Question

Are you reading this while sitting in an office cubicle（辦公室格子間）? If so, please take a moment and glance around you. Are there photos of your last vacation hung on the wall? One of your kid’s drawings? A yellowed print of a favorite cartoon?

If so, you are doing something good for both yourself and your organization. Newly published research suggests working in an environment that offers little privacy can lead to emotional exhaustion and burnout（過度疲勞）. But personalizing one’s workplace is an effective protection against such unwanted outcomes.

“Individuals may take comfort from the items with which they surround themselves at work, and these items may help employees to keep emotional energy high in the face of stresses that come from their work,” writes a research team led by Gregory Laurence of the University of Michigan-Flint, Michigan, in north central U.S.

In the Journal of Environmental Psychology, Laurence and his colleagues describe a study featuring 87 white-collar employees at a large, urban university in the Midwestern United States.

Research assistants noted whether they worked in a private office (with a door that can be closed) or a cubicle. They also counted the number of items each worker had brought from home to decorate his or her workspace – a list that included photographs, posters, artworks.

Not surprisingly, Laurence and his colleagues found a connection between the amount of privacy an employee enjoys and his or her rate of burnout. “High privacy conditions tend to serve as strong protectors against unwelcome interferences and distractions（干擾和分心的事）,” they noted, “contributing to a work environment supporting reduced emotional exhaustion.”

But this link disappeared when those employees had personalized their cubicles. Employees who had turned their workspaces into areas that reflect their interests and personalities reported the same (relatively low) level of emotional exhaustion, no matter whether they worked in an office or a cubicle.

The research confirms “the calming effect” of having your own stuff around you. So if you’re feeling exhausted at work, relief could be as simple as hanging a few of your kindergartener’s colorful creations on your cubicle wall.

1.Who might be most interested in the passage?

A. Job hunters.

B. Office workers.

C. Kid’s parents

D. Employment researchers.

2.For employees, decorating cubicles with their own items __________.

A. offers them little privacy

B. may help improve their work efficiency

C. will sometimes cause burnout

D. serve as interferences and distractions

3.The participant of the research __________.

A. come from the university of Michigan-Flint

B. all suffer high levels of emotional exhaustion

C. may work in a private office or in a cubicle

D. like personalizing their homes with little items

4.Where does this passage probably come from?

A. A book reviewB. A research plan

C. An official documentD. A news report

 

Answer 1

1.B

2.B

3.C

4.D

【解析】

試題分析: 本文在講述研究成果，對于做辦公室的人來說，在一個不能提供隱私的環(huán)境中工作的員工會導致情緒疲倦，提供多重視他們的私人空間，會讓他們的效率更高，面對壓力的抵抗力會更強。

1.B 細節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)第一段提到Are you reading this while sitting in an office cubicle（辦公室格子間）? If so, please take a moment and glance around you.你是做在辦公室講到這個內(nèi)容的嗎，如果是，請看看人的周圍，再根據(jù)第二段提到Newly published research suggests working in an environment that offers little privacy can lead to emotional exhaustion and burnout最后研究表明，在一個不能提供隱私的環(huán)境中工作的人會導致情緒疲倦，故針對的對象是辦公室的上班族，故選B項。

2.B 細節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)第三段提到Individuals may take comfort from the items with which they surround themselves at work, and these items may help employees to keep emotional energy high in the face of stresses that come from their work,可知如果提供舒適的工作環(huán)境，會幫助員工保持精力，來面對工作上的壓力，故選B項。

3.C 細節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)第五段提到Research assistants noted whether they worked in a private office (with a door that can be closed) or a cubicle研究人員注意無論他們工作在私人辦公室還是格子間，故選C項。

4.D 推斷題。本文在講述研究成果，對于做辦公室的人來說，在一個不能提供隱私的環(huán)境中工作的員工會導致情緒疲倦，提供多重視他們的私人空間，會讓他們的效率更高，面對壓力的抵抗力會更強，故文章應(yīng)來自報告，所以選D項。

考點：日常生活類閱讀。