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
23
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 difference between Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts lies in that Starbucks serves people who want a rest while Dunkin’ Donuts serves people in a hurry.
选项
答案
D
解析
同义转述题。由定位句可知,唐恩都乐把自己宣传为是为忙碌的人提供短暂休息的场所,而星巴克却倡导用舒适的椅子、甜品等服务吸引那些有空闲时间的人。题干是对定位句的同义转述,故答案为D)。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/Igl7777K
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
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
Mostofuswouldshyawayfrommakingpurchasesinaforeigncountryifwedidn’tknowtheexchangerate.Yet,ifprivacyisthe
Mostofuswouldshyawayfrommakingpurchasesinaforeigncountryifwedidn’tknowtheexchangerate.Yet,ifprivacyisthe
Amidasummerofrecord-settingheat,anewsurveyfindsthatmostofGenerationX’s(20世纪60年代到70年代初出生的美国人)youngandmiddle-agea
Newresearchshowsgirlswhoregularlyhavefamilymealsaremuchless【C1】______toadoptallkindsofextremeweightcontrol【C2】
IntheAmericanfamily,thehusbandandwifeusuallyshareimportantdecision-making.Whenthechildrenareoldenough,theytak
IntheAmericanfamily,thehusbandandwifeusuallyshareimportantdecision-making.Whenthechildrenareoldenough,theytak
WhySummerVacationWon’tMakeYouHappierA)Fromaninformalandhighlyunscientificsurveyoffriendsandcolleagues,Icanre
随机试题
A.然谷B.太溪C.照海D.阴谷五输穴中的合穴为
某饮料生产厂家去年改变了他们生产的某种著名饮料的成分,而同时印度洋某小岛的出口额开始下降。这个小岛的唯一出口产品——香子兰豆,占据全球供应量的一半以上。因此,分析家们认为:该著名饮料原来的成分里含有从香子兰豆提取的香子兰,但是新成分里没有。以下陈
患者,男,64岁。腹胀、食欲缺乏、双下肢水肿半年,伴右上腹疼痛1个月。既往有冠心病、高血压病病史。无肝炎病史及密切接触史。查体:血压160/95mmHg,巩膜黄染,面部及前胸部可见数个蜘蛛痣。右下肺呼吸音减低,叩浊,心率108次/分,律齐。腹部膨隆,肝脾触
关于医疗事故构成中主体要件的错误说法是()
商代的主要法律有哪些?
依据《建设项目竣工环境保护验收技术规范生态影响类》,对于()项目,验收调查应在工况稳定、生产负荷达到近期预测生产能力(或交通量)75%以上的情况下进行。
以下是三位教师在进行“燃烧和灭火”一节的教学时导入环节的设计方案。方案一:教师给学生预备了实验用品,包括:酒精灯、火柴、纸条、煤块、小石块、坩埚钳。教师给学生的任务是:每组从实验用品中选定一种物质为操作对象,在30s内动手让这种物质燃烧。并且当教师数到
求下列各微分方程的通解:
Increasingly,overthepasttenyears,people--especiallyyoungpeople--havebecomeawareoftheneedtochangetheireating
Thereiswidespreadconsensusamongscholarsthatsecondlanguageacquisition(MB1SLA)emergedasadistinctfieldofresearchfr
最新回复
(
0
)