[originaltext] Robert Kent manages a successful supermarket in the downtown

Robert Kent manages a successful supermarket in the downtown area of a big city. He is in charge of 90 employees and the store has an average of 15000 customers a week. Mr. Kent’s job is not easy to describe. He has many duties and responsibilities, and no working days exactly the same as any other. Here are some of the things he does during a typical day at the store.
    The store opens daily at 8 a. m. , including Saturdays and Sundays. Mr. Kent gets to work at 6:45. As soon as he gets to the store, he goes to his office, opens up the safe, and counts the cash that has been turned in the night before. After he has counted the cash, he goes to the front of the store to the checkout stands and fills the cash registers with currency and coins. Now the store is ready for business.
    In Mr. Kent’s store, there are six departments, and each department has its own manager. A large supermarket like this is usually divided into departments for better efficiency. During the day, Mr. Kent talks to each of the department managers to find out if he has any special problems. For example, he talks to the manager of the produce department, where fresh fruit and vegetables are sold; he checks with the managers of the meat department, the bakery department, and the grocery department. As he talks to the department managers, Mr. Kent gathers the information that he will need to carry out his projections, which must include the volume of sales, the cost of employees’ wages and benefits, the gross profit, and the net profit.
    Because the store operates on a small margin of profit, Mr. Kent must work out his projections in great detail. Failure to take into account an employee’s raise in pay or the cost of repairing a single machine could mean the difference between profit or loss in the quarterly report made by each department.
    Questions 12 to 15 are based on the passage you have just heard.
    12. Why is Mr. Kent’s job NOT easy to describe?
    13. What do we know about Mr. Kent?
    14. Why is a large supermarket usually divided into departments?
    15. How does Mr. Kent gather the information he needs to carry out his projections?