To fully understand the concept of the "Paperless Office",one must understand what it conceptually was supposed to mean,as well as what it has evolved into as its current form.Early forms of the paperless office would have concentrated around word processing documents and the ability to create,store and manage their existence electronically.However,you were limited in scope as to what you could do to"manage"these documents.Most of the management revolved around viewing and perhaps sharing it with other users in the organization.There were no automated programs that handled workflow,scanning,tagging and management of these documents effectively.Scanners were (at a cost-effective price)too expensive for the average office to acquire based on the return on investment.At the corporate level,there was no direction as to handle workflow and to analyze where paper came from and where it had to go internally and if there was a process in place,the tools were not mature enough or existing to handle it.

　　In the last few years,technology has finally been catching up to the needs and requirements of the office environment.Scanners that previously cost tens of thousands of dollars now can be acquired for hundreds.Digital copiers/printers now incorporate high speed scanning and OCR capability,even at the lowest levels.The technology initiative has now been transferred to the IT and MIS departments of corporations as well as law firms.Clearly,the tools necessary to transform paper-full to a paperless office are now widely available.What then,is stopping the widespread adoption of the concept of the paperless office?Cultural issues are probably one of the largest obstructions to the implementation of the concept of the paperless office.Plainly,people feel comfortable doing what they know how to do best(shuffle paper around)and modifying theirhabits requires a focus that makes them feel that they are,in fact,doing things better and more efficiently.Implementing a paperless office environment that introduces processes that are more difficult and technologically challenging than the previous environment is doomed to fail from the start,Keep all processes simple,introdu ce technology that is easy to learn and use,and document the workflow.

　　1.What did the early forms of paperless office lack for efficient management?

　　2.Scanners used not to be considered worthwhile when a company considers its_________________.

　　3.It is implied that the concept of the paperless office is now adopted on a______________________scale.

　　4.It is found that most people refuse the concept of the paperless office due to____________________factor.

　　5.What does the author think about the processes of the paperless office environment in comparison with the paper-full office environment?

　　答案：

　　1.[Automated programs.]

　　[定位]根据efficient management查找到首段第5句。

　　解析：首段主要讲述早期无纸化办公的特点，其中第5句There were no automated programs that handled... management... effectively.表明automated programs对高效管理至关重要，而早前的无纸化办公缺少的恰巧就是这个。因此automated programs为本题答案。

　　2.[return on investment]

　　[定位]根据Scanners查找到首段第6句。

　　解析：原文该句中的based on...用于表达要从哪个因素出发考虑扫描仪是否值得购买，从该句可知return on investment就是要考虑的因素，为本题答案。

　　3.[small]

　　[定位]根据the concept of the paperless office和aolopted查找到第2段第6句。

　　解析：原文该句表明无纸化办公的概念未能被“广泛”采用，换句话说，这个概念只在“小范围”内被采用，即on a small scale，因此small为本题答案。

　　4.[cultural]

　　[定位]根据refuse查找到第2段第7句。

　　解析：原文该句表明文化方面的问题是无纸化办公难以实施的最大阻碍，可见本题答案应为“文化”因素，即cultural。

　　5.[More difficult and technologically challenging.]

　　[定位]根据processes和paperless office environment查找到第2段倒数第2句。

　　解析：原文该句比较了paperless office environment和the previous environment，而根据上文可以推断the previous environment指的就是paper-full office environment,因此，原文定语从句中的比较点more difficult and technologically challenging为本题答案。

（实习编辑：王晓晓）