1 . US Businesses Give in to Worker Demands to Keep Employees

As many American businesses struggle to fill jobs, some have started negotiating demands that used to be non-negotiable for most hourly employees.

One of the top demands for many workers is scheduling — the days and time they spend on the job.     1     That means employees are pushing back against requirements to work weekends, late nights or holidays.

    2     Therefore, workers can be more careful about the jobs they choose. There were 10.4 million job openings at the end of August and 11.1 million openings the month before. Those numbers are the highest since at least December 2000, when the government started recording the data. At the same time, the U.S. Labor Department said the number of people quitting their jobs jumped to 4.3 million in August from 4 million in July.

A recent study from an employment company found that nearly 40 percent of jobseekers worldwide said schedule flexibility was one of their top three issues in career decisions. Instawork is an employment marketplace that connects local businesses with hourly workers.     3    

Such changes are happening as companies try to hire more workers for the upcoming holiday season. Target Corporation, for example, said this month it will pay $2 an hour more to employees who agree to work schedules during busy days of the holiday season. Sumir Meghani is co-founder and CEO of Instawork.     4     Hourly workers are now asking how they can get the same work-life balance as workers in other kinds of jobs who can work remotely.

During the pandemic (大流行病), hourly workers were hit especially hard when businesses like department stores and restaurants were forced to close for a few months during the spring of 2020. Those who remained employed at essential businesses like grocery stores found themselves working too much and too hard.

A．There are currently many job openings in the United States.

B．Hourly workers are now seeking more flexibility in their schedules.

C．He thinks companies are learning that money alone cannot solve their hiring issues.

D．Now, he notes, it’s more about what you need as an employee and how we can make you happy.

E．It says the rate at which employers were able to fill weekend schedules dropped from January through August compared with weekday work.

F．That contributed to a labor shortage, forcing employers to look for ways to make their jobs seem more attractive while also cutting back on hours of operation.

2 . How to improve efficiency when working at home？

Distinguish between work and home mode

One of the biggest merits about working from home-slowly moving from bed to the sofa five minutes before you start-can also be your biggest challenge, says Eyre-White.

Don't forget that you are there to work--    1     .“Switch from home to work mode，she says, by having something you physically do to“flip the switch".Maybe it's walking round the block, making a special kind of tea, or lighting a candle at your desk. It doesn't matter what it is but do it without fail to create a strong association in your mind，”she says.

Be realistic about what you can achieve

“A wide, open day working from home can feel full of possibilities. l45 things on the to do list？No problem！Don't fall into the trap of being over-ambitious，”says Eyre-White. Instead, she recommends being realistic and then possibly achieving more than you set out to；and feeling satisfied, rather than feeling disappointed you didn't do everything.

She suggests choosing three to five things to do and aim to get the majority done before lunch.“    2     .”she recommends.

Work in short bursts

In the office your day is broken up by everything from meetings to water-cooler chats, lunch breaks and even toilet breaks, but when you are sat at home on your own with no face-to-face interaction planned it can be easy to just work for long, unbroken periods.

“    3     . Although this can be frustrating，they divide the day up and create natural chunks of time，explains Eyre-White. “In contrast, a day at home can be very unstructured.” In order to be productive, she recommends imposing stricture on yourself. For example, working in 45-60 minute chunks of focused work followed by a short break.“This can be an effective way to break the day up and maintain your concentration levels，”she says.

Manage distractions

Being in an office gives us a limited number of ways to get distracted but when you start working in a new environment（especially a very familiar one）it can be easy to let yourself get distracted.

“    4     .” says Byre-White. “So proactively manage things which might interrupt your focus.” She explains：“Keep them limited to short breaks in between chunks of focused work.A change of scene is all we need to give our brain a break, and it’s the perfect time to put a load of washing on or empty the dishwasher.”

A．Unless you're self-isolating，working from home shouldn't mean that you don't leave the house at all or don't see anyone for two weeks.

B．Leave your desk for lunch and take advantage of being at home to walk the dog and blow the cobwebs away for half an hour in the afternoon.

C．There are a lot of potential distractions when we work from home.

D．We all slow down in the mid-afternoon and having a lot of your list under your belt will give you the motivation to power through.

E．When we're in the office our day is normally broken up with meetings.

F．So set yourself up the right way，get dressed and brush your teeth at the start of the day rather than sitting in your pajamas for eight hours.

3 . Jackson & Brown Ltd

Head Office, Bradford House,

234 Manning-ham Road Bolton BL3 5QS

t: 01204 249241 f: 01204 790061

1 June 2020

Dear Colleague

Re: __60___

I am writing to make you ware of some forthcoming changes to the payment dates for your salary. During the past few weeks, we have been discussing with your trade union representatives our intention to change the frequency of the payment of your salary from monthly to every four weeks. The reason for this change is to enable us to improve the efficiency of the payroll system and to make it easier for you to understand what you have been paid.

On Thursday 30 August, you will be paid your monthly basic pay up to and including 31 August. The last Thursday in the month is the normal monthly pay day. On 13 September, you will be paid basic pay up to and including 14 September. You will then be paid again 4 weeks later on 11 October, for time up to 12 October. The timetable of 4-weekly payments for the remainder of the financial year is listed

below:
8	November	31 January
6	December	28 February
3	January 2021	28 March

I understand that the transfer to a four-weekly pay cycle may cause some of you disruption to your monthly pay routines, for example mortgage（按揭）or rent repayments. In recognition of this initial disturbance and to assist you through this time, we are offering a-loan facility for a maximum of three weeks' wages (net pay), for those who may find it difficult to budget for this change. I have enclosed a form detailing this loan. Please ensure you complete and return the form by 30 June if you wish to take advantage of this offer. If you choose to use the loan facility, this will be paid on 13 September.

Of course, should you wish to discuss the contents of this letter, your line manager will have further information. If you still have any concerns or you have a personal query you wish to discuss, then from 13 June until 1 July you can call the following number: 01204 249259.

I hope that this letter clarifies the changes for you and would like to take this opportunity to thank you in advance for your co-operation. Further information to explain how your new payslip will look will be available over the coming months.

Yours sincerely

Tina Grey

Group General Manager, Personnel Services

1. Which of the following best fits the blank labeled with "60" in the paragraph?

A．Notice of pay rise	B．Changes to pay cycle
C．Information of pay	D．Cancellation of payslips

2. According to the e-mail, which of the following statements is true?

A．The company's financial year ends every March

B．It's not easy to understand the new payment system.

C．The system of 4-weekly payments is thought inefficient.

D．Employees will be paid on the last Thursday of the month.

3. Which of the following statements is true of the loan facility?

A．Employees can apply through the hotline available until 1 July.

B．Everyone can apply for a loan that equals four week's wages.

C．The applicants will receive the loan every month.

D．The deadline for the application is 30 June.

4 . Too much work, too little money and not enough opportunity for promotion, .or growth are stressing us out on the job, according to a new survey from the American Psychological Association.

We all know that stress reduces all of the things that help productivity— mental clarity (清晰), short-term memory, decision-making and moods. One-third of employees experience lasting stress related to work, the survey found. Fifty-four percent of the 1,501 employed adults surveyed say they feel they are paid too little for their contributions, and 61% said their jobs don’t offer adequate opportunities to advance. Only half of the adults surveyed said they feel valued at work.

Besides, women’s stress is rising as families rely more on women’s earnings. An employed wife’s contribution to family earnings has reached, on average, 47% since 2009, so women feel especially stuck and tense. Thirty-two percent of women said their employers don’t provide sufficient opportunities for internal advancement, compared with 30% of men. Women are more likely to feel tense during a typical workday, reporting more often that their employer doesn’t appreciate what they do.

Physically, the body responds to stress by secreting hormones into the bloodstream that stimulate accelerated (加速的) heart rate and breathing and tensing of muscles. People who experience stress as a positive often have increased blood flow to the brain, muscles and limbs, similar to the effects of aerobic exercise. Those who feel frightened or threatened, however, often have an unstable heart rate and constricting wood vessels (血管). Their blood pressure rises and hands and feet may grow cold. They may become agitated, speak more loudly or experience errors in judgment.

Emotional responses to stress often divide along gender lines, with men more likely to have a “fight or flight” reaction while women are more likely to have a tend and befriend” response, seeking comfort in relationships and care of loved ones, according to the research.

Women tend to “internalize”, which contributes to their stress. Many women hesitate to speak up for themselves or challenge behavior they see as unfair. Kay Keaney, interior designer, 40, rose fast at a California medical group, taking on responsibility for interior and facility planning. With her 60-hour workweeks, plus early-morning and late-night meetings and a 1.5-hour commute each way, she seldom had time with her two small children. Whether stuck in traffic on her way to a 6 p.m. pickup at day care, or tom between her children and urgent work emails, “I just wanted to crawl out of my skin,” she says. “I was overwhelmed.” Yet she hesitated to complain. “There was too much work to be done, and playing the Mommy card was bad form.” But the experts suggest that women should give themselves a voice.

1. The underlined word “agitated” in Paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to ________.

A．fearful

B．optimistic

C．anxious

D．ambitious

2. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

A．Everyone has a painful sense of being under-appreciated or under-paid.

B．An increasing number of people feel satisfied with work-life balance.

C．An improving job market is making some people’s work lives easier.

D．Most women have higher levels of work stress than the opposite sex.

3. We can learn from the example of Kay Keaney that ________.

A．relieving oneself from stress involves being frank as well as brave

B．experiencing symptoms of lasting stress causes communication barriers

C．seeking comfort from friends or relatives has little to do with office stress

D．being challenged or devalued by others leads to numerous health problems

4. What is most probably to be discussed in the following paragraphs?

A．Other aspects in life affected by stress in work.

B．Tips to help women handle their hard times properly.

C．Examples to show the different gender responses to stress.

D．Reasons why people are likely to feel tense when working.

6 . “Wanna buy a body?” That was the opening line of more than a few phone calls I got from self-employed photographers when I was a photo editor at U.S. New. Like many in the mainstream press, I wanted to separate the world of photographers into “them”, who trade in pictures of bodies or run after famous people like Princess Diana, and “us”, the serious newspeople. But after 16 years in that role, I came to wonder whether the two worlds were easily distinguishable.

Working in the reputable world of journalism, I told photographers to cover other people’s difficult life situations. I justified marching into moments of sadness, under the appearance of the reader’s right to know. I worked with professionals talking their way into situations or shooting from behind police lines. And I wasn’t alone.

In any American town, after a car crash or some other horrible incident when ordinary people are hurt or killed, you rarely see photographers pushing past rescue workers to take photos of the blood and injuries. But you are likely to see local newspaper and television photographers on the scene-and fast...

How can we justify doing this? Journalists are taught to separate, doing the job from worrying about the consequences of publishing what they record. Repeatedly, they are reminded of a news-business saying: Leave your conscience in the office. A victim may lie bleeding, unconscious, or dead. Your job is to record the image. You’re a photographer, not an emergency medical worker. You put away your feelings and document the scene.

But catastrophic events often bring out the worst in photographers and photo editors. In the first minutes and hours after a disaster occurs, photo agencies buy pictures. They rush to obtain the rights to be the only one to own these shocking images and death is usually the subject Often, an agency buys a picture from a local newspaper or an amateur photographer and puts it up for bid by major magazines. The most sought-after special pictures commend tens of thousands of dollars through bidding contests.

I worked on all those stories and many like them. When they happen, you move quickly: buying, dealing, trying to beat the agencies to the pictures.

Now, many people believe journalists are the hypocrites(伪君子) who need to be brought down, and it’s our pictures that most anger others. Readers may not believe, as we do, that there is a distinction between clear-minded ‘us" and mean-spirited “them”. In too many cases, by our choices of images as well as how we get them, we prove our readers right.

1. We can learn from the passage that________.

A．The author told photographers to take pictures of people’s happy life situations

B．Professional newspeople may talk their way into situations or shooting from behind police lines

C．In America, local newspaper and television photographers rarely push on the scene to take pictures of the victims

D．In America, photographers always push past rescue workers to take pictures of the victims

2. When journalists are working, they are told to________.

A．work with their conscience	B．respect the privacy of the victim
C．separate their work from feelings	D．ask police for permission to take photos

3. The 5th and 6th paragraphs mainly tell us that________.

A．speed determines the success of a news story

B．photo agencies are greedier than serious newspeople

C．photographers have free access to photos of accidents

D．profit is the driving force behind the competition for photos

4. It can be learned from the last paragraph that serious newspeople________.

A．obtain photos differently from news agencies

B．are no better than self-employed photographers

C．are more devoted to work than non-professionals

D．have a higher moral standard than self-employed photographers

7 . Of all the journalism specialties, science writing may well be the most challenging. Science writers cover fields undergoing some of the most rapid advances in history, from stunning advances in genetics and biotechnology to exotic discoveries in astrophysics. A science writer’s week may include coverage of new discoveries about viruses, the brain, evolution, artificial intelligence, planets around other suns, and global climate change and its environmental impact, to name only a few topics.

Writing anything that’s any good is hard work, but science writers labor tinder a particular, and rather peculiar, set of constraints. Science is new — only about 400 years old, as a going concern — and prodigious, having transformed our conception of the universe and of our place in it. But precisely because its impact has been so rapid and so monumental, science has not yet been absorbed into our common consciousness. Readers come to the printed page already knowing something about crime and punishment, love and loss, triumph and tragedy — but not, necessarily, about the roles played by theory and observation in identifying a virus or tracing the curvature of intergalactic space. Hence science writers have to keep explaining things, from the significance of scientific facts to the methods by which they are adduced, while simultaneously holding the readers’ attention and moving the story along. It’s as if business reporters had to constantly explain what is meant by “turning a profit”, or sportswriters by “scoring a touchdown”.

Unsurprisingly, we science writers are often misunderstood. People tend to assume that we write computer software manuals or those buckram-bound engineering textbooks assigned to students in technical studies. Fellow authors dismiss us as translators. Editors may think us narrow. A quarter-century ago, when I was struggling to move away from writing about politics and rock music in order to concentrate on astronomy, the editor of a major magazine pressed me to do an article, called “The Bionic Man”, on artificial body parts. When I declined, he became impatient.

“Well, what do you want to write about?” he asked, throwing up his hands, like a motorist cut off in traffic.

“Astronomy,” I replied.

“You’ve already written about astronomy!”

“Yes, but I like it. It was my original interest in life.”

“Aren’t you afraid of becoming some sort of Johnny One Note?”

“Well, not really. You know, what’s out there is something like ninety-nine, then a decimal point, then twenty-eight more nines per cent of everything. Covering nearly everything doesn’t seem all that limiting. And it leads to lots of other things.”

I’ve been on the wrong side of arguments with editors more often than it is comfortable to recall, but on this occasion I turned out to have been right. Astronomy did lead to everything else. It led me into other sciences of course — among them physics, chemistry, and biology — and also, by many winding paths, to poetry, literature, history, philosophy, art, music, and into conversation with some of the smartest and most creative people in the world.

1. According to the writer, what is the main difficulty facing science writers?

A．Finding new science topics.

B．Meeting the reader’s expectations of science.

C．Overcoming the reader's unfamiliarity with science.

D．Keeping up with the rapid developments in science.

2. Why did the writer refuse to write about The Bionic Man?

A．He had no expertise in the topic.

B．He was not passionate about the topic.

C．He did not realize the potential of the topic.

D．He did not want to write about the same topic again.

3. Which of the following statements about the writer is NOT true?

A．He finds it difficult to get recognition from others as a science writer.

B．He feels quite comfortable with the previous arguments he had with editors.

C．A keen interest in astronomy contributes to his exploration of other disciplines.

D．Astronomy helps him form a connection with some great minds in the world.

4. Which word best describes the tone of the last paragraph?

A．indifference

B．amusement

C．frustration

D．satisfaction

8 . There are few spectacles more unpleasant than a television presenter trying to hang on to a job. When one of the presenters of the BBC program Crimewatch resigned recently, rather than suffer the inevitable indignity of being unfinished and replaced by a younger version, he made the usual hurt noises about his masters' overemphasis on youth. People in the media listened sympathetically before he slid from view to join the ranks of television's has-beens.

The presenter's argument, that the views don't care how old you are so long as you can “do the job,” unfortunately is not backed up by the evidence. When you're on TV, viewers are always thinking about whether you're losing your hair or your figure and, lately, whether you've had cosmetic work done. This is what they're actually doing when you think they're listening to the wise things you say. Viewers actually don't understand much of what the job involves, they just see you sitting there looking the part. Like the ability to pet one's head while rubbing one's stomach, TV presenting is just one of those sills. Some of those who possess this skill can hit the big name, inevitably as they become more attached to the lifestyle this brings, however, the more likely they are to overstate the skill.

In reality, if somebody is paying you a lot of money to do a job, it's often on the tacit （心照不宣的） understanding that you may be fired suddenly-it's part of the deal. Unlike football managers, TV presenters pretend not to understand this. If they've had many years being paid silly sums to read a script from an autocue （ 自动题词机），it's difficult for them to accept that they've been the beneficiary of good fortune rather than anything else; even harder to face the fact that an editor could all too easily send them to the shopping channels.

Something similar eventually awaits all the people who are currently making fortunes that would have been unimaginable to earlier generations of presenters. One day we'll decide that their face no longer fits and they'll be dragged away complaining about the same ageist policy from which they no doubt previously profited. Show business is a brutal （残忍的） business. The one thing it reliably punishes is age, particularly among women. That's why, at the age of fifty, female TV presenters become female radio presenters and why girl bands planning to re-form need to get it done before they're forty, after which it will get too hard for everyone to suspend their collective disbelief.

1. What does the writer imply about the Crimewatch presenter he mentions in the first paragraph?

A．He was unwise to resign when he did.

B．He will soon be forgotten by the viewers.

C．He may well have had a valid point to make.

D．He was treated insensitively by his employers.

2. The underlined pronoun “this” in paragraph 2 refers to________.

A．a public image	B．a level of success
C．an overstatement	D．a common misunderstanding

3. Why does the writer mention football managers in paragraph 3?

A．To support his view that presenters are overpaid.

B．To stress how important luck is in certain occupations.

C．To show how relatively secure TV presents are in their jobs.

D．To illustrate a general rule that applies to certain types of job.

4. According to the writer, TV personalities who may worry about ageism ________.

A．should look for work in other forms of broadcasting

B．may have benefited from it themselves at some point

C．are less well respected than presenters of the past

D．are being unfair to up-and-coming younger colleagues

9 . There's no feeling quite like walking alongside the river.

It's the last light in the valley, and the sound of rushing water drowned out all others. I walk the river's edge with my dog, Mosi, whose inability to hear over the waterfall makes him nervous. Despite his impressive size, he runs sheepishly at my feet. At first glance, we walk to fish, but actually we move at the urging of naturalists long since passed—of John Burroughs and of Loren Eiseley—and of my parents, Norman and Paula, who are still alive today but live far from this Kenya valley. Walk in the woods, their voices advise, along the banks of a river where, in the blue end of a day, you may find the rhythms that fascinate you. There, among the fish and the flowers and the forces that bind them, you might make peace with your worried mind.

I began to venture into the highlands of central Kenya in 2013 with the hope that its rivers might throw their _________ power upon me, smoothing my edges as they have, over time, polished the stones in their path. I've never been free of emotional stress, but my years of working as a photojournalist in some of Africa's most conflict-ridden environment left additional barbs in me. With time it became hard to distinguish between the conflicts that existed inside me and the ones that I witnessed through the lens. Gradually they became intertwined, and I felt an expanding sense of tension and discomfort inside me.

Fly-fishing seemed a cure of the pain of photographing people's suffering, as I'd done so often in recent years. I hadn't cast a fishing line since the age of 10 or so, when I used bait to fish the Atlantic waters that surrounded the places I lived at a child, first along the coast of New Jersey and later in Massachusetts. My mother's friend at that time taught me the basics. He was a large, athletic man who'd been in the U. S. Army Special Forces, an experience that left him with his own scars. At dusk by the river, his hand resting comfortably on the rod, he seemed at ease.

Between assignments I began to drive around. The slow-flowing river drifts through protected forests, where a network of paths, used by humans, elephants and lions, cuts through thick vegetation. I came to realize that the river had given me more than I'd asked—I regained the peace inside me, and it seemed that I'd gone back to my childhood when sand sharks and puffer fish made my heart beat with curiosity.

1. Which of the following statements is true according to the first two paragraphs?

A．The author came to the valley to fish as well as to make peace with his worried mind.

B．The deafening sound of the waterfall made the author and his dog quite scared.

C．The author's parents advised him to discover nature in the depths of the valley.

D．The valley environment is said to have a healing power upon one's heart.

2. Which of the following is the best word to fill in the blank in the 2^nd paragraph?

A．rushing.

B．shaking.

C．transforming.

D．encouraging.

3. Which of the following statements is true about the author?

A．His occupation as a cameraman added to his inner frustration.

B．He got to make friends with his mother's friend because of fly-fishing.

C．In his spare time, he often walked through the vegetation along the paths.

D．Finally he was cured by his childhood experience with sand sharks and puffer fish.

4. Which of the following best serves as the title for the passage?

A．My Job in Photography Led Me to a Valley.	B．A River Heals the Scar Left by a Camera.
C．The Call of Naturalists Pushed Me to Explore.	D．The Fishing Rod Links Nature With My Heart.