Using English at Work：13 Checking Mail,Email,and Voicemail(6)

We used to have what we called "answering machines," which had cassette tapes to record messages, but most companies today are computerized and they use something that we call "voicemail."

At my house, however, we still have one of the old answering machines, not voicemail.

I call the voicemail system and enter in my PIN.

"PIN" is an acronym¹, where each letter is the first letter of another word.

Here "PIN" means "Personal Identification² Number."

A PIN is usually a set of secret numbers - four to six -that are used as a password for getting information or for getting money.

When you take cash out of an ATM or bank machine, you usually have to enter your PIN.

You might also have a PIN for registering for a class at college.

The PIN I'm talking about here is for listening to my voicemail messages.

When using voicemail, you can often use your PIN to bypass³ the outgoing message.

"To bypass something" means to skip something or to go around something that you don't want to see or hear.

For example, many websites have introductory screens, sometimes with video and music; you can usually bypass this introduction - these screens - by clicking on "skip introduction" or "skip this."

"To skip" is the same as to go to the next step without looking or seeing the current screen.

When I call the voicemail system, it usually plays my "outgoing message," the message people hear when they call me.

But by entering my PIN I bypass that outgoing message, because I don't need to hear it.

After listening to two new messages, I save one and I delete the other.

"To save" means to keep something for use in the future, it's the opposite of delete or throw away.

We usually save important emails from our friends, we save photos that were taken when we were with our friends, in this case, I'm saving a voicemail message so that it stays in the voicemail system and I'm able to listen to it later.

1 acronym   

n.首字母简略词，简称

参考例句：

• That's a mouthful of an acronym for a very simple technology.对于一项非常简单的技术来说，这是一个很绕口的缩写词。
• TSDF is an acronym for Treatment, Storage and Disposal Facilities.TSDF是处理，储存和处置设施的一个缩写。

2 identification   

n.视为同一，证明同一，确认

参考例句：

• He's made a formal identification of the body.他正式确认了死者身份。
• We should have identification card on the person when we go out.我们外出时应随身携带身份证。

3 bypass   

n.旁道；分流术；vt.绕过，越过...于不顾

参考例句：

• If we take the bypass we'll avoid the town centre.我们走旁道就能绕过镇中心。
• You cannot bypass this question.你不能回避这个问题。