englishpod_D0025dg

Upper-Intermediate - Planning For The Worst (D0025)
A: Well, right, let’s move to our next order of busi-
ness, as many of you are aware, in recent weeks
there has been a lot of media coverage surround-
ing this bird flu issue. And it’s come to my atten-
tion that our company lacks any sort of bird flu
contingency plan.
B: Basically, we need to come up with a clear plan;
we need to outline specific actions that our com-
pany can take to maintain critical business func-
tions in case a pandemic strikes.
A: So, what I’d like to do is: first appoint someone to
look after drafting our plan; Ralph, I’d like you to
head up this project.
C: Sure, no problem. What issues do you want me
to consider?
B: Well, let’s see, there are a few points we need to
be thinking about...first, I’ll need you to analyze
our numbers and figure out what kind of financial
impact an outbreak might have.
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A: You’ll also need to think about how we can avoid
any of our employees getting infected; think of
ways to reduce employee-customer contact, per-
haps some IT solutions that will allow our people
to work from home.
C: I guess you’ll need me to forecast employee ab-
sences as well, right? And I’ll think about the im-
pact this will have on our clients. Hey, what about
vaccines? Should we be thinking about getting
vaccines for our employees?
A: Exactly right. So, I’ll leave this to you, and we’ll
review the draft plan in two weeks. Okay, so, any-
one want to order some KFC for lunch?
Key Vocabulary
order of business Phrase an issue that must be
discussed
bird flu Noun (non-
count)
flu originated from
birds that carry virus
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contingency plan Phrase a plan that prepares for
a situation where things
can go wrong
critical Adjective extremely important
pandemic Noun (sin-
gular)
a situation where a
disease is spread out
very quickly, and affects
many people in many
countries
draft Verb make a first version of
something
impact Noun (sin-
gular)
major influence or ef-
fect on something
outbreak Noun (sin-
gular)
a sudden start of dis-
ease affecting many
people
head up Verb lead and be responsible
for
forecast Verb predict what is going to
happen based on avail-
able information
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vaccine Noun (plu-
ral)
medical substance that
protect people or ani-
mal against diseases
Supplementary Vocabulary
epidemic Conjunction event where a disease
spreads really quickly
and affects a large num-
ber of people
backup plan Phrase a plan made in case
events go badly
pandemic pre-
paredness plan
Phrase a plan to prepare for the
possible outbreak of a
pandemic
transmit disease Phrase pass disease from one
individual to another
avian influenza Noun (sin-
gular)
bird flu
influenza Noun (non-
count)
flu; illness caused by a
virus
Visit the Online Review and Discussion (text version). c ?2008 Praxis Language Ltd.