英文正文

Raymond: What the heck is going on here?Howcould we be so completely in the dark about theserumors until now? J

onathan: There’ve been a lot of stories that factories in Eastern Europe are using second-ratematerials to save costs.

Raymond: We’ve all heard those stories, but how were they linked with us? Can you clarify theissues?

Nina: Some people say that some local middlemen knew all about these things. They didn’treport it because the factories gave them extra money. Our local middleman was one of them.When people learned about the stories, most thought that we must have known about theproblems too.

Raymond: My Lord!! Jonathan, what’s our best course of action here? You’re sure that we’renot using cheap materials anymore, aren’t you?

Jonathan: I’ve been to all of the factories there; no second-rate materials that I could see. Itcould be they’re still secretly working with other factories, though. I’ll do some more checking.

Raymond: Even if we didn’t know, people would still think it’s our fault for not checkingenough. And then we’ll be in big trouble.

Nina: Let me put that another way. If sales get any worse we could go belly up very quickly.What we have to do is quite clear. We need to start some damage control on our publicimage... right away.

句型总结

●　 请求详细说明

1. Can you clarify the issues?

2. Can you tell us more about the situation?

3. Can you give us more detail on what has happened?

4. Could you please explain the present situation?

"clarify"是‘阐明;澄清’;"issue"是‘议题’。这句话的意思是要请他人详细说明事件的来龙去脉。如果口气较严厉的话，则隐含强烈责怪与愤怒的态度。本课中是老板对下属所言，没有在句尾加"please"，但其实加一个‘请’字会比较礼貌些。

●　 征询建议

1. What’s our best course of action (here)?

2. What are our options here?

3. What avenues do we have open here?

4. What courses of action are open to us?

"course"是‘方针;路线’;"action"为‘行动’;"best course of action"就是‘最有利的行动、最佳做事方向’。这句型是问‘该采取什么行动才最有利’。此句型用于揭露问题之后，请大家共同脑力激荡，想出最好的办法。如果要请某人发言，则可在问号之前加上此人的姓名。

●　 结论性的建议

1. What we have to do is quite clear.

2. What we need to do is evident.

3. What we must do is obvious.

4. What we should do is easy to see.

这句话是说‘当务之急已清楚地摆在眼前了’，口气坚定，有强调重要性的意思。这个句子强调所提的建议是唯一可行之道。用"what"引导的名词子句当主词时，后面一定是接单数动词，如此句型的"is"。

●　More 提出建议

与会者提出适切的建议或方案，在会议中是非常重要的部分，毕竟讨论会是为了得到最佳方案而开的。而提出建议时的语气相关于您对建议本身觉得可行程度的高低。以下列出三种提出建议的口气：

强势的口气

The only solution is to...

I see no other alternative but to...

There is no alternative but to...

We must...

平缓的口气

I recommend that we should...

I think we should...

My recommendation is that we should...

I would suggest that we...

We should / we ought to...

If I were you I would...

推荐性的口气

We could always...

It might be a good idea to...

Have you thought of...?

One solution would be to...

What about...?