首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Lazy Money A)There’s no question that procrastination(拖延)in the workplace is an economic drag. People who step out for coffee or
Lazy Money A)There’s no question that procrastination(拖延)in the workplace is an economic drag. People who step out for coffee or
admin
2015-07-31
24
问题
Lazy Money
A)There’s no question that procrastination(拖延)in the workplace is an economic drag. People who step out for coffee or a smoke are, by definition, taking time off from work. And while breaks are frequently necessary to get the creative juices flowing, in this just-in-time economy of long supply chains and 24-7 operations, procrastination is an overwhelming economic negative. But if individual companies lose out when workers doodle(乱涂)on letterhead, send instant messages to their friends, or take frequent YouTube breaks, procrastination can sometimes be a zero-sum game. When you blow off your job, you may be generating sales for somebody else’s employer. The more time you waste, the more money someone makes.
B)Americans can invest in pretty much everything today, but it’s not yet possible to invest in procrastination. You can, however, buy shares in companies whose products and services encourage, abet(怂恿), and enable time wasting and delay. It may even be a good investment; recent research suggests that procrastination is on the rise. Thirty years ago just 5 percent of Americans were self-described "chronic procrastinators"; today that number is up to 26 percent.
C)Of course, the best deals are likely out of our reach in the private equity market—you and I can’t yet invest in Facebook. And many of the other best time wasters are embedded in conglomerates(大型联合企业)that make them far from pure plays, viz. , MySpace and News Corp. But with the assistance of Slate’s stock research department, we’ve assembled a procrastinator’s portfolio, seven stocks that represent different sectors of the sultans of slackerdom.
Starbucks
D)The coffee break is perhaps the oldest and most enduring form of taking time off from regularly scheduled work hours. While Dunkin’ Donuts bills itself as a pit stop for people in a hurry, Starbucks invites procrastinators to sit for a spell, with its comfy chairs, Wi-Fi service, sweet snacks, and gentle boomer-friendly music. The downside: the stock performs poorly in slack economic times, as $4 lattes are an early casualty of penny-pinching.
eBay
E)The online swap(交换)meet is a procrastinator’s paradise. If the competing demands for your attention are preparing a quarterly report or browsing for used Steinway pianos, finishing a paper or taking a look through the 27 257 items on offer in the Home Art & Crafts category, it’s really a no-brainer. eBay is doubly levered to discretionary(自由决定的)e-commerce spending: it makes money when transactions are completed on eBay or on subsidiaries like StubHub, and the company cashes in again if the payments are processed by its PayPal subsidiary.
Altria
F)In the workplace, tobacco is second only to coffee as a time-wasting, consumable vice. Yes, cigarettes are expensive. But Altria, through its Philip Morris subsidiary, makes products to which its customers are physically addicted. That renders the company somewhat immune to the ups and downs of a consumer economy. By passing ever more restrictive laws regulating the time, place, and manner of smoking, society continues to impose additional costs on the use of cigarettes. Ironically, these barriers help make smoking all the more appealing as a procrastination mechanism. In New York smokers who toil in office buildings must wait for an elevator and then clear security going in and out of the building. Forced to congregate with other smokers on patches of concrete, they inevitably engage in further time-wasting conversation. A single cigarette can easily burn up 15 minutes. Bonus: Altria owns a big chunk of beer giant SABMiller, whose products help fuel late afternoon and evening time wasting.
The New York Times
G)When the economy is in the gutter, when cash is low and when the purpose of time wasting shifts from blowing off work to blowing off the search for work, products that offer free or low-cost time-wasting opportunities become more attractive. And for procrastinators of the better sort, there’s no better outlet than The New York Times. Read the full contents of today’s newspaper, check out the expanding roster of blogs, half-heartedly search for a job in the classifieds, or wholeheartedly engage in real estate voyeurism by checking out condo ads. Later in the week the crossword puzzle can make the long acres of the afternoon pass by in the blink of an eye. Subsidiary About, com is also an excellent time sink. In the first quarter, while the consumer economy was in the tank, the New York Times’s online advertising revenues rose a healthy 18 percent.
Apple
H)For users of PCs, time wasting may be confined to playing solitaire(单人纸牌游戏). But iMacs and MacBooks, which generally arrive embedded with cool video features, offer lazy, creative slackers the ability to waste time by making movies and engaging in iChats—without having to buy and install new software. And in iTunes Apple has developed the online equivalent of that increasingly rare time-wasting destination, the used record store. Why work when you can explore and sample the 145 versions of "Danny Boy", including a truly unfortunate rendering by Tom Jones!
Google
I)Google is one of our age’s great productivity tools. It’s also one of our age’s great counterproductivity tools. Every time you waste time thusly, Google profits. In recent years Google has aggressively moved to corner the procrastination market by acquiring Doubleclick, which serves up ads when surfers log on to sites, and by buying the ne plus ultra of procrastination: YouTube. Endlessly entertaining and best used at work, where broadband connections allow for trouble-free downloads, YouTube has replaced television as the most reliable source of nonedifying(消遣的), time-consuming daytime viewing activity.
Akamai
J)Here’s one of the central contradictions of the procrastination economy: as Web surfers waste time by poking around the furthest reaches of the Internet, they don’t like to waste time. When websites are slow to load, when video seems to buffer endlessly without playing, these are the times that try souls. And businesses know this. So they turn to Akamai, the company whose services "enable enterprises, government agencies, and Web-centric businesses to deliver content and applications faster, overcome infrastructure obstacles, accelerate online initiatives, and minimize cost." Translation: it helps procrastinators load their sudoku games faster.
The users of PCs may play card games for time wasting.
选项
答案
H
解析
同义转述题。定位句指出,对于使用电脑的人来说,消磨时间的方式可能是局限于玩单人纸牌游戏。题干是对定位句的同义转述,故答案为H)。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/Bgl7777K
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
Livinginatimewhenanever-increasingnumberofnewsproviderspushaconstantstreamofheadlinesatuseveryday,peopleca
WhyTeenagersReallyDoNeedanExtraHourinBed?A)"Makingteensstartschoolinthemorningis’cruel’,"braindoctorclaim
WhyTeenagersReallyDoNeedanExtraHourinBed?A)"Makingteensstartschoolinthemorningis’cruel’,"braindoctorclaim
A、Clothesmatching.B、Makingfriends.C、Stressrelieving.D、Interviewpreparation.D题干考查讲习班的用途。对话中,男士询问这里是不是准备面试的讲习班,女士回答说这里是面试课
A、Mostpeoplecanbearthelosingoftheirwalletsbutnotcellphones.B、Mostpeopleadmitmobilephonesarethe"remotecontro
Mostparents,Isuppose,havehadtheexperienceofreadingabedtimestorytotheirchildren.Andtheymusthave【B1】______howd
IntheAmericanfamily,thehusbandandwifeusuallyshareimportantdecision-making.Whenthechildrenareoldenough,theytak
IntheAmericanfamily,thehusbandandwifeusuallyshareimportantdecision-making.Whenthechildrenareoldenough,theytak
Tosomeit’sadreamjob—eatingdeliciousmealsforfreeandthenwritingaboutthem.Butforsomefoodcritics,theireyesar
WhySummerVacationWon’tMakeYouHappierA)Fromaninformalandhighlyunscientificsurveyoffriendsandcolleagues,Icanre
随机试题
脊髓损伤后应如何治疗?
A.柴胡疏肝散B.大七气汤C.八正散D.沉香散E.六磨汤治疗气淋实证的主方是
桥梁上部结构采用现浇法施工的有()。
基金监管职责分工的总体要求不包括()。
按消费行为分类,许多企业主要从()收集数据、进行分析。
卡内基曾经说过:“你知道是什么原因使你没有成为白痴吗?其实不是什么了不起的东西,只不过是你甲状腺的碘而已,价值不高,才5分钱。如果别人割开你的甲状腺,取出一点碘,你就变成一个白痴。”这句话的意思是()。
我国对作品实行()原则;作者在作品完成时即取得著作权,受法律保护。
现今的天文科普之热,是否也应带给其他专业的科普工作者一些启示?比如,要让大众真正了解一个学科,除了灌输知识为主的讲座、海报,能否试试另一种“人文路线”,讲讲学科中体现出的自然之美、人类探索精神之美?当然更重要的,是培养一支愿意全情投入的科普工作者队伍。做到
在劳动者与用人单位签署劳动合同的同时,国家还会规定劳动的基本条件,保护劳动者的合法权益,这体现了我国《劳动法》基本原则中的()
Thebedhasbeen______inthefamily.Itwasmygreatgrandmother’soriginally.
最新回复
(
0
)