ESL Podcast 1028 - Describing Order and Sequence

task - job; project; some piece of work that must be completed

One of the assistant's tasks is to keep the copier and fax machine stocked with paper and ink.

to put (something) in order - to move things so that they are logically arranged and organized, making it easy to find specific items later

Please put these bills and account statements in order for our records.

storeroom - warehouse; a large room used primarily for placing objects until they are needed in the future

The storeroom is filled with extra inventory and office supplies.

filing system - a logical, organized way to store pieces of paper or digital files, grouping related items so that they can be found easily later

In this filing system, pink folders are used for human resources, yellow folders are used for sales contracts, and blue folders are used for financial statements.

sequence - order, often with the earliest things first and the latest things last

The police are interviewing witnesses to try to understand the sequence of events before the murder.

labeled - with a tag or sticker that identifies something, providing basic information about it

Each of these folders is labeled with the patient's name, gender, and date of birth.

chronological order - with the earliest things first and the most recent things last; ordered by date

Telling stories is easy if you put the events in chronological order so that listeners can understand what happened first and what happened next.

alphabetical order - arranged like the letters of the alphabet, with items starting with A listed first, and items starting with Z listed last

On the first day of school, the teacher asked the students to sit in alphabetical order by their last names.

digit - one written number, from 0 to 9

Phone numbers have 10 digits, including a three-digit area code.

ascending - listed in order with the smallest values first and the largest values last; listed in order from smallest to largest

When we sort the monthly sales in ascending order, it became clear that our worst performance is always in February.

descending - listed in order with the largest values first and the smallest values last; listed in order from largest to smallest

The tax forms require listing all the employees with their salaries in descending order, so the CEO should be at the top of the list.

numeric - related to numbers, not letters

The participants evaluated the workshop on a numeric scale, where 5 meant "excellent" and 1 meant "very poor."

order - a logical way of sorting items so that they are arranged in a predictable way

The bookkeeper requests that we present the receipts in some sort of order, not just thrown into an envelope for her to sort through.

alphanumeric order - arranged and organized with respect to the letters and numbers contained in something

Wouldn't it be strange if people had alphanumeric codes instead of names?

random - selected based on chance and therefore unpredictable; with an equal probability of all outcomes occurring; not ordered, logical, or predictable

The teacher grouped the students randomly, rather than by age.

to embrace - to welcome something with a lot of enthusiasm or joy

Does everyone in your company embrace new technology?

chaos - disorder; a complete lack of organization and logical order

Justin's office is total chaos. How can he get any work done if he can't find the documents he needs?