Listening Content

[2:33] Techniques for Expressing Meeting Documents and Background Information in English Listening

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This article explains how to clearly express document content and background information in English listening during meetings, including methods for distributing documents, explaining purposes, and using relevant expression techniques.

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Okay, so to begin, sometimes you need to remind people or explain what a document is by giving some background information. Here are some examples of ways to do that. At our last meeting, Karen asked us to get more information about potential shoppers. We formed a committee to find out more information about the population. Our team was asked to do a market analysis. We started this because we want to expand. You may also need to remind people or explain what the purpose is. This will help us decide which location is better. We need this information to help us make a decision about location. We got more information so that we can make a more informed decision.

When you hand out the document, as you speak, you can say, here's our report. Or this is the report on the two sites. When you give something directly to someone, you can say, here you are, or here you go. Tina, do you have another copy of the report? Sure, here you are. I need one too. Oh, okay, here you go. Of course, a report is not the only thing that you would pass out at a meeting. You might have a report on consumer spending and analysis of the market, the results of our survey, or a plan for development.

Pay attention to the prepositions here, who we never said English was easy, right? We can replace the prepositions for and of by using the nouns as adjectives. An analysis of the market becomes a market analysis. The results of our survey can be our survey results. And the plan for development becomes the development plan. Nowadays, we often don't print things out for meetings. There are some expressions you might need for these situations. I sent you our report yesterday. Did everyone receive the file with our survey results?

Okay, so now it's time to go back to Renere chocolates, where the team is still talking about where to locate a new store. As you watch the video, pay attention to the expressions they use to hand out or refer to documents. Answer these questions as you watch.

Listening Comprehension

analysis
noun
1. an investigation of the component parts of a whole and their relations in making up the whole
2. a set of techniques for exploring underlying motives and a method of treating various mental disorders
based on the theories of Sigmund Freud
e.g. his physician recommended psychoanalysis
Synonym: psychoanalysisdepth psychology
3. the abstract separation of a whole into its constituent parts in order to study the parts and their relations
Synonym: analytic thinking
4. a branch of mathematics involving calculus and the theory of limits
sequences and series and integration and differentiation
5. a form of literary criticism in which the structure of a piece of writing is analyzed
6. the use of closed-class words instead of inflections: e.g., `the father of the bride' instead of `the bride's father'
background
noun
1. scenery hung at back of stage
Synonym: backdropbackcloth
2. (computer science) the area of the screen in graphical user interfaces against which icons and windows appear
Synonym: desktopscreen background
3. a person's social heritage: previous experience or training
e.g. he is a lawyer with a sports background
4. information that is essential to understanding a situation or problem
e.g. the embassy filled him in on the background of the incident
Synonym: background knowledge
5. the part of a scene (or picture) that lies behind objects in the foreground
e.g. he posed her against a background of rolling hills
Synonym: ground
6. relatively unimportant or inconspicuous accompanying situation
e.g. when the rain came he could hear the sound of thunder in the background
7. extraneous signals that can be confused with the phenomenon to be observed or measured
e.g. they got a bad connection and could hardly hear one another over the background signals
Synonym: background signal
8. the state of the environment in which a situation exists
e.g. you can't do that in a university setting
Synonym: settingscope
committee
hand
location
noun
1. a point or extent in space
2. a determination of the place where something is
e.g. he got a good fix on the target
Synonym: localizationlocalisationlocatingfix
3. the act of putting something in a certain place
Synonym: placementlocatingpositionpositioningemplacement
4. a workplace away from a studio at which some or all of a movie may be made
e.g. they shot the film on location in Nevada
out
noun
1. (baseball) a failure by a batter or runner to reach a base safely in baseball
e.g. you only get 3 outs per inning
expressions