English for system administrators

Sergei – service team manager

Sergei: Good morning, _______? (apology)

Alex: Hello, yes.

Sergei: I _____ (ask for help) invite you to an unplanned meeting in 10 minutes time, because you will be engaged in one more project.

Alex: ______ (apology). I don’t have any time for it today.

Sergei: Why? We’re going to discuss an important issue about working at the weekend.

Alex: But today is Monday. You can reschedule the meeting for Thursday or Friday, for instance.

Sergei: ______ (clarification)

Alex: _____ (apology) I need to finish the configuration of 10 servers in few hours time. So I can’t participate in a meeting.

Sergei: _____ (misunderstanding). You can do it right after our call.

Alex: No, it’s my high priority task for now. If I do something wrong, that can lead to crash, or don’t meet a deadline, there will be problems with the client. Are you ready to take these risks?

Sergei: No, I suppose. _____ (appreciation for explanations), so take your time. Maybe I’ll transfer our meeting for tomorrow because this new project is connected with our new customer and we need to start it as soon as possible.

Alex: Ok, _____ (understanding).

Sergei: In this case I’m looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.

Alex: Deal with it.

9. Read the sentences and choose the functions of grammar tenses in them:

10. Study the rules:

Future Simple and be going to

We use Future Simple:

– to talk about predictions based on our opinion (I think it will be better to upgrade it as soon as possible.);

– to make spontaneous decisions (Ok, we will try to call them.);

– to make promises (I will do everything to prevent a server crash.).

We use be going to:

– to talk about our plans (I am going to do 3 tasks today);

– to talk about predictions based on facts (We noticed some problems with VM’s resources, so we are going to optimize it.).

11. Put the verbs into the correct future grammar forms:

1. (our company optimise) the website as we planned?

2. The overall operation of services reduces the Internet speed, so we _ (expand) the Internet channels.

3. I think we _ (monitor) the progress of the project closely.

4. Tomorrow, I _ (have a meeting) with my boss to discuss my KPI.

5. The CEO _ (not allocate) additional money for IT department.

6. Ok, so I _ (analyse) the data and present my findings at the meeting.

7. What _ (you do) if the server crashes?

8. I (not have) any days-off, because I need to finish my project.

12. Complete the sentences with Future Simple and be going to:

a. Maybe I _____ (do) this task tomorrow.

b. _____ (you conduct) regular checks this week?

c. I think that she _____ (not help) you with it.

d. I _____ (collaborate) with the support team on Friday.

e. Ok, I _____ (try) to fix this issue.

f. They _____ (implement) security measures, but I’m not sure.

j. _____ (Mike set up) firewall tomorrow morning?

13. Look at the diary and complete the text about Chang:

07/07/2023

08:00 – wake up (maybe)

08:50 – check emails

09:30 – upgrade servers

12:45 – be praised by the team lead (I think)

13:00 – have lunch in an office or in a cafe?

14:00 – work with the development team