3.1 Listening script
Our guest today on Songs of my life is the entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox, of the massively successful company lastminute.com. With her business partner, Brent Hoberman, Martha Lane Fox started lastminute.com in Brents living room. The idea was simple - a website selling late flights and late hotel bookings. The company grew very quickly and expanded from the UK into France, Germany and Sweden. They bought other travel companies, and after six years they had 1,400 employees. Lastminute.eom went public in 2000, and the shares in the company increased their value by 40 per cent in two days. Martha Lane Fox left the company in 2003. True to her entrepreneurial spirit, she wanted to start more new companies. Martha, its a pleasure to have you here in the studio...
Answers
1 In Brents living room.
2 Late flights and late hotel bookings.
3 France, Germany and Sweden.
4 1,400.
5 In 2000.
6 In 2003.
Do this exercise with the class. Elicit the answers one owner (O) or more than one owner (M). If students dont know the meanings of the input words, the definitions below might help: Answers and definitions
1 O (a person who is self-employed and works for several businesses)
2 M (an organisation that does not try to make a profit)
3 M (a British company whose shares can be bought and sold by the public and whose debts are limited if it fails financially)
4 O (a person who trades by himself / herself without the use of a company structure or partners and bears full responsibility for the actions of his / her business)
5 M (a company whose owners have limited responsibility for the money that it owes)
6 M (a company that is owned by two or more people)
7 O (a person who doesnt work for an employer, but finds work for him / herself)
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