VOA标准英语2011--Hallmark Produces Greeting Cards for Job

Hallmark Produces Greeting Cards for Jobless People

Many Americans are getting what are known as “pink slips” these days.
They’re losing their jobs because of plant closings, the move of operations overseas, downsizing of companies’ workforces¹, or sometimes just because the boss decides that someone else could do a better job.
However you get the news, it hurts, especially when you see how many others are “on the street,” as they say - unemployed² and also looking for work.
What does one say to someone in this position? How should one express condolences, encouragement and support?
Hallmark, the nation’s largest maker³ of greeting cards, has one answer. It has come up with a series of cards that you can send to those who have lost their jobs.
Sympathy cards of a sort.
Some of them take a lighthearted approach. “Don’t think of it as losing your job,” one card reads. “Think of it as a time between stupid bosses.”
Others are more serious. "It’s hard to know what to say at a sensitive time like this,” reads one cover, beneath the illustration of an unemployment line. Inside is the message, “How about ‘I’m buying,’” as in, offering your friend a meal or a drink.
Hallmark says the cards are selling well. The owner of a gift shop in Dallas, Texas, told CBS television that “they’re flying off the shelf.” Someone else told the network that, in these days of impersonal⁴ email and mobile communication, getting a card in the mail is an extra touch that would be well received.
But the cards have been mocked⁵ by many online commentators⁶. They’re actually insensitive, they say, compared with in-person expressions of support.
Other observers go so far as to say that in the current economic environment, it would be better to send a suddenly unemployed person the $3 you spent on the sympathy card.

1 workforces   

全体员工( workforce的名词复数 )； （国家或行业等）劳动力； 劳动大军； 劳动人口

参考例句：

• The Web has allowed companies to become more distributed and workforces to become more flexible. 网站已允许各公司更加分散，工作队伍也变得更加灵活。
• They are large centres of business in their own with skilled workforces and business-friendly environments. 从自身条件来说，它们都是大型商业中心，拥有大批技能型劳动力和友好的商业运作环境。

2 unemployed   

adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的

参考例句：

• There are now over four million unemployed workers in this country.这个国家现有四百万失业人员。
• The unemployed hunger for jobs.失业者渴望得到工作。

3 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

4 impersonal   

adj.无个人感情的，与个人无关的，非人称的

参考例句：

• Even his children found him strangely distant and impersonal.他的孩子们也认为他跟其他人很疏远，没有人情味。
• His manner seemed rather stiff and impersonal.他的态度似乎很生硬冷淡。

5 mocked   

愚弄，嘲弄( mock的过去式和过去分词 )； 使受挫折； 不尊重，蔑视

参考例句：

• Those who mock history will be mocked by history. 嘲弄历史的人必将被历史所嘲弄。
• The river mocked all the enemy's efforts to cross. 敌人作了一切努力还是没能过河。

6 commentators   

n.评论员( commentator的名词复数 )；时事评论员；注释者；实况广播员

参考例句：

• Sports commentators repeat the same phrases ad nauseam. 体育解说员翻来覆去说着同样的词语，真叫人腻烦。
• Television sports commentators repeat the same phrases ad nauseam. 电视体育解说员说来说去就是那么几句话，令人厌烦。 来自《简明英汉词典》