英语听力精选进阶版 11227

 

Hotdesking

You know, there are some very descriptive words that come into the language from time to time, and one of the ones that came in the 1990s which really hit me between the eyes when I first heard it, was this phrase "hotdesking". 

In fact to begin with, I didn't really know what it meant, and after a while of course, it's become perfectly¹ commonplace² now, it's the practice of sharing desks or workstations between office workers, on a sort of rota system. People don't have individual desks, it saves time, it saves resources. The implication of course, that's why the word became so effective, is that it's the high degree of activity that is making the desk 'heat up' as it were: imagine the steam coming off the desk! 

Well, it's a noun, "hotdesking", but I've also heard it as a verb: "we're hotdesking tomorrow", "Shall I hotdesk with you?", you might say to somebody. And now of course there are all sorts of derivatives³ that've come into being: the people who do the "hotdesking" are called "hotdeskers".

1 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

2 commonplace   

adj.平凡的，普通的；n.寻常的事物，常见的事

参考例句：

• Soon it will be commonplace for men to travel to the moon.人们去月球旅行很快就会成为常事。
• What he has said is a mere commonplace view.他所说的不过是尘俗之见而已。

3 derivatives   

n.衍生性金融商品；派生物，引出物( derivative的名词复数 )；导数

参考例句：

• Many English words are derivatives of Latin words. 许多英语词来自拉丁语。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• These compounds are nitrosohydroxylamine derivatives. 这类合成物是亚硝基羟胺衍生物。 来自辞典例句