Sandoz国际公司考虑开发中南美洲的奶粉市场。Grace是Sandoz的总经理，主持今日的讨论会议。身为主席的她，目的是要鼓励每位与会者有机会发言，说出自己的想法。会议的目的是集思广益，而不是要尽快得到结论，所以每项方案都应该做多种角度的讨论。

Grace: OK, let's call the meeting to order. You've all looked at the reports given to you a few days ago. I've asked Sam, as marketing director, to lay out the main points of the agenda today. Sam?
好，现在会议正式开始。几天前发下去的通知，大家应该都看过了。我已经请行销主任Sam来详细说明今天议程的重点。Sam？

Sam: Thanks Grace. Well, let me bring your attention to what I see as the main issues. First are the laws in Central and South America. Will they make it hard for us to do business there? Second is how to sell in that market. Should we try to sell by ourselves? Or should we get people there to sell for us? Yes, Grace?
谢谢Grace。我认为主要的问题有：一是中南美洲的法律，是否会成为我们在当地作生意的障碍？二是如何销售的问题，我们是要自己直销呢？还是请当地的厂商代售？Grace？

Grace: As you know, we've asked a legal expert to come today. He isn't here yet, so I think we should get the show started with the second issue, how to sell in that market.
大家知道我们请了一位法律专家出席今天的会议，可是他现在还没到场，所以我想可以从第二个问题开始讨论--如何在当地销售。

Sam: Good idea. Does everyone agree? Good. The main problem in the market is poor health conditions. We all know what happened to Nests when they sold their powdered milk in Africa. And we don't want that to happen to us. To address this issue, I'd like to call upon our medical expert, Dr. Vincent Davis, to take the floor. Vincent?
好主意。大家同意吗？很好。这个市场的主要问题是当地的卫生环境不良。我们都知道雀巢在非洲销售奶粉时所出现的情况，我们不希望重蹈覆辙。谈起这个问题，我要请我们的医药专家Vincent Davis博士发言。Vincent？

Vincent: In Africa, people had very little clean water. So they put dirty water in with the powder. Many people got sick, and Nests got in trouble because of it.
在非洲，当地的住民可获取的净水少得可怜，所以他们用不洁的水冲泡奶粉。当时许多人因此生了病，结果雀巢公司就倒霉了。

Grace: Can we find a way to prevent this? Isn't it also very hard to find clean water in Central and South America?
我们可以找出一个预防的方法吗？毕竟在中南美洲也不太容易找到干净的水，对吧？

Notes：

1. lay (something) out 口头详细说明
lay out从字面上看，是说将某物展开，使之呈现在目；在此比喻"详细说明某事或某计划"。此外， lay something out还有"准备；计划；击昏"等解释。
Let me lay things out for you; our price was higher than our competitor's, so we lost the business.
让我把话跟你说清楚，我们的价钱比竞争者高，所以才失去那笔生意。

2. get the show started 揭开序幕；开始
show可指任何表演或戏院所上演的戏剧及影片等，用于此词组时则指任何活动。此词组以舞台开演来比喻"开始进行某一活动"。get在此处为使役动词，意思是"使"， get something started即有"使……开始"的含意。此外，这词组也等于get the show on the road。
The manager wants to get the show started right now, because he has to leave for the airport in an hour. 经理一小时后要赶到机场，所以他想现在就开始开会。

3. take the floor 上台发言
floor为"地板"。take the floor是指"起立发言"，有"站上讲台 (stand in open floor space)，面对大家"的意思，通常是指在会议中正式的发言。

（改编自《国际商务英语教程》上海理工大学通讯员何旖文供稿 英语点津 Annabel 编辑）