Using English at Work：17 Attending the Morning Meeting(3)

My manager is going over some bullet¹ points.

"Bullet points" are lines of text in a document where each line begins with a small circle; sometimes it's a diamond or an arrow. We call those "bullets²."

The text usually isn't a complete sentence, but just a short phrase.

Bullet points are often easier and faster to read than long sentences because each idea is on a separate line.

They're essentially³ a list of something.

My manager's bullet points are about old and new business.

Everything you talk about at a meeting is either old business or new business.

"Old business" is everything that you talk about that was already discussed at a previous meeting - makes sense!

"New business" is everything that you are going to talk about that has not yet been discussed before.

Most business meetings begin with old business and end with new business.

Then, of course, the new business becomes the old business for the next meeting, if you still need to talk about it more.

My manager then asks each person to give a status report on his or her projects.

A "status report" is a short explanation about what someone has done on a project.

In this case, the manager is asking us to tell everyone else what we have done on our projects since the last time that we spoke⁴.

Some departments have weekly meetings where everyone is supposed to give a status report.

At this meeting, each person takes turns giving a quick rundown while everyone else listens.

"To take turns" (always plural⁵ when used as a phrasal verb, as it is in this case) means to do something one person at a time, so that first one person does something, then another, and then another until everyone in the group has finished.

In a large meeting, you have to take turns talking; you can't all talk at the same time.

Sometimes husbands and wives take turns washing the dishes, meaning that one night he does it, and the next night she does it.

That's not true in my house; I do the dishes every night.

1 bullet   

n.枪弹，子弹

参考例句：

• The bullet wound in his shoulder was opened up for treatment.切开他肩上的枪伤进行治疗。
• The bullet missed me by a hair's s breadth.那颗子弹差一点就打中了我。

2 bullets   

n.弹药；军火

参考例句：

• The bodies of the hostages were found riddled with bullets. 在人质的尸体上发现了很多弹孔。
• The bullets and cannon-balls were flying in all directions. 子弹和炮弹到处乱飞。

3 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

4 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

5 plural   

n.复数；复数形式；adj.复数的

参考例句：

• Most plural nouns in English end in's '.英语的复数名词多以s结尾。
• Here you should use plural pronoun.这里你应该用复数代词。