Appearances and shared understandings
Read for meaning first. Select a highlighted word if you want a closer look.
By the second meeting, the team had developed a tacit understanding that whoever brought the floor plan would lead the first discussion. Nobody restated the arrangement, but Omar and the designers followed their established practice. Their enthusiasm was manifest in the samples they brought and the questions they prepared. Yet the tidy agenda offered only a semblance of complete agreement: several important decisions about the display still required explicit discussion before the team could approve a final plan.
Omar did not treat every silence as a tacit promise. He relied on the team's familiar practice for opening the meeting, then asked for a direct answer when a decision required clear agreement. The need for another revision became manifest when two drawings assigned the same corner to different displays. Keeping those conflicts off the agenda might preserve a semblance of harmony, but it would leave the team without a layout they had actually reviewed together.
Before you move on
Look away from the passage. Can you explain each focus word in your own words?
Original fictional passages for vocabulary practice.