CAMBRIDGE IELTS 1
PRACTICE TEST 3
READING
READING PASSAGE 3
You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions
27-38 which are based on Reading Passage 3 below
A
Workaholic Economy
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FOR THE
first century or so of the industrial revolution, increased productivity led
to decreases in working hours. Employees who had been putting in 12-hour
days, six days a week, found their time on the job shrinking to 10 hours daily,
then, finally, to eight hours, five days a week. Only a generation ago social
planners worried about what people would do with all this new-found free time.
In the US, at least, it seems they need not have bothered.
Although the
output per hour of work has more than doubled since 1945, leisure seems
reserved largely for the unemployed and underemployed. Those who work
full-time spend as much time on the job as they did at the end of World War II.
In fact, working hours have increased noticeably since 1970 — perhaps because
real wages have stagnated since that year. Bookstores now abound with manuals
describing how to manage time and cope with stress.
There are several
reasons for lost leisure. Since 1979, companies have responded to
improvements in the business climate by having employees work overtime rather
than by hiring extra personnel, says economist Juliet B. Schor of Harvard University.
Indeed, the current economic recovery has gained a certain amount of notoriety
for its “jobless” nature: increased production has been almost entirely
decoupled from employment. Some firms are even downsizing as their profits climb.
“All things being equal, we’d be better off spreading around the work,’
observes labour economist Ronald G. Ehrenberg of Cornell University.
Yet a host
of factors pushes employers to hire fewer workers for more hours and, at the
same time, compels workers to spend more time on the job. Most of those incentives
involve what Ehrenberg calls the structure of compensation: quirks in the way
salaries and benefits are organised that make it more profitable to ask 40
employees to labour an extra hour each than to hire one more worker to do the
same 40-hour job.
Professional
and managerial employees supply the most obvious lesson along these lines.
Once people are on salary, their cost to a firm is the same whether they spend
35 hours a week in the office or 70. Diminishing returns may eventually set
in as overworked employees lose efficiency or leave for more arable pastures.
But in the short run, the employer’s incentive is clear.
Even hourly
employees receive benefits - such as pension contributions and medical
insurance - that are not tied to the number of hours they work. Therefore, it
is more profitable for employers to work their existing employees
harder.
For all that
employees complain about long hours, they, too, have reasons not to trade
money for leisure. “People who work reduced hours pay a huge penalty in
career terms,” Schor maintains. “It”s taken as a negative signal’ about their
commitment to the firm.’ [Lotte] Bailyn [of Massachusetts Institute of
Technology] adds that many corporate managers find it difficult to measure
the contribution of their underlings to a firm’s well-being, so they use the
number of hours worked as a proxy for output. “Employees know this,” she
says, and they adjust their behavior accordingly.
“Although
the image of the good worker is the one whose life belongs to the company,”
Bailyn says, “it doesn’t fit the facts.’ She cites both quantitative and qualitative
studies that show increased productivity for part-time workers: they make
better use of the time they have, and they are less likely to succumb to
fatigue in stressful jobs. Companies that employ more workers for less time
also gain from the resulting redundancy, she asserts. “The extra people can
cover the contingencies that you know are going to happen, such as when crises
take people away from the workplace.’ Positive experiences with reduced hours
have begun to change the more-is-better culture at some companies, Schor
reports.
Larger firms,
in particular, appear to be more willing to experiment with flexible working
arrangements...
It may take
even more than changes in the financial and cultural structures of employment
for workers successfully to trade increased productivity and money for leisure
time, Schor contends. She says the U.S. market for goods has become skewed by
the assumption of full-time, two-career households. Automobile makers no
longer manufacture cheap models, and developers do not build the tiny bungalows
that served the first postwar generation of home buyers. Not even the humblest
household object is made without a microprocessor. As Schor notes, the situation
is a curious inversion of the “appropriate technology” vision that designers
have had for developing countries: U.S. goods are appropriate only for high
incomes and long hours.
Paul Walluh
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Questions 27-32
Do the following statements agree with
the views of the writer in Reading Passage 3? In boxes 27-32 write
YES
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if the statement agrees with the
views of the writer
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NO
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if the statement contradicts the
views of the writer
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NOT GIVEN
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if it is impossible to say what
the writer thinks about this
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Example
Answer
During the industrial revolution people worked harder. NOT GIVEN
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27
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Today,
employees are facing a reduction in working hours.
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28
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Social
planners have been consulted about US employment figures.
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29
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Salaries
have not risen significantly since the 1970s.
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30
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The economic
recovery created more jobs.
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31
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Bailyn’s
research shows that part-time employees work more efficiently.
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32
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Increased
leisure time would benefit two-career households.
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Questions 33-34
Choose the appropriate letters A-D and
write them in boxes 33 and 34 on your answer sheet.
33
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Bailyn argues that it is better for a
company to employ more workers because
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A
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it is easy to make excess staff
redundant.
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B
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crises occur if you are under-staffed.
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C
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people are available to substitute for
absent staff.
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D
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they can project a positive image at
work.
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34
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Schor thinks it will be difficult for
workers in the US to reduce their working hours because
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A
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they would not be able to afford cars
or homes.
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B
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employers are offering high incomes for
long hours.
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C
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the future is dependent on
technological advances.
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D
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they do not wish to return to the
humble post-war era.
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Questions 35-38
The writer mentions a number of factors
that have resulted, in employees working longer hours. Which FOUR
of the following factors are mentioned? Write your answers (A-H) in
boxes 35-38 on your answer sheet.
List of Factors
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A
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Books are available to help employees
cope with stress.
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B
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Extra work is offered to existing
employees.
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C
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Increased production has led to
joblessness.
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D
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Benefits and hours spent on the job are
not linked.
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E
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Overworked employees require longer to
do their work.
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F
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Longer hours indicate greater
commitment to the firm.
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G
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Managers estimate staff productivity in
terms of hours worked.
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H
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Employees value a career more than a
family.
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ANSWER
KEY
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