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.
Which proverb can be quoted to support Para 4?| 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. |
2 . 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．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. |
3 . “Let’s take a break,” partway through the meeting, my boss stood, saying. “I need more coffee.” I picked up my empty cup. “I do, too,” I said, and handed it to him across the table. “Thanks,” I added, looking at him expectantly. The boss was staggered for a moment, and then took the cup from me.
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What does the underlined word “staggered” mean in the sixth paragraph?| A．Amused. | B．Shocked. |
| C．Depressed. | D．Excited. |
4 . When you need a job very much, you may end up taking
Of course, you may seek tasks and responsibilities that force you to learn something new or to work harder. “You may be operating on autopilot（习惯性地）right now, but chances are that people above you are stressed,” Sarah Hathorn says. “ Take things off your boss’s plate and let him know which projects or tasks you want to learn more about.”
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The underlined words “take things off your boss’s plate” mean______.| A．draw your boss’s attention | B．share your boss’s burdens |
| C．give your boss useful advice | D．ask your boss for a better position |
5 . For nearly a decade now, Merebeth has been a self-employed pet transport specialist. Her pet transport job was born of the financial crisis(危机) in the late 2000s. The downturn hit the real estate (房地产) firm where she had worked for ten years as an office manager. The firm went broke and left her looking for a new job. One day, while driving near her home, she saw a dog wandering on the road, clearly lost. She took it home, and her sister in Denver agreed to take it. This was a loving home for sure, but 1, 600 miles away. It didn’t take long for Merebeth to decide to drive the dog there herself. It was her first road trip to her new job.
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This wanderlust is inherited from her father, she says. She moved their family from Canada to California when she was one year old, because he wanted them to explore a new place together. As soon as she graduated from high school she left home to live on Catalina Island off the Californian coast, away from her parents, where she enjoyed a life of sailing and off-road biking.
It turns out that pet transporting pays quite well at about $30, 000 per year before tax. She doesn’t work in summer, as it would be unpleasantly hot for the animals in the car, even with air conditioning. As autumn comes, she gets restless—the same old wanderlust returning. It’s a call she must heed alone, though. Merebeth says, “When I am on the road, I’m just in my own world. I’ve always been independent-spirited and I just feel strongly that I mush help animals.”
1. Why did Merebeth changed her job?| A．She wanted to work near her home. |
| B．She was tired of working in the office. |
| C．Her sister asked her to move to Denver. |
| D．Her former employer was out of business. |
| A．She has chances to see rare animals. |
| B．She works hard throughout the year. |
| C．She relies on herself the whole time. |
| D．She earns a basic and tax-free salary. |
6 . Today, poetry and science are often considered to be mutually exclusive career paths. But that wasn’t always the case. The mathematician A da Lovelace and the physicist James Clerk Mahwah were both accomplished poets. The poet John Keats was a licensed surgeon. Combining the two practices fell out of favor in the 1800s. But translating research into lyrics, haiku, and other poetic forms is resurging (再现) among scientists as they look for alternative ways to inspire others with their findings.
What does the underlined word “exclusive” probably mean?| A．Unable to contrast at the same time. | B．Unable to detect each other. |
| C．Unable to distinct from each other. | D．Unable to exist at the same time. |
7 . ......
High-school student Savannah Wakefield reflected if art as we know it today would have been different without teachers. Would Monet have discovered his talent for impressionism? Los Angeles-based Miles Horst, who won the 1000 USD prize for the best adult submission imagines a world where teachers are replaced by a “brain box” in his fun lively entry.
Youth category winner Marina Barham’s video represents a fact we all know but often forget. Teachers don’t just teach, they inspire-something that no electronic device, no matter how smart, can do! So the next time you think your teacher is being “mean” for trying to channel you in the right direction, imagine life without him/her. We have feeling it will not appear as rosy!
What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 4 suggest?| A．A world without teachers will be unimaginable. |
| B．The future of teachers’ work appears inspiring. |
| C．Teaching is quite different from other jobs. |
| D．Many people attach more importance to teaching |
8 . ......
That viewpoint is echoed by Illingworth, who thinks science communication initiatives are too often dominated by public lectures with their hands-off PowerPoint slides. “Actually, when science communication involves writing and sharing poems, it invites a two-way dialogue between experts and nonexperts,” he says. Scientist-poet Manjula Silva, an educator at Imperial College London, agrees. Poetry provides a way to translate complex scientific concepts into a language that everyone can understand, Silva says.
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What does Illingworth think of the dominant ways of science communication?| A．Conventional. | B．Effective. | C．Innovative. | D．Complex. |
9 . By day, Robert Titterton is a lawyer. In his spare time though he goes on stage beside pianist Maria Raspopova — not as a musician but as her page turner. “I’m not a trained musician, but I’ve learnt to read music so I can help Maria in her performance.”
Mr Titterton is chairman of the Omega Ensemble but has been the group’s official page turner for the past four years. His job is to sit beside the pianist and turn the pages of the score so the musician doesn’t have to break the flow of sound by doing it themselves. He said he became just as nervous as those playing instruments on stage.
“A lot of skills are needed for the job. You have to make sure you don’t turn two pages at once and make sure you find the repeats in the music when you have to go back to the right spot.” Mr Titterton explained.
Being a page turner requires plenty of practice. Some pieces of music can go for 40 minutes and require up to 50 page turns, including back turns for repeat passages. Silent onstage communication is key, and each pianist has their own style of “nodding” to indicate a page turn which they need to practise with their page turner.
But like all performances, there are moments when things go wrong. “I was turning the page to get ready for the next page, but the draft wind from the turn caused the spare pages to fall off the stand,” Mr Titterton said, “Luckily I was able to catch them and put them back.”
Most page turners are piano students or up-and-coming concert pianists, although Ms Raspopova has once asked her husband to help her out on stage.
“My husband is the worst page turner,” she laughed. “He’s interested in the music, feeling every note, and I have to say: ‘Turn, turn!’ Robert is the best page turner I’ve had in my entire life.”
Why is Ms Raspopova’s husband “the worst page turner”?
| A．He has very poor eyesight. |
| B．He ignores the audience. |
| C．He has no interest in music. |
| D．He forgets to do his job. |
10 . Terri Bolton is a dab hand when it comes to DIY (do-it-yourself). Skilled at putting up shelves and piecing together furniture, she never pays someone else to do a job she can do herself.
She credits these skills to her late grandfather and builder Derek Lloyd. From the age of six, Terri, now 26, accompanied Derek to work during her school holidays. A day’s work was rewarded with £5 in pocket money. She says: “I’m sure I wasn’t much of a help to start with, painting the rooms and putting down the flooring throughout the house. It took weeks and it was backbreaking work, but I know he was proud of my skills.”
Terri, who now rents a house with friends in Wandsworth, South West London, says DIY also saves her from losing any deposit when a tenancy (租期) comes to an end. She adds: “I’ve moved house many times and I always like to personalise my room and put up pictures, so, it’s been useful to know how to cover up holes and repaint a room to avoid any charges when I’ve moved out.”
With millions of people likely to take on DIY projects over that coming weeks, new research shows that more than half of people are planning to make the most of the long, warm summer days to get jobs done. The average spend per project will be around £823. Two thirds of people aim to improve their comfort while at home. Two fifths wish to increase the value of their house. Though DIY has traditionally been seen as male hobby, the research shows it is women now leading the charge.
1. How did Terri avoid losing the deposit on the house she rented?| A．By making it look like before. |
| B．By furnishing it herself. |
| C．By splitting the rent with a roommate. |
| D．By cancelling the rental agreement. |
| A．It is becoming more costly. |
| B．It is getting more time-consuming. |
| C．It is turning into a seasonal industry. |
| D．It is gaining popularity among females. |
