1 . Top Tips for Efficient E-mail Management

For many of us, email is an extremely important means of communication in business.     1    . It allows us to do our jobs from almost anywhere. However, when used improperly, email can do harm to productivity. Here are some tips to better manage your email.

Set fixed email times

Don’t leave your email program open all day. Instead, schedule specific time throughout the day to check your email.     2    . The amount of time it takes to check email and respond depends on how frequently you check messages and how many you typically receive.

Take immediate action

Quick decisions and immediate action will help you keep your email inbox (收件箱) under control. The point is not to delay until tomorrow what can be carried out immediately. Don’t let important emails sit in your inbox for days. If you can’t respond immediately, let the sender know you received the message and will be in touch shortly.     3    .

Manage additional mailboxes

    4    ? Many people manage various other mailboxes, especially assistants. Approximately 75 percent of assistants manage two or more of their managers’ inboxes in addition to their own. The key to effectively managing another person’s inbox is to discuss their expectations. The key here is to build routines, establish trust and also get permission.

    5    

Newsletters and advertising emails can occupy your inbox and hide important messages. Therefore, be sure to clean up the mess. Unsubscribe (取消订阅) from receiving messages from specific senders if you no longer want to receive their advertising emails or have time to read them. To make the unsubscribe process quick and painless, search your inbox for the term “unsubscribe”.

A．It’s convenient and fast

B．Turn off unwanted emails

C．Organize with certain categories

D．Why do emails keep coming in

E．How many inboxes do you manage

F．If you’re not on vacation, respond within 48 hours

G．For example, you can mark your calendar to do this

2 . For many people, working from home, or ‘WFH’, has also come to mean ‘WFB’-working from bed. Getting dressed and going to an office has been replaced by splashing water on your face and switching on a computer as you settle back under your blanket. People may have a desk or a kitchen table to place their computer on-they just choose not to.

But the reality is that turning your bed into your office can set off a large number of health problems, both psychological and physical. And even if you don't notice them now, adverse effects-possibly permanent-could appear later on in life. Young people are particularly likely to fall victim to these bad habits, because they may not feel the consequences right away, which could include simple headaches, and could also extend to permanent stiffness in your back, and severe pain in the bones.

When you work from bed for a year, it doesn't just potentially ruin your body. It's possibly bad for your productivity and sleep habits, too. Rachel Salas, a sleep expert at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, explained that “the more you watch TV in bed, play video games in bed and not sleep in bed, your brain starts learning,' oh, OK, we can do any one of these activities in bed'. It starts building connections.”

So, when you spread out on your bed your laptop, phone and all the screens your job requires every day, your brain and body eventually stop associating bed with rest. “You're really training your brain to be alert, and telling it this is where your ideas come and this is where the work is done,” adds Salas. “When you're trying to go to sleep, your brain is like-'wait a minute, what are we doing? This is work time'.” Doing this for a year, or any extended period of time, could lead to circadian rhythm disorder (昼夜节律紊乱）. And disturbed nights, body pain or both mean that you're less likely to be productive, creative or focused, making it likely your work could suffer.

1. Which of the following can replace the underlined word “adverse" in paragraph 2?

A．Beneficial.

B．Harmful.

C．Temporary.

D．Ever-lasting.

2. What do we know about the health problems caused by working from bed?

A．Young people are less likely to suffer from them.

B．They can be permanent and can be easily noticed.

C．Young people might notice them later on in their life.

D．They only appear when you work from bed for a year.

3. What does Rachel Salas say about working from bed?

A．It trains your brain to be more alert and creative.

B．It makes you sleepy and easily distracted from work.

C．It's better than watching TV or playing games in bed.

D．It makes your brain connect bed with work rather than rest.

4. What is this passage mainly about?

A．Beds are not the perfect working sites.

B．Your productivity suffers from working from home.

C．Working from bed could ruin both your health and work.

D．Turning your bed into your office has become a new trend.