在本商務英語Pod課程中, 我們繼續研究詞彙和搭配 discussing a budget.

A budget is a plan for spending money. And you’ll often hear the word “budget” used as a noun. But “budget” is also a verb. We can budget carefully or poorly. We can budget not only money but also time. And how we budget can help or harm our business. If we spend too much money, we may decrease profits. But if we don’t spend enough money, the business may not grow or thrive. It’s all about balance.

A typical budget includes a long list of items that we need to spend money on. And in a budget meeting, you’ll hear people talk, or argue, about where to spend more and where to spend less. 所以, how do we do this? 出色地, in today’s dialog, we’ll learn some of the common expressions we use when we discuss budgets.

在我們聽之前, 讓我們談談 英語搭配. 搭配是母語人士經常一起使用的一組詞. 正確的搭配聽起來很自然, 雖然不正確的搭配聽起來不自然. 例如, in English we say “budget cuts” to talk about lower spending. But we can’t say “budget slices” or “budget chops,” even though “slice” and “chop” mean “cut.” Those simply aren’t natural expressions.

你會在今天的對話中聽到很多有用的搭配. 當你聽, 試著挑出這些自然的單詞組合. 然後我們將解釋它們的含義以及如何在匯報中使用它們.

Today we’ll rejoin Kate, 哈利, and Linda as they discuss the budget for their IT department. Kate and Harry are managers, and Linda is their supervisor. 上次, they talked about the past year’s budget. 今天, you’ll hear them making a plan for the upcoming year.

聽力問題

1. What does Kate say the finance department wants to focus on?
2. What is Harry’s concern about replacing the workstations?
3. What does Kate think can be changed to save money?

Download: Podcast MP3