English Pod 21 – The Office ‐ What Do You Do?

Dialogue

A: Oh, look, there’s Caroline and her boyfriend. She’s always going on about him at the office. Oh, great, they saw us. They’re coming this way.

B: Oh, man…

C: Jessica! Arthur! Hi! I’d like you to meet my boyfriend Greg, he’s the V. P. of quality and safety for a top Fortune 500 food company.

A: Nice to meet you. This is my husband, Arthur.

B: Hey, how’s it going?

D: Hello.

A: Caroline talks about you all the time. I guess you must be pretty busy at work.

D: Well, yeah, a V. P. position is not easy, you know! I implement policies and procedures nationwide of various departments, as well as train junior managers in FDA and EPA regulations. I also have to oversee daily operation of quality control for the entire East coast, that alone means I have 1500 employees under me.

B: Wow, yeah… that sounds exciting.

D: And what about you, Arthur? What do you do for a living?

B: Oh, I’m a Top Gun pilot!

Explain

Key Vocabulary


go on about — phrase talk about something a lot
Fortune 500 — phrase top 500 companies, rate d by revenue
implement — /ˈɪmplɪmənt/ principle verb, present progressive begin to do something, put into action
responsible —— Adjective have the duty or job of taking care of something
procedures —— /prəˈsidʒərz/ is a way of doing something, especially the usual or correct way.
nationwide — Adjective in the whole country
look after — principle verb, infinitive take care of
oversee — principle verb, present simple watch and direct to make sure a job is done correctly
quality control — common noun, nonvariable checking goods to make sure that they are good enough to sell
under me — phrase working for me

Example

implement
Voice: Example one.
A: Our company has to implement this sales strategy.

Voice: Example two.
B: Sarah will be responsible for implementing the plan.

Voice: Example three.
C: I implemented several new policies.

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going on about

Voice: Example one.
A: My boss is always going on about how we need to save money; it’s all he talks about.

Voice: Example two.
B: Gary is always going on about his kids; he’s always talking about how smart they are.

Voice: Example three.
C: My mom is always going on about how I should get married

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