高口阅读Section 2的第一篇文章相对于后面的文章而言比较简单，这对稳定考生情绪是很有帮助的。第一篇文章主要是阐述在金融危机背景下公司的人力资源专家HR在下岗裁员这一敏感问题上所扮演的角色，所以这类文章依然是最近我们在新东方口译课堂上反复强调的有关金融危机所带来的种种社会问题的题材。
以下是对具体文章的解析和解题思路的分析。
Talk about timing. Your question arrived in our in-box the same day that we received a note from an acquaintance who had just been let go from his job in publishing, certainly one of the industries that is facing, as you put it, "extreme change." He described his layoff as a practically Orwellian experience in which he was ushered into a conference room to meet with an outplacement consultant who, after dispensing with logistics, informed him that she would call him at home that evening to make sure everything was all right.
第一段以特写类新闻体的常见手法，例子入手，引出了文章要讨论的话题：如何对待下岗员工。碰到这种切入手法，出题者通常会在此安插一道例子功能题，Q1以Why...开头+具体的例子，所以可以当即判断是例子功能题，做此类题目一定要结合文章主旨才不会产生偏颇。
"I assured her I had friends and loved ones and a dog," he wrote, "and since my relationship with her could be measured in terms of seconds, they could take care of that end of things." "Memo to HR: Instead of saddling dismissed employees with solicitous outplacement reps," he noted wryly, "put them in a room with some crockery for a few therapeutic minutes of smashing things against a wall."
While we enjoy our friend's sense of humor, we'd suggest a different memo to HR. "Layoffs are your moment of truth," it would say, "when your company must show departing employees the same kind of attentiveness and dignity that was showered upon them when they entered. Layoffs are when HR proves its mettle and its worth, demonstrating whether a company really cares about its people."
此段以While一词引起，是对上述两段例子的一个总结，引发出下面对下面一句话的思考"layoffs are your moment of truth." Q2即是对这一句话的句意理解，通常我们讲句意理解题当作这一段的段意总结，因为出题者所需要考生理解的句子多为抽象的引申主题的句子。
Look, we've written before about HR and the game-changing role we believe it can-and should-play as the engine of an organization's hiring, appraisal, and development processes. We've asserted that too many companies relegate HR to the mundane busy-work of newsletters, picnics, and benefits, and we've made the case that every CEO should elevate his head of HR to the same stature as the CFO. But if there was ever a time to underscore the importance of HR, it has arrived. And, sadly, if there was ever a time to see how few companies get HR right, it has arrived, too, as our acquaintance's experience shows.
这篇文章的篇章结构属于指令文，用传统的first-second-finally平行结构的方式引出了人力资源专家的三种角色，主题句就是在第一个平行结构First前的一句话。
So, to your question: What is HR's correct role now-especially in terms of layoffs? （主题句）
First, HR has to make sure people are let go by their managers, not strangers. Being fired is dehumanizing in any event, but to get the news from a "hired gun" only makes matters worse. That's why HR must ensure that managers accept their duty, which is to be in on the one conversation at work that must be personal. Pink slips should be delivered face-to-face, eyeball-to-eyeball.
Q4是对 "pink slips"一词的理解，根据谓语动词delivered我们可以推知必然是一封信件之类的物品，其次，这一段是在讲如何以一种能为员工所接受的方式解雇员工，故可推出必然是一封解雇信。
Second, HR's role is to serve as the company's arbiter of equity. Nothing raises hackles more during a layoff than the sense that some people-namely the loudmouths and the litigious-are getting better deals than others. HR can mitigate that dynamic by making sure across units and divisions that severance arrangements, if they exist, are appropriate and evenhanded. You simply don't want people to leave feeling as if they got you-know-what. They need to walk out saying: "At least I know I was treated fairly."
Finally, HR's role is to absorb pain. In the hours and days after being let go, people need to vent, and it is HR's job to be completely available to console. At some point, an outplacement consultant can come into the mix to assist with a transition, but HR can never let "the departed" feel as if they've been sent to a leper colony. Someone connected to each let-go employee-either a colleague or HR staffer-should check in regularly. And not just to ask, "Is everything O.K.?" but to listen to the answer with an open heart, and when appropriate, offer to serve as a reference to prospective employers.
......
Three years ago, we wrote a column called, "So Many CEOs Get This Wrong," and while many letters supported our stance that too many companies undervalue HR, a significant minority pooh-poohed HR as irrelevant to the "real work" of business. Given the state of things, we wonder how those same HR-minimalists feel now.
If their company is in crisis - or their own career - perhaps at last they've seen the light. HR matters enormously in good times.
It defines you in the bad.
总而言之，言而总之，只要考生能够把握住Feature类型文章的写作特点，谨记各类题型的解题技巧，第一篇文章大满贯是没有问题的。
