What is meaning of Baton?

[Baton me]

Business English Lesson, Advanced Level

ESL/EFL Test #218 "Global Capital Management", question 2

Sunrise in Auckland and another business day begins at Deutsche Bank, where members of the Treasury team located in the Asia-Pacific region take the ......... from their colleagues in the Americas managing the bank's capital and balance sheet.

(a) baton
(b) ribbon
(c) salute
(d) wand

Business English Lesson, Advanced Level

ESL/EFL Test #218 "Global Capital Management", answer 2

Sunrise in Auckland and another business day begins at Deutsche Bank, where members of the Treasury team located in the Asia-Pacific region take the baton from their colleagues in the Americas managing the bank's capital and balance sheet.

Correct answer: (a) baton

Your answer was: incorrect
Sunrise in Auckland and another business day begins at Deutsche Bank, where members of the Treasury team located in the Asia-Pacific region take the salute from their colleagues in the Americas managing the bank's capital and balance sheet.
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what is meaninmg of Baton?

Baton me

[Alan]

Hi,

This is a bit of obscure 'Internet' English suggesting that one group of people take over from another as 'baton' is a sort of stick that one member of an athletic team takes over from another in a relay race. It can also be a stick used by a police officer and also the stick used by the conductor in an orchestra.

Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Present Simple

[Yankee]

Obscure "Internet" English? :shock:
Now, that remark just doesn't seem cricket. (By the way, that use of the word "cricket" would be fairly obscure in the US. :wink: )

I find the symbolism in "take the baton" to be quite clear, and I've heard this sort of usage before. In the world of business there is endless talk of teams and teamwork, so it isn't unusual to find sports idioms and expressions used in a business context. Perhaps Alan would have been happier if the author of the test sentence had used "pass the baton" rather than "take the baton" -- or possibly "pass the torch".

Click on the following for definitions:
pass the baton
pass the baton
pass the torch

Here is an example of 'take the baton' from the Daily Telegraph:
"As month after month of disappointing retail data this year keep showing, Japan lacks the demand growth to take the baton from America."

Here is another example of figurative usage:
A British actress (Geraldine McEwan) apparently stated just last month that it was time “to pass the baton on” after playing the title role in a TV series since 2003 and having made 12 films. (She is apparently going to retire from her role as Miss Marple, and presumably a different actress will take over.)
.
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"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." ~ Abraham Lincoln

[Alan]

Hi,

[Yankee]

Whatever. :roll:
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"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." ~ Abraham Lincoln

[Alan]

This, for the record, is what I mean by Internet English:

[Yankee]

Oh, I see. That's like this type of "Internet" English then:
http://www.english-test.net/forum/ftopic8588.html
The person who created that test obviously took that particular sentence from the Internet, too. In that thread, I provided a link to the original source of the sentence. Although my original link is no longer active, this link still works:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/story?id=2365787

I guess you must also consider the examples in my first post to be obscure 'Internet' English. ;)

For the record, telling the taker of an advanced English test that a sentence or word usage is a bit of obscure 'Internet' English suggested to me that you thought the usage would be unlikely anywhere other than on the Internet. I got the impression you were lumping the usage of 'baton' together with the likes of "how r u?" or words such as "blogosphere". And, in my opinion, that wouldn't be a fair or appropriate description of the usage of 'baton' in the test sentence.
.
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"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." ~ Abraham Lincoln