The joy of absence
How some companies fight the curse of presenteeism (出勤主义)?
RONALD REAGAN famously joked that “it’s true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?” Beyond a certain level, extra effort seems to be self-defeating. Studies suggest that, after around 50 hours a week, employee productivity declines sharply.
But that doesn’t stop some managers from demanding that workers stay chained to their desk for long periods. Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce group, recently praised the 996 model, where employees work from 9a.m. to 9p.m., six days a week, as a “great opportunity”. Yet presenteeism is the curse of the modern office worker.
There will be days when you do not have much to do; perhaps because you are waiting for someone else in a different department, or a different company, to respond to a request. As the clock ticks past 5p.m., there may be no purpose in staying at your desk. But you can see your boss hard at work and, more importantly, they can see you. So you make an effort to look busy.
The consequence is often wasted effort. Rather than work hard, you slave to make bosses think that you are. But presenteeism has more serious consequences. As well as reduced productivity, this can mean greater medical expenses for the employer. According to a study in the Journal of Occupation and Environmental Medicine, these costs can be six times higher for employers than the costs of absenteeism among workers.
None of this is to say that employers are not called to expect workers to be in the office for a proper period of time. Surely there will be a need for some (preferably short) meetings. Dealing with colleagues face-to-face creates a feeling of togetherness, allows for a useful exchange of ideas and enables workers to have a better sense of their mutual needs.
Turning an office into a prison, with inmates (囚犯) allowed home for the evenings, does nothing for creativity that is increasingly demanded of office workers as routine tasks are automated. To be productive you need presence of mind, not being present in the flesh.
1.Why does the author mention Ronald Reagan’s joke in Para. 1?
A.To encourage people to grasp the chance to work hard.
B.To show that hard work is harmless.
C.To introduce the topic of the passage.
D.To praise Ronald Reagan’s accomplished joking skills.
2.What is the meaning of the underlined sentence?
A.Extra effort causes problems or difficulties.
B.With extra effort, we can defeat anybody.
C.We should say no to extra effort.
D.Extra effort isn’t necessarily helpful.
3.According to the passage, which of the following situation is helpful to the company?
A.Your team has a ten-minute meeting after work for an urgent problem.
B.You don’t go home until 7:30 p.m. because your boss is in his office and he can see you.
C.The manager tours the engineering department at 7:30 p.m. to check people are at their desks.
D.You attend the office even when you suffer lower back pain.
4.Which of the following opinions agrees with the passage?
A.Some managers expect workers tie themselves up with a chain to their desks.
B.Reduced productivity can mean greater medical expenses for the employer.
C.With growing demand of creativity on office workers, a prison-like office is not a wise option.
D.Presence of mind guarantees your productivity.
A team of engineers at Harvard University has been inspired by Nature to create the first robotic fly. The mechanical fly has become a platform for a series of new high-tech integrated systems. Designed to do what a fly does naturally, the tiny machine is the size of a fat housefly. Its mini wings allow it to stay in the air and perform controlled flight tasks.
“It’s extremely important for us to think about this as a whole system and not just the sum of a bunch of individual components,” said Robert Wood, the Harvard engineering professor who has been working on the robotic fly project for over a decade. A few years ago, his team got the go-ahead to start piecing together the components. “The added difficulty with a project like this is that actually none of those components are off the shelf and so we have to develop them all on our own,” he said.
They engineered a series of systems to start and drive the robotic fly. “The seemingly simple system which just moves the wings has a number of interdependencies on the individual components, each of which individually has to perform well, but then has to be matched well to everything it’s connected to,” said Wood. The flight device was built into a set of power, computation, sensing and control systems. Wood says the success of the project proves that the flying robot with these tiny components can be built and manufactured.
While this first robotic flyer is linked to a small, off-board power source, the goal is eventually to equip it with a built-in power source, so that it might someday perform data-gathering work at rescue sites, in farmers’ fields or on the battlefield. “Basically, it should be able to take off, land and fly around,” he said.
Wood says the design offers a new way to study flight mechanics and control at insect-scale. Yet, the power, sensing and computation technologies on board could have much broader applications. “You can start thinking about using them to answer open scientific questions, you know, to study biology in ways that would be difficult with the animals, but using these robots instead,” he said. “So there are a lot of technologies and open interesting scientific questions that are really what drives us on a day to day basis.”
1.Which of the following statements was the difficulty engineers met while making the robotic fly?
A.They did not have sufficient fund.
B.No ready-made components were available.
C.There was no model in their mind.
D.It was hard for them to assemble the components.
2.What can be inferred from paragraphs 3 and 4?
A.The robotic fly has been put into wide application.
B.The robotic fly consists of a flight device and a control system.
C.Information from many sources can be collected by the robotic fly.
D.The robotic fly can just fly in limited areas at present.
3.Which of the following can be learned from the passage?
A.Wood’s design can replace animals in some experiments.
B.Animals are not allowed in biological experiments.
C.The robotic flyer is designed to learn about insects.
D.There used to be few ways to study how insects fly.
4.Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?
A.The Development of Robotic Fly
B.Robotic Fly Promotes Engineering Science
C.Harvard’s Efforts in Making Robotic Fly
D.Robotic Fly Imitates Real Life Insect
My family and I never talked about school as the ticket to a future. I was in the classrooms, but I wasn’t there to learn to write, read or even speak. When it was my turn to read, I wanted to hide. I was 13 years old, but I already hated being who I was.
I had an English teacher, Mr. Creech, who knew I couldn’t read. In one of my first lessons the teacher said that anyone who had a reading age below six had to stand up. I felt so embarrassed. But at the same time, it made me realize that I needed to change the situation. I was determined it wouldn’t happen again. Later that day, Mr. Creech encouraged me and promised he would try his best to help me learn to read. From then on, I never gave up practicing reading.
Now I was 41 years old. One day, I planned to fly back to Texas to visit my friends and family. On my way from the airport, I saw Mr. Creech buying himself a drink. I rushed over and reached into my pocket to pay for him. “Do I know you?” he asked. “Yes, sir, you do know me,” I answered excitedly. “My name is Anthony Hamilton. You taught me English.” The look on his face told me that he remembered the boy he’d once encouraged.
“I’m so glad I had a chance to see you,” I said. “And Mr. Creech, I have great news to share.” I told him I had learned to read. But that wasn’t all. I had become a published author and an active speaker. “The next time you get another Anthony Hamilton in your classroom, please encourage him to read as well,” I added.
The experts say what once worried me has a name: dyslexia (诵读困难症). But I can tell you it was a lack of desire for education.
1.Why did the author want to hide?
A.Because he felt sorry for himself. B.Because he hated being laughed at.
C.Because he couldn’t read at all. D.Because he didn’t have a ticket.
2.Which of the following could best describe Mr. Creech?
A.Considerate and dutiful. B.Demanding and enthusiastic.
C.Emotional and dedicated. D.Friendly and ambitious.
3.Why couldn’t the author read before meeting Mr.Creech?
A.Because his reading age was not long enough.
B.Because his parents didn’t teach him how to read.
C.Because he was afraid of reading before the class.
D.Because he didn’t have inner driving force to learn to read.
4.What can we infer from the passage?
A.Mr. Creech taught two students called Anthony Hamilton.
B.The author had become a published author and an active speaker.
C.Dyslexia was the underlying reason that made the author unable to read.
D.The author was grateful to Mr. Creech.
Returns & Refund Guarantee
The “Returns & Refund Guarantee” is a promise provided by sellers for every item they sell on DHgate.com. When you receive an item that was bought and paid for on our site, and you find it is not as described or is of low quality, you can contact the seller to resolve these problems. DHgate will offer additional assistance if the seller is not cooperative.
Scope
The following points should not be included in the “Returns & Refund Guarantee”:
▲The seller didn’t make any promise.
▲The seller can provide evidence to prove the items are as described.
▲You didn’t contact the seller within the promised time.
▲You have released the payment to the seller before asking DHgate for help.
Sellers are able to set up the following promise:
Returning items for any reason
Buyers can return items for a refund within a specific day which has been set up by sellers, such as 3 days, and 7 days from the day when the items are received. The items’ receive date is the date that is indicated on the shipping carrier’s official website. Buyers should prepay any return shipping cost, which will be given back to the buyers after the seller receives the items as long as the items are returned in the same exact condition as when they were delivered.
Returns or Refunds accepted if the product has quality issues
Buyers can return the items for a refund when they are not as described or possess quality issues by communicating directly with the seller. The seller is responsible for the return shipping cost.
Buyers can get a refund and keep the items when the items are not as described or possess quality issues by negotiating directly with sellers.
1.Who can get additional assistance from DHgate in the guarantee?
A.The buyers in physical stores. B.The buyers on DHgate.com.
C.The sellers on DHgate.com. D.Both the buyers and the sellers.
2.Which situation is within the scope of the guarantee?
A.The seller didn’t make any promise.
B.The buyer has paid the seller in advance.
C.The buyer asked for help within the promised time.
D.The seller proves that there is nothing wrong with the item.
3.Which of the following is true according to the passage?
A.All the sellers didn’t make promises.
B.DHgate sometimes will pay the buyers.
C.Sellers should prepay return shipping cost.
D.The buyer can’t keep the items after getting a refund.
阅读下面短文，根据所给情节进行续写， 使之构成一个完整的故事。
Last Saturday, David was taking a walk in the park near his home when he noticed a woman with a boy of about eight years old. When David passed them, he heard the woman yell, “How stupid you are! You’re good at nothing.”David stopped and looked at the little boy. The boy said nothing. He just stood there, looking upset.
David was reminded of his English teacher Mrs Brown in middle school. After he entered middle school, David lacked self-confidence because he was often made fun of by others. He was often told that he was good at nothing, which David believed. But one day it all changed.
One day, in an English writing class, Mrs Brown asked them to read a novel. They were asked to write a new chapter of the novel after they finished reading the book. A few days later, David handed in his story. He didn’t give it much thought. But the next day to his surprise, the comment “well done” from Mrs Brown came into view the moment he turned to the page where the story was written.
When David read that, he almost burst into tears. He never expected to be praised one day. He suddenly gained some self-confidence.
That day after he returned home, he wrote a short story and gave it to Mrs Brown the next morning. And again he was praised.
David became very interested in writing. He often wrote short stories and asked Mrs Brown to read them and correct them for him. Mrs Brown always correct them for him. Mrs Brown always corrected the mistakes he had made and gave him good advice to improve them. One year later, David joined the school newspaper and became an editor of it. He was no longer that boy who lacked self-confidence. He gained his confidence and was hopeful about his future.
He succeeded in entering college and kept writing. Several years after graduating from college, he had his first book published. With some more books coming out, he became famous as a writer in his country. And he owed his success to Mrs Brown’s encouragement. Without her encouragement, his life might be very different now.
注意：
1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2. 至少使用5个短文中标有下划线的关键词语
3. 续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；
4. 续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。
Paragraph 1:
Inspired by his own life story, David decided to do something for that boy.____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2:
The mother was ashamed when she heard that.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
假如你是李华，你班交换生Tim这两天因身体不适，未能到校上课，请给他写一封邮件，要点如下：
1. 表示安慰，希望他尽快适应新环境；
2. 询问他是否能参加这周六学校举行的篮球比赛；
3. 邀请他下周日一起去春游、赏花。
注意：1. 词数80左右；
2. 可适当增加细节,以使行文连贯。
参考词汇：春游 go spring outing
Dear Tim,
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours，
Li hua
