新世纪研究生公共英语教材阅读B课文原文及翻译
Unit1
Party Politics Judith Martin
1. Etiquette at an office party? Why, these people have been socializing happily every working day of their lives, give or take a few melees, rumors, and complaint petitions. All it takes to turn this into holiday merriment is a bit of greenery looped around the office—the staff will soon be looped, too. Surely it is enough that the annual Christmas party has the magic ingredients: time off from work, free food and drink, and a spirit of fun replacing such ugly work realities as sexual harassment.
2. Furthermore, partygoers figure, it offers relief from such pesky obligations as thanking anyone or being kind to wallflowers because there really aren?t any hosts. Nobody has to pay (that same Nobody who generously provides the telephone line for long-distance personal calls), and so nobody?s feelings need be considered.
3. This is all pure hospitality—there for the taking, like the office-supplied felt-tipped pens everyone has been pocketing all year. Out of the natural goodness of its corporate heart and the spirit of the holiday season, the company wishes only to give its employees a roaring good time, and the employees, out of loyalty and the thrill of getting to know their bosses off-duty as equals, delight in the opportunity.
4. For those still dimly aware of the once-standard give-and-take of real social life, this no-fault approach to business entertaining seems a godsend. In the now-rare domain of genuine society, hosts are supposed to plan and pay for the entertainment of their guests, on their own time and in their own houses. Guests have strict duties, as well—from answering invitations to cooperating with all arrangements, even to the extent of pronouncing them perfectly lovely.
5. Business entertaining appears to remove the burdens of time, effort, money, individual responsibility—and the etiquette connected with them. The people who do the planning are paid for their trouble, so those who benefit need not consider they have incurred a debt. Why, the annual Christmas party ought to be an inspiration to lower-level employees to work their way into realms where company-sponsored partying can be enjoyed all year long.
6. Not so fast. Flinty Miss Manners does not recognize any holidays from etiquette. (Employees, if not employers, should consider themselves lucky that she is only on the Party Committee, not the one that might take up ethical questions about those pens and calls.) Office parties differ from private ones but are no freer from rules.
7. If it were indeed true that everyone has a better time without etiquette, Miss Manners could easily be persuaded to take the day off. But having long served on the Office Party Etiquette Cleanup subcommittee, she is aware that things generally do not go well when there is no recognized etiquette and everyone is forced to improvise.
8. Let us look at all this spontaneous, carefree fun: There being no proper place for the boss, he or she hangs around the door, concerned about mixing with everyone. It might discourage hospitable bosses to see guests staring at them in horror and then slithering in by a side door. But etiquette?s solution of having everyone greeted in a receiving line was rejected as too stiff. So one can hardly blame employees for recalling a long-ingrained principle of the workplace: Seeing the boss and having a good time are best not scheduled at the same time.
9. Desperate to make the time count, the boss grabs the nearest available person and starts
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delivering practiced words about the contribution he makes to their great enterprise. The reaction is not quite what was hoped for. Discreet questioning establishes that this is an employee?s guest. He doesn?t work for the company, recognize the boss, or appreciate the attention—and, as a matter of fact, has only a passing acquaintance with the employee who issued the invitation. What this guest wants is not professional fellowship but a fresh drink, if the boss would kindly step out of the way.
10. Now, the reason the invitation said “and guest” was to avoid the ticklish issue of who is still married to whom and what the spouse calls itself. Last year, unmarried employees were furious when their partners were not included, and married employees complained that the forms by which their spouses were addressed were offensive: “Mrs.” offended women who preferred “Ms.,” and wives who had the same surnames outraged everybody who didn?t. This year, the complaints will be from spouses who were not told that there was a party or who were told that spouses weren?t invited—but found out otherwise. There won?t be many complaints. They will, however, be memorable, darkly charging the company with promoting immorality.
11. Meanwhile, what about those who are interested in promoting a bit of immorality, or just plain romance, of their own? They, too, are creating problems that will reach far into the new year. True office romances are the least of them, with their charges of favoritism and melding professional and personal time. More serious is the fact that, in spite of the liquor and high spirits, it still counts as sexual harassment when anyone with supervisory powers makes unreciprocated overtures to a lower-ranking employee. And foolhardy when a lower-ranking employee annoys a higher-ranking one.
12. Some employees have their minds only on business and will be spending party time actively promoting workaday concerns. Remembering the company rhetoric about open communications and all being in this together, they will actually seek out the boss, who by this time is grateful to be addressed by anyone at all.
13. But they don?t want to engage in platitudes. They accept compliments with: “Well, then how about a raise?” They plead for promotions, explain confidentially who ought to be fired, and advance previously submitted ideas about revolutionizing the business that have been unaccountably unappreciated for years. In one evening, they manage to cut through the entire hierarchy and procedures the boss has painstakingly established for the purpose of being spared this kind of importuning.
14. Eventually—usually somewhat late in the party—it occurs to someone that this informal setting is just the time to offer the boss some constructive personal criticism. What else does talking frankly and informally mean but an invitation to unload opinions without any career consequence?
15. Here is where the company has pulled a fast one on its employees. “Go ahead,” it has said, “relax, have a good time, forget about the job.” And the naive have taken this at face value. This event is called a party—a place where one lets loose without worrying about being judged by the cold standard of professional usefulness.
16. Even employees who adhere strictly to standard business dress in the office may not know what the bosses might consider vulgar in evening wear. Here is a chance to show off their racy and imaginative off-duty clothes. But over there are supervisors murmuring that people who look like that can?t really be sent out to represent the company.
17. Worse are the comments on anyone whose idea of fun is a little boisterous. It may be just the
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behavior that makes one a delight—or a trial—to one?s friends. But here, it is not being offered for the delight or tolerance of friends. It is being judged on criteria other than whether the person is a riot.
18. It is not that Miss Manners wants to spoil the office party by these warnings. She just wants to prevent it from spoiling careers. And the solution is what was banished from the party for being too inhibiting: etiquette.
19. The first formality that must come back is inviting everyone by name. The practice of merely counting every invitation as two is as dangerous as it is unflattering. But people who have been clearly identified and told that they must respond—the suggestion must be made neutrally, to show that the party is a treat, not a requirement—already have some sense that they are both individually sought after and expected to be responsible.
20. What constitutes a couple is a murkier question than Miss Manners and any sensible employer ought to investigate, but employees simply can be asked to supply the name of a spouse or friend they want to invite. (An office party can be limited by confining it to employees, in which case it should be held during office hours. But inviting spouses and such is better. Having to work is enough distraction from one?s more intimate relationships, and the staff was not compiled like a guest list, according to personal compatibility.
21. Since we have established, Miss Manners hopes, that the point of an office party is not whooping it up or telling people off, what is it? It is showing appreciation of the staff.
22. This starts with a well-run receiving line. However much popular opinion may regard receiving lines as nasty ordeals, they were invented to be, and remain, the easiest way to get everyone recognized by the key people. The oldest receiving-line trick in the world still works: Someone whose business it is to know everyone—or someone unimportant enough to be able to ask each guest his name—announces the guests to the host as they go through the line. The host can then scornfully declare: “Of course I know Annette. We couldn?t run this place without her.” For extra charm, the employee?s guest is also told how wonderful that employee is. This always seems more sincere than straight-out flattery, and from then on, whenever the employee complains that everyone at the office is an idiot, the spouse will counter by repeating that appreciation.
23. It is often erroneously assumed that the style of the party ought to be what employees are used to: their own kind of music, food, and other things the executive level believes itself to have outgrown. Nonsense. What employees want is a taste of high-level entertaining. This may vary greatly according to the nature of the business. If, however, the party is too formal for the employees? taste, they?ll get a good laugh and enjoy the contrast all the more when they continue partying on their own afterward.
24. The clever employee will dress as the executives do, keeping in mind that there are few fields in which people are condemned for looking insufficiently provocative. Refusing or limiting drinks is not the handicap at business parties that it may be under the overly hospitable eye of a private host. And the real opportunity for career advancement is not petitioning a boss but rescuing one who has been cornered or stranded, thus demonstrating that one knows how to talk charmingly about nonbusiness matters.
25. At the end, there is another receiving line. That is, the bosses plant themselves conspicuously by the exit, grabbing the hand of anyone trying to get away and thanking him for coming. Even the dimmest guest will then realize it is appropriate to thank back—that is, to realize that something has been offered and deserves gratitude.
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26. After all, isn?t that why the office Christmas party is given?
27. If the only goal were for the company to show the staff its appreciation, this could be effectively done with a day off and a bonus to go with it. 第一单元 晚 会 之 道 朱迪丝?马丁
1. 办公室晚会礼节？有这个必要吗？员工们每天开开心心地彼此交往，虽然时不时会推推撞撞，发生点儿口角，传播点儿谣言，或是联名写点儿投诉信。然而，只要将办公室稍做节日般的布置，所有这一切的不愉快即刻会化为其乐融融的喜庆气氛。员工们也很快会陶醉于其中，乐而忘忧。每年一次的圣诞晚会的确具有这种神奇的因素：扔下手头的工作、免费品尝美酒佳肴、还有肆意尽兴的狂欢，所有这一切均将诸如性骚扰之类令人厌恶的工作现实抛到九霄云外。
2. 参加晚会的人也明白这种场合省去了许多麻烦的礼节性应酬。因为没有东道主，所以不必特意感谢什么人，或是费神与缩在角落里没人理睬的客人搭讪。既然不是哪一个人买单（同样也不是哪一个人慷慨地为来宾提供免费私人长途电话），所以哪一个人的感受都不需要考虑 。
3. 所有这一切均为盛情款待——每个人都可以欣然接受，就像平日里一直顺手牵羊把办公室的毡头墨水笔放入自家口袋一样。基于公司的企业精神和节日欢庆的气氛，公司此时只希望为员工提供一次狂欢的聚会。而员工出于对公司的忠心，再加上能与老板们工余之际平等相识的兴奋，所以也就乐不可支地享受这一美好时刻。
4. 对那些仍然隐约记得生活中有付出才有获得之理的人而言，这种无忧无虑的公司娱乐简直就像是神赐的福祉。在现今这个罕有免费款待的社会，东道主需要花时间和精力在自己家招待来宾。而来宾也同样负有重任——从回复邀请、应承一切安排，直到礼貌地啧啧称赞晚会举办得无懈可击。
5. 公司娱乐似乎将时间、精力、金钱、个人义务以及与之有关的各种礼节负担统统抛开。组织晚会的人有偿付出，因此，参加晚会的来宾不必担心愧欠人情。一年一次的圣诞节本来就应该让低级别的员工感到一种理想氛围，那就是公司出钱筹办的晚会全年均可免费出席。 6. 先别想得太美了。严肃的礼节小姐可是从来不休假的（职员们，暂且不提雇主们，可真得庆幸自己还算走运，因为她只在晚会委员会任职，未在办公文具和私打公司电话清查委员会工作）。公司晚会有别于私人晚会，但礼节之道却一丁点儿也未变。
7. 如果不讲礼节大家会玩得更开心，那么礼节小姐真该放假休息了。但是在公司晚会礼节清查委员会供职数年以来，礼节小姐意识到，如果人人都任意性情不顾及相应的礼节，晚会往往不会尽如人意。
8. 我们一起来看看这种所谓即兴无忧的娱乐：老板不知道该呆在什么地方才好，他或她在门口徘徊，一心想着与众人打成一片。见到来宾惶恐地盯着自己，然后从边门溜进会场，此番情景足以令热情的老板心灰意冷。但是若采用旧时迎宾队列的方式与每个来宾逐一打招呼，又会显得过分迂腐和拘束。所以说，很少有人不同意员工们长期以来坚信的一条上班信念：觐见上司和尽情享乐最好不要同时发生。
9. 老板急于把握机会，于是顺手抓住身边最近的人，然后滔滔不绝地大讲自己事先反复练习过的一番赞美之辞，盛扬此人对公司的贡献。可是对方的反应却是始料不及。细心询问几句才知此人只是公司一位员工带来的客人，既不在公司工作，又不认识眼前的老板，甚至对方才的盛誉之辞也无动于衷——事实上，此人与邀请人也只是一面之交。这位客人此时需要的不是同行的友情，而是一杯提神的饮料。劳驾老板，请您让路。
10. 另外，邀请函上通常注明“以及佳宾”之类的话，目的是为了避开谁和谁仍是伴侣以及配
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偶如何称呼等敏感问题。去年，未婚的员工因为自己的伴侣未曾获邀而愤愤不平；已婚的员工由于自己配偶的称呼不当而牢骚满腹；“夫人”得罪了那些喜欢用“女士”称呼的来宾；冠用丈夫姓氏的太太们冒犯了那些不用丈夫姓氏的太太们。而今年，抱怨又会接踵而来。这次是因为起初没有人告知配偶公司举办晚会的消息，或是配偶被告知晚会不邀请家属参加。然而，事后这些配偶却发现事实并非如此。当然这类抱怨不会源源不断。但是这些配偶会记住此事，并私下斥责公司唆使员工不诚实。
11. 对于那些有意想欺瞒配偶或意欲发展一段浪漫恋情的人而言，情形会怎样呢？他们同样也会惹上来年都难以摆脱的麻烦。这些人之间很少会孳生真正的办公室恋情，因为此类行为难免有待人偏袒和公私混淆之嫌。还有更为糟糕的情形：尽管可以用酗酒过多和情绪兴奋作为托辞，但是上司戏谑一位无动于衷的下属的行为仍会被视为性骚扰；同样，下属对上司做出类似的举动则会被认为蛮勇无知。
12. 有些员工心里只想着工作，在晚会上跃跃欲试地提出自己的业务宏图。他们牢记公司曾倡导的自由交流精神，置身于此时此地，这班人会找到老板以求畅所欲言。而老板此刻正巴不得有人过来同自己打招呼。
13. 然而这些人并不想和老板只说些客套话，他们回应老板的称赞时会说：“给我加工资怎么样？”他们会恳求晋升，并胸有成竹地向老板解释谁应该被炒鱿鱼。接着他们进一步提出改进公司业务的建议，这些建议其实好几年前已经提出，但却不知为何无人赏识。他们试图在短短的一夜之内，逾越老板多年来千辛万苦构筑的用于抵挡这类恳求的层层阶梯和壁垒。 14. 最后——通常在晚会进入尾声阶段——有些人会忽然想起这种轻松的环境正是向上司诤谏的最佳时机。无拘无束、开诚布公不就意味着一吐为快而不必担心影响自己的事业前途吗？
15. 其实在这个问题上员工被公司迷惑了。公司说：“去吧，尽情地娱乐，忘掉工作。”幼稚的人会信以为真。认为这是晚会——一个让人彻底放松、为所欲为的场合，不必担心苛刻的职业行为规则的约束。
16. 即使是那些平日严守上班着装规定的员工，可能也无从知晓哪类晚装在老板们看来低俗不堪。他们会误以为晚会是展示自己大胆而有创意的休闲服饰的好机会。但是不远处的上司们可能正在私下嘀咕，认为穿那种服装的人绝不能被委派出任公司的代表。
17. 更糟糕的是那些尽情取乐、喧闹不止的员工。一个人令他人喜欢或厌恶很可能只取决于这个人的行为举止本身。但是员工在晚会上的行为不再是这种简单的令旁人产生好恶感的表现，而是被用来判断某人是否属于狂暴之徒的标准。
18. 礼节小姐提出上述警告并非旨在破坏公司晚会的快乐气氛。她只想防止晚会毁掉员工的事业前途。而这类问题的解决之道是曾因过分拘束而被晚会摈弃的方法：礼节。
19. 首先需要恢复的礼节是在发出邀请时写明每个受邀人的姓名。以往简单地把每一份请柬按两个人计算的做法既不保险又不能讨好他人。对那些被指明并告知需回复邀请的人而言——当然告知时的语气应尽量中立，表明晚会只是一次款待并非务须之事——他们应该意识到各自分别获邀并需回复是否出席。
20. 谁和谁结伴出席晚会是令礼节小姐和任何一位明智的雇主都感到难以查清楚的事情。不过可以让员工自己填写同行的配偶或朋友的姓名。(公司晚会可以只限于内部员工参加，并在上班时间内举行。但是邀请员工配偶或朋友参加效果会更好。因为外出工作已经疏离了员工同家人密友间的关系，而且平日员工工作时也不会象来宾名单那样按照彼此的意气是否相投进行组合。)
21. 礼节小姐希望上述所言已经表明公司晚会的目的不是任意嬉戏玩闹或是对他人说长道短。那么应该是什么呢？晚会的目的应该是表达对员工的感谢。
22. 这首先需要有一个安排恰当的迎宾队列。虽然许多人认为这种方式简直是活受罪，但一
药学与生物工程学院研究生学生会编辑2011.6.14
新世纪研究生公共英语教材阅读B 课文原文及翻译
