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Cog in the machine

[ 2012-02-22 17:11]     字号 [] [] []  
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Cog in the machineI am not an important person in this company. I'm just a lowly cog in the machine.

My comments:

Cogs are essential parts of a machine. They’re wheels that work together to make machinery work their magic. Without cogs, machines and indeed the whole modern day industry would grind to a halt, or fail to grind at all. And so it is curious that cogs are considered unimportant.

And perhaps not so curious. Cogs are considered unimportant because they’re commonplace – in an assembly line, for instance, there are thousands and thousands of them.

Hence, and therefore, people who work mundane routines in an organization or business call themselves cogs.

And a lower cog is a low-ranking member on the staff.

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Go to Zhang Xin's column

本文仅代表作者本人观点,与本网立场无关。欢迎大家讨论学术问题,尊重他人,禁止人身攻击和发布一切违反国家现行法律法规的内容。

About the author:

Zhang Xin(张欣) has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

 
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