More than 70 per cent of bosses claim that the rising trend among Britons - especially teenagers - of adding inflections to the ends of sentences is ‘particularly annoying.’

超過70%的老板認為在英國人(尤其是青少年)中，在句末加上一些曲折變化越來越流行，這“實在是讓人不勝其煩”。

While almost 85 per cent said that when non-Australian people use this language trait it is a 'clear indicator of insecurity’ and could hinder their chances of a promotion or payrise。

85%的人說，非澳大利亞人運用這種語言特征是一種“不牢靠的明顯標志”，也會阻礙員工升職加薪的可能性。

The language trait is known as a high-rising terminal (HRT)， commonly referred to as ‘Australian Question Intonation’ (AQI)。

這種語言特征被稱為“高聲結尾(HRT)”，通常理解為“澳大利亞式語調(AQI)”。

It is the act of raising a voice at the end of a sentence that makes the statement sound like a question and is common in Australian and American accents。

所謂“高升結尾”就是在句尾提升調門，使陳述句聽上去像疑問句一樣。這種方式在澳大利亞及美國口音中較普遍。

According to UK publisher Pearson, the use of AQI has recently grown rapidly among teenagers and graduates in the UK。

根據英國出版商皮爾森統(tǒng)計，澳大利亞式語調的使用率近來在英國的青少年和大學畢業(yè)生之間急劇上升。

The firm surveyed 700 men and women in managerial, executive and ownership roles。

其采訪調查了700名公司的管理層，執(zhí)行層及公司所有者。

More than half said AQI would hinder the prospects of promotion and a better pay grade in their own organisation。

超過半數的人認為在他們自己的組織機構中的使用澳大利亞式語調會阻礙晉升加薪的前景。

While 57 per cent believed AQI has the potential to damage a person's professional credibility by revealing an inability or reluctance to speak their mind。

57%的人覺得澳大利亞式語調可能會讓人感覺此人沒有能力或勉強說自己的想法，進而影響其專業(yè)信賴度。

Of the respondents responsible for interviewing job applicants for senior roles, only 16 per cent said they would be willing to gloss over AQI and focus purely on an applicant's strengths and aptitude。

在負責企業(yè)高級職位的受訪者中，只有16%的人說他們會忽視澳大利亞式語調的影響而只關注應聘者的能力和資質。

In some cases, 44 per cent of respondents admitted they would mark down an applicant by as much as a third based purely on the candidate's irritating speech.

44%的受訪者承認在某些情況下，他們會僅僅因為應聘者讓人惱火的言談而將其的面試分數拉低三分之一之多。

However, this was only found to be the case when a British applicant used AQI, and didn’t apply when Australian or American people naturally spoke in that way。

但是，這種情況只發(fā)生在使用澳大利亞式語調的英國人身上，對正常說話的澳大利亞人和美國人則不會有影響。

Author Harry Key, a voice techniques expert, said: ‘HRT is becoming increasingly common in the UK - especially among teenagers - but the results of this research suggest that using it in a business or workplace setting is definitely to be avoided.’

作家、語音技巧專家哈利-基稱：“高聲結尾在英國越來越普遍了，尤其是在青少年之中，但是這次研究結果表明——在商務或工作場合使用是斷然不可以的。”

Harry added: 'The message is clear: if you know what you're talking about, and want to be respected for it, then you need to sound like you know it.'

Harry補充道：“這個傳遞的信息非常明確：如果你對所說的東西真的很懂，也想因此受到尊重，那么你起碼得讓人聽上去覺得你很懂。”