Projects in business never go as well as planned. Unexpected problems and issues often happen during the length of a project. So, it's important to know how to describe what you did and what you will do. There are a lot of different phrasal verbs in English which are commonly used to do this.
In this second of two online exercises on phrasal verbs for problems, you will learn phrasal verbs in English which are used when talking about and trying to resolve problems at work and when providing a progress update for a project. Many of these phrasal verbs can be used in other non-business situations as well with the same meaning.
Click here to see the first part of this exercise on phrasal verbs for explaining problems.
Click here to see more online exercises on verbs and phrasal verbs in English.
Read the following project update meeting which is discussing the current situation with a project which is installing a luggage delivery system in an airport for an external client.
From the context, try to guess what the meaning of the words/phrases in bold are. Then do the quiz at the end to check if you are right.
Director of Projects:'How's the installation of the first of the luggage delivery systems going at Skipton Airport? I hope to hear good news. You know that we're still three weeks behind schedule. If we're going to meet the deadline we're going to have to knuckle down, to work harder and longer.'
Project Manager:'Well, we've run into a few problems I'm afraid. As you know we've already installed the first of the conveyor belts to carry the passengers' luggage and there have been some problems.'
Director of Projects:'In what way?'
Project Manager:'In two ways. During the first week of testing, the conveyor belt broke down three times. Each time we had to replace a number of parts in order to make it work again. But we have figured out what was causing the problem. There was a faulty cable and since we replaced it, it hasn't broken down since.'
Director of Projects:'So that's been sorted out and it's working fine now, good. And the second problem?'
Project Manager:'The second problem is with the delivery rate for the luggage delivery system. When we were designing it, we figured on each of the conveyor belts would move 50 bags per minute, but now the client is saying that he wants 100 bags to be moved by it per minute. Although it does seem easy to simply increase the speed of the system, the whole system is only designed to move a maximum of 90 bags per minute.'
Director of Projects:'How did you find out about them now wanting 100 bags per minute? The client agreed in the contract to a maximum of between 70-80 bags per minute.'
Project Manager:'The airport manager told us that they want 100 bags per minute when he came to look at the conveyor belt earlier this week.'
Director of Projects:'Can it be done?'
Project Manager:'Well, we've been looking into it over the last couple of days and we've come up with an idea which should mean that it can move 100 bags a minutes. We haven't tested it yet. Although we can rule out the possibility that this change will be a risk to any of the passengers or operators who use the system - we've installed luggage delivery systems at other places with a similar velocity without any problems, we can't exclude the possibility that if we implement this idea, it won't damage the machinery and cause the system to frequently break down. The machinery wasn't designed for that velocity.'
Director of Projects:'Before you go ahead with doing the testing, I have to speak with the client. So, can you hold off doing anything for the moment. It's best to wait before we do anything. I'm going to tell her what you've told me. I'll try to speak to her this afternoon and let you know what the outcome of it is.'
Below is a definition or description of each of the phrasal verbs in bold from the above text. Now fill in the blanks with one of these phrasal verbs in bold. Only use one phrasal verb once and write it as it is in the text. Click on the "Check Answers" button at the bottom of the quiz to check your answers.
When the answer is correct, two icons will appear next to the question. The first is an Additional Information Icon "". Click on this for extra information on the word/phrase and for a translation. The second is a Pronunciation Icon "". Click on this to listen to the pronunciation of the phrasal verb.
Now that you understand the meaning of the phrasal verbs and when to use them, practise using them by creating your own sentences with them in English. Also click on the "" icon under each correct answer and listen how each is pronounced correctly.
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