A budget is a plan for spending money. And you’ll often hear the word “budget” used as a noun. But “budget” is also a verb. We can budget carefully or poorly. We can budget not only money but also time. And how we budget can help or harm our business. If we spend too much money, we may decrease profits. But if we don’t spend enough money, the business may not grow or thrive. It’s all about balance.
A typical budget includes a long list of items that we need to spend money on. And in a budget meeting, you’ll hear people talk, or argue, about where to spend more and where to spend less. 所以, how do we do this? 出色地, in today’s dialog, we’ll learn some of the common expressions we use when we discuss budgets.
Today we’ll rejoin Kate, 哈利, and Linda as they discuss the budget for their IT department. Kate and Harry are managers, and Linda is their supervisor. 上次, they talked about the past year’s budget. 今天, you’ll hear them making a plan for the upcoming year.
听力问题
1. What does Kate say the finance department wants to focus on? 2. What is Harry’s concern about replacing the workstations? 3. What does Kate think can be changed to save money?
