单选题
Even in traditional offices, "the
lingua franca
of corporate America has gotten much more emotional and much more right-brained than it was 20 years ago," said Harvard Business School professor Nancy Koehn. She started spinning off examples. "If you and I parachuted back to Fortune 500 companies in 1990, we would see much less frequent use of terms like
journey, mission, passion
. There were goals, there were strategies, there were objectives, but we didn"t talk about
energy
; we didn"t talk about
passion
."
Koehn pointed out that this new era of corporate vocabulary is very "team"-oriented—and not by coincidence. "Let"s not forget sports—in male-dominated corporate America, it"s still a big deal. It"s not explicitly conscious; it"s the idea that I"m a coach, and you"re my team, and we"re in this together. There are lots and lots of CEOs in very different companies, but most think of themselves as coaches and this is their team and they want to win."
These terms are also intended to infuse work with meaning—and, as Rakesh Khurana, another professor, points out, increase allegiance to the firm. "You have the importation of terminology that historically used to be associated with non-profit organizations and religious organizations, terms like
vision, values, passion
, and purpose," said Khurana.
This new focus on personal fulfillment can help keep employees motivated amid increasingly loud debates over
work-life balance
. The "mommy wars" of the 1990s are still going on today, prompting arguments about why women still can"t have it all and books like Sheryl Sandberg"s
Lean In
, whose title has become a buzzword in its own right. Terms like
unplug, offline, life-hack, bandwidth
, and
capacity
are all about setting boundaries between the office and the home. But if your work is your "passion," you"ll be more likely to devote yourself to it, even if that means going home for dinner and then working long after the kids are in bed.
But this seems to be the irony of office speak: Everyone makes fun of it, but managers love it, companies depend on it, and regular people willingly absorb it. As a linguist once said, "You can get people to think it"s nonsense at the same time that you buy into it." In a workplace that"s fundamentally indifferent to your life and its meaning, office speak can help you figure out how you relate to your work—and how your work defines who you are.
单选题
According to Nancy Koehn, office language has become ______.
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】[解析] 根据题干关键词中的“office language(办公室语言)”可定位到文章第一段第一句“…the
lingua franca
of corporate America has gotten much more emotional and much more right-brained than it was 20 years ago…”。句中的“lingua franca of corporate(公司通用语)”与题干中的“office language”对应。故答案为A。
单选题
"Team"-oriented corporate vocabulary is closely related to ______.
单选题
Khurana believes that the importation of terminology aims to ______.
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】[解析] 根据题干关键词Khurana可定位到文章第三段。该段第一句意为：这些术语的存在也是为了使工作获得含(These terms are also intended to infuse work with meaning)，从而增长对公司的忠诚(allegiance)。题干中的“aims to”与文章第三段第一句中的“are intended to”为同义替换。D项意为“加强雇员的忠诚度”，与原文内容相符。故答案为D。
单选题
It can be inferred that
Lean In
______.
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】[解析] 根据题干关键词“
Lean In
”可定位到文章第四段第二句“The "mommy wars" of the 1990s are still going on today, prompting arguments about why women still can"t have it all and books like Sheryl Sandberg"s
Lean In
, whose title…”。该句意为：“妈咪之战”依然激起了女性为何不能兼顾工作与家庭的讨论，并推动了
Lean In
这类书籍的出现。由此可推知，
Lean In
这本书道出了许多职场女性的困扰，与A项对应。故答案为A。
单选题
Which of the following statements is true about office speak?
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】[解析] 根据题干关键词“office speak”可定位到文章第五段。该段第一句提到，每个人都取笑办公室语言，但是经理们喜欢它，公司依赖它，而普通人也愿意吸收它。第二句紧接着就进行了补充说明，你可以让人们一边觉得这是废话，一边又买它的账。综上所述，D项Regular people mock it but accept it(普通人取笑它但是愿意接受)符合文意，故答案为D。