【推荐1】A is for always getting to work on time.

B is for being extremely busy.

C is for the conscientious(勤勤恳恳的)way you do your job.

You may be all these things at the office, and more. But when it comes to getting ________, experts say, the ABCs of business should include a P, for politics, as in office politics.

Dale Carnegie suggested many years ago: Hard work alone doesn’t ________ career advancement. You have to be able to sell yourself and your ideas, both publicly and behind the scenes. Yet, despite the obvious ________ of engaging in office politics-a better job, a raise, praise-many people are still unable—or unwilling-to “play the game”.

“People take it for granted that office politics ________ some manipulative(工于心计的)behaviour,” says Deborah Comer, an assistant professor of management at Hofstra University. “ ________ politics originates from the word ‘polite’. It can mean lobbying(游说)and forming associations. It can mean being kind and helpful, or even trying to please your superior, and then expecting something ________.”

In fact, today, experts ________ office politics as proper behaviour used to pursue one’s own self-interest in the workplace. In many ________, this involves some form of socializing within the office environment-not just in large companies, but in small workplaces as well.

“The first thing people are usually ________ on is their ability to perform well on a regular basis,” says Neil P Lewis, a management psychologist. “But if two or three ________ are up for a promotion, each of whom has reasonably ________ ability, a manager is going to promote the person he or she likes best. It’s simple human ________.”

Yet, psychologists say, many employees and employers have trouble with the concept of politics in the office. ________ people, they say, have an idealistic idea of work and what it takes to succeed. Still others ________ politics with flattery(奉承). They are fearful that, if they speak up for themselves, they may ________ to be flattering their boss for favours.

Experts suggest altering this negative picture by recognizing the need for some self-promotion.

【推荐2】Children adore trains. There is no doubt that more boys like trains than girls, but who knows ___________? Is it the speed, the power or the size of trains that hold the ___________? The days have probably passed when most boys ___________ to become a train driver, but there are ___________ lots of boys who do.

_______, all children like to see toy trains whizzing about a track and this love of toy trains often stays with adult males, ___________ seldom with adult females.

Many businessmen have attempted to ___________ children’s fondness of trains. Some make ___________ train sets while others make excellent train sets that become classics and ___________ for many times their price.

________ the actual train sets, there are also stories concerning trains and some of these become real ____________ as well. The Polar Express and Thomas the Tank Engine are recent ____________ of this.

The Polar Express is especially ____________ in America, where many homes with young children have ____________ Polar Express trains running around the family Christmas tree. The Polar Express was first a book and then a very well-liked children’s movie.

Thomas the Tank Engine is better-known in the UK and Europe as a whole. Thomas ____________ life as a children’s book in 1946 but only became ____________ after cartoons were made in 1984 in the UK. Most of the Thomas the Tank Engine children’s toys were ____________ on a length of string instead of being electrified.

 Train sets are one of the classic gifts for ____________ like rocking horses, castles and doll babies. It would be a terrible shame if these old-fashioned toys ____________, because unlike computer games, train sets can be passed on as ____________ possessions to future generations.