二、工作類話題語(yǔ)料庫(kù)

　　1.能否同時(shí)做多件工作

　　在當(dāng)今社會(huì)，倉(cāng)促、匆忙和驕躁已經(jīng)是很多人日常生活不可忽略的一部分了。所以我們找到了一個(gè)新詞，用來形容我們面對(duì)我們所處時(shí)代的壓力時(shí)做出的努力，即“同時(shí)進(jìn)行若干工作”。這個(gè)詞十幾年來一直是用于描述計(jì)算機(jī)并行處理能力的，現(xiàn)在成了形容人們盡可能的追求更快更有技術(shù)含量的一心多用的一種噱頭。

　　In modern times, hurry, bustle, and agitation have become a regular way of life for many people—so much so that we have embraced a word to describe our efforts to respond to the many pressing demands on our time: multitasking. Used for decades to describe the parallel processing abilities of computers, multitasking is now shorthand for the human attempt to do simultaneously as many things as possible, as quickly as possible, preferably marshalling the power of as many technologies as possible.

　　但是近來一段時(shí)間，同時(shí)進(jìn)行若干工作的風(fēng)潮開始面臨挑戰(zhàn)。相當(dāng)數(shù)量的研究表明，有些同時(shí)進(jìn)行若干工作存在致命的危險(xiǎn)性，例如正在開車時(shí)使用手機(jī)或者其他的掌上設(shè)備�，F(xiàn)在甚至很多多任務(wù)處理的方式已經(jīng)被定為是違法的。在一直注重時(shí)間管理的商界，關(guān)于同時(shí)進(jìn)行若干工作引起的工作精力分散，正受到越來越多的警惕的目光。

　　But more recently, challenges to the ethos of multitasking have begun to emerge. Numerous studies have shown the sometimes-fatal danger of using cell phones and other electronic devices while driving, for example, and several states have now made that particular form of multitasking illegal. In the business world, where concerns about time-management are perennial, warnings about workplace distractions spawned by a multitasking culture are on the rise.

　　同時(shí)進(jìn)行若干工作，可能也會(huì)造成經(jīng)濟(jì)損失。加利福尼亞州大學(xué)的研究人員在Irvine有一項(xiàng)研究，監(jiān)視辦公室里的工作情況;他們發(fā)現(xiàn)員工平均需要25分鐘才能從那些手機(jī)或者收發(fā)郵件的中斷中恢復(fù)到手頭的工作上來。2007年，Basex商業(yè)研究公司的研究員Jonathan B. Spira，在 時(shí)代周刊上發(fā)表評(píng)論說，信息過載和過度的同時(shí)進(jìn)行若干工作已經(jīng)造成美國(guó)每年65億美元的損失。

　　Multitasking might also be taking a toll on the economy. One study by researchers at the University of California at Irvine monitored interruptions among office workers; they found that workers took an average of twenty-five minutes to recover from interruptions such as phone calls or answering e-mail and return to their original task. Discussing multitasking with the New York Timesin 2007, Jonathan B. Spira, an analyst at the business research firm Basex, estimated that extreme multitasking—information overload—costs the U.S. economy $650 billion a year in lost productivity.

　　2.確保事事正確比勇于冒險(xiǎn)犯錯(cuò)更重要嗎?

　　史蒂芬·法雷爾第一次遭綁架是在2004年的伊拉克。當(dāng)時(shí)還是《時(shí)代周刊》記者的他，憑著一貫的堅(jiān)持不懈，經(jīng)協(xié)商返還他的裝甲車和大部分設(shè)備之后，謝天謝地，那場(chǎng)短暫的風(fēng)波才得以平息。接下來他又將所遭遇的一切以采訪的形式整理成文，令世人更加了解了伊拉克人對(duì)喬治·布什的態(tài)度。

　　The first time Stephen Farrell was kidnapped was in Iraq in 2004. It was a thankfully brief affair that ended – with typical persistence from the then Times reporter – with him negotiating the return of his armoured car and most of his equipment. He went on to write up his encounter as an interview, casting light on Iraqi attitudes towards George Bush.

　　3.教師行業(yè)應(yīng)實(shí)行績(jī)效工資?

　　But Reginald Weaver, the president of the National Education Association, which represents 3.2 million teachers, says the federal focus should instead be on raising teacher salaries and improving working conditions in challenging schools. Craig Richards, a professor of education in the Teachers College at Columbia University, agrees. "It's not that a performance-pay plan couldn't work," he says. "It's that no one has come up with a thoughtful way to do it."

　　In Florida, a legislative plan called Special Teachers Are Rewarded collapsed early this year after educators and their unions called the plan arbitrary, unfair, and divisive. The STAR program would have given bonuses only to the top 25 percent of teachers in the state, and it was based largely on student test scores. It disadvantaged librarians, art and music teachers, and others whose students were not tested.

　　Carla Sparks, a nationally certified teacher in Tampa who didn't get a $2,000 bonus under the state's latest merit pay program last year, says it's unfair to rate a teacher mostly on student test scores. "If you're evaluating teachers and students on one day of testing, you don't get a true picture," she says. "We have some veteran teachers with outstanding evaluations who have done some remarkable things for education who did not get a bonus, and they are feeling like a failure."

　　雷金納德·韋弗，代表著3，200，000名教師的國(guó)家教育部主席，聯(lián)邦應(yīng)關(guān)注的是提高落后學(xué)校的教師工資，改善落后學(xué)校的工作條件。克雷格·理查茲，哥倫比亞大學(xué)教育學(xué)院的一位教育學(xué)教授對(duì)此表示同意說,“沒有人提出全面的解決方案。”在佛羅里達(dá)，今年初，一項(xiàng)叫做“特別教師獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)”的立案瓦解了，因?yàn)榻逃�者及其�?lián)盟稱它“武斷、不公、矛盾”�！靶怯�(jì)劃”只將獎(jiǎng)金發(fā)給州內(nèi)排名在前25%的教師，而這很大程度上是以學(xué)生的測(cè)試成績(jī)?yōu)橐罁?jù)的。這對(duì)圖書管理員、美術(shù)老師、音樂老師和那些教授不必測(cè)試科目的老師不利。

　　卡拉·斯帕克斯，坦帕市的一位國(guó)家級(jí)教師，在州實(shí)施最新的績(jī)效工資情況下，得到的獎(jiǎng)金不足2，000美元，說主要依據(jù)學(xué)生測(cè)試成績(jī)給教師排名是不公平的�！叭绻�以某一天的測(cè)試來評(píng)價(jià)教師和學(xué)生，那么你不可能獲知真實(shí)的情況，”她說，“我們一些有特別好評(píng)的資深教師曾為教育事業(yè)做出過突出貢獻(xiàn)，但他們并未得到獎(jiǎng)金，這使他們感覺很自己很失敗。”

　　4.年輕人對(duì)將會(huì)影響社會(huì)將來的重要決定沒有任何影響?

　　Han Han is China's rebel writer who has become the unofficial voice for his generation. As a teenager the 27-year-old began writing novels about angst-ridden characters that proved tremendously popular with China's angsty youth. But it is his blog that has propelled him to celebrity status in China and earned him the accolade as one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people of 2009. He's been touted as mouthpiece for the "post-80's generation"; China's youth who have grown up during the country's economic boom and are often characterized as apolitical and consumer-obsessed.

　　韓寒是一個(gè)已經(jīng)成為他的那一代的非官方聲音的中國(guó)叛逆作家. 這個(gè)27歲的青年開始寫一本關(guān)于焦慮纏身的角色并已經(jīng)在中國(guó)的憤青團(tuán)體中大熱的小說。但是他的博客才是將他推上中國(guó)的名人地位并為他掙到了2009年《時(shí)代》雜志全球最具影響力100人的榮譽(yù)的真正幫手。他已經(jīng)被追捧為80后的代言人;一群成長(zhǎng)于國(guó)家經(jīng)濟(jì)爆炸式增長(zhǎng)時(shí)期并經(jīng)常被描繪成不關(guān)心政治，癡迷于消費(fèi)的形象的中國(guó)青年。