You will hear a radio presenter interviewing two colleagues, Len and Sue, who are in a mentoring programme. For each questio

You will hear a radio presenter interviewing two colleagues, Len and Sue, who are in a mentoring programme.
For each question(23-30), mark one letter(A, B or C)for the correct answer.
After you have listened once, replay the recording.
You now have 45 seconds to read through the questions.
[pause]
Now listen, and mark A, B or C.
[pause]
Woman 1: In the studio today we have two people who have been in a mentoring relationship for the last two years, Len Carter and Sue Woodman. Len, tell us what that means?
Man: Well, Sue and I work for a training consultancy. Then the mentoring programme has designed to help people in our company. It’s limited to middle managers, such as Sue, who want to develop their career and improve their performance, for instance, by working on their managerial skills. Any middle managers who want this support are paired with one of the senior managers such as myself. We don’t volunteer for this. This is part of our duties.
Woman 1: So the help is usually in developing management skills, such as leading a team or dealing with personnel problems rather than learning more factual things like finance or how to use a computer. And Sue, you volunteer for this, did you?
Woman 2: That’s right.
Woman 1: But tell us why.
Woman 2: I have been with the company for three years and was beginning to feel I learned all I could. So even though I really like working there I was beginning to look around and thinking about moving on. Then the mentoring programme was introduced, and I thought it might benefit my career more if I volunteer for that and stay with the firm.
Woman 1: Did you choose Len as your mentor or did he choose you?
Woman 2: Neither. Actually we didn’t have any say in it. We were put together by the head of Human Resources.
Woman 1: Aha. How did you feel about it at first, Sue?
Woman 2: Very doubtful. I was in charge of a team of IT trainers: Len is in management consulting. So I was afraid he wouldn’t be able to offer me much professional advice.
Woman 1: And what about you, Len?
Man: Well, my biggest fear was that Sue might find it difficult to work with someone thirteen years older than her. But it wasn’t a problem as it turned out. We hit it off straight away.
Woman 2: My other concern was this: because Len worked in a different area he really had little say in whether or not I was promoted. And I think one of the things you expect from a mentor is that they are instrumental in getting you promoted, luckily this hasn’t stood in my way, and I got what I want. And what I’ve learned from Len has enabled me to do better in my new post than I would otherwise have.
Woman 1: How do you organise the logistics of your relationship?
Man: Well, we agree that we want face-to-face sessions which need to be frequent without interfering with work. We decided to meet monthly for about an hour and a half.
Woman 2: We generally met for lunch because clients were least likely to contact just then. And we knew that if we stayed in the office, we had people popping in and the phone ringing, and we wouldn’t be able to concentrate.
Woman 1: Len, what do you think about yourself in the relationship?
Man: I felt my strength was mixing practical advice with inspirational talk about leadership. But Sue tells me I got that all wrong.
Woman 2: Oh, no. Len is right. But above all, he taught me how to think things through. I tell him about a problem, and he would say, "Have you looked at it this way?" Soon I was thinking more clearly myself and looking at a number of options instead of rushing into the first thing I thought of.
Woman 1: Did he help you in other ways?
Woman 2: Yes, he boosted my visibility with clients and colleagues. For instance, he encouraged me to speak up at meetings and volunteered for high-profile activities like client demonstrations. He also suggested me as a speaker to a number of conference organisers.
Woman 1: Was there any area where either of you felt the relationship fell short?
Woman 2: No, I found it extremely useful, particularly improving my managerial skills.
Man: We were probably lucky in that we could talk to each other easily. Not all mentoring partners have been as successful as ours.
Woman 1: And finally, Sue, if you were recommending mentoring to other middle managers, what would you say was the main benefit?
Woman 2: Getting access through the mentor to a network of other people in the company, particularly people at senior levels.
Man: Mm. I go along with that, but of course, for the mentoring programme to work, you have to work out logistics, make sure meetings are set at fairly frequent intervals, and there are no distractions.
Woman 1: Sue Woodman, Len Carter, thank you both very much!
Man: No, thank you!
Woman 2: Good-bye!