新东方:2010春高口阅读上半场第一篇文章解析
日期:2010-03-16 14:35

(单词翻译:单击)

此篇文章选自2009年5月的 TIME, 考到我们在课堂上常提到到经济类话题。这篇文章主要讲述经济形势的变化对人们的工作模式产生的影响:越来越多的员工倾向于在家办公,越来越多的公司也在采取新的措施适应这种变化。同时这一变化,也给白领们的生活带来了影响——他们开始更加注重生活与工作的平衡。

On the worst days, Chris Keehn used to go 24 hours without seeing his daughter with her eyes open. A soft-spoken tax accountant in Deloitte's downtown Chicago office, he hated saying no when she asked for a ride to preschool. By November, he'd had enough. "I realized that I can have control of this," he says with a small shrug. Keehn, 33, met with two of the firm's partners and his senior manager, telling them he needed a change. They went for it. In January, Keehn started telecommuting four days a week, and when Kathryn, 4, starts T-ball this summer, he will be sitting along the baseline.

文章开头即出现人名,很显然,作者在运用例子做铺垫引出后文主旨。这种开头模式非常符合新闻文体的结构特征,即我们在新东方课堂上所讲的菱形模式。意识到这点后,我们也应该立刻明白,本段的内容旨在引出主题,其作用是举出典型例子论证主题。我们可以看到问题的第一道题目即考察了相应的例子功能题。

In this economy, Keehn's move might sound like hopping onto the mommy track — or off the career track. But he's actually making a shrewd move. More and more, companies are searching for creative ways to save — by experimenting with reduced hours or unpaid furloughs or asking employees to move laterally. The up-or-out model, in which employees have to keep getting promoted quickly or get lost, may be growing outmoded. The changing expectations could persist after the economy reheats. Companies are increasingly supporting more natural growth, letting employees wend their way upward like climbing vines. It's a shift, in other words, from a corporate ladder to the career-path metaphor long preferred by Deloitte(德勤) vice chair Cathy Benko: a lattice. (See pictures of cubicle designs submitted to The Office.)

第二段开始逐步深入主题,在第三句话出我们可以看出文章主题渐渐显露,即越来越多的公司正在采取更加创造性的措施使得员工更好的处理好工作与生活之间的矛盾。

At Deloitte, each employee's lattice is nailed together during twice-a-year evaluations focused not just on career targets but also on larger life goals. An employee can request to do more or less travel or client service, say, or to move laterally into a new role — changes that may or may not come with a pay cut. Deloitte's data from 2008 suggest that about 10% of employees choose to "dial up" or "dial down" at any given time. Deloitte's Mass Career Customization (MCC) program began as a way to keep talented women in the workforce, but it has quickly become clear that women are not the only ones seeking flexibility. Responding to millennials demanding better work-life balance, young parents needing time to share child-care duties and boomers looking to ease gradually toward retirement, Deloitte is scheduled to roll out MCC to all 42,000 U.S. employees by May 2010. Deloitte executives are in talks with more than 80 companies working on similar programs.

接下来,作者继续举Deloitte的例子,进一步指出许多公司都在采取不同的措施解决员工所遇到的工作与生活的矛盾。很明显,在时间比较紧张的情况下,我们根本没有必要去读这些细节。

Not everyone is on board. A 33-year-old Deloitte senior manager in a southeastern office, who works half-days on Mondays and Fridays for health reasons and requested anonymity because she was not authorized to speak on the record, says one "old school" manager insisted on scheduling meetings when she wouldn't be in the office. "He was like, 'Yeah, I know we have the program,'" she recalls, "'but I don't really care.'"

然而,接下来笔者话锋一转,指出not everyone is on board。根据这个转折,我们可以知道作者接下来要指出有些人并不接受这种改变,仍然坚持以前偏重工作的生活方式。显然的,接下来33岁德勤高级经理的例子正是在论证这一点,我们也完全没有必要仔细读它。

Deloitte CEO Barry Salzberg admits he's still struggling to convert "nonbelievers," but says they are the exceptions. The recession provides an incentive for companies to design more lattice-oriented careers. Studies show telecommuting, for instance, can help businesses cut real estate costs 20% and payroll 10%. What's more, creating a flexible workforce to meet staffing needs in a changing economy ensures that a company will still have legs when the market recovers. Redeploying some workers from one division to another — or reducing their salaries — is a whole lot less expensive than laying everyone off and starting from scratch.

接下来作者继续开始讨论这种新模式的益处,属于细节部分。但是由于题目第四题出到了此处,所以大家要认真阅读。

Young employees who dial down now and later become managers may reinforce the idea that moving sideways on the lattice doesn't mean getting sidelined. "When I saw other people doing it," says Keehn, "I thought I could try." As the compelling financial incentives for flexibility grow clearer, more firms will be forced to give employees that chance. Turns out all Keehn had to do was ask.

到了文章的最后,作者的意思又有了新的转换,这从文章的第一句就可以看出来,后面的引用还是对这一新思想的论证,不需要细读。

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重点单词
  • flexibilityn. 灵活性,柔韧性,适应性
  • anonymityn. 匿名,笔者不明
  • outmodedadj. 过时的 动词outmode的过去式和过去分词形
  • shrewdadj. 精明的
  • controln. 克制,控制,管制,操作装置 vt. 控制,掌管,支
  • shrugn. 耸肩 v. 耸肩
  • estaten. 财产,房地产,状态,遗产
  • shiftn. 交换,变化,移动,接班者 v. 更替,移转,变声
  • reinforcevt. 加强,增援 vi. 得到加强
  • accountantn. 会计人员