level 4 4/4 listening

Quick Serve is a successful home repair company. It provides quick, reliable repair services to homes. It was established 5 years ago and has been expanding rapidly. In the last two years, it has opened offices in three new cities. Because of its rapidly growth, it has to hire many new employees. In the last six months, it has hired 50 new employees. The total number of employees in the company is now over 500. And the number of customers has increased to more than 5000.
The company has also improved it business model. Instead of offering only repair services, it can now help customers to update their appliances. Quick Serve does this by giving a choice. Customers can choose to repair an appliance, or update it by buying a new one. If they choose to buy a new one, they will get a discounted price. So a customer can either repair a broken refrigerator for a small fee, or buy a new one.
If they buy a new one, they will get a discounted price, along with free installation. This is possible because several appliance manufactures have agreed to give Quick Serve big discount. Quick Serve then installs the new appliance and removes the old one. Feedback from customers has been positive. A high percentage of customers have been taken advantage of this new service. As a result, Quick Serve has developed a great reputation. It dedication to high quality services has proven to be successful. It word-to-mouth approach to advertising has been cost effective. The appliance manufactures have also been happy for the results. Their growing relationship with Quick Serve has helped to increase their sales.
The world’s population is growing. There are now over 7 billion people in the world. During the 20th century, the population grew from 1.65 billion to 6 billion. It’s now growing at the rate of 1.1% per year. That means an increase of about 8 million per year. By 2024, the population is expected to be around 8 billion. The growth rate used to be higher. In the late of 1960s, the rate of growth was about 2%. Since then, the growth rate has declined. It estimated that the growth rate will be less than 1% by 2020. By the year 2050, the growth rate should be even less.
Even with a declining growth rate, the population will continue to grow. But it will grow with a slower rate. In the past 50 years, the world population has more than doubled. It has doubled from around 3 billion in 1960s to more than 7 billion in 2011. The rate of growth varies by country. The growth rate in India is more than twice in China. And the growth rate in Nigeria, which is in Africa, is more than twice of India’s growth rate. Russia, on the other hand, has had a negative growth rate in some years. When a country has negative growth rate, its population is decreasing.