英文欣赏

她推开门，发现里面没人。“我是第一个到办公室的。”她边想着边来到那张属于她的办公桌前。她惊异地发现桌上有一大束花。那是些鲜花。“啊，真漂亮。”南希小姐欢叫着，拿起桌上的花就闻。

The flower effect

Miss Nancy had just got a secretary's job in a big company to work in the sales department．Monday was the first day she went to work，so she was very excited．She got up very early and arrived at the office a t twenty to eight．

She pushed the door open and found nobody there．“I am the first to arrive．”She thought and came to the desk which was to be hers．

She was surprised to find a large bunch1) of flowers on it．They were fresh．She picked up the flowers from the desk and smelled them．“Oh，how lovely．”Miss Nancy cried joyfully．She then looked round for a vase to put them in．“Somebody has sent me flowers the very first day．”she thought happily．“But who could it be？”She began to wonder．

Just then，the manager came in．He greeted Miss Nancy good morning and caught the sight of the flowers on her desk．

“Like the flowers，Miss Nancy？”he asked．

“Yes，I like them very much．”She answered and looked into his face，expecting to find some clues．But the manager walked away to his own desk and began his work．

The day passed very quickly and Miss Nancy did everything with great interest and enthusiasm2)．During the lunch time，the manager sat with her at the same table，talking and joking freely while eating．

The colleagues3) were very friendly．Almost every one gave the new secretary a kind smile when they passed by．Nothing unusual，and nothing happened for the rest of the day．

For the following days of the week，the first thing Miss Nancy did was to change water for the flowers．And then she buried herself in her work．

Then came another Monday．That morning she arrived at the office at the usual time．When she came near her desk she was overjoyed4) to see a new bunch of flowers there．She quickly put them in the vase，replacing the old ones．

The same thing happened again the next Monday．Miss Nancy felt it strange and this time she began to think of ways to find out the sender.

Tuesday afternoon，she was sent to hand in a plan to the general manager's office．She had to stay for a while at his secretary's desk waiting for his directives5)．She happened to see on the desk a big note book marked “Minutes of managers' meetings”，and glanced at the half－opened pages．Suddenly her eyes fell on these words：“In order to keep the secretaries in high spirits，the company has decided that every Monday morning a bunch of fresh flowers should be sent to each secretary's desk．”

She looked up and saw right before her on the very desk，standing a vase6) of flowers just like hers．“Why didn't I notice it just now？”She was amazed．

Later，she was told that their general manager was a business management psychologist6)．

词汇解释

NOTE 注释：

bunch [bQntF] n. 串, 束

enthusiasm [in5Wju:ziAzEm] n. 热心, 积极性

overjoyed [EJvE5dVCId] adj. 狂喜的, 极端高兴的

directive [di5rektiv, dai5rektiv] n. 指示

vase [vB:z, veis] n. 花瓶, 瓶

psychologist [psaI`kClEdVIst] n. 心理学者

参考译文

鲜花效应

南希小姐刚刚在一家大公司找到了一份秘书的工作，她将在销售部门上班。星期一是她上班的第一天，因此心情非常激动。她早早起床，8点差20分钟就到了办公室。

她推开门，发现里面没人。“我是第一个到办公室的。”她边想着边来到那张属于她的办公桌前。她惊异地发现桌上有一大束花。那是些鲜花。

“啊，真漂亮。”南希小姐欢叫着，拿起桌上的花就闻。她四处看看想找一个瓶子插花。“第一天上班就有人给我送花，真是太好了。”她愉快地想道。“可是，是谁送的呢？”她开始琢磨起来。

正在这时，经理进来了。他向南希小姐道了声早上好，一眼就看见了她桌上的花。

“喜欢这些花是吗，南希小姐？”他问。

“是的，非常喜欢。”她一边回答一边察言观色，指望能发现点什么。可是经理已经走到自己的办公桌旁，开始工作了。

这天过得很快，南希小姐做每一件事都兴致勃勃，充满热情。午餐时，经理和她同坐一张餐桌，边吃边随便谈笑着。

同事们非常友好，几乎每一个从她身边走过的人都要向这位新秘书投以和蔼的微笑。一切正常，一整天也没出现什么情况。

在这个星期的后几天里，南希小姐每天要做的第一件事就是给花换水，然后埋头自己的工作。

又是一个星期一来到了。那天早上她同往常一样来到办公室。当她走近办公桌时，看到桌上放了一束新的鲜花，真让她喜出望外。她很快就把这束新花换下了旧的插进了瓶里。

在接下来的星期一又出现了同样的情况。南希小姐觉得很奇怪，这一次她想调查一下这个送花人是谁。

星期二下午，她被派往总经理办公室去送交一份计划。为了等总经理的批文，她得在总经理秘书的办公桌旁呆上一会儿。她碰巧看到桌上放了一本写着“经理会议记录”这几个字的大笔记本，于是就瞥了一眼半开着的会议记录内容。突然，她的眼睛落在了这几行字上：“为了使秘书们保持高昂的情绪，本公司决定，每星期一早上都要有一束鲜花送到每一个秘书的办公桌上。”

她抬起头来，看见就在眼前的那张办公桌上，摆着一瓶和她的一模一样的鲜花。“我刚才为什么没注意到呢？”她有点迷惑。

后来有人告诉她，他们的总经理是个企业管理心理学家。