Unit 4. Listen and Practice. Exercise 2. (CD1:17)

Unit 4 Audioscripts

Unit 4. Listen and practice. Exercise 2. (CD1:17)

Sacha: OK, how about this? – We could make a TVcommercial.

Amy: Well, I’m not sure that will work, and it’s difficultto do. What do the rest of you think?

Ken: Mmm, let’s come back to this later. Any other ideas?

Joe: Well, off the top of my head, why don’t we useour website?

Sacha: I like that idea. Then, maybe we could askpeople to email us.

Joe: Yes, that’s a great idea!

Amy: I think so, too. What do you think, Ken?

Ken: I agree. Excellent!

Unit 4. Listen and practice. Exercise 5. (CD1:18)

Ken: OK. Good. Everyone agrees. So, what do youthink – shall we take a break now, or do you guyswant to go on some more?

Amy: Let’s go on. We’re getting a lot done.

Sacha: Yes, let’s go on. We can take a break later.

Joe: Fine with me.

Ken: OK, then. Let’s move on to the next topic. Let mesee … number four, “Improving English skills foroverseas staff.” Wow, that’s a tough one … so whatdo you think we …

Unit 4. Meetings and discussions: agreeing anddisagreeing. Exercise 1. (CD1:19)

Jim: OK, let’s get started. As you know, we need toreduce our costs this year by 15 percent. We alreadyhave some ideas on how to do this, but I wantto hear your suggestions before we make a finaldecision. So, what do you think?

Martha: Well, we could move our office – I knowthis is an expensive area. Maybe we could movesomewhere cheaper.

Jim: That’s possible, I guess.

Taki: The easiest way is to reduce salaries, maybe by 15percent?

Jim: Um, no, we can’t do that.

Mark: Why don’t we cut travel expenses – stay incheaper hotels, fly economy class, and things likethat?

Jim: That’s a good idea.

Taki: I know! How about turning off the heating inwinter and the air conditioning in summer? It wouldbe good for the environment as well!

Jim: Mmmm, I’m not sure about that. Any other ideas?Kay?

Kay: I think we should reduce overtime work; this willsave money and we can also spend more time withour families!

Jim: That’s a great idea! Well, thank you all for yoursuggestions. Let me think some more about it, andI’ll let you know what we decide.

Unit 4. Agreeing and disagreeing. Exercise 3.(CD1:20)

A: Why don’t we go to the beach this weekend?

B: No, that’s a bad idea. It’s going to rain this weekend.

A: Maybe we could increase the font size so it’s easierto see.

B: I agree; that’s a great idea!

A: How about this? – We could move the TV overthere.

B: I don’t think that’s a good idea – the cable is tooshort.

A: I think we should ask my mother to come and staywith us.

B: Well, we could do that, I guess. Let’s think about it.

Unit 4. Meetings and discussions: moving througha meeting. Exercise 2. (CD1:21)

Jim: All right, all right, is everybody here? Anna? IsAnna here? OK, let’s get started, shall we? Now, asyou know, next month we have three new peoplecoming, so we need to decide how we’re going toreorganize the office space. So, does anyone haveany ideas? What do you think, Taki?

Taki: Well, we could move offices again, I guess!

Anna: Can I say something? Let’s focus on wherepeople will sit. Then after we decide that, we canlook at …

Jim: OK, well, those are some ideas for desk space.We’re short of time, so let’s move on to otherequipment. Do we really need four printers in this office? We haven’t heard from you yet, Martha.What do you think?

Martha: Don’t ask me – I don’t know anything aboutcomputers. But I think we have to discuss lockerspace. We don’t have enough room in the women’slocker for all our coats.

Jim: Well, can we come back to this later? I think weshould talk about the printers first. OK, Mark, whatdo you think about equipment?

Mark: That’s a difficult question. Basically, there arethree things we need to focus on here. First isthe network – now it’s difficult to explain, but …other security issues of course. There are two mainsecurity issues we need to think about ...

Jim: Thank you, Mark, but we are running out of timehere, so let me summarize what we’ve decided.Anna is going to make a plan for desk space, andMark will find out if … Is there anything else?Great, well, thank you for your time today, and foryour suggestions.

Others: Thank you.

Unit 4. Viewpoints. Exercise 2. (CD1:22)

Jun-ha Kim: Because we’re a big company, we have alot of meetings and usually there are 10 or 20 peoplein a meeting, sometimes more. The meetings arevery formal and they usually take one or two hours,sometimes longer. Punctuality is really important– we always start on time. The meeting ends when everyone has finished speaking. Usually, the meetinggoes over time, so we have to schedule extra timewhen we book a meeting room.Actually, for me the meetings are not so interestingbecause we already agreed what to do before themeeting. The purpose of the meeting is just to giveinformation on what we decided. At the meetingsthe manager speaks and everybody listens to him –it’s very formal. There are usually a lot of documentsthat we go through in the meeting, but everyonehas seen them before so there’s no new information.I guess it’s a kind of ceremony – everyone can seethat we all agree. Anyway, the meeting is not soimportant. The important work is done before themeeting, when we send documents around to geteveryone to agree, and after the meeting, when wehave to follow up on the decisions. It takes us a longtime to make a decision, but after the decision ismade, we can move very quickly.I don’t like speaking out, especially in meetings. Ihave to think carefully about what I want to say,and I worry in case someone disagrees with me, orin case I make a mistake, or my idea isn’t very good.I usually wait for someone else to speak first, andif I agree, then sometimes I’ll say something. If Idon’t agree, I don’t say anything – I just joined thecompany, so everyone is older than me, and I needto show respect.

Steve Weller: I work for an American company inHong Kong. I realize American companies lovemeetings! When I worked in China, we didn’t have so many meetings, and the meetings were usuallyvery long, and only a few people spoke. Here Ihave lots of meetings every day, but they are veryshort – 30 minutes or 1 hour. Sometimes peopleare late because they have to wait for an elevator orsomething, or because they are coming from anothermeeting. Anyway, we have to end on time becauseusually someone is waiting for the meeting room!Our meeting rooms are small – maybe four or fivepeople at most. That’s good, I think, because if it’s more than that, then it’s difficult to decide anything,and some people don’t get a chance to speak.I think meetings are useful. Face-to-facecommunication is important, and it’s a goodopportunity to hear everyone’s opinions. We do alot of problem-solving and a lot of brainstorming,and meetings are very good for that. It’s importantthat everyone gives their ideas freely. It doesn’tmatter if you’re a manager or a new employee – theimportant thing is to give your opinion. If you don’tsay anything, then why are you in the meeting?Honestly speaking, I think we have too manymeetings, and sometimes we make decisions tooquickly. We don’t have time to think about things,and this means that after we make the decision, wesometimes find a lot of problems. Then we have tohave more meetings.