2011年ESL之商务英语 07 Asking for More Time

07 Asking for More Time

GLOSSARY 1

status – the current condition; the most up-to-date information about the quality,timing, or progress of something

* All of the employees are supposed to send weekly reports on the status of theirwork.

on schedule – on time; making enough progress so that something will becompleted when it should be; expected to meet one’s deadline

* The buses are usually on schedule, but for some reason, my bus was 20minutes late this morning.

slight – very small, minor 2, and unimportant

* We saw a slight increase in sales last month, but not enough to really make adifference.

delay – something that causes one to become behind schedule; something thatslows one down and makes it difficult or impossible to finish something when itwas planned to be finished

* When there’s a lot of snow and ice, expect a delay when driving across town.

deadline – the date and time when something is due or must be turned in; thetime by which something needs to be completed

* The deadline for this grant proposal is Friday at 3:00 p.m. Do you think we canfinish everything before then?

to grant – to officially give something to someone, especially giving permissionor authority

* If the board of directors grants approval, we’ll be able to hire two newemployees next month.

extension – the act of making something bigger or longer in space or time

* We are proposing a bridge extension that would reach to Main Street.

tops – maximum; at most

* We can pay you $11 per hour, tops.

snag – a problem; something that causes a problem or a delay, but that oneprobably will be able to find a solution for

* When the lead actress lost her voice, it was a snag for the show, but fortunatelythey were able to find another actress who could play her role.

up and running – operational; functioning normally

* The mechanic promised to have their car up and running again by the end ofthe day.

to come to a grinding halt – to completely stop; to no longer be able to work oroperate at all

* Traffic came to a grinding halt during the snowstorm.

tight schedule – a situation when a lot of work needs to be done in a very shortperiod of time

* The engineers are on a tight schedule to design the new freeway by the end ofthe month.

to spare – to have an extra amount of something

* Do we have any food to spare? I brought a few friends home for dinner.

all too well – very well; very familiar and very clearly understood

* - Did you know this town is expected to flood after tomorrow’s storm?

* - Yes, I know it all too well.

to spell (something) out – to explain something in great detail; to be explicit 3

* Let me spell it out for you: if you don’t make your mortgage payments, yourbank will take away your home.

for (one’s) head to be on the chopping block – for one to be at risk of losingone’s job or otherwise suffering negative consequences if something does not gowell, or if some result is not achieved

* Could you please help me with these preparations? My head is on thechopping block if the conference isn’t a success.

the clock is ticking – a phrase meaning that very little time is left beforesomething else happens, implying that one should hurry up and do something

* Her birthday is tomorrow! I can’t believe you still haven’t bought her a gift.

Hurry up and go to the store! The clock is ticking.

COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

1. What does Dan need in order to meet the deadline?

a) More money.

b) More time.

c) More staff.

2. What does Dan mean when he says, “My head is on the chopping block”?

a) He feels sick and has a lot of congestion 4.

b) He is very stressed out and has a bad headache.

c) He could lose his job if the project isn’t successful.

______________

WHAT ELSE DOES IT MEAN?

slight

The word “slight,” in this podcast, means very small, minor, and unimportant:

“The baby has a slight fever, but the doctor said not to take her to see him until itreaches 104.” Or, “Please let us know if there’s even the slightest possibility youmight be able to come to our home for Thanksgiving.” The word “slight” can alsodescribe someone who is very thin and possibly unhealthy: “Janik is a very slightboy, even though his parents are always trying to feed him more.” The phrase“to not have the slightest idea” means to not be aware of something at all: “I’veknown them for quite a while, but I didn’t have the slightest idea they werebrothers! They don’t look anything alike.”

snag

In this podcast, the word “snag” means a minor or medium-sized problem,especially something that causes a problem or a delay, but that one probably willbe able to find a solution for: “The engineers hit a snag when they couldn’t find away to keep the processor cool enough for the software to run.” A “snag” is alsopart of a tree that can be seen above the water when the rest of the tree ishidden under the water: “Watch out for that snag, or it might tear a hole in yourraft.” The phrase “to snag” means for a piece of clothing to be caught onsomething that sticks out, usually stretching or ripping as a result: “Yolanda’sdress snagged on the corner of the countertop and ripped.” The verb “to snag”

also informally means to get something: “How did you snag such a great deal?”

CULTURE NOTE

Excluding “territories” (areas of land that are parts of the United States, but arenot states), the United States has six “time zones” (vertical geographic 5 areas thatexperience the same time). Their “boundaries” (the dividing lines between twoareas) are shown on the “shaded” (with a particular color in the background) mapbelow.

• Hawaii Time

• Alaska Time

• Pacific Time

• Mountain Time

• Central Time

• Eastern Time

______________

Comprehension Questions Correct Answers: 1 – b; 2 – c

COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT 6

Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 672: Asking forMore Time.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast number 672. I’m your host, Dr.

Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development inbeautiful Los Angeles, California.

Our website is eslpod.com. Go there to download the Learning Guide for thisepisode that will improve your English – and make your teeth just a little whiter!

This episode is a dialogue between Dan and Marcia. It’s called “Asking for MoreTime,” more time to do something. Let’s get started.

[start of dialogue]

Dan: Hello.

Marcia: Hi, Dan. What’s the status on the project? We’re still on schedule,right?

Dan: Uh, well, I’ve been meaning to call you about that. We’ve had a slightdelay.

Marcia: What do you mean by “slight”? Are you saying that you won’t be able tomeet the deadline?

Dan: Not exactly. I’m only asking that you grant us a short extension.

Marcia: How short?

Dan: A week or two, tops. We hit a minor snag, but we should have everythingup and running in no time.

Marcia: If the project has come to a grinding halt, then it doesn’t sound like aminor snag. We’re running on a tight schedule and we don’t have a lot of time tospare.

Dan: I know that all too well.

Marcia: Good, then I don’t have to spell it out for you.

Dan: No, you don’t. My head is on the chopping block and the clock is ticking.

[end of dialogue]

Dan begins by saying “Hello” to Marcia. Marcia says, “Hi, Dan. What’s thestatus on the project?” The “status” (status) is the current condition, the most upto-date, the newest information we have about this project, this thing that you areworking on. Marcia says, “We’re still on schedule, right?” “To be on schedule”

means be on time, that you are progressing – you are moving forward just as youhad planned. If you’re late in completing the different parts of the project, wewould say you were “behind schedule,” and if you are making better progressthan you anticipated – than you planned, then we would say you are “ahead ofschedule.” So there’s “ahead of schedule,” “behind schedule,” and “onschedule.”

Dan says, “Uh, well, I’ve been meaning to call you about that.” “I’ve beenmeaning to” means I was planning on, I was thinking about it, I should havecalled you. He says, “We’ve had a slight delay.” “Slight” (slight) here meansvery small; “minor,” we might say. “Minor” (minor) is something that is not veryimportant; the opposite would be “major,” something very important. But “slight”

means minor, unimportant. There are other meanings for the word “slight,” andthose can be found in our Learning Guide.

So Dan says there has been a slight delay. A “delay” is something that causesyou to be behind schedule – to be late. Marcia says, “What do you mean by‘slight’?” She’s asking Dan to say how unimportant or how minor this delay is.

“Are you saying that you won’t be able to meet the deadline?” The “deadline”

(one word) is the date and sometimes the time that something is supposed to bedone, that something needs to be completed by. “The deadline is 5:30 p.m. onFriday.” That means whatever you’re doing has to be done by 5:30 in theafternoon on Friday.

So Marcia is asking not too bright, not too smart, we get the impression, Dan –we’ll call him dumb Dan – Marcia’s asking dumb Dan if he is going to be able tomeet the deadline. “To meet the deadline” means to be completed before or bythe deadline. Actually, I guess, Marcia says, “Are you saying that you won’t (thatyou will not) be able to meet the deadline?” Dan says, “Not exactly.” “Notexactly” means “no,” but it implies – it gives you the idea that there is somethingwrong. Now we find out what is wrong, what Dan is really saying. He says, “I’monly asking that you grant us a short extension.” “To grant (something tosomeone)” as a verb means to give someone something, usually officially, like agovernment giving something to one of its citizens or an organization givingsomething to an individual person. Here, it means really to give permission, tosay “yes, okay.” Dan is asking for a short extension. An “extension” here meanswhen you are given more time to do something. If the deadline was Friday at fivep.m., and you’re not going to be finished by then, you might ask for an extensionuntil Monday at five p.m.

Marcia says, “How short?” meaning how short of an extension. How much moretime do you want dumb Dan? Well, she doesn’t say “dumb Dan,” but that’s whatshe means – right? So Dan says, “A week or two, tops.” “Tops” is an informalway of saying maximum, at most. In other words, it won’t be more than that. So,Dan says, “A week or two weeks, tops. We hit a minor snag, but we should haveeverything up and running in no time.” A “snag (or snag)” (snag) is a problem; asmall problem, but still a problem that prevents you from completing something,that causes a delay. “Snag” has a few other meanings, and those can be foundin the Learning Guide – of course! Where else would you find them?

Dumb Dan says, “we should have everything up and running in no time.” Theexpression “to have (something) up and running” means something will beworking normally, functioning as it should function, doing what it’s supposed tobe doing. Marcia says, “If the project has come to a grinding halt, then it doesn’tsound like a minor snag.” The expression “to come to a grinding halt” (halt)means to completely stop. You could have a car traveling down the street andsuddenly you see a dog come out into the street and you step on, or press on,your brakes to stop the car, but you stop it very quickly. We would say “it cameto a grinding halt,” it stopped quickly. Actually, we don’t use this expression veryoften in talking about actual movement; usually we use it in talking about somesort of project or process that stops, that suddenly stops, that completely stops.

Marcia says if the project has stopped – if you’ve stopped making progress on it– then it’s not a minor snag, it would be a major snag. Marcia says, “We’rerunning on (meaning we’re operating on) a tight schedule and we don’t have a lotof time to spare.” A “tight schedule” is a situation where a lot of work needs to bedone but in a very small amount of time. If you only have two days to finishwriting a book, that might be a very tight schedule if you haven’t started writingalready. By the way, the opposite of a “tight schedule” would not be a “looseschedule,” we wouldn’t say that. You might say something like, “We have plentyof time,” or even, “We have all the time in the world.” There’s no rush; there’s nohurry. With a tight schedule you have to hurry, you have to rush; you don’t havea lot of time.

Marcia says they don’t have a lot of time, they don’t have a lot of time to spare(spare). “To spare” is to have an extra amount of something. It’s used as anadjective when we are talking about something extra that you have. For examplein your car, you should have a spare tire. That’s an extra tire to put on your carin case you have problems with one of them. In fact, we typically call it just “aspare,” using “spare” there as a noun. Here, it means they don’t have any extratime.

Dan says, “I know that all too well,” meaning I know it very well; I understandcompletely. Marcia says, “Good, then I don’t have to spell it out for you.” “Tospell (something) out” can mean to give the letters in the word, like I spell outwords like “spare” (spare). But the same expression also means to explainsomething in great detail, to talk about every little part of this thing you are tryingto describe, to be very explicit. Marcia is saying that she does not need to spell itout for Dan – for dumb Dan; that’s another way of saying “I don’t need to explainto you how serious the situation is.” Sometimes, especially when we’re givingsomeone bad news or telling them something they don’t want to hear, we’ll usethe opposite expression; we’ll say, “Let me spell it out for you. If you don’t giveme my money I’m going to call the police!”

Dan says, “No, you don’t (you don’t need to spell it out for me; you don’t need toexplain what will happen to me if I don’t finish this project on time – on schedule).

My head is on the chopping block and the clock is ticking.” The expression “tohave your head on the chopping block” means for one to be at risk of losing yourjob or otherwise having a very negative consequence if they don’t do whatthey’re supposed to do. It used to be, back in history and perhaps in someplaces still is, common to kill someone, especially when the government waskilling a criminal, to put their head on a piece of wood and take a large “ax,”

which is a sharp metal instrument used normally to cut trees, and chop or cut thehead of the person off so that, of course, they would die. That’s the idea. Well,we don’t do that anymore, at least not very often. But the expression continuesand it means now to be in trouble, to have some serious problems if you don’tfinish or do what you’re supposed to do. Dan says, “the clock is ticking.” Thismeans simply that there is very little time left before something happens. He hasto hurry because there isn’t a lot of time left. “To tick” (tick) is the verb we use, orused to use clocks or watches because when the little wheel inside the clockmoved around it made a little sound – “tick, tick, tick” – and that is why we talkabout clocks ticking. Clocks don’t tick anymore – most of them don’t becausethey’re electronic, but we still have the expression.

Now let’s listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.

[start of dialogue]

Dan: Hello.

Marcia: Hi, Dan. What’s the status on the project? We’re still on schedule,right?

Dan: Uh, well, I’ve been meaning to call you about that. We’ve had a slightdelay.

Marcia: What do you mean by “slight”? Are you saying that we won’t be able tomeet the deadline?

Dan: Not exactly. I’m only asking that you grant us a short extension.

Marcia: How short?

Dan: A week or two, tops. We hit a minor snag, but we should have everythingup and running in no time.

Marcia: If the project has come to a grinding halt, then it doesn’t sound like aminor snag. We’re running on a tight schedule and we don’t have a lot of time tospare.

Dan: I know that all too well.

Marcia: Good, then I don’t have to spell it out for you.

Dan: No, you don’t. My head is on the chopping block and the clock is ticking.

[end of dialogue]

Our scriptwriter is always on schedule – usually ahead of schedule. That’sbecause it’s our own Dr. Lucy Tse.

From Los Angeles, California, I’m Jeff McQuillan. Thank you for listening. Comeback and listen to us again on ESL Podcast.

English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr. Lucy Tse,hosted by Dr. Jeff McQuillan, copyright 2011 by the Center for EducationalDevelopment.