通用商务：高级商务英语文本(1)

Managing in the Present
Present Tenses
Focus: time management and current problems facing a service company
1. Management themes
Read the following text and then discuss the questions below.
Time management has become one of the key issues of the second half of the twentieth century. Managers, grappling with work pressures and deadlines, have come to recognise that time is a precious commodity to be 'saved', 'gained', and not 'wasted' or 'lost'. But if time is a commodity, how then can we best describe, measure and manage it?
To describe and manage it, imagine a line that goes back to the beginnings of creation and continues into the mists of the future. And on that line are a number of significant marks-these separate the past from the present from the future. And within each time zone-past, present and future-we can differentiate¹ periods of time from points of time. For example, the 1980s gave us a period of rapid economic growth; black Monday was a point of sudden financial catastrophe².
How can this brief analysis help the international manager? Firstly, there is the link between past, present and future. In other words, historical performance should be a guide to the future, and the present ought to represent last year's forecast. So change-that which normally differentiates³ any two periods on our continuum-can be seen as a gradual evolution rather than a dramatic revolution.
Secondly⁴, the use of a time-planning system, on which key points and periods are plotted, enables managers to organise⁵ their activities so that bottlenecks⁶ can be avoided and deadlines can be met. So stress, where the jobs to be done exceed the available time, can be reduced to an acceptable and productive level.

1.1  Discussion
Does your organisation⁷ live in the present? Does it change with the times?
Do you work in a stressful environment? Do you think that time management can reduce stress?

1. 本课主题
阅读下面这篇由一位“商业医生”撰写的文章并就列出的问题进行讨论。
成功的起因
精神分析家们通过深入病人的过去——通常是病人的童年时代——来给他们治病，试图以此帮助他们了解现在的感觉和行为。公司顾问们试图通过了解他们客户的历史和跟踪记录来找出失败的根源或成功的起因。
从某些方面讲，公司顾问们的工作有时很简单，他们可以察看资产负债表和损益表来分析该公司的资产管理、盈利状况和费用控制情况。他们可以跟踪公司的历史，从开始盈利的头一件产品到现在的生产和服务规模。他们可以研究公司的组织结构、市场营销和人事制度，甚至工厂和办公室的布局等等。
然而，要正确指出一个公司失败而另一个公司的原因常常并非易事。公司向外界寻求建议是因为从内部找不到答案。公司期冀咨询人员能运用其丰富的经验——或许就是他（她）以前所诊断过的类似病例来为公司找出症结所在，开出使公司复苏的良方，进而为公司推荐一种新的自下而上方式以保证他们未来的健康发展和繁荣。

1.1 讨论问题
你们的公司是现代企业吗？它随着时代变化而变化吗？你的工作环境压力大吗？你认为很好地管理时间能减轻这种压力吗？

—生词与短语—
1．grapple with 与……搏斗，尽力解决
e.g. Some one tried to poach our market manager; she grappled with her moral dilemma⁸.
有人企图挖走我们的市场主管，面对这种道德难题，她进行了激烈的思想斗争。
2．differentiate  加以区分
3．black Monday 黑色星期一，指1987年10月国际股票市场崩溃的日子。
4．catastrophe   大灾难，大祸
e.g. The financial catastrophe initiated⁹ by the collapse¹⁰ of the stack market hit the country a deadly blow.
由股市崩溃引发的金融灾难，使这个国家遭受了致命的打击。
5．continuum  连续时间
6．dramatic 戏剧性的
7．exceed 超过
e.g. Supply exceeds demand. 供过于求

1 differentiate   

vi.(between)区分；vt.区别；使不同

参考例句：

• You can differentiate between the houses by the shape of their chimneys.你可以凭借烟囱形状的不同来区分这两幢房子。
• He never learned to differentiate between good and evil.他从未学会分辨善恶。

2 catastrophe   

n.大灾难，大祸

参考例句：

• I owe it to you that I survived the catastrophe.亏得你我才大难不死。
• This is a catastrophe beyond human control.这是一场人类无法控制的灾难。

3 differentiates   

区分，区别，辨别( differentiate的第三人称单数 )； 区别对待； 表明…间的差别，构成…间差别的特征

参考例句：

• This genus of plants differentiates into many species. 这种植物可分为许多种类。
• Our fax machine differentiates between an incoming fax signal and a voice call. 我们的传真机能区分接收传真信号和语音信号。

4 secondly   

adv.第二，其次

参考例句：

• Secondly,use your own head and present your point of view.第二，动脑筋提出自己的见解。
• Secondly it is necessary to define the applied load.其次，需要确定所作用的载荷。

5 organise   

vt.组织，安排，筹办

参考例句：

• He has the ability to organise.他很有组织才能。
• It's my job to organise all the ceremonial events.由我来组织所有的仪式。

6 bottlenecks   

n.瓶颈( bottleneck的名词复数 )；瓶颈路段（常引起交通堵塞）；（尤指工商业发展的）瓶颈；阻碍

参考例句：

• Roadworks are causing bottlenecks in the city centre. 道路施工导致市中心交通阻塞。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• At five o'clock in the afternoon the city streets are a series of bottlenecks. 下午五点市中心的街道就成了拥挤不堪的窄路。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

7 organisation   

n.组织，安排，团体，有机休

参考例句：

• The method of his organisation work is worth commending.他的组织工作的方法值得称道。
• His application for membership of the organisation was rejected.他想要加入该组织的申请遭到了拒绝。

8 dilemma   

n.困境，进退两难的局面

参考例句：

• I am on the horns of a dilemma about the matter.这件事使我进退两难。
• He was thrown into a dilemma.他陷入困境。

9 initiated   

n. 创始人 adj. 新加入的 vt. 开始，创始，启蒙，介绍加入

参考例句：

• He has not yet been thoroughly initiated into the mysteries of computers. 他对计算机的奥秘尚未入门。
• The artist initiated the girl into the art world in France. 这个艺术家介绍这个女孩加入巴黎艺术界。

10 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。