Part A: Reading Comprehension

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Even in traditional offices, “the lingua franca of corporate America has gotten much more emotional and much more right-brained than it was 20 years ago,” said Harvard Business School professor Nancy Koehn. She started spinning off examples. “If you and I parachuted back to Fortune 500 companies in 1990, we would see much less frequent use of terms like journey, mission, passion. There were goals, there were strategies, there were objectives, but we didn’t talk about energy; we didn’t talk about passion.”

Koehn pointed out that this new era of corporate vocabulary is very “team” oriented—and not by coincidence. “Let’s not forget sports—in male-dominated corporate America, it’s still a big deal. It’s not explicitly conscious; it’s the idea that I’m a coach, and you’re my team, and we’re in this together. There are lots and lots of CEOs in very different companies, but most think of themselves as coaches and this is their team and they want to win.”

These terms are also intended to infuse work with meaning—and, as Rakesh Khurana, another professor, points out, increase allegiance to the firm. “You have the importation of terminology that historically used to be associated with non-profit organizations and religious organizations: terms like vision, values, passion, and purpose,” said Khurana.

This new focus on personal fulfillment can help keep employees motivated amid increasingly loud debates over work-life balance. The “mommy wars” of the 1990s are still going on today, prompting arguments about why women still can’t have it all and books like Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In, whose title has become a buzzword in its own right. Terms like unplug, offline, life-hack, bandwidth, and capacity are all about setting boundaries between the office and the home. But if your work is your “passion,” you’ll be more likely to devote yourself to it, even if that means going home for dinner and then working long after the kids are in bed.

But this seems to be the irony of office speak: Everyone makes fun of it, but managers love it, companies depend on it, and regular people willingly absorb it. As a linguist once said, “You can get people to think it’s nonsense at the same time that you buy into it.” In a workplace that’s fundamentally indifferent to your life and its meaning, office speak can help you figure out how you relate to your work—and how your work defines who you are.

31. According to Nancy Koehn, office language has become

[A]

less strategic. 

[B]

less energetic. 

[C]

more objective. 

[D]

more emotional. 

32. “Team”-oriented corporate vocabulary is closely related to

[A]

sports culture. 

[B]

gender difference. 

[C]

historical incidents. 

[D]

athletic executives. 

33. Khurana believes that the importation of terminology aims to

[A]

revive historical terms. 

[B]

promote company image. 

[C]

foster corporate cooperation. 

[D]

strengthen employee loyalty. 

34. It can be inferred that Lean In

[A]

voices for working women. 

[B]

appeals to passionate workaholics. 

[C]

triggers debates among mommies. 

[D]

praises motivated employees. 

35. Which of the following statements is true about office speak?

[A]

Linguists believe it to be nonsense. 

[B]

Regular people mock it but accept it. 

[C]

Companies find it to be fundamental. 

[D]

Managers admire it but avoid it. 

答案解析 (Answers & Explanations)

31. [D] more emotional.
解析：第一段第一句话直接给出了答案。Nancy Koehn 说：“企业美国的通用语言变得比20年前更具情感性（much more emotional），也更偏右脑（感性）”。这完美对应了选项D“更具情感性（more emotional）”。

32. [A] sports culture.
解析：第二段提到这种新词汇是非常“团队（team）”导向的，紧接着解释了原因：“我们不要忘记体育（Let’s not forget sports）——在男性主导的美国企业中，这仍然是件大事。……这是一种理念：我是一名教练，你们是我的团队”。这说明团队导向的词汇与“体育文化（sports culture）”密切相关，选A。

33. [D] strengthen employee loyalty.
解析：第三段提到，引入这些词汇旨在给工作注入意义，“并且正如Khurana所指出的，增加对公司的忠诚度（increase allegiance to the firm）”。“增加忠诚度”直接对应选项D中的“增强员工忠诚度（strengthen employee loyalty）”，allegiance 是 loyalty 的同义替换。

34. [A] voices for working women.
解析：第四段提到“20世纪90年代的‘妈咪战争’今天仍在继续，引发了关于为什么女性仍然不能拥有一切（why women still can’t have it all）的争论，以及像 Sheryl Sandberg 的《Lean In》这样的书”。既然这本书是关于女性无法兼顾事业和家庭的争论产物，那么它显然是“为职业女性发声（voices for working women）”，选A。

35. [B] Regular people mock it but accept it.
解析：最后一段第一句话揭示了职场黑话的讽刺之处（irony）：“每个人都取笑它（Everyone makes fun of it），但经理们喜欢它，公司依赖它，而普通人也心甘情愿地吸收/接受它（regular people willingly absorb it）”。“取笑（makes fun of）”对应选项B中的 mock，“吸收（absorb）”对应 accept。因此普通人是“嘲笑它但又接受它”，选B。

核心长难句精解 (High-Light)

1. 虚拟语气与对比结构：
"If you and I parachuted back to Fortune 500 companies in 1990, we would see much less frequent use of terms like journey, mission, passion."
【解析】这是一个经典的对过去（或假设的不可能发生的现在）进行虚拟的条件句。`If... parachuted..., we would see...`（如果我们空降回1990年，我们将会看到...）。通过虚拟语气，生动地对比了过去“缺乏感情”的职场词汇与现在的差异。

2. 并列的同位语从句与插入语：
"It’s not explicitly conscious; it’s the idea that I’m a coach, and you’re my team, and we’re in this together."
【解析】`that` 引导同位语从句解释 `the idea`，而在从句内部，使用了三个由 `and` 连接的并列短句，完美还原了企业高管试图营造的“体育竞技”氛围。

3. 让步状语从句与条件状语从句嵌套：
"But if your work is your “passion,” you’ll be more likely to devote yourself to it, even if that means going home for dinner and then working long after the kids are in bed."
【解析】主句由 `if` 引导的条件句（如果工作是激情）构成；其后跟着 `even if` 引导的让步状语从句（即使这意味着...）。这句话极其深刻地揭露了“passion”这种职场黑话的本质：让员工心甘情愿地免费加班。