Telecoms in Emerging Markets 高級聽力練習：新興市場的電信業

這是英國經濟學人雜誌裡很有趣的一則聽力練習，內容是關於手機市場消費者的使用趨勢。
除了聽力內容外，裡頭的圖表會隨著聽力內容做變化，播放速度相當快，內容約有3分鐘長，相當適合高級商用英文學生及程度高的雅思和托福學生當作聽力及寫作練習。

This is an interesting video clip with graphics describing the changes in the mobile phone market. It is quite fast and nearly 3 minutes long. This is suitable for advanced business students as well as very good IELTS and TOEFL students.

Part 1 - Listen for Gist 聽大意

Before you listen, answer the following questions. 做聽力練習前，請先回答下列問題：

1. Do developing countries or developed countries have more mobile phone users?
2. Who probably spends more on mobile phone services: people in India or Western Europe?
3. Where do mobile phones have a greater economist effect: in developing or developed countries?
4. Which will have a greater positive effect on economic growth: mobile phones or Broadband Internet?
5. Can everyone in the world afford a mobile phone now?

Now listen and check if you were were right.


OR for a pop-up window...
Telecoms in emerging markets

Check Part 1 Answers

Part 2 - Listening for Details 聽細節

Before you listen, read the questions and decide what type of words you need to write in each space. Listen again and write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS OR A NUMBER.

By 2008, of the world's cell phone market was in the developing world.

In the 12 months to the end of March 2009, in India the number mobile users grew , while in in Western Europe the rise was .

It is more difficult for cell phone operators to money from the in developing countries.

Cell phones encourage growth because moves faster and markets become .

The world bank examined the impact of kinds of technology in countries.

Cell phones boost growth because they help people avoid the problem of that many developing countries have.

In the future, people are likely to access the net via new .

Check Part 2 Answers



Script 聽力錄音稿

Over the past ten years the main market for mobile phones has shifted from rich countries to developing ones. In 2000, there were 700 million handsets in circulation, three quarters of which were in the developed world. Yet, by the end of 2008, there were around 4 billion, three quarters of them in the developing world. What was once a yuppie toy has become a tool of economic empowerment, even in the world’s poorest places.

Developing countries are now driving the market’s growth. In the 12 months to the end of March 2009, for example, the number of mobile subscribers in India increased by 128 million, or 52 percent. In Western Europe by contrast, the number of subscribers increased by 27 million, or 5 percent. Although there is more rapid growth in developing countries, mobile phone users spend less. An average of six dollars fifty a month in India, for example, compared with around 36 dollars a month in Western Europe. So the challenge for operators is to find ways to serve these lower spending customers profitably.

By allowing information to travel more quickly, and making markets more efficient, mobile phones promote economic growth. Several studies have found that in a typical developing country, an extra 10 mobile phones per 100 people boosts GDP growth by point 8 percentage points. The latest study by Christine Qiang of the World Bank has taken this analysis further. It examines the impact on growth of fixed and mobile phones and Dial-up and Broadband Internet for both rich and poor countries. Communications technology makes more of a difference in poor countries where its ability to substitute for poor infrastructure, such as bad roads, is more useful. Mobile phones have a greater impact than fixed-line phones and have spread the fastest - so that overall they’ve had the greatest impact so far of all of these technologies. But Internet access has more potential to boost GDP growth in the future – by 1.4 percentage points for every 10 extra broadband connections per 100 people in a typical developing country.

Broadband access in the developing world will probably be delivered by upgraded mobile phone networks. This process is already underway and mobile broadband will probably be the dominant form of broadband around the world by twenty-twelve. Within a decade, it seems likely that everyone on Earth who wants a mobile phone will have one. The process of connecting everyone via a global communications network began with the invention of the telegraph in 1791. Thanks to mobile phones it is now on the verge of completion.

Part 1 Answers

1. Developing countries
2. People in Western Europe
3. In developing countries?
4. Internet Broadband
5. Not yet

Part 2 Answers

1. three-quarters
2. 128 million
3. 27 million
4. lower spending customers
5. information
6. more efficient
7. 4
8. rich and poor
9. poor infrastructure
10. mobile phone networks