| A: | Well, right, let’s 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's come to my attention that our company lacks any sort of bird flu c |
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| B: | Basically, we need to come up with a clear plan; we need to outline specific actions that our company can take to maintain critical business functions in case a pandemic strikes. |
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| A: | So, what I’d like to do is: first appoint someone to look after drafting our plan; Ralph, I’d like you to head up this project. |
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| C: | Sure, no problem. What issues do you want me to consider? |
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| B: | Well, let’s see, there are a few points we need to be thinking about... first, I’ll need you to analyze our numbers and figure out what kind of financial impact an outbreak might have. |
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| A: | You’ll 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. |
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| C: | I guess you’ll need me to forecast employee absences as well, right? And I’ll think about the impact this will have on our clients. Hey, what about vaccines? Should we be thinking about getting vaccines for our employees? |
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| A: | Exactly right. So, I’ll leave this to you, and we’ll review the draft plan in two weeks. Okay, so, anyone want to order some KFC for lunch? |
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| order of business | phrase | an issue that must be discussed |
| bird flu | common noun, non-variable | flu originated from birds that carry virus |
| contingency plan | phrase | a plan that prepares for a situation where things can go wrong |
| critical | Adjective | extremely important |
| pandemic | common noun, singular | a situation where a disease is spread out very quickly, and affects many people in many countries |
| draft | verb | make a first version of something |
| impact | common noun, singular | major influence or effect on something |
| outbreak | common noun, singular | a sudden start of disease affecting many people |
| head up | verb | lead and be responsible for |
| forecast | verb | predict what is going to happen based on available information |
| vaccine | common noun, plural | medical substance that protect people or animal against diseases |