1 . Two hundred years ago, the clock began to control the world of work. Paid on the basis of how many hours they worked, people rushed to and from work.
The clock’s power may at last be weakening. Flexible working existed well before the pandemic?(疫情). Now remote working has brought a greater degree of freedom. A survey of 4,700 home-workers across six countries conducted by Slack, a corporate-messaging firm, found that flexible working was viewed very positively, improving both people’s worksite balance and productivity. Flexible workers even scored more highly on a sense of belonging to their organization than those on a nine-to-five schedule.
It is hardly surprising that workers prefer flexibility. Working an eight-hour schedule is restricting. Those are also the hours when most shops are open, and when doctors will take appointments. Parents on a conventional routine may be able to take their children to school in the morning but are unlikely to be able to pick them up in the afternoon.
It is also not astonishing that home-workers feel they are more productive. After all, few people can concentrate for eight hours on end. There are points in the day where people feel like staring out of the window or going for a walk; these may be moments when they find inspiration or recharge themselves for the next task. When they do this in an office, they risk the boss’s disapproval; at home, they can work when they are most motivated.
What is striking about Slack’s study is the widespread support for home-working. Overall Just 12% of the workers surveyed wanted to return to a normal office schedule. In America black, Asian and Hispanic employees were even more enthusiastic than their white colleagues. Women with children were generally happy about it, reporting an improvement in their work-life balance.
Of course, the new schedule carries dangers: people may lose all separation between work and home life. To maintain some human contact, companies may adopt a mixed model in which workers go into the office for part of the week. But overall office-workers’ freedom is to be welcomed. The clock was a crud master and many people will be happy to escape its control.
1. What is the benefit of remote working according to the text?| A．Workers can spare more time to work. |
| B．Workers can balance work and life well. |
| C．Workers can earn more money by working at home. |
| D．Workers can take more jobs to increase their income. |
| A．there is a will, there is away. |
| B．God helps those who help themselves. |
| C．All work and no play make Jack a dull boy. |
| D．Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. |
| A．Workers’ preference for office-working. |
| B．Workers’ widespread favor of flexible working. |
| C．Workers’ great worry about flexible working. |
| D．Workers’ productivity increased by home-working. |
| A．To fix a time for their employees to work in the office. |
| B．To give their employees as much freedom as they need. |
| C．To require their employees to separate work from home life. |
| D．To praise their employees for being punctual for their work. |
2 . For much of human history and in many places, girls were considered property, or required to obey their fathers until the day they had to start obeying their husbands. In most of the world that vision of girlhood now seems not merely old-fashioned but unimaginably remote. In field after field girls have caught up with boys. Globally, young women now outnumber (数量超过) young men at university. Girl babies are more wanted than ever before. Even in places, such as China, where the sex-selective abortion of girls has been common, it is becoming less so. Girls are also less likely to be married off in childhood. In 1995 almost six in ten girls in South Asia were married before reaching 18; that has fallen by half.
When societies handle girlhood well, the knock-on effects are astonishing. A girl who finishes secondary school is less likely to become a child bride or a teenage mother. Education boosts earning power and widens choices, so she is less likely to be poor or to suffer domestic abuse. She will have fewer children, and invest more in them. They will be less likely to die in babyhood, or to grow up stunted physically or mentally. She will read to them more and help them with their homework. All this means they will learn more, and earn more as adults. A recent study estimated that, if 100% of their girls completing secondary school is ensured, it could lead to a lasting boost to GDP.
Despite the benefits of nurturing girls, some countries have still failed to grasp them. Only one girl in three south of the Sahara finishes her secondary education. The COVID-19 pandemic could disturb progress for girls in poor countries, or even reverse it. When Ebola forced west African schools to close in 2014, many girls dropped out, never went back and ended up pregnant or as child laborers. UNICEF warns that something similar could happen with COVID-19—but on a larger scale.
1. What's the main idea of the first paragraph?| A．Girls suffer a lot in human history. |
| B．Girls' situation has improved a lot globally. |
| C．Girl babies are more welcomed than ever before. |
| D．Girls do much better than boys in many fields. |
| A．There are more young women than young men at university in China. |
| B．A girl who completes secondary school will have more children. |
| C．Children of the girls with schooling may end up earning more as adults. |
| D．Economy of countries is largely determined by the education level of girls. |
| A．Healthy. | B．Confident. | C．Underdeveloped. | D．Unstable. |
| A．To prove COVID-19 is more serious than Ebola. |
| B．To warn that girls may suffer a lot in COVID-19. |
| C．To appeal to all to pay attention to the poor countries. |
| D．To stress the importance of controlling the disasters. |
