VIP Class Notes (Raph)[R][S]

Vocabulary

Current (n): 1- of the present time.
E.g.: I had lots of problems with my former boss, but my current one is great.
E.g.: The word is no longer in current use.

Expense (n): 1- something that makes you spend money:
E.g.: Our biggest expense this year was our summer holiday.
E.g.: We need to cut down on our expenses.

Reimburse (v): 1- to pay back money to someone who has spent it for you or lost it because of you:
E.g.: The airline reimbursed me for the amount they had overcharged me.
E.g.: She was reimbursed by the gas company for the damage to her house.

Fee (n): 1- an amount of money paid for a particular piece of work or for a particular right or service:
E.g.: legal fees / university fees / an entrance/registration fee
E.g.: We couldn’t pay the lawyer’s fee.
E.g.: The entrance fee is six pounds.
E.g.: Someone proposed to increase the membership fee to $500 a year.

Adept (adj): 1- having a natural ability to do something that needs skill:
E.g.: She’s very adept at dealing with the media.
E.g.: Tamsin Palmer gave a technically adept performance on the piano.

Adapt (v): 1- to change your ideas or behavior to make them suitable for a new situation.
E.g.: The good thing about children is that they adapt very easily to new environments.
E.g.: It took me a while to adapt to the new job.

Gauge (v): 1- to calculate an amount, especially by using a measuring device. 2- to make a judgment about something, usually people’s feelings:
E.g.: Use a thermometer to gauge the temperature.
E.g.: I tried to gauge (= guess) the weight of the box.
E.g.: A poll was conducted to gauge consumers’ attitudes.
E.g.: It’s difficult to gauge how they’ll react.

Original

I want to apply for a business trip to Beijing, to have more opportunities to find more potential partners, such as Beijing Bar Association, or any other organization in the legal industry. I have some meeting with our current customers to know what they want to have our assistance in their daily work in legal research and I want to introduce the new about our product. The process is first I should write an email to my line manager. In the email I should write down the reason for the business trip and the meetings I will have and after the approval I can ask our sale admin to help me to book the airplane ticket and the hotel. After my business trip, I also should to filling the Excel reimbursement form. In our company policy, we should write down the every amount of travel fee, such as taxi, the lunch fee, the dinner fee, and the entertainment fee with our potential partners. We should write down how many people in the entertainment event and how much every person.

Edited:

I want to apply for a business trip to Beijing, so I can have more opportunities to find potential partners, such as the Beijing Bar Association, or any other organization in the legal industry. I also plan to have some meetings with our current customers to know how we can assist them in their daily legal research work, and to introduce our new products and other updates.

In order to apply for a business trip, first I should write an email to my line manager, stating the reasons for the trip and the meetings I will have. After the approval, I can ask our sales admin to help me book the airplane tickets and the hotel. After my business trip, I also should fill out an Excel reimbursement form. According to our company’s policy, we should write down all of our travel expenses, such as taxis, lunch and dinner, and entertainment with our potential partners. We should write down how many people were there in the entertainment event and how much we spent per person.

Best To Learn A New Language Before Age Of 10
(Source: www.breakingnewsenglish.com/1805/180504-language-learning.html)

New research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) suggests that if people want to achieve native-like proficiency in a new language, they should start learning that language before the age of ten. The researchers added that children up to the age of 17 or 18 remain adept at learning grammar. There is bad news for those who want to pick up a new language beyond their late teens. The researchers say this is past the “critical period” when language-learning ability starts to decline. Researcher Joshua Hartshorne said: “As far as a child is concerned, it’s quite easy to become bilingual….That’s when you’re best at learning languages. It’s not really something that you can make up later.”

The research was based on an analysis of results from a 10-minute online grammar quiz. Over 670,000 language learners of all ages participated in the test. Researchers measured the grammatical ability of people who started learning a language at different points in their life. Professor Hartshorne focused on grammar rules that were most likely to confuse a non-native speaker as a gauge of that person’s proficiency. MIT researcher Josh Tenenbaum suggested people simply might be too busy to learn a language later in life. He said: “After 17 or 18, you leave home, you work full time, or you become a specialized university student. All of these might impact your learning rate for any language.”

Pronunciation

Influence: /ˈɪn.flu.əns/

Excel: /ɪkˈsel/

Reimbursement: /ˌri·əmˈbɜrs·mənt/

Reimburse: /ˌriː.ɪmˈbɝːs/

Adept: /əˈdept/

Adapt: /əˈdæpt/

Analysis: /əˈnæl.ə.sɪs/

Analyze: /ˈæn.əl.aɪz/

Gauge: /ɡeɪdʒ/