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Section D
Even if you get work done and generally get along with co-workers, you could
have habits that bug your boss (not to mention your officemates). While these
quirks may not necessarily get you fired, they certainly can keep you from
climbing the corporate ladder. We’ve uncovered a number of habits that bug your
boss and offer tips on how to avoid them.
According to LaRhonda Edwards, a human resources manager with thirteen years
of HR experience, tardiness is one of the biggest concerns for managers. “If the
normal work day starts at 8 o’clock, then the expectation is that you’re in the
office ready to start your day,” she explains. Her advice to the chronically
late? “Plan ahead,” she urges. “If you live 50 minutes away, you don’t leave 50
minutes early. Tag on extra time and anticipate road blocks.” Some people even
set their clocks a few minutes early to ensure that they’re on time. Different
bosses prefer different modes of communication. Lindsey Pollak, a workplace
expert and author of Getting from College to Career, says if you text your boss
and she prefers in-person meetings, “either your information won’t get across or
you’ll irritate [her].” Fortunately, there’s a simple fix: ask your boss how and
when to send updates. If you’re too shy to ask outright, then Pollak suggests
observing how they communicate with you. “If you have a boss who communicates
once a day by email, that’s the boss’ preferred frequency and method of
communication,” explains Pollak.
A cluttered, messy work space can give your boss the impression that you’re
lazy or disorganized, so try to keep your desk neat. “Never put more on your
desk than you’re going to work on for the day,” recommends Edwards. “At the end
of the day, make sure you set up for the next day. I may be working on five
things at once, but at the end of the day, they’re gone, and I set up for the
next day.” Most managers would rather you ask a question than make a mistake,
but many questions can be answered on your own. “Is this something you could
Google or ask a colleague?” wonders Pollak. “The internet is so vast that a lot
of information you can get yourself.” If you must approach your boss with a
question or issue, then Pollak recommends brainstorming beforehand. “Rather than
saying ‘This client is terrible. What should I do?’ think about potential
solutions,” she says.
Cell phones are practically ubiquitous in the workplace these days, but it’s
still disruptive and disrespectful when they go off during a meeting. Edwards
says that you should, “put your cell phone on vibrate or leave it in your own
office so it’s not a distraction.” That way you won’t be tempted to text
either
( )6.According to the article, how many pieces of advice are offered here?
.
A. Two B. Three C. Four D. Five(B)
( )7.What is this article about? .
A. How to be successful in the workplace.
B. How to communicate with your boss.
C. How to avoid quirks that annoy your boss.
D. How to utilize your mobile phones at work.
( )8.What does the phrase “to get across” in the sentence “…she prefers
in-person meetings, “either your information won’t get across or you’ll irritate
…” of the second paragraph mean? .
A. To be communicated B. To be passed
C. To be promoted D. To be anticipated(A)
( )9.According to the article, which of the following modes of communication
is the best when communicating with your boss? .
A. Any ways you think are appropriate.
B. In-person meetings.
C. Correspondence.
D. The way your boss communicates with you.(D)
( )10.Which of the following statements is not mentioned?
A. Employees should pay respect to their bosses anytime.
B. Employees should plan beforehand so as to show up at work on time.
C. Employees should not let their mobile phones go off during meetings.
D. Employees should keep their desks neat and organized.
Rogue theory of smell gets a boost
1.A controversial theory of how we smell, which claims that our fine sense of
odour depends on quantum mechanics, has been given the thumbs up by a team of
physicists.
2.Calculations by researchers at University College London (UCL) show that
the idea that we smell odour molecules by sensing their molecular vibrations
makes sense in terms of the physics involved.
3.That's still some way from proving that the theory, proposed in the
mid-1990s by biophysicist Luca Turin, is correct.But it should make other
scientists take the idea more seriously.
4."This is a big step forward," says Turin, who has now set up his own
perfume company Flexitral in Virginia.He says that since he published his
theory, "it has been ignored rather than criticized."
5.Most scientists have assumed that our sense of smell depends on receptors
in the nose detecting the shape of incoming molecules, which triggers a signal
to the brain.This molecular 'lock and key' process is thought to lie behind a
wide range of the body's detection systems: it is how some parts of the immune
system recognise invaders, for example, and how the tongue recognizes some
tastes.
6.But Turin argued that smell doesn't seem to fit this picture very
well.Molecules that look almost identical can smell very different — such as
alcohols, which smell like spirits, and thiols, which smell like rotten eggs.And
molecules with very different structures can smell similar.Most strikingly, some
molecules can smell different — to animals, if not necessarily to humans —
simply because they contain different isotopes (atoms that are chemically
identical but have a different mass).
7.Turin's explanation for these smelly facts invokes the idea that the smell
signal in olfactory receptor proteins is triggered not by an odour molecule's
shape, but by its vibrations, which can enourage an electron to jump between two
parts of the receptor in a quantum-mechanical process called tunnelling.This
electron movement could initiate the smell signal being sent to the brain.
8.This would explain why isotopes can smell different: their vibration
frequencies are changed if the atoms are heavier.Turin's mechanism, says
Marshall Stoneham of the UCL team, is more like swipe-card identification than a
key fitting a lock.
9.Vibration-assisted electron tunnelling can undoubtedly occur — it is used
in an experimental technique for measuring molecular vibrations."The question is
whether this is possible in the nose," says Stoneham's colleague, Andrew
Horsfield.
10.Stoneham says that when he first heard about Turin's idea, while Turin was
himself based at UCL, "I didn't believe it".But, he adds, "because it was an
interesting idea, I thought I should prove it couldn't work.I did some simple
calculations, and only then began to feel Luca could be right." Now Stoneham and
his co-workers have done the job more thoroughly, in a paper soon to be
published in Physical Review Letters.
11.The UCL team calculated the rates of electron hopping in a nose receptor
that has an odorant molecule bound to it.This rate depends on various properties
of the biomolecular system that are not known, but the researchers could
estimate these parameters based on typical values for molecules of this
sort.
12.The key issue is whether the hopping rate with the odorant in place is
significantly greater than that without it.The calculations show that it is —
which means that odour identification in this way seems theoretically
possible.
13.But Horsfield stresses that that's different from a proof of Turin's
idea."So far things look plausible, but we need proper experimental
verification.We're beginning to think about what experiments could be
performed."
14.Meanwhile, Turin is pressing ahead with his hypothesis."At Flexitral we
have been designing odorants exclusively on the basis of their computed
vibrations," he says."Our success rate at odorant discovery is two orders of
magnitude better than the competition." At the very least, he is putting his
money where his nose is.
Questions 5-9
Complete the sentences below with words from the passage.Use NO MORE THAN
THREE WORDS for each answer.
5.The hypothesis that we smell by sensing the molecular vibration was made by
______.
6.Turin's company is based in ______.
7.Most scientists believed that our nose works in the same way as our
______.
8.Different isotopes can smell different when ______ weigh differently.
9.According to Audrew Horsfield, it is still to be proved that ______ could
really occur in human nose.
