1995年6月英语四级 - 阅读理解B

Attention to detail is something everyone can and should do - especially in a tight job market. Bob Crossley, a human-resources expert notices this in the job applications that come across his desk every day. “It’s amazing how many candidates eliminate themselves.” he says.
关注细节是每个人都可以也应该做的事情，尤其是在就业市场紧张的情况下，人力资源专家鲍勃·克罗斯利在每天摆在他办公桌上的求职申请中注意到了这一点。他说：“令人惊讶的是，有这么多候选人淘汰了自己”。

“Resume arrive with stains. Some candidates don’t bother to spell the company’s name correctly. Once I see a mistake, I eliminate the candidate,” Crossley concludes. “If they cannot take of these details, why should we trust them with a job?”
克罗斯利总结道：“收到的简历有污渍，有些应聘者不愿意把公司的名字拼写正确。一旦我发现错误，我就会淘汰候选人。如果他们不能掌握这些细节，我们为什么要信任他们的工作？”

Can we pay too much attention to detail? Absolutely. Perfectionists struggle over little things at the cost of something larger they work toward. “To keep from losing the forest for the trees”, says Charles Garfield, associate professor at the University of California, San Francisco, “We must constantly ask ourselves how the details we’re working on fit into the larger picture. If they don’t, we should drop them and move to something else”.
我们要这样注重细节吗？绝对需要，完美主义者以追求更大的事业为代价，为细节而奋斗。加州大学旧金山分校副教授查尔斯·加菲尔德说：“我们必须不断地问自己，我们正在研究的细节是如何融入大局的。如果没有，我们应该放弃它们，转而关注其他事情。”

Garfield compares this process to his work as a computer scientist at NASA. “The Apollo II moon launch was slightly off-course 90 percent of the time.” Says Garfield, “But a successful landing was still likely because we knew the exact coordinates of our goal. This allowed us to make adjustments as necessary.” Knowing where we want to go helps us judge the importance of every task we undertake.
加菲尔德将这一过程与他在美国国家航空航天局担任计算机科学家时的工作进行了比较。加菲尔德说：“阿波罗二号月球发射90%的时间都有点偏离轨道，但成功着陆的可能性仍然很大，因为我们知道目标的确切坐标。这让我们可以根据需要进行调整。”知道我们想去哪里有助于我们判断我们所承担的每项任务的重要性。

Too often we believe what accounts for others’ success is some special secret or a lucky break. But rarely is success so mysterious. Again and again, we see that by doing little things within our grasp well, large rewards follow.
我们常常相信别人成功的原因是一些特殊的秘密或机遇，但成功很少如此神秘。我们一次又一次地看到，只要把力所能及的小事做好，巨大的回报就会随之而来。