Using English at Work：02 Arriving at Work(2)

（单词翻译）

I began by saying that when I woke up, I thought, "TGIF!"

"TGIF" is an "acronym," meaning that each letter is the first letter of another word.

"TGIF" (all capital letters) means "Thank goodness¹ it's Friday." Some people also say "Thank God it's Friday."

People say "TGIF" on Fridays to show that they are happy that the weekend is coming.

I said that I have been looking forward to the weekend and that all I need to do is get through, or to be able to finish, one more day of work.

So the day I am talking about must be Friday.

Then I drive to work and "pull into," or enter, a parking lot.

A "parking lot" is a flat, area where cars can be parked, usually if the driver pays a little bit of money.

In the United States, many businesses have parking lots in front of or behind their buildings.

In this case, the parking lot is next to my office building.

I stop my car at the security² gate.

A "security gate" is a metal bar or a door that goes across a road and stops cars and people from entering an area unless they have permission to do so.

There are security gates in front of most military buildings, for example, so that only soldiers or members of the military can go in.

Most areas that charge for parking (where you have to pay for the parking) have some sort of security gate to stop you from going in without paying or without permission.

When my car is stopped in front of the security gate I put my key card into the card reader.

A "key card" is a rectangular³ piece of plastic, like a driver's license⁴ or a credit⁵ card, which is used for identification⁶ and electronically tells a machine when someone should be allowed to do something.