Meeting

Monday's assignment

Preparing an Agenda

An agenda is an important element of a productive meeting. It is a written outline of the planned meeting proceedings and it communicates the topics for discussion. It can also list the people who will lead the discussion or present topics, and the time allotted for each topic. An agenda is usually sent to meeting participants in advance so they can confirm participation or send regrets (apologies for not participating) and prepare for the meeting. The agenda is usually written in point form. All items on the agenda are listed chronologically and relate to the objective of the meeting.

Read the sample agenda below and answer the questions.

MEETING AGENDA

Sunny Grove Elementary School Parent Association

When: Monday, June 15, 7:00 p.m.

Where: Library

Objective: To plan fundraising activities for spring term

1.     Presentation about school activities in need of funding

2.     Brainstorming: fundraising activities

3.     Select most effective fundraising activities: discussion and vote

4.     Set up committees and assign responsibilities

Task 1:

 Now answer the following questions:

1. What type of meeting is the agenda for?

    Community group meeting

2. Who are the participants?

    Parents on the School Parents Association

3. What is the purpose of the meeting?

    to plan fundraising activities for spring tern

4. How long do you think it is going to be?

    2~3 hours

5. How can the participants prepare for the meeting?

    Prepare some ideas about activities how to plan fundraising by your experiences or

    anyway else, for example, researching on the web site.

Task 2:

Listen to this phone conversation between two managers who decide on a meeting.

1.     Write a memo to the participants of the meeting to inform them about the time 

     and place of the meeting.

    Orientation Session Agenda

When: Next Monday, 9:00~11:00 a.m.

Where: Conference room

Objective: Punctuality and polices and procedures of the custom service 

Chair: Sheren Bing

Human resource: Rular, Jenna, Rafael

Attendees: New staffs hired recently

1.     Presentation on complain procedures and return polices (Jaona and Rafiel)

2.     Discuss issues about punctuality (Rular)

3.     Q and A

2.     Include an agenda with possible items for discussion. 

    Orientation Session Agenda

When: Next Monday, 9:00~11:00 a.m.

Where: Conference room

Objective: Punctuality and polices and procedures of the custom service 

Chair: Sheren Bing

Human resource: Rular, Jenna, Rafael

Attendees: New staffs hired recently

1.     Presentation on complain procedures and return polices (Jaona and Rafiel)

2.     Discuss issues about punctuality (Rular)

3.     Q and A

Blizzard

''Blizzard in Birmingham''

The Turner kids were not accustomed to snow. The most they ever got in their southern city of Birmingham was an inch or so per year. Even that was quite infrequent—it never snowed more than once or twice each winter. And on the few occasions that it did snow, it was always too warm for the snow to accumulate. The temperature almost never got below freezing.

What was funny was that even the slightest bit of snow was enough to cancel school and close businesses. No one knew how to drive in the stuff. It was never enough for young Lily Mae Turner, though, because the snow that came was always too sparse to build a snowman or to go sledding.

But one night, in March of 1993, something magical happened. An unexpected blast of cold air from Canada and moist air from the Caribbean converged on the eastern part of the United States to create the “Storm of the Century.”

All that the Turner kids knew was that when they woke up Saturday morning, there was 17 inches of unbelievable snow on their front lawn and as far as the eye could see.

The Turner parents were in shock. Most folks in town were ill-prepared for such a storm. They had no shovels to dig their way out and no salt to keep from slipping. They had no idea what to do.

While the adults seemed paralyzed with disbelief, the Turner kids set about having the time of their lives. Lily Mae discovered that a rope tied to a metal trash can lid made a perfect sled. John Henry figured out that if he put his feet in plastic grocery bags before putting on his rain boots, his feet stayed warm for a longer time. Rachel made snow angels in every part of the yard. Together, all the kids made a huge snowman and dressed it in their dad’s hat and jacket. (Mr. Turner didn’t own a scarf!)

For three straight days, the Turner kids had a splendid time. On Tuesday, the temperature hit 70 degrees, and life for these Southerners went back to normal.

Questions:
1) As used at the beginning of the story, what does accustomed mean? A. used to B. aware of C. scared of D. interested in A	2) As used at the beginning of the story, which is the best antonym for infrequent? A. common B. long C. rare D. surprising C
3) Which other title would best fit this passage? A. “1993” B. “A Cold March” C. “Magical Snow” D. “Ill-Prepared Parents” C 4) The author may have described the storm as magical because A. Lily Mae believed the snow was magic B. it was such an unusual thing to happen that it felt like magic C. there was no other explanation for why the storm occurred D. the author wanted to cast doubt on whether the storm actually took place B 6) What conclusions can be drawn about what the weather is typically like in Birmingham during the month of March? I. It is warm. II. It does not snow. III. It is windy. A. I only B. I and II C. II and III D. I, II, and III B 8) "What was funny was that even the slightest bit of snow was enough to cancel school and close businesses." "No one knew how to drive in the stuff." Which of the following punctuation marks could best be used to combine the above sentences? A. a comma ( , ) B. a semicolon ( ; ) C. an ellipsis ( … ) D. a hyphen ( - ) D 10) As used at the end of the story, which is the best antonym for splendid? A. great B. perfect C. happy D. terrible B 12) Pick one of these two situations, and write a paragraph to describe what would you do and why if you were in the same shoes as: 1-Turner kids                            2- the Turner parents You can start off by saying: If I were the Turner kids/parent, I would ……………………………………… If I were in the same shoes as Turner parents, I would play Games with my children. I would make a simple sled with my kids and go out to play with them and make several different size snowmen in behalf of our family and dress them in their own clothing. If possible, I would like to take our family to go skiing.	5) How are the children different than the adults in this passage? A. The kids stayed warm, while the adults were very cold. B. The kids knew the storm was coming, while the adults did not. C. The kids went out and had fun, while the adults did not know what to do. D. The adults still had to go to work, while the kids stayed home. C 7) What can be said about the Turner kids' ideas for playing in the snow without the usual snow gear? I. They were creative. II. They were effective. III. They were complicated. A. I only B. I and II C. II and III D. I, II, and III B 9) What was going on outside of Birmingham during the snowstorm? A. The rest of the country was also dealing with snow. B. Nothing—Birmingham was the only area affected by the storm. C. The Eastern United States was also hit by the storm. D. The passage does not provide enough information to say. C 11) Find synonyms for all the underlined words in the passage and then use them in sentences of your own. accustomed infrequent sledding blast ill-prepared paralyzed  I still get accustomed to live in Canadian winter. The city traffic will be paralyzed for the ill-prepared, though it is infrequent when the blast happens. But it is also a great chance to go sledding. 13) Click on this link and record one to two minutes of a personal experienced that you had once and you felt "ill-prepared" for it. Then save the link and add it on your blog. You need to include the following points: ·                     When and where this event happened? ·                     What was the situation? ·                     Why were you ill-prepared for it? ·                     What did you do? ·                     How did it end?

Million Man

Task 1:

Click on this link, use a chart like the one below to take notes. Then write a brief summary of each speaker’s opinions with reasons. In small groups, present your opinion and give reasons.

	Opinion and reason
Albert	He agreed the decision, because he believed that Ovechikin is the best player in the NHL awarding every best salary.
Robert	He agreed with Albert, and emphasized that Ovechikin was only 21 years old whose best year was still come. Leosis made a right decision defeating any competitors else.
Cathy	She didn’t like that contract. Because she thought that high salary contract would improve the price of the ticket what would influence on her families’ joining the weekend game.
Maria	She thought nobody was worth $124 million, other important jobs saving human’s life and changing human’s future like doctor and educator were paid pretty less than that.

Task 2:

In small groups, discuss what you consider an appropriate salary for each occupation. Complete the table. Then locate the actual salaries using the Ontario Job Futures website or click on this link.

	Appropriate Salary	Reason	Actual Salary
Airline pilot	200,000/year	High qualification and strong body	68,500
Chef	80,000/year	High technical and bad surrounding	45,700
Civil engineer	80,000/year	Middle knowledge but middle-hard certification and qualification	62,000
Computer programmer	70,000/year	Same as the above job but better than it at almost indoor environment	50,000
Early childhood educator	40,000/year	Need certification and lots of patience and knowledge	32,600
Electrician	60,000/year	Low level knowledge but a bit dangerous	60,000
Elementary school Teacher	50,000/year	Similar but harder than early childhood educator	50,000
Unversity professor	70,000/year	Need lots of qualification and certification and sufficient experience	100,000
Family physician	120,000/year	Need lots of qualification and certification and sufficient both education and experience	140,000
Receptionist	25,000/year	Needs is a bit simple	32,500

Practicing on pronunciation.

Task 3:

To practice sentence stress, follow this exercise.

Read these two paragraphs aloud and stress the words that are in bold. Record yourself and listen to your recording to see if you can hear the stressed words clearly.

Paragraph 1 
Most of today’s customer service is done on the telephone or the Web. Companies use operators, touch-tone automated service, and call-centers to meet the customers’ needs in an attempt to save money. Similarly, a lot of companies encourage customers to go online to have their questions and issues answered via chat, FAQ, virtual agent, or email. However, even though these are cost-effective measures, customers often miss the old-fashioned method of face-to-face service.

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0huMeqp54Zy

Paragraph 2 
Most of today’s customer service is done on the telephone or the Web. Companies use operators, touch-tone automated service, and call-centers to meet the customers’ needs in an attempt to save money. Similarly, a lot of companies encourage customers to go online to have their questions and issues answered via chat, FAQ, virtual agent, oremail. However, even though these are cost-effective measures, customers often missthe old-fashioned method of face-to-face service.

http://vocaroo.com/i/s0gMfDK4GmOT

Questions:

1. Which paragraph makes it sound like the new ways of providing customer service are good?
2. Which paragraph makes it sound like the new ways of providing customer service are NOT good?                zThe first paragraph is good, and the second is not good.