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
Start at the beginning: Civil Service clerk, temporary, at the local Ministry of Works depot in my hometown, can’t get any lower
Start at the beginning: Civil Service clerk, temporary, at the local Ministry of Works depot in my hometown, can’t get any lower
admin
2013-02-03
56
问题
Start at the beginning: Civil Service clerk, temporary, at the local Ministry of Works depot in my hometown, can’t get any lower than that. At the base of the bureaucratic pyramid, buried alive in fact, the temporary clerk is the navy of the Civil Service, without status or security. When I took the job I’d only worked in factories, and so I was a bit in awe of the office world I was about to enter. As an apprentice, queuing in the spotless corridor on Thursday outside the wage windows, peering in at the comparative purity of desks and paper and slick, dandified staff, you got a queer, dizzy sensation. My brother was a clerk himself, at the Council House, but I never connected him with this Thursday vision.
On my first day as a clerk, going down the street with my brother, I confessed how nervous I was. "Listen, " he said, "you can write your name, can’t you? You can add up? Then you can be a clerk. "
It was true. The depot was a big old house near the city centre, with the offices upstairs. My boss had a room at the front to himself, and behind him was a door leading to my den, which contained three others. This boss, a big, bumbling, embarrassed man, addressed us all with the "Mr. " fixed firmly between, as if to maintain his distance. Everyone accepted his remoteness as inevitable, something which struck me as weird from the beginning, especially as you had to go to and fro behind his chair to the outer door every time you went anywhere. The boss sat through it all encased in silence and dignity, like an Under Secretary.
Holed up in the back room it was snug and at first I liked it, till the novelty wore off and the chronic, stagnant boredom began to take over. An old man, the only other temporary, made tea in the comer where he sat, and he did all the menial labouring jobs, stamping and numbering timesheets, sorting vouchers: so at first I helped him. The other two did the more skilled entering and balancing, working on wage sheets and other mysteries I never penetrated. It seemed to culminate, their activity, in the grand climax of pay-day, which was Friday. Then the boss, for an hour or so, came out of his fastness and was nearly human. He would march in smiling with the box stuffed full of money, and together they would count and parcel it. Out went the box again, stuffed with pay envelopes.
The old man was treated with amiable contempt by the established clerks, who asserted their superiority now and again, and, as the old man was deaf, kept up a running commentary, half fun and half malice, which they evidently found necessary to break the monotony. Before long I needed it as much as they did. The worst aspect of a clerk’s existence was being rubbed into me : it’s how prison must be. At first you don’t even notice, then it starts to bite in. Because of the terrible limitation of your physical freedom--chained to a desk is right--you are soon forced to make your own amusements in order to make life bearable. You have to liven it up. And with the construction comes inevitably an undertow of bitterness and all kinds of petty behaviour arise out of the rubbing frustration, the enforced closeness. Plenty of it is malicious.
Another clerical job, at a builder’s merchants, was redeemed to some extent by the fact that you were actually in the warehouse, among storemen, sales reps, and all the tangible, fascinating paraphernalia of the trade. Racks and bins and lofts stacked with it. One occupational hazard facing a clerk is always the sense of futility he struggles against, or is more often just overwhelmed by. Unlike even the humblest worker on a production line, he doesn’t produce anything. He battles with phantoms, abstracts ;runs in a paper chase that goes on year after year, and seems utterly pointless. How can there be anything else other than boredom in it for him?
How did the writer feel when he first went to the Civil Service office with his brother?
选项
答案
He felt nervous.
解析
(由第二段第一句“On my first day as a clerk, going down the street with my brother, I confessed how nervous I was”,可知答案为He felt nervous。)
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/GWyK777K
本试题收录于:
A类竞赛(研究生)题库大学生英语竞赛(NECCS)分类
0
A类竞赛(研究生)
大学生英语竞赛(NECCS)
相关试题推荐
Notkeenonreading?Doyouhavetroublefindinganovelthatarousesyourinterest?WhynotfollowAmmonShea’sexampleandsta
Somepeoplemaychoosetoliveonwaterforthepleasureandenjoymentofhavingahomethatisdifferentfromthehomesofmost
Alice’sAdventuresinWonderland(oftenshortenedtoAliceinWonderland)isgenerallythoughtofasoneofthegreatestbooksf
Thetermcultureshockwasintroducedforthefirsttimein1958todescribetheanxietyproducedwhenapersonmovestoacompl
Scientistsareparticularlyinterestedinthebrainsofpeoplewhospeakmorethanonelanguage【C1】flu______becausethatskill
A、Hispromise.B、Thepriceofhisproduct.C、Hisbusinessstrategy.D、Thequalityofhisproduct.D对话中女士问男士有没有令客户信服,男士回答说客户们对我们的
Thepoliceaccusedhim________settingfiretothebuildingbuthefirmlydenied________intheareaonthenightofthefire.
A、Itbecametoobig.B、Itnolongerinterestedher.C、Shewantedtosellit.D、Shewantedtodosomethingelse.B根据对话中的“Now1ju
WhichofthefollowingisaCanadianprovince?
FastBAA’sHeathrowExpressistherevolutionarynon-stoptrainservicethatspeedsbetweenHeathrowAirportandPaddington
随机试题
自然界有许多植物的叶子会动,比如含羞草、合欢等豆科植物白天张开叶子,晚上会合上叶子“睡眠”;捕蝇草的叶子能闭合起来,捕食苍蝇等昆虫。像含羞草、合欢等植物的这种“睡眠运动”自古以来就受到人们关注,可是植物为什么会睡眠,却一直是个【1】。18世纪,法
《中华人民共和国劳动法》规定国家通过()和社会发展,创造就业条件,扩大就业机会。
当患者失血过多时可采用贫血合并急性呼吸窘迫综合征时,可采用
A.去枕平卧位B.平卧位C.仰卧中凹位D.半卧位E.高斜坡卧位休克病人应采取
兔出血症病毒属于
某企业在五年前就准备购建一条生产线,并已经做了前期调查和可行性分析,支付相关费用10万元。但由于资金没有落实,该项目被搁置下来。现在已经筹集到该项目所需要的资金,企业重提旧事。该生产线购置费1500万元,预计可使用10年,预计每年将发生维护修理费用10
债务融资的资金融出方所获得的报酬有()。
在古代社会中,对国王的称呼有很多。下列选项中,把国王尊称为“法老”的是()。
一、注意事项1.申论考试与传统的作文考试不同,是分析驾驭材料的能力与表达能力并重的考试。2.作答参考时限:阅读资料40分钟,作答110分钟。3.仔细阅读给定的资料,按照后面提出的“申论要求”依次作答在答题纸指定位置。
在软件测试中,检查各模块间接口关系、各模块组合在一起时的功能是否满足总的功能要求的测试是( )
最新回复
(
0
)