Vocabulary: Work 词汇：工作

　　It's 7pm and I'm tired. My shift finished one hour ago but I'm still in the office dealing with emails. But I'm not alone when it comes to having a full inbox and no time to reply. This problem has been worrying experts in business。

　　Sir Cary Cooper, an academic and former adviser to the British government, says that employers must combat an "epidemic" of staff checking work emails after-hours。

　　"For people to be working at night, weekends and holidays on email is not good for the health of our country", says Cooper. And he suggests that sending and receiving emails within the same building should be banned. These should be replaced by face-to-face meetings and phone calls。

　　Some companies offer internal social networks to have people interacting。

　　Part of the modern thinking is that staff's healthy work-life balance leads to a company's increased productivity. And there are suggestions that the workforce should have an input in changing this culture. According to Cooper, one practical solution would be to send a message to alert workers when they access emails at a time they should be relaxing with their families。

　　Some companies have adopted a more radical approach to combat the current 'email epidemic'. The French IT company Atos announced in 2011 it was considering banning the use of internal emails. The announcement was enough to make the number of emails decrease。

　　The BBC's Technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones suggests that employees write shorter emails, with the subject line treated as a headline so that the recipient decides if the rest is worth reading. And a crucial point: we need to think before copying a message to everyone in the company. Otherwise many will end up like me - late in the day just pressing the same key. Delete, delete, delete…

　　词汇表请参看答案与词汇部分

　　Do you check work emails all the time?

　　Take Away English ©British Broadcasting Corporation 2015

　　bbcukchina.com/learningenglish Page 2 of 4

　　Quiz 测验

　　阅读短文并回答问题。

　　1. What does Sir Cary Cooper believe should not be allowed?

　　2. What are the four ways of communication mentioned in the article?

　　3. What happened after Atos said it might ban internal emails?

　　4. How could you help people decide if they should take time to read your email?

　　5. Which verb means to remove an email from your inbox?

　　Exercise 练习

　　请你在不参考课文的情况下完成下列练习。从每个表格中选择一个意思合适的单词填入句子的空格处。

　　1. If you can't solve a problem with one method, maybe you should try a different __________。

　　productivity     recipient     approach     email

　　2. I'm done with answering calls today. I'll be __________ at home。

　　relaxing     after-hours     face-to-face     on my shift

　　3. The staff's __________ is important for modern companies keen on increasing productivity。

　　approach     relaxing     work-life balance     culture

　　4. I've just finished my presentation and would welcome your __________。

　　culture     email     face-to-face meeting     input

　　5. Mr Jones owns a big shop in the main street. Actually he's the main __________ in the area。

　　workforce     employee     employer     staff

　　Answers and Glossary 答案与词汇

　　Quiz 小测验

　　1. What does Sir Cary Cooper believe should not be allowed? Sending and receiving emails within the same building。

　　2. What are the four ways of communication mentioned in the article? Emails, face-to-face meetings, phone calls, social networks。

　　3. What happened after Atos said it might ban internal emails? The number of internal emails decreased。

　　4. How could you help people decide if they should take time to read your email? Write the subject line as a headline。

　　5. Which verb means to remove an email from your inbox? To delete。

　　Exercise 练习

　　1. If you can't solve a problem with one method, maybe you should try a different approach。

　　2. I'm done with answering calls today. I'll be relaxing at home。

　　3. The staff's work-life balance is important for modern companies keen on increasing productivity。

　　4. I've just finished my presentation and would welcome your input。

　　5. Mr Jones owns a big shop in the main street. Actually he's the main employer in the area。

　　Glossary 词汇表

　　shift

　　上班时段

　　inbox

　　收件箱

　　adviser

　　顾问

　　employer

　　雇主

　　staff

　　员工

　　after-hours

　　下班时间

　　face-to-face meeting

　　面对面的会议

　　to interact

　　互动

　　work-life balance

　　工作生活平衡

　　productivity

　　生产能力

　　workforce

　　劳动力

　　input

　　建议

　　approach

　　方法，途径

　　employee

　　雇员

　　recipient

　　收件人