If you are running Windows XP and you do not hear narration from the Agent control when using any of the "Learning & Mastering ToolBook" CD's, you likely need to install the 4.0 version of the Microsoft Agent SAPI speech engine. This often happens with XP. It is explained this way on the Microsoft site (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms699334.aspx):

Microsoft Agent uses SAPI 4.0 to provide speech services. Windows XP however now ships with SAPI 5.0 which does not provide backward compatibility support for its predecessor. Fortunately, SAPI 4.0 and SAPI 5.0 can co-exist together on the same Windows XP computer.

To fix the problem, download and install SAPI 4.0 (http://activex.microsoft.com/activex/controls/sapi/spchapi.exe).