People do not always get along, so dealing with conflict is part of any job. And as often as not, work disagreements get resolved as much as in informal discussions in the hallway, as they do in the conference room. So, in this two-part series on resolving conflict, we’ll be studying useful language for discussing and resolving disagreements.
人們并不總是相處得很好，所以處理矛盾成為工作的一部分。工作上的意見不同并不總能在走廊進行的私人談話中就能解決，而是在會議室協商解決，所以這個2節課的系列課程中，我們將繼續學習討論意見分歧和化解它的有用語言。

We will be focusing not on major conflicts between companies or inside organizations, but rather on the everyday sort of disagreements that all of us have to deal with to be successful in our work.
我們不會更多關注公司間的沖突或組織內部的沖突，而更關乎日常工作中我們人人都得處理好的意見分歧。

In the listening, Elegant is a company that designs and manufactures bathroom fixtures – sinks, toilets, and so on. Ben has recently joined Elegant as a training specialist. When he started, he was promised that Elegant would hire someone to help him with his work-load, but instead he is still doing almost everything by himself. He was also promised the opportunity to do some course design, but instead his manager, Gerry, insists on closely supervising all of Ben’s work. Ben feels like he is working harder than anyone else in the office: He is always the last one to leave the department in the evening. But he doesn’t feel that his hard work is getting recognized.
對話中， Elegant是一家設計和生產浴室設備的公司，比如：水池，廁所等等，Ben最近剛加入公司他是培訓專家。他剛開始工作時，公司許諾會雇人來幫他處理工作，但是他一直是自己做所有的活。他被許諾有設計課題的機會，但是他的經理Gerry堅持密切監督Ben的一切工作，Ben覺得他比公司的任何人工作都努力：他總是晚上最后一個離開辦公室的。但是他并感到辛勤工作并沒得到認可。

As you listen, pay attention to the language that Gerry and Ben use to deal with this disagreement.
聽對話的時候，注意Gerry和Ben用來處理分歧的語言。

Listening Questions:
1. Gerry says he wants to “sit down informally and thrash things out a little.”
2. What do you think this means? A strain is something that is tiring and, perhaps, irritating.
3. What does Gerry say is “getting to be kind of a strain?” What solution does Gerry propose?