Do the preparation task first. Then listen to the audio and do the exercises.
Preparation
Transcript
Susanne: Hi, Mario. Can you help me prepare some things for the next month?
Mario: OK, sure. What can I help you with?
Susanne: I need to visit the customer in Germany. It's important.
Mario: What can I do to help?
Susanne: Can you send an email to the customer? Ask them when I can visit them next week. Please do this first. It's a priority and very urgent.
Mario: Right. I'll do it today.
Susanne: Thanks. This next task is also important. Can you invite everyone to the next team meeting?
Mario: Yes, I will.
Susanne: But first you need to book a meeting room. After that, please send everyone an email about it.
Mario: Yes, of course.
Susanne: And finally, can you write a short report about our new project? I have to give a presentation to our managers next month. Please do it when you have time – sometime in the next two or three weeks. It's not too urgent.
Mario: Sure, no problem. I can do it this week.
Susanne: There's no hurry. Take your time.
Hi NguyenThanhBinh,
'Take your time' means 'there's no need to hurry'. You can say this when you ask somebody to do something, but it's not urgent. :)
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Sorry but I need to disagree with some of the answers on Task 2. She didn't mentioned as visiting a customer as 2nd priority. Sounds confusing to me. However, a good activity anyway. Cheers.
Hello rbradeley,
When Susanne says that sending an email to the customer is 'a priority and very urgent', that is a clear indication that it has the highest priority. When she says that Mario can write the report when he has time, that's clearly the lowest priority.
That leaves inviting everyone to the meeting and booking the meeting room as second and third priorities. Susanne says 'But first you need to book a meeting room'. Here 'first' means Mario should book the room before inviting everyone to the meeting. Therefore, reserving the room is second priority and sending the invitation is third.
I hope this helps.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Kirk,
I think you are wrong understand about rbradeley's comment. rbradeley ask: why "visit a customer" as 2nd priority. I think yours answer don't indicator it. Can you explain for me again ?
Hello VuMinhThang,
I can see your point, but I still think it makes sense for the priorities to be done in the order I explained (which is the order Susanne indicates).
In other words, it's possible for 'booking a meeting room' to be third priority, but the second action that Mario needs to perform; this means that 'inviting everyone to the meeting' is secondary priority and the third action. But I think this would be unusual and that we can assume what I explained to rbradeley is true. In the real world, Mario could ask Susanne for clarification if needed.
Hope this helps. If it's still not clear to you, please explain your reasoning in detail so that I can be sure to understand your ideas.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
I understand .
Thank you very much , Kirk !
Yes, I'm willing help them. But I think listening to understand their problems and give them some advices or suggestion is better than helping them directly. If the issue is related to general progress of my team, I will remind or mention my team for better results.