When it's five o'clock, people leave their office. The length of the workday, for many workers, is defined by time. They leave when the clock tells them they're done. These days, the time is everywhere: not just on clocks or watches, but on cell-phones and computers. That may be a bad thing, particularly at work. New research shows that clock-based work schedules hinder morale and creativity. Clock-timers organize their day by blocks of minutes and hours. For example: a meeting from 9 am to 10 a.m., research from 10 a.m. to noon, etc. On the other hand, task-timers have a list of things they want to accomplish. They work down the list, each task starts when the previous task is completed. It is said that all of us employ a mix of both these types of planning. What, then, are the effects of thinking about time in these different ways? Does one make us more productive? Better at the tasks at hand? Happier? In experiments conducted by Tamar Avnet and Anne-Laure Sellier, they had participants organize different activities--from project planning, holiday shopping, to yoga--by time or to-do list to measure how they performed under "clock time" vs "task time." They found clock timers to be more efficient but less happy because they felt little control over their lives. Task timers are happier and more creative, but less productive. They tend to enjoy the moment when something good is happening, and seize opportunities that come up. The researchers argue that task-based organizing tends to be undervalued and under-supported in the business culture. Smart companies, they believe, will try to bake more task-based planning into their strategies. This might be a small change to the way we view work and the office, but the researchers argue that it challenges a widespread characteristic of the economy: work organized by clock time. While most people will still probably need,and be, to some extent, clock-timers, task-based timing should be used when performing a job that requires more creativity. It'll make those tasks... What do the researchers suggest? A) Task-based timing is preferred for doing creative work. B) It is important to keep a balance between work and life. C) Performing creative jobs tends to make workers happier. D) A scientific standard should be adopted in job evaluation.
A
A relationship is defined as a state of connectedness between people. Although in today's society with its crazy rhythm of everyday life, when people tend to live in thickly populated cities, spending most of their time in the office and hardly knowing their neighbor's name, we still find ourselves in some kinds of relationships-with friends, family, or colleagues. Family relationships are the first relationships people enter. Parents and relatives influence our emotional development by creating a model that we are sometimes bound to follow all our lives, often subconsciously . In day-care, at school, then in the office we spend a lot of time among fellow students and co-workers. We learn to keep business relationships, to work in a team environment, then form smaller groups of like-minded people and finally select some of them as our friends. What is a true friendship? How does it start? Are we destined to become friends with certain people or can we actually plan whom to be friends with? "Everybody's friend is nobody's." said Arthur Schopenhauer. Unlike a companionship based on belonging to the same team or group, friendship is a very personal and selective type of relationship. It calls for trust, sincerity, and emotional bonds. Sociologists believe that most people are looking for similarities in views, social status, and interests when choosing friends. No wonder that our friends are often people of the same age, sex, and education. Another important factor is joint activity and solidarity. This is the reason why many of us befriend our colleagues and other people who work in the same field. Most people would agree that a friend is someone who always listens and understands. Understanding in this context implies a lot of meanings-compassion, sympathy, and emotional closeness. It's a process in which your friend reads your emotional state, shares your feelings, identifies himself or herself with you. Why are our friends usually of the same age,sex,and education? A) Because they are clever and well-behaved. B) Because most of us are looking for similarities in views,social status, and interests when choosing friends. C) Because they help us with our work and share our happiness and sorrow. D) Because they cooperate with us well.
B
Next Stop: Planet Mars Fly me to the moon? That's not far enough. On September 14, 2011, NASA released designs for a superrocket, the Space Launch System (SLS). This time the final destination will be Mars. The SLS is a huge, liquid-fuelled rocket. If it is fully developed, it will be the most powerful rocket ever built. Its lift capability will be much bigger than that of the space shuttle of Saturn 5, the rocket that sent the Apollo missions to the moon. NASA is planning to launch its first unmanned test flight in 2017. It is hoped that the first crew will fly in 2021 and astronauts will make it to a nearby asteroid in 2025. NASA hopes to send the rocket and astronauts to Mars from the asteroid by the 2030s, according to the Associated Press (AP). NASA used liquid rockets to send Apollo, Gemini and Mercury into space, but later changed to solid rockets boosters because they were cheaper. Tragically, however, a booster flaw caused the space shuttle Challenger to crash in 1986. The new project plans to return to liquid fuel. According to AP, the rockets will at first be able to carry 77 to 110 tons of payload . Eventually they will be able to carry 143 tons into space, maybe even as many as 165 tons, NASA officials said. By comparison, the Saturn 5 booster could lift 130 tons and the space shuttle just 27 tons. However, unlike reusable shuttles, these powerful rockets are mostly one use only. New ones have to be built for every launch. This will be very costly. NASA estimates that it will cost about $3 billion (19 billion yuan) per year, or $18 billion until the first test flight in 2017. NASA hopes to make money by allowing private companies to send astronauts to the International Space Station like giant taxi services, so that the program can be "sustainable". "This is perhaps the biggest thing for space exploration in decades," said Senator Bill Nelson, a former astronaut. "The goal is to fly humans safely beyond low-Earth orbit and deep into outer space where we cannot only survive, but one day also live." According to NASA's schedule, it will take _ years to fully complete the SLS program. A) about 6 B) about 10 C) less than 14 D) more than 19
D