A、Financial. B、Personnel. C、Strategy. D、Technology. C

I’d like to spend a few minutes of your time looking back over the year. I’m going to divide my review into three areas: first, financial, secondly, personnel and finally technology.
   On the financial front, the results have been very pleasing. Turnover has increased by 14%, costs have dropped by 3%; and profits are up by 16%. So the company as a whole has performed well. Some business areas have done better than others. Exports sales have done very well— especially in America, our largest export market. The domestic consumer market has been very competitive and will continue to be so—our results in this market have been rather disappointing—just l% up compared with last year.
   Right, let’s move on to personnel. Our policy of Personnel development through training and promotion opportunities has continued to be a great success. We have actually recruited 72 new staff, while 20 have retired so there’s a net balance of 52. The training department has expanded considerably and moved into new areas such as quality assurance and sales training.
   Finally, technology. I thought you would be interested to have an update since this is vital for our future growth. Over the last year, our R & D department has thoroughly tested a new prototype engine. Results so far have looked promising. We have also invested heavily in a European technology program which links industry with the universities.
   Right, those are the three main areas. Are there any questions, before I go on?
Questions:
15.Which area is not mentioned in the talk?
16.Which of the following has decreased this year?
17.Which of the following statements is true according to the talk?
18.Who is the man giving a presentation to?