A Lecture on Corporate Crimes- IELTS Listening Sample Answer

Sep 24, 2021

IELTS Listening section consists of four sections. There are a total of forty questions in IELTS Listening. This sample is section four of IELTS Listening. There are similar topics found in IELTS listening practice papers. This section- A Lecture on Corporate Crimes contains the following question type:

No more than two words
Correct answers
No more than three words

Audio Transcript

Section 4 is a lecture on corporate crimes.

Good evening, welcome once again to Criminology 201. I’m happy to see you all looking so alert and full of energy after a busy day. Tonight and for the next few weeks, we would be looking at what is clearly a very important topic, corporate crime. First of all, what do we mean by corporate crime? The simple answer, of course, is crime committed by a corporation. Usually by the heads of a corporation working together. But what about a crime committed by, for example, the CEO of a company, who without the knowledge of his colleagues bribes a government official in order to get a big fat contract for his company. Well, we won’t be looking at this kind of white collar crime. Rather, we will restrict our studies to cases where the top people in a business entity work together and knowingly break the law and especially those cases, where until they are caught, this type of unlawful behavior is actually part of the corporate culture. First, why do they do it? Simple answer is to make more money. Well, most business men want to make more money, but they don’t break the law to do so. So what factors make a group of men, yes, they are usually men, but women are by no means immune from this temptation, decide to step outside the law. In the next few weeks, we will be looking into this question with a lot of case studies in some depth. We will also try to divide corporate crime into several categories and see what they share in common in terms of the psychology and organizational culture of those who commit them. And also we will also look into the legal, social and political settings in which these crimes occur.

A particularly interesting aspect of corporate crime is a process of detection, trial and punishment. It often seems that this type of crime goes on for an unreasonable length of time before it is detected by the authorities. Is this true and if so, why? There is also a common perception that people found guilty of corporate crimes are treated much more leniently by the court than, for example, your common everyday thief or even murder even. Is this true and if so, why? I mentioned that we would divide corporate crime into categories and look at some specific cases. What categories can we think of? Well, one is that of product safety. Where a company markets a product that it knows to be unsafe. One of the landmark cases in corporate criminology of this type is the Ford Pinto case. Ford was accused of rushing an unsafe car and in 1980, there was the criminal trial of the Ford Motor company for reckless homicide. We would look at the research on white collar crime and studies on organizational culture and structure to examine the lack of safety of recall regulations that may have contributed to as many as 500 deaths. As one report put it, much of the literature on the Ford Pinto case was focused on how consumer safety was willingly sacrificed in the face of corporate greed. Another category of corporate crime is manipulation of a company’s share prices. One form of this is insider trading. Closely related and sometimes very difficult to prove is a kind of creative accounting whereby, for example, profits are exaggerated in order to drive up a company’s share prices. Take the Enron scandal. On November 29 th , 2001, the Wall Street Journal ran an article in which they reported that for years, the company may have been President Bush’s biggest financial backers donating nearly 2 million to his campaigns. And it appeared that the Bush administration’s national energy plan might have been in part in an effort to help one of Bush’s largest contributors. So, we see politics creeping into this corporate crime question.

Questions 31-40

Questions 31
Choose the correct answers A-C and write them next to 31 on your answer sheet

What types of Corporate crime will the course cover?

All white-collar crime
Cases of CEOs bribing government officials without telling their colleagues
Cases involving corporate culture

Answer 31: C

Explanation: The top people in a business entity work together and knowingly break the law and especially those cases, where until they are caught, this type of unlawful behavior is actually part of the corporate culture.

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Questions 32-36

Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each answer.

The course will try to identify what corporate criminals share in terms of 32___________ and 33__________ .An interesting part of corporate crime is the 34_____________ of detection, trial, and punishment. Before it is detected by the 35_____________, it often seems that it goes on for an unreasonable length of time. There is also a 36_______________ that people found guilty of corporate crimes are treated more leniently by the courts.

Answer 32: psychology

Explanation: try to divide corporate crime into several categories and see what they share in common in terms of the psychology and organizational culture of those who commit them.

Answer 33: organisational culture

Explanation: try to divide corporate crime into several categories and see what they share in common in terms of the psychology and organizational culture of those who commit them.

Answer 34: process

Explanation: A particularly interesting aspect of corporate crime is a process of detection, trial and punishment. It often seems that this type of crime goes on for an unreasonable length of time before it is detected by the authorities.

Answer 35: authorities

Answer 36: common perception

Explanation: There is also a common perception that people found guilty of corporate crimes are treated much more leniently by the court than, for example, your common everyday thief or even murder even.

Question 37

Choose the correct answers A-C and write them next to 37 on your answer sheet

In 1980, the Ford Motor Company was put on trial for______________.

reckless homicide
tax evasion
corporate greed

Answer 37: A

Explanation:

Questions 38-40

Complete the following sentences.

Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

Companies sometimes exaggerate their profits to increase____________________.

Answer 38: their share prices

Explanation: sometimes very difficult to prove is a kind of creative accounting whereby, for example, profits are exaggerated in order to drive up a company’s share prices.

The Wall Street Journal ran an article saying Enron might have been President Bush’s______________.

Answer 39: biggest financial backers

Explanation: the Wall Street Journal ran an article in which they reported that for years, the company may have been President Bush’s biggest financial backers donating nearly 2 million to his campaigns.