Introducing a New Product

Augie: Today’s the day. I’m giving you the heads up¹. Our company is rolling out² its new line of cell phones.

Lillian: I can see you’re excited about it. What’s so special about the new products?

Augie: This line of phones has state-of- the-art³ technology and never- before-seen features. It’s been in development⁴ for over a year and it’s been really hard keeping it under wraps⁵.

Lillian: I thought information was leaked⁶ weeks ago.

Augie: Those were just rumors, and the company put a clamp⁷ on those pretty quickly.

Lillian: Wasn’t the new line supposed to come out⁸ next month?

Augie: That was the original plan, but since McQ Corp. is coming out with its own line of phones soon, we wanted to get a jump on them⁹.

Lillian: And steal their thunder¹⁰.

Augie: Yes, and steal their thunder. We had to scramble¹¹ to get the phones ready ahead of schedule¹², but I think it was worth it. They’re really going to make a splash¹³.

Lillian: I hope so. I hope all of this hype¹⁴ has been justified¹⁵.

Augie: Oh, it will be. I’ll know soon enough.

Lillian: How?

Augie: You’ll be begging¹⁶ me to get you one.

(From ESL Podcast 628.)

Synonyms:

a. before the original plan;

b. positive things that are said about the product and make people interested;

c. supported with evidence, not exaggerated;

d. to be released, to be made available to the public;

e. to do smth that attracts a lot of attention;

f. to do smth very quickly;

g. to do something faster or sooner than another person often in competition;

h. to keep smth secret;

i. to launch, to begin a new product, start selling smth different;

j. to let someone know that smth is going to happen in the future;

k. to plead, to ask to do in a very urgent way;

l. to share secret information with the general public or newspapers;

m. to stop smth from happening usually with strength and power;

n. to take attention or praise away from someone else;

o. very modern, advanced, the newest and the best;

p. what is being worked on and is not finished yet.

Unit 15. The business media Key Concepts

information	knowledge obtained from investigation, study, or instruction
data	facts and figures that you can analyze
print media	newspapers, books and magazines, supplying news, info and data in written form
press	journalists and reporters
to publish	make information or opinion known to the public by having it printed in a newspaper, magazine, or official document.
channel	a radio/TV station that produces and distributes audio and audio-visual programs
broadcast	a program, performance, or speech on the radio or on television
multimedia	a technique of combining sound, video and text for expressing ideas
audience	listeners or viewers of a program taken as a group
network	a system of computers which are connected and operate together