下面是BEC關(guān)于郵件中心話題的對話，一起來練習(xí)吧。

　　Steve: Mike, do you need anything from the basement?

　　Mike. I have been with this company for almost seven months and I still have no clue what is in the basement.

　　Steve. Some people say that the most important division is down there.

　　Mike. What's that? Sales, marketing, accounting or human resources?

　　Steve. None of those! Why not come downstairs with me and meet all of the guys and gals from the mailroom?

　　Mike. The mailroom! What do they do there?

　　Steve: They take care of sending all of our mail and making sure that incoming letters find the right people.

　　Mike: Why would I want to go there?

　　Steve: Many great careers have started in the mail-rooms of world famous companies!

　　史蒂夫：邁克，你需要從地下室拿點什么東西嗎?

　　邁克：我到這家公司已經(jīng)快七個月了，可我還不知道地下室有什么東西。

　　史蒂夫：有些人說最重要的部門設(shè)在下面。

　　邁克：那是什么?銷售部、市場營銷部、財務(wù)部還是人事部?

　　史蒂夫：都不是!為什么不跟我到樓下看看，和郵件中心的伙計們認識認識?

　　邁克：郵件中心!他們在那里做什么?

　　史蒂夫：他們負責(zé)把我們的郵件發(fā)出去，并確保寄來的郵件準(zhǔn)確無誤地送到收件人手里。

　　邁克：我為什么要去那里?

　　史蒂夫：很多很棒的職業(yè)始于世界著名公司的郵件中心!

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　　NEW WORDS(生詞)

　　1) Basement: the bottom floor of a building

　　地下室：建筑物的底層

　　The basement of our building is said to be haunted but it's just a ghost story.

　　有人說我們這棟樓的地下室鬧鬼，這只不過是鬼話。

　　2) No clue: no idea, something that you don't know

　　不知道：沒有頭緒，你不知道的事情

　　At school, my economics teacher said that I had no clue about managing money - and he was right!

　　上學(xué)的時候我的經(jīng)濟學(xué)老師說我不會理財―他說對了!

　　3) Mailroom: place that incoming and outgoing mail is sorted for delivery

　　郵件中心：分揀來往郵件以便遞送的地方

　　My first job was working in a mailroom sorting mail.

　　我的第一份工作是在郵件中心里分揀郵件。

　　4) Career: a job with progressive achievements for which you have training

　　職業(yè)、事業(yè)：與你所受的教育相關(guān)、有發(fā)展的工作

　　These days, choosing a career is almost a full-time job itself.

　　現(xiàn)在，選擇一種職業(yè)本身幾乎是一項全職的工作。

　　LESSON：課文

　　The flow of information within an organization is absolutely vital to the success of any company. Without a smooth flow of ideas and information, a company can miss opportunities for profit.

　　對任何一家公司來說，機構(gòu)內(nèi)部信息的流入絕對是成功的關(guān)鍵。如果沒有平穩(wěn)流入的思想和信息，公司就可能坐失良機。

　　Before the invent of fax machines and email, mail was the only way to send information. To manage the inflow of large amounts of mail, companies established separate divisions just to sort incoming and outgoing mail.

　　在傳真機和電子郵件發(fā)明以前，郵寄是發(fā)送信息的唯一途徑。為了管理大量郵件的內(nèi)流，公司建立獨立的部門專門負責(zé)分揀往來郵件。

　　Mail-room staff would sort and record every piece of mail coming or leaving. They would take the outgoing mail to the post office for mailing and distribute incoming mail to the right person.

　　郵件中心(收發(fā)室)的員工要分揀和記錄每一封來往的郵件。他們將往外發(fā)的郵件送到郵局，并將寄來的郵件準(zhǔn)確無誤地分發(fā)到收件人的手中。

　　Because mailroom staff saw every piece of mail and other important information they often knew what was happening better than anyone else. This gave them a small amount of power that could be used to work their way out of the mailroom into a better job.

　　由于郵件中心(收發(fā)室)的員工可以看到每一封郵件和其他重要的信息，他們通常比其他人更了解行情。這就給了他們一點權(quán)力，他們可以利用它去做比收發(fā)員更好的工作。

　　Famous business managers who have started in the mailroom and slowly become business leaders include Victor Kiam of Remington (the razor company) and Jac Nasser the Chief Executive Officer of Ford Motor Company.

　　從收發(fā)員做起，慢慢成為商業(yè)巨頭的著名商業(yè)管理人有雷明頓公司(那家剃刀公司，編者注：另有一家著名的武器公司也命名為雷明頓公司)的維克多·凱恩和福特汽車公司的首席執(zhí)行官杰克·納賽爾。

　　The invention of email, fax machines and even the telephone have all accelerated the death of mail rooms within companies. Today, most mail-related jobs are done by secretaries and mail rooms have completely closed.

　　電子郵件、傳真機乃至電話的發(fā)明共同加速了公司內(nèi)部郵件中心(收發(fā)室)的死亡。今天，大多數(shù)與郵件相關(guān)的工作由秘書來完成，郵件中心(收發(fā)室)已經(jīng)完全消失了。