Track 5]

[CD 7 Track 5]

Note-taking Exercise 6

Narrator: Directions: Listen again to the lecture on business organizations and take notes. After you have listened to the lecture, use your notes to answer the True/False questions and the fill-in-the-blank questions at the end of the lecture. Sample lecture notes appear in the Answer Key.

Professor: Today we’re going to talk about the most com- mon forms of business structures, of, uh, business organizations. When I used to give this lecture, oh, just a few years ago, really, I would have said the, uh, the three most com-

S CRIPT

uh, can’t pay back a loan, then the owner is liable. The peo- tant forms of business organization. An increasingly popu- ple suing the company can come after the owner’s personal

lar form of organization for smaller businesses is the assets, like his or her house or car.

limited liability company. An LLC, as it’s called, it’s a . . . a Now, another type of business organization is the part-

hybrid organization, it combines some of the best features nership. Basically, there’s not much difference between a

of a partnership and those of a corporation. It eliminates sole proprietorship and a partnership except that a part-

that double taxation I mentioned. But, uh, I’m afraid I’ll nership is owned by more than one person. The tax advan-

have to wait till our next meeting to talk about the LLC tage of operating as a partnership is the same as you’d get

because we’re out of time today . . .

as a sole proprietorship. How about liability? Each partner has the right to act as

Narrator: This is the end of the Guide to Listening. the sole agent for the partnership. How does this work? Say one partner signs a contract to buy, oh, 500 widgets from

[CD 7 Track 6]

company A. He tells his partner what a great deal he got on the widgets, and she says, “Oh no! I just signed a contract to buy 500 widgets from Company B!” Are those contracts

Section 3: Guide to Speaking

legally binding? You bet, because both partners can act as sole agents. So . . . in a partnership, one partner is liable not

The Independent Speaking Task

only for his own actions, but also for the actions of all the

Sample Responses for Independent Speaking

other partners.

Narrator: Sample Response 1

Who’s in charge in a partnership? In most partnerships, Speaker: When I was young, I used to play rugby. I was a partners share responsibility for day-to-day operations. In

member of the . . . of our national team . . . the junior team some partnerships, there are silent partners, partners who

from my republic in the Soviet Union. My team, uh, we invest money in the company but have nothing to do with

became the junior champions of rugby of the Soviet Union. management decisions.

It was the most important and happiest time in my life. I Okay, then, that brings us to the corporation. This is the

. . . it was most important event in my life because I made most complex form of business organization, also the most

my first big steps in rugby. Also, because at that time I was expensive to set up. You need to fill out legal documents

only fourteen years and it was . . . well, you could say the called articles of incorporation and pay a fee, and it can be

biggest success in my life. I was happy and I was proud of . . . well, pretty expensive. Still, almost all large business are

my success . . . of our team success. These events will . . . organized as corporations.

uh, always be a pleasure to remember in my life as the best The most important thing about a corporation is the

time I ever had. Even the success I have had in science and concept of limited liability. Corporations are . . . this is an

business cannot compare to this moment. important concept . . . distinct legal entities. They’re even

called “artificial persons.” What’s that mean? Well, a corpo-

Narrator: Sample Response 2

ration can open a bank account, own property, get sued, all Speaker: For me the most important day in my love, in my under its own name, just like a person, an individual. The

life was a day when I . . . um . . . got accepted to Simmons owners—they’re called stockholders—share in the com-

College. Um . . . um . . . I got accepted to the . . . um . . . pany’s profits, but their liability is limited to what they

teaching program and it was very exciting . . . um . . . dur- invest. See the advantage? If a corporation goes broke,

ing the symposium important for me because it took then, sure, stockholders lose their investment, the money

almost two years for me . . . um . . . to get accepted to the they invested in the company’s stock—but not their per-

program and during this two years I had to take the tests sonal property, not their cars or houses.

and I had challenges because I had to take the tests two Now, unlike sole proprietorships and partnerships, cor- and I had challenges because I had to take the tests two Now, unlike sole proprietorships and partnerships, cor-