Video #1:
Welcome to EF PodEnglish, brought to you by EF Education First and English Town, learn anytime, anywhere.PodEnglish, Upper Intermediate 76: OFFICE TOUR
"Hello, are you Erik? Hi, my name is John. I'm from IT department. I came to set up your computer and after you go on the office tour. So...yeah...it's quite complicated."
In today's lesson, we'll look at difference between the words "Quite" and "Rather". You'll also learn to answer the question, it starts with "Do you mind if...?"
John: "It's...it's one..."
Well, are you ready to watch the movie.
Caroline is a receptionist, she shows Kate around her office.
Kate: "Sorry, I'm a bit late. Traffic was atrocious."
Caroline: "No problem. Well, I'll be showing you around today. Shall we get started?"
Kate: "Let's do it"
Caroline: "As you can see it's open plan office"
Kate: "Yes, it's rather large. How many people work here?"
Caroline: "We employ approximately 100 in this office alone. We also got two plans in the city with another 250 staff".
Kate: "So, it's quite a large company then!"
Caroline: "Very small company considered we are public limited company. I guess we are medium-sized"
Kate: "So, what do they do down here?"
Caroline: "They are sales department. They are marketing department."
Kate: "This is reception, right?"
Caroline: "Yes, this is main reception area. Oh, the phone's ringing. Might I answer it?"
John: "It's quite opposite..."
The usual way to answer question that starts with "Do you mind if I...?":
"No, go ahead". That means "No, I don't mind". There are other common phrases we use:
"No, not at all""No, go ahead" and"No, of course not"
John: "They're very dangerous..."
Let's look at some examples:
"Do you mind if I sit down?"
"No, not at all!"
Do you catch what Kate was sorry for?
Kate: "Sorry, I'm late! Traffic was atrocious".
She said, "Sorry, I'm late! Traffic was atrocious". Atrocious is another word for terrible.
Now, let's look at closely the language Kate used to describe the office and the company. Kate said "the office is rather large". Then she said, "It's quite a large company!".
Note that "quite" is followed by "a" or "an": "It's quite a large company!". In these two sentences, "rather" and "quite" mean the same thing. We can use either of them to describe somehting that is "between a little and very". But there are a few small differences. Let's look at "rather" first, you can use "rather" to express someting unexpected or unusual. For example:
"Your business plan is rather good. It's better than I'd hoped for."
We also use "rather" when we want to express negative feelings. For example, "The network is rather slow today".
In contrast, we often use "quite" when we're feeling happy about something. For example, "I was able to download the file quite quickly".
One thing to be careful about, however, is that "quite" can sometimes mean "absolutely". For example, "Are you sure?", "Yes, I'm quite sure". This means "I'm completely sure".
There are some sentences besides you should use "quite" or "rather" in each gap. Can you do this one? we use "rather", "It's rather hot today for winter time, isn't it?". We use "rather" because it's unusual or unexpected to be hot in winter. Can you do this one? "It's quite a large company". "That's quite an impolite question!" or "That's rather an impolite question!"."That's quite an achievement!"
In this lesson, we learn correct answers for "Do you mind if...?". We learn the work "Atrocious" and you now know the differnces between "quite" and "rather".
Erik: "Hello!..."John: ".....I changed it ...It's not working very well...It's faster! We already check..."Erik: "I don't care....can you really do this?"John: "...safety is really important..."Erik: "...."John: "I know....
Video #2:
Welcome to EF PodEnglish, brought to you by EF Education First and English Town, learn anytime, anywhere.
PodEnglish, Elementary 28: OFFICE PHONE
Secretary: "Good morning,....Corporation. How may I direct your call?. Oh, isn't it English lesson? is that time already? My mind, sure it is. I'm going to hand it to your teacher for your English lesson. Enjoy your class!"
In this lesson, we're going to learn some useful phrases to say on the telephone, like we answer the phone: "Good morning! Can I help you?", "Hello, Could I speak to John Baker, please?". We also learn this very useful thing to say "Can I take a message?". We'll lear all these things and will have a quiz at the end.
But now it's time to watch the movie, Carl is trying to call Marty.
Secretary: Good Morning, Bold Tomatoes. How can I help you?
Carl: Hi, can I speak to Marty Bickman, please?
Secretary: Sure, one moment, please!
...
Secretary: Oh, I'm sorry, but Mr. Bickman isn't here in office at the moment. Can I take your message?
Carl: Ah...well, I really need to speak with him. Do you know when he'll be back?
Secretary: He should be back in about two hours or so. Would you like his mobile number?
Carl: I think I have it. It's 555679055, right?
Secretary: Yes, that's right!
Carl: Thank you very much!
Secretary: My pleasure! Thank you for calling. Good bye!
Carl: Bye!
....
Marty: Hello! This is Marty.
Carl: Hi Marty, it's Carl.
Marty: Hey Carl, how are you?
Carl: Fine. Listen, I've just tried to call you in office but you weren't there. I'm afraid I cannot make to lunch today.
Marty: Really? What's the problem?
Carl: Well, my client has an emergency. I have to go and check it out.
Marty: Ok...well, how about late today then?...say five o'clock?
Carl: I really don't think I'll make it today.
Marty: No problem, I understand. I'll see you next week.
Carl: Thanks, bye.
Carl wants to speak to Marty. What did he say? "Hi, could I speak to Marty Bickman, please?". Carl said, "Hi, could I speak to Marty Bickman, please?". It's also correct to say "Can I speak with Marty Bickman, please?". But "Could" is more formal than "Can". It's better to say "Could" if you don't know the other person on the telephone. "Marty isn't in the office". Let's see what his secretary said. "Oh, I'm sorry, but Mr. Bickman isn't here in office at the moment. Can I take your message?". Marty is not there. So his secretary said, "Can I take a message?". You can also say, "I'm sorry, Marty isn't here. Can I help you?", "Can I take a message?".
In the end, Carl ring Marty on his cell phone. Why is Carl ringing Marty? Can you remember?
"I'm afraid I cannot make the lunch today.". "I'm afraid I can't make it". Say this when we can't go to anappointment. "I'm afraid" means the same as "I'm sorry". Let's do a few more examples:
"I'm very busy today"
"I'm afraid I can't make it for lunch"
"I'm sorry I can't make it to the meeting"
We're now going to have a quiz. Can you remember all those useful things we learnt to say on the telephone.
Secretary: I'm sorry. Mr. Johnson is not here right now. Can I take a message?...oh, can I let you hold, do you mind? Thank you.
Secretary:....Corporation.
Marty is not in his office. What does Marty's secreatery say to Carl? "Marty is not here. Can I take a message?". She could also say, "Can I help you?"
Carl is ringing Marty to tell him he can't meet him. What does he say? "I'm afraid I can't make it" or "I'm sorry I can't make it"
You are on the telephone,you want to talk to Jack Smith. Someone else answers the telephone. What would you say? "Hello, could I speak to Jack Smith, please?"
Secretary: No problem. Why don't I just take your number down right now and I'll give you a call back?
Well done! I hope you feel more confident on the telephone now. We talked about useful phrases such as:
"Could I speak with Marty Bickman, please?"
"Marty is not here, but can I take a message?"
Well, that's all we got time for today. I hope you enjoy today's lesson. Join us again soon, bye.
Secretary: Voice message...voice message...
Video # 3:
CANNES FILM FESTIVAL
Welcome to the opening day of 62nd Cannes Film Festival, normally the day French town of Cannes prepared for 2 weeks of clips and glamour, for more than 60 years now, famous stars and great new movies have been coming to the French...Era.
Well, the Festival's taking shape, the crowd is looking forward to the biggest film festival of the year. It's only morning, there is anticipation in the air of the fan wait.
We saw, of course, all the places where the people is going to watch films. They're getting ready for the grand opening up here. It's still probably just started a little bit earlier everything to get going.
I've been sitting here for one hour approximately. Because I know we never do (it) again, it's now or never. I hope to see Brat Pit, maybe also Lopez's coming, I hope. It could be very great and many others. Especially, I know that Sanchez's coming tonight, so I reckon (to) see them if it's not so crowded.
This year, 20 films during the competition to win the prestigious palm door with a total of 46 films from 32 countries premiering during the festival.
The ambient task of judging these movies rests on the shoulders of the Cannes Film Festival's Jury. And international group of directors, screen rotors and actors. This year's President is a beautiful French actress Isabelle Huppert. It's very difficult in general to explain and to express exactly why you love something. I think it's very old debate
since humanity exists. Why are you touched by the work of art? not only the films, why are you touched by a piece of music? Why are you touched by paintings? and it's a deep issue, you know. So I think it's away beyond judgements.
Last time, I think I saw 20 movies in 10 days or whatever it is, I was probably 19 years-old. And I have 15,000 kids now, so it's great excuse for people to watch these films. So I'm very personal reason,yes, because I love seeing beautiful points of view from all over the world. To me, judging part of it, it's kind comes second, I'm sorry to say.
The word "Judge" to me is so negative. Because I believe why we all are listeners the way we are, the expression we have poles. And the way films...and the lieraken side of the film touching that pole will be different to all of us. And therefore, I feel like we're going to share what those mean to us. And we will maybe disagree certain tones...but the beauty of it is to share with our hearts that feel.
All eyes turn to first Cannes events and the opening gala for this year's Festival. The stages are set to famous stares and the festival begins to come alive with glamorous actresses and super models including Academy award winning actress Christ Winston and Haynes Dress; with Winston wearing vintage and Asian agentle Amandy, with high fashion affair too.
From the first row, we can see everthing so was very worth waiting for a few couples of Paris. Yeah, I was....I was expecting much more famous actresses from U.S and...maybe the U.K and so on. I'm expecting to see more in a couple of days, that will follow actually.
The opening film for the first time is three animation films from the studio Pixar, up features in the French version of the voice of legendary French Chauteur...Avoir. It's been a glamourous star to this year's festival.
2. Test Walk-Through: What Can We Learn?
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