Reading ComprehensionC Improving Our Relationship with Email
C
Originally, email was praised as a form of communication that would dramatically improve our work. However, it appears that email has taken up most of our work day and also moved slowly into our life outside of work at an alarming speed.
By its nature, email is intended to be communication offline. Unfortunately, email has become a performance indicator for many. If I do not respond, my boss will think I am not working. If I don’t reply quickly, I will let people down. This is not a perfect form of connection.
There are plenty of suggestions on how to change your relationship with email for the better.
Email is a place where we collect orders from others. And if we are always getting these orders, we become caught in the game of receiving and answering them continuously, which can make us nervous. Set aside a period of time to read your emails. It might be anytime whenever you think works best with your schedule. This can be helpful to reduce the possibility that people send you too many emails to the lowest possible level. Talk with your boss and team about your time for email.
Reading and responding to emails can take energy. It often involves pulling you in many different directions or making you think about many different aspects of your job. If everything should be dealt with first, then nothing will be the first. I invite you to complete a task to start your day before you open your email. Doing that will help you feel productive. That’s how you want to feel moving into your workday.
Email can be a helpful tool for sharing appreciation and spreading feel-good thoughts. One of my favourite practices is to ensure that the last email I send for the day has the intention of making someone smile or brightening their day. End your day by bringing a small bit of joy to the person who will receive it.
Email is part of our professional practices. My hope for you is that your time in email is brief and your time doing the work is plentiful and purposeful.
28. What can we know about email from the first two paragraphs?
A. Email is communication happening at the same time.
B. Email is used to judge if an employee is hardworking.
C. Email is a form of communication improving our work.
D. Email is imperfect as it is wasting much time and effort.
29. What does the underlined word down mean in the second paragraph?
A. Depressed. B. Inspired.
C. Excited. D. Shocked.
30. What does the author advise you to start your workday?
A. Receive and answer the emails immediately.
B. Think over to decide which email to manage.
C. Complete a task before opening your emails.
D. Make sure that your first email is encouraging.
31. What is the best title of the passage?
A. How emails benefit our daily life greatly.
B. How to work more effectively with emails.
C. How to enter your workday happily each day.
D. How we should respond to emails from bosses.
【答案】28. D 29. A 30. C 31. B
【Text Interpretation】This is an expository text. Email is often considered a means of communication that improves our work. However, email seems to have taken up most of our work time and is rapidly encroaching on our personal lives. The author offers several suggestions on how to improve our relationship with email.
28. D Inference question. The second sentence of the first paragraph states that email has taken up most of our work time and is rapidly encroaching on our lives outside of work; the last sentence of the second paragraph indicates that this relationship is not perfect. Therefore, email is imperfect as it wastes a lot of time and effort. The answer is D.
29. A Vocabulary inference question. In the second paragraph, email has become a performance indicator for many: if I do not respond, my boss will think I am not working; if I do not reply quickly, I will let people down. The word depressed means feeling sad or hopeless. The answer is A.
30. C Detail understanding question. In the fourth sentence of the fifth paragraph, the author invites you to complete a task before opening your email as a way to start your day. The answer is C.
31. B Main idea question. The first two paragraphs indicate that email is not ideal; the fourth, fifth, and sixth paragraphs provide suggestions for improving email use; the third paragraph serves as a transition, expressing the main idea of the article: suggestions on how to improve your relationship with email. The answer is B.