Part I Speaking

1. New Words and Expressions

outsource [ˈaʊtsɔːs] v．外包

downsize [ˈdaʊnsaɪz] v．减员

notify [ˈnəʊtɪfaɪ] v. （正式）通知

luncheon [ˈlʌntʃən] n．午餐，午饭（lunch的正式说法）

recession [rɪˈseʃən] n. （经济）衰退期

fiscal [ˈfɪskəl] adj．财政的；国库的

tender[ˈtendər] n．投标（书）; （期货交易中的）交割意向通知书

minute [ˈmɪnɪt] n．议事录，会议记录

accounting [əˈkauntɪŋ] n．会计工作；会计职业

balance [ˈbæləns] n．结存，结余

invoice [ˈɪnvɔɪs] n．费用清单

branch [brɑːntʃ] n．分支机构

present [prɪˈzent] v．展示（报告）

district [ˈdɪstrɪkt] n．区域

channel [ˈtʃænəl] n. （提供产品、信息等的）渠道，方法

compromise [ˈkɒmprəmaɪz] v．妥协；折中；让步

summarise [ˈsʌməraɪz] v．总结，概述，概括

revise [rɪˈvaɪz] v．修订；修正；修改

brainstorm [ˈbreɪnstɔːm] v．自由讨论，集思广益，脑力激荡

database[ˈdeɪtəbeɪs] n. （计算机）资料库，数据库

rural [ˈrʊərəl] adj．乡村的

set up 安排，策划

lunch meeting 午餐会

head office 总公司

sales office 销售处

sales report 销售报告

reach out 走进（某些人）中间

toss out 丢弃，抛弃

shy away（因不喜欢、害怕或缺乏自信而）退缩，躲避，畏避

lead time 提前期（新产品之前所需的设计时间）

lay off 解雇（某人），解聘（某人）

second opinion（由另一位专家提出的）第二意见

without further ado 不再浪费时间；立即；干脆

play it by ear 见机行事

go through the roof 飞涨；激增；暴跳如雷

2. Pair Work

Work with a partner. Look at the pictures（A-D）about business meeting and discuss the questions.

1）What type of meeting is the one in picture A? Please describe it to your partner.

2）Why are people wearing masks in picture B?

3）Who do you think are the meeting attendees in picture C?

4）What is going on in picture D?

3. Dialogue

Read and practice the following dialogues. Then complete the tasks.

Dialogue 1

（1）Setting Up a Business Meeting

Marie（M）and Dan（D）teamed up for a project, and they are scheduling a meeting to discuss the details of the work.

M: Hi, Dan. How are you?

D: Great thanks. we're excited to start working with you.

M: Me too.

D: Should we set up a meeting to discuss the details of the work?

M: Yes. That's a good idea.

D: When are you free?

M: How about next Tuesday?

D: I have an all-day meeting on Tuesday. What about Wednesday?

M: I'm on a business trip on Wednesday. I will be back Friday morning.

D: Friday works for me. Should we meet in my office?

M: How about a lunch meeting?

D: Even better! Let's meet at the restaurant across the street.

M: We can negotiate our business contract then.

D: Sure. I'll put it in my calendar.

M: All right then.

D: Have a good business trip and I'll see you next Friday.

（2）Preparing for the Business Meeting

（M=Marie; G=Georgia）

M: Georgia, have you set up the conference room yet?

G: Yes, I've put the minutes and some spare copies of the agenda on the table.

M: Thank you very much. Now I need to get my notebook ready for the meeting.

G: Wait a moment. The R&D department has asked to take part in our meeting just now.

M: So, we need to rearrange the seating plan?

G: Yes. We need to prepare more chairs, pencils, and paper as well.

M: Okay.

G: Should we serve tea during the meeting?

M: Yes. You can ask Miller to do that.

G: Anything else you want me to do?

M: You need to take minutes for the meeting.

G: No problem.

Dialogue 2

A Business Meeting

Mrs Jones（J）, the CEO of Venus Systems, is meeting with the Sales Director of ABC Solutions Mr Lewis（L）at Venus Systems' New York office. Mr Lewis has a business pro-posal for Venus Systems.

J: Good morning, Mr Lewis. Pleased to meet you. I'm Mrs Jones, CEO of Venus Sys-tem. Please take a seat.

L: Good morning, Mrs Jones. I'm pleased to meet you too. Thank you very much.

J: Did you find us ok?

L: Yes, thank you. The map and directions you sent me were a big help.

J: That's good to know. Did you have any trouble finding a parking space?

L: No, it was fine. By the way, I really like your offices. What an amazing view!

J: Yes, I never get tired of that view. It's one of the advantages of working on the 50th floor. Have you been to New York before?

L: No, this is my first visit. It's incredible how big everything is!

J: I know what you mean. I've lived here for 5 years and I still feel very small.

L: Well, thank you very much for agreeing to meet me today.

J: You're welcome. I have read the email you sent us. So you would like to sell your products in the USA. Please tell me a bit more about your company.

L: ABC solutions is a British software company, founded in 2010. Our head office is in London and we have a second sales office in Manchester, in the north of England.

J: So, you have 2 offices. How many employees do you have in total?

L: We currently have 143 employees across both offices and we expect that to grow to 160 before the end of the year.

J: It sounds like you are growing very quickly. What positions are you recruiting for?

L: Those new positions are in sales, IT development and tech support.

J: Tell me briefly about your company's products.

L: We develop and sell accounting software to small businesses. The product, which is called ABC Accounts, tracks expense, sends invoices, manages income, generates bal-ance and income statements and other reports.

J: And how can Venus Systems help?

L: We would like Venus Systems to sell our software in the USA. We understand that you already sell networking products and services to small businesses. We believe your cli-ents would also be interested in our products.

J: I see you have done your research! It's true that we have a lot of existing clients who could be interested in some accounting software. I would like to schedule another meet-ing with you, Mr Lewis, to discuss this in more detail. In fact, this will probably need sev-eral meetings. How long are you in New York for?

L: I'm here for at least a week, although I could extend my stay if necessary.

J: How about tomorrow morning at 10?

L: Yes, that's fine for me. What would you like to discuss?

J: I'd particularly like to discuss prices, payment terms, technical support and train-ing.

L: That's fine. I agree that we'll probably need several meetings to discuss all that.

J: Let's have the first meeting tomorrow and then we can play it by ear after that.

L: Good idea. Well, thank you very much for your time, Mrs Jones. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.

J: Well, thank you for coming all the way from London. I'll see you tomorrow. Good-bye.

L: Good-bye.

Dialogue 3

A Business Meeting

Bob（B）, the Vice President of Sales in Company ABC's US branch, is presenting the sales reports in a meeting for group discussion. （C=chair; P1=participant 1; P2=participant 2）

C: Good morning, everyone. First of all, I would like to extend a warm welcome to Bob, the Vice President of Sales in our US branch.

B: Thanks for having me.

C: Let's talk about today's agenda. If it's ok with everyone, I'd like to start with the second point. Bob, can you please present the sales reports from each district?

B: Sure, I'd love to...

C: Thank you very much, Bob. Now I'd love to get some ideas from everybody. How do you feel about those results? Is there anything we can all do as a team to improve sales in our own districts?

P1: I feel that we have been focusing too much on younger customers. In my opinion we need to focus our advertising on an older market, around 35-40 age group.

P2: Unfortunately, I see it differently. I think that we did not focus enough on younger customers. Our advertising is not reaching the 25-34 age group, and we need to update our advertising channels.

C: What do you think about this point, Bob?

B: That's a great point about the wrong channels. However, I think we need to focus more on our older customers.

C: Is there anything else anyone would like to add?

P1: I understand; are you willing to compromise? We can try the same marketing campaign we have been using for the younger group, but instead target it at the 35-40 age group. We can test that and see what results we get.

P2: That sounds like a great idea.

C: Great. Well, I'm afraid we have run out of time for today. So, let's focus our atten-tion on completing the campaign in two weeks. Bob, would you mind taking care of setting up the new marketing campaign by Monday? Thank you all for coming.

Dialogue 4

A Business Meeting

Karen（K）, a marketing manager, meets with three members of her team, Charles （C）, Sven（S）and Miguel（M）. They are choosing a celebrity spokesperson for a new product.

K: Okay. Now, let's talk about who we want to use as a spokesperson for this product. Let's go around the table. Shall we use a sports star? Or someone else? Sven, what do you think?

S: Well, one possibility would be to use a famous overweight business executive or CEO - someone who is really successful.

M: Sorry, can I come in here?

K: Yes, go ahead, Miguel.

M: That's a good idea, but I'm not sure it would work.

K: Why not?

M: Well, for one thing, our customers want to be fit, not fat.

K: Well, then what do you suggest?

M: Perhaps we should just use a famous sports star like we usually do. If it isn't bro-ken, don't fix it. You know what I mean? We could try getting Rooney, or Nadal.

K: Good suggestion. But I can see one or two problems with that, to be honest.

M: Oh?

K: First off, our target markets are the UK and the U.S. We need someone who both Americans and Britons really like. Secondly, our target customer is kind of special...

C: I've got a suggestion.

K: Go ahead, Charles.

C: It's just an idea, but how about choosing someone from a sport where it's normal to be heavy. American football, for example. Heavy, but agile; overweight, but strong and fast. You know what I mean?

K: Right, I can see what you mean. What do others think?

M: Yes, that might be worth trying.

S: Okay, but what about the UK? Who are we going to use on this side of the Atlan-tic?

K: Hmmm... let me think about this. Shall we try to find someone in golf? That's pop-ular in the U.S. and in the UK. That way, we can kill two birds with one stone.

Everybody（chorus）: That's not a bad idea! Good idea! Yes, I think that's worth try-ing.

Dialogue 5

A Business Meeting

A group of four people from the marketing department is brainstorming a slogan for Fa-mous Fried Chicken. （L=Lily; S=Susan; T=Tom; P=Peter）

L: I am glad to see everyone is here and on time. Let's get started! Susan, toss out some of your ideas.

S: Well, I'm not sure...

L: Come on, Susan, we are brainstorming. No ideas are bad.

S: OK, I did do some research and found out that the chicken at Famous Fried Chick-en has fewer calories than its competitors'. And it's cheaper, too.

L: So, Famous Fried Chicken's chicken is healthier, and it's a good value. Let me write these ideas on the whiteboard.

T: Fried chicken is healthy? That's like saying rice cakes are delicious!

L: Right. What's your idea, Peter?

P: Well, some people shy away from eating fried chicken because it's high in calories. They think that eating it is a health risk.

L: That's true. Go on.

P: So, we can appeal to risk takers! People who like living on the edge will love eat-ing Famous Fried Chicken! Don't be chicken! Take a bite of Famous Fried Chicken!

L: Um... interesting. Addressing health concerns is important, but that's a bit off course.

S: We are trying to get people excited about eating fried chicken, not to make it seem risky.

T: How about saying fried chicken is crunchy. When people bite into a deep-fried wing, the first sensation is an audible crunch.

L: That sounds a good idea. So, we will put that on the agenda for our next meeting.

4. Tasks

Role-play.

Task 1: Choose one of the situations below. Your partner（s）should act out the situa-tion, and then you should try to solve the problem by using suitable language for chairing a meeting.

Situation 1: A discussion is going on and on with no conclusion.

Situation 2: People won't stop chatting.

Situation 3: One person is dominating the conversation.

Situation 4: Some want to make major changes to the agenda.

Situation 5: Someone is always whispering to the person next to them rather than speaking out.

Situation 6: People are having separate discussions in groups.

Situation 7: No one wants to take minutes.

Task 2: Your company wants to hold a Staff Integration event, to enable employees from different teams and work locations to get to know each other and build relationships. You and other senior managers meet to plan a budget for this event（in terms of cost per employee）and to brainstorm ideas for the event.

Work in groups and discuss the following questions.

1）Do you ever have to chair meetings?

2）What should be done to chair an effective business meeting?

3）Much valuable time can be saved by using video conferencing instead of travelling to attend a meeting outside your office. Do you use such methods? What other advantages/disadvantages are there?