Lesson 4 – Giving a Presentation: Part  [bad word] to [bad word] s "Business Meetings" course: lesson four. I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.

In the third lesson of "Business Meetings," we learned business vocabulary for beginning a presentation and letting people know what will be discussed in formal and informal business meetings. In this fourth lesson, we're going to learn vocabulary for actually giving a presentation.

Let's start by listening to Shawn's presentation at the formal meeting.

Shawn: As I mentioned, our market share has been sliding for the past year. Naturally, Vision Corporation is alarmed by these changes and wants to understand the underlying reasons. The [bad word] is, we're not entirely sure why we're losing market share, but we have identified three factors that may contribute to the cause: a growing number [bad word]  our product's features, and poor advertising.

First, the number [bad word] in our industry has doubled in the past year. To counter this, we must learn to differentiate Vision Corporation from the [bad word]  Second, our product lacks some of the features that customers are looking for. We need to improve our product and make it the best market offering. Third, our advertising has been ineffective in reaching our potential customers. We need to rethink our marketing campaigns and make sure that we're targeting the right market.

Now I'm going to turn things over to Ms. Graff, who will discuss the findings of her focus groups.

Shawn begins by saying, "As I mentioned, our market share has been sliding." The phrase "as I mentioned" is used to refer back to something that was said earlier. In this case, Shawn has already said that market share was sliding, or falling, when he began the presentation. He says "as I mentioned" to remind people of this. I could say, "As I mentioned, this lesson is about making a presentation" – I already told you that; I'm reminding you that I told you that already – "as I mentioned."

Shawn says that Vision Corporation is alarmed by these changes in the market share. To be "alarmed" (alarmed) means to be shocked, disturbed, or surprised in a negative way. You might be alarmed to learn that your friend's car was stolen, for example – you are shocked; you are surprised; it's a bad thing. Shawn says that [bad word] wants to understand the underlying reasons for the changes in market share. An "underlying (underlying) reason" is an explanation that cannot be seen easily – that you can't figure out right away – but it's an explanation that tells you why something is happening. An underlying reason for the increase in global temperatures – in global warming – might be the use of oil (petroleum). That's an example of an "underlying reason."

Shawn doesn't know exactly what the underlying reason is for [bad word] losing market share, but he talks about three things that may "contribute to the cause". "To contribute" (contribute) means to add to something or to make something stronger or better. If you give money to an organization, you are contributing to the organization. "cause" (cause) is something that creates a change or results in something else happening. Bad weather might be the cause of an accident; it's the reason why the accident happened.

When Shawn talks about three things that "contribute to the cause," he means that he has identified three things that are part of the situation that is making [bad word] lose its market share. Shawn says that the first thing is "a growing number [bad word] " When we say a number is "growing," we mean it is increasing, so there is an increasing number [bad word]  [bad word]  [bad word]  is a person or a business