Technical and technological skills will take on greater importance. There will be a growing need for people who can understand and fix systems——from computer systems to product distribution systems to plumbing systems.

　　Visionary skills will be in demand. The ability to gather and absorb a wide range of input, then use that knowledge, understanding, and perspective to guide organization into future, will be vital.

　　Numbers and measurement will be important, of course, but smoothing the flow form month to month,from quarter to quarter will be essential for highly profitable long-term performance. Practically every company will have to move away from today's obsession with looking ahead only as far as the next financial reporting period.

　　Ability to organize will definitely be important in the corporation of the future. Everywhere there will be a need to organize something: resources, workflow, marketing mix, financial opportunities, and much more, all will demand high levels of organization and reorganization.

　　Persuasive skills will be used in many ways by the corporation of the future, the most-effective individuals will be those who know how to present information and ideas so that others can understand and support a particular position. Good salesmanship will be essential in many more interactions than we consider today, especially inside the organization.

　　Communication skills——careful listening, clear writing, close reading, plain speaking,and accurate description——will be invaluable. In tomorrow's fast-paced business environment there will be precious little time to correct any misunderstandings. Communications breakdown may well become a fatal corporate disease.

　　Ability to learn will be above everything else in importance——empowering people to grow in effectiveness and help their companies achieve desired objectives. Some of this skill is innate, but many people enhance their ability to learn——and to relate different aspects of learning——through college and university courses. We believe the liberal arts education experience will prove to be the most valuable type of education for tomorrow's leaders.

　　The top employees of the coming century will be flexible, creative and motivated toward making a positive difference in the world. They will seek balance,growth and fulfillment in both their work and home environments. The corporation of the future must respond to these needs and desires; otherwise they will find themselves hampered by a lack of qualified people to accomplish the organization's work.

　　译文：

　　21世纪合格人材必备7大技能

　　1.技术专长与创新能力——将更加重要。今后将越来越需要在计算机、产品推销和管道工程等方面既懂理论又有实践经验的人。

　　2.想像能力——将是一种需要。这种能力至关重要，它可收集和获取广泛而大量的知识信息，并对其中一些知识、思维方法及观察视角加以借鉴，以便引导公司走向未来。

　　3.数字与计算——固然很重要，但是保证月与月之间的衔接、部门与部门的配合都顺利通畅将是实现长期高效运作的关键所在。实际上，每个公司都必须改变那种只做下一个财政年度计划的错误观念。

　　4.组织能力——在未来的公司的运作中无疑是十分重要的。无论到哪儿，组织工作都是必不可少的，如调拨财力物力、设置工作流程、制定市场营销战略、寻找赢利机会等等，所有这些都需要高水平的组织与改组能力。

　　5.说服能力——将以各种方式在未来公司中发挥作用。工作最有成效的员工将是那些懂得如何表达信息和思想以便能够得到别人理解与支持的人，出色的游说能力在未来更多的人际交往中将是必不可少的，特别是在公司内部。

　　6.交流能力——听得认真、写得明白、看得仔细、说得清楚、叙述准确——将具有无可估量的价值。在未来快节奏的工作环境中，人们惜时如金，容不得半，点疏漏。交流障碍很可能成为未来公司致命的问题。

　　7.学习能力——将在上述各种能力中占据最重要的地位，因为它使人能够提高工作效率，帮助自己的公司达到预期目的。这种能力一部分来自个人夭赋，当然也有不少人通过接受高等教育提高自己的气习能力和各种知识的融会贯通能力。我们认为，大学文科教育积累的经验将证明是对明天的领导者们最有价值的教育形式。

　　21世纪最出色的公司雇员将富有灵活性和创造性，并有志于做出不同凡响的创举。他们将在事业和家庭两方面寻求平衡、发展与完善。未来的公司必须对雇员必备技能加以考核，否则，公司的发展就会因工作中缺乏合格人才而受限制。

　　重点单词：

　　Visionary 想像的

　　Ability to organize 组织能力

　　Persuasive skills 说服能力

　　close reading 看得仔细

　　plain speaking 说得清楚

　　invaluable 无可估量的

　　flexible 灵活性

　　creative 创造性

　　hampered 限制

　　qualified 合格的
　生物与环境平衡的危机

　　The history of life on earth has been a history of interaction between living things and their surroundings. To a large extent, the physical form and the habits of the earth's vegetation and its animal life have been molded by the environment. Considering the whole span of earthly time,the opposite effect, in which life actually modifies its surroundings, has been relatively slight. Only in the present century has one species man acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world.

　　During the past quarter century this power has not only become increasingly great but it has changed in character. The most alarming of all man's assaults upon the environment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers, and sea with dangerous and even lethal materials. This pollution is for the most part irrecoverable. In this now universal contamination of the environment, chemicals are the sinister partners of radiation in changing the very nature of the world the very nature of its life. Chemicals sprayed on croplands or forests or gardens lie long in soil,entering into living organisms, passing from one to another in a chain of poisoning and death. Or they pass mysteriously by underground streams until they emerge and combine into new forms that kill vegetation, sicken cattle, and work unknown harm on those who drink from once pure wells. Man can hardly even recognize the devils of his own creation, as a scientist has said.

　　It took hundreds of millions of years to produce the life that now inhabits the earth. Given time not in years but in millennia life adjusts, and a balance has been reached. But in the modern world there is no time.

　　The rapidity of change follows the impetuous pace of man rather than the deliberate pace of nature. Radiation is now the unnatural creation of man's tampering with the atom. The chemicals are the synthetic creations of man's inventive mind, having no counterparts in nature.

　　To adjust to these chemicals would require not merely the years of a man's life but the life of generations. And even this, were it by some miracle possible, would be futile,for the new chemicals come from our laboratories in an endless stream; almost five hundred annually find their way into actual use in the United States alone. Among them are many that are used in man's war against nature. Since the mid 1940's over 200 basic chemicals have been created for use in killing insects, weeds, and other organisms described as pests.

　　译文：

　　地球上生命的历史一直就是一部生物与其环境相互作用的历史。在很大程度上，地球上动植物的形态以及习性都是由外部环境所塑造的。考虑到地球上生命存在的整个时间，相反作用，即生命对其周围环境的实际改变作用，却相对很小。只有在当前这个世纪(指20世纪)才有一个物种——人类，获得了强大的力量，改变了其所生存的世界的自然状态。

　　在过去的1/4世纪中，这种力量不仅日趋强大，而且其性质也发生了变化。在人类破坏环境的种种行为中，最令人担忧的是人类向大气、土壤、河流以及海洋中排放危险甚至致命物质，而当今这种污染在很大程度上是无法挽救的。在当今这种对环境的普遍污染中，化学制品与辐射狼狈为奸，改变着地球的自然状态，也就是改变着地球上生命的自然状态。喷洒到农田、森林或者花园里的化学物质长期滞留于土壤中，渗入有机体内，并彼此相传，形成了一个中毒与死亡的链条。化学物质还神秘地通过地下水传递，最终以新的形式出现并结合，使植物毒死，牲畜害病，并使饮用一度纯净的井水的人遭受了不明之害。正如一位科学家所言：“人类甚至对自己创造的恶魔都不认识。”

　　地球历经了许多亿年才创造了栖息其上的生命。经过了一定时间——不是以若干年计而是以若干千年计的时间——生命开始适应环境，并形成了一种与环境的平衡。但是在现代世界中，时间这一因素已经没有了。

　　环境改变的速度不再顺从大自然从容不迫的节奏，而是顺从人类急切匆匆的步伐。辐射是当今人类通过支配原子而得到的一种非自然的创造物。化学制品则是人类有发明创造力的头脑创造出来的合成物，在自然界本无相应的东西。

　　为了适应这些化学制品，人类需要付出的时间不会只是一个人一生的时间，而是几代人的时间。而即使这样，就算出现奇迹成为可能，这种适应也是徒劳的，因为新的化学制品从我们的实验室中源源不断地涌出。仅在美国，每年就有大约500种化学制品投入使用，其中许多是用于人类对自然的战争中。从20世纪40年代中期起，人类已经创造了200多种基本化学制品用来消灭昆虫、野草以及其他所谓的“有害生物”。

　　重点词汇：

　　1、character(人的)品质，性格；(事物的)性质、特性；

　　例句：He has a changeable character.

　　他性格多变。

　　2、assault攻击，袭击

　　例句：They made a strong assault on the town.

　　他们猛烈攻击这个镇子。

　　3、spray浪花，水花，喷液

　　例句：Did you bring along some insect spray？

　　你带来杀虫剂了吗？

　　4、impetuous性急的，鲁莽的，

　　例句：It was impetuous of her to do that.

　　她竟做那种事，真是鲁莽。

　　5、deliberate不慌不忙的，从容的

　　例句：He is delibertate in his speech.

　　他说话从容不迫。

　　4、5两词的词义可从上下文中体会出来

　　The rapidity of change follows the impetuous pace of man rather than the deliberate pace of nature.

　　可见由than相连，必然是两个反义词。

　　6、futile无益的，无效的，无希望的

　　例句：His efforts to save the business were futile.

　　他挽救公司的努力未能奏效。