1、2. 对这种做法有人表示支持，也有人并不赞成3. 我认为Should Parents Send Their Kids to Art Classes?Part Reading Comprehension （Skimming and Scanning） （15 minutes） In this part, you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly and answer the questions on Answer Sheet 1. For questions 1-7, choose the best answer from t
2、he four choices marked A）, B）, C） and D）. For questions 8-10, complete the sentences with the information given in the passage.Bosses Say “Yes” to Home WorkRising costs of office space, time lost to stressful commuting, and a slow recognition that workers have lives beyond the officeall are strong a
3、rguments for letting staff work from home.For the small business, there are additional benefits toostaff are more productive, and happier, enabling firms to keep their headcounts （员工数） and their recruitment costs to a minimum. It can also provide competitive advantage, especially when small business
4、es want to attract new staff but dont have the budget to offer huge salaries.While company managers have known about the benefits for a long time, many have done little about it, sceptical of whether they could trust their employees to work to full capacity without supervision, or concerned about th
5、e additional expenses teleworking policies might incur as staff start charging their home phone bills to the business.Yet this is now changing. When communications provider Inter-Tel researched the use of remote working solutions among small-and-medium-sized UK businesses in April this year, it foun
6、d that 28% more companies claimed to have introduced flexible working practices than a year ago.The UK network of Business Links confirms that it too has seen a growing interest in remote working solutions from small businesses seeking its advice, and claims that as many as 60-70% of the businesses
7、that come through its doors now offer some form of remote working support to their workforces.Technology advances, including the widespread availability of broadband, are making the introduction of remote working a piece of cake.“If systems are set up properly, staff can have access to all the resou
8、rces they have in the office wherever they have an internet connection,” says Andy Poulton, e-business advisor at Business Link for Berkshire and Wiltshire. “There are some very exciting developments which have enabled this.”One is the availability of broadband everywhere, which now covers almost al
9、l of the country （BT claims that, by July, 99.8% of its exchanges will be broadband enabled, with alternative plans in place for even the most remote exchanges）. “This is the enabler,” Poulton says.Yet while broadband has come down in price too, those service providers targeting the business market
10、warn against consumer services masquerading （伪装） as business-friendly broadband.“Broadband is available for as little as 15 a month, but many businesses fail to appreciate the hidden costs of such a service,” says Neil Stephenson, sales and marketing director at Onyx Internet, an internet service pr
11、ovider based in the north-east of England. “Providers offering broadband for rock-bottom prices are notorious for poor service, with regular breakdowns and heavily congested （拥堵的） networks. It is always advisable for businesses to look beyond the price tag and look for a business-only provider that
12、can offer more reliability, with good support.” Such services dont cost too muchquality services can be found for upwards of 30 a month.The benefits of broadband to the occasional home worker are that they can access email in real time, and take full advantage of services such as internet-based back
13、up or even internet-based phone services.Internet-based telecoms, or VoIP （Voice over IP） to give it its technical title, is an interesting tool to any business supporting remote working. Not necessarily because of the promise of free or reduced price phone calls （which experts point out is misleadi
14、ng for the average business）, but because of the sophisticated voice services that can be exploited by the remote workerfacilities such as voicemail and call forwarding, which provide a continuity of the company image for customers and business partners.By law, companies must “consider seriously” re
15、quests to work flexibly made by a parent with a child under the age of six, or a disabled child under 18. It was the need to accommodate employees with young children that motivated accountancy firm Wright Vigar to begin promoting teleworking recently. The company, which needed to upgrade its IT inf
16、rastructure （基础设施） to provide connectivity with a new, second office, decided to introduce support for remote working at the same time.Marketing director Jack OHern explains that the company has a relatively young workforce, many of whom are parents: “One of the triggers was when one of our tax mana
17、gers returned from maternity leave. She was intending to work part time, but could only manage one day a week in the office due to childcare. By offering her the ability to work from home, we have doubled her capacitynow she works a day a week from home, and a day in the office. This is great for he
18、r, and for us as we retain someone highly qualified.”For Wright Vigar, which has now equipped all of its fee-earners to be able to work at maximum productivity when away from the offices （whether thats from home, or while on the road）, this strategy is not just about saving on commute time or cuttin
19、g them loose from the office, but enabling them to work more flexible hours that fit around their home life.OHern says: “Although most of our work is client-based and must fit around this, we cant see any reason why a parent cant be on hand to deal with something important at home, if they have the
20、ability to complete a project later in the day.”Supporting this new way of working came with a price, though. Although the firm was updating its systems anyway, the company spent 10-15% more per user to equip them with a laptop rather than a PC, and about the same to upgrade to a server that would e
21、nable remote staff to connect to the company networks and access all their usual resources.Although Wright Vigar hasnt yet quantified the business benefits, it claims that, in addition to being able to retain key staff with young families, it is able to save fee-earners a substantial amount of “dead
22、” time in their working days.That staff can do this without needing a fixed telephone line provides even more efficiency savings. “With Wi-Fi （fast, wireless internet connections） popping up all over the place, even on trains, our fee-earners can be productive as they travel, and between meetings, i
23、nstead of having to kill time at the shops,” he adds.The company will also be able to avoid the expense of having to relocate staff to temporary offices for several weeks when it begins disruptive office renovations soon.Financial recruitment specialist Lynne Hargreaves knows exactly how much her fi
24、rm has saved by adopting a teleworking strategy, which has involved handing her companys data management over to a remote hosting company, Datanet, so it can be accessible by all the companys consultants over broadband internet connections.It has enabled the company to dispense with its business pre
25、mises altogether, following the realisation that it just didnt need them any more. “The main motivation behind adopting home working was to increase my own productivity, as a single mum to an 11-year-old,” says Hargreaves. “But I soon realised that, as most of our business is done on the phone, emai
26、l and at off-site meetings, we didnt need our offices at all. Were now saving 16,000 a year on rent, plus the cost of utilities, not to mention what would have been spent on commuting.”1. What is the main topic of this passage?A） How business managers view hi-tech.B） Relations between employers and
27、employees.C） How to cut down the costs of small businesses.D） Benefits of the practice of teleworking.2. From the research conducted by the communications provider Inter-Tel, we learn that .A） more employees work to full capacity at homeB） employees show a growing interest in small businessesC） more
28、 businesses have adopted remote working solutionsD） attitudes toward IT technology have changed3. What development has made flexible working practices possible according to Andy Poulton?A） Reduced cost of telecommunications.B） Improved reliability of internet service.C） Availability of the VoIP serv
29、ice.D） Access to broadband everywhere.4. What is Neil Stephensons advice to firms contracting internet services?A） They look for reliable business-only providers.B） They contact providers located nearest to them.C） They carefully examine the contract.D） They contract the cheapest provider.5. Interne
30、t-based telecoms facilitates remote working by _.A） offering sophisticated voice servicesB） giving access to emailing in real timeC） helping clients discuss business at homeD） providing calls completely free of charge6. The accountancy firm Wright Vigar promoted teleworking initially in order to _.A
31、） present a positive image to prospective customersB） support its employees with children to take care ofC） attract young people with IT expertise to work for itD） reduce operational expenses of a second office7. According to marketing director Jack OHern, teleworking enabled the company to _.A） enhance its market imageB） reduce recruitment costsC） keep highly qualified staffD） minimise its office space8. Wright Vigars practice of allowing for more flexible working hours not only benefits the company b
