Using English at Work：02 Arriving at Work(2)

I began by saying that when I woke up, I thought, "TGIF!"

"TGIF" is an "acronym," meaning that each letter is the first letter of another word.

"TGIF" (all capital letters) means "Thank goodness¹ it's Friday." Some people also say "Thank God it's Friday."

People say "TGIF" on Fridays to show that they are happy that the weekend is coming.

I said that I have been looking forward to the weekend and that all I need to do is get through, or to be able to finish, one more day of work.

So the day I am talking about must be Friday.

Then I drive to work and "pull into," or enter, a parking lot.

A "parking lot" is a flat, area where cars can be parked, usually if the driver pays a little bit of money.

In the United States, many businesses have parking lots in front of or behind their buildings.

In this case, the parking lot is next to my office building.

I stop my car at the security² gate.

A "security gate" is a metal bar or a door that goes across a road and stops cars and people from entering an area unless they have permission to do so.

There are security gates in front of most military buildings, for example, so that only soldiers or members of the military can go in.

Most areas that charge for parking (where you have to pay for the parking) have some sort of security gate to stop you from going in without paying or without permission.

When my car is stopped in front of the security gate I put my key card into the card reader.

A "key card" is a rectangular³ piece of plastic, like a driver's license⁴ or a credit⁵ card, which is used for identification⁶ and electronically tells a machine when someone should be allowed to do something.

1 goodness   

n.善良，善行，美德

参考例句：

• Would you have the goodness to turn off the radio?劳驾，请你把收音机关上好不好？
• Thank goodness,we've found a cure for the disease.好了，这病有救了！

2 security   

n.安全，安全感；防护措施；保证(金)，抵押(品)；债券，证券

参考例句：

• A security guard brought him down with a flying tackle.一名保安人员飞身把他抱倒。
• There was tight security at the airport when the President's plane landed.总统的专机降落时，机场的保安措施很严密。

3 rectangular   

adj.矩形的，成直角的

参考例句：

• He put a rectangular box on the table.他把一个长方形的箱子放在桌子上。
• The equations are written in rectangular coordinates.这些方程是在直角座标系中写出的。

4 license   

n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许

参考例句：

• The foreign guest has a license on the person.这个外国客人随身携带执照。
• The driver was arrested for having false license plates on his car.司机由于使用假车牌而被捕。

5 credit   

n.信用，荣誉，贷款，学分；v.归功于，赞颂，信任

参考例句：

• I credit him with a certain amount of sense.我认为他有一定的见识。
• He got the credit,and we did the dirty work.他得荣誉，我们做不讨好的工作。

6 identification   

n.视为同一，证明同一，确认

参考例句：

• He's made a formal identification of the body.他正式确认了死者身份。
• We should have identification card on the person when we go out.我们外出时应随身携带身份证。