第10课　IN THE FIRING LINE

When Nora said," Last time I was not an accountant, what!", she should have said "I wasn't an accountant before".

Mei Ling has called a meeting of the staff at HotDotCom.

Mei Ling:　Can we start now, please? Jane, you're taking the minutes today, aren't you?

Jane: That's right - have you all got the agenda?

All: (together) Yes...sure have...OK (etc.)

Jane: Please check. This one's different from the one I gave you yesterday. Mei Ling's going to start - with Feedback from HotDotEurope.

All: (together) Yes... No... OK (etc.)

Mei Ling:　Thank you, Jane. Well, you'll be pleased to know our European counterparts have been very pleased with our work on the new Hotel database. However, I've had to face a few uncomfortable questions from the CEO about internal matters.

All: (together) Uncomfortable questions?.. CEO? (etc.)

Mei Ling:　He wanted to know who exactly Mr Ornoh was?

Jane: Mr Ornoh?

Mei Ling:　Mr Ken Ornoh.

Gary: Ken Ornoh? Ken Ornoh? Oh (laughing) - Can or not! Mr Can or not!

Everybody laughs ?except Mei Ling..

Mei Ling:　I'm afraid I take it far more seriously than you do. The laughing stops..

Mei Ling:　The CEO also feels he should be consulted before we fire anyone else.

Jane: But we haven't fired anyone.

Nora: Jaya fired me when I forgot to save those files last month.

Mei Ling:　And the CEO thinks you've lost your job because of it. That's what fired means in good English.

Nora: But I didn't lose my job - he only fired me.

Jane: I think you mean that he told you off. Can I add something here?

Mei Ling:　Go ahead.

Jane: I also had a strange conversation last week - about invoicing.

Mei Ling:　Invoicing?

Jane: Yes. Europe thinks we're putting up prices without their agreement.

Mei Ling:　That's serious. Why should they think that?

Jane: Because every month they get an e-mail saying we've rounded up the invoices ahead of target.

Nora: Yes, we've never been late in this office - not once. We always round them up before dateline!

Jane: But in good English that means increasing a figure to the next whole dollar!

Gary: You mean like taking 88 cents and making it a dollar?

Jane: Exactly! What I think you mean is we always round off the invoices ahead of schedule.

Mei Ling: We can't afford misunderstandings like these. There's tough competition in the DotCom market - globally. That's why I want us to launch our own Speak Good English Drive. Let's start by brainstorming some ideas ..

Narrator:　And we'd like to round off this lesson by reminding you to phone in again tomorrow.

《联合早报》

Speak Good English Phone-in Lesson
打电话·听课文 1800 7341015

Speak Well, Be Understood.　好英语，利沟通。
Written by Laraine Bamrah, Paul Tolton, Delphia Choo, Alaisdair Raynham and Steve Adams for the British Council in association with the Speak Good English Movement.
©Ministry of Information and The Arts and British Council Singapore 2001

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