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.

1.According to Nancy Koehn, office language has become _________.

A less strategic

B less energetic

C more objective

D more emotional

解析：选D。D 细节理解题。根据第一段第一句可知，the lingua franca of corporate（公司通用语言）比20年前更emotional和更right-brained，the lingua franca of corporate和office language对应，故选D。

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

A sports culture

B gender difference

C historical incidents

D athletic executives

解析：选A。A 推理判断题。根据第二段可知，“团队”导向型企业，是受体育的影响，在男性占主导的美国企业界，很多CEO把自己当做教练，以体育文化管理团队，故选A。

3.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

解析：选D。D 细节理解题。根据aims to定位到第三段首句，可知目的是给工作注入意义和增加对公司的忠诚，故选D。

4.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

解析：选A。A 推理判断题。根据Lean In定位到第四段。根据第二句可知“妈咪大战”引发了关于为何女性不能兼顾工作与家庭的争论，并使得《向前一步》此类书籍畅销，推断它应是道出了很多职场女性的这个困扰。故选A。

5.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.

解析：选B。B 细节理解题。根据office speak定位到最后一段，可知每个人都取笑它，经理们喜欢它，公司依赖它，普通人也愿意吸收它，故选B。