praise a speaker on the presentation he gave recently in a large company.

clarify why speakers should be able to start and finish their presentations on the time scheduled.

identify all the linguistic problems that disturbed the listeners' comprehension of the speaker's message.

criticize a speaker's poor presentation skills and inability in dealing with the questions posed by the audience.

point out the qualities and drawbacks of a recent business presentation, according to a member of the audience.

wonders whether the presenter would care to hear the writer's own opinion on the talk.

seems to be a very close friend of the speaker, given their frequent meetings in the cafeteria.

would have considered the business talk a relevant one if more employees had been invited to attend it.

believes that his comments on the presentation will not help the speaker improve his performance in public.

deeply regrets the fact that the speaker was incapable of recalling who he was and where they had met before.

enraged at the indifference of all the members of the audience to the jokes.

sympathetic towards the speaker's excessive use of jokes in a serious business.

upset with the laughs constantly coming from all the members of the audience.

annoyed at the fact that the majority of the jokes told were not targeted to the average audience.

depressed because he was the only person in the audience who did not understand the speaker's jokes.

display eagerness.

express sadness.

show sorrow for.

convey deception.

denote sympathy.

"Name's actually Rob, but I'll try not to hold that against you." (lines 6-7).

"...You aware of that?" (line 19).

"Loved the flow chart, even though these are usually yawners." (lines 20-21).

"But that chart and your 'benchmarks table' were the only handouts I really needed." (lines 22-23).

"but empty gestures are kind of a drag." (lines 48-49).

quality of the food served.

flow chart and benchmarks table.

punctuality in ending the presentation.

invitation to e-mail the speaker with questions.

expression used to refer to the takeaway points.

I might have preferred.

I would never prefer.

I'll choose to have.

I could only prefer.

I'd rather opt out of.

"The fact that you spent the first 12 minutes making the rest of us wait for our bosses to show up?"(lines 12-14) – boast.

"You didn't force us to sit through a bunch of stuff we already know." (lines 15-16) – accept.

"Helped me see exactly where I fit in" (line 21) – belong.

"It showed that you were more focused on them than on the rest of us." (lines 31-33)-attracted to.

"And I might be following up with you about it, too."(lines 53-54) – investigating.

"...it..." (line 10) refers to " ...presentation... " (line 8).

"The others..." (line 23) refers to "...handouts..." (line 23).

"...ones..." (line 26) refers to "...alignment(s)..." (line 26).

"...them..." (line 32) refers to "...jokes..." (line 31).

"...it," (line 54) refers to "...presentation..." (line 52).

A cordial tone that informs the speaker that Rob does not mind having his name misspelled.

A friendly, yet ironic tone, to make sure the speaker will not mistake Rob's name again.

A snobbish tone to alert the speaker of his incapacity to interact with employees in a receptive way.

An unexpectedly threatening tone indicating that Rob will eventually get back at the speaker.

An impolite tone to remind the speaker of how rude he usually is at work when he forgets people's names.