…Thank you all for coming today. As you are all aware, we are here to celebrate 35 years of continuous service by our friend and colleague James Dawson. He started as an administration officer in 1972 in our accounts department. and worked his way up the career ladder over the years, finally becoming vice-president in 1989 of the company, and managing over three hundred employees. As most of you who have been working here long enough will know, it has been a long struggle to become one of the European market leaders in our field, and you may remember in 1982 when we had a huge setback, with the plans for a merger with our top rival company falling through. Because of that, we had to make some workers redundant. However, James was lucky enough to keep his job. Yes, those really were the worst few years. However, we managed to get through these difficult times by working hard and James was a key player in the struggle to get us back on the path to becoming one of the largest computer manufacturing companies in Europe. One of James’s biggest strengths has been his immaculate timekeeping and organisational skills – in fact I have never known him to be without his diary! His negotiation skills and determination led to a tactful action plan to become one of the leading companies in Europe. I will never forget that day in 1987 when we had the final negotiations for the takeover of our rival company. James and his superb presenting and negotiating skills was one of the key factors to our success. The turning point in our company came with the successful takeover and, despite all the obstacles we have faced, the hard work and dedication of all our workers has made our company the success it is today. And I have to say that James, as one of our managers, has always acknowledged the work and contribution made by others. James, you rewarded your best employees with some of the best perks any company has given! Today we want to acknowledge the hard work and significant contributions which you have made. So thank you, James, for your loyalty to the company and your hard work.
Comments
Hi Jack. I don't think it's right to say that "through" is always a preposition. In many cases when it's used in phrasal verbs it's an adverb as you can see in many dictionaries. Thanks anyway for the useful podcasts.
team
Hi Rdogliani
Thanks for your comment. I'm not a linguist and so I'm quite happy to be contradicted. What I wrote was what I would tell my students - in other words, what I think would best help them use the word. I have just checked a few online dictionaries and they all list 'through' as a preposition first, an adverb second and an adjective third so you and Gmappa are quite right in what you say.
Thanks again
Jack Radford
The LearnEnglish Team
I knew this websites via iTunes Podcasts, and i find the professional podcasts reall helpful in both listening and speaking topic developing.
The question i have is where the previous professional podcasts is. Here i can only find the podcasts in 2010, but in iTunes, i also downloaded the podcasts in 2008 and 2009 in which the topic such as "teamworking","Diversity at work" but i cant find them on their orignal palce: here! i really want their audioscripts.
Could anybody tell me where i can find them? Thanks a lot!
team
Hello Louis
All of the materials from the old site are still online and we are moving them across. We are quite a small team and so it is taking some time but they will get here eventually. In the short term, you can still find the "team working" professional podcast here: http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-podcast-professionals-teamwork.htm
If you want to find any of the other older podcasts, you can always find them by searching google for learnenglish podcast and the topic you remember.
I hope this helps.
Jack Radford
The LearnEnglish Team
The third exercise is a little difficult for me. Still, it's funny.
I didn't find the third exercise very meaningful. Besides there is a mistake in it. In the expression "to fall through", "through" is an adverb not a preposition. One does not expect to find mistakes like this in material produced by the British Council.
"through" is a preposition as well as an adverb, isn't it?
ı think it is more like a preposition rather than its being an adverb
In reply to Adnandas and Shinaa: "through" can be a preposition or an adverb. In the sentence: "Our plans fell through" it's an adverb. In a sentence like: "He fell through a hole in the roof" it's a preposition. If you want to know whether a word is an adverb or a preposition, try placing a noun after it. (A preposition always governs a noun.) For example, in the text of the podcast, the plans didn't fall through something (like a hole or a gap) they just fell through, i.e. they failed. Therefore in this sentence through is an adverb. Anyway, let's ask the British Council to settle this for us. After all, they wrote the exercise.
Best wishes
team
Hi guys
I'm afraid I can't represent the combined knowledge of the British Council but I'll happily tell you what I think. I would always call through a preposition. I think that the most important thing to remember here is the phrasal verb 'to fall through'.
I appreciate that through is sometimes used as an adverb - but I think it is still a preposition. When it is being used as a preposition, it is still part of an adverbial phrase so I don't think it's helpful to discriminate.
We are thinking of employing a full time grammarian to answer questions on the site and if we do, I'll ask him or her to comment.
Thanks
Jack Radford
The LearnEnglish Team