IDIOMS & EXPRESSIONS - LESSON 16

Jason: Stand on street corners in this cold weather? Maybe we should just_______ and close the Westport store. Our other five stores are still doing well. Cindy: Kim, I like your idea. I'm ready to participate_______! Mark: I'm _______ too. Cindy: I'd be happy to _______ and get all of our other employees to join us, starting with Jason. Kim: Yeah, Jason. Where's your _______? Everybody else is going to participate. Mark: Right, Jason. You're going to feel guilty when everybody else is _______ outside while you're inside drinking coffee and relaxing. Jason: Okay, I'll do it. I just can't believe that with our excellent_______, we now have to take such desperate action!

ANSWER KEY p.157

Lesson 12

RUNNING A MEETING

Let's get down to business.

Julia is running a meeting. When Larry and Sally start arguing, Julia has to bring the meeting back under control. Julia: Let's get down to business. We need to cover a lot of ground. Our first agenda item is to figure out how we're going to respond to all the complaints we've been getting about our new website. Larry: Just so we're all on the same page, please give us an overview of the problem. Julia: In a nutshell, our customers are complaining that it's very difficult to place orders through the new website. Sally: I think we jumped the gun by not conducting focus groups with our customers before we launched our new website. Larry: More focus groups? Every time I turn around we're running focus groups! It's gotten out of hand.

Sally: I beg to differ. Focus groups are very important. They help us better understand our customers. Julia: Well, clearly you two don't see eye to eye on this issue.

Larry: Ha! That's putting it lightly! Focus groups are a waste of time and they... Julia: Excuse me, let's not get off track here. Does anybody else want to weigh in on the issue at hand? Carl: If I can put in my two cents, I agree with Sally that focus groups would've been a good idea. Julia: Well, enough about focus groups for now. Let's move on to our next agenda item. planning for our company offsite. Larry: Wait, I'm not finished talking about the website! Julia: We can circle back to that at the end of our meeting if we have time. I want to keep us on schedule since I know many of us have another meeting at 11 o'clock.

IDIOMS & EXPRESSIONS - LESSON 12

(to) get down to business see Lesson 11

(to) cover a lot of ground to discuss many topics; to have a productive discussion EXAMPLE: That was an excellent meeting. We covered a lot of ground. (to be) on the same page see Lesson 5

in a nutshell in summary; in short EXAMPLE: I won't go into the details now. In a nutshell, our sales are down 50 percent versus one year ago.

(to) jump the gun to start doing something too soon or ahead of everybody else EXAMPLE: The company jumped the gun by releasing a new product before the results of the consumer testing were in.

ORIGIN: A runner "jumps the gun" if he or she starts running before the starter's pistol has been fired.

every time I turn around frequently; too often EXAMPLE: Every time I turn around, Lisa is checking her stock portfolio on Yahoo. No wonder she never gets any work done.

(to be or to get) out of hand to be too much; to be out of control

EXAMPLE: Ed has called in sick 10 times this month. The situation is getting

out of hand.

I beg to differ I don't agree (a formal way of telling somebody you don't agree with them)

EXAMPLE: You think Tim has the leadership skills required to run this division? I beg to differ!

(to) see eye to eye to be in agreement; to have the same opinion

EXAMPLE: Our manufacturing and our marketing people fight with each other all the time. They don't see eye to eye on anything.

that's putting it lightly that's definitely true; that's for sure; that's an understatement

EXAMPLE: "You were upset when your husband lost his job?" — "That's putting it lightly!"

(to) get off track to get off the subject; to lose focus; to digress