2024考研英语：《经济学人》中英读译Day79

英语阅读能力依靠什么？必然是词汇的积累，但，仅仅是词汇的积累是不够了，更应该了解英语句式，不同句型所表达意义。如何培养自己的阅读语感呢？那么就跟着聚创考研网小编每天学一点英语，一起为考研筑起坚实的地基。阅读是需要积累的，就像我们需要经常和人沟通才会促进我们的表达能力一样~小伙伴跟着小编一起，每天坚持打卡，培养英语阅读能力及语感，了解文章一些经典词汇的用法。

经济学人:办公室的考古学（下）

If your office still uses internal mail, with those special envelopes that have people’s names crossed out as they wend their way round an organisation, you are in a corporate period drama.But most offices still retain clues to the historical importance of paper.Photocopiers, scanners, shredders, guillotines and unfeasibly large staplers are echoes of a not-too-distant time when physical documents were a vital currency, when people assembled in a single room and shared ideas on pieces of paper.In-trays and out-trays are visible reminders of how information used to flow within organisations.Noticeboards and business cards were once the best ways to convey news and contact details.Forecasts of the paperless office have been around for decades; they are not about to come true now.But the stationery cupboard will be less well stocked in future.Meetings between people in the office and those working remotely rely today on platforms like Zoom or Microsoft Teams.

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如果你的办公室仍然在用那种有特殊信封的内部邮件，还会当人们在公司里走来走去时，把他们的名字从信封上划掉，那你就像是在拍一部公司历史剧。但大多数办公室里仍然有几处线索表明，纸张在过去有多么重要。复印机、扫描仪、碎纸机、切纸机以及超大的订书机，这些会让人想起，曾几何时，实物文件是公司里至关重要的通货，人们会聚在一个房间里，在纸上分享想法。看到收文盘和发文盘就会想起人们以前是如何在公司内部传递信息的。布告板和名片曾经是通知消息和交换联系方式的最佳方式。无纸化办公室的预测已经存在了几十年；现在它们还不会成为现实。但文具柜里的存货未来就不会这么满了。如今，办公室里的人要和远程办公的人开会时，要依赖Zoom或Microsoft Teams等平台。

Hunt around, though, and you may find an object that was seen as useful back in those dim and distant days of 2019: the conference-call speakerphone.Looking a bit like a small spacecraft, this phone had to be plugged into a socket to work.Lights would suddenly blink, and people would murmur in awe.Someone would dial in, each button-press a loud beep.They would inevitably hit the wrong one at some point and have to start again.These rituals and others are now rarely performed; the phones themselves are gathering dust on shelves, left behind by better technology and the abrupt rise of remote working.The very layout of many offices is a throwback to a pre-pandemic age.If you work in a place filled with identikit cubicles, still have your own nameplate or sit at a desk tethered to the floor by a digestive system’s worth of cabling, you are in an environment that made sense when the whole workforce came to the office every day, even if they just got on with their own work in silence.Now that the office’s comparative advantage is as a place to collaborate with other people, socialising, sofas and hot-desking are seen as the future.Real archaeologists need tools and time to do their painstaking work: paint brushes, trowels, sieves and picks.Corporate archaeology is easier: you just need eyes and a memory of how things used to be.But you also need to be quick.As more and more workplaces are revamped for the hybrid era, now is the time to take a careful look around the office.You may see something that will soon seem as dated as pneumatic tubes, typewriters and fax machines.

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不过，四处找找，你可能会发现一种在2019年那些昏暗遥远的日子里被视为有用的东西：免提会议电话机。它看起来有点像一个小航天器，必须插入插座才能工作。工作时，灯光会突然闪烁，人们会敬畏地喃喃低语。有人拨号时，每按一个按钮，都会发出很响的哔哔声。总会有人中途按错，不得不重新开始。诸如此类程序现在很少有人会做了；由于科技进步和远程办公的突然兴起，这些电话机已经被搁置在架子上吃灰了。许多办公室的布局本身就是疫情前的风格。如果你工作的地方到处都是千篇一律的小隔间，里面有每个人的名牌，或是有长如大小肠的电脑缆线把办公桌拴在地板上，那么这就是以前的那种工作环境，那时候，所有人每天都会来办公室上班，即使每个人开始工作时都不发一言。既然办公室的比较优势在于为合作提供场所，那么社交、沙发和轮用办公桌就是人们眼中未来的样子。真正的考古学家要想完成艰苦工作，是需要时间和工具的，比如画笔、铲子、筛子和镐。企业考古就容易多了：只需要眼睛和对过去事物的记忆。但速度也要快。随着越来越多工作场所为适应混合办公时代而进行改造，现在是时候仔细看看办公室了。里面的东西可能很快就会像气动管、打字机和传真机一样过时了。