BEC剑桥商务英语背景综合辅导：细说名片

　　In the modern business card design, with its developed professional conventions, one can still detect the two conflicting approaches, the fanciful and the functional one. The purpose of the first approach is to show that there is nothing impossible for the card's owner. The more striking by its design and materials and the more sophisticated in its manufacturing technology, the card will be the better. What matters is the card's uniqueness. The content of the card does not matter much either.
　　在现代名片设计中，随着其职业协定的发展，人们仍然可以察觉到互相矛盾的两个方面：装饰性与功能性。第一个方面的目的是为了炫耀对于名片主人来说没有什么是不可能的。设计与制作材料越精美，生产技术越复杂，名片就越好。重要的是名片的独特性。名片的内容也不太重要。
　　The other approach, on the contrary, emphasizes functionality. It is the one that rules in the pragmatic West. And the English name of the item - "business card"- also focuses on its specific functionality. These cards are essential for those company workers that interact with clients. That is why, on the one hand, you can see a small clerk, a service engineer or even a heaver with his own business card and a head of the department without such if he or she does not interact with clients.
　　另一个方面恰恰相反，强调功能性。注重实效的西方崇尚这一点。此外，名片的英文名－"business card"－也强调了它具体的功能性。这些名片对那些与客户有联系、在公司里工作的职员来说很关键。这就是为什么，一方面，你会看到一个小小的职员、一个维修工程师乃至一个搬运工都有他自己的名片，而另一方面，部门头头，如果他/她不和客户打交道的话，却没有名片。
　　Business cards used to be made exclusively of stiff paper (card), but today come in materials from plastics to thin metals and even glass! A name or business card reflects the owner - it should represent visually the company or the person passing it. Take the time to have a closer look at your own cards and decide if they really suit you and your company.
　　以前名片无一例外都是用硬纸来做成的（卡片），不过现在用来制作的材料很多，从塑料到薄金属片甚至玻璃！名片反映着主人的风格--在视觉上它应该代表着公司或送出名片的人。仔细看你自己的名片，看看它是否真的适合你或者你的公司。(和谐英语编辑整理)