夏说英语新闻晨读 第621期:员工是公司最重要的“资产”吗?

Perhaps the oldest management cliche¹ is that "people are our most important asset". If that were true, companies would rigorouslyassess their own hiring practices, and their record, to ensure that they are indeed recruiting the best people. Remarkably², many fail miserably³ at this task. Only a third of American companies check whether their recruitment process produces good employees.

cliche: n. 陈词滥调，老生常谈

rigorously: adv. 严厉地；严密地

rigorous testingmethods

精确的测试／严格的检查／严谨的方法

assess: vt. 评定；估价

Exams are not the only means of assessing a student's ability.

考试并不是评定学生能力的唯一手段。

miserably: （因没多大价值而）令人失望地

to fail miserably (= completely fail)

1 cliche   

n./a.陈词滥调(的)；老生常谈(的)；陈腐的

参考例句：

• You should always try to avoid the use of cliche. 你应该尽量避免使用陈词滥调。
• The old cliche is certainly true:the bigger car do mean bigger profits.有句老话倒的确说得不假:车大利大。

2 remarkably   

ad.不同寻常地，相当地

参考例句：

• I thought she was remarkably restrained in the circumstances. 我认为她在那种情况下非常克制。
• He made a remarkably swift recovery. 他康复得相当快。

3 miserably   

adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地

参考例句：

• The little girl was wailing miserably. 那小女孩难过得号啕大哭。
• It was drizzling, and miserably cold and damp. 外面下着毛毛细雨，天气又冷又湿，令人难受。 来自《简明英汉词典》