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M: Hello English learners! And welcome to another great lesson with us here at
EnglishPod! My name is Marco.
E: And I’m Erica.
M: And today we’re bringing you a great Upper Intermediate lesson.
E: That’s right! We’re gonna talk about the topic that’s been in the news, uh, recently and
this topic is…
M: The bird flu.
E: That’s right!
M: So, can you tell us what the bird flu really is?
E: Basically, the story is a lot of chickens and birds keep getting this disease and they’ve
managed to pass this disease to humans. And the fear is that humans will start to pass this
disease to each other and a huge, huge number of people in the world could get really sick.
M: Okay.
E: Yes.
M: So, sounds scary.
E: Well, uh, it maybe a little bit scary, but we do have some interesting language. We’ve got
language to talk about a disease.
M: Uhu.
E: And language that you might use in a planning meeting at work.
M: Alright. So, let’s start by looking at our “vocabulary preview” for this dialogue.
Voice: Vocabulary preview.
M: Okay, the first word on our vocabulary preview today is contingency plan.
E: Contingency plan.
M: Contingency plan.
E: Contingency plan.
M: So, a contingency plan is a, uh…
E: A plan that you make to prepare for an emergency.
M: So, like a backup plan.
E: Exactly.
M: Okay.
E: Yeah.
M: Contingency plan. And our last word for the vocabulary preview today is pandemic.
E: Pandemic.
M: Pandemic.
E: Pandemic.
M: So, pandemic is something scary.
E: Well, yes. Um, it’s an even where a disease affects a lot of people, like we’re talking
millions of people.
M: Okay.
E: And it spreads very quickly.
M: Aha.
E: And it goes international.
M: Okay, so, a disease that spreads very fast and goes everywhere.
E: Exactly.
M: Okay.
E: Pandemic.
M: Okay, so, we’re ready to listen to our dialogue. We’re gonna be at a business meeting,
where people are talking about a contingency plan.
DIALOGUE, FIRST TIME
M: Alright, what an ironic meeting? Uh, they’re talking about the bird flu and they’re going
to have chicken.
E: Yes, after, uh, sneezing all over.
M: Hehe. Yeah, I guess now we could take a look at our “language takeaway” for this
dialogue.
Voice: Language takeaway.
E: We heard a lot of really useful language in this dialogue and right now we’re gonna look
at, uh, four different words from the dialogue. The first one is critical.
M: Critical.
E: Critical.
M: Critical.
E: We’ve got some examples of this word that will help us to understand the meaning, so
let’s listen.
Voice: Example one.
A: It’s absolutely critical that we increase our sales. If not, the company will go bankrupt.
Voice: Example two.
B: We have a critical shortage of food. If you don’t go help, people will die!
Voice: Example three.
C: This is a critical step in the process. You can’t make a mistake here.
E: So, when something is critical, it’s basically…
M: Really important, really urgent.
E: Right! Okay, great word – critical. The next word we have is outbreak.
M: Outbreak.
E: Outbreak.
M: An outbreak.
E: So, when outbreak is… is a sudden start of a disease, right?
M: Uhu.
E: Can I say “oh, I got an outbreak of flu”? Could outbreak describe one person?
M: No, an outbreak means that it’s infecting a lot of people.
E: Okay.
M: Not only one person.
E: So, that… we could say “there’s an outbreak of the flu at the office”.
M: Right.
E: Witch there was.
M: Yeah, a lot of people got sick here with the flu.
E: Yeah.
M: Okay, why don’t you tell us about our third word?
E: Our third word is forecast.
M: Forecast.
E: Forecast.
M: Forecast. So, to forecast basically means to predict.
E: Exactly.
M: For example, you talk about the weather forecast.
E: Yep.
M: Okay, great! And, uh, the last word for our language takeaway is vaccines.
E: Vaccines.
M: Vaccines.
E: Vaccines.
M: So, vaccines are something we all had when we were children.
E: That’s true.
M: They are injections that you get to prevent you from getting sick later.
E: Right, so, an injection of medicine from your doctor, so that you don’t get a disease in
the future.
M: Right, when we are small, we get polio vaccines… 
E: Yeah, measles vaccines.
M: Measles, right.
E: Yeah.
M: A lot of, uh, common diseases.
E: Yes.
M: Okay, so, that’s all for language takeaway, some great language related to health and
disease, but we also heard some great business related words in this dialogue.
E: That’s true! There’s a lot of words that you can use in a planning meeting, so let’s look at
those now in “fluency builder”.
Voice: Fluency builder.
E: In today’s fluency builder we’re gonna look at four useful phrases. Now, this first phrase
you can use when you want to change the subject at a meeting. Let’s listen to what they
said in the dialogue.
Phrase 1: let’s move to our next order of business; let’s move to our next order of business.
M: Okay, so, let’s move to our next order of business, it’s a great way of saying “let’s
move on”.
E: Exactly.
M: Let’s pass to the next topic.
E: Uhu.
M: Great.
E: Speaking of passing to the next topic, we heard another really interesting phrase in the
dialogue. Let’s listen.
Phrase 2: we need to come up with a clear plan; we need to come up with a clear plan.
M: So, we need to come up with a clear plan. We need to…
E: Think of.
M: Think of a clear plan.
E: Yeah.
M: Uhu.
E: Yeah.
M: We need to come up with.
E: Yeah. Okay, our third phrase we heard in the dialogue is this.
M: Okay, I’d like you to head up this project.
E: So, this phrase head up; this is a great phrase.
M: It means I’d like you to lead or take care of this project.
E: Okay, and the last phrase for fluency builder you can use when you want to give
someone the responsibility of a job. We heard this.
Phrase 4: so, I’ll leave this to you; so, I’ll leave this to you.
M: So, I’ll leave this to you. This is “you take charge”.
E: Exactly.
M: Uhu.
E: I’ll leave this to you.
M: That’s a great way of delegating a responsibility and… so, we’re gonna leave you to
listen to our dialogue a last time and, uh, be sure to pick up all the great vocabulary that we
just talked about.
DIALOGUE, SECOND TIME
M: Okay, great! So, this contingency plan idea is really interesting, right?
E: Yeah, it makes sense for a company to prepare in case there is an outbreak of bird flu. I
mean they need to maintain their critical business functions even if all the employees are
sick, hey?
M: Right, I guess that’s really important and, uh, you have to forecast all these, uh,
possibilities like people are… gonna be away from the office or even forecast less sales, et
cetera.
E: That’s right! The interesting thing is that businesses that may not actually be involved in
food production or raising chickens or something like that are… are making these
contingency plans. I find that really fascinating, so it seems there is a lot of fear out there
about the possibility of a pandemic.
M: Yeah, yeah, well, hopefully, they’ll come out with the vaccines, so, we don’t have to
worry about these things.
E: That’s true, but until then…
M: We will have to create contingency plans.
E: That’s right.
M: Okay, guys, we’re out of time today and I hope you enjoyed our lesson and found all
these words and phrases really useful and you can apply them in real life.
E: Alright, guys, thanks for listening and be sure to check out our website englishpod.com
where you can leave all your questions and comments. Marco and I are always around to
answer your questions, so…
M: Until then it’s… Bye!
E: Good bye!