alison, do you know what you want? I'm not sure. The chicken sounds nice, but so does the fish. What about you? Well, I think I'm going to have the fish. OK, I'll have that too.

31 Which is the flight to Sydney? Would all passengers for flight LH 4521 to Brisbane please go to gate number 40? Flight LH 4152 to Sydney is now also boarding at gate number 42.

32 Which hotel does Graham's colleague recommend? Have you booked a hotel room yet, Graham? No. I'm just looking at the brochure now. Well, don't go to this one here. Why? What's wrong with the Gram? It's too expensive. So is this one, the Orion? I'd go to the Plaza if I were you.

33 Which machine are the people talking about? Aaron, could you help me for a moment? Sure, what's the problem? I'm not sure how to use this machine. It's very simple. Just insert the paper, key in the number, and press the send button.

34 What happens to the phone call? Hello, North Seas Shipping. Can I help you? Hello, could I speak to Amanda Collins? One moment, please, I'll just try her office. Hello. Yes. I'm afraid she's in a meeting. Can I take a message? It's okay. I'll try again this afternoon.

35 How much does the retailer pay for each game? The games look interesting but how much do they cost per unit? The unit price is $8. And are there any discounts on large orders? We could give you a dollar off per unit on orders over 500 units. Then I'll just take 200 units to begin with.

36 How long will the order take to arrive? When are those samples arriving? Well, they sent them on Friday and it normally takes four working days. But Monday was a bank holiday. Oh yes. So they should be here on Friday then.

37 What is wrong with the printer? Oh, the stupid machine isn't working again. What is wrong with it? Well, I don't know. I think it needs some more paper or it's run out of ink or something. Oh no, look here. There's some paper stacking it.

38 to 45 Listen to the manager talking to staff about the way they answer the telephone. For questions 38 to 45, mark the correct phrase to complete the sentence. Mark one letter A, B or C for the phrase you choose. You will hear the conversation twice. You have 45 seconds to read through the questions. So if everyone is here, I'll make a start. Now, as you might know, a few months ago, we asked some consultants to take a look at the way we answer the telephone across the group. They telephoned our offices and made inquiries as customers normally would. They recorded information such as how quickly the call was answered, how friendly people were, and how efficiently they dealt with the inquiry.

So I'll begin with what they found out. Right now, first of all, they found out that on average we answered the phone after four rings, which isn't bad, but we can still improve on it. Secondly, friendliness. Now, although some offices scored as high as eight out of ten for friendliness, the consultants only gave the company as a whole six out of ten. Once more, this wasn't as good as it should be. The consultant said that 7.5 is the minimum we should be aiming for throughout the group. And finally, efficiency. Now here, we did quite well. It seems that the people who normally answer the phone can either deal with inquiries themselves or put the caller through to the right person. However, there were one or two negative points, which we still have to work on, such as always remembering to ask the caller's name before putting them through. So, as you can see, we need to do a lot of work. Going back to the first point about the phone ringing four times, everyone will now be responsible for answering the phone after the third ring. This way, there is no excuse for keeping a caller waiting. The point about friendliness, however, is the most important. People want to hear a cheerful voice when they call the company and feel good when they do business with us. So, we're going to choose some new hold music and the consultants have given us some good phrases to use on the phone. They're on the handout I gave you at the beginning. Does everyone have a copy? Right, good. So, moving on to efficiency. That is the end of the test.

The above is the content of 'New Cambridge Business English (Preliminary) Exam 18', organized by Qicaiwang. We hope it is helpful to you!