中英对照

【中英对照】

Americans who feel bored and underpaid do work hard--at surfing the Internet and catching up on gossip, according to a survey that found U.S. workers waste about 20 percent of their working day.

厌倦工作、又觉得薪金太低的美国人把时间都浪费到了上网和闲聊上。一项调查发现，美国人浪费了约20%的上班时间。

An online survey of 2,057 employees by online compensation company Salary.com found about six in every 10 workers admit to wasting time at work with the average employee wasting 1.7 hours of a typical 8.5 hour working day.

由在线薪酬公司Salary.com网站开展的在线调查共有2057名雇员参加。调查发现，每10名员工中约有6人承认自己上班时浪费时间。在一个典型的8.5小时工作日中，一般员工会浪费1.7个小时。

Personal Internet use topped the list as the leading time-wasting activity according to 34 percent of respondents, with 20.3 percent then listing socializing with co-workers and 17 percent conducting personal business as taking up time.

上网是第一大浪费上班时间的活动，有34%的受访者利用上班时间上网；20.3%的受访者在上班时与同事闲聊；17%的人处理私人事务。

The reasons why people wasted time were varied with nearly 18 percent of respondents questioned by e-mail in June and July said boredom and not having enough to do was the main reason.

人们利用上班时间做其它事情的原因各不相同。在6月和7月的电子邮件受访者中，近18%的人称这样做的主要原因是无聊和没事可做。

The second most popular reason for wasting time was having too long hours (13.9 percent), being underpaid (11.8 percent), and a lack of challenging work (11.1 percent).

第二大原因是工作时间太长（13.9%）；其次是薪资太低（11.8%）和工作缺乏挑战（11.1%）。

While the amount of time wasted at work seems high, Bill Coleman, chief compensation officer at Salary.com. said the numbers have improved, with the amount of time wasted dropping 19 percent since Salary.com conducted its first annual survey on slacking at work in 2005. Then workers reported wasting 2.09 hours of their working day.

尽管看起来被浪费的上班时间很多，但Salary.com网站的薪资主管比尔· 柯尔曼说，从具体数字上看，情况还是有所改观。自从2005年Salary.com网站首次开展此项一年一度的调查以来，被浪费的上班时间数下降了19%。当时员工一个工作日浪费的时间为2.09小时。

"I think (the decline) is really a result of the economy and that there's more business, more work available and less time to sit around wondering what you are going to do with your day," Coleman told reporters.

科尔曼在接受记者采访时说：“我认为这是经济发展的结果。公司业务更多、需要处理的事情更多，员工们已没有多余的时间去考虑如何打发时间了。”

词汇讲解

【词汇讲解】

1. underpay vt. 付给(雇员等)报酬过低

Nurses are overworked and underpaid.
护士的工作过重而报酬过低.

2. compensation n. 补偿[赔偿]物，补偿[赔偿]金

He paid a sum of money as a compensation for the loss in the fire.
他付了一笔钱作为这次火灾损失的补偿。

3. boredom n. 厌烦；厌倦；无聊

When workload is low, boredom is a problem.
当工作负荷较低时，管制员会产生懈怠的情绪。

4. slack vt. & vi.懈怠；偷懒

Haas slacked off in his work.
哈斯工作很懈怠。

语法和句型

【语法和句型】

1. Personal Internet use topped the list as the leading time-wasting activity according to 34 percent of respondents.
上网是第一大浪费上班时间的活动，有34%的受访者利用上班时间上网。

top在这里用作动词表示“达到……的顶端”，例如：

A church tops the hill.
山顶有一座教堂。

2. with the amount of time wasted dropping 19 percent since Salary.com conducted its first annual survey on slacking at work in 2005.
自从2005年Salary.com网站首次开展此项一年一度的调查以来。

annual survey表示“年度调查”，例如：

Swiss cities dominated the list of 215 centres ranked according to quality of life, with Geneva tying Sydney for fourth place and Bern finishing 10th, in the annual survey by human resources consultancy William M.Mercer.
这项年度调查根据各个城市的生活质量对215个城市进行了排名，其中瑞士的城市在"最适宜居住的城市"排名榜上占据了大多数席位。悉尼和日内瓦并列第四，波恩排在第十位。