雅思阅读 010 · The Rise of Remote Work

社会主题。题型：T/F/NG + 填空。难度：中等（P2）。

正文 Passage

For most of the 20th century, going to work meant leaving the house, commuting to an office, sitting at a desk for eight hours and returning home. The office was not just a place; it was a structure around which daily life, family schedules and even urban planning were organised. The pandemic of 2020 broke that structure overnight. Companies that had spent decades resisting flexible working discovered, almost by accident, that their employees could be productive at home.

Three years later, the dust has settled, and the picture is more nuanced than either extreme. Fully remote work — never going into an office — has proven popular with employees but less so with employers, who worry about collaboration, mentorship and culture. Fully in-office work, meanwhile, has lost its universal appeal. The model that has emerged most strongly is hybrid: two or three days at home, two or three in the office.

The advantages of remote work are real and measurable. Employees save time and money on commuting. They can live in cheaper, more pleasant places. Care responsibilities — looking after children, elderly parents — are easier to manage. Studies consistently show that remote workers report higher job satisfaction and, on individual tasks, equal or better productivity.

But remote work has costs, too. The boundary between work and home becomes porous. A person working from the kitchen table may find it hard to stop working at the end of the day. Informal conversations — the coffee-room chat that sparks a new idea, the hallway exchange that solves a problem — become harder. Junior employees, who learn by watching and imitating, lose that daily exposure. Cities, meanwhile, suffer: office districts that once buzzed at lunchtime are quiet, and the small businesses that served them — cafes, dry cleaners, lunch places — have closed.

The long-term outcome is unlikely to be a single model. Knowledge work will probably split by role: those whose jobs require deep concentration will work from home, while those whose work depends on collaboration will come in. Cities will not disappear, but they will need to reinvent themselves — from places people commute to, to places they want to be.

题目 Questions

Questions 1-5: T/F/NG

1. Before 2020, most people worked from home.

2. Hybrid work means two or three days at home and two or three in the office.

3. Remote workers consistently report lower job satisfaction.

4. Junior employees learn less easily when working remotely.

5. All companies have decided to return to fully in-office work.

Questions 6-10: Complete the notes. NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS.

• The (6) ____________ of 2020 forced companies to allow home working.
• Remote workers save time and money on (7) ____________.
• The boundary between work and home becomes (8) ____________.
• (9) ____________ conversations spark new ideas.
• Cities will need to (10) ____________ themselves.

答案 Answers

核心词汇

remote work / hybrid / commute / productivity / collaboration / mentorship / porous / informal / knowledge work / urban planning / satisfaction / boundary