2013年ESL之商务英语 23 Listening to Motivational Speakers

（单词翻译）

Listening to Motivational Speakers

Jamal: I really dread¹ these annual management meetings. We usually have to sit through the most boring motivational speakers giving us pep talks. 

Cindy: I think you’ll be surprised by the person they’ve hired to kick off our meeting. She’s supposed to be a guru on crisis management. 

Jamal: Oh no, not another one. 

Cindy: This one has a lot of real-world experience. She was a fighter pilot who has apparently² survived some very difficult missions. 

Jamal: What does a fighter pilot know about business? I can’t believe our company is shelling out thousands of dollars on speaking fees for someone like her to tell us how to do our jobs better. 

Cindy: I think that the idea is to understand how other organizations and professions handle crises, which may shed some light on how we can do things better. 

Jamal: Well, I don’t have high hopes. 

Cindy: Don’t you think she can teach us anything? 

Jamal: Sure, in fact our speaker has inspired me to try to get on the lecture circuit myself. 

Cindy: What would you speak about? 

Jamal: Avoiding corporate³ waste! 

Script by Dr. Lucy Tse