Welcome back to English at Work. It's the big day of the International Plastics Conference（会议） and a good opportunity（机会） for the staff（工作人员） at Tip Top Trading to promote its business. But hold（拿住） on, who's this? It's Mr.Socrates, the big boss（老板） from America. Hey you guys（家伙）, where you been? Ah（啊）, Mr.Socrates, nice to see you again.

  I'd heard you were in town. Hello Mr.Socrates. I've been looking for you everywhere（到处）. I need to catch（捉住） up with you and see how business is going. Oh, very, very well. We're selling imperial（ 帝王的） lemons（柠檬） to France and Anna is developing（发展） plastic vegetables.

  Ah, Anna, my favourite girl. Still doing a good job. I'm doing my best. In fact, she's been doing my job for a few days. Had a bit（一点） of a biscuit（(英)饼干） accident（意外的）. Yeah, well that's not harder for you, Paul.

  Listen, listen. I need to talk to you. Shouldn't the others be doing some networking now? Of course, that's why we're here. Right, Tom, I need you to catch up with some of our existing（存在） customers. Do some schmoozing.

  And Anna, could you talk to some potential（潜在的） new customers? I need to speak to Mr.Socrates. Right, um, networking（网络）. What exactly（确切地） am I supposed（猜想） to do? Networking is about helping your business through connecting（连接） with other people in the industry（工业）. It involves（包含） meeting people and talking to them, sharing information, hopefully helping each other and ultimately（最后） getting new business.

  So I have to talk to strangers（陌生人）? Well, yes. Introduce yourself. Say who you work for. Ask them about their business and what they do. Then explain a bit about what you do and who uses your products.