ESL 256: Looking for ideas

Dialogue:
Sam: What’s the matter?
Ling: I’m trying to jot down some ideas for the meeting tomorrow but I’m drawing a blank.
Sam: When I’ve got a block, I usually step away from it for a while and come back to it later. Then I can look at it with a fresh perspective.
Ling: I don’t have time to take a break. I need to come up with something quick or I’ll have to go into that meeting empty-handed. I can’t let Danielle show me up again. At the last meeting, all of the department heads loved her ideas and they’re starting to think she walks on water.
Sam: Well, I don’t think it helps to sit around worrying about it. Nothing will come to you if you work yourself up too much.
Ling: You’re right. I’m too wound up to think straight. It’s like my brain is in a fog.
Sam: Come on. We’ll go take a quick walk. I’m sure that’ll do the trick. If it doesn’t, I’ll help you work on your resume
Ling: Gee, thanks. I’ve known all along that you’re after my job.
Sam: Me? After your job? I wouldn’t touch your job with a 10-foot pole. I couldn’t take the pressure. I prefer being a lowly employee and giving you a hard time everyday.
Ling: Thanks a lot. Between you and Danielle, my days here are numbered.
Sam: Come on. Let’s go before you get even more depressed!

Sentences:

What’s the matter?

I’m trying to jot down some ideas for the meeting tomorrow but I’m drawing a blank.

• to jot down something: means to write something down quickly. usually it’s a note, a small message to yourself or to someone else. Someone may call you or give you their telephone number, you would jot it down, you would write it down quickly as they were telling you.

• to draw a blank : means not to be able to think of a good idea or an answer to something.

When I’ve got a block, I usually step away from it for a while and come back to it later. Then I can look at it with a fresh perspective.

• to have a block: means you are unable to think of something.
• to step away from something: means to stop what you’re doing and to work on something else for a short period of time and then go back again and work on it.
• a fresh perspective: a new or creative way to look at something. you can say fresh vegetables means the vegetables are not old.

I don’t have time to take a break. I need to come up with something quick or I’ll have to go into that meeting empty-handed. I can’t let Danielle show me up again. At the last meeting, all of the department heads loved her ideas and they’re starting to think she walks on water.

• empty-handed: means unprepared, without having anything. You may go to someone’s party and your friend says to you: “Don’t go empty-handed”, meaning you should bring something for other people to eat or drink at the party.

• to show someone up: means to do something better than someone else. It usually means to make the other person look bad by doing something better than them. It’s typically a negative thing to say about a person.

• the department heads: the bosses, the leaders of the department

• to walk on water: means to be perfect, to be very good, to do everything perfectly, to do something that is a miracle (something that is extradinary)

Well, I don’t think it helps to sit around worrying about it. Nothing will come to you if you work yourself up too much.

• Nothing will come to you…: means you won’t think of anything

• to work yourself up: to become very worried or anxious about something, to think about something so much that you become very nervous about it.

You’re right. I’m too wound up to think straight. It’s like my brain is in a fog.

• to be wound up: means to be nervous, to be anxious, to be stressed out, to be very stressed about something.

• to be in a fog: to be confused, to be unclear, you can’t think straight, you can’t see the problem correctly.

Come on, we’ll go take a quick walk. I’m sure that will do the trick. If it doesn’t, I’ll help you to work on your resume.

• to do the trick: to do something that is supposed to do, to work to be successful.

• resume: is a list of your experience that you use for a interview when you need to get a new job.

Gee, thanks. I’ve known all along that you’re after my job.

• has know all along: means she has known for a long time

• after someone’s job: means to want someone else’s job, to try to get another person’s job.

Me? After your job? I wouldn’t touch your job with a 10-foot pole. I couldn’t take the pressure. I prefer being a lowly employee and giving you a hard time everyday.

• I wouldn’t touch ….. with a 10-foot pole.: means I don’t want to be involved at all. I don’t want anything to do that. I don’t want to be close to this thing.

• pressure: means the very stressful feeling of having to do something. you’re anxious or nervous because you have to do all these work.
• to be under pressure.

• lowly: means not very important, not in a high position

• to give someone a hard time: means to make jokes about someone, to make things difficult for someone by making fun of them, by telling jokes about them.

Thanks a lot. Between you and Danielle, my days here are numbered.

• to have one’s days numbered: means you will not be here very long that you’re going to lose your job soon.

Come on. Let’s go before you get even more depressed.

ESL 254: Good Hygiene

Dialogue:

Juanita: Hey, where have you been? I was going to invite you to lunch, but you weren’t at your desk.
Bill: I was at a training.
Juanita: What was it on?
Bill: Office hygiene.
Juanita: Hygiene? You’re kidding. Your office is pretty messy but I wouldn’t say you needed hygiene training.
Bill: Very funny. Each department has to go through it. You’ll have your turn next week. Apparently, the management wants to reduce the spread of illnesses around the office. They say that people are taking too many sick days and it’s bad for productivity.
Juanita: So, we all have to sit through a training. What a pain! It’s not like we don’t know how to wash our hands.
Bill: Yeah, I know. The trainer did a pretty good job, though, explaining how germs spread around the office. It’s easy to infect other people when you have a cold or something else that’s contagious. She said that viruses get around pretty easily. She gave us some pointers on how to prevent it, though.
Juanita: Well, I use antibacterial soap all the time, so I don’t worry about it.
Bill: You know, the trainer said that those soaps may not be that effective. People think they’re sterilizing their hands, but they may be doing more harm than good.
Juanita: Really? I’ve never heard that before.
Bill: Then you’d better go to the training. I guess you need it more than I do.
Juanita: Yeah, very funny.

Sentences:

Hey, where have you been? I was going to invite you to lunch, but you weren’t at your desk.

I was at a training.

• training: is a class what we might also call a “work shop”, to learn sth. Usually is sth. that is sponsored by or presented by your company or some business organization. We talk about training at your job. You go for maybe an hour, sometimes a whole day or longer to learn sth. new about your job.

What was it on?

• means what was the topic of the training. What was the training about?

Office hygiene.

• Hygiene: means being clean to avoid sickness, being clean for health reasons. You want to be clean, and you want the area where you are eating and cooking to be clean. Good hygiene, in general, we first to making sure that you are washing your hands and brushing your teeth, and combing your hair. So good hygiene is related in general to being clean, especially being clean so that you don’t get sick.

Hygiene? You’re kidding. Your office is pretty messy but I wouldn’t say you needed hygiene training.

• You’r kidding. : She doesn’t believe Bill. She thinks he’s joking.

• messy: means dirty or disorganized. sth that is a mass, is not organized, is not clean.

Very funny. Each department has to go through it. You’ll have your turn next week. Apparently, the management wants to reduce the spread of illnesses around the office. They say that people are taking too many sick days and it’s bad for productivity.

• Very funny: when someone tells a joke, but you don’t think it’s funny. It’s a weird expression because you are saying the opposite.
• to go thought the training: means each department has to have the training. turn: means the time when you have to do sth. It could be in a game or some series events. For example, you have to talk to your boss about how you did last year on your job. And everyone in the office has to talk to the boss, so each person will have a turn to talk to him/her. They’ll have a turn; they’ll have an opportunity to go and speak with him/her.
• Apparently: common expression, to mean it appears, it seems, based on what I have seen or heard. This is my impression; this is what I think. But you’re not sure. You don’t have all of the information. So you’re sort of guessing.
• Spread: means sth. that grows or it’s when sth. moves and becomes larger or greater in number.

  -The spread of the Internet around the world has been great in the last five years. (Meaning the number is getting bigger, more and more people are using it.)
  -The spread of illnesses: meaning that illnesses when people are sick can increase and the management wants to reduce the spread. They want fewer people getting sick.

• Sick day: is a day when employee does not go to work because she/he does not feel well, they are sick. But the company still pays them. Most companies give you a certain number of sick days every year. So, for example, if you have 5 sick days each year, that means that you can call and say you’re sick and stay home and still be paid for that day, 5 times. After that, you may not be paid for the days you’re sick.

So, we all have to sit through a training. What a pain! It’s not like we don’t know how to wash our hands.

• What a pain! : How annoying. How frustrating. That’s very inconvenient. That’s sth. that I don’t want to do. We can also use that expression, a pain, in talking about a person. You can say:

  -He’s such a pain!: means he’s such annoying , he’s someone who bothers you.

Yeah, I know. The trainer did a pretty good job, though, explaining how germs spread around the office. It’s easy to infect other people when you have a cold or something else that’s contagious. She said that viruses get around pretty easily. She gave us some pointers on how to prevent it, though.

• germs: are very small things in the air or water that you can’t see but that make people sick. The germs are how the disease, how the illness spreads, how more people get it.

• to infect: means to make someone sick, to give your disease or illness to someone else. There are different ways to infecting people. One way is when people breathe the air or they put their hands that have germs on them in their eye, for example. And that can give you that illness. This is especially true when something like a cold. A cold is kind of illness you have where your nose may hurt and you may have a headache and your throat may hurt too.

• Contagious: Disease that spread that you can get from other people are called contagious diseases. Sth. that is contagious is sth. that can be passed from one person to another.

• pointers: is another way to say “tips” or ”advice” or “suggestions”
  

  -Can you give me some pointers on how to use my new computer?
• to prevent: to stop sth from happening; to stop it before it happened.

Well, I use antibacterial soap all the time, so I don’t worry about it.

• antibacterial soap: is a kind of soap that you use to wash your hands and it supposes to kill the germs or to kill the things that’ll make you sick. There’s been a lots of controversy about antibacterial soap at hospitals in the United State. Some people think that it may help create new types of bacterial that we don’t have drugs to treat or to head to help.

You know, the trainer said that those soaps may not be that effective. People think they’re sterilizing their hands, but they may be doing more harm than good.

• to sterilize: in this case means to kill all the germs on sth, to use some sort of chemical or soap that you can kill the germs. To kill germs, means to get rid of them.

• to do more harm than good: means sth. is more negative than its positive; sth. that has more disadvantages than its advantages. You’re hurting yourself more than you’re helping yourself.

Really? I’ve never heard that before.

Then you’d better go to the training. I guess you need it more than I do.

Yeah, very funny.