Using English at Work：22 Working at My Desk(3)

If your birthday is next week, you may remind your friends that your birthday is fast approaching.

Depending on old you are, this is a good thing or a bad thing!

Next, I open my filing cabinet¹.

A "filing cabinet," sometimes called a "file cabinet," is a piece of furniture usually made of wood or metal that has large drawers that are used to hold paper files.

Most office desks have a file cabinet, but there are also separate file cabinets² that are not part of a desk.

The documents in filing cabinets are usually organized alphabetically³, from the letter A to the letter Z, or by date, or by some other way that is logical⁴ so that the files are easy to find.

Or, if you're like me, you have no system and your files are impossible to find!

I open the filing cabinet and take out two files and a manila envelope that has the information I need in them.

A "manila envelope" is a large, yellow-colored envelope (notice we can say "envelope" or "envelope") made from thick paper.

In the United States, most envelopes are small and white. We use these to send letters, usually.

But larger envelopes are often manila envelopes that are yellow.

These envelopes are usually the size of a piece of paper and let you send things in one package without folding them.

For the report, the information I need is inside two files and in a manila envelope.

The next thing I do is look around, or search, for a pad⁵ of paper.

A "pad of paper" is many pieces of paper that are held together at one end.

After you've finished writing on one page in the pad of paper, you can tear it off and still have the rest of the pad of paper to use.

The pad of paper I'm looking for is one that I used to jot⁶ down some ideas yesterday.

"To jot (jot) down" means to write something down quickly.

You might jot down notes while you listen to someone on the phone, or you might jot down a phone number that you see in an advertisement.

1 cabinet   

n.内阁，内阁会议；(带玻璃门存物品的)橱柜

参考例句：

• I keep my collection of old china in the cabinet.我把古瓷器收藏品存放在橱子里。
• He had held many important offices in the French cabinet.他在法国内阁中任过许多重要职务。

2 cabinets   

n.内阁( cabinet的名词复数 )；橱；（有特殊用途的）小房间；展览艺术品的小陈列室

参考例句：

• Along each wall stretched uniform green metal filing cabinets. 每面墙边都一溜摆着相同的绿色金属档案柜。 来自辞典例句
• The cabinets display seventeenth-century blue-and-white porcelain. 展柜中陈列着17世纪的青花瓷。 来自辞典例句

3 alphabetically   

adv.照字母顺序排列地

参考例句：

• I've arranged the books alphabetically so don't muddle them up. 我已按字母顺序把这些书整理了，千万不要再弄乱。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They are all filed alphabetically under author. 这些都是按照作者姓名的字母顺序归档的。 来自辞典例句

4 logical   

adj.逻辑(上)的，符合逻辑的；合乎常理的

参考例句：

• It is logical that the book is expensive.书贵是很自然的事。
• This is undoubtedly logical.这显然是顺理成章的。

5 pad   

n.垫，衬垫；便签本，印色盒

参考例句：

• She made a brief note on the telephone pad.她在电话通讯簿上记下简短的话。
• Each student should have a pencil and pad.每个学生应该有一支铅笔和一个便签本。

6 jot   

n.少量；vi.草草记下；vt.匆匆写下

参考例句：

• I'll jot down their address before I forget it.我得赶快把他们的地址写下来，免得忘了。
• There is not a jot of evidence to say it does them any good.没有丝毫的证据显示这对他们有任何好处。