{"id":1720,"date":"2025-04-11T11:24:48","date_gmt":"2025-04-11T03:24:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rainyjames.com\/?p=1720"},"modified":"2025-04-11T14:06:17","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T06:06:17","slug":"english-pod-25-planning-for-the-worst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rainyjames.com\/?p=1720","title":{"rendered":"English Pod 25 &#8211; Planning For The Worst"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Dialogue<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/api.frdic.com\/api\/v3\/media\/mp3\/f4ed22b0-6c14-4f2c-a452-cf724d5790ae?type=mp3&amp;cdn=auto\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>A: Well, right, let\u2019s move to our next <strong>order of business<\/strong>, as many of you are aware, in recent weeks there has been a lot of media coverage surrounding this<strong> bird flu<\/strong> issue. And it\u2019s come to my attention that our company lacks any sort of bird flu <strong>contingency plan.<\/strong><br><br>B: Basically, we need to come up with a clear plan; we need to outline specific actions that our company can take to maintain <strong>critical<\/strong> business functions in case a <strong>pandemic<\/strong><br>strikes.<br><br>A: So, what I\u2019d like to do is: first appoint someone to look after <strong>drafting <\/strong>our plan; Ralph, I\u2019d like you to <strong>head up<\/strong> this project.<br>C: Sure, no problem. What issues do you want me to consider?<br><br>B: Well, let\u2019s see, there are a few points we need to be thinking about. . . first, I\u2019ll need you to analyze our numbers and figure out what kind of financial <strong>impact <\/strong>an <strong>outbreak <\/strong>might have.<br><br>A: You\u2019ll also need to think about how we can avoid any of our employees getting infected; think of ways to reduce employee-customer contact, perhaps some IT solutions that will allow our people to work from home.<br><br>C: I guess you\u2019ll need me to <strong>forecast <\/strong>employee absences as well, right? And I\u2019ll think about the impact this will have on our clients. Hey, what about <strong>vaccines<\/strong>? Should we<br>be thinking about getting vaccines for our employees?<br><br>A: Exactly right. So, I\u2019ll leave this to you, and we\u2019ll review the draft plan in two weeks. Okay, so, anyone want to order some KFC for lunch?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Explain<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/api.frdic.com\/api\/v3\/media\/mp3\/54c1bbcf-1e6f-11e7-be40-000c29ffef9b?type=mp3&amp;cdn=auto\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key Vocabulary<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>order of business<\/strong> \u2014 Phrase an issue that must be discussed<br><strong>bird flu<\/strong> \u2014 Noun (noncount) flu originated from birds that carry virus<br><strong>contingency plan<\/strong> \/k\u0259n\u02c8t\u026and\u0292\u0259nsi\/ \u2014 Phrase a plan that prepares for a situation where things can go wrong<br><strong>critical<\/strong> \u2014 Adjective extremely important<br><strong>pandemic<\/strong> \u2014 Noun (singular) a situation where a disease is spread out very quickly, and affects many people in many countries<br><strong>draft <\/strong>\u2014 Verb make a first version of something<br><strong>impact <\/strong>\u2014 Noun (singular) major influence or effect on something<br><strong>outbreak<\/strong> \u2014 Noun (singular) a sudden start of disease affecting many people<br><strong>head up<\/strong> \u2014 Verb lead and be responsible for<br><strong>forecast<\/strong> \u2014 Verb predict what is going to happen based on available information<br><strong>vaccine <\/strong>\u2014 Noun (plural) medical substance that protect people or animals against diseases<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Example<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>critical \u2014 Really important, really urgent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Voice: Example one.<br>A: It\u2019s absolutely critical that we increase our sales. If not, the company will go bankrupt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Voice: Example two.<br>B: We have a critical shortage of food. If you don\u2019t go help, people will die!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Voice: Example three.<br>C: This is a critical step in the process. You can\u2019t make a mistake here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dialogue A: Well, right, let\u2019s move to our next order of business, as many of you are aware, in recent weeks there has been a lot of media coverage surrounding this bird flu issue. And it\u2019s come to my attention that our company lacks any sort of bird flu contingency plan. B: Basically, we need [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[31,33,29],"class_list":["post-1720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","tag-english","tag-english-pod","tag-29"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rainyjames.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rainyjames.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rainyjames.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rainyjames.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rainyjames.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1720"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.rainyjames.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1728,"href":"https:\/\/www.rainyjames.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1720\/revisions\/1728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rainyjames.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rainyjames.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rainyjames.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}