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
22
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 many people shared an office room with the writer?
选项
答案
Three.
解析
(由第三段第二句“My boss had a room at the front to himself, and behind him was a door leading to my den, which contained three others”,可知笔者与其他三个人共用一个办公室。)
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/LWyK777K
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
Somepeoplemaychoosetoliveonwaterforthepleasureandenjoymentofhavingahomethatisdifferentfromthehomesofmost
Nowadays,mostpeoplerealisethatit’sriskytousecreditcardonline.However,fromtimetotime,weallusepasswordsandgo
______,computerhasplayedanimportantroleinmodernlife.
ScottishwriterAdamSmithisoftenconsideredthemostimportanteconomisttheworldhaseverknown.Theconceptsofbargaining
TheMid-AutumnFestivalisanimportantfestivalinsomeAsiancountries.Becausethedateofthisfestivalissetaccordingto
TheMid-AutumnFestivalisanimportantfestivalinsomeAsiancountries.Becausethedateofthisfestivalissetaccordingto
ThesamewordcanbeaddedtotheendofGRASSandthebeginningofSCAPEtoformtwootherEnglishwords?
Excessivesugarhasastrongmal-effectonthefunctioningofactiveo【66】suchastheheart,kidneysandthebrain.Shipwrecked
CanadianauthoritiesrelayedthatsuspiciontotheU.S.CoastGuard,whichdispatchedacuttertointerceptthevessel.Aftera
随机试题
实行按劳分配原则的前提条件是()
A.草果B.佩兰C.厚朴D.霍香既能燥湿消痰。又能下气除满的药物是
将适当材料(清水、清浆或处方中部分药物的极细粉)泛制于筛选合格的成型丸粒上,使丸粒表面致密、光洁、色泽一致的操作,称为
关于小腿慢性溃疡说法不正确的是以下哪项
与牙体缺损的原因有关的是()
缝合时出现创缘内卷的主要原因是
保险产品整体概念的三个层次是()。
国务院于2013年5月13日上午召开全国电视电话会议,动员部署国务院机构职能转变工作。中共中央政治局常委、国务院总理李克强发表讲话。他强调政府要简政放权,(),创新管理,激发市场创造活力和发展内生动力。
【2013下】肖平、王东、高力与赵翔喜欢踢足球、爱观看足球比赛。但他们观看足球比赛的情绪表现却非常不一样。当自己喜欢的球星踢进一个好球时,肖平立刻大喊“好球好球”,同时兴奋得手舞足蹈;王东也挺激动,叫好并鼓掌,却没有肖平那般狂热,有时候还劝告肖平不要
Forthispart,youareallowed30minutestowriteashortessayentitledDiligenceHelpstoAchieveSuccessbycommentingonth
最新回复
(
0
)