口语-BEC职场必胜-邮件中心

 邮件中心 Steve: Mike, do you need anything from the basement?

    Mike. I have been with this company for almost seven months and I still have no clue what is in the basement.

    Steve. Some people say that the most important division is down there.

    Mike. What's that? Sales, marketing¹, accounting² or human resources?

    Steve. None of those! Why not come downstairs with me and meet all of the guys and gals³ from the mailroom?

    Mike. The mailroom! What do they do there?

    Steve: They take care of sending all of our mail and making sure that incoming letters find the right people.

    Mike: Why would I want to go there?

    Steve: Many great careers have started in the mail-rooms of world famous companies!

    史蒂夫：迈克，你需要从地下室拿点什么东西吗？

    迈克：我到这家公司已经快七个月了，可我还不知道地下室有什么东西。

史蒂夫：有些人说最重要的部门设在下面。

    迈克：那是什么？销售部、市场营销部、财务部还是人事部？

史蒂夫：都不是！为什么不跟我到楼下看看，和邮件中心的伙计们认识认识？

    迈克：邮件中心！他们在那里做什么？

史蒂夫：他们负责把我们的邮件发出去，并确保寄来的邮件准确无误地送到收件人手里。

    迈克：我为什么要去那里？

史蒂夫：很多很棒的职业始于世界著名公司的邮件中心！

    NEW WORDS（生词）    1) Basement: the bottom floor of a building地下室：建筑物的底层The basement of our building is said to be haunted⁴ but it's just a ghost story.

    有人说我们这栋楼的地下室闹鬼，这只不过是鬼话。

    2) No clue: no idea, something that you don't know不知道：没有头绪，你不知道的事情At school, my economics⁵ teacher said that I had no clue about managing money - and he was right!

    上学的时候我的经济学老师说我不会理财―他说对了！

    3) Mailroom: place that incoming and outgoing mail is sorted for delivery邮件中心：分拣来往邮件以便递送的地方My first job was working in a mailroom sorting mail.

    我的第一份工作是在邮件中心里分拣邮件。

    4) Career: a job with progressive achievements for which you have training职业、事业：与你所受的教育相关、有发展的工作These days, choosing a career is almost a full-time⁶ job itself.

    现在，选择一种职业本身几乎是一项全职的工作。

    LESSON：课文The flow of information within an organization is absolutely vital to the success of any company. Without a smooth flow of ideas and information, a company can miss opportunities for profit.

    对任何一家公司来说，机构内部信息的流入绝对是成功的关键。如果没有平稳流入的思想和信息，公司就可能坐失良机。

    Before the invent of fax machines and email, mail was the only way to send information. To manage the inflow of large amounts of mail, companies established separate divisions just to sort incoming and outgoing mail.

    在传真机和电子邮件发明以前，邮寄是发送信息的唯一途径。为了管理大量邮件的内流，公司建立独立的部门专门负责分拣往来邮件。

    Mail-room staff would sort and record every piece of mail coming or leaving. They would take the outgoing mail to the post office for mailing and distribute incoming mail to the right person.

    邮件中心（收发室）的员工要分拣和记录每一封来往的邮件。他们将往外发的邮件送到邮局，并将寄来的邮件准确无误地分发到收件人的手中。

    Because mailroom staff saw every piece of mail and other important information they often knew what was happening better than anyone else. This gave them a small amount of power that could be used to work their way out of the mailroom into a better job.

由于邮件中心（收发室）的员工可以看到每一封邮件和其他重要的信息，他们通常比其他人更了解行情。这就给了他们一点权力，他们可以利用它去做比收发员更好的工作。

    Famous business managers who have started in the mailroom and slowly become business leaders include Victor Kiam of Remington (the razor company) and Jac Nasser the Chief Executive⁷ Officer of Ford⁸ Motor Company.

从收发员做起，慢慢成为商业巨头的著名商业管理人有雷明顿公司（那家剃刀公司，编者注：另有一家著名的武器公司也命名为雷明顿公司）的维克多·凯恩和福特汽车公司的首席执行官杰克·纳赛尔。

    The invention of email, fax machines and even the telephone have all accelerated the death of mail rooms within companies. Today, most mail-related jobs are done by secretaries and mail rooms have completely closed.

电子邮件、传真机乃至电话的发明共同加速了公司内部邮件中心（收发室）的死亡。今天，大多数与邮件相关的工作由秘书来完成，邮件中心（收发室）已经完全消失了。

    Dialogue（对话）Beth: I wonder what it was like to work all day in the basement of a huge building sorting mail.

    Sally: Oh I don't think the mailroom staff stayed in the basement all day.

    Beth: When would they leave the basement?

    Sally: To take all of the mail to the various floors of the building and the right offices on each floor.

    Beth: Hmmm - so they spent a lot of time in the elevators?

    Sally: I suppose so, but they do get to see and hear all of the office rumors⁹ and gossip¹⁰.

    Beth: And that way they get to all of the company secrets?

    Sally: Now you're thinking! How else do you think they work their way from the bottom to the top?

    Beth: Hard work - like the rest of us!

    贝丝：我在想在一幢大楼的地下室里整天分拣邮件是什么样子。

    莎莉：噢，我不认为那些收发元整天呆在地下室。

贝丝：他们什么时候离开地下室？

    莎莉：把邮件分发到不同的楼层和各层的收件人办公室里的时候。

贝丝：嗯―这么说他们有很多时间是在电梯里度过的？

    莎莉：我想是吧，但是他们确实看到和听到所有办公室的流言蜚语。

贝丝：这样他们就知道了所有公司的秘密？

    莎莉：现在你说对了！要不然你认为他们是怎样从下往上爬的？

贝丝：艰苦的工作―和我们其他人一样。

1 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

2 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。

3 gals   

abbr.gallons （复数）加仑（液量单位）n.女孩，少女( gal的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Jim came skipping out at the gate with a tin pail, and singing Buffalo Gals. 这时，吉姆手里提着一个锡皮桶，嘴中唱着“布法罗的女娃们”蹦蹦跳跳地从大门口跑出来。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险
• An' dey thinks dey wants mousy lil gals wid bird's tastes an' no sense at all. 他们想要的是耗子般的小姑娘，胃口小得像雀子，一点儿见识也没有。 来自飘（部分）

4 haunted   

adj.闹鬼的；受到折磨的；令人烦恼的v.“haunt”的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• There was a haunted look in his eyes. 他眼中透露出忧虑的神色。
• The country is haunted by the spectre of civil war. 内战仿佛一触即发，举国上下一片恐慌。

5 economics   

n.经济学，经济情况

参考例句：

• He is studying economics,which subject is very important.他正在学习经济学，该学科是很重要的。
• One can't separate politics from economics.不能把政治与经济割裂开来。

6 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

7 executive   

adj.执行的，行政的；n.执行者，行政官，经理

参考例句：

• A good executive usually gets on well with people.一个好的高级管理人员通常与人们相处得很好。
• He is a man of great executive ability.他是个具有极高管理能力的人。

8 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

9 rumors   

n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷

参考例句：

• Rumors have it that the school was burned down. 有谣言说学校给烧掉了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Rumors of a revolt were afloat. 叛变的谣言四起。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 gossip   

n.流言蜚语，爱说长道短的人；vi.传播流言

参考例句：

• She broadcast the gossip all over the town.她将这个流言传遍全镇。
• They spread a lot of tacky gossip about his love life.关于他的爱情生活，他们散播了许多不堪的闲言闲语。