Shared Services Need More Imagination

Suppose you need to drill a hole in the wall to hang an item but do not own a power drill. You may regard it as expensive to buy a power drill and consider renting one. Sharing is the solution. The sharing industry is an emerging. highly flexible economic network that allows people to share resources, either free or for a fee.

The important idea of the sharing industry is that people might only need an item for a relatively short period. The private part of shared services has been moving towards this area since the beginning of the 1980s, and then the public part has taken note of the benefits and continued for best practice. The United States and Australia among others have had shared services in government since the late 1990s.

With the rise of the sharing industry, the best-known shared bikes and shared cars have got a lot of public attention. This kind of transportation is so environmentally-friendly that it is increasingly popular among people in many cities.

Of course shared services don’t need to be limited to machines. The real pay-off in shared services probably lies in renting out smaller, less heavy items. For example, in today’s casual environment, you don’t need a tie unless you’re going to a wedding or a job interview. So some companies, would let you pick up a tie when you needed it and only when you needed it. Another example is an umbrella-sharing service. Since visitors don’t want to be carrying umbrellas all the way, it would be cheaper and easier to simply borrow an umbrella on one street corner and drop it off on another.

Recently organizations that have centralized their IT functions have begun to take a close look at the technology services that their IT departments provide for customers, evaluating where it makes sense to provide technology components. E-mall and scanning (归描) operations were obvious early candidates. Many organizations are now oftering their document-intensive operations is a shared service, There is no doubt that people are calling for the expansion of shared services to more and more treas.

If you are worried about things and are under a lot of stress at work or school, then you are probably not sleeping well. Worry can keep you awake, tossing and turning in bed until the early hours of the morning when you eventually fall asleep. When you wake up, you don’t feel refreshed, but tired and worn out and unable to face a new day.

Dr. Henry Winkle, in a recent newspaper article entitled Stress and Sleep, indicates（暗示、表明）that ________. Dr. Winkle says, “The more we worry, the less we sleep, the more we are unable to deal with stress. If we can find a way to get a good night’s sleep,” he adds, “we can often find the energy to deal with what’s worrying us.”

So, what is a good night’s sleep? Research shows that the amount of sleep which people need in order to keep healthy varies a lot. Seven hours is about the average amount, though strangely enough, sleeping longer often gives you a headache instead of making you feel more refreshed.

Dr. Winkle believes that preparing for sleeping is important. People who work late should try to give themselves a short break and do something restful before going to bed. This could be watching TV or listening to music. Doing some exercise earlier in the day should help you to feel physically as well as mentally tired. A bedtime drink can also help, but coffee or tea should be avoided as they contain caffeine and will keep you awake. “When you put the light out,” Dr. Winkle says, “concentrate on relaxing your muscles, working slowly up from your feet, and you’ll be asleep before you know it.”

8 . In the US and Britain, the slogan around colleges was ''Save water. Shower with a friend.” Now, Wuhan University has come up with another system for the campus bathhouse. It charges students for the amount of time in a shower. Before entering the bathhouse, students pay for the amount of time they want in the shower with cash or their student ID card. The clock starts ticking the minute the tap is turned on. It pauses when a button is pressed for soap. An integrated circuit(IC) card reader at each tap shows the time. No money, no water. The benefits of the new system can be seen with the old system, which charged 1 Yuan for each person regardless of time in the shower. The university used about 320 tons of water daily under the old system, but only 160 tons now.

Many students use the new system but opinions on it are divided. Some students say it is bad because bathing has become a sort of race. Many people using it for the first time are not sure how long they need to shower. Some might be embarrassed if _________ and they're still covered in soap. They have to ask the bathhouse worker to help them buy extra time.

“It's a flaw in the system that you cannot buy extra time on the ID card,” said Ren, a freshman in Wuhan University. The university is also considering some students' suggestions that they be allowed to pay after they've finished the shower. Not surprisingly, some are complaining about losing the hour shower. But many students say the move helps them develop a water-saving sense.

Without the time limits, most students tended to shower for 30 to an hour in the bathhouse.

Some even used the hot water to wash their clothes. “In my experience, 10-20 minutes is enough,” said Dai Zhihua, a third-year student who usually takes 8 minutes.

Do not underestimate(低估) the power of revision in the days and hours before an examination. The closer you are to the exam, the more chance you have of storing and attaining key information. But do not overdo it.

On the day of the exam, have a good breakfast, pack everything you need ( pens, pencils, erasers, etc), then make your way to the examination hall in good time. Do not arrive too early, as other people's anxiety can be passed on to you, and you may suffer from panic（恐慌）.

Once in your seat, simply pause for a few seconds and collect your thoughts. Close your eyes and take in a few slow, deep breaths to help you relax. When you turn over the test paper, spend a short period reading through all the instructions(要求，说明) and questions, before writing. It is always wise to allow 10 minutes at the end of the exam to give yourself time to ___________.

Try not to be tempted(被诱惑) to look at those students around you, or at the clock. If you need something else to focus on to help you collect your thoughts, you can choose the ceiling, the wall or anything else that will not allow you to be distracted(分心).

Finally, once you have finished, never attend the discussion by other students. Go home and have a well-earned rest---then prepare for your next exam.

It’s 9 a.m., the morning rush hour in Toronto. A man has fallen down on a downtown street suddenly. Several passersby stop to help the man. One woman reaches into her purse for her cell phone and hits 911, the emergency number. Three minutes later, sirens are heard in the distance as a police car, an ambulance and a fire truck race to the area. Within ten minutes, the stricken man is in the back of an ambulance and went to the hospital for life-saving treatment.

This scene is fairly common in Toronto and other major cities. Over the years, cities have developed systems to respond quickly to emergencies. It has resulted in many lives being saved. But none of this _________without the cooperation of car drivers who yield to emergency vehicles on busy downtown streets. In fact, it’s against the law for drivers not to yield.

To yield means to give away or, more specifically, to get out of the way. It means pulling to the side of the road to let others pass. As yet, China does not have any specific laws that require drivers to yield, whether it is for slower cars to move over to the inside lane of a highway or for all cars to give way to emergency vehicles. Recently, an injured Beijing cyclist died on the way to hospital because the ambulance carrying him got stuck in city traffic. Drivers did not yield when they heard the ambulance carrying him got stuck in city traffic. Drivers did not yield when they heard the ambulance’s siren.

In Canada, failing to yield to an emergency vehicle can result in a fine of $400—$2,000 and reduction of three points off your license. That’s for offence. A second offence results in a bigger fine, the loss of your driver’s license for two years and a possible jail sentence. The punishment is severe because lives are in danger.

Safe driving depends on drivers being aware of the traffic around them and yielding when necessary. And yielding to emergency vehicles only makes sense. It saves lives and, who knows, someday it may save your own.