2021年1月29日广东省湛江市经济技术开发区教师招聘考试题（英语）考试真题答案解析

A growing number of smaller companies are adopting a four-day workweek. Now the results of a recent ______（11）at Microsoft suggest it could work even for the biggest businesses.

The company introduced a program this summer in Japan ______（12）the “Work Life Choice Challenge”, which ______（13）its offices every Friday in August and gave all employees an extra-day ______（14）each week.

The results were ______（15）: While the amount of time ______（16）at work was cut ______（17）, productivity—measured by sales per employee went up by almost 40% ______（18）the same period of the previous year, the company said in a ______（19）last week.

In addition to ______（20）working hours, managers ______（21）staff to cut down on the time they spent in meetings and responding to emails. They suggested ______（22）meetings should last no longer than 30 minutes. Employees were also encouraged to cut down on meetings ______（23）by using an online messaging app.

The effects were widespread. More than 90% of Microsoft’s 2,280 employees in Japan later said they were impacted by the new measures, according to the company. By shutting down earlier each week, the company was also able to save on other ______（24）, such as electricity.

Japan has long battled with a cruel–and in some cases, deadly–culture of overwork. The problem is so ______（25）the country has even coined a term for it: karoshi death by overwork from stress-induced illnesses or severe depression.

The issue ______（26）international attention in 2015, when an employee at Japanese advertising giant Dentsu committed suicide on Christmas Day. Tokyo officials later said that the staff ______（27）excessive amounts of overtime.

Two years later, a reporter at a Japanese broadcaster died after working punishing long hours. Her employer said she had clocked in 159 hours of overtime the month before her death. That has ______（28）businesses to start searching for solutions. Sonic companies have begun offering employees more ______（29）, and the government has launched a campaign called “Premium Friday”, which encourages workers to leave early every last Friday of month.

Microsoft, for its part, says it will conduct ______（30）experiment in Japan later this year. It plans to ask employees to come up with new measures to improve work-life balance and efficiency, and will also ask other companies to join the initiative.

TEXT 1

It’s a weekday morning in Beijing, several passengers are queuing at a bus station. Some of them say going by bus has become their preferred method of public transport when they commute.

“I often take the bus to work. The bus station is very close to my home, and after I get off the bus, it only takes me about five minutes to walk to my workplace. So it is quite convenient.’’

“Seniors over 60 in Beijing get a free bus pass. I am 60 years old now, so it is the first year I’ve been able to enjoy this privilege. I take the bus to go anywhere I want to go in the city.”

“It takes me about half an hour to get to school, and pay student rates, so it is pretty cheap. My school isn’t very far away from my home, otherwise, I would probably have to take the subway instead.”

Public bus services in Beijing are some of the most extensive, widely used and affordable form of public transport in the centre and outskirts of Beijing. There are nearly 1300 buses routes in the city, with a fleet of over 30,000 vehicles. In 2018, more than 3 billion individual journeys are made across the transport network, which plays a crucial role in public transport in the city.

This convenient transport sector is organized by the Beijing Public Transport Corporation, a large scale state-owned company. It provides around 160,000 jobs in the city.

Besides daily transport services, commuters in Beijing nowadays are able to enjoy a series of custom-made services after the Beijing Public Transport Corporation conducted thorough researches into their needs.

Tomb Sweeping Day, also known as Chinese Memorial Day, fell on April 5th on the Gregorian calendar last week. It is a time for Chinese people commemorate their beloved late relatives. Figures released by China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs show that approximately 5 million people in Beijing have visited cemeteries to pay their respects this year.

The traffic congestion often starts a week before official day and finishes a week afterwards. This year, 12 special bus lines were opened started, from the city center to six cemeteries in the suburbs for two weeks.

Xu Zhengxiang is general manager of the Strategy and Reform Development Department with the Beijing Public Transport Corporation. He says this thriving customized service is a milestone in the development of Beijing public bus services, showing an enthusiastic reception from passengers.

Operating since 2013, custom-made services have seen a considerable extension in recent years. Wu Tianzhen is a director from the Transport Network with the company. He is responsible to optimize bus routes and design custom-made services.

“The earliest form of custom-made services is bus rental services for private sectors, like companies and schools. And then we gradually provide bus lines to resorts that are arranged during peak times in holidays, special lines to cemeteries during Tomb-sweeping Day, and loop lines to certain hospitals in busy areas. This kind of bus route has been arranged because we noticed more demand from people and they are effective in reducing traffic congestion in these areas.”

TEXT 2

Chinese people are very hospitable and like to treat friends or business partners to a sumptuous dinner to show their hospitality and sincerity. Such dinners are important for Chinese, and many business deals are settled there.

The seating arrangement is very particular, but may differ from place to place.

Generally, the table for a banquet is round. The head seat is the central one that faces the entrance door, and this is normally where the host sits. Sometimes it can also be reserved for the guest who is either the eldest, the most important, or holds the highest rank.

The seat on the immediate right is for the honored guest, and the seat on the immediate left is for the second guest. The seating arrangement usually follows two principals: one relates to the distance to the head seat, and the other gives priority to seats on the right.

The seat opposite the head seat is usually taken by a person from the hosting group: sometimes it suggests that the person who is seated there will pay for the dinner.

In a Chinese dinner, keeping the balance between the proportion of meat and vegetable dishes is viewed a a given. Normally, the main guest, older people or those of higher rank are given the honor of ordering. Sometimes the host will order according to guest tastes.

In a Chinese dinner, cold dishes are served first, then hot dishes, then staple food, fruits are served last. Cold dishes are regularly ordered in an even number depending on the number of guests. The number of hot dishes, as for main courses, usually falls as four, six or eight (or other even numbers because Chinese people believe them to be lucky). Regular dinner usually has six to twelve hot dishes Staples such as rice, pancakes, noodles, dumplings and others are provided after the hot dishes, then sometimes comes soup, with fruit served at the end.

Unlike most Westerners, Chinese usually share all of the dishes on the table. There is usually a large rotating tray, and all the dishes ordered are placed on it. When eating one uses chopsticks or a spoon transfer the food into one’s own plate or bowl. People take just one portion each time not all the food they want to eat.

In daily life, chopsticks also play an important role in Chinese table manners and some principals need to be kept in mind. Before the meal, the chopstick should be placed parallel to one another on the right side of one’s plate or bowl; during the meal, the chopsticks should be placed on the rack or plate after use, not placed casually back on the table. After the meal, the chopsticks should be placed in a vertical line on the middle of the rice bowl Do not use chopsticks to turn over the food in the dishes. Do not point at people with the chopsticks during a meal.

In China, the dinner bill will usually be paid by the one who issued the invitation, but sometimes Chinese will compete to pay for the bill. This is mainly related to the culture of maintaining face. Chinese usually believe that whoever pays the bill is more generous and values the friendship more, and thus gains more face.

China is a country with a splendid catering culture diverse in its various culinary regions; just remember, “A guest should suit the convenience of the host” and “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”.

TEXT 3

Alibaba and Amazon already dominate the business of selling stuff online in their home markets. Increasingly, they are competing against each other on neutral ground. Both are spending billions of dollars on Asia—particularly Southeast Asia and India—as they look for a place that could repeat China’s explosive transformation into the world’s biggest online shopping market.

Amazon has committed $5 billion to India, where it lures customers to sign up for its Prime service, which includes Western movies and television shows, for a small fraction of the $99 annual membership price in the United States. Alibaba has invested roughly 5500 million for stakes in both Paytm—India’s largest mobile payments platform—and its e-commerce affiliate Paytm Mall.

Alibaba’s bigger bet is in Southeast Asia. It has spent more than $2 billion to take control of Lazada, a five-year-old online shopping company based in Singapore and doing business in six countries. Last year, Lazada bought RedMart, the online retail grocery. But Southeast Asia is not China. A diffuse area of 600 million people, the region is divided by politics, language and culture. Some places are modem, like Singapore, other places lack the roads and other infrastructure to get people what they need. “It’s a mix of urban, semi-urban and rural areas, separated by large distances and—in the Philippines and Indonesia—by water,” said Mike Booker, a partner at the Southeast Asian am of Bain. “Cash on delivery is still prevalent, and other local players are in the fray,” The challenges have forced Lazada, Aliaba’s biggest Southeast Asian operation, to get creative.

In Vietnam, local post offices take customer returns and give cash refund. In Malaysia, customers can collect merchandise from lockers at 7·Eleven stores. And in the Philippines, Lazada uses gas station, a places where merchants can drop of their goods, for delivery personnel to pick up. “We’re in the super, super, super early days,” said Inanc Balci, who oversees Lazada operation in the Philippines.

Alibaba’s international arm has seen its latest quarterly sales more than double in a year, in part from Lazada’s contribution. Still Lazada and its RedMart subsidiary remain a tiny and unprofitable part of Alibaba’s empire. Max Bittner, Lazada’s chief executive, said its Chinese parent has been willing to spend money to build is delivery capabilities and draw more customers. “E-commerce is an economy of scale game,” Mr. Bittner said. “I don’t feel constrained in any way. I can go after this opportunity with the amount of firepower Inced.”

Amazon so far counts Singapore as i only Southeast Asian market, though industry experts widely expect it will expand into other countries, an Amazon spokeswoman declined to comment.

Until recently, direct competition between Alibaba and Amazon has been rare. Amazon has modest presence in China. Alibaba sells goods in the United States through its AliExpress platform but has backed away from further expansion efforts.

Southeast Asia could offer test of their vastly different business models on neutral turf.

Amazon owns more of the inventory it sells. By contrast, most of Lazada’s sales come from outside vendors who use its platform as a digital middleman to reach customers. That approach, which keeps costs low, is similar to what Alibaba does in China. But in China, the company’s Taobao platform has been accused of offering counterfeit goods. Alibaba says it is working to fight fakes. Alibaba has a long lead over Amazon and is building up its infrastructure across Southeast Asia. In Indonesia, for example, it took a minority stake in August in another online marketplace, Tokopedia. Experts say Amazon could fight hack by offering online Western movies and television programs as it does in the United States, which could increase its appeal with younger customers.

Amazon stumbled in Singapore initially when the service proved too popular, forcing it to turn away customers. But since then the two companies have amped up their efforts to deliver more quickly to a growing group of customers, competing in the market is likely to be expensive, thanks to customer price cuts and rebates in addition to expansion costs.