Part Ⅰ Situational Dialogues

Practice 1

Task 2: Simulated situational conversation.

S: Hello, Mr.Brown, I am calling to inform you that there will be a meeting next Tuesday morning.

B: Thanks, Susan. When exactly is the meeting?

S: It starts at 10 o'clock, in Conference Room 2.

B: Who will be attending the meeting?

S: All the departmental managers will be there.

B: And what is the meeting about?

S: It's about next quarter's work plan.

B: Should I prepare anything for it?

S: You'd better get ready the preliminary work plan of your department.

B: OK, I'll be able to make it. Thank you again, Susan.

S: You are welcome. See you next week.

B: See you then.

Practice 2

Task 2: Simulated situational conversation.

Linda: Hi, Peter. I would like to know something about chairing a meeting. Since you are an experienced chairperson, I think you can help me with my questions.

Peter: No problem. What would you like to know?

Linda: When you are chairing a meeting, how do you usually declare a meeting open?

Peter: I usually begin with “Good morning/afternoon, everyone. If we are all here, let's get started.”

Linda: Then how do you state the principle objectives of the meeting?

Peter: I like to say “The purpose of the meeting is to discuss…”.

Linda: Oh. How do you introduce the agenda?

Peter: The sentence I usually use is “The agenda of the meeting is as follows”. Then I'll introduce it item by item.

Linda: To control the discussion during a meeting is not easy. If it is running out of time, what would you say?

Peter: I would say “ There's not much time left. Could you please be brief?” or “ I'm sorry to interrupt you, but I'm afraid we are running out of time.”

Linda: These are all my questions. I have to go to work now. Thank you very much, Peter.

Peter: You are welcome. If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask me.

Linda: I will. Thank you again.

Peter: Bye!

Linda: Bye!

Practice 3

Task 2: Simulated situational conversation.

Jack: Good morning, everyone. I'm happy to see that you could all make it to this meeting. Let me first explain the purpose of the meeting. The reason why we are here is to discuss the price of our latest product, digital camera. George, could you start?

George: I think we should price our latest digital camera higher than normal because the price of the raw materials is rising sharply.

Bruce: I don't think so. If our price is higher than normal, our products may not stay competitive in the market.

Maria: That's exactly the way I feel. I think most of the customers can't accept a higher price.

George: If we don't increase the price to cover the increase in the cost of the raw materials, we may not be able to make a profit.

Jack: Judy, what's your opinion about this?

Judy: In my opinion, before pricing our new products, we'd better conduct a further survey so that we can know the market and the customers better.

Jack: I totally agree with Judy.

George: I agree. But we need to make a good plan for the survey.

Jack: There will be a Digital Products Trade Fair in Guangzhou this weekend. We can go to the fair in order to find out the latest trends in the industry and to know our competitors well.

Judy and Maria: That's a good idea.

Jack: Then we'll have another meeting next week. You are required to give more constructive and reasonable suggestions on pricing our new products by then.

Part Ⅲ Workplace Practice

Ⅰ. Complete the following dialogue.

Mr. Wang: The sales meeting will be held the day after tomorrow. Have you notified all the attendees?

Miss Liu: Yes, I've given them all an informal notice of the meeting, either by telephone or by memo. They have all confirmed that they will attend.

Mr. Wang: Good! Is the conference room ready?

Miss Liu: Yes, I've put the minute book and some paper copies of the agenda on the table.

Mr. Wang: How about the microphones and speakers?

Miss Liu: I've got them ready.

Mr. Wang: Thank you. How about the projector? We’ll need it for the presentations.

Miss Liu: There is something wrong with the projector in the conference room. But don't worry, I've asked someone to fix it tomorrow. It would be OK before the meeting.

Mr Wang: You've done a good job. In addition, you'll have to take the minutes for this meeting.

Miss Liu: But I'm not quite experienced in taking minutes. Would you please give me some tips?

Mr. Wang: I'd be happy to. First, you need to concentrate. Of course, you must be accurate as well.

Miss Liu: Should I write down every word people say?

Mr. Wang: No, you needn't. It's OK for you to make a note of the main points about each topic discussed and the decisions made at the meeting.

Miss Liu: I see. Thank you, Mr. Wang.

Mr. Wang: Don't mention it.

Ⅱ. Translate the following dialogue into English.

Meeting Chairman: Good morning, everyone. If we are all here, let's start the meeting. First of all, I'd like to explain the main purpose of the meeting. This morning we're going to discuss whether or not we should spend more money on advertising.

James: Can I have a word first? I think we are spending too much money on advertising.

Mike: I can't agree with you. With fierce competition in the market, it's almost impossible to sell our products well if we don't advertise. It is the best way to build brand awareness.

Lily: That's exactly the way I feel. Advertising is a good way to get people to know about the products.

Brain: Excuse me for interrupting. I have to agree with James. We shouldn't spend more money on advertising. In my opinion, the quality of the products is more important.

Mike: I doesn't mean we should ignore quality. Product quality is our top priority.

James: But if we put more money into advertising, there will be less money spent on production, then how could we guarantee the quality?

Mike: We were saying that we should keep a balanced budget.

Brain: I think we are already spending too much money on advertising. And it is difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of advertising.

Lily: Building a brand is a long-term task. We can never be so shortsighted.

Meeting Chairman: Unfortunately, we are running short of time. We'll have to leave it to another time.

Ⅲ. Make a short speech (3 minutes).

Good morning, everyone. I appreciate you all being here for this important meeting. As you all know, for the past three months, our sales have been decreasing. Mr. John Smith, our general manager, requires us to solve the problem quickly. This is the reason why we are here today having this meeting. I think you all have received a fax of the agenda and you all have a copy of the sales figures at hand. Just look at the agenda please. We'll first go over the sales report of the last three months, and try to figure out the reasons for the drop. Then, we should come up with the solutions to all the problems we find. It might not be easy, but I do hope you can work out the solutions. The meeting will be finished before 12 o'clock. Now, let's start.

Ⅳ. Make a workplace interpretation (3 minutes).

A: 艾米你好！我打电话是要通知你这个星期三上午开会。

B: Wednesday morning? I've got a previous engagement with one of our important clients. Can you change it to another time?

A: 我觉得不大可能。所有部门经理都要出席这次会议。

B: When exactly is the meeting?

A: 9点开始。

B: Let me check my schedule first. Oh, I'm meeting my client at eleven. If the meeting will end within two hours, I can make it.

A: 会议只要一个半小时，你能参加。

B: OK. Where is the meeting?

A: 四楼会议室。

B: What's the meeting about?

A: 是有关新产品促销计划的。

B: What do I need to prepare for the meeting?

A: 你最好做个初步计划。

B: OK, I will prepare that. Thanks, Mary.

A: 不客气。