【正文】 ly deals with people who want to rent office space.In this sentence the writer is saying he is quite sure that neither the systems analyst nor the space salesman knows about each other’s work and what they actually do.7 The machines that make things make them in such a fashion that they will quickly fall apart in such a way that repairs will be prohibitively expensive. (Para 7)The expression in such a fashion means in a particular way or manner.The cost is prohibitively expensive when it prevents you from buying something, as it is beyond the limits of what you can afford. Or, we may say the cost is prohibitive.The sentence means that the machines make things in such a way that they will break or fall into pieces so that they can’t be cheaply repaired. It is implied that the things are made to be shortlasting so that the manufacturers can sell more later.8 The handful of people remotely associated with these machines can, of course, tell their inquisitive children “Daddy makes junk”. (Para 8)Inquisitive children are those who like to ask lots of questions, especially things that adults do not want to talk about.9 Most of the workforce, however, is too remote from junk production to sense any contribution to the industry. (Para8)The sentence means most workers are distant from the process of junk production so they do not feel that their work has any part in it.10 Others telephone to ascertain the whereabouts of paper. (Para 12)The expression ascertain the whereabouts of something means to find out where something is.11 Back at the office, the father orders the paper retyped and reproduced in quintuplicate, and then sent to another man for parison with paper that was reproduced in triplicate last year. (Para 16) The word quintuplicate means that something is made into five copies. To quadruplicate means to make into four copies。 refers to a phrase or idea that is boring because people use it a lot, and it is no longer original and sounds empty. The expression so run the clich233。 a poor case is weak and does not have solid facts or reasons behind it. You can state, make or argue a case.7 Take the example of globalization, which, according to its American champion, Thomas Friedman ... influencing “the politics, environment, geopolitics and economics of virtually every country in theworld”. (Para 3)The word champion here refers to someone who publicly supports or defends a set of beliefs or political aims, ie a strong supporter.Geopolitics means the study of how a country’s position, economy or population can influence its politics, especially in relation to other countries.8 The Roman Empire, for example, is nothing if not a multiethnic, multicultural, transnational entity … (Para 4)The word transnational means affecting or involving several countries. The prefix trans means across.9 And for all the hype about the Internet, the brutal truth is that most of us use it to do remarkably oldfashioned things ... (Para 6)Hype refers to the use of a lot of advertisements or other publicity to influence or interest people. To hype up means to make something sound more interesting or impressive than it is.The brutal truth refers to the truth that is extremely honest, given in a way that seems unkind.10 We are always being told that the Internet has “opened up” the world, yet a staggering 90 per cent of all web traffic is local. (Para 6)The word staggering means extremely surprising. Many people would think that much or most use, or traffic, of the World Wide Web would be global or international, but the writer says that, surprisingly, 90 per cent is local.11 When Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey … talking to sentient puters and living on the Moon. (Para 7)Sentient puters are puters which are capable of feeling things through the physical senses.12 But the cinemagoers of 1968 would have been deeply disappointed to realize that in fact they would be living in Milton Keynes and watching Midsomer Murders. (Para 7)This sentence presents a contrast with the previous sentence which gave a picture that people had in 1968 of possibly going into space. Instead, their future turned out to be living in a very ordinary town of many new streets which all seem identical (like Milton Keynes) and watching detective stories about rural villages on TV (like Midsomer Murders, a TV series based in rural southern England).13 Even our neophilia is nothing new. (Para 8)The prefix neo means modern or new. The suffix phile describes someone who loves or likes something。一名普通的系統(tǒng)分析師肯定不知道空間推銷員在店里都干些什么，就好像空間推銷員對(duì)分析系統(tǒng)的工具也一竅不通一樣。為了證明相比于先輩們的優(yōu)越性，我們夸耀說自己生活在一個(gè)前所未有的變革期。我認(rèn)為應(yīng)該安排一次面談，讓大家消除誤會(huì)，掃除溝通的障礙。 as baffled … as)We couldn’t make of their proposal at all, because it was no easy job for us to e to grips with their perspective. It was a safe bet that we were as much baffled about their way of thinking as they were about ours. I think we need to arrange a meeting to clear up misunderstandings and to remove munication barriers.2 從與他共事二十多年的一位同事所寫的傳記中不難得出這樣的結(jié)論：他所代表的絕對(duì)是該國(guó)二戰(zhàn)之后的精英階層，他們?cè)谧诮毯驼畏矫娴挠^念