Listening

Warm Up

Helpful Words and Phrases

Listen and repeat.

  1. issue
    • ex. Stores are required to issue a receipt for every customer.
  2. a subscription
    • ex. I have a monthly subscription to this magazine. They send me a new one every month.
  3. axe
    • ex. The company decided to axe the project because it has several problems.
  4. sluggish
    • ex. Tourism in this beach town becomes sluggish during winter.
  5. worrisome
    • ex. The rising prices of goods is very worrisome.

Article

Read the article below and answer your tutor's questions.

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Amazon will slowly stop selling its health-focused Halo devices to cut costs. It will also stop supporting devices that customers bought previously. The company said that it will issue refunds to anyone who bought Amazon Halo devices in the past year.

The tech company introduced Halo in 2020 through the launch of a fitness-tracking wristband. The wristband worked alongside a subscription service and a smartphone app. The company said that “it is proud of what it built” and deciding to stop supporting Halo is a difficult decision. The Halo app and devices will stop working starting July 31, 2023.

Halo is the latest business that Amazon axed to reduce its spending. The company is cutting costs because online sales have been sluggish, and the economy around the world has been worrisome. Amazon also closed its health care service, Amazon Care, as well as its video calling device, Amazon Glow. The company did not share how many employees will be affected by Halo’s axing.

This material was based on an article by The Associated Press.

Discussion

Choose a topic and discuss the questions with your tutor.

Cutting Costs

  • Amazon axed Halo and some of its other businesses to cut costs. Do you agree with Amazon’s decision? Why or why not? Discuss.
  • What do you think are some good reasons to cut personal costs (ex. saving money to buy something, rising prices)? Discuss.
  • What advice can you give a person who is trying to cut personal costs (ex. make a weekly budget)? Discuss.

Removing a Product/Service

  • Amazon will issue a refund to affected customers. Do you agree with what Amazon is going to do for them? Why or why not? Discuss.
  • Should a company immediately remove an unpopular product/service or try to improve it first? Why? Discuss.
  • Imagine that a company removed a product/service that you like. What are you going to do? Discuss.