Welcome back to English at Work. Anna is acting up as boss because Paul had an accident with a biscuit. But her and Tom are in a panic（惊慌） after finding a note in Paul's diary that said 'Socrates, IPC, final'. Could it mean bad news for tip-top trading? Let's find out. It's very odd（奇数的） and it can't be good.

  But Socrates must mean Mr Socrates. Yes, but IPC? What's that mean? Yeah, final sounds very final. I've got it. IPC, it must be code for imminent（即将来临的） post-closures（关闭）.

  They're going to sack（解雇） us all. Shh, keep your voice down. Don't tell everyone. Let's check things out first. Don't say anything yet, OK? OK, mum's the word.

  Your mum knows? No, no, no. It's our little secret. See you later. Everything OK, Tom? Oh yeah, yeah, everything's cool.

  Actually, Denise, it's not. I think we're all going to be sacked tomorrow by Mr Socrates. What? No. I've got a hairdresser（美发师）'s appointment（任命） on Saturday. How am I going to pay for it now?

  What am I going to do? I know. I'll call Marge. Hey, Brian, Pete, we're all going to be sacked tomorrow. Anna, you've got a problem brewing. What?

  Tom's spreading（ 延伸） rumours（谣言） about job cuts（ 伤口）. Everyone's starting to panic. Oh no, I'd better do something. But what shall I say? Call a meeting quickly. Tell the team there are some rumours going around that are not true.

  Say, I'm trying to establish（建立） the facts and I'll let you know as soon as I have some information.