1、专业英语八级（作文）模拟试卷 88及答案与解析 一、 PART V WRITING 1 Recently, a four-day/10-hour-per-day has been promoted by employers as a way to cut costs, conserve energy and build a more productive and creative workforce. Making every weekend longer certainly sounds like a good idea, but people also have certain conce
2、rn. The following are opinions from different people. Write an article of NO LESS THAN 300 words, in which you should: 1. summarize briefly the opinions; 2. give your comment. Jill Fraser, author of “White Collar Sweatshop“ Many have argued for the four-day workweek, or flexible hours in general, as
3、 a way to retain talented female workers who might otherwise quit altogether in order to have children. But a four-day workweek isnt beneficial to mothers alone and it is beneficial. When Utah introduced four-day workweeks for many of its state employees a few years ago, it boosted productivity and
4、worker satisfaction. Better work gets done in four days than in five. It makes sense: When theres less time to work, theres less time to waste. And when you have a compressed workweek, you tend to focus on whats important, like sleep, quality work happens best when uninterrupted. Cali Yost, founder
5、of Flex+Strategy Group Giving staffers one weekday off would be especially appealing to the biggest chunk of the labor force boomers. Many of them could use the free day to take their parents to doctors appointments or handle other eldercare duties, spend time with their grandkids, learn new skills
6、and transition into retirement. Four-day workweeks can also let them cut their commutes. Besides, a four-day workweek allows you to continue to contribute on the job while gaining the time to pursue a long-neglected avocation. Larry Page, boss of Google The idea that everyone needs to work frantical
7、ly to meet peoples needs is just not true. People need to feel busy and productive, but they dont need to work so much to get there. Most people like working, but theyd also like to have more time with their family or to pursue their own interests. So that would be one way to deal with the problem,
8、is if you had a coordinated way to just reduce the workweek Jason Fried, technician of Treehouse, an online education company A four-day workweek may increase the free time available from Friday to Sunday, but it also requires employees to work longer and harder the other four days. This is especial
9、ly true for occupations that involve a fixed amount of work that must be accomplished on a weekly basis inspectors, lab technicians, newsmagazine journalists, to name just a few. And regardless of workload, a 10-hour day is substantially longer than the current standard. This can be a significant bu
10、rden, particularly for older workers. Carlos Slim, CEO of Telmex When thinking about creating a four-day workweek, people tend to think about how great it will be to have more time away from the office rather than how increasing their workday by two hours may affect them and their families. Less tim
11、e in the day outside of work means less time for running errands on your workdays. Another drawback is the fact that just because you only work four days a week, it doesnt mean your customers dont need you on your “off“ day. Some companies cant shut their doors for one day a week because of the natu
12、re of their business. If there are enough employees to stagger the 5th day off, this may work for you some employees get Monday off and some Friday. 2 The following two excerpts are about overtime stresses of Chinese white-collar workers. From the excerpts, you can find that white-collar workers in
13、China have to work overtime, willingly or unwillingly, due to acceleration of life pace and the ever-increasing working pressure. Write an article of NO LESS THAN 300 words, in which you should: 1. summarize work status of white-collar workers in China, and then, 2. express your opinion on how to ke
14、ep a balance between a workaholic and a life pleasure pursuer. Excerpt 1 Overtime Is Norm for White-Collar Workers Working overtime has become routine for white-collar workers, with more than 60 percent of employees in a recent survey saying they have to work extra time on weekdays and 40 percent ha
15、ving to do so on the weekends. Nearly 14 percent said they only enjoyed half the weekends off in a month, while 3.4 percent said they had no day off in a month. Guangdong province, Beijing and Zhejiang province have the most employees working extra time from Monday to Friday, while Hong Kong, Shangh
16、ai and Jiangsu province have the highest average number of monthly overtime days. Huang Ruoshan, Zhaopins senior career consultant, said working overtime is only prevalent in certain industries such as real estate, the Internet and finance. “Those industries are developing very rapidly, which demand
17、s employees work hard under pressure and work extra time,“ said Huang. “Take the e-commerce industry as an example: It actually demands that employees be available 24 hours a day seven days a week.“ In the Internet field, there is a term called “996“, which means employees start at 9 am, finish arou
18、nd 9 pm and have to work on Saturday. Shen, 27, an employee of mobile phone company in Shenzhen, said it is normal to work extra time and he is willing to do that. “I barely have weekends. However, I am satisfied with my job, my colleagues and working environment. This industry is changing so fast,
19、I am proud to say I am creating value in my position. “However, I know working overtime hurts my health. I even look older than my peers,“ added Shen. “So I am considering an early retirement when I have enough savings.“ Excerpt 2 Constant Overtime Stresses Chinese White-Collar Workers to Breaking P
20、oint China is facing an epidemic of overwork, to hear the state-controlled press and Chinese social media tell it. About 600,000 Chinese die each year from working too hard, according to the China Youth Daily. China Radio International in April reported a toll of 1,600 every day. “Whats the point of
21、 working overtime so you can work to death?“ asked one commentator on Weibo, lamenting that his boss told employees to spend more time on the job. The rising death rate comes as Chinas workforce appears to be getting the upper hand, with a shrinking labor pool able to demand higher wages and factory
22、 workers regularly going on strike. But the message hasnt gotten through to Chinas white-collar warriors. In exchange for starting salaries typically double blue-collar pay, they put in hours of overtime on top of eight-hour workdays, often in violation of Chinese labor law, according to Geoffrey Cr
23、othall, spokesman for Hong Kong-based labor-advocacy group the China Labour Bulletin. “China is still a rising economy, and people are still buying into that hardworking ethos,“ said Jeff Kingston, director of Asian Studies at the Tokyo branch campus of Temple University of Philadelphia. 3 Young peo
24、ple now are no strangers to job-hopping. According to China Youth Daily, more than 20% of last years college graduates quit their jobs within six months. From the following news report, you can find more details about this trend. Write an article of NO LESS THAN 300 words, in which you should: 1. su
25、mmarize briefly the article; 2. give your comment, especially on what push newly graduates to frequent job-hopping. More Recent Graduates Job-Hopping Many recent graduates have already quit or are planning to switch from what are mostly their first jobs, a sign of shifting attitudes about employment
26、 among young people during the slowly recovering recruitment market “We havent come up with a figure yet, but preliminary surveys have shown that a higher percentage of this years graduates have already quit their first jobs,“ said Luo Huiwen, a spokesman for Mycos HR Digital Information Co, which p
27、rovides employment research for Chinese universities. The jobs that Luo is referring to are the first jobs that graduates take after college, not the first jobs they have ever taken. Last year, 10 percent of graduates left their jobs within six months, up from 9 percent the previous year. Luo said t
28、he figure this year could be at least 13 percent and said the job markets slow recovery is mostly to blame for the high turnover rate. However, a possible shift in attitudes could also be contributing to the trend. Human resources experts say that young people are less loyal to employers amid the ra
29、pid economic growth and the surge in private businesses. Wang Yan, 26, who graduated with a degree in English from the University of International Business and Economics, left her first job as an assistant designer in a private Internet company based in Beijing to become a trademark agent in a natio
30、nal law firm. “My first job could not provide me with enough opportunities to practice my abilities and the salary was very low.“ Employment consultants said its understandable for new graduates who are not satisfied with their first jobs to act this way. “There are a lot of differences between idea
31、lism and reality. College students tend to have fantasies about the job they will do, however, they discover that real work is somewhat dull and boring in most cases,“ said Hao Jian, a senior consultant with the job website . Some sociologists said frequent job-hopping is not good for young employee
32、s. “The students who choose to job-hop after graduation are apt to be caught between jobs since employers emphasize loyalty a lot,“ said Zhou Xiaozheng, a sociology professor at Renmin University of China. “A down-to-earth attitude is important for graduates to achieve success in their careers. I wo
33、uld advise graduates to work in non-desirable jobs for at least two years to accumulate essential experience, and then if necessary, they can choose the jobs they want instead of job-hopping.“ Xia Xueluan, a professor of sociology at Peking University, said the problem is young people want to quickl
34、y gain success after graduating. “People emphasize achieving success quickly too much. Students are told to be successful as soon as possible, which leads them to easily drop jobs when facing difficulties at work,“ Xia said. “Every profession has its own pros and cons. As for recent graduates, they
35、should adopt attitudes of learning and cooperation when they deal with the work, instead of complaining about it.“ 4 Part-time jobs are beneficial to college students in many aspects, and some people believe that senior high school students should also be encouraged to do part-time jobs. This is all
36、owable in law in most countries as long as the teens are above a certain age. The following article discusses this practice. Write an article of NO LESS THAN 300 words, in which you should: 1. summarize briefly the article, and then 2. express your opinion on it, especially whether we should encoura
37、ge senior high school students to take part-time jobs. Should Your Teen Keep Her Job into the School Year? It was just about a year ago that Saba Ghahari, who is now 18, decided against working part-time during the school year so that she could concentrate on her grades. Its a choice few students ma
38、ke: About 65 per cent of high-school students who can work part-time do. And with those jobs, school, homework and extracurricular activities, Canadian teens are busier than ever, according to a study from Statistics Canada. But experts disagree on whether that load should include a part-time job. S
39、ome say doing so gives teen much needed maturity in the work force, helps build a work ethic and improves organizational skills, as well as providing spending money. Others say it distracts students from their real job learning and getting good grades. Jorgen Hansen, an associate professor of econom
40、ics at Montreals Concordia University, decided to look into whether teens part-time job affects grades. In comparing work and grade-point averages, Dr. Hansen concluded that working part-time hurts grades. The more you work part-time, the greater the harm to grades. Another finding: the younger a te
41、en, the greater the detrimental impact. At 15, teens just dont have the same maturity and organizational skills that they would at 17. But his survey also has a surprising twist: When students participate in school activities, the impact is beneficial no matter how much time they spend on them. Alex
42、 Usher, a Toronto-based higher education consultant, says the question of whether to work part-time comes down to who the kids are and how to balance their goals. “If youre trying to get 90s and 95s in high school, its very difficult to combine that with paid work.“ Judging an individual childs matu
43、rity level and ability to organize is crucial for parents, Mr. Usher says. Smart teens know what they can and cant handle and wont work more than they should. For others, taking on too much can be detrimental. Wendy Patton, a dean of the faculty of education at Queensland University of Technology in
44、 Brisbane, Australia, is an advocate of kids taking part-time jobs, but she agrees that moderation is important. Dr. Patton says her research shows that part-time work benefits most students as long as teens dont work more than 12 hours a week. She found that working taught teens skills they didnt n
45、ecessarily learn at schoolknowledge of the workplace, how to work for other people, teamwork and time management. “Students have a greater confidence in their own ability to do a range of things when they work,“ she says. “They have a greater confidence in things like time planning, working with adu
46、lts; they have a greater confidence in their ability to make decisions.“ One added benefit: Working helps teens become aware of the benefits of staying in school. “When theyve been washing dishes or working in a fast-food place, they start thinking more about what it is they really want to do.“ Dr.
47、Patton says. 专业英语八级（作文）模拟试卷 88答案与解析 一、 PART V WRITING 1 【正确答案】 A Worthy Revolution Recently, some employers have promoted a revolution in working hours for their employees, who have been asked to work four days a week and 10 hours per day. People hold different opinions on this practice. Executives
48、like Cali Yost and Larry Page embrace the change, claiming that with one more day off, employees could better fulfill family duties, learn new skills, cultivate hobbies, and even be better prepared for retirement. Jill Fraser, author of White Collar Sweatshop, adds that a four-day system would make
49、employees more productive and satisfied with work. However, the other two people point out that a compressed workweek might increase daily workload, leaving less time for employees personal errands after work. Moreover, an extra day off might not bring as many benefits to employees from businesses that must be open every day. Weighing all factors, I believe that the four-day working system will have more benefits than harm. The four-day system can considerably increase work quality and efficiency. As colleagues spend more hou
