problem of understnading two sentence in english

Question

hi guys . i have problem to understand the mean of these two sentence which i bold it :

1- Good afternoon everyone. Well, with some of you about to go out on field work it's timely that in this afternoon's session I'll be sharing some ideas about the reasons why groups of whales and dolphins sometimes swim ashore from the sea right onto the beach and, most often, die in what are known as 'mass strandings'.

2- MAN : Now, we just need a contact telephone number for you.

Woman : Sure, I'll just find it. It's double 67549.  

MAN : Great, so we'll be in contact with you as soon as possible...

Answer 1

Hi, Tomy. Let’s see if I can help. Is this for a class?

In the first passage, the last two words you’ve highlighted, “it’s timely,” tie the rest of it together. The phrase means “This is a good time” to do something, in the sense of being on time, not having a good time. In the earlier part of your highlighted section, “field work” means going out to where the things you work on are, outside a laboratory or classroom. Apparently these are marine biologists, who will be going out to where they might find animals stranded on the beach. So, just before they go out into where the animals are is a good time to tell them about mass strandings.

in the dialogue, the woman is like so many of us, who don’t have our own numbers memorized, but have to “find it,” look it up somewhere. I hope she’s not in a job interview!

I also hope this helps you understand the passages better!

Answer 2

The first sentence begins with an introductory phrase to help set the stage for the main idea: "Well, with some of you about to go out on field work..." is the speaker's way of giving context for what comes next (perhaps because the information wasn't expected and might seem strange to the listeners without knowing why it's relevant).

A similar construction is the introductory clause, which has its own subject and verb; in your example he might have said, "Well, because some of you are about to go out on field work...", and the meaning would be the same as the original phrase in your example.

In either case, though, the introductory phrase or clause should have been followed by a comma. When using introductory phrases only those under five words can stand alone with a comma, as you can see in this very sentence ("When using introductory phrases..."). Introductory clauses are dependent clauses, and as such they must always be set apart from the independent clause with a comma.

I hope this helps, and I wish you luck with your exams!