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.
人们并不总是相处得很好，所以处理矛盾成为工作的一部分。工作上的意见不同并不总能在走廊进行的私人谈话中就能解决，而是在会议室协商解决，所以这个2节课的系列课程中，我们将继续学习讨论意见分歧和化解它的有用语言。

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.
我们不会更多关注公司间的冲突或组织内部的冲突，而更关乎日常工作中我们人人都得处理好的意见分歧。

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.
对话中， Elegant是一家设计和生产浴室设备的公司，比如：水池，厕所等等，Ben最近刚加入公司他是培训专家。他刚开始工作时，公司许诺会雇人来帮他处理工作，但是他一直是自己做所有的活。他被许诺有设计课题的机会，但是他的经理Gerry坚持密切监督Ben的一切工作，Ben觉得他比公司的任何人工作都努力：他总是晚上最后一个离开办公室的。但是他并感到辛勤工作并没得到认可。

As you listen, pay attention to the language that Gerry and Ben use to deal with this disagreement.
听对话的时候，注意Gerry和Ben用来处理分歧的语言。

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?